On Sunday in the Orthodox Church, we will commemorate the Great Earthquake in Constantinople in 740 CE. We will sing the following Kontakion:<\/p>\n
Deliver us all from upheavals, and from terrible afflictions caused by our sins, O Lord, and spare thy people whom Thou hast purchased with Thy blood, O Master! Do not deliver Thy city to destruction by terrible earthquakes, for we know no other God but Thee; and to those who cry out Thou dost respond: \u201cI am with you, and no one will be against you.\u201d (text credit: web site of the Orthodox Church in America).<\/p>\n
It is quite tempting to question the relevance of singing such a historically-conditioned hymn. It makes sense for those of us who live near fault lines; the threat of a serious earthquake in Southern California is always present. Personally, I think one can glean a theme of petitioning God for mercy when a catastrophe is possible. Natural disasters should remind us that life is fragile, and that all of our petitions should be preceded by sincere thanksgiving, “for God is with us.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Sunday in the Orthodox Church, we will commemorate the Great Earthquake in Constantinople in 740 CE. We will sing the following Kontakion: Deliver us all from upheavals, and from terrible afflictions caused by our sins, O Lord, and spare thy people whom Thou hast purchased with Thy blood, O Master! Do not deliver Thy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-eastern-liturgy","category-liturgical-year"],"yoast_head":"\n