The Obligation to Pray

In 1890, the Synod of Lviv unsuccessfully attempted to obligate clerics - and only clerics - to pray the Divine Praises. Thus obliging some of the people of God (clergy), while not others, would violate the spirit of public liturgical prayer. As Fr. Robert Taft writes, “The burden of common prayer is incumbent on all.”[1] Liturgical prayer is communal by its very nature. The faithful – both lay and ordained – ought to live as vibrant and full a liturgical life as their lives reasonably allow. Daily celebration of the Divine Praises ought to be an act of, by, and for the whole community. The whole community is, in some sense,  "obliged." The Apostolic Constitutions instruct the bishop to “command and exhort” both clergy and laity to communal morning and evening prayer in the church every day: 

When you instruct the people, O bishop, command and exhort them to come constantly to church morning and evening every day, and by no means to forsake it on any account, but to assemble together continually.... For it is not only spoken concerning the priests, but let every one of the laity hearken to it as concerning himself. [2] 

Clericalizing the Divine Praises by obliging clerics and only clerics to pray them is imbalanced and contrary to the true spirit of liturgical prayer. Clergy are not properly thought of as those who pray in the place of or instead of the laity. This mentality weakens the communal and public celebration of the Divine Praises. Rather, the clergy are to lead the laity in prayer. 

An example of the clergy celebrating Vespers together with the laity 

---

[1] Taft, Robert. The Liturgy of the Hours in East and West. Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 1986. 362.

[2] Apostolic Constitutions II, 59.

Marriage and Holy Orders

St. Nonna, wife of the Bishop of Nazianzos,
St. Gregory the Elder,
and mother of St. Gregory the Theologian

As Church discipline developed, it increasingly prohibited the ordination of married men in both East and West. Initially, as in the case of Gregory the Theologian’s father, bishops were often married.* Eventually, both East and West forbade episcopal ordination of married men, as they do until this day.

Though East and West both esteemed virginity, the Latin Church grew more stringently to oppose the ordination of sexually active married men. Though the popes of Late Antiquity never forbade the ordination of married men, it is not surprising that their insistence on perpetual clerical continence soon evolved into required clerical celibacy for the Latin Church. The Eastern Church also recommended that married priests practice an ascesis of continence  - but temporary continence prior to the celebration of the Eucharist. Just as the Eucharistic fast from food was not expected to be perpetual, neither were married priests expected to practice sexual continence perpetually.

Neither approach strikes me as necessarily superior to the other. Rather, with Patriarch Photius (before 866), I regard each as legitimately distinct disciplines.** Discipline is subject to change and it is up to the Church in each age to respond effectively to the needs of her people and to demonstrate with her disciplinary decisions respect for both virginity and marriage, preferring neither.
_____________________________________________________
* 1 Tim 3:2; Peter Gilbert. “Introduction.” On God and Man: The Theological Poetry of St. Gregory Nazianzus. Trans. and Ed. Peter Gilbert. Crestwood: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2001, 23. 

** Peter L’Huillier. “The First Millenium.” Vested in Grace. Brookline: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2001. 34. 

Obey your bishop.

Sometimes, that is a joy. Other times, it is painful or even questionable. At all times, it is what St. Ignatius of Antioch would want you to do.

St. Ignatius of Antioch demonstrating how much it meant for him to be a bishop. He is wearing an omophorion, which, being made of wool and worn around the shoulders, symbolizes that he is a shepherd to his flock. He is also being torn apart by lions.

He regards the role of the bishop (επίσκοπος, which means “overseer”) as greatly significant for the unity of the Christian communities to whom he was writing. The unifying, even divinizing, role of the bishop, along with the presbyters and the deacons, is a major theme of six out of the seven epistles of Ignatius. Yet, even as he constantly speaks of the bishops with exultant tones, he admires in them silence and meekness, and as a bishop himself, he gives an example of humility. The great importance of the bishop for Ignatius can scarcely be overstated. Though, even while he points this out, he would have them avoid self-importance.