Hello my siblings in Christ, I’m Bojan, and in this short video I would like to show you what being an Orthodox Christian feels like. But first, a little disclaimer: This is a depiction. There are a lot of Orthodox people. Some are more devout, some are less devout. Some of the items presented here do not apply to a lot of Orthodox Christians - myself included. Just bear that in mind.
Faith. For the Orthodox, everything we do is based upon what we believe in; just like with everybody else. What sets us apart, of course, is what we believe in. We believe in the Most Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, One God, Three Persons in One Essence. God created this world out of love so that the whole creation would rejoice in God. However, man, the custodian of the whole creation, fell by Satan’s deception, corrupting the entire universe with sin. God would not let his creature perish, and the Son became a man we know as Jesus Christ. By His teachings we live that love God has for us. Christ died on the cross for us - not instead of us, nor to take our penalty - rather, our humanity dragged him to death, but He arose from the dead, pulling us out of the common grave that was never meant to be our ultimate destination. Now, we fight a good fight as we try to become more Christ like, hour to hour, and day by day.
The Others. However, we are not alone in our struggle. God fights majority of our battles, if we deny our ego and just let Him do it. We are further aided by saints, those faithful who have found favor with God. We are also assisted by angels, bodiless beings that God created before our material universe. Every person has a personal guardian angel who does not stop praying for us. However, it is all a struggle, and no struggle goes without an opponent. In our daily life we are constantly tempted by demons, angels that have fell away from God. Knowing well they can never hurt God Himself, they turned their rage upon beings Whom God loves, the humans, and they will stop at nothing to separate us from the Lord.
Spiritual Life. Our Lord Jesus Christ taught us many things, the essence of all them being love. We can break the daily living of Orthodox Christian into a trinity of salvation, which includes prayer, fasting and alms. By prayer, we manifest our love for God; with alms, with manifest our love for our neighbor; and by fasting, we fight all our passions and sinful inclinations.
Home. There is not much that would separate an Orthodox home from the other homes except one thing - the icon corner. Icon corner is an area where the Orthodox pray or simply stand in silent reverence before Christ. It contains the icons, physical depictions of Christ, the Mother of God, angels and saints, but also everything else we hold holy - the Bible, vigil lamps, incense et cetera. We hold the Bible in high regard, and we do consider it to be the inspired Word of God. We interpret it in Christ-centric way, and we are guided by the holy tradition of the Fathers of the Church to decipher its many mysteries. We also draw inspiration from many other saints, either from their writings or reading their lives, and thus see just how Christ manifested in someone’s life.
Prayer. Prayer is the focal point of our daily life. We being our day with the sign of the Cross by which we indicate that we are Christ’s. We do this to witness the Trinity, to ask for a blessing and to protect ourselves from demonic temptations. We do this sign when we wake up or when we go to bed; when we pray - and then we do it a lot; before and after we commence and end our work and meals; whenever we’re joyful, afraid and tempted. Furthermore, during our prayers, we prostrate, kneel, and bow, but our supreme prayer position is standing, indicating that we are not slaves but children of God, freed from death and evil. A typical Orthodox will generally have a prayer rule, a set of prayers he or she will read in the morning and evening, and perhaps some other prayers they read during the day. A good deal will also practice the Jesus prayer, a short prayer that goes: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.” We might say this prayer hundreds or even thousands of times per day, constantly invoking the most holy name of Jesus. For that purpose, we might use a prayer rope, which is there to give us a tangible reminder to pray. Why do we do this? It’s easy - Saint Paul the Apostle reminded us to pray without ceasing. We are not praying so to break records; we are doing it so that we wouldn’t turn away our attention from God. We use prayer books, but we also pray in our own words. Prayer books are there to teach us how to pray, as it is all too easy to pray for the wrong things or to pray in wrong way.
Fasting. We fast. To keep it short, our fasting is essentially vegan diet, except that we’re allowed fish on certain days. Some days, olive oil and wine are permitted, which some interpret as all oil and alcoholic beverages. We fast on Wednesdays and Fridays, to commemorate our Lord’s betrayal by Judas and His crucifixion. There are also longer fasting periods, of which the Great Lent, when we prepare for Christ’s death and resurrection, is the most important. There are also three additional fasts, in the honor of the Mother of God, the Apostles and Christ’s Nativity.
Sin. Like all other people, Orthodox people sin. There are three sources of temptation: the flesh, that is, our fallen nature, the world, that is to say, all the seductive power of our surroundings, and the devil. For us, the sin isn’t so much a breaking of the rule; it is more of a disease that prevents us to be drawn closer to God. We speak not so much of sin, that is, an individual mishap, as much as we speak of passions, the evil tendencies within our heart of which sins are but a manifestation. Our passions a disease that requires a long treatment. When we sin, we confess our sins before God and the Church. For us, repentance, not guilt, is the way to go. Repentance leads to joy, replacing evil with good, leaving the evil deeds behind as we have our gaze firmly set on Christ. Guilt may lead to repentance, but more often than not, it leads to despair. It replaces evil with a different sort of evil. Saints like Saint Mary Magdalene are symbols of repentance; and there’s no better symbol of despair than that of Judas.
Family life and Monasticism. For the Orthodox, marriage is holy. We consider it a Holy Mystery, that is, a sacrament. We frown upon a divorce, but sometimes life happens, so we do not disallow it completely, tragic as it may be. Children are not left out of the spiritual life; our children are baptized, chrismated (that is, confirmed) and they also receive Communion, even when they’re toddlers. We consider the family to be a small church, a natural extension of the capital C Church. Occasionally, an Orthodox will be call to take upon the cross of monasticism. He or she will give up having a family in order to be with God at all times through the vows of chastity, obedience and poverty. Monks fight their egos constantly, but one of their most distinguishable characteristics is that they pray for the whole world. Yes, right now, someone out there is praying for you, and I don’t mean your guardian angel; but he’s praying for you too!
Online. You will meet Orthodox people online. A lot of them go there for the fellowship, to get more informed about their faith, to read up about different saints, to engage in missionary work, to make and laugh at memes, to chat, to post in forums, or simply to unwind. We’re not saints - but we might be. Do not idealize the Orthodox, or anyone else for that matter. It’s bad for you.
Holy Mysteries. The most important ways we approach God is via the Holy Mysteries; various rites by which a faithful Christian lives his life in Christ. These are: Baptism, by which we enter Church and die to our sins; Chrismation, by which we are filled with the Holy Spirit in order to live our Christian lives faithfully; the Eucharist, by which we are fed with the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ; Marriage, by which two people are forever bound by God in bond of love; Confession, by which our sins are forgiven; Unction, by which we invoke God’s healing grace whenever we are ill. However, very few would deny that the monastic tonsure is a Holy Mystery as well - completely devoting your life to the Lord. We also consider Burial a Holy Mystery, by which we commend the soul of a faithfully departed Christian to God’s loving arms.
Sacramentals. Us Orthodox use a variety of different objects to help us along our Christian life. A good deal of us will have a cross around our necks. We have holy water, which the priests and laity sprinkle upon people and objects in order to sanctify them. We also drink it. We use holy oil a lot - either to fuel our vigil lamps, or to anoint ourselves. We offer incense - we do it a lot in the church, and we might do it at home, too. We burn our vigil lamps in front of our icons as a small sacrifice, but also to remind us of the light of Christ. We also light candles - these will burn on our altars, and we light votive candles. A lot of the Orthodox will light a candle as soon as they enter to a church.
Saints. Now, all Christians are saints, but there is that special kind of people who really let God reign in their hearts. There are many categories of canonized saints. For example, martyrs died for their faith, the venerables were known for their asceticism, fools for Christ would feign insanity in order to conceal their good deeds and holy life. The Orthodox will often ask the saints to pray for them. We cherish their relics, some of which were kept incorrupt. We will also take pilgrimages to churches and monasteries where these relics are kept.
Clergy. There are many ranks of clergy in our churches. Bishops are overseers who take care that all things done in Church are in accordance to teachings of Christ. Bishops particularly oversee priests, who are set as shepherds, serving Christians both with the Holy Mysteries and instruction. Deacons help out bishops and priests during services, and are usually in charge of charitable duties. There are other, lower ranks, which help during the services - the subdeacon, the reader and the candlebearer.
Services. We believe that Christians form one family. This isn’t just a pretty way of saying that we are close - we have literal blood of Christ going through our veins! That is why we gather to services to glorify God in common. There are different services depending on the time of the day or different days of the week. For example, matins are served in morning, vespers are served in evening; vigils are held on the eves of great feast days. There are many other services that we may participate in,
The Culmination. However, the greatest service of them all is the Divine Liturgy, the supreme act of worship and thanksgiving. It is often said that Christian life revolves around the Divine Liturgy - it should lead to the Liturgy and flow from it. During the Divine Liturgy the Orthodox take Holy Communion, which we believe to be the true Body and Blood of Christ, which sustains us in a mystical way and draws us closer to Christ in a most intimate way.
Sanctity of Life. For the Orthodox, life is sacred. No Orthodox should ever envision, approve or suggest an abortion. Life is a gift from God and is given unto us so we could use our time to worship God and do good unto our neighbor - not to be nipped in the bud. We also consider the bodies of dead Christians to be holy as well. As a rule, the Orthodox Church does not allow cremation. By Incarnation, Christ made the matter holy. Bodies aren’t prisons for our souls, they are not to be discarded to the flames after death and we treat them with extreme reverence.
Death. There comes a time when a Christian’s life on this Earth comes to an end. Orthodox funeral is elaborate - we bury our dead, and wine and oil are poured over the casket as a symbol of the royal priesthood all Christians partake in, but also as a reminder of the Blood that was shed upon the Cross for our salvation. We pray for our dead, for we believe that no one is truly dead in Christ. We wait for the resurrection of the dead, when our proper union of souls and bodies will be finally restored, when Christ comes in glory to judge us all according to our acts of love - or lack thereof.
Faith. For the Orthodox, everything we do is based upon what we believe in; just like with everybody else. What sets us apart, of course, is what we believe in. We believe in the Most Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, One God, Three Persons in One Essence. God created this world out of love so that the whole creation would rejoice in God. However, man, the custodian of the whole creation, fell by Satan’s deception, corrupting the entire universe with sin. God would not let his creature perish, and the Son became a man we know as Jesus Christ. By His teachings we live that love God has for us. Christ died on the cross for us - not instead of us, nor to take our penalty - rather, our humanity dragged him to death, but He arose from the dead, pulling us out of the common grave that was never meant to be our ultimate destination. Now, we fight a good fight as we try to become more Christ like, hour to hour, and day by day.
The Others. However, we are not alone in our struggle. God fights majority of our battles, if we deny our ego and just let Him do it. We are further aided by saints, those faithful who have found favor with God. We are also assisted by angels, bodiless beings that God created before our material universe. Every person has a personal guardian angel who does not stop praying for us. However, it is all a struggle, and no struggle goes without an opponent. In our daily life we are constantly tempted by demons, angels that have fell away from God. Knowing well they can never hurt God Himself, they turned their rage upon beings Whom God loves, the humans, and they will stop at nothing to separate us from the Lord.
Spiritual Life. Our Lord Jesus Christ taught us many things, the essence of all them being love. We can break the daily living of Orthodox Christian into a trinity of salvation, which includes prayer, fasting and alms. By prayer, we manifest our love for God; with alms, with manifest our love for our neighbor; and by fasting, we fight all our passions and sinful inclinations.
Home. There is not much that would separate an Orthodox home from the other homes except one thing - the icon corner. Icon corner is an area where the Orthodox pray or simply stand in silent reverence before Christ. It contains the icons, physical depictions of Christ, the Mother of God, angels and saints, but also everything else we hold holy - the Bible, vigil lamps, incense et cetera. We hold the Bible in high regard, and we do consider it to be the inspired Word of God. We interpret it in Christ-centric way, and we are guided by the holy tradition of the Fathers of the Church to decipher its many mysteries. We also draw inspiration from many other saints, either from their writings or reading their lives, and thus see just how Christ manifested in someone’s life.
Prayer. Prayer is the focal point of our daily life. We being our day with the sign of the Cross by which we indicate that we are Christ’s. We do this to witness the Trinity, to ask for a blessing and to protect ourselves from demonic temptations. We do this sign when we wake up or when we go to bed; when we pray - and then we do it a lot; before and after we commence and end our work and meals; whenever we’re joyful, afraid and tempted. Furthermore, during our prayers, we prostrate, kneel, and bow, but our supreme prayer position is standing, indicating that we are not slaves but children of God, freed from death and evil. A typical Orthodox will generally have a prayer rule, a set of prayers he or she will read in the morning and evening, and perhaps some other prayers they read during the day. A good deal will also practice the Jesus prayer, a short prayer that goes: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.” We might say this prayer hundreds or even thousands of times per day, constantly invoking the most holy name of Jesus. For that purpose, we might use a prayer rope, which is there to give us a tangible reminder to pray. Why do we do this? It’s easy - Saint Paul the Apostle reminded us to pray without ceasing. We are not praying so to break records; we are doing it so that we wouldn’t turn away our attention from God. We use prayer books, but we also pray in our own words. Prayer books are there to teach us how to pray, as it is all too easy to pray for the wrong things or to pray in wrong way.
Fasting. We fast. To keep it short, our fasting is essentially vegan diet, except that we’re allowed fish on certain days. Some days, olive oil and wine are permitted, which some interpret as all oil and alcoholic beverages. We fast on Wednesdays and Fridays, to commemorate our Lord’s betrayal by Judas and His crucifixion. There are also longer fasting periods, of which the Great Lent, when we prepare for Christ’s death and resurrection, is the most important. There are also three additional fasts, in the honor of the Mother of God, the Apostles and Christ’s Nativity.
Sin. Like all other people, Orthodox people sin. There are three sources of temptation: the flesh, that is, our fallen nature, the world, that is to say, all the seductive power of our surroundings, and the devil. For us, the sin isn’t so much a breaking of the rule; it is more of a disease that prevents us to be drawn closer to God. We speak not so much of sin, that is, an individual mishap, as much as we speak of passions, the evil tendencies within our heart of which sins are but a manifestation. Our passions a disease that requires a long treatment. When we sin, we confess our sins before God and the Church. For us, repentance, not guilt, is the way to go. Repentance leads to joy, replacing evil with good, leaving the evil deeds behind as we have our gaze firmly set on Christ. Guilt may lead to repentance, but more often than not, it leads to despair. It replaces evil with a different sort of evil. Saints like Saint Mary Magdalene are symbols of repentance; and there’s no better symbol of despair than that of Judas.
Family life and Monasticism. For the Orthodox, marriage is holy. We consider it a Holy Mystery, that is, a sacrament. We frown upon a divorce, but sometimes life happens, so we do not disallow it completely, tragic as it may be. Children are not left out of the spiritual life; our children are baptized, chrismated (that is, confirmed) and they also receive Communion, even when they’re toddlers. We consider the family to be a small church, a natural extension of the capital C Church. Occasionally, an Orthodox will be call to take upon the cross of monasticism. He or she will give up having a family in order to be with God at all times through the vows of chastity, obedience and poverty. Monks fight their egos constantly, but one of their most distinguishable characteristics is that they pray for the whole world. Yes, right now, someone out there is praying for you, and I don’t mean your guardian angel; but he’s praying for you too!
Online. You will meet Orthodox people online. A lot of them go there for the fellowship, to get more informed about their faith, to read up about different saints, to engage in missionary work, to make and laugh at memes, to chat, to post in forums, or simply to unwind. We’re not saints - but we might be. Do not idealize the Orthodox, or anyone else for that matter. It’s bad for you.
Holy Mysteries. The most important ways we approach God is via the Holy Mysteries; various rites by which a faithful Christian lives his life in Christ. These are: Baptism, by which we enter Church and die to our sins; Chrismation, by which we are filled with the Holy Spirit in order to live our Christian lives faithfully; the Eucharist, by which we are fed with the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ; Marriage, by which two people are forever bound by God in bond of love; Confession, by which our sins are forgiven; Unction, by which we invoke God’s healing grace whenever we are ill. However, very few would deny that the monastic tonsure is a Holy Mystery as well - completely devoting your life to the Lord. We also consider Burial a Holy Mystery, by which we commend the soul of a faithfully departed Christian to God’s loving arms.
Sacramentals. Us Orthodox use a variety of different objects to help us along our Christian life. A good deal of us will have a cross around our necks. We have holy water, which the priests and laity sprinkle upon people and objects in order to sanctify them. We also drink it. We use holy oil a lot - either to fuel our vigil lamps, or to anoint ourselves. We offer incense - we do it a lot in the church, and we might do it at home, too. We burn our vigil lamps in front of our icons as a small sacrifice, but also to remind us of the light of Christ. We also light candles - these will burn on our altars, and we light votive candles. A lot of the Orthodox will light a candle as soon as they enter to a church.
Saints. Now, all Christians are saints, but there is that special kind of people who really let God reign in their hearts. There are many categories of canonized saints. For example, martyrs died for their faith, the venerables were known for their asceticism, fools for Christ would feign insanity in order to conceal their good deeds and holy life. The Orthodox will often ask the saints to pray for them. We cherish their relics, some of which were kept incorrupt. We will also take pilgrimages to churches and monasteries where these relics are kept.
Clergy. There are many ranks of clergy in our churches. Bishops are overseers who take care that all things done in Church are in accordance to teachings of Christ. Bishops particularly oversee priests, who are set as shepherds, serving Christians both with the Holy Mysteries and instruction. Deacons help out bishops and priests during services, and are usually in charge of charitable duties. There are other, lower ranks, which help during the services - the subdeacon, the reader and the candlebearer.
Services. We believe that Christians form one family. This isn’t just a pretty way of saying that we are close - we have literal blood of Christ going through our veins! That is why we gather to services to glorify God in common. There are different services depending on the time of the day or different days of the week. For example, matins are served in morning, vespers are served in evening; vigils are held on the eves of great feast days. There are many other services that we may participate in,
The Culmination. However, the greatest service of them all is the Divine Liturgy, the supreme act of worship and thanksgiving. It is often said that Christian life revolves around the Divine Liturgy - it should lead to the Liturgy and flow from it. During the Divine Liturgy the Orthodox take Holy Communion, which we believe to be the true Body and Blood of Christ, which sustains us in a mystical way and draws us closer to Christ in a most intimate way.
Sanctity of Life. For the Orthodox, life is sacred. No Orthodox should ever envision, approve or suggest an abortion. Life is a gift from God and is given unto us so we could use our time to worship God and do good unto our neighbor - not to be nipped in the bud. We also consider the bodies of dead Christians to be holy as well. As a rule, the Orthodox Church does not allow cremation. By Incarnation, Christ made the matter holy. Bodies aren’t prisons for our souls, they are not to be discarded to the flames after death and we treat them with extreme reverence.
Death. There comes a time when a Christian’s life on this Earth comes to an end. Orthodox funeral is elaborate - we bury our dead, and wine and oil are poured over the casket as a symbol of the royal priesthood all Christians partake in, but also as a reminder of the Blood that was shed upon the Cross for our salvation. We pray for our dead, for we believe that no one is truly dead in Christ. We wait for the resurrection of the dead, when our proper union of souls and bodies will be finally restored, when Christ comes in glory to judge us all according to our acts of love - or lack thereof.
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