Day 34 – On Your Behalf

It has become natural in our lives to expect to be able to enter the Church, light our candle, reverence the holy icons, make an offering to the Church, and pray inside the main Church, which we Orthodox refer as the Nave. All that has changed with the Coronavirus (COVID19) and yet nothing has changed.

Every day despite the pandemic, throughout the world, clergy enter their respective Churches, light candles, reverence the holy icons, and pray in the Holy Altar for you. This tradition is more than just a job for clergy. It is a divine calling that was first established by God in the Old Testament and continues through the centuries.

We are reminded of this practice in today’s reading from Hebrews below. As we prepare for the final week of Great Lent, knowing that our Churches will be empty save for the priest and a few required assistants, I invite you to be comforted knowing your priest is praying on your behalf at the Altar of God. Tomorrow for Sunday Liturgy, he will enter the Holy of Holies and offer the Divine Liturgy, the Holy Body and Precious Blood of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ, on your behalf. He’s been doing this since his first liturgy on the day of his ordination, and he will continue until he falls asleep in the Lord to celebrate the heavenly liturgy.

I pray this comforts you in this high stress season.

BRETHREN, the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly sanctuary. For a tent was prepared, the outer one, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the Presence; it is called the Holy Place. Behind the second curtain stood a tent called the Holy of Holies, having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, which contained a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant; above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail. These preparations having thus been made, the priests go continually into the outer tent, performing their ritual duties; but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood which he offers for himself and for the errors of the people. – Hebrews 9.1-7