A Human's Struggle to stay Human

The church is primordially a worshipping community. The doctrines fall secondary to worship. It is in the corporate and communal experience of worship the church identifies its being and witness, as a realized eschatology and the extension of the love of the triune God. The uniqueness of Orthodox ecclesiology lies in its “coming together” rather than “going out.” [1] Liturgy forms the basis of worship. L iturgy serves as the visible expression of the unfathomable and mysterious realm of the divine. Liturgy at the same time is the doxological faith affirmation of the church. The common axiom should be brought into mind lex orandi lex credendi “as we pray so we believe.” The church urges the faithful to pray seven times a day alluding to the Psalmist orison - Ps 119: 164 “Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous ordinances.” May we attempt to succinctly explore the major theological themes discerned in the Ramsho [2] (Vespers) of the Syrian Orthodox Church. [3] 1.

Desert is usually understood as a barren land but who in the wildest dream would have thought that this place could be rendered so fecund for spirituality other than the desert fathers and mothers. They saw life where others anticipated death; where one expects thorns and bushes the monks and ascetics unearthed the seeds of wisdom. Desert is the battlefield of uncertainties. One really does not know what to expect. It needs courage to refuse the security offered by walls and roof and embrace the loo wind of vulnerability. This courage finds its subsistence in faith. In an empirical world, faith usually becomes an idea of mockery. Our obsession with certainty has obstructed us to believe in the beauty of randomness. Our pursuit of attesting logical reasoning to every experience is most often at the expense of belittling the mysterious dimension of life . Faith is the audacity to grapple with the uncertainties of life with the implicit hope that it would eventually lead us to the cr