Thursday, August 4, 2016

Facing East


The windows of our temporary apartment in downtown Milwaukee face west. When I look out, I see the east face of another high-rise apartment building a block away. The bedrooms in that building all have enormous bay windows. They are so large that it seems like the occupants are sleeping in glass pods protruding from the side of the building.

In the morning, I can see the light of dawn creeping down the side of that building, pouring in the windows. The people who live on the upper levels must be early risers, or else they have to sleep with the shades drawn. It must be quite a view, and I imagine that the people who live there pay a premium for it. I bet they can see dawn breaking over Lake Michigan. As for me, I can only see the sunrise indirectly, reflected in those windows.

This morning, I watched that indirect sunrise while nursing Peter and musing. I was thinking about the significance of having a sense of one's orientation in space. Some people, like my husband, have a clear sense of their spatial orientation at all times. I think such people must be continually tracking their location on a mental map. I, on the other had, am usually unaware of whether I am facing north, south, east, or west. My focus is small-scale: what is happening right in front of me, in this room. I don't think about my wider spatial context unless a view of some major point of reference, such as the sunrise or Lake Michigan, suddenly makes me aware of it. If I lived on the east side that other apartment building, I think it would be easier for me to maintain a constant sense of my location because the dawn would vividly remind me every morning.

Spatial orientation is important in Orthodox Christianity. Orthodox Christians all over the globe face in the same direction during Divine Liturgy and when saying their morning and evening prayers: East, towards the rising sun. The rising sun is a natural icon of Christ. St. John of Damascus argued, "Since [. . .] God is spiritual light, and Christ is called in the Scriptures Sun of Righteousness and Dayspring, the East is the direction that must be assigned to His worship." There are also many Biblical references to the East. When Christ returns, we will see him coming from the East: "For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man” (Matthew 24:27). In our churches, the altar is to the East, and in our homes we (ideally) set up our icon corners on an Eastern wall or corner of the house. This is a very ancient tradition.

Orthodoxy emphasizes the physical aspect of worship as very important and inseparable from the spiritual aspect. Matter matters: spatial orientation, body posture, icons, incense, prayer ropes, and of course the Bread and Wine that become the Body and Blood of Christ. Human beings are both physical and spiritual, so if we are to worship God with our whole being, our physical bodies must be involved. The practice of physically facing East during prayer ought to reinforce the spiritual practice of orienting our souls and our lives towards Christ.

Sometimes, it is not practical to set up an icon corner on an Eastern wall. In our temporary apartment, I have broken with tradition and propped up our icons on the sill of the west-facing windows, simply because that is the only convenient place for them. But today, after indirectly watching the sunrise, glorious even when seen reflected in other people's windows, I decided to face East again to say my morning prayers: East towards the beautiful sunrise hidden from my view, towards the beautiful God I cannot see directly but Whose Light is reflected all around me.