Great quotes of Orthodox Christians

[MariaRegina]

Elder Joseph the Hesychast and the teaching of mental prayer which flowed from his letters

homily by Abbot Ephraim of Vatopaidi Monastery

The blessed elder Joseph the Hesychast is one of the most important figures of contempo rary Athonite monasticism. This monk is sanctified. His life is truly that of a contempo rary saint and his disciples have today inhabited nearly half of the Holy Mountain and are responsible for so many other women's monastery both within and outside of the Greek land.

It is said today by a pious mouth, which speaks the language of the Holy Spirit, that today's blessed renewal of the Holy Mountain is primarily the common work of Elder Sophrony, elder of the Monastery of the Forerunner in Essex with his excellent book concerning St. Silouan the Athonite, Elder Paisios the ascetic with his blessed presence of the Holy Land, and the disciples of the blessed Elder Joseph the Hesychast. The tree is known by its fruits.

We firmly believe that the return of Athos to interiority and prayer and generally to Hesychast Theology is due largely to the presence of the sanctified Elder Joseph the Hesychast. As you will know from all that has circulated up to now about the blessed Elder Joseph, he was a man who did not possess the skill of worldly things, was not even a beginner among them. He studied to the second grade. And it is easy to see this if you look at a copy of one of his handwritten letters. But as a possessor of the fullness of divine grace, having achieved by full enlightenment of his grace- filled mind to ascend to the highest steps of Theology and become a perfected theologian. For we know that a theologian is not one who has studied in the modern Theological Schools but one in whom speaks God the Logos. Theology is a gift of the Holy Spirit. The blessed elder wrote concerning this, "When in obedience and stillness one purifies the senses and calms the mind and cleanses the heart, then he receives grace and enlightenment of knowl edge. He becomes all nous, all clarity, and filled with theology such that if three were writing they could not keep up with the flow. He spreads peace and complete inactivity of the passions throughout the body."

Theology according to the venerable Elder and generally in the Holy Fathers is a fruit of the divine Grace within us. Therefore the Holy Fathers view the monasteries of the desert as universities. The letters of the venerable Elder are true theological essays but are written without the canons of syntax and orthography. Searching the letters of the blessed Elder Joseph, anyone can well comprehend the great grace with which this perfected Athonite monk sent them. All the more so we who are his spiritual descendants and have the further fortune to have among us our Elder. He was among the spiritual children of the ever-memorable Elder and very often brings up something spiritual concerning his elder, Elder Joseph the Hesychast.

And we find ourselves in the place above all of the Orthodox Tradition, the Sacred Athos, where the love of the Mother of God pleads for us. We who live in the Theotokos-protected Monastery of Vatopaidi by the extreme tolerance of the great God, live the true meaning of the Orthodox Tradition.

Today much is said and emphasized concerning the Orthodox Tradition, and rightly so. But it is difficult in our days to find tradi tional people according to the fullness of the Orthodox sense. It is said that traditional people are those who study traditional - patristic books, and this is not wrong. But truly traditional people are those who have received the Orthodox life from people who possess it and can pass it on simply and unmistakingly.

Thus, for all our baseness, we experience this situation and we know personally the great blessing it is to receive directly the experience and skill of the Orthodox life. When our Elder narrates something to us of his spiritual father, our 'papou' as we call him, that is for us a great blessing, a spiritual harmony; it is a joy and happiness.

When one receives first hand the experience of the Holy Spirit, he senses in a intense manner that the Gospel is not something that happened 'at that time' but is a continuous life, in which is confirmed that 'Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and to the ages.'

As one studies the correspondence of the blessed Elder Joseph, the first thing noticed is his desire, his nostalgia, his pure wish to tell his fellowman to concern himself with the prayer of Jesus. Because when he came to Athos, he set as his aim to live like the old ascetics as he had read in the book of that day, Kalokairini, containing the lives of the saints.

The whole of the venerable Elder's life was his continual meditation in the Prayer of Jesus. He tried to apply the command of Paul, "pray without ceasing".

Every evening he had as his rule to occupy himself with the prayer of Jesus unwaveringly for six continuous hours. He left this precise method in one of his letters. "I knew a brother, who for six hours brought his mind down into his heart and did not permit it to go out from the ninth hour of the afternoon (about 3 pm) until the third hour of the night (about nine pm). He had a clock that struck the hours. And he became drenched in sweat. When he got up, he worked our the remainder of his debt." This manner of spiritual work, learned from the Fathers, shows great mental strength and a high spiritual condition. For it is truly rare, especially in our days, to find a mind that can pray unwaveringly for such a long time. The blessed Elder said that to accomplish such a great spiritual feat a person must compel himself in prayer and he emphasized: "Say the prayer all the time. don't rest your mouth at all. Thus it will become habitual in you and the mind will receive it.

The Hesychast Elder is one of the contemporary Athonite Elders who taught the details of the practice of noetic prayer, not only to monastics but also to the laity. According to the Elder, all people, without reference to their way of life, wherever they find themselves, and whatever they do, can undertake noetic prayer. The blessed elder wrote concerning this, "The practice of noetic prayer is to constrain yourself to say continually the prayer unceasingly with the mouth. Attend only to the words - 'Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me'. And you will experience sweetness as if you had honey in your mouth."

One who wants to practice noetic prayer systematically should not wait for particular moments which he sets aside for the prayer. The sanctified Elder, as a teacher of prayer, empha sizes: "Always say the prayer: sitting or in your bed or walking or standing. 'Pray without ceasing, give thanks in all things,' says the Apostle. You should not only pray when you lie down. It wants struggle: standing, sitting. When you tire, sit down, and then stand again. If you eat or work, don't stop the prayer."

The prayer, according to the blessed Elder, is the breath of life for the soul. And he advised concerning it: "Let 'Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me' be as your breath." Presuppositions of the Prayer The Warfare of the Devil in this Work
Therefore, great are the gifts, great the consolation, outstanding the sweetness, inde scribable the happiness, inexpressible the joy, deep the peace, infinite the love which are received on account of the prayer of Jesus.

The chief message of the Holy Mountain to the pious people of God is: As much as you can, say the prayer. Whatever we say, whatever we explain, is incapable by words to express the depth and breadth of the good results of the prayer of Jesus. To whom is due all glory, honor and worship to the ages. Amen!

Courtesy of Photini

 

[Photini]

http://www.rocor.org.au/stjohntheforerunnerchurch/articles/


There are articles from Archbishop Averky (Memory eternal!) on this site, as well as many other very good articles from holy Elders, Saints and Fathers of the Church.

 

[Suzannah]

"While we sit here in our virtual Temple, or on the doorsteps, there are people out there lost, dying, struggling, lying in the ditch and bleeding. Let us not forget why we are here, and how we might, as our morning prayers ask: Glorify Thy Holy name ..."


--Oblio, CF Moderator, the Ancient Way Forum

 

[MariaRegina]

Dear all,

There are problems with any version, primarily because it is a "version." But till we can all go learn Greek, we have to go with something. Considering only the modern ones and ignoring for the moment the Greek text base:

"Today's English" of the "Good News..." Bible is deliberately too simplistic.

The New Revised Standard succumbs to the PC agenda too much, rendering many things unusable. For example, the Christological import of Psalm 1 is neutered by "Happy are those..." and so on. Too bad, because the style is very readable and dignified. Also too many "Correction"s to enable PCness and to at times unnecessarily mask a perhaps difficult but clear meaning in the original (OK, which original?).

The Revised English Bible is too paraphrastic (although not as bad as its predecessor, the New English Bible). Also too bad because it is IMHO stylistically the best English. Also, over-use of "Probable Reading" for the reason cited above. PCness is kept down to a dull roar though.

The New Jerusalem Bible (and the old) is too annoying with "Yahweh" all over the place. Happy with LORD thanks.

NIV and NKJV? OK, I guess, but what happens when one wants a reading from the "Apocrypha/Deutero-Canonicals" as happens all over the Menaion? One is left wanting, or reverts to the Brenton.

The situation is too chaotic for an imprimatur. Even the other bodies recognize this and haven't come down with both feet in favor of anything.

Eliminating these, one is left with the KJV and/or the Challoner-Rheims old Catholic version, but I suppose in our post-literate stage of culture, there is too much deciphering to do for our lax dispositions. For my part, it's worth the trouble in the KJV's case for the sake of the imcomparables: Romans 8 ("There is therefore now no condemnation....") for example. One can have one of the above on the side or a glossary to help un-curl the occasional linguistic pretzels. It's more than worth it for the sense of the numinous qualities that can make one's hair stand on end.

God be with us though the climax of the story of our salvation.

Father George

 

[MariaRegina]

Perhaps this article by Presbytera Irene Matta, M. Th., can shed some light on it.

Paradise was not available to Adam and Eve once they had been driven away from its Tree of Life, preventing them to continue in the body of flesh and sin. The restoration of Human Nature by the Lord Jesus heals the wound, or the "sting" of Death. St. Paul declares with joy, that, "To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord," giving his spiritual children comfort with these words.

In his first epistle to the Thessalonians (4:18), St. Paul writes that they were to comfort "one another" with the knowledge that Christ has overcome Death, and that they would be once again joined with their loved ones. Sheol, or Hades, is no longer the destination of the Christian after death, since the obedience and reconciliation of Man to God through Christ. Now, Paradise (though not yet Heaven) beckons to us as it did to Adam, the angels lead us into the presence of the Lord and into our heavenly rest to await the reunion with the body. The fullness of the Heavenly reward awaits that reunion.

The Hebrew "Sheol" is not equivalent to "hell" or "gehenna," or even to the Hellenic concept of "hades," a word which the fathers appropriated with a considerably different meaning. The apostles and the holy fathers used the Greek word hades synonymously with the Hebrew Sheol. It designates a "state or condition of being," not a physical location. It also designates the place or power of death; that which Christ conquered. It was not a state or condition without hope, for even among the most ancient books of the Bible, we find the holy prophet Job referring clearly to the resurrection of the body and its reunion with the soul. He prophesies, "If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my transformation...and where is my hope now?...I know that my Redeemer liveth and that He will stand at the latter day upon the earth: and...in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself." [Job 14:14; 17:13; 19:25-26.]

Thus, Sheol or Hades was a certain darkness, figuratively or metaphorically referred to as "below the earth," describing a state of being for souls before the coming of Christ. It was, however, also a "land with promise," because the Old Testament faithful certainly hoped on the coming redemption and, as Prophet Job reveals, they connected that promised redemption with the hope of physical resurrection. Only after the Old Testament scriptures had been written was it understood that good and evil had a recompense after death, and that the soul could be aware of that coming recompense immediately after death; indeed, the soul might, by its very knowledge of the coming resurrection and judgment, endure already a certain psychological suffering for its deeds even before the resurrection.

St Gregory of Nyssa gives us an expression of the state of the soul immediately after death, saying:

"..the 'gulf' (in the Lazarus parable), which is not made by the parting of the earth, but by those decisions in this life which result in a separation into opposite characters. The man who has once chosen pleasure in this life, and has not cured his inconsiderateness by repentance, places the land of the good beyond his own reach; for he has dug against himself the yawning impassable abyss... that nothing can break through. This is the reason, I think, that the name "Abraham's bosom" is given to that good situation of the soul in which the Scripture makes the athlete of endurance repose.

For it is related of this patriarch first... that he exchanged the enjoyment of the present for the hope of the future; he was stripped of all the surroundings in which his life at first had passed, and resided among foreigners, and thus purchased by present annoyance future blessedness. As then figuratively we call a particular circular of the ocean a `bosom', so does the Scripture seem to me to express the idea of those measureless blessings above by the word 'bosom', meaning a place into which all virtuous voyagers of this life are, when they have put in from hence, brought to anchor in the waveless harbour of that bay of blessings. Meanwhile the denial of these blessings which they witness becomes in others a flame which burns the soul and causes the craving for the refreshment of one drop out of that ocean of blessings wherein the saints are affluent; which nevertheless they do not get...Surely the "hades" we have just been speaking of cannot reasonably be thought a place so named; rather we are told by Scripture about a certain unseen and immaterial condition [or, situation] in which the soul resides." [St. gregory of Nyssa - On The Soul and the Resurrection, para.54.]

St. Epiphanius, Bishop of Cyprus during the time of the Churchs battle against Arianism, uses magnificent poetic prose to tell his flock of Christ's Descent into Hades -- to those in Sheol who had hoped in the Promise of salvation through Gods Anointed. Adam hears His footsteps coming to rescue them from the hold of death and Satan, who reigned over death. With Christs coming, the gates of Hades were struck down (pictured in the Resurrection icon), and Satan, along with his demons, was routed. The holy bishop puts words of longing in Adams mouth as he hears his Saviour coming:

"Thereupon Adam turned towards all his fellow captives from ages past and said, 'I hear the sound of Someones feet advancing towards us, and if He deigns to come even to this place, we shall be freed of our bonds.. we shall be delivered from Hades! ..And the Master entered within, holding the Cross as a weapon of victory. ...[He says to Adam], 'I am thy God, Who for thy sake became thy Son, ....now I say Come Forth!, and to those in darkness, Be Enlightened!, and to those asleep, Arise! ...For I did not fashion thee to be held in Hades as a captive. ...Arise, My creation, arise, Mine image, who wast also made in My likeness!" [St. Epiphanius Homily on the Resurrection tran. Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Brookline, MA.]

In this dramatic sermon, first preached at the Vigil of the Resurrection, the saint teaches us through Christs own words, about the recapitulation of Adams disobedience by Christs obedience, and the restoration of Adams nature (and our own), by His passion, death, and victory over death:

In a garden I was crucified. Behold upon My countenance the spittings which I received for thy sake so as to restore to thee the ancient in-breathing [of the Spirit]. ...Behold upon My back the scourgings which I accepted so as to scatter the burden of thy sins. ...Behold My hands, which unto good were nailed to the tree [of the Cross] for thee, who unto evil didst stretch forth thy hand to the tree [to sin]. ...I accepted the reed, so as to undersign [the writ of] freedom for the race of men. I slept upon the Cross, and by a blade was pierced in the side for thee, from whose side whilst thou wast sleeping in Paradise Eve was brought forth. ....My sleep shall wrest thee from the sleep of Hades; ...The bridal chamber is made ready, the delicacies are prepared, the eternal tabernacles and abodes are waiting, the treasuries of good things are thrown open, the Kingdom of Heaven has been prepared before the ages... [St. Epiphanius Homily on the Resurrection tran. Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Brookline, MA.]


St Ambrose of Milan makes clear the condition of the soul and body after death, and the unity of the two, saying:

And this is the course and ground of justice, that since the actions of body and soul are common to both (for what the soul has conceived, the body has carried out), each should come into judgment...for it would seem almost inconsistent that...the mind guilty of a fault shared by another should be subjected to penalty, and the flesh, the author of the evil, should enjoy rest: and that that alone should suffer which had not sinned alone, or should attain to glory not having fought alone, with the help of grace.


St Irenaeus of Lyons is like-minded when he says:

For it is just that in the very same condition in which they (the body and the soul) toiled or were afflicted, being proved in every way by suffering, they should receive the reward of their suffering...


St Titus of Bostra, rebuking the Manicheans, confirms this thought in words quoted by St John the Damascene:

For the soul cannot enjoy anything, or possess, or do anything, or suffer, except it be together with the body, being the same as it was created in the beginning, and thus it enjoys that which is proper to it. This state is lost in death through the disobedience of Adam, and again through the obedience of the one Christ, through hope it receives (in the resurrection) again the state of being a person.


The soul, nevertheless, since it possesses man's intellectual faculties, is not comatose or ignorant of its fate. St. Irenaeus gives us a description of the state of humanity at death, before the resurrection joins the body to the soul, "[Souls after being parted from the body at death] possess the form of a man, so that they may be recognized, and retain the memory of things in this world; moreover, ....each class [of souls] receives a habitation such as it has deserved, even before the [Last] judgment." [That is, either they go to Abraham's Bosom or to Hades]


St Justin Martyr explains this further, "The souls of the pious remain in a better place [Abraham's Bosom], while those of the unjust and wicked are in a worse place [Hades], waiting for the time of judgment."

Thus, the Church waits for the Lord of Glory to complete His work of redemption in us, to bring together body and soul, separated by death because of sin. St John's Apocalypse speaks to us who wait:

And the Spirit and the Bride say, 'Come!' And let him who hears say, 'Come!' And let him who thirsts...take water freely." (Rev.22:17)

courtesy of Rick

 

[MariaRegina]

by Archimandrite Vasileios

testifying about the truth

"The way someone upholds and confesses his truth is evidence of what its nature is. We have to know God in a godly manner and speak about Him accordingly. Thus only those who are free from anxiety and constraint of their own will and have given themselves over to the will of God can move about at their ease in the testimony of the truth, moved in a place of freedom, beyond all anguish, byt he Spirit of God Himself.

The free man is the man who is crucified.

The Apostle Peter's bravado is a transient illusion, powerless before the temptations of life. The big brave man falters when faced with a servant girl. The thief was not afraid because he was crucified. Peter denied Christ because he feared crucifixion. The free man is the man who is crucified. A dead man does not fear death. No one can lose what he does not have. No one who has security can know God. No one who has worldly defences, like Peter, can believe. Inevitably, with curses and oaths he will confess the truth--that he does not know Christ. Then, after this painful process of self-emptying and feeling of total ignorance, will come weeping and faith will blossom. Worn out by much weeping like a baby child, Peter becomes once again the rock of faith. This is why the Lord will give the command, "Tell the diciples and Peter."

Anyone who is armed ... is not free ... is a slave of fear.

Anyone who is armed has not conquered fear. Only someone who is voluntarily exposed to every danger has God within him. He knows God inasmuch as he is in Him. If you see enemies before and defend yourself, you are not free. Your kingdom is of this world which passes away. You are a slave. If you see others as strangers to you, you do not know yourself. The Jews mocked the Lord on the Cross: "He saved others; He cannot save Himself." They did not know that the others whom He saved were Himself. He Himself had not need of salvation of defence. He is our salvation and our sanctity.

To confess the Orthodox faith means to be crucified

To confess the Orthodox faith means to be crucified, to become all things to all men so that all may be able to partake in the one life. For if you have truly tasted this life even once, you are never going to forget it. You do not simply remember it; you are flooded with it, and it becomes a spring of water welling up. You become "mad', in the words of Abba Isaac, so that the rest of your brothers may become partakers in the quality of Christ; so that the children of our forefather Adam may become partakers in the New Adam, in the Paradise of delight and the food which is broken and not divided.

Being sacrificed here means being lost to life and flooded with eternity. The other person is myself. In the words of Evergetinos, "The other person is my God."

The Orthodox, the saint, loves all people and things even before he knows them. He knows them through love. When you draw near to the saint, you see that he cares for you; he knows you and embraces you before he sees you. You see that he loved you before you realized it; that he is your innermost self, your own depths, at once familiar and unknown, and not something alien. In him you come to know love. He puts love before himself. His own self emerges from love and is nourished by being offered to It: "God is love" (1 John 4:8)

Anyone who does not love is not free.

Anyone who does not love is not free. Love casts out fear. It burns everything up. A merciful heart is "a heart which burns for all creation, for men and birds and animals and demons, and for every creature. As he calls them to mind and contemplates them, his eyes fill with tears. From the great and powerful feeling of compassion that grips the heart and from long endurance his heart diminishes, and cannot bear to hear or see any injury or any tiny sorrow in creation. This is why he constantly offers prayer with tears for dumb beasts, and for enemies of the truth, and for those who hurt him, that they may be protected and shown mercy; likewise he prays for the race of creeping things, through the great compassion which fills his heart immeasurably, in the likeness of God." (Abba Isaac, Logos 81, p.306)
Stretched upon the wood of the Cross man is at peace, when he is crucified as an offering of love to others. There is no state or place in which human nature is at peace more deeply, more truly and theanthropically, than in crucifixion and on the Cross of love. There is no greater comfort than this pain. Then he is not upholding just one part. He is not interested in anything partial, and cannot live in the hell of halves and hatred. He cannot watch another suffer. He embraces everything. All things are his. He is crucified for them all. He is someone universal and serene.

An Orthodox Icon of the Lord's Crucifixion ... manifests the tranqujility of the One, the King of Glory who is at peace in the calm of love.

An Orthodox Icon of the Lord's Crucifixion does not show us the pain of someone suffering from his nail wounds, but manifests the tranquility of the One, the King of Glory who is at peace in the calm of love. He is nailed to the Cross, offered voluntarily for the life and salvation of the world. And this act cannot be called death, but is life and increase without end.

When the Orthodox creates theology, works, or is crucified, he is "lost" in order to leave room free for the entry of Him who saves everyone. This occupation by the Lord, this coming and the expectation of universal salvation, the price of which is the death of man's own soul, constitutes man's personal salvation; it bestows upon him his true dimensions and the calm of Paradise which he earnestly awaits, and takes him up into a state of trinitarian self-awareness.
-------
The Orthodox is someone universal: what is Orthodox concerns, summarizes, and saves the whole. It leaves nothing outside. Its extent is the infinity of death and its structure the freedom of the Spirit. What is not Orthodox is partial, inadequate and unsteady, provocative and misleading for everyone.
The Church bears the sign of the Cross and of tranquility on its brow (Rev 7:3); it bears the mark of the Trinity as the mainstay of its life and existence.
--------

courtesy of Photini

 

[MariaRegina]

"If we want to ask the Lord, as the Apostles did, why we cannot remove by our theological meetings and efforts the one obstacle closing the road to Christian unity, He will certainly give us the same answer as He gave then: "This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting" (Mark 9:29). When they bring the sick boy to Jesus' feet--asking that His will may be done and wishing to save the boy's life and not his human aspect--then Christ intervenes to give healing, to give pain and resurrection. "...He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, 'You deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again.' And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse; so that most of them said, 'He is dead.' But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose' (Mark 9:25-27)."

~Archimandrite Vasileios, Hymn of Entry

Courtesy of Photini

 

[MariaRegina]

http://www.metropolit-anthony.orc.ru/eng/eng_04.htm

The Old Testament Vision

"When we read the Old Testament we may at moments think of the world once created by God moving and developing before the face of its Creator, and called one day to be judged. This vision is so poor and so inadequate to what the Old Testament teaches us. The fact that God called us, all the world visible and invisible, the fact that God called all things and beings out of naught, out of radical non-existence, into existence is already a relationship. We are related to God by this act of creation and in this act of creation. When we think that whatever and whoever he called into existence is called to be a companion of God for all eternity, we can see the depth of the divine love and the extent of the divine risk. Because we are free to accept the love of God and to reject it we can frustrate this love or fulfil this love. But God's love remains immutable and he remains faithful for ever. He creates each of us in hope and in faith, and at moments when our faith vacillates and our hope sways and wavers we can rest in the divine faith and in the divine hope. When we think that the cost of our faithlessness and our waverings is paid by God in the life and death of the Incarnate Word then we can rest assured in his love."

This may be worth posting in a general area where a greater number of people could read and be blessed by it.
His unworthy servant,
Eusebios.

 

[MariaRegina]

"...the liturgy is served on earth, it is accomplished in heaven. But most important is the fact that what is accomplished in heaven is already accomplished, already is, already has been accomplished, already given. Christ has become man, died on the cross, descended into hades, arisen from the dead, ascended into heaven, sent down the Holy Spirit. In the liturgy, which we have been commanded to perform "until He comes", we do not repeat and we do not represent- we ascend into the mystery of salvation and new life, which has been accomplished once, but is granted to us "always, now and forever and unto ages of ages." And in this heavenly, eternal and otherworldly eucharist Christ does not come down to us, rather we ascend to Him."

Alexander Schmemann 1988


Courtesy of Alfred M

 

[MariaRegina]

A CHRISTIAN FAMILY TREE
Years ago, I remember the nation being transfixed by Alex Haley’s epic Roots
television miniseries.

In fact, the story of Roots resonates so much with Americans because many
of us have grown up in a culture without roots, without any knowledge of
our heritage. This may account for the fact that “Family Tree” software
is always one of the best-selling kinds of software in America. We are
a nation hungry for the sense of stability that comes from knowing our
past.

But is knowing our past sufficient? It is at least a start in the right
direction, because to know myself I should know where I came from. Such
is the mystery of communion and the very real connection we have with our
earthly family.

If our connection with our earthly family can have such an impact on life,
how much more the spiritual connection we have with Christ and His body
through our faith.

St. Peter describes our new connection with Christ and His Body like this:
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people
belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you
out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but
now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now
you have received mercy.”
(I Peter 2:9-10)

While all of us have some ethnic background from which we can rightly draw
wisdom, it seems this new connection to Christ and His Church connects
us to something (or Someone) with claims superior to all other loyalties
and families. Our Christian heritage offers us an eternal connection to
something that is itself eternal. While earthly heritages and family trees
come and go, and while earthly cultures change due to this or that influence,
faith in Christ and the timeless truths of Orthodoxy are unchanging and
eternal.

If all of this is true, why would a wise man choose that which is temporary
over that which is eternal?

In light of this, my discussion this week with Terry Mattingly on some
of the Celtic saints who shone forth in the Church before the Great Schism
between Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy offers us a unique look
at the life of one particular saint that sheds light on a part of my eternal
heritage that I simply didn’t know much about.

Terry and I will talk about St. Brendan and his possible journey to America
centuries before Columbus. This is the first part in a series we will do
on pre-schism saints we hold in common with our Western Christian brethren.

It’s a CRTL program you won’t want to miss.

Until next week.

Yours for the spread of Orthodoxy,

Fr. Chris Metropulos

 

[Matrona]

"Once, hell was full of captives. Now it is staffed by volunteers." --Alex Slepukhof

 

[Suzannah]

"Just my opinion: The Evil One loves to see us get mad and bite back.

This is a really big discussion board, with thousands of people reading the posts. Why give atheists, agnostics and pagans any reason to say, "There, you see? It doesn't work." To them, Christian is Christian - they don't care about all the various labels (Orthodox, Catholic, Lutheran, etc.).

We believe that our church is The Church. Frankly, I still believe that The Church ought to be detectably different from, yes, better than, the others. Do we love more than they do? Maybe it's time I thought that over again. If Orthodoxy doesn't produce love, then it is worth nothing. "Though I speak with tongues of men and of angels..." "

--countrymousenc, CF member and poster extraordinaire!

 

[Photini]

"In regards to your being alone, ina sense all of us Orthodox Christians are "alone", just as our Savior was alone all of His earthly life. We Orthodox are the "odd man out", we never quite fit in, and our friends and family think that we have gone over the edge and joined some exotic and strange religion. Our Savior came to save His own,and they hated Him. We who have become Orthodox have given up the comfort of the world we knew, and have set out on a different course, having Faith sometimes as our only companion."

~Hieromonk Averky (+2004)

May his memory be eternal!

 

[Matrona]

"I read a little book by Bishop Paul Moore [Episcopalian bishop of New York]--the explanation of his ordination of a lesbian to the priesthood. In a way, it is an extraordinary book, extraordinary as a witness to the radical transformation of Christian love into something quite different, literally quite opposite. The author does not see, does not understand that if Christian love were what he makes it to be, the whole Christian teaching, the whole Gospel would be totally meaningless. The question is essentially about the earthly happiness of man, i.e., not about man's denial of self for the sake of a new life, but on the contrary, about Christianity as a method of self-acceptance. Even the enemies of Bishop Moore do not see it. For them, there is good sex and bad sex (homosexuality). They do not understand that in the area of sex, we deal with the fallen world, so that Moore seems to be defending love against moralists and Pharisees. People do not understand that grace liberates us, before anything else, from ourselves, from our enslavement by flesh and blood ('It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me' Galatians 2:20) Here, Christianity is the affirmation of the natural man with all his lust... Amazing that people of Moore's type, educated, theologians, simply do not see this radical substitution."

--Father Alexander Schmemann, journal entry of Friday, September 7, 1979, from The Journals of Father Alexander Schmemann, translated by Juliana Schmemann

 

[nicodemus]

Do not look for status or glory on this earth, but
seek only the good opinion of God himself. Desire God
alone, that He may desire you, and so guide you into
His eternal Kingdom. Listen to me not because I am
your chosen pastor, but because as someone who is
shortly to die I have no reason to deceive you: as
death approaches, the truth is all that matters.

Saint Ignatius of Antioch (+110), under arrest by
Roman guards, on his way to Rome to be martyred –
thrown to lions in the arena.

 

[MariaRegina]

August 6, 2004

The Weekly Newsletter of the Orthodox Christian Network
Have Faith In What You Listen To!

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This week's message from Father Christopher Metropulos
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WORSHIP IS A VERB
I’ll never forget the first time I saw the phrase, “worship is a verb.”
It struck me as so profound and yet so obvious. Worship is something you
DO.


But it is also so easy to forget in a culture that has lost the memory
of community life. We have watched as Christian worship in this nation
and throughout the West has become a spectator sport, as Americans seek
their religious experience tailor-made for their own personal preferences.


Now, one may say that this isn’t all bad. At least people are interested
in spiritual things, right? Well, the best way to discern the effects of
any mindset is to look at the fruit it produces.

Has this emphasis on “have-it-your-way” spirituality and worship produced
good fruit?

Let me give my own thoughts on this by saying there are now more than 65
million unchurched American. While more and more people say they want
spirituality, many Americans really know very little about the Christian
faith beyond the most basic statement of Christian belief. Even most Christians
who attend church regularly are surprisingly uninformed about their own
faith. Is this emphasis on super individualism really producing strong
disciples of Jesus Christ?

I would suggest that there is something missing from the modern Christian
landscape. And what is missing is the notion that Christians are meant
to be primarily and fundamentally worshippers of God. While we certainly
should be people of service, people who reach out, and people who relieve
the suffering of the world and bring the peace of Christ, we can’t become
that kind of people without a transforming relationship with Christ.

We become the kind of people who live the way I describe above by learning
how to worship God in intimacy and community. I become the man I was created
to be only when, from a time of worship that truly brings me into the presence
of Him Who alone can truly change me, I find myself shaped, transformed,
challenged, and released into the world.

It all begins with worship.

Will just any kind of worship suffice? Yes and No.

God accepts our praise as authentic expressions of love for Him. Just like
I will accept a fist full of wildflowers from the hand of my 9-year-old
with all the joy of a bouquet of roses, so God accepts all of our attempts
to worship Him from a sincere heart. But there comes a time when I am old
enough to truly view my worship of God through the eyes of an adult, and
understand the mature act of authentic adoration that can only come from
a grownup mind and heart. It is then that we fulfill the command of the
Psalmist to “make His praises glorious.

>From the Old Testament where God told Moses to fashion the Tabernacle from
the pattern he had seen in heaven, to the choreographed adoration of the
24 elders in the book of Revelation, God has revealed to us that we are
best shaped in worship when it is patterned not from the haphazard whims
of our emotions, but from the learned wisdom of the Spirit given to His
people through the ages.

No wonder the New Testament called the worship of the people of God “liturgy,”
which literally means “the work of the people.”

So, Christian worship has always had two basic hallmarks: Intimacy and
Order. Intimacy, because it is only in my intimate relationship with Christ
that I can be transformed, and Order, because I was not meant to be by
myself in this work of salvation.

This week Emmy and I talk with Fr. Stylianos Muksuris. He is the pastor
of St. George Cathedral in Manchester, New Hampshire, and he joins us this
week to talk about just how Christian worship has been done through the
centuries. You may be surprised to learn that worship has always had a
pattern, and it still does today.

We will also hear more of my interview with Archbishop DEMETRIOS from the
recent Clergy/Laity Congress for the Greek Archdiocese in New York City.


I continue to be encouraged by the notes you send. Please keep writing
and include details on how we can pray for you here at Come Receive The
Light.

Until next week.

Yours for the spread of Orthodoxy,

Fr. Chris Metropulos

 

[Constantine]

Orthodox Tradition:

"Tradition is the witness of the Spirit."
-- George Florovsky

Another good quote:

"From the Holy Spirit there is the likeness of God, and the highest of all things to be desired, to become God."

-- Saint Basil the Great

 

[nicodemus]

Patience, forgiveness and joy are the three greatest
characteristics of divine love. They are
characteristics of all real love - if there is such a
thing as real love outside divine love. Without these
three characteristics, love is not love. If you give
the name 'love' to anything else, it is as though you
were giving the name 'sheep' to a goat or a pig.

-St. Nikolai Velimirovich

 

[Reader Nilus]

Saints and Spirit-Bearers: Models for Orthodox Women by Mother Maria Rule

In Bishop Nikolai's Prologue there is a wonderful incident about fasting involving Jeladin Bey, who ruled Ochrid in the first half of the previous century, and Metropolitan Kalinik, who was head of the church at that time.

Jeladin and Kalinik, although of different faiths, were very good friends and often visited each other. It happened that Jeladin Bey condemned 25 Christians to death by hanging, and the execution was to take place on Great Friday. The Metropolitan, deeply distressed by this event, went to Jeladin and besought him to mitigate the sentence. While they were talking the hour of the midday meal arrived, and the Bey invited the metropolitan to eat with him. A dish of lamb had been prepared for the meal. The metropolitan excused himself, as the fast prevented him from remaining to eat, and prepared to leave. The Bey was angry and said to him: "Choose: either you eat with me and free 25 people from hanging, or you refrain and they hang." The metropolitan crossed himself and sat down to lunch, and Jeladin freed the people from the death sentence.

Bishop Nikolai introduces this account with the words: "Fasting is a great thing, but love is greater."

 

[MariaRegina]

- Once when I was there where I was (India), some foreign missionary came and said to me, “You may be a good woman, but you’re not a good Christian.”
- I said, “Why?”
- “Because you have been here so long and you only go about speaking English. What local languages have you learned?”
- I said to him, “I haven’t managed to learn any of the local languages, because I travel a great deal from place to place. As soon as I learn one dialect, they start speaking another. I’ve only learned ‘Good morning’ and ‘Good evening.’ Nothing else.”
- “Bah, you’re no Christian. How can you evangelize? All the Catholics and Protestants learn all the local dialects in order to . . .”
- Then I said, “Lord, give me an answer for him.” I asked it with all my heart, and then I said, “Ah. I forgot to tell you. I know five languages.”
- “Really? What are these five?”
- “The first is the smile; the second is tears. The third is to touch. The fourth is prayer, and the fifth is love. With these five languages I go all around the world.”
- Then he stopped and said, “Just a minute. Say that again so I can write it down.”
With these five languages you can travel the whole earth, and all the world is yours. Love everyone as your own–without concern for religion or race, without concern for anything.
Everywhere are people of God. You never know if the one you see today might tomorrow be a saint. - Mother Gavrilia

"The Ascetic of Love"
Courtesy of icxn