SATURDAY MORNING PRAYER
(Saturday, June 10)
This Saturday morning I’m praying for “all deceased” and to “all saints,” not only because it is the eve of the Sunday of All Saints, celebrated in our tradition tomorrow, on the Sunday after Pentecost. I pray for “all deceased” and to “all saints” every Saturday, because every Saturday in our Byzantine tradition remembers all the faithful who have already entered into eternal “rest,” as Saturday is the Seventh Day (of the week), on which God “rested from all His work, which God had begun to create (ὧν ἤρξατο ὁ θεὸς ποιῆσαι, яже начат Бог творити).” (Gen 2:3, LXX) The distinction between the faithful “deceased” and “saints” is blurred in our tradition, because only God really knows the difference.
What does God’s rest “from” all His work of creating mean for us? It means our freedom; He leaves it to us, to “create” and to “fashion” out of all His work what we will. Does it mean He no longer “works” in our lives? No. As our Lord said, when the Jewish religious authorities began to persecute Him for “working” on the Sabbath: “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.” (Jn 5:17) He had only “begun” to create in the first six “days,” as the Septuagint (Greek) version of Genesis 2:3 renders it, but henceforth He does His creative “work” in us and through us, insofar as we let Him. This is why, in the rite of Holy Baptism, when the celebrating priest anoints our hands with the “oil of gladness,” he says, “Your hands have made me and fashioned me.” (Ps 118/119:73) Henceforth *our* hands are to participate in God’s continuous “making” and “fashioning” of His created world. Let me gratefully remember this invigorating, dignifying fact on this beautiful Saturday morning, as I use my hands, anointed many years ago with “the oil of gladness,” to make my bed, prepare my coffee, and to type this little reflection. And let’s all say this morning, my dear readers, the following verse from one of the Psalms of the First Hour, as we begin our day: “And let the brightness of the Lord our God be upon us, and the works of our hands do guide aright upon us, yea, the work of our hands do guide aright.” (Ps 89/90:19)
