NR. 4 – 2022

His clerkly musical activity had a threefold direction: the one of translator, composer of clerkly music and the one of thurifer. As a composer of clerkly music, he was part of Dionisie Lupu’s commission, together with Makarios the Hieromonk and Panariot Enghiurliu. His work as a translator of Greek music stands in continuity with Makarios’ work, but he reached better results. As translator of clerkly music, Pann possessed an aesthetic style, which was developed under the influence of his Greek teacher Dionisie Fotino. In this pretentious activity of “Romanization” of clerkly pieces, he gives priority to the “word”, to allow its message and musicality to emerge. Actually, he is the one to impose in the clerkly Romanian music the term of “Romanianization”. Makarios tried to keep the Greek song almost intact because of his creed, but Anton Pann intervenes in favour of the Romanian text, modifying the Greek song as much as it needed to. That is why, the accents of the important syllables are well shown, assuring intelligibility, clearance and coherence in the poetic-musical discourse. However, Anton Pann succeeds into maintaining the integrity of the Greek melody without “undressing” it from its original content. The songs that he composed in “Anastasimatarul prescurtat” became models for the “slow” singing in our Church. The songs translated by him are being played nowadays too, with their text and their melodic line revised. His original creation imposed itself very well in the Romanian lectern music: hymns, “Cherubikon, Great Answers, Our Father, “The Romanian Orthodox Hymn”, The Creed, a few doxologies (especially the one in the fifth mode hisar), “Confess yourselves to the Lord”, etc.

In his compositional activity, he inclined to the syllabic singing, destined for the countryside, sometimes shortcutting the songs. That is why many of his melodies have written “shortcut after…” at the bottom. He used the westerner terminology, introdu­cing a few movement terms such as: moderato, allegretto, allegro, quickly… As an editor and typographer, he left to the Romanian lectern all the necessary songs for the whole clerkly year, thing that exceeded the number of his predecessor’s typographies, Makarios the Hieromonk. Even though he typographed his musical work, it is kept, together with other musical creations, in the psaltic manuscripts, which can be found in the libraries of Romania. The typography of some of these pieces will contribute undoubtedly to completing his creation, to enriching the Romanian psaltic repertoire. As a theoretician, he left us the most valuable clerkly music treaty “Bazul teoretic şi practic”, bringing new details, surpassing through value the “Theoreticon” of Maka­rios. Here we discover both as a question and answer, the whole theory of the clerkly melody, his aesthetic conception of music and even a method of teaching the clerkly music never seen before him. In this treaty, he presents a rich history of the clerkly music from its origins until nowadays, remaining in the history of our clerkly music as the first historiographer. To “Bazul teoretic şi practic”, he added the two other pieces of work, the first one containing a practical-theoretical content and the second one consisting only of the theoretical content. His didactic activity needs to be added to his whole life activity in the clerkly domain. For almost 30 years, he had been a teacher at singing schools in Bucharest, at the Central Seminary of Bucharest and at the Seminary of Râmnicu-Vâlcea, finding scholars in every place he went to. He was a principal performer at many churches in Bucharest, Râmnicu-Vâlcea and at the church from Șcheii Brasovului called, Saint Nicholas. At Saint Nicholas, he left the young George Ucenescu as a scholar. He never neglected the recitative singing, showing to the lectern singers another type of “Apostol” (book for Epistle reading in the Church), another type of Gospel and a Great Litany. Many people whom nowadays do not respect the liturgical recitative should consider and use the methods that were recommended by Anton Pann more than 150 years ago. Anton Pann was the one who left us the first Christmas Carols books, the one who left us a few moral songs, but also lay songs, which were very appreciated in his époque and still listened to with great pleasure nowadays. He died at a young age, while he was still able to compose great musical creations, while he could still enrich the Romanian lectern; his whole creation helped at making the clerkly music known later on. He defined the époque in which he lived through his hard work and efforts, saving every second of his life, which, owing to his creed, he dedicated to the Romanian People and to the Romanian Orthodox Church. That is why, he will always remain an important figure in our clerkly music and in our Romanian music in general. He will always remain an initiator of the trajectory that this art was going to follow in the next century, a model for everyone who serves the Second Altar of our Church, the lectern. If we were to define Anton Pann’s personality, we could sum it up by using the following holy virtues: patriotism, faith, dedication and sacrifice.

If the content of the ancient speeches extolled acts of kindness and individual joys as a result of adhering to by the city’s laws, the Christian obituary does not stop at evoking the personality of the deceased but also lays out the path that those who are still alive ought to pursue in order to find everlasting joy in the Kingdom of Heaven. In this regard, the obituary serves a number of functions, including expressing the sorrow associated with a person’s passing, informing the bereaved of the reality of everlas­ting life, and assisting Christians in making a decision to give up sin and start over. The patristic authors demonstrated traits of mankind that, through the brilliance of life, deserved the celestial reward in their eulogies and funeral addresses. The voice of the preacher encourages listeners not only to praise virtues but also to imitate those who have exhibited them, thus demonstrating to them the highest form of respect. The message that the patristic obituary provides to the mourning is an essential aspect. The Holy Fathers believed that the obituary’s requirement for the removal of pain offered them the opportunity to express their faith in the connection between life, bodily death, and eternal pleasure. Death, though it is often blamed, is the line that separates people from the difficulties they have to deal with in this life and allows them to have a place in eternity. Both the rhetors of Antiquity and the Christians used funeral orations to express their own respect for the gift they gave to the departed ones. This could be one of the reasons why obituaries are so meticulously crafted from an artistic standpoint, with stylistics signifying a demand of ancient discourses. Although presenting a funeral sermon is not an artistic endeavour, the preacher expresses his appreciation for the departed by the nature of his speech. The Fathers of the Church, especially when honouring family or close family members, strove to express their gratitude in person, despite their conviction that no words could describe the deeds of the departed ones. The funeral speech, like the encomiastic one, had its own structure for the ancient rhetors, and they had a duty to respect it. Connoisseurs of oratory science did not reject its role but preferred its adaptation to the Church’s requirements. The result of this integration was the development of a sort of speech that, while going through the stages of refinement of profane discourses, was distinguished by intent, as demonstrated, and by a content distinctive to the revealed teaching of religion. The parts that follow must be included in the encomiastic speech: introduction; remembering the nation and homeland; presentation of education and charitable actions; comparison with consecrated persons; consolation; epilogue or prayer. A great deal of time is devoted to the biographical presentation, in which Christian orators emphasize the importance of pa­rents in the upbringing and education of the person who is receiving recognition. They are the ones who disciplined the will, guided knowledge, and instilled virtue; consequently, their remembrance must not be overlooked in such a speech. The evocation of the family had to be followed by that of the city or nation from where the departed person was born in profane discourses, but this part is not typically included in patristic obituaries and panegyrics. According to St. Gregory the Theologian, the homeland to be praised and aspired to is the heavenly one, which the saints have earned the privilege to. The main part of an obituary is devoted to presenting information about the deceased. The Holy Fathers were concerned with demonstra­ting the actions by which the departed ones embraced the divine commands, thereby progressing on the path to the Kingdom of Heaven. No worldly victory is mentioned in the obituary since it is unworthy of remembrance and offers no benefit to the one who performed it, but only deeds done as a result of absorbing the word of the Gospel. The parallels with biblical characters, both Old and New Testament, are not unjust, but demonstrate a continuity of faith and an awareness of living identity. The intention was to demonstrate that fulfilling the divine commandments is an undertaking open to all people, irrespective of time, and that the virtue of biblical characters, saints, and martyrs can be followed by all, sanctity not being reserved solely for the past. The conclusion of the obituaries varies, according to the environment in which it was spoken or written. For preachers, the speech is also a message of comfort, directed to the departed person’s relatives and friends; therefore, he must be willing to erase their anguish while simultaneously strengthening their faith and hope. Although they originated centuries ago, patristic obituaries provide witness to the reality of the Tradition, which is sometimes locked in the Church’s ancient past. By studying them, contemporary preachers have the opportunity to hone their rhetorical skills by reading some of the genre’s masterpieces, as well as being exposed to a diverse theme, suitable to the delivery of speeches in times of sorrow. A theme that could potentially be pursued in the current obituary is the communion between the living and the departed, which is expressed in Church service through the remembrance of those who have passed away. With bodily death, the connection between people continues, although in a different way, with the departed person being a father, son, relative, friend, etc. The love that gives birth to interpersonal connections does not die but can be felt even in the absence of the person. If the reciprocity of love is proven throughout life, by acts, with the approach of death, this task must be completed by the living, their hearts becoming homes in which those who have been moved to the Lord continue to speak. In this sense, Blessed Augustine exhorted those gathered at the funeral of their hierarch to follow his life example and exhortations, so that his memory would not be buried with the body.

Consumed at the moment of communion, the Body and Blood of the Lord are actually infused into the organic structure of man. The body of those who receive the Holy Eucharist carries within itself the purifying divine fire, which consumes impurity and disease. In this way, the Holy Eucharist gives us an expanded perspective on incorruptibility, healing and immortal life, through the extraordinary effects it has on the human being. The eucharistic elements are really infused into the psychosomatic functions of man, through a mysterious natural mixing, and they become pneumatized, fuelling in themselves the intensity and rhythm of the Christian life. Thus, the New Testament words, “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Ga 2:20), become a concrete reality in the human hypostasis. Those who taste the bread of life become part of it and members of the Body of Christ, which nourishes them and makes them alive. Fed by the bread of life and by the living word, they become a living word and flesh. But this understanding of the effects of the Holy Eucharist has emerged since the first Christian centuries when, in the “Didache of the Twelve Apostles”, respectively in the apologetic writings or epistles of some Holy Apostolic Fathers, there are expressions and phrases that characterize the Holy Eucharist as a cure for immortality and medicine against diseases. These expressions must be understood in a literal sense, so that the Eucharistic elements represent real palliative means of healing bodily and spiritual diseases. Therefore, through the consumption of Holy Communion, we receive eternity in the soul, which is also reflected in the members of the body. The maintenance of immortal life in the soul and, therefore, also in the body, occurs through regular communion with the bread of life, as Nicholas Cabasilas or Theodore of Mopsuestia testify. At the same time, St. John Chrysostom and some Desert Fathers specify that the Holy Eucharist can restore a person’s spiritual and physical health. Since the Holy Communion is no longer simple bread, but is united with the divine fire, coming out of the natural sphere, the way in which the divine fire dwells in us, without being harmed by burning as a result of communion, is compared by analogy to two important events in history salvation. The first refers to the burning pyre that were not consumed (Is 3:2), and the second refers to the burning coal, which the prophet Isaiah took in his mouth, without burning (Is 6:6). Once ingested, the holy gifts of bread and wine change in a real and qualitative way the psychophy­sical and spiritual structure of the human person, making him/her partaker of the divine nature. They are called Christophores, since the energy and life of Christ abide in them, which make them eligible to be faithful and working members of the mystical Body of Christ, which is the Church. The real presence of Christ in the elements of bread and wine, transformed into His Body and Blood, coincides with the foundation of the Eucharistic community, made up of the total number of its members, but, more importantly, of those who partake of the same bread and taste from the same chalice, at the Eucharistic Supper. The Eucharistic bread is the symbol of our unity in Christ, just as ground grains of wheat are united homogeneously in the dough of bread. That is why every person who participates in the gathering of the Eucharistic community and partakes of the Body and Blood of Christ attains the ecclesial dimension of his/her existence. Through this, the Eucharist reveals the principle of the ontological affirmation of the existence of the Church, whose movement goes towards the eschatological dimension, which consists in the fulfilment of a communional way of sanctification, of participation in the creation of the Body of Christ. Likewise, partaking of the Lord’s Body and Blood represents partaking of the eschatological reality, since, in addition to the fact that we partake of the Body of Christ that defeated death and belongs to the incorruptible life to come, with each partaking we are nourished by an intimate communion with God, which will be complete in the life to come. In this sense, through the Holy Eucharist, we experience more intensely and closer the real presence of the Kingdom of Heaven. The incorruptible and fragrant bodies of the saints are living proof that they are nourished until the end of the ages with the grace of the Holy Spirit, a food beyond words and matter, and bearing witness to the reality of the common resurrection, as they are incorruptible and in a perpetual change. Thus, man needs a dual food according to his condition, psychosomatic being, that is, material food for the body and spiritual food for the soul. In conclusion, the Holy Eucharist fortifies in us the Resurrection of Christ and leads us to the Resurrection, which we already experience, partially, in our earthly life. According to the degree to which we were a Eucharistic being or not, at the Parousia, some of the resurrected ones will remain mere survivors and the others will be immortal.

The importance of the permanent leaning towards the ecclesial and sacramental dimension has its root in the real presence of God in the Church. From the theology of Father Stăniloae, we learn that, when we talk about the knowledge of God, we must refer also to the life of the Church. In the Church, the distance between the human person and God disappears. The Church is “the anticipated Kingdom of the Holy Trinity” and “God’s dialogue with the faithful ones”, as our illustrious professor of theology said. Nevertheless, in order to enter into this dialogue with God, human beings must cleanse themselves of sins, sins that prevent them from seeing God as a partner in the dialogue, a partner Who wants to reveal Himself out of love for His creation. Moving on the path of repentance, through faith and virtues, human persons become able to purify their reason, stimulating it to advance on the path of knowledge, until their union with Christ through the Holy Spirit is achieved. The ecclesiastical context as the place where Christ is permanently present is the place from where the human being can partake of the light of the true knowledge. Through the whole worship of the Church, the human being is led forward and towards the thirst for the discovery of divine mysteries. At the same time, the liturgical service of the Church protects the believer from the traps of individualism in the act of knowledge. The unity between the teaching of faith and worship is indispensable for an authentic knowledge of God. Through worship, the human person transcends the rational knowledge of God and, through purification from sins, he/she is placed in a position to acquire true knowledge. As I stated previously, the dogmas through their content call us to live, to experience them in the ecclesial community, in the liturgical and sacramental space of the Church.

Another very important point is that, since the creation has an intelligent Creator who brought it into existence, there must be a precise reason and purpose to it, which also gives the creation a meaning and purpose that it must reach.

Since God cannot be compelled by anything or anyone outside to create the world, as this would be contrary to His omnipotence and, at the same time, God could not be determined by any internal necessity to create the world, nor could there be any kind of necessity in God, since necessity contradicts His aseity and perfection, since He is the only Being in Himself, it means that the reason for creation can only be to give Him something, to show His goodness and love outwardly. God is the full Existence of happiness, power, and glory. No one can add anything, and no one can push Him to do anything. Therefore, creation is a voluntary, free and unnecessary act of God. Therefore, if the world did not come into being by accident but was rationally created by God and, at the same time, it was not created out of any necessity, it means that the reason for creation is love. In addition, God, being absolute Goodness and Love, wanted to manifest outwardly these divine attributes. Thus, He brought creation into existence as a reflection of His perfection (not as an emanation) to share His love and happiness. Therefore, God’s eternal plan was that creation shares of the divine life by grace, which we usually refer to as deification.

The movement towards this goal, which is the perfect development of the world in the direction envisaged by the Creator from the beginning, would not be possible, however, if creation had not been provided with the necessary means. More precisely, it must have in its constitution the powers that must be actualized in order to achieve perfection. At the same time, since we are talking about a personal Creator, there is also a need for an alter-ego of Him, who represents the impersonal world and puts it in the fullest connection with Himself, for what can be this finality to which creation must attain, if not the sharing of the supreme good which is found only in communion with God.

The human being is created in such a way as to be able to rise up to the Creator and enter into relationship with Him, and thus to raise up with himself the whole creation of which the human being is a representative being. In this sense, the human being was created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), and this makes the humans naturally tend towards union with the Archetype, that is, towards deification; being at the same time united by their body with the material world and by the soul with the spiritual world, their ascent towards an ever-deeper communion with the Creator will bring the whole of creation with them to God.

In conclusion, human beings are created with the fundamental vocation of being a bridge between God and the whole creation, and their deification also sanctifies the whole of creation.