When the Homily is about Immunology

Holy Words

Do you think there could be something holy about words? Like specific words or phrases? Power behind them perhaps?

I know there is something perceived as holy or powerful in names, this seems rather consistant in all cultures - except maybe those of us who live amongst the "enlightened." I recall reading a book about the "Jesus Prayer" written by a monk on Mount Athos in which he made mention of the power behind the name of Jesus. In my old days I would dismiss such nonesense as superstition - funny how we chrsitians can label something as superstitious as if we don't see any stories in the Bible that could be labelled as superstitious? If you don't recall any, then I'd advise you read it again.

Some Christians accuse us Orthodox of being superstitious because of our relics, icons, the reciting of certain prayers and some of the miracles associated with such things...but again I would contend these folks need to reread their Bibles.

Anyway, I read an editorial a long time ago which was lamenting the loss of language skills in our world today. The author was referencing Tolkein and The Lord of the Rings in which we really do see lofty language being used by the "good guys" and what might be coined as "gutter talk" by the orcs and such. I really like reading and hearing english language being used in a form that we might say is akin to classic literature. I'm not sure I can explain it, but listening to Snoop Dog give a lecture as compared to say Bp. Kallistos Ware (who uses wonderful english!) just cannot compare...even if (or perhaps especially if) Snoop Dog were making very illuminating and profound remarks.

I don't know...it just seems that some things deserve better lingual attention.

Last night as I was participating in the Liturgy of the Pre-sanctified Gifts, I began to notice that long stretches of the service did not require me to use the book; the words seemed to pour forth from my heart...they had in a sense become a part of me. Strange, it could be becuase I was basically without children for this service and could only under such conditions recognize the extent to which so many of these beautiful and profound words and phrases had stayed with me.

It reminded me of the sensation we pentecostals would get when "speaking in tongues" where it seems that something is welling up from within us...not of our own devise, but from the Holy Spirit. It was powerful.

Making Holy people's prayers my prayers, their words my words, their praise my praise...maybe there is something inherently wise about this? Maybe? Like learning a fine art from the masters? Hmmmm.