Saturday, August 06, 2005

Transfiguration


Georgian carved icon of the Transfiguration

Troparion - Tone 7

You were Transfigured on the Mount, O Christ God,
Revealing Your glory to Your disciples as far as they could bear it.
Let Your everlasting Light shine upon us sinners!
Through the prayers of the Theotokos, O Giver of Light, glory to You!

Kontakion - Tone 7

On the Mountain You were Transfigured, O Christ God,
And Your disciples beheld Your glory as far as they could see it;
So that when they would behold You crucified,
They would understand that Your suffering was voluntary,
And would proclaim to the world,
That You are truly the Radiance of the Father!
Luke 9:28-36 (Matins Gospel)

28 Now it came to pass, about eight days after these sayings, that He took Peter, John, and James and went up on the mountain to pray.
29 As He prayed, the appearance of His face was altered, and His robe became white and glistening.
30 And behold, two men talked with Him, who were Moses and Elijah,
31 who appeared in glory and spoke of His decease which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.
32 But Peter and those with him were heavy with sleep; and when they were fully awake, they saw His glory and the two men who stood with Him.
33 Then it happened, as they were parting from Him, that Peter said to Jesus, "Master, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah"-not knowing what he said.
34 While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were fearful as they entered the cloud.
35 And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!"
36 When the voice had ceased, Jesus was found alone. But they kept quiet, and told no one in those days any of the things they had seen.
(Comment: This Gospel reading was one of the main Scripture passages that led me to pick St. Peter as my patron saint; as someone who talks a lot (many times without considering whether or not the time is appropriate), I can relate to St. Peter's blurting out the thing about the tabernacles. What's funny to me is, not only does God the Father interrupt St. Peter in mid-sentence, but He also tells him to hear Jesus--in other words: "Shaddup...and listen.")

3 comments:

Mimi said...

Our priest talked about St. Peter's role in the Transfiguration as well - interesting that you mention it!

I hope you had a wonderful feast day!

existentialist said...

Hi Peter. You know my friend called me tonight and he also talked about Peter's role, how Peter did not know what to say, was made stupid, and my priest mentioned this too in his sermon. I have to check my notes again on his sermon. Thank you for posting the Georgian icon and the troparion and kontakion and the Gospel. It took me a while before I could read and comment on it, but I can tonight, 1 hour and 25 minutes past my bed time.
I checked out a book on blogging today and I learned from it that blogging is all about building community!

Fr. David said...

You know, olympiada, that's pretty much what I've thought ever since I started SoW. Comes from being a community junkie, I guess.