Weekend Update 3/20
Praying with the Most Holy Theotokos
Like a lot of other words that we use here in Orthodox Land, theotokos is Greek. It means God-bearer, and it’s one of the titles that we use for the Mother of God.
And on the first five Friday evenings of Great Lent, we hold a service in honor of the Theotokos. It’s called the Akathist to the Mother of God. An akathist is a long hymn; this particular hymn has twenty-four sections, and it was written back in the sixth century. On the first four Fridays of the Fast, we sing six sections of the hymn; on the fifth Friday evening, we sing all twenty-four sections.
That’s a whole lot of singing, but, of course, even though we’re singing in honor of the Most Holy Theotokos, she always points us to her Son.
Visiting with the Metropolitan
Metropolitan is another one of those Greek words. In Holy Orthodoxy, a metropolitan is a bishop who is in charge of a large geographical area. And, on Friday, March 6, we were honored to have Metropolitan Saba of the Antiochian Archdiocese of North America to join us at St John’s for The Akathist to the Mother of God.
Actually, his full, official title is His Eminence, the Most Reverend SABA, Archbishop of New York and Metropolitan of All North America. And that’s impressive enough, but, get this—he even has his own theme song.
No kidding.
Here it is:
Now that short little hymn is only ever sung at a certain spot in the Divine Liturgy, but, I mean, really: how many people do you know who have their very own, personal, walking-up music?
And if you do happen to know someone like that, chances are good they are also—well, how can we put this delicately?—absolutely full of themselves.
But that’s not at all Metropolitan Saba. Just look at the photo we took when he was answering questions for our parish community: This is a man who is gentle and completely at ease; this is a man who actually likes his job; this is a man who knows how to serve; this is a man who loves our Lord and Master and His Most Holy Mother.
Tonsuring a Reader
If you are a regular reader of Come See Something Beautiful (and, boy howdy, we sure hope you are), then you know that, back in January, Metropolitan Saba ordained our very own Father Deacon Seraphim Hart down in San Antonio. That service was originally scheduled to be held at St John’s, but the weather led to a location change.
However, despite that fact that he travels constantly, His Eminence worked our parish back into his schedule, and, when he was with us at St John’s, he tonsured Demetry Zozuyla a Reader. Readers are the first order of clergy in Holy Orthodoxy; they assist with the services and intone the epistle during the Divine Liturgy.
Demetry has already completed his training to be a deacon, so our hope is that Metropolitan Saba will return to Texas later this year or early in 2027 and perform that ordination here in our community.
In the meantime…
You can be like His Eminence.
And, no, we don’t mean you should start working on some signature music.
But what you can is grow in your love for Christ Jesus and the Most Holy Theotokos—and what you can also do is wear the same kind of T-shirt the metropolitan wears.
That’s right.
We gave His Eminence his very own CSSB T-shirt, so if you purchase one, not only will you be rockin’ the same brand as the metropolitan, but you will also be helping us build a beautiful temple that will last for centuries.
And, hey, even if you’ve got a clothing line of your own that you’re repping (and who doesn’t, these days?), we’ve got other options, as well: you can upgrade your subscription to paid; you can commission an image in the Calming Room of our temple; you can make a direct donation to our Building Fund.
Of course, the very best kind of support you can provide are your prayers, and, as it turns out, we’ve also got you covered there—just join us in offering the Akathist for a New Temple on a regular basis (PDF/video).
So, your Eminence, if you’re reading this post (while wearing your new T-shirt), we hope that you come back to St John’s real soon.
And to show you just how much we want you back in Texas (after all, “even Moses got excited when he saw The Promised Land”), we’ll scoot on outta’ here with one of our All-Time Texas Favs, Mr. Lyle Lovett.