Father Thomas Hopko On Liturgy

Quote of the week:

To explain the liturgy is like trying to explain a poem: if the meaning the poem is carrying could be completely explained, the poem wouldn't have been written in the first place. The written liturgy, like a genuine poem, is a term of reference; the real experience is beyond words. So I would say that the words and the rituals aren't necessarily our teachers. They are the means of access to the teacher. The teacher is the lived experience. In that sense, the liturgy is ultimately silent.

--- Thomas Hopko in Speaking Of Silence: Christians and Buddhists in Dialogue. Ed. Susan Szpakowski (Halifax: Vajradhatu Publications, 2005), 127.