Now with the unforeseen success with the 2 characters Minjo(Hope u hav not forgotten the derivation formula of his name. if yes here it is {mother}Mini+{father}John={son}Minjo. Wow)and Dan, our cool dude, 2nd yr seminary student Jack decided to have an informal session on Saturday evening with the youth league. Now he pondered over the venue and this time it was definitely not a coffee shop. He was after all not so benevolent enough to treat 13 youths to a coffee that only costs Rs 43. Thank you very much. With consultation with the principal, he decided to call them to the seminary, and listening to the idea, Dan msged the Epiphany Youths, and the 13 miraculously became 7, as the seminary din sound that appealin to some, the girls dropped out, some were not too interested in Worship but had the curiosity similar to goin to the zoo, to get a feel of what are the rare specimens called Seminarians, and how do they look in their habitat. Don’s motivation to go was pure jealousy, as after the last meet of Minjo and Dan made them look very smart with both flauntin their new found knowledge, he(Don) din wanna give the two the advantage of the pleasure of his ignorance. Cutting the long story short, the 7 did arrive at the seminary. Jack definitely basked in this glory as his fellow mates were curious as ‘wats up, what they doin here?’ kinda expression on their face. Well, the delegation settled in at the B.D. 1, Classroom. We will get introduced to the 7 if at all the need be. After talkin bout facebook and the comments on their new prof pic, bout some sitcom, this and that, Jack decided to arrive at the core point. Since we have followed up till the “Holy art thou” part, we will join the portion after that. All ears.
Sony(definitely male, as he always had to explain that to people who found it fun to remind him that it is a girls name, 2nd yr mech engg.)- Well chach, I find the part after Kauma very funny. The kurielaeeson, 3 times part. I know it means Lord hav mercy, but why after adoration of God(kauma ‘holy art thou’)?
J. Wel, Sony boy the idea is that after adorin God and his majesty and rememberin his crucifixion, we become aware of our sinfulness(Isaiah 6:1-5 wher Isaiah sees God’s splendor and repents, ‘I am a man of unclean lips) and say Kurielaeeson, Lord have mercy. Interstingly it is said that the early church took this response from the story of blind man Bartimaeus(Mark 10: 46-52) where Bartimaeus became aware of his blindness in the presence of Jesus and said ‘Lord, have mercy upon me’. In greek Lord means Kurios and mercy is Eleeo, and therefore kurielaeeson. We pray the prayer of Bartimaeus, becoming aware of our spiritual blindness. Does that sound greek to u guys?
Ajit(a B.A. psychology student and guess what his friends think he can look at ones face and know what they are feeling because he is a Psychology student. Haha)- yeah, that sounds really cool mate. Interesting. Well I wanna ask why do we read bible, that is the epistle and the gospel in between the worship. Who listens to it? There is bible readin any way?
J . Well Ajit, we have to know that our practices were taken from the Jewish synagogue worship and thank God there was no copyright existin. The synagogue worship had liturgy and ther were bible readings from the first 5 books, the prophets and Psalms. So readin is a continuation in that sense. Did you know that first the bible was read in the context of worship alone as there were no printed copies available? It is only after 1850’s after the translation to Malayalam that personal bible reading started in our church.
Minjo- seriously? That’s interestin.
J. yes. Before reading the Epistle priest says “Accept O lord, our prayers and petitions…”. Priest is callin God to make hearers, that with purity, and holiness we may keep God’s commands. The idea is that we need grace from God to live accordin to his will. And before readin the Gospel, Priest says “Peace be with you”. This means that the Gospel is the good tidings of the peace of Christ, who sets peace among people and the creation, as the angel said to the shepherds ‘Lo I bring you this day good tidings of great joy(Luke.2.10). then he says “ the holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ….” Here the life giving Spirit and the role of salvation is emphasized. Again Jesus is presented as the Word of life that gives us new life and then the portion is read with reverence and we are supposed to hear it and respond saying, “We thank you Lord you have given us your Gospel……”, so listenin to the portion and following it is an imperative. I guess I will keep it at that.
Saju(a guy who loves philosophy and talks about abstract stuff, but parental pressure made him chose computer science. He teaches his teachers philosophy when he fails consequently. He says success and failure is vanity, vanity. Brave) – deep indeed, I will try to listen tomorrow what is bein read. But u know from the portion called Promeon on, I switch off my brain. I am somewhere else. Achen keeps reading long boring stuff. Honestly why do we need that?
J. Boy I have to go to play table tennis at 4. So this should be the last question as it also sums up the first part. As Dan said nothing more than half hour. Right Dan?
D. yeah.
J. ok answerin Saju’s question, promeon in greek means introduction. Here the content is “Help us O Lord, our praise and thanksgiving…..”it says that Jesus absolves all our debts and pardon, but we should be penitent. The promis of “Call and I will answer, knock and I will open….” Is affirmed. And then after that we have the Husaya which means Prayer for pardon and peace. It is a confession that is very meaningful and my mom says she is always in tears when she hears that. Honestly I used to be in tears , but out of boredom, but now I listen it up and it is very meaningful. And then we have the Sedra which means orderly arrangement of prayers. I will stress 5 points to sum up the sedra;
a) Glorifying Lord Jesus Christ by remembering His Incarnation event.
b) The affirmation of the greatness of the Holy Qurbana and our unworthiness to receive it.
c) Prayer for the coming of Holy Spirit.
d) Prayer to enable us to participate with dedication in the Holy Qurbana.
e) Prayer of surrender and dedication.
Dan: Ok!! we have Holy Spirit in Mar Thoma Sabha? I am sorry , I am curious.
J: haha. Even I had that question. I will take up that question the next time. Ok , and do you know why we have the Nicene Creed at the end? Anybody? It is affirming our faith before Qurbana. We have faith declaration in 5 Areas;
a) the faith in Trinity.
b) then in the Incarnation of our Lord.
c) faith in One Baptism.
d) faith in the resurrection of believers.
e) and in the Final Judgment.
Saju: Let us now collect the offertory.
Minjo: Not funny. Well Jackman we will have this in the youth league tomorrow. What say?
J: sure. I will take you to the Cafeteria and you can have free tea. Haha. Gotta play table tennis. My room is in a mess, can’t take you there or else you will lose all respect for me. Haha
Source of this article "Eucharist(Qurbana): Celebratiion of the Economy of Salvation- Rev Dr George Mathew.
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