Sundays With Schmemann

I’m beginning a new feature called, “Sundays with Schmemann.” My work has been very heavily influenced by Fr. Alexander Schmemann and I think he has a great deal to say on the subjects of liturgy, sacraments, and the church. Here is my first offering for you.

“The only real fall of man is his noneucharistic life in a noneucharistic world.” Aleksandr Shmeman, For the Life of the World: Sacraments and Orthodoxy, 2nd ed. (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir, 1973 (1982 printing)).

“Liturgical study of this kind, known in the West as the study of “rubrics,” answers the question of how: how worship is to be carried out according to the rules, i.e. in accordance with the prescriptions of the rubrics and canons. But it does not answer the question of what: what is done in worship. It does not set fort the meaning of worship either as a whole or in its separate parts. It does not define the place of liturgical tradition in the life of the Church and her members…Up to quite recent times, therefore, liturgics has belonged to the category of “supplementary” or “practical” disciplines.” – Aleksandr Shmeman, Introduction to Liturgical Theology, 3rd ed., trans. Asheleigh E. Moorhouse (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir, 1986, ©1966), 9.

I happily stumbled across this video on YouTube a few years ago. Enjoy!

Photo Source: Christ the Savior – Holy Spirit Orthodox Church