Hatfield Chad
St. Herman Theological Seminary, Kodiak, Alaska, USA.
Christ Bioeth. 2006 Aug;12(2):199-211. doi: 10.1080/13803600600805583.
This article seeks to provide commentary and rationale for Orthodox Christian rites and prayers for the sick as found in the Euchologion, or Book of Needs. The reader needs to understand that the prayers of the Orthodox Church prayed at times of sickness and suffering will often strike the non-Orthodox as harsh and even unjust. References to God willing suffering do not sit well with most Western Christians. However, this is the Orthodox Christian belief, and it is expressed in the prayers of the Orthodox Church. Sickness and suffering are understood to be avenues of salvation and a participation in the glory and joys of the resurrection of Christ and life in the Kingdom of God. This is why the Orthodox Church teaches her faithful to accept suffering as something that has the potential to bring them further along in the process of theosis.
本文旨在为东正教仪式书中为病人准备的东正教基督教仪式和祈祷提供评论和依据。读者需要明白，东正教在病人患病和受苦时所祈祷的内容，对于非东正教徒来说，往往会显得苛刻甚至不公正。提及上帝允许苦难，这与大多数西方基督徒的观念不太相符。然而，这就是东正教的信仰，并且在东正教的祈祷中有所体现。疾病和苦难被视为救赎的途径，以及对基督复活的荣耀和喜乐以及上帝王国中生活的参与。这就是为什么东正教教会教导其信徒将苦难视为有可能在神化过程中引领他们更进一步的事物而加以接受。
