Mariavite Orthodoxy
Is the Mariavite Mission Society Orthodox?
Yes – It is Orthodox because it is part of the ancient and one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church and manifests a liturgical centered life. The Society considers both informative and formative, the doctrinal statements of the Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Orthodox Church. We do not follow those statements as being dogmatically triumphant, however. Instead, we consider that the Holy Spirit works as She wills in enlightening Her children in this realm on earth. And that, for example, much has been revealed that has not been enshrined by any council, and some has been defined which no council purely understood and articulated.
While we use basic statements of faith, such as the original Nicene and Apostle's creeds, we view them merely as metaphors or symbols of the Faith, we do not adhere to such as necessary dogma.
Accordingly, the Mission Society considers the early church councils to be informative and to have made important articulations of the Catholic Faith, but it does not consider any of the councils to be dogmatically binding on itself, much less all of Christendom. Indeed, there has never been a single council at which all of Christendom was represented.
Moreover, the Mission Society, similar to its Liberal Catholic and Gnostic Christian ancestors and counterparts looks to the very early church as representative of a more realistic and, indeed, more enlightened model of church authority, ecclesiology and holiness.
The early church, when it could rise above political and dogmatic discord was truly a movement of unity in diversity.
Is the Mission Society Oriental Orthodox, Monophysite or Chaldean?
No – We are Chaldean only in the sense that our apostolic succession can be traced to the Assyrian and Syriac churches. However, we are non-dogmatic. Like the earliest Christians, we believe that individual experience and the sharing of Christ and the Holy Spirit in the apostolic community are tantamount. A creed is merely an empty vessel waiting to be filled by the understandings and, indeed, fantasies of the individual mind. Patristics and Holy Tradition cannot reign in the truth of the perceptions held in each human heart.
We are, essentially, what some call Paleo-Orthodox. This means we affirm the unity of Christendom at its apostolic core - in the basic acceptance of Christ’s mission as our Redeemer, and in His gospel of love, with an adherence to the importance of Holy Tradition, including apostolic succession. A key aspect of this fundamental acceptance of Christ is that God can be thought of and contemplated most aptly in a Trinitarian sense. Further, Mary was the birthgiver of Christ and the very Mother of God, and has always played an intrinsically vital role in the Church.
For us, as for some of the early Christians, Mary is definitively considered to be Divine. For many others, She is merely seen as Divine in the adoptive sense that She is the one creature worthy of the greatest honor and devotion possible next to divine worship itself - because She gave birth to and raised the Son of God.
If you are Paleo- Orthodox, why do you use the term Mariavite to describe you when that movement arose in the 19th century?
As both Orthodox and Mariavite, we consider ourselves to be aptly susceptible to the description, Mariavite Orthodox.
The etymology of the word Orthodox appropriately means “right worship,” as opposed to "right doctrine" or simply “right thinking.” Because our worship very much follows the multi-faceted and ancient traditions of the Church which make up Holy Tradition, we consider the term Orthodox to apply to us in a very special and completely appropriate way.
Indeed, we consider that Holy Tradition, which includes mystical theology, liturgies, music, art and even various esoteric Christian traditions, is not bound by creed, nor the many disputed councils of the Churches east and
west. Instead, Holy Tradition is the comprehensive whole of the Faith which has been present throughout history, in a very real sense, even present before the birth of Our Lady or Lord.
This broad Orthodox tradition includes both exoteric as well as esoteric elements, scriptures, liturgies, mysteries and theurgy. As Saint Vincent of Lerins said, "Id teneamus, quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus creditum est; hoc est etenim vere proprieque catholicum." (Hold fast that faith which has been believed everywhere [universally], always, and by all.) It is the heart of the Faith that endures. It is the heart of the Faith that nourishes and forms our Orthodoxy.
In the broad sense that the Holy Spirit has inspired and evolved certain formularies of practice and aesthetics, we are most certainly Orthodox, right worshiping, even right thinking. We also recognize the holiness and richness of the many varied traditions and practices that have developed throughout Christendom, regardless of patriarchs, monarchs and geography.
We are Mariavites because we affirm Our Lady as Mary the Holy Sophia, the Seat and living Icon of Holy Wisdom, who was assumed into Heaven to unite fully and completely with the Holy Spirit of the Holy Trinity. All Orthodox honor Her greatly as divine. We recognize Her for the Truth we have received of who She is, and the fullness of the faith regarding Her Divinity - in hypostasis with the Holy Spirit, She is our triumphant Queen. This is the Marian Gnosis, the progenitor of the very existence of Mariavitism.
Hence, as Orthodox Christians cognizant of the Sophianic stream of Gnosis, and as Mariavites devoted to the progressional revelation of the eternal Truth within Holy Tradition, we are Mariavite Orthodox.
It seems that the Mariavite Mission Society considers itself to be Gnostic, or at least, a purveyor of ancient gnosis. How can the Mission Society be both Orthodox and Gnostic at the same time?
Our worship is in line with the traditions of the apostolic succession of the church from time immemorial. More comprehensively, Orthodox tradition describes our ecclesiology, our worship and our basic traditions. Gnosis describes our theology and philosophy of the Divine revelation. Our particular school of gnosis is Marian; and Marian Gnosis is a kind of Sophian Gnosis. Hence, the gnosis of our orthodoxy is substantially feminine, but is still very much Trinitarian and Orthodox Christian in its expression. Our liturgies at times may refer to God with feminine language and imagery, but even this, in form and substance, is still firmly Paleo-Orthodox.
Are you an Esoteric Church?
Yes - We affirm the esoteric and mystical traditions which have grown out of the progressional revelation and unfolding of Holy Tradition throughout history.
When you say you are traditional, what exactly does that mean?
Fr. Seraphim Rose, a great spiritual father and likely saint of the last century, once wrote of Orthodoxy:
Orthodoxy is not merely a ritual, or belief, or a pattern of behavior, or anything else that a man may
possess, thinking that he is thereby a Christian, and be spiritually dead; it is rather an elemental reality
of power which transforms a man and gives him strength to live in the most difficult and tormenting
conditions, and prepares him to depart with peace into eternal life.
For Mariavites, the Orthodoxy of which Fr. Seraphim wrote means we aspire to follow the Holy Tradition of the Church; to appreciate both the exoteric and esoteric components of the Orthodox, Catholic and Apostolic tradition; including its expression through the Holy Light of Gnosis as such has been expressed by the sages and saints of history; to live lives of holiness and service which demonstrate and express our devotion to God through our faith in the life, death and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and in love and imitation of Our Lady Mary.
To follow Holy Tradition also means to follow the fruits of the little traditions of the Church, and to weed out the chaff. The fruits of the tradition include those practices which work to increase piety and holiness, individual enlightenment and wholeness.
To follow Holy Tradition also means learning to love oneself and to give that love to God and others, and to open ourselves to receiving such holy love. It is embracing our faith fully and opening ourselves to the very life of the Holy Spirit, asking Her to fill every corner of our existence with the light of Her love and peace. To transform the self into that greater Self we are called to become as the children of God. It is working on our frame of mind, our phronema, such that we ourselves become a purified womb for the enfleshment of the Word, and in bringing that Word into the very center of our lives, putting on, and becoming Christ for the world.
Acquiring such a Mariavite and Orthodox mind-set will assist us in becoming centered in the redemptive Love of God; and the work of manifesting that Divine Love within our lives. This is the great work of salvation, and is often thought of in terms of spiritual striving, or struggle. A Russian word for this work is podvig. The following link contains an article which is most insightful in regard to the Russian Orthodox concept of living, making or doing a podvig:
http://orthodoxinfo.com/praxis/theveil_podvig.aspx
I have heard that the Mariavites of Felicjanów, Poland consider the Little Mother, Blessed Sister Maria Franciszka to be a divine incarnation of the Holy Spirit. Do you consider this to be a tenet of faith?
No - And further, we do not have an official position on the matter. Indeed, we consider that the Holy Spirit, or rather perhaps, more appropriately, the Holy Sophia acts as She wishes and may have overshadowed others in history in a manner similar to that of Mary before Her Assumption.
However, we do not incorporate any notion of St. Maria Franciszka's divinity within our liturgical or paraliturgical life, or public prayer life. In addition, while the Felicjanów Mariavites may assign Mary's divinity as an incarnation of the Father, we consider Her, at least after her Assumption, to have been revealed by tradition as an incarnation, or hypostasis, of the Holy Spirit.
The mythopoetic imagery of Mary's overshadowing by the Holy Spirit is ancient and universally accepted among Catholic Christians, and is clearly explicit and implicit in the Holy Tradition of the Church. Her Divinity is accepted by all Orthodox Catholic Christians, even if not fully accepted by all in the manner that we have received it. This overshadowing is a key tenet of the redemption narrative and the later role of Mary as revealed through history. We see no reason to mythologize or enshrine such a concept of divine overshadowing as to anyone else.
