Sunday of the Orthodoxy (first Sunday of Great Lent): Who Christ is for us and how we worship Him?

From here
 
We have come to the end of the first week of the holy salvific, and great Lent. We heard the prayerful canon of St. Andrew of Crete, in which we recalled people and events from the history of the Church, the history of humanity. But it is not for the sake of a history lesson that we gathered in church each evening. While hearing about the sinners of old who lived thousands of years ago in far-away places, we sorrowfully recognized our own sins. But it turns out that from the righteous ones we are truly separated by thousands of years and kilometers. Today, on the first Sunday of Great Lent, we recall one more event from Church history. In memory of the defeat of the iconoclast heresy, the Holy Church established in the 9th century the feast of the Triumph of Orthodoxy. This heresy, which tormented the Body of Christ for over a century, was condemned at the seventh Ecumenical Council[1] and again by the Synod of Constantinople, the period of Christological debates within the Church came to an end, and the Orthodox teaching was re-established.
The iconoclast heresy rejected not only the icon as a window through which a ray of light may shine into the darkened human soul, but also the Orthodox teaching about Christ as fully God and fully human in the hypostasis of God the Son.
But, like everything in the Church, this feast is established not merely for historiographic reasons, and it is not by accident that the Fathers of the Church established this feast on the first Sunday of Great Lent. The Triumph of Orthodoxy in the soul of each one of us is the goal of Great Lent; triumph over falsehood, heresy, and the snares of the devil, and achieving Orthodoxy in our souls is the goal of our whole life. And one of the central issues of the Orthodox state of our soul and our life is the question of Who Christ is for us and how we worship Him. It is precisely this question that Christ posed to His disciples (Matt. 16:15), and upon the rock of Peter’s answer established His Church (Matt. 16:18).
In the end, it is an incorrect answer to this question that defines every heresy. “Who do you say that I am?” (Matt. 16:15) Only God, Who appeared in human form as a ghost, a mirage? Only human—a great prophet who knows the mysteries of God—but only human? Whom did the Most Holy Virgin bear—a human, who was destined to become the chosen vessel of the Holy Spirit, or pre-eternal God Himself?

Sunday of the Orthodoxy 2019 in Philippines (from here)

 
Finally, which prototype does the Church venerate of the icon- undescribable and unimaginable God, Whom no one has ever seen (John 1:18), a created Body, which can be depicted but is a creature like all others, or the incarnate hypostasis of God the Son? How do we relate to Christ? As a hireling, expecting to receive our reward according to a contract, as an accused man who is sure of his acquittal because someone else took the blame for his crime, or as a person dying from a fatal illness who entrusts his life to the hands of a merciful Physician, begging for healing? Each heresy found its own answers to these questions, and each time the Church Fathers rose up to defend the Orthodox teaching.
This is why our Church is holy, apostolic, and patristic. It is holy, because it is created by the Holy Spirit Who sanctifies, enlightens, cleanses, and makes the Church whiter than snow. The Spirit of God prepares the Church, the bride of Christ, to stand before the Divine Groom blameless, untarnished by sin, falsehood, and heresy.
We call the Church Apostolic, because the apostles, the pillars of the Church, having received God’s grace on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4) and authority from Christ to bind and loose for the salvation of human souls (Matt. 16:19), freely gave this Grace through bishops to the entire Church. As grapes do not grow other than on a grapevine, in the same way there cannot be a Church without a bishop. Without apostolic succession there can only be a club of amateur gardeners who get together to read gardening manuals, but there cannot be a Church.

 

"Death has robbed a student of Social work department - Elijah Ngigi he was a humble and hardworking student that I knew for a period of time. As to his death he landed in the hands of cruel men who shortened his dreams. may his sour rest in peace" (Orthodox College of Africa).

We call the Church patristic because the holy fathers brought the fruits of righteous life and true theology on Christ’s vine, from which we eat, being strengthened in our life and faith.
The Holy Orthodox Church, our loving mother, protects us, her children, from all evil. And gives us only the healthiest and most nutritious fruits, and shields us from harmful and poisonous things. We, in turn, often do not listen to the mother’s advice and run from good. Even worse, we begin to puff up with pride, imagining that we are more educated, wiser, and more spiritual than the holy fathers, and that the path that led them to salvation is not acceptable for us, that it is archaic, that we know better which rules and rubrics to follow and which ones to ignore. To borrow a description from the Protodeacon Andrei Kuraev, we act like a person who enters the cockpit of a modern jetliner and, not comprehending the purpose behind the controls, declares that half of them are unnecessary; or as a person who has not even passed Biology 101, but enters a neurosurgeon’s office and declares that half of the surgical instruments are useless because he does not understand their purpose.
It is just as unintelligent to come to the tree of the Church, not knowing how to grow and ripen fruit, and to declare that the roots are unnecessary, the trunk can be cut down, the branches broken off. It is not for us to create the Church; “I will create”, says Christ. Ours is either to be in it and bear fruit or to be cut off from the Church and to entertain ourselves by reading gardening manuals.
Let us then, brothers and sisters, follow the spirit of the holy fathers and apostles, emulating their lives. Let us follow the Church rubrics and keep the fast. Let us live our lives in such a way that the Triumph of Orthodoxy, defeat of heresy, may become the state of our souls and not merely a historic event.
The Seventh Ecumenical Council convened on September 24, 787 in Nicaea.

A symbol of freedom of worship

"We carry icons this day around the church as a symbol of freedom of worship. It's indeed a great blessing to all Orthodox Christians. During this festive season of great Lent, we fast and pray for the needy persons. May God bless you abundantly."

Christian asceticism, Philip Pullman & Orthodox “therapeutic treatment”

Khanya (Orthodox Christian blog from South Africa) 

One of the things that struck me about Philip Pullman’s His dark materials trilogy was that in spite of his apparent rejection of Christian asceticism, he has his protagonists opt for something pretty close to it in the end. It seemed to me to be a strange kind of inconsistency, and a pretty basic one. Perhaps it was because Pullman didn’t really have much clue about what Christian asceticism is all about.
Philip Pullman is proudly anti-Christian, so perhaps it isn’t surprising that he wouldn’t bother to learn much about something he despises.
I found it more surprising, however, to read the following in Matt Stone’s blog the other day

Part of my indifference towards fasting, if not outright antipathy, has been the traditional conjunction between it and asceticism. With asceticism being the epitome of mind-body dualism, and incarnational Christianity being its holistic antithesis, I couldn’t see how any discipline that encouraged a distain for the body could actually be all that helpful.

Matt is a Christian, and moreover one who has tried to learn about a wide variety of Christian traditions. So how could he say that asceticism is “the epitome of mind-body dualism, and incarnational Christianity being its holistic antithesis”?
That is almost an exact inversion of what Christian asceticism is all about.
Admittedly Matt does say that in the context of a reevaluation of fasting, but he implies that in reevaluating it he is trying to see fasting as something disconnected with asceticism, which remains a bad thing in his eyes.
What with that, and Lent beginning tomorrow, it seemed to be a good time to try to write something about Christian asceticism, if only to remind myself what I should be doing in Lent.
The Oxford dictionary of the Christian Church (which has an English and Anglican bias, but tries to report from a range of Christian traditions) notes that the Greek askesis (exercise or training) denotes a system of practices designed to combat vice and develop virtues.

In the NT the word occurs only once — as a verb, askein, ro strive — at Acts 24.16. In 1 Cor. 9.25 the Christian life is compared to the games in which every man that striveth… is temperate in all things. But the idea, present already in the OT, esp in the Wisdom books, is prominent throughout the NT. It is summed up in the Lord’s call to his disciples: ‘If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me’ (Mk. 8.34), with its emphasis on the two sides of Christian asceticism, the negative one of self-denial and the positive one of the following of Christ. This invitation to practise self-abnegation is frequently reiterated, mostly in very strong terms (Mt. 10.38f., Jn. 12.25), being shown to involve constant watchfulness (Mt. 24.42, 25.13, &C.) and fasting (Mt. 6.16-18; Mk. 2.18-20) and, in many cases, renunciation of all earthly possessions (Mt. 19.21, Mk. 10.28, Lk 9. 57-62), and perpetual chastity (Mt. 19.12). St Paul counsels the same ideal repeatedly inculcating the necessity of keeping up the struggle against the inclinations of the ‘old man’…

The metaphor of struggle is taken up in the Russian term of asceticism, podvig, which indicates the spiritual struggle, or spiritual warfare that Christians are called upon to engage in. The very fact that this spiritual struggle should involve such bodily exercises as fasting should show that it is incarnational, and has nothing to do with a body/mind dualism. In Gesthemane our Lord Jesus Christ urged his disciples to “watch and pray”. When they had struggled to expel demons, he told them that some demons could only come out by prayer and fasting. Watchfulness, prayer and fasting are central to Christian asceticism.
All this is fairly general. But just as there are different Christian traditions, so there are varieties of Christian asceticism. Orthodox asceticism is essentially therapeutic. Bishop Hierotheos of Nafpaktos remarks

Protestants do not have a “therapeutic treatment” position. They suppose that believing in God, intellectually, constitutes salvation. Yet salvation is not a matter of intellectual acceptance of truth; rather it is a person’s transformation and divinization by grace.

As St Paul says, “Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Rom 12:2). It is the whole person, body, soul and spirit, that is to be transformed.
And so we come to the beginning of Lent, and Lent is marked by fasting — abstaining from food, or from certain kinds of food. Why do we do this? In the third chapter of Genesis we read about the fall of man. And the fall was caused by food. Man became alienated and estranged from God by loving food more than God. This is basically idolatry — loving the gift rather than the giver, the creature rather than the creator. So by fasting, the relationship can be transformed, restored, renewed. Our physical hunger is transformed into hunger for God.
And this is not a mind/body dualism, but it is in order, as St Paul says, that we present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is our reasonable worship (Rom 12:1).
PS: Some interesting comments from C.S. Lewis on asceticism here.

Orthodox Church & Coronavirus...

Dear Brethren, you can see the posts:

Προσευχή για την Κίνα, Ιταλία, Νότια Κορέα, Ιράν. Please, pray for China, Italy, South Korea, Iran ( Orthodox Christian Church ). 请为中国以及中国人和全世界人民祈祷. Prega per l’Italia. 한국을 위해기도하자. برای ایران دعا کنید نصلي من أجل إيران

Instructions for protection against Coronavirus (Metropolis of South Korea). 코로나 바이러스 방지 지침

The 222 Orthodox Christians Holy Martyrs of China (about)

St. Nicholas Planas, the Simple Shepherd of Athens - 1851-1932 (March 2nd)

For Christians, there does not exist a more effective teaching than reading the life of a saint – especially that of one who has lived in our own time and who, by his own life, was manifested as a saint without fanfare or any eulogy spoken by some important personage….Orthodox people …have no need of theories and philosophies, but they do have need of holiness.

Photios Kontoglou  (famed iconographer)

American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese of North America

 
Several years ago one of our teenagers challenged me with this question:  Why should I go to church on Sunday?  What difference will it make in my life if I light a candle, stand up, sit down and sing some hymns?  A good question!  An honest question from a young woman trying to understand her Orthodox Faith.  The life of this new saint of our church illustrates the tremendous spiritual power and great grace available through the Divine Liturgy of our church. 

  The future saint was born on the Greek island of Naxos in 1851, his parents were somewhat wealthy but also pious Orthodox Christians having a chapel on their property in honor of St. Nicholas of Myra.  As a young boy he often played church while wearing a bed sheet and served as an altar boy for his grandfather, Father George Melissourgos.  His father died when he was fourteen which led his mother to move to Athens along with his sister.  His mother provided for her two children by cleaning homes, often taking her children along since she feared leaving them alone in the midst of this bustling city. 

 
Marriage & Ordination 

 
At the age of seventeen his mother convinced him to marry a young woman named Eleni Provelegiou and they were soon blessed with a son whom they named John.  Father Nicholas was ordained deacon in 1879 and priest in 1884 and soon after his young wife died leaving him a widower with a young child. Shortly after his ordination as deacon, he and his sister divided their inheritance between them.  Father Nicholas used his portion as security for the debt of a neighbor in danger of losing his property.  The neighbor defaulted on his debts and St. Nicholas lost all that he had inherited from his parents.    

  His first parish assignment was to the church of St. Panteleimon which consisted of just thirteen families.  Soon another priest without a parish convinced the parish council to dismiss Father Nicholas and appoint himself as the priest.  Father Nicholas was promptly fired and sent to serve the poor parish of St. John, a parish of only eight families.  This experience caused him great pain and sorrow but one night as he left St. John’s to return home, he was crying on the road.    

Suddenly a young man met him said “Why do you weep, my Father?  He replied, “I weep because they chased me out of St. Panteleimon’s”.  “Don’t be sad, my Father, I am always with you” said the stranger.  “And who are you, my child?” asked Father Nicholas.  “I am Panteleimon…” and the young man vanished.  Throughout his life he was blessed with many such visions of saints and angels.  If anyone suspected that he had seen visions he would, in humility and to avoid gaining a reputation for holiness, deny it and say “I didn’t see anything; I just make things up”.  

 
Daily Divine Liturgy 

 
The whole focus of the life of this priest was the liturgical services of the Orthodox Church.  For the next fifty years Father Nicholas Planas served the Divine Liturgy every single day, in the cold of winter and the unbearable heat of summer, with Liturgies beginning early in the morning and continuing until early afternoon.  His Liturgies were so lengthy because he would pray for hundreds of people both the living and the dead.  He had bundles of scraps of paper with the names of people he would pray for, calling them his “invoices and contracts”.  His assistants, wanting to shorten the Divine Liturgy and return home, would at times throw away some of the older requests for prayer without his knowledge.  When people would ask him why he stayed so long in church he would say “When you open your shop, don’t you sit inside all day?  And for me, church is the same”.    
While celebrating the Liturgy he was observed floating off the ground or with a glimmering light over his head.  Numerous miracles have been recorded as a result of his prayers:  healings of physical illnesses, mental illness, family discord, the ability to foretell the future of people who came to him. 

  He was not the typical, worldly image of a successful priest.  He did not serve in one of the glittering cathedrals of Greece.  He was not a clever orator preaching to thousands. He was short and unimposing.   He had little education; he was extremely simple in his speech and behavior.  As he aged, he lost most of his teeth and as a result could not speak clearly.  Many worldly, successful people, including those in the church,  looked down on him as something of a fool. On one occasion, when two men began an argument in his presence, he ran and hid under a table.  But as he told a spiritual daughter:  Do you think, my child, that I don’t know how to speak out?  I know, but I think of the results, and so I keep quiet.”  

  He celebrated the Divine Liturgy for the last time on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son.  As soon as he had completed the Liturgy he suffered a fainting spell and was taken home where he peacefully died on March 2, 1932 while in the care of  his son John and daughter-in-law Marigoula.   He was glorified as a saint by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1992 and his memory is kept on the day of his falling asleep in the Lord. 

 
The Power Of The Divine Liturgy 

 
Father Nicholas Planas was not a missionary to foreign lands.  He was not a confessor or martyr who suffered or died for his faith in Christ.  He was not a learned, gifted theologian who wrote books and taught the Faith.   He was a parish priest who prayerfully served the Liturgy, day in and day out, month after month, year after year.  There is great power and grace in the Divine Liturgy because it is there that Father Nicholas met the Lord Jesus Christ intimately, personally in the bread and wine of the Holy Eucharist.   Our Lord Himself taught us the great grace that is available to us through the Divine Liturgy and receiving Holy Communion

I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.”  Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood,  you have no life in you;  he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life,  and I will raise him up at the last day. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. (John 6:51;53;56)

Father Nicholas believed these promises of the Lord, as he received Holy Communion daily he was filled with the peace, power and love of his Lord Jesus.  All of the great saints of the Church knew these promises, believed them and received tremendous grace from frequent Holy Commmunion.  St. John Chrysostom, in the 4^th century, wrote this about the Divine Liturgy:

There are many people who say:  ‘I wish I could see Jesus, His clothes, His shoes.’  But you see Him, you touch Him, you eat Him.  You wish you could see His clothes, but He gives Himself to you not to see only, but also to touch and eat and receive within you.   Let no one approach with indifference, no one approach timidly, but with burning hearts, all fervent.  (Homily on Matthew 26)

St. Nicholas Planas believed this and received Communion daily.  St. John of Kronstadt and St. John Maximovitch of San Francisco, two recent examples, likewise believed this and celebrated the Divine Liturgy daily.  But, do I believe these words of the Lord Jesus?  Do I really believe that it is He Himself who comes to me whenever the Divine Liturgy is offered and the invitation goes out:  “In the fear of God with faith and love, come forward!”  If I really believed this, nothing would stop me from getting to the Divine Liturgy!  

It would be my priority, my joy, my hope!  But, sadly, increasing numbers of our people are neglecting the Sunday Divine Liturgy with little concern, often informing their pastor, with no shame:  “The kids have soccer practice” or “We have tickets to a football game”.  The Lord Jesus is offering His life to me and my response is:  “Thanks, but no thanks, not today, I have more important things to do.”    May the life and witness of this parish priest, Father Nicholas Planas, the simple shepherd of Athens, challenge us to appreciate and love the great gift which is offered to us at each Divine Liturgy and never turn our backs from our Lord who offers Himself to us.

 

TROPAR (Tone 1)

 Let us praise our protector, the godly Nicholas;
as one endowed with blest virtue,
he shone forth as true priest of the most high God,
and was His fervent worshipper.
For, by his holy life on earth, he has left us most sublime,
divine and unfailing teachings of long-suffering, meekness, patience, unfeigned humility
and true God-like love.

-  Father Edward Pehanich

See also
“Are you Abba Agathon, a fornicator and a proud man?”: A story from the Egyptian Desert: The life of Saint Agathon of Egypt (January 8 & March 2)

The tears of Panagia (Virgin Mary)

A real incident that occurred in a Cell of Kapsala, Mount Athos. 

 

 

Holy Mountain - Agion Oros

ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ: Τα "Δάκρυα της Παναγίας", σχέδια αυτοκτονίας & πώς κάνουν εμπόριο οι Αγιορείτες

 

I was at Mount Athos in order to purchase handmade items from the Monks.

The handmade objects I am referring to are items which the monks make for example, incense, prayer ropes and other items which they sell or exchange in order to get by.

I was told in Karyes, the capital of Mount Athos, that I would find the “Tears of Panagia” and small portable Icons made from bees wax in Kapsala (a remote area of Mount Athos, near Karyes). They showed me a cell on a local map where I could purchase “Tears of Panagia” (Theotokos, Virgin Mary).

         Tears of Panagia are prayer ropes (Komposchini) or if you like worry beads (kompologion) made from the fruits of a certain plant which is called the tear of Panagia.

Gerasimos Smyrnakis, in his book titled Mount Athos, which was published in 1903, writes the following: 

Icon from here

“The tears are harvested from the fruits of a bamboo like plant from the months of July until October. The fruit is like a hard pip which they call on Mount Athos the Tears of Panagia. These plants are farmed in a limited quantity and thrive in areas that have much water.”

“They were called Tears of Panagia, as is said by the monks, when The Holy Theotoks appeared to an elder at the Cell of Saint Panteleimonos and showed him how to farm and use the plant in order to make a living.”

Kapsala is an area of Karyes with many cells. Living in this area is considered by monks very difficult due to high levels of humidity and cold, especially in the winter.

Imagine two mountain arms hanging vertically in the sea, high above Karyes, and one of these arms folded over the other. In the naturally deep valley created by this fold, you will find Kapsala. The area collects most of the water from the surrounding areas, and is not exposed to much sunlight, due to the obstruction of the vertical mountains. It is considered deserted and highly ascetic by the fathers of Athos.

After the difficult downhill trek of an hour and a half whilst being surrounded by a dark and overgrown forest, I arrived at the Cell of St. Nikodimos [photo], the place where I was told the monk lived and sold the tears of Panagia. The Cell of St. Nikodimos was quite small in size, built in the traditional stone built method of Mount Athos and had two levels, a ground level and a first floor. On the ground floor, as I had observed later, was split into two areas, a sitting room and a small church. This small church was dedicated to the memory of St. Nikodimos the Hagiorite, a stand out figure in the spiritual movement of the Kollyvades, the movement which gave Orthodoxy a renaissance in the 18^th century. 

I knocked on the door. No answer. I noticed that the door was rotted and was being supported by two rusted metal hinges. I knocked again carefully in order not to destroy the door and heard a sound coming from inside. I said “your blessings father” and received a response “May God bless you” and the door was opened.  

A relatively young monk appeared at the door. He was tall, un-kept, and looked quite run down and sick from the hard life in the area. I bent forwards toward him to kiss his hand as a sign of respect, but he refused. (This is quite common for monks to do on Mount Athos; it is considered a sign of humility). He asked me what I wanted. I explained to him that I buy Mount Athos handicrafts, which I resell outside of Mount Athos, and make a living. I further explained that I was told to come to him because he made “worry beads” (Kompologion) from tears of Panagia. He responded abruptly, “Prayer ropes, not worry beads” and his demeanour changed and he was ready to end the conversation and close the door. I then started talking about other monks that sell me handicrafts mentioning many names and at the same time I was apologising for my mistake. He calmed down somewhat, maybe he recognised one of the names I had mentioned. He asked me “How much do you buy them for?” I asked him, “How much do you sell them for?” I noticed he was unwilling to answer the question. My response to his question with a question was wrong.

With a somewhat lowered tone of voice I told him that it was very rare for someone to make prayer ropes from “tears of Panagia” because it required much effort to make a hole through the naturally hard beads. At this point, I was ready to pay him whatever he wanted and any price. I explained to him that my profit was a small margin from the actual price I would buy them for, and that I take all the risk. The prayer ropes may not sell, however, I would not return them. He continued to be unwilling. I again changed the discussion and asked him if the Cell was indeed dedicated to St. Nikodimos the Hagiorite [photo]. He answered, “Yes, St. Nikodimos also stayed in this Cell for some time”. Upon his answer to my question, I joyously responded by telling him that «Unseen Warfare (Αόρατος Πόλεμος)» written by St. Nikodimos and originally published in 1796 was one of my favourite books and I began talking to him with enthusiasm about the book. I thought to myself, would he allow me to enter the church and Cell where the Saint stayed? That was it; the monk smiled and invited me in. 

 

He took me to the church so I could venerate the Icons. The church was small, dark and very damp. After we venerated the Icons of Christ and Panagia, me just doing my cross, the monk with big prostrations, he took me to an Icon of St. Nikodimos the Hagiorite. We venerated the Icon and stood in front of it for a little looking at it in silence. We then returned to the sitting room. He left me there, without telling me to take a seat, and went off to get his handicrafts. I was looking around the sitting room whilst standing. There was a wooden table with two chairs and a bench. The area was not heated and smelt like mould. There were a few faded, printed Icons on the walls and a few books quite high on some makeshift shelves. I noticed that a few of the books were in Russian.

The monk returned to the sitting room and brought with him quite a few prayer ropes. He showed me and told me that he did not know what they were worth, “give me as much as you like”. I was in a bad position, what could I give him for them? I asked him, how much do you sell them to others? He responded “I give them to other Cells and Monasteries and in return they give me food and necessary items for the upkeep of the Church”. It was the first time that he would sell anything to a person from outside Athos. I continued to be in a difficult position because it was the first time I was buying prayer ropes as such; I had no method of comparison. I then took all of the money I had in my wallet, gave it to the monk and told him “take as much as you want”. He was now in a difficult position, I sensed that he was about to gift them to me, however I knew that he was in need of some money.

I them asked him if he knew Russian, due to the fact that I had seen Russian books on the makeshift shelves. He replied telling me that he was self taught in Russian and that he was learning through these books. I asked him if I could see the books. He asked me surprised if I knew Russian. I told him yes, I am completing my Russian language studies from the school of Balkan languages. His eyes shone with excitement and he spoke to me in broken Russian. I immediately answered him in fluent Russian which I learnt from my teacher. He brought me a letter written in Russian in order for me to read, told me to sit, apologising that he had me standing all of this time and brought out a tin of hazelnuts and almonds. As it seemed, that would be our dinner.

“Do you know the magazine Russian Pilgrim (Православный паломник)” he asked. “A Russian monk made me and some other monks subscribers, and I decided to learn Russian in order to read it”. He explained. “My relatives sent me a dictionary, grammar book, a learning guide and I began learning”. He went on telling me that he would choose easy articles from the magazine, beginning from the correspondence section in which letters of anonymous readers with questions, queries and feedback were published. 

One day he read the letter of a female reader of the magazine from a distant city of Siberia. In the letter she was complaining that God does not exist, since she was alone in life, an unmarried single mother of an 18 year old boy. The time came and her son died in an accident. A drunk driver struck him whilst he was crossing a road. She said, if God existed, he was bad. He took away her only son, the only happiness in her life. She raised him with many trials and tribulations, protecting him from evil habits and in a Christian manner, and look how God rewarded her. He took him so young, why? He left her alone in life without any support. What meaning did her life have now? She concluded that she would take her own life.

“I was shaken from the heartfelt letter of this mother” he told me when I finished translating the letter. He continued by telling me that he prayed all day to God for her. “Holy Mother of God, console this soul, do you miracle” he prayed. He wrote a letter immediately to this Siberian mother with very broken Russian. The letter of the mother in the correspondence section only had her full name and the city she was from published, but he thought to himself that the city was small and the postman would find her. He wrote to her that he was a monk at Mount Athos that lived in remoteness. “The letter you sent to the magazine touched me deeply and I pray day and night for you” he wrote. He continued telling her that life does not end in this world; it begins in the next and other words as such. In a little while, he received a letter. It was from her! “This is what you are reading at the moment” he told me.

She was ready to take her own life by jumping from the window of the tall building she was living in, when someone rang the doorbell from downstairs. She got down from the window ledge and asked who it was via the intercom. It was the postman and he was bringing her a letter, a letter which was written by an unknown monk from Mount Athos, thousands of kilometres away! A letter without her full address, but after the efforts of the postman it had reached her.

She cried and sobbed, it was God who had sent her that letter.

I continued reading and translating her letter. “God did not forget me, he showed me that the path of a heavy Cross also exists” she wrote.

“Lord, from the multitude of grief in my heart your supplications have rejoiced my soul” (Κύριε, κατά το πλήθος των οδυνών μου εν τη καρδία μου αι παρακλήσεις σου εύφραναν την ψυχήν μου) the monk chanted. May His name be glorified! He explained that they have continued writing each other and now no word of suicide.

I was holding the letter of the Russian woman in my hands, quite visibly moved.

Outside it was already very dark. It was impossible for me to leave. The monk seen me looking outside at the darkness restless and he suggested I stay the night. Upstairs he had two rooms, in one he stayed and I would stay in the other. He told me that tonight after midnight another four or five monks were coming so that they could conduct a vigil. “Do you want to join us” he asked. Yes of course I answered. He guided me to my room. The room was small, the wood was rotted and eaten by termites, and an oil lamp was there which I lit.  The monk told me that the toilet was outside of the Cell in the forest. When I opened the door to go, I saw such darkness covering everything out there, I decided to hold it and not go.

The cold was unbearable, the monk brought me four thin blankets, unwashed and worn out from excessive use. The next day I found out that these were all of the blankets he had. I lied down fully clothed, wearing my jacket and wrapped in the four blankets and I was still freezing. I was unable to sleep from the cold; dampness from the ground floor was seeping up the walls of the room as time progressed. The room also had a wooden window with a very slim glass pane, without a curtain or outer shutter.

I looked out from the window into the darkness. My God, the cold darkness was like a live beast prying on me from the darkness. Unconsciously I was saying the Jesus Prayer in order to console myself. The hours were going by painfully slow. The unbearable cold was getting worse by the hour. I heard a knock at the door and then the voice of the monk asking me to come down to the church for the vigil. I went down immediately. The other monks had arrived, amongst them an elder, which all the others were showing respect to, and kissing his hand. I went also to get his blessing; he looked at me slightly smiling and blessed me.

The vigil began; the small church was lit with a few candles. The monks were chanting slowly and the Icons were barely visible. There was warmth in there, more than likely from the body heat of so many people. Time was passing and I began to get drowsy. Suddenly there were large bangs heard at the outer door of the Cell. A strong wind blew and created a loud whistling sound from the gaps around the door.

The monks looked at each other puzzled, who would be in the wilderness at this time of night in this darkness? The bangs at the door happened again impatiently and harder, the wind did not cease. If it was someone they would have to open for him, he might have been in need of something. “Your blessings” exclaimed one of the monks (Ευλόγησον) which is a customary term used in Mount Athos by the monks. Silence ensued. Again large bangs were made on the door which at this stage was ready to break apart. All of the monks, including myself, looked at the Elder. The Elder got up from his chair and approached the door. He stood in front of it. “Repeat after me” he shouted at the door. “By the blessings of the Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and save us Amen, and I will open for you” (Δι' ευχών των Αγίων Πατέρων ημών, Κύριε Ιησού Χριστέ ο Θεός, ελέησον και σώσον ημάς, αμήν). 

There was silence for a while, and then someone was clearly heard saying by the blessings, mmmmmm and continued with gibberish and un-comprehensible sounds. The monks withdrew toward the small church. The Elder remained in front of the door and repeated “if you are human, say, By the blessings of the Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and save us Amen, and I will open for you” Again the same was heard by the blessings, mmmmmm and then the same incomprehensible sounds but this time they sounded beast like. The third time the Elder whispered some prayers of exorcism. Then something foreign, un-human (that’s what it seemed like) hit the door powerfully making beast like sounds. After that, there was silence, the wind stopped and we did not hear another noise at the door. We were restless however the fear in us slowly started to reside. I think that all of us, that night, prayed with such vigilance like no other time in our lives. The vigil ended brightly with the Divine Liturgy. Dawn broke, a bright sun made its appearance and ridded us from the darkness of the night. In the morning I heard the Elder, from a distance, talking to the other monks, I heard him say “he (the demon) walks around like a lion, looking for something to devour, but due to his pride he cannot ask for the mercy of God, neither mention the name of Christ because he is tortured” (ως λέων ωρυόμενος περιπατεί ζητών τίνα καταπιεί, αλλά ως υπερήφανος που είναι δεν μπορεί να ζητήσει το έλεος του θεού, ούτε να προφέρει το όνομα του Ιησού, γιατί μαστιγώνεται).

Later the Elder and the other monks departed, the monk and I agreed to a price for the hand crafted prayer ropes and I returned to Karyes. The monk and I continued to have a good trade relationship for years, although I never returned to his Cell or Kapsala in general. He would send me his handicrafts via the post office in Karyes.

Translated by George Frangos.  

Original post here

 

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Forgiveness – The Hardest Love of All

Ancient Faith / Glory 2 God for all things

Fr. Stephen Freeman

 
I cannot think that any of my readers is a stranger to forgiveness, either the need to be forgiven or the need to forgive. The need to forgive, according to the commandment of Christ, extends well beyond those who ask for our forgiveness: we are commanded to forgive our enemies – whom I presume would rarely want to ask for our forgiveness.
Of course, our experience of those who are truly enemies is that we do not want to forgive them. We do not trust them; the wound has been too deep; their offense is not against us but against someone we love who is particularly vulnerable. I could enlarge the list but we are all too familiar with it. The reasons we find it hard to forgive our enemies is endless.
But the commandment remains – not as a counsel of how to live a healthier, happier life – but with the added reminder that we will only find forgiveness as we forgive. Forgiveness is not optional – but a fundamental spiritual action which we must learn to use as though our salvation depended upon it – for it does.
Several times in Scripture forgiveness of others (including enemies) is linked with our becoming like God, being conformed to His image. Thus when I think of forgiveness I think as well of the whole life of salvation – for the path to being restored to the fullness of the image of Christ runs directly through the forgiveness of our enemies. It may indeed be the very key to our salvation (as it is worked out in us) and its most accurate measure.
Having said that, however, is also to say that this commandment to forgive is not of man – we do not have it in us to fullfill this commandment in and of ourselves. St. Gregory of Nyssa once said that “man is mud whom God has commanded to become God.” Of course it is utterly and completely impossible for mud to do such a thing (unless God make it so).
Grace is the foundation of forgiveness. We pray for forgiveness to enter our heart. We beg for forgiveness to enter our heart. We importune God for forgiveness to enter our heart.
Even as a product of grace – we do not begin with the hardest things but with the easiest. We do not begin fasting by tackling the most strict regimen. We do not begin prayer with an effort to pray continually for forty days (or some other great feat). Such efforts would either crush us with their difficulty or crush us with our success.

These are a few thoughts on beginning the life of forgiveness:
1. Begin by struggling to form the habit of forgiveness in the smallest things. With a child, with traffic, with little irritations. Do not struggle in a small way but throw yourself into forgiveness. It should become a habit, but a habit of grace, a large action.
2. Use this prayer for the enemies who seem to be beyond your ability to pray: “O God, at the dread judgment, do not condemn them for my sake.” This places forgiveness at a distance and even a hard heart can often manage the small prayer of forgiveness at such a distance.
3. Be always aware of your own failings and constantly ask for God’s forgiveness. “Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.”
4. As much as possible cultivate in your heart the understanding that all human beings are broken and victims of the fall. None of us enters a world of purity, nor do we enter the world fully fuctional as a human being. It is the gradual cultivation of mercy in our heart. Many will complain that our culture already has a “cult of victimization” in which no one takes responsibility for their actions. The same people will imagine that the world would be better if only everyone took more responsibility. But they themselves will not take on the responsibility that belong to us all. As Dostoevsky says, “Each man is responsible for everything before everyone.” Thus the complaint comes out of our pride. We think we ourselves are not responsible for the state of the world as it is and that if only others were as good as we were the world would be better. This is a lie.
5. The proper response to taking such responsibility is to pray and ask forgiveness. Feeling guilty is generally another self-centered action and is not the same thing as asking forgiveness.
6. Make a life confession at least once a year – being careful to name as many resentments as you can remember (this last advice comes from Met. Jonah Paffhausen).

“But I say to you that hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To him who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from him who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to every one who begs from you; and of him who takes away your goods do not ask them again. And as you wish that men would do to you, do so to them. 

“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. 

“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For the measure you give will be the measure you get back” (Luke 6:27-38).

See also

 
Beginning of Great Lent - The forgiveness at the very center of Christian faith and of Christian life
A CLOSER INSPECTION OF EXCUSES - A Sermon for Judgment Sunday

St. Dionysius of Zakynthos, the Saint of Forgiveness, "the Walking Saint" [icon]

Christian life means forgiveness  

Love the sinner, hate the sin

St. Augustine (June 15): "love the sinner, hate the sin" 

 

Forgiveness, the beginning of the Great Lent in the Orthodox Church

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Beginning of Great Lent - The forgiveness at the very center of Christian faith and of Christian life

A CLOSER INSPECTION OF EXCUSES - A Sermon for Judgment Sunday

Forgiveness - The Hardest Love of All