Michael Grinder
My parish did our usual blessing of the nearby headwaters of the Missouri River today, the Sunday after Theophany. I somehow captured this photo of Fr. David throwing the ice cross into the river with my 5-year-old iPhone SE. We’ve used an ice cross ever since Fr. David’s attempt to tie a cross to a string failed spectacularly several years ago. 🙂 #Christianity #Orthodox #Theophany
Jan 12 at 5:09amMastodon for iOS
Show threadDaniel JohnsonJan 12
@mgrinder Our parish has a wooden cross into the base of which a metal eye has been screwed. The rope is securely tied to that eye.
Show threadSam DJan 12
@ossobuffo @mgrinder I confess my ignorance of this orthodox tradition is only outrun by my curiosity. Why do you bless bodies of water at Theophany?
Show threadDaniel JohnsonJan 12

@spaceraser @mgrinder In Scripture, water has two symbolic meanings: primordial chaos (think Genesis 1:2, or Jonah encountering a sea monster) and life (for example, Jesus talking to the woman at the well). When Jesus descends into the water, he encounters and crushes the forces of chaos and darkness; when he rises, he brings forth life. This is made clear in the Romans (?) passage that refers to baptism in terms of death and resurrection.

Anyhow, Theophany is the celebration of Christ bringing life to all creation via baptism; one might say he is bringing all of creation back to its edenic state. So we bless water as a means of entering into that cyclic-time moment of the sanctification of the Jordan, and thereby all created things.

Show threadDaniel JohnsonJan 12
@spaceraser @mgrinder You might even think of Jesus’s baptism as a foreshadowing of the Harrowing of Hell.