Today is the Feast of St. Anne’s Conception of the Virgin Mary. Fr. Stephen Freeman has presented the summary of the feast from the OCA’s website as well as answered the question what “Most Holy Theotokos, save us” means, and Michael Liccione has an extended meditation on the Roman Catholic expansion of the understanding of this feast.
Regarding Rome’s dogmatization of the Immaculate Conception, Mr. Liccione writes:
Many Orthodox object that, even if such “developments” are acceptable as theological opinions, dogmatizing them imposes more of a confessional burden than the common deposit warrants. But such objections do not address the substance of the Catholic Church’s ongoing meditation on the Virgin; they merely question her authority to draw forth from the deposit of faith the treasures she claims to find there. It seems to me that the beauty radiating through the [Doctrine of the Immaculate Conception] is itself a reason to question the questioners.
As an Orthodox Christian, I suggest in all charity one possible problem—that the deposit of faith may be thought of as a Rorschach blot, in which one sees and retrieves that which one might be inclined to see. It also strikes me that Mr. Liccione appears to be saying that it’s all right to add to the faith, so long as we’re not taking anything away, and that what we’re adding is radiantly beautiful. I am, to be certain, all for maximalism, but this appears to be a point worth discussing.
Regardless, surely Fr. Stephen, Mr. Liccione, and myself may all entreat St. Anne to pray for us!
EDIT: The above should read “Dr. Liccione,” of course. Apologies.
Tonight we made an Egyptian lentil dish. This is basically it, although we used spaghetti instead of macaroni. Here’s somebody else blogging about another variation. (The recipe we used was actually from this cookbook, and I’m not sure what the etiquette is in reposting material from cookbooks. I love that cookbook, however, and highly recommend it.) Anyway, it made a lot of food, and Megan said — “You know, if we doubled this recipe on a Sunday night…”
Leitourgeia kai Qurbana: Contra den Zeitgeist 