ARHIVELE OLTENIEI - Universitatea din Craiova

Communication and Communion 169closure but about transparency. It is the church where glossolalia has no place."I would like for all of you to speak in strange tongues; but I would rather thatyou had the gift of proclaiming God's message. For the person who proclaimsGod's message is of greater value than the one who speaks in strange tonguesunlessthere is someone who can explain what he says, so the whole Church maybe edified. So when I come to you, my brethren, what use will I be to you if Ispeak in strange tongues? Not a bit, unless I bring to you some revelation fromGod or some knowledge or some inspired message or some teaching." (1Corinthintians, 14) 17 Prayers have a repetitive structure, and so does liturgy.Nevertheless, there is nothing redundant about them, precisely because theinformative level is the least important. Only the malicious outsider could thinkthat these particular discursive practices are boring or obsessive. On thecontrary: the longer we stay in this flux, the closer we get to that intimacy withGod we long and starve for. As Father Noica shows, liturgy is “living word, andnot a show. And the word renews and is renewed inside people. It is living wordbecause it is godly energy.” 18 He compares this situation to the more commonone of two lovers who say to each other “I love you” more than once. 19We know very well that language is not the only vehicle forcommunication. There is such a thing as a non-verbal message. This one can be, inparticular cases, a semiotic transcodification of verbal messages. Thus, icons andfrescoes in churches are a form of silent scripture. Alexandru Duţu, historian ofmentalities, remarked: „The painted churches introduced the believers into auniverse in which the unseen and eternity continued to be present and helped mento understand that biological rules and political regulations did not exhaust themeaning of human life: the message was too important to be abandoned for thesake of a political agreement.” 20 Another form of non-verbal addressing to God isfasting, always joined with prayer. Also, sacrifice may have this function, butbearing in mind what Psalm 51 says: “For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would Igive it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. / The sacrifices of God are a brokenspirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” (vv. 16-17)Communication is more and more formalized, turned into schemes andpatterns. The simplest is the one that unites a sender, a message, a receiver, acode and a channel. Of course, for the non-believer, prayer is the same as talkingalone. However, we have the Biblical basis for arguing that prayer iscommunication. “This is the confidence we have in [God], that if we ask forsomething which is in accordance with His will He hears us.” (1 John 5, 14). Notonly is God always listening to our prayers and responding even when He does17 apud Fr. George Nicozisin, Speaking in Tongues,http://www.goarch.org/en/ourfaith/articles/article7112.asp#top18 Father Noica, op.cit., p.77.19 Ibidem.20 Alexandru Duţu, Political Models and National Identities in „Orthodox Europe” ,Bucureşti, Babel Publishing House, 1998, p.151 (the chapter European Consciousness andOrthodox Tradition).