Holy Tradition is the living faith that Christ gave to the Apostles and that the Church has preserved and passed down through every generation since. It’s not a collection of old customs or man-made rules. It’s the life of the Holy Spirit in the Church.
When most folks in Southeast Texas hear “tradition,” they think of grandma’s recipes or singing “Just As I Am” at the end of service. That’s not what we mean. The word comes from the Greek paradosis, which means “that which is handed over.” Think of it like a relay race where the baton is the apostolic faith itself, passed from runner to runner without dropping it or changing it.
Here’s what surprises people: Scripture is part of Holy Tradition, not separate from it. The Bible didn’t fall from heaven with a table of contents. The Church wrote it, collected it, decided which books were in and which were out, and has read it in her liturgies ever since. You can’t pull Scripture out of Tradition any more than you can pull your heart out of your chest and expect it to keep beating.
How This Differs From What You Might Know
If you grew up Baptist or at one of the big non-denominational churches around here, you learned “sola scriptura”, the Bible alone. That’s the idea that Scripture is the only ultimate authority and that any believer can read it and figure out what it means. We don’t believe that. Not because we think the Bible isn’t authoritative, but because we don’t think it was ever meant to stand alone. The Apostles didn’t hand out Bibles and say “good luck.” They founded churches, appointed bishops, celebrated the Eucharist, and taught the faith in person. That whole life of the Church, the worship, the sacraments, the councils, the teachings of the Fathers, that’s Tradition.
Metropolitan Kallistos Ware puts it plainly: the Church gave us the Bible, and the Church alone can interpret it with authority. Without the Church’s Tradition, you get ten people reading the same verse and coming up with ten different doctrines. And that’s exactly what happened after the Reformation.
So what does Holy Tradition include? The Scriptures, yes. But also the Divine Liturgy and our prayers. The seven sacraments. The decisions of the Ecumenical Councils (Nicea, Constantinople, Chalcedon, and the rest). The writings of the Church Fathers like St. Athanasius and St. John Chrysostom. The lives of the saints. Our icons. The Creed we say every Sunday. All of it fits together. You can’t take one piece and ignore the others.
Catholics also believe in Tradition alongside Scripture, so this might sound familiar if you grew up going to St. Anne’s. But there’s a difference. Rome tends to see Tradition as something that develops over time, with the Pope able to define new dogmas by his authority. We see Tradition as something already complete, something we guard and live but don’t add to. The faith was delivered “once for all to the saints,” as St. Jude says. Our job isn’t to innovate. It’s to keep what we’ve received.
Fr. Thomas Hopko used to say that Tradition is the life of the Holy Spirit in the Church. That’s the key. It’s not dead. It’s not a museum. When you stand in liturgy and hear the same Gospel reading that St. John Chrysostom preached on in the fourth century, when you receive the Eucharist the way the Apostles did, when you venerate an icon painted according to the ancient patterns, you’re participating in something alive. You’re connected to everyone who came before you and everyone who’ll come after.
People ask if this means we’re stuck in the past. No. It means we’re rooted in something deeper than the passing fashions of any era. The culture around us changes every decade. The Church doesn’t, because the faith she guards doesn’t change. Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So is the Tradition He left us.
If you’re visiting St. Michael for the first time, you’re encountering this Tradition in action. The liturgy we serve isn’t something we made up last year. It’s been prayed for centuries. When Father reads from the Gospel book and elevates it, when we sing the Nicene Creed, when we come forward for Communion, we’re doing what the Church has always done. You’re stepping into a river that’s been flowing since Pentecost. And if you keep coming, if you keep asking questions and learning and praying, you’ll find that this Tradition isn’t a burden. It’s a gift. It’s the fullness of the faith, preserved and offered to you.
