Frederica Mathewes-Green is one of the busiest spiritual writers and
teachers, today. She writes a new book every couple of years, and in the
meantime, speaks to hundreds of audiences on a variety of subjects. A quick
glimpse at her Web site reveals that any given week,
Frederica may be found speaking at a pregnancy center, church or bookstore,
seminary or university.
Frederica is also one of our most insightful cultural commentators. She
writes for a variety of publications, including Books & Culture, First
Things, National Review and Beliefnet.com on subjects ranging from the arts,
film, humor, marriage and family issues, troubles and controversies in the
churches, and gender issues.
She lives with her husband, the Rev. Gregory Mathewes-Green, in Baltimore,
where he is pastor and she is "Khouria" ("Mother") of the church they founded,
Holy Cross Orthodox Church. Their three children are grown and married, and they
have eight grandchildren. Her books include Facing East: A Pilgrim’s Journey
into the Mysteries of Orthodoxy, and just published, The Lost Gospel of Mary:
The Mother of Jesus in Three Ancient Texts.
We sat down recently with Frederica Mathewes-Green to talk about spiritual
practice…
EXPLOREFAITH: Your spiritual journey has taken you from growing up Catholic, to practicing
Hinduism in your twenties, to Anglicanism, and finally, conversion into the
Orthodox Church. Would you say it was primarily belief, or practice, that drew
you to Orthodoxy?
FREDERICA MATHEWES-GREEN: Strangely enough, I had finished most of those changes by the time I was 21;
the "wilderness wandering" was brief but intense in my teens. When I came home
to Christianity my husband and I went to Episcopal seminary and enjoyed being
part of the "renewal" movement in that denomination. In the late 80s we were
concerned about theological drift in that church, and that is why we set out to
examine alternatives.
So it was primarily Orthodox belief that initially attracted us; the fact
that the Orthodox Church doesn’t "update" its worship services means that it is
still practicing the faith of the first few centuries. We were searching for a
church that doesn’t change. However, we got more than that in the bargain, and
I’d say that the best thing about Orthodoxy is that it preserves ancient wisdom
about how to cultivate the presence of God—how to become a god-bearer, like a
candle bears a flame. The "science" of how to do this is reinforced by both
beliefs and practices, but the centerpiece is the vibrant and transforming
presence of Christ.
EXPLOREFAITH: Who are some of the real champions of Orthodox spiritual practice in the last
century?
FREDERICA MATHEWES-GREEN: Communist persecution produced some extraordinary saints. The book Father
Arseny presents an excellent example. During the time this priest was held in a
Soviet prison, he practiced such love and humility that even hardened criminals
and communist authorities were converted; many miracles accompanied him. The
book is a collection of reminiscences by people who knew him from all walks of
life, and was circulated underground for many years until the Iron Curtain fell
and it could be published.
My own spiritual father, Fr. George Calciu, was another survivor of communist
torture and attempted brainwashing. He was imprisoned with Richard Wurmbrand,
who became well-known in the West as the author of Tortured for Christ and
founder of Voice of the Martyrs. I never knew anyone as full of life and joy as
Fr. George. He died this past November, and my new book is dedicated to his
memory.
Mother Gavrilia is sometimes called "the Orthodox Mother Teresa." She was a
medical doctor, and later a nun, who traveled in India, worked with lepers, and
brought healing and the light of Christ everywhere she went.
Mother Maria Skobtsova fought Nazism in Europe, and at one point smuggled
children to safety by hiding them in trash cans. She was executed at
Ravensbruck.
St. Silouan was a Russian peasant, uneducated and humble, who became an
extraordinary "athlete of prayer" on Mt Athos. His biography by Fr. Sophrony
Sakharov is a staple of Orthodox spirituality.
Among Orthodox, a "champion of spiritual practice" wouldn’t necessarily mean
a mystic. We don’t really have the concept of "mysticism." It would mean someone
who was being taken over, inch by inch, by the flame of Christ. It’s expected
that the presence of Christ is already within us, and what we have to do is get
out of the way, removing fear and sin that block its spread. A spiritual athlete
may have extraordinary spiritual events going on internally, but what would be
seen on the outside is superhuman love, patience, humility, a presence that
transforms others. Saints make everyone they meet more able to be themselves.
EXPLOREFAITH: Your new book—The Lost Gospel of Mary—tells a story about the Virgin Mother
that many people have never heard before. Was that your intention?
FREDERICA MATHEWES-GREEN: Yes, I think the fact that Mary is controversial among Christians must grieve
our Lord, who naturally loved his mother very much. He would want us to love and
honor her, but not to worship her—the very idea is horrifying. Since there’s
been a see-saw about Mary over the last thousand years, I wanted to go back to
an earlier time, before the trouble began, and examine three ancient texts about
Mary. I hope that by recovering the understanding of the early Christians, we
can stand on solid, common ground.
EXPLOREFAITH: There are many spiritual practices for relating to Mary, aren’t there? Are
there some that are particularly Orthodox?
FREDERICA MATHEWES-GREEN: We Orthodox don’t use the rosary, or say the Roman Catholic "Hail Mary," or
honor Mary in any form apart from Christ. There isn’t a form of spirituality
directed exclusively at her. We do honor her for her role in God’s plan of
salvation: the conception, birth, and mothering of Jesus. She stands for all the
human race in that she loaned her body, an ordinary body like ours, and from it
Christ took on flesh. And that very thought is astounding, bewildering. How
could God be contained inside a human body, one he himself had made? Orthodox
never get tired of exploring that mystery, and in so doing we celebrate Mary and
cheer for her as if she’s a hometown hero, sometimes at great length. The third
document in my book is a lengthy hymn (actually, a kind of sung sermon) written
around 520 AD, celebrating Mary’s role in God’s plan of salvation. Orthodox
still offer this worship service every year, near the time of the feast of the
Annunciation (March 25).
Secondly, we ask Mary to pray for us—just as we would ask any friend or
prayer partner. The second text in the book is a prayer asking Mary’s help, the
earliest prayer yet found. There are several short prayers to Mary that are used
regularly in Orthodox worship, including one which is like the first half of the
Hail Mary, and is made of the Scriptural words addressed to her. Usually the
last prayer of a service is addressed to her.
And thirdly, people just love her. Orthodox dote on her, and love to think
about her, talk about her, and keep her picture—as a young mom, holding
Jesus—all through their homes and churches. The first text in The Lost Gospel of
Mary is a story about Mary’s conception, birth, and early life, and its
distinguishing mark is affection.
EXPLOREFAITH: It seems to be acceptable, even normative, for people today to borrow
spiritual practices from various religious traditions. I’m thinking of Catholics
who do Yoga, or Methodists who do sitting meditation at the local Buddhist
center. What do you think of that?
FREDERICA MATHEWES-GREEN: Sometimes what various religions have discovered is simply a physiological
mechanism. If you slow down and take deep breaths, it will calm you—it’s as
simple as that, and nothing uniquely "spiritual." It may well be that faiths
that don’t radically separate body and soul are more likely to discover such
tools. Christians can take these up, if they are not linked to any contrary
religious affirmations.
However, other Eastern religions depart from the Christian path sooner or
later. We can see this in the different results people report from the two kinds
of prayer. Eastern meditation often aims for and leads to a sense of personal
boundaries dissolving, personality fading away, as the person becomes one with
everything. That doesn’t happen in Christian spirituality. It’s the reverse: the
person becomes more and more able to see the truth about themselves and others
(repentance, greater love for others, forgiveness). This liberates from old sins
learned from misperceptions and fears planted by the devil’s malice. Christ is
Truth, and the Truth sets us free.
So the Christian becomes ever more increasingly a unique individual, a healed
personality, occupied more and more with love. The personality doesn’t dissolve,
it is clarified and restored. Likewise, what we meet in prayer is not amorphous
nothingness, but a Person who comes ever more clearly into focus, a Person who
is incarnate love. The prayer that developed in the early church to help
believers acquire the habit of "praying constantly" is a short plea addressed to
Jesus, the Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me." That
prayer reinforces the sense that there are two persons involved, rather than a
melting, featureless unity. So the experience of Christian prayer is very
different from that of many Eastern religions. We could even say it is the
opposite: it is love between two persons, between Christ and the individual
believer, and that contact fills and overflows the believer with Christ’s love
for all.
EXPLOREFAITH: Would you mind sharing with our readers some of your own personal spiritual
practices? What do you do each day, as an Orthodox Christian, as a human, as
whatever, that connects you to the Divine?
FREDERICA MATHEWES-GREEN: Thirty years ago I began rising in the middle of the night for my daily
prayer time. I still do this. Fr George recommended that I begin that time by
saying the Nicene Creed and Psalm 50; after that, I say a hundred Jesus Prayers.
I go return to bed and go back to sleep in continuing prayer.
When I wake in the morning, I say some prayers before I get out of bed (there
are a short series of prayers, called "the Trisagion prayers," which open
virtually every Orthodox service), and greet the icons in my room before
starting the day. I put on the teapot and, lighting the candles, say some more
prayers in my icon corner; this is when I go through my intercessory prayer
list, and each day I pray for a section of the parishioners in our church
directory. When I go to my computer, I first do bible study in the New Testament
and Psalms, using wonderful Bible software that provides the helps I need to
study the texts in Greek.
Throughout the day I try to remember to say the Jesus Prayer. I try to note
on the clock whenever a new hour begins, and to say at least some Jesus Prayers
during each hour. I am trying to learn to "pray constantly" as St. Paul says.
Three nights a week, and more in Lent, there are church services, which I
usually attend. And of course there is the Eucharist on Sunday. At bedtime I say
the Trisagion prayers again and go to sleep saying the Jesus Prayer.
I also keep the Orthodox fast, which is to abstain from meat and dairy and
some other foods on Wednesdays, Fridays, and during the 4 "Lents" of the church
year. Essentially, it’s a vegan diet, and we are keeping it a bit more than half
the days of the year. I have hypoglycemia, so I adjust it slightly, and in
particular when I’m traveling and don’t have access to "home foods."
But, the most important spiritual discipline is how we treat other people, so
that keeps me involved in volunteer work, financial giving, and attempting to
practice love and to subdue pride in every human interaction. This is the most
challenging discipline, to me, but potentially the most transformative.
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