👉🏾👉🏾👉🏾The Days and Times When #Prostration Is #Offered, and When It Is Not
(Part 6)
Beloved in Christ, today we learn when the Church commands us to bow down in repentance, and when She tells us to stand in joy. Prostration is holy, but it is not done at all times. For there is a season for sorrow and a season for gladness. Guided by Scripture and the canons of the Fathers, the Church shows us these proper times, so that our worship may be pleasing to God.
I. The Times When Prostration Is Forbidden
1. On Sundays
The first and chief among the days on which prostration is set aside is the Lord’s Day, the first day of the week, the day of His Resurrection. On this day we commemorate not mourning but victory, not abasement but triumph. For Christ, who was laid in the tomb, rose again in glory, and on this day He shall come again to judge the living and the dead.
The canons declare: “The known times when prostration to the ground is to be abandoned… are Sundays and the feast of Pentecost” (Fetha Negest, Article 14, No. 537). Again it says: “There is no prostration on Sundays and on the feasts of Pentecost, for these are days of joy” (Fetḥa Negest, Article 19, No. 715).
Thus the whole Church rejoices, standing upright before the Risen One, for the Sabbath of the new covenant is a day of liberty.
2. On Pentecost
Pentecost, the fiftieth day, is the feast of the Spirit, the day when heaven was opened and tongues of fire descended upon the apostles. It is the perfection of Pascha, the crown of fifty days of joy.
On this day, as the Fathers teach, fasting is abolished, and so also prostration. Even if the fiftieth day falls upon a Wednesday or Friday, days usually given to fasting, yet the feast prevails, and we eat and rejoice as on Christmas or Easter.
3. On the Great Feasts of Our Lord
The law of the Church likewise forbids prostration on the great feasts of Christ. These are days of triumph, not lamentation. They include: His Conception, Nativity, Baptism, Hosanna, Resurrection, Ascension, Pentecost, and His Transfiguration on Mount Tabor. those are the eight feast of Christ but the Only one feast is excepted . the veneration of the Cross for though the Cross is an instrument of death, it is also the throne of His glory, and prostrate before it is .
4. On the Feast of Our Lady, the Theotokos
As the feasts of the Lord are days of joy, so also the feast of His holy Mother. The canons declare that on the days of her feast, prostration is not permitted. For she who bore the Word in her womb is honored in joy, not in mourning.
5. After Receiving Holy Eucharist
Hear the wisdom of the Fathers: after partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ, we do not cast ourselves to the ground, but rather stand in reverence and thanksgiving, for the King of Glory has entered within us. The Fetha Negest says: “After receiving His body and blood, they refrain from worshipping” (Article 14, Nos. 536–537).
We do not abase ourselves, for He has lifted us up to communion with Himself. Our task in that hour is to glorify His Body and Blood, not to fall prostrate.
Continues 👇🏾