St. Peter the Athonite and the Demons

The icon above depicts an episode from the life of St. Peter the Athonite (June 12), the first ascetic of Mount Athos. It shows the devil as an angel of light appearing to St. Peter in order to pursuade him away from the monastic path he endured bravely. The first biography of St. Peter was written by St. Gregory Palamas, who relates the story behind this icon. This is a lesson which teaches us the great virtue of humility and obedience in withstanding demonic attacks and deception.

The Most Holy Mother of God appeared in a dream to Saint Peter and indicated the place where he should live till the very end of his days – Holy Mount Athos. When the ship sailed alongside Athos, it then halted of its own accord. Saint Peter realized that this was the place he had to go, and so he went ashore. This was in the year 681. The Monk Peter then dwelt in the desolate places of the Holy Mountain, not seeing another person for 53 years. His clothing had tattered, but his hair and beard had grown out and covered his body in place of clothes.

At first the Monk Peter was repeatedly subjected to demonic assaults. Trying to force the saint to abandon his cave, the devils took on the form at times of armed soldiers, and at other times of fierce beasts and vipers that seemed ready to tear apart the hermit. But through fervent prayer to God and the Mother of God, the Monk Peter conquered the demonic assaults. Then the enemy began to resort to trickery. Appearing under the guise of a lad, sent to him from his native home, he with tears besought the monk to leave the wilderness and return to his own home. The monk was in tears, but without hesitation answered: "Here has the Lord and the Most Holy Mother of God led me, and without Her leave I will not leave from here". Hearing the Name of the Mother of God, the demon vanished.

After seven years the devil came before the monk in the guise of a luminous angel and said that God was commanding him to go into the world for the enlightening and salvation of people needful of his guidance. The experienced ascetic again replied, that without the permission of the Mother of God he would not forsake the wilderness. The devil disappeared and did not bother more to approach the saint. The Mother of God appeared to the Monk Peter in a dream together with Saint Nicholas and said to the brave hermit, that each 40 days an Angel would bring him Heavenly manna. From that time the Monk Peter fasted for 40 days, and on the fortieth day he fortified himself with the Heavenly manna, receiving the strength for a further forty-day abstinence.

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Nea Moni in Chios and Panagia Neomonitissa

The Monastery of Nea Moni was built in the mid-eleventh century by the Roman Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos (1042-1055). According to tradition, three monks, Nikitas, Joseph and John, who lived as hermits in a cave on Mount Provateon, kept seeing a light every night in a forest nearby. Since they could not find its source during the daylight, they decided to set fire to the forest; the fire miraculously stopped in front of a myrtle, which was not inflamed. The icon of Virgin Mary without the Christ Child was lying on its branches. Today this icon is treasured in the monastery and known as Panagia Neamonitissa.


In the meantime, Constantine Monomachos was exiled on the island of Lesvos. The monks, after a divine revelation, visited him and announced to him that he would become an emperor. Constantine, though doubting the news, promised that, in such a case, he would build a monastery dedicated to Virgin Mary's icon. A few years later he became emperor of the Roman Empire, and kept his promise. He built a splendid church at the place where the icon was found, bringing a skilled architect and the best artisans and fine materials from Constantinople.


Nea Moni of Chios is decorated with exceptional mosaics of byzantine art, true masterpieces of the era of the Macedonian dynasty. During the following years Nea Moni became a famous monastery and a refuge for people looking for consolation, sympathy, or guidance by the monks and by the Virgin Mary (who responds to all deep and faithful prayers). It is a miracle that both the icon of Virgin Mary and the church with its magnificent mosaics stayed intact from all the tragedies that suffered the island of Chios, like the tragic massacre of the Greek residents by the Turks in 1822 and the violent earthquake of 1881.


Source

For more information, see here.

For a photogallery, see here and here.

For a brief video in English and Greek, see here.

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The Tragedy in Haiti

[Today in History: Haiti is the 1st country to recognze the newly founded Greek Democratic Republic -- January 15th, 1822. See second piece below. Yet the first piece is written by an Evangelical expert on the so-called "Prosperity Gospel" and how misconstrued they view the tragedy in Haiti which I found worth a read by all. - J.S.]

Tragedy in Haiti

By Hank Hanegraaff

The tragedy in Haiti is all over the news, and it is a stark reminder that life is paper-tissue thin. Last week I participated in the funeral of a friend, and each day the obituary column is replete with new fresh faces—some very young—and a reminder that the tragedy of life is not to die young, but to live a long robust life, and never use it in the service of the Master....

I’m also reminded of the fact that whenever these kinds of strategies strike, it seems that the Christian world once again receives a black eye - and often times this is a self-inflicted wound. I was absolutely chagrined when I walked into the studio just a few moments ago and saw the words of Pat Robertson. He is talking on his Christian Broadcasting Network 700 Club about something that happened a long time ago in Haiti, and he says: “People might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French…you know Napoleon the 3rd…and they got together and swore a pact to the Devil. They said, ‘We will serve you if you'll get us free from the French.’” And then says Pat Robertson, “True story. And so the Devil said, 'Okay, it's a deal’…But ever since they have been cursed by…one thing after another, desperately poor.”

Of course, that’s the Word of Faith mantra that if you suffer poverty, you’re under a curse. And Pat Robertson then goes on to talk about the Dominican Republic, which is prosperous. He contrasts between the part of the island of Hispaniola that is the Dominican Republic, which is the prosperous side, and Haiti, which is in desperate poverty, and reiterates it is the “same island.” The conclusion being that because the Dominican Republic didn’t make this pact with the Devil and Haiti did—allegedly at least according to legend—you have Haiti today suffering for the sins of their forefathers, who made a pact with the devil. Again this is a self-inflicted black eye on Christianity, because here is a prominent Christian leader communicating legendary information, and I might add, this is the same guy who said Ariel Sharon’s stroke was divine retribution for dividing God’s land, and Yitzhak Rabin’s murder was God’s retribution for signing the Oslo Peace Accords.

I can’t help it when I hear these Christian leaders pontificate in startling fashion of the words of Jesus Christ, who had a completely different take on things. For example, when speaking about those who perished when the tower of Siloam crashed down on them, Jesus said, “Do you think that they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you no.” I would much rather heed the words of Jesus Christ than the words of Pat Robertson. And this is a warning to all Christians. Don’t simply believe what the leaders are telling you. Test what they say in light of Scripture, and hold fast to that which is good.

We have no warrant whatsoever to suggest that the Haitians today dying in an earthquake are dying because of a pact that their forefathers made with the devil. This is not only absurd, it is deflective to the Gospel! It is much better that we get on our knees and pray for the Haitians and recognize that our lives are temporary. We live in a cursed creation, a fallen world, that one day will give way to the best of all worlds, a new Heaven and a new Earth, wherein dwells righteousness.

So those listening to the sound of my voice, should be into the word and the word into them, equipped to always be ready to give an answer, a reason for the hope that lies in you with gentleness and respect. Not like those who puff up their chest and say, “The reason I’m prosperous and the reason I’m not suffering is I didn’t make a pact with the devil.” The gospel is each one of us giving a cup of cold water in the name of Jesus Christ.


Greeks in Haiti Safe and Well

January 15, 2010
Kathimerini

Eleven Greeks and the Belgian husband of a Greek woman who were in the Caribbean country of Haiti when a deadly earthquake struck earlier this week are safe and well, Greece’s Foreign Ministry said yesterday.

Officials said that the Spanish presidency of the European Union was arranging for the 12 to be flown out of Port-au-Prince, where it is estimated that there could be more than 100,000 dead, by tomorrow morning. More details about the 12 were not made available and it was not clear if there are anymore Greeks on the island.

Greece said yesterday that it would donate 200,000 euros of emergency aid to Haiti. The Church of Greece’s Holy Synod expressed it support and said that collection trays would be passed around at all churches during Sunday services in order to raise money for the earthquake victims.

The Church also noted that Haiti was the first country to recognize Greece as an independent state in 1822.

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The Life of Saint Paul of Thebes

St. Paul of Thebes (Feast Day - January 15)

The Life of Saint Paul of Thebes, the first hermit, was written in the year 374 or 375 during St. Jerome's stay in the desert of Syria, as is seen from Ch. 6, and was dedicated to Paul of Concordia as stated in Jerome's Ep. X. Ch. 3.

1. It has been a subject of wide-spread and frequent discussion what monk was the first to give a signal example of the hermit life. For some going back too far have found a beginning in those holy men Elias and John, of whom the former seems to have been more than a monk and the latter to have begun to prophesy before his birth. Others, and their opinion is that commonly received, maintain that Anthony was the originator of this mode of life, which view is partly true. Partly I say, for the fact is not so much that he preceded the rest as that they all derived from him the necessary stimulus. But it is asserted even at the present day by Amathas and Macarius, two of Anthony's disciples, the former of whom laid his master in the grave, that a certain Paul of Thebes was the leader in the movement, though not the first to bear the name, and this opinion has my approval also. Some as they think fit circulate stories such as this--that he was a man living in an underground cave with flowing hair down to his feet, and invent many incredible tales which it would be useless to detail. Nor does the opinion of men who lie without any sense of shame seem worthy of refutation. So then inasmuch as both Greek and Roman writers have handed down careful accounts of Anthony, I have determined to write a short history of Paul's early and latter days, more because the thing has been passed over than from confidence in my own ability. What his middle life was like, and what snares of Satan he experienced, no man, it is thought, has yet discovered.

2. During the persecutions of Decius and Valerian, when Cornelius at Rome and Cyprian at Carthage shed their blood in blessed martyrdom, many churches in Egypt and the Thebaid were laid waste by the fury of the storm. At that time the Christians would often pray that they might be smitten with the sword for the name of Christ. But the desire of the crafty foe was to slay the soul, not the body; and this he did by searching diligently for slow but deadly tortures. In the words of Cyprian himself who suffered at his hands: they who wished to die were not suffered to be slain. We give two illustrations, both as specially noteworthy and to make the cruelty of the enemy better known.

3. A martyr, steadfast in faith, who stood fast as a conqueror amidst the racks and burning plates, was ordered by him to be smeared with honey and to be made to lie under a blazing sun with his hands tied behind his back, so that he who had already surmounted the heat of the frying-pan might be vanquished by the stings of flies. Another who was in the bloom of youth was taken by his command to some delightful pleasure gardens, and there amid white lilies and blushing roses, close by a gently murmuring stream, while overhead the soft whisper of the wind played among the leaves of the trees, was laid upon a deep luxurious feather-bed, bound with fetters of sweet garlands to prevent his escape. When all bad withdrawn from him a harlot of great beauty drew near and began with voluptuous embrace to throw her arms around his neck, and, wicked even to relate! to handle his person, so that when once the lusts of the flesh were roused, she might accomplish her licentious purpose. What to do, and whither to turn, the soldier of Christ knew not. Unconquered by tortures he was being overcome by pleasure. At last with an inspiration from heaven he bit off the end of his tongue and spat it in her face as she kissed him. Thus the sensations of lust were subdued by the intense pain which followed.

4. While such enormities were being perpetrated in the lower part of the Thebaid, Paul and his newly married sister were bereaved of both their parents, he being about sixteen years of age. He was heir to a rich inheritance, highly skilled in both Greek and Egyptian learning, gifted with a gentle disposition and a deep love for God. Amid the thunders of persecution he retired to a house at a considerable distance and in a more secluded spot. But to what crimes does not the "accursed thirst for gold" impel the human heart? His brother-in-law conceived the thought of betraying the youth whom he was bound to conceal. Neither a wife's tears which so often prevail, nor the ties of blood, nor the all-seeing eye of God above him could turn the traitor from his wickedness. "He came, he was urgent, he acted with cruelty while seeming only to press the claims of affection."

5. The young man had the tact to understand this, and, conforming his will to the necessity, fled to the mountain wilds to wait for the end of the persecution. He began with easy stages, and repeated halts, to advance into the desert. At length he found a rocky mountain, at the foot of which, closed by a stone, was a cave of no great size. He removed the stone (so eager are men to learn what is hidden), made eager search, and saw within a large hall, open to the sky, but shaded by the wide-spread branches of an ancient palm. The tree, however, did not conceal a fountain of transparent clearness, the waters whereof no sooner gushed forth than the stream was swallowed up in a small opening of the same ground which gave it birth. There were besides in the mountain, which was full of cavities, many habitable places, in which were seen, now rough with rust, anvils and hammers for stamping money. The place, Egyptian writers relate, was a secret mint at the time of Antony's union with Cleopatra.

6. Accordingly, regarding his abode as a gift from God, he fell in love with it, and there in prayer and solitude spent all the rest of his life. The palm afforded him food and clothing. And, that no one may deem this impossible, I call to witness Jesus and His holy angels that I have seen and still see in that part of the desert which lies between Syria and the Saracens' country, monks of whom one was shut up for thirty years and lived on barley bread and muddy water, while another in an old cistern (called in the country dialect of Syria Gubba) kept himself alive on five dried figs a day. What I relate then is so strange that it will appear incredible to those who do not believe the words that "all things are possible to him that believes."

7. But to return to the point at which I digressed. The blessed Paul had already lived on earth the life of heaven for a hundred and thirteen years, and Anthony at the age of ninety was dwelling in another place of solitude (as he himself was wont to declare), when the thought occurred to the latter, that no monk more perfect than himself had settled in the desert. However, in the stillness of the night it was revealed to him that there was farther in the desert a much better man than he, and that he ought to go and visit him. So then at break of day the venerable old man, supporting and guiding his weak limbs with a staff, started to go: but what direction to choose he knew not. Scorching noontide came, with a broiling sun overhead, but still he did not suffer himself to be turned from the journey he had begun. Said he, "I believe in my God: some time or other He will shew me the fellow-servant whom He promised me." He said no more. All at once he beholds a creature of mingled shape, half horse half man, called by the poets Hippocentaur. At the sight of this he arms himself by making on his forehead the sign of salvation, and then exclaims, "Holloa! Where in these parts is a servant of God living?" The monster after gnashing out some kind of outlandish utterance, in words broken rather than spoken through his bristling lips, at length finds a friendly mode of communication, and extending his right hand points out the way desired. Then with swift flight he crosses the spreading plain and vanishes from the sight of his wondering companion. But whether the devil took this shape to terrify him, or whether it be that the desert which is known to abound in monstrous animals engenders that kind of creature also, we cannot decide.

8. Antony was amazed. and thinking over what he had seen went on his way. Before long in a small rocky valley shut in on all sides he sees a manikin with hooked snout, horned forehead, and extremities like goats' feet. When he saw this, Anthony like a good soldier seized the shield of faith and the helmet of hope: the creature none the less began to offer to him the fruit of the palm-trees to support him on his journey and as it were pledges of peace. Anthony perceiving this stopped and asked who he was. The answer he received from him was this: "I am a mortal being and one of those inhabitants of the desert whom the Gentiles deluded by various forms of error worship under the names of Fauns, Satyrs, and Incubi. I am sent to represent my tribe. We pray you in our behalf to entreat the favour of your Lord and ours. who, we have learnt, came once to save the world, and 'whose sound has gone forth into all the earth.' " As he uttered such words as these, the aged traveller's cheeks streamed with tears, the marks of his deep feeling, which he shed in the fullness of his joy. He rejoiced over the Glory of Christ and the destruction of Satan, and marvelling all the while that he could understand the Satyr's language, and striking the ground with his staff, he said, "Woe to thee, Alexandria, who instead of God worshippest monsters! Woe to thee, harlot city, into which have flowed together the demons of the whole world! What will you say now? Beasts speak of Christ, and you instead of God worship monsters." He had not finished speaking when, as if on wings, the wild creature fled away. Let no one scruple to believe this incident; its truth is supported by what took place when Constantine was on the throne, a matter of which the whole world was witness. For a man of that kind was brought alive to Alexandria and shewn as a wonderful sight to the people. Afterwards his lifeless body, to prevent its decay through the summer heat, was preserved in salt and brought to Antioch that the Emperor might see it.

9. To pursue my proposed story. Anthony traversed the region on which he had entered, seeing only the traces of wild beasts, and the wide waste of the desert. What to do, whither to wend his way, he knew not. Another day had now passed. One thing alone was left him, his confident belief that he could not be forsaken by Christ. The darkness of the second night he wore away in prayer. While it was still twilight, he saw not far away a she-wolf gasping with parching thirst and creeping to the foot of the mountain. He followed it with his eyes; and after the beast had disappeared in a cave he drew near and began to look within. His curiosity profiled nothing: the darkness hindered vision. But, as the Scripture saith, "perfect love casts out fear". With halting step and bated breath he entered, carefully feeling his way; he advanced little by little and repeatedly listened for the sound. At length through the fearful midnight darkness a light appeared in the distance. In his eager haste he struck his foot against a stone and roused the echoes; whereupon the blessed Paul closed the open door and made it fast with a bar. Then Anthony sank to the ground at the entrance and until the sixth hour or later craved admission, saying, "Who I am, whence, and why I have come, you know. I know I am not worthy to look upon you: yet unless I see you I will not go away. You welcome beasts: why not a man? I asked and I have found: I knock that it may be opened to me. But if I do not succeed, I will die here on your threshold. You will surely bury me when I am dead." Such was his constant cry: unmoved he stood. To whom the hero thus brief answer made "Prayers like these do not mean threats; there is no trickery in tears. Are you surprised at my not welcoming you when you have come here to die?" Thus with smiles Paul gave him access, and, the door being opened, they threw themselves into each other's arms, greeted. one another by name, and joined in thanksgiving to God.

10. After the sacred kiss Paul sat down and thus began to address Anthony. "Behold the man whom yon have sought with so much toil, his limbs decayed with age, his grey hairs unkempt. You see before you a man who were long will be dust. But love endures all things. Tell me therefore, I pray you, how fares the human race? Are new homes springing up in the ancient cities? What government directs the world? Are there still some remaining for the demons to carry away by their delusions?" Thus conversing they noticed with wonder a raven which had settled on the bough of a tree, and was then flying gently down till it came and laid a whole loaf of bread before them. They were astonished, and when it had gone, "See," said Paul, "the Lord truly loving, truly merciful, has sent us a meal. For the last sixty years I have always received half a loaf: but at your coming Christ has doubled his soldier's rations."

11. Accordingly, having returned thanks to the Lord, they sat down together on the brink of the glassy spring. At this point a dispute arose as to who should break the bread, and nearly the whole day until eventide was spent in the discussion. Paul urged in support of his view the rites of hospitality, Anthony pleaded age. At length it was arranged that each should seize the loaf on the side nearest to himself, pull towards him, and keep for his own the part left in his hands. Then on hands and knees they drank a little water from the spring, and offering to God the sacrifice of praise passed the night in vigil. At the return of day the blessed Paul thus spoke to Anthony: "I knew long since, brother, that you were dwelling in those parts: long ago God promised you to me for a fellow-servant; but the time of my falling asleep now draws nigh; I have always longed to be dissolved and to be with Christ; my course is finished, and there remains for me a crown of righteousness. Therefore you have been sent by the Lord to lay my poor body in the ground, yea to return earth to earth."

12. On hearing this Anthony with tears and groans began to pray that he would not desert him, but would take him for a companion on that journey. His friend replied: "You ought not to seek your own, but another man's good. It is expedient for you to lay aside the burden of the flesh and to follow the Lamb; but it is expedient for the rest of the brethren to be trained by your example. Wherefore be so good as to go and fetch the cloak Bishop Athanasius gave you, to wrap my poor body in." The blessed Paul asked this favour not because he cared much whether his corpse when it decayed were clothed or naked (why should he indeed, when he had so long worn a garment of palm-leaves stitched together?) ; but that he might soften his friend's regrets at his decease. Anthony was astonished to find Paul had heard of Athanasius and his cloak; and, seeing as it were Christ Himself in him, he mentally worshipped God without venturing to add a single word; then silently weeping he once more kissed his eyes and hands, and set out on his return to the monastery which was afterwards seized by the Saracens. His steps lagged behind his will. Yet, exhausted as he was with fasting and broken by age, his courage proved victorious over his years.

13. At last wearied and panting for breath he completed his journey and reached his little dwelling. Here he was met by two disciples who had begun to wait upon him in his advanced age. Said they, "Where have you stayed so long, father?" He replied, "Woe to me a sinner! I do not deserve the name of monk. I have seen Elias, I have seen John in the desert, and I have really seen Paul in Paradise." He then closed his lips, beat upon his breast, and brought out the cloak from his cell. When his disciples asked him to explain the matter somewhat more fully he said," There is a time to keep silence, and a time to speak."

14. He then went out, and without taking so much as a morsel of food returned the same way he came, longing for him alone, thirsting to see him, having eyes and thought for none but him. For he was afraid, and the event proved his anticipations correct, that in his absence his friend might yield up his spirit to Christ. And now another day had dawned and a three hours' journey still remained, when he saw Paul in robes of snowy white ascending on high among the bands of angels, and the choirs of prophets and apostles. Immediately he fell on his face, and threw the coarse sand upon his head, weeping and wailing as he cried, "Why do you cast me from you, Paul? Why go without one farewell? Have you made yourself known so late only to depart so soon?"

15. The blessed Anthony used afterwards to relate that he traversed the rest of the distance at such speed that he flew along like a bird; and not without reason: for on entering the cave he saw the lifeless body in a kneeling attitude, with head erect and hands uplifted. The first thing he did, supposing him to be alive, was to pray by his side. But when he did not hear the sighs which usually come from one in prayer, he fell to kisses and tears, and he then understood that even the dead body of the saint with duteous gestures was praying to God unto whom all things live.

16. Then having wrapped up the body and carried it forth, all the while chanting hymns and psalms according to the Christian tradition, Anthony began to lament that he had no implement for digging the ground. So in a surging sea of thought and pondering many plans he said: "If i return to the monastery, there is a four days' journey: if I stay here I shall do no good. I will die then, as is fitting, beside Thy warrior, O Christ, and will quickly breathe my last breath." While he turned these things over in his mind, behold, two lions from the recesses of the desert with manes flying on their necks came rushing along. At first he was horrified at the sight, but again turning his thoughts to God, he waited without alarm, as though they were doves that he saw. They came straight to the corpse of the blessed old man and there stopped, fawned upon it and lay down at its feet, roaring aloud as if to make it known that they were mourning in the only way possible to them. Then they began to paw the ground close by, and vie with one another in excavating the sand, until they dug out a place just large enough to hold a man. And immediately, as if demanding a reward for their work, pricking up their ears while they lowered their heads. they came to Antony and began to lick his hands and feet. He perceived that they were begging a blessing from him, and at once with an outburst of praise to Christ that even dumb animals felt His divinity, he said, "Lord, without whose command not a leaf drops from the tree, not a sparrow falls to the ground, grant them what thou knowest to be best." Then he waved his hand and bade them depart. When they were gone he bent his aged shoulders beneath the burden of the saint's body, laid it in the grave, covered it with the excavated soil, and raised over it the customary mound. Another day dawned, and then, that the affectionate heir might not be without something belonging to the intestate dead, he took for himself the tunic which after the manner of wicker-work the saint had woven out of palm-leaves. And so returning to the monastery he unfolded everything in order to his disciples, and on the feast-days of Easter and Pentecost he always wore Paul's tunic.

17. I may be permitted at the end of this little treatise to ask those who do not know the extent of their possessions, who adorn their homes with marble, who string house to house and field to field, what did this old man in his nakedness ever lack? Your drinking vessels are of precious stones; he satisfied his thirst with the hollow of his hand. Your tunics are of wrought gold; he had not the raiment of the meanest of your slaves. But on the other hand, poor though he was, Paradise is open to him; you with all your gold will be received into Gehenna. He though naked yet kept the robe of Christ; you, clad in your silks, have lost the vesture of Christ. Paul lies covered with worthless dust, but will rise again to glory; over you are raised costly tombs, but both you and your wealth are doomed to the burning. Have a care, I pray you, at least have a care for the riches you love. Why are even the grave-clothes of your dead made of gold? Why does not your vaunting cease even amid mourning and tears? Cannot the carcases of rich men decay except in silk?

18. I beseech you, reader, whoever you may be, to remember Jerome the sinner. He, if God would give him his choice, would much sooner take Paul's tunic with his merits, than the purple of kings with their punishment.

Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone
With the rivers of your tears, you have made the barren desert fertile. Through sighs of sorrow from deep within you, your labors have borne fruit a hundred-fold. By your miracles you have become a light, shining upon the world. O Paul, our Holy Father, pray to Christ our God, to save our souls.

Kontakion in the Fourth Tone
O ye faithful, let us all laud the divine Paul, the bright luminary that shone at the virtues' lofty height; and let us joyously cry aloud: O Christ, Thou art the rejoicing of all the Saints.

Concerning the Monastery of St. Paul of Thebes in Egypt, see here and here.

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Father Lazarus Moore on Hinduism

This is a section from a lecture by the British Russian Orthodox Hieromonk Archimandrite Lazarus Moore. It was recorded in 1983. Father Lazarus died in 1992.

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Our Victorious Faith

by St. Nikolai Velimirovich

"And the victory that conquers the world in our faith" (I John 5:4).

Christ the Lord conquered the world. That, brethren, is also our victory. The apostles conquered the world and that is our victory. The saints, virgins and martyrs conquered the world and that is our victory. Brethren, there is nothing more powerful in the world than the Christian Faith. The swords that struck this Faith became blunt and broken but the Faith remained. The kings who fought against this Faith were smothered under the anathema of crimes. The kingdoms that waged war against this Faith are destroyed. The towns that rejected this Faith lay demolished in their ruins. The heretics who corrupted this Faith perished in soul and body and under anathema departed from this world, and this Faith remained.

Brethren, when the world pursues us with its temptations: the temptation of external beauty, the temptation of riches, the temptation of pleasure, the temptation of transient glory; with what shall we resist and by what shall we be victorious if not by this Faith? In truth, by nothing except by this invincible Faith which knows about something better than all the wealth of this world.

When all the temptations of this world reveal the opposite side of their faces, when beauty turns into ugliness, health into sickness, riches into poverty, glory into dishonor, authority into humiliation and all blossoming physical life into filth and stench--by what shall we overcome this grief, this decay, this fifth and stench, and to preserve oneself from despair, if not by this Faith? In truth, by nothing except this invincible Faith which teaches us eternal and unchangeable values in the Kingdom of Christ.

When death shows its destructive power over our neighbors, over our relatives and our families, over our flowers, over our crops, over the works of our hands and, when it turns its irresistible teeth even on us, by what shall we conquer the fear of death and by what shall we unlock the doors of life, stronger than death, if not by this Faith? In truth, by nothing except this invincible Faith, which knows about the resurrection and life without death.

O Lord Jesus, the Conqueror of the world, help us also to conquer the world with faith in You.

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Cartoon of St. Seraphim of Sarov

In Russian

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Saint Nina the Equal to the Apostles and Enlightener of Georgia

St. Nina (Nino, Christiana) the Equal of the Apostles and Enlightener of Georgia (Feast Day - January 14)

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

Nina was a relative of St. George the Great Martyr and Juvenal, the Patriarch of Jerusalem. Her parents belonged to the nobility in Cappadocia and since they both were tonsured in the monastic state, Nina was educated under the tutelage of Patriarch Juvenal. Hearing about the people of Georgia, the virgin Nina, from an early age, desired to go to Georgia and to baptize the Georgians. The All-Holy Mother of God appeared to Nina and promised to take her to this land. When our Lord opened the way, the young Nina, indeed, traveled to Georgia where, in a short period of time, she gained the love of the Georgian people. Nina succeeded in baptizing the Georgian Emperor Mirian, his wife Nana and their son Bakar, who, later on, zealously assisted in Nina's missionary work. During her lifetime, Nina traveled throughout Georgia, mainly to convert the entire nation to the Faith of Christ, exactly at the time of the terrible persecution of the Christians at the hands of Emperor Diocletian. Having rested from her many labors, Nina died in the Lord in the year 335 A.D. Her body is entombed in the Cathedral Church in Mtzkheta. She worked many miracles during her life and after her death.

HYMN OF PRAISE: St. Nina

Virgin most beautiful, Nina of noble birth,
By Divine Providence became the Apostle to the Georgians,
In defiance of the persecution by Diocletian, the Emperor,
With the Cross, she baptized Emperor Mirian
His wife Nana and his son Bakar,
Through them, all the people and the elite of the leaders,
With the Cross of the Son of God, baptized them all,
Saint Nina, Apostle to the Georgians.
From her youth, Nina prayed to God
That Djul (the Rose) - Georgia, she baptized.
For that which she prayed to God, the good God granted:
From Nina's hand, the Cross shown
To docile Georgia where it shines even now,
Where Nina's hand blesses even now.
There is Nina's grave, overwhich a church glistens,
Glorifying Saint Nina and the Lord Christ.

The earliest life of St. Nina by Tyrannius Rufinus, Historia Ecclesiastica (Book I, chapter 10):

At that time also the Iberian nation, who live in the clime of Pontus, accepted the laws of God's word and faith in the kingdom of heaven. This so excellent deed was brought about by a certain captive woman who had fallen among them, and who led a life of faith and complete sobriety and virtue, and day and night unceasingly offered up prayers to God. The very novelty of this thing began to amaze the barbarians, and they diligently inquired what it meant. She told them simply the truth of the matter, namely that she was wont thus to worship Christ her God. The strangeness of this name seemed to the barbarians the most astonishing feature of the whole business. As often happens, however, her very persistence aroused among the womenfolk a certain curiosity to see whether such devotion might not win some reward.

It is said to be a custom among them that if a child falls ill, it is carried round by its mother to each individual household, so that if anyone knows of some trustworthy remedy, he may administer it to the sufferer. Accordingly, when a certain woman had carried her ailing child to everyone, as the custom was, but without finding any cure in all the homes she had visited, she came at last to the captive woman so that she too might declare anything she knew of. The captive woman affirmed that she knew of no human remedy, but assured the mother that her God Christ, whom she worshipped, could grant the child that deliverance of which men had lost hope. Placing the infant on her hair cloak and furthermore offering up a prayer to the Lord, the captive woman then gave back the child cured to its mother.

The report of this spread to many, and the renown of the marvellous deed reached the ears of the queen who, being afflicted by some very grave bodily complaint, was in the greatest desperation. She asked for the captive woman to be brought to her. The latter, however, declined to go, lest she should seem to diverge from the retiring way of life fitting to her sex. Then the queen commanded them to carry her to the captive's cell. After laying her likewise on her hair cloak and calling on Christ's name, the captive woman raised her up immediately after the prayer in good health and spirits. She taught the queen that Christ, Son of God Almighty, was the Deity who had bestowed this cure on her, and that she should invoke Him, whom she ought to acknowledge as the source of her life and health. For it is He who distributes kingdoms to kings, and life to mortal men. And the queen, returning joyfully homewards, in answer to her husband's enquiry revealed the source of her sudden restoration to health. But when in his joy at his wife's recovery, he ordered presents to be sent to the woman, the queen said, "O King, the captive woman prizes none of these things. She rejects gold, despises silver and nourishes herself by fasting as if by food. The only way in which we can reward her is by worshipping that God Christ who cured me according to her prayer."

At that time, the king paid no attention to this and put the matter off, although his wife often recalled it to his mind. At length one day while he was hunting in the forest with his retainers, the light of day was clouded over with dense murk and disappeared in the horror of pitch-black night, making it impossible to proceed. His companions dispersed in various directions and lost their way, and he remained alone enveloped in impenetrable gloom, without knowing what to do or where to turn. Suddenly his spirit, tormented by despair of being rescued, was lit up by a thought: "If indeed that Christ whom the captive had preached to his wife was God, then let Him now deliver him from this darkness, that he too might forsake all other gods to worship Him." And forthwith, as soon as he had made this vow in thought alone, and before he had time to express it in words, the light of day was restored to the world, and led the king unharmed to the city.

Revealing immediately to the queen what had occurred, he summoned the captive woman, bidding her instruct him in the ritual of worship, and affirming that he would from now on venerate no other god but Christ. The captive woman appeared, and preached Christ the Lord, expounding the rites of prayer and the form of worship, in so far as these could properly he known to a woman. In addition, she told them to build a church, and described its shape.

The king accordingly summoned together all the folk of his nation, and related the events which had happened to him and the queen from the very beginning. He instructed them in the faith and, albeit himself not yet initiated into the Mysteries, became the apostle of his own nation. The men believed thanks to the king, the women thanks to the queen, and with a single mind they set to work to build a church. The surrounding walls were quickly erected, and the time came to set up the columns. When the first and second pillars had been raised, and they proceeded to lift the third, they employed all forms of machinery and the strength of oxen and men, but when it had been elevated to a slanting angle, it proved impossible by any manner of effort to raise it the rest of the way. The redoubled and often repeated efforts of all the men failed to move it from its position, and everyone was reduced to exhaustion. The whole people was seized with astonishment, and the king's resolution began to fail him. Nobody knew what was to be done.

But when at nightfall everyone went away, and both the toilers and their toil fell into repose, the captive woman remained alone on the spot and passed the whole night in prayer. And behold, when the king and all his people arrived full of anxiety in the morning, he saw the column, which so many machines and so many men could not shift, standing upright and freely suspended above its pedestal - not set upon a ditch but hanging in the air about a foot above. As soon as the whole people witnessed this, they glorified God and began to declare this to he a proof of the truth of the king's faith and the religion of the captive woman. And behold, while they were all paralyzed with amazement, the pillar slowly descended on to its base before their eyes without anyone touching it, and settled in perfect balance. After this the rest of the columns were erected with such ease that the remainder were all set in place that same day.

After the church had been built with due magnificence, the people were zealously yearning for God's faith. So an embassy was sent on behalf of the entire nation to the Emperor Constantine, in accordance with the captive woman's advice. The foregoing events were related to him, and a petition submitted, requesting that priests be sent to complete the work which God had begun. Sending them on their way amidst rejoicing and ceremony, the Emperor was far more glad at this news than if he had annexed to the Roman Empire peoples and realms unknown.

These happenings were related to us by Bacurius, a most trustworthy man, himself king of that very nation, and commander of the guards in our court (who was most scrupulous about religion and truth), at the time when he resided with us at Jerusalem on cordial terms, being then in command of the frontiers of Palestine.

See also here, here and here.



Apolytikion
O handmaiden of the Word of God, who in preaching equaled the first-called Apostle Andrew, and imitated the other Apostles, enlightener of Iberia and reed pipe of the Holy Spirit, holy Nina, equal of the Apostles, pray to Christ God to save our souls.

Kontakion
Let us sing praises to the chosen of Christ, Equal-to-the-Apostles and preacher of Gods word, the bearer of good tidings who brought the people of Georgia to the path of life and truth, the disciple of the Mother of God, our zealous intercessor and unwearing guardian, the most praised Nina.

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Correctness of Dogmas and Honorable Living

by St. Nikolai Velimirovich

If, at times, the dogmas of the Faith seem to be like solid food, first endeavor to fulfill the moral dogmas of Christianity, then the understanding of the dogmas of the Faith will be revealed to you.

Inquisitive questioning of higher things without effort regarding the improvement of your life does not bring any benefit. At one time, the monks of Egypt reflected about Melchisedek and not being able to come to a clear understanding about the mysterious personality of this ancient king and high priest, invited Abba Copres to their assembly and asked him about Melchisedek. Upon hearing this, Copres struck himself three times on the mouth and said, "Woe to you Copres! You left that which God commanded you to do and you question that which God does not require of you." Hearing him, the monks were ashamed and dispersed.

St. John Chrysostom writes, "And, if we adhere to the true dogmas and are not concerned about our behavior, we will not have any kind of benefit; and in the same way, if we concern ourselves about our behavior and neglect true dogmas, we will receive no benefit for our salvation. If we want to be delivered from Gehenna and to gain the kingdom, we need to be adorned on both sides: correctness of dogmas and honorable living."

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Can Orthodox Christianity Speak To Eastern Religions?

by Kevin Allen

I recently had a conversation with a dear Eastern Orthodox priest, whose twenty six year old son had left home the day before to live indefinitely at a Buddhist monastery. He was heart broken. His son was not a stranger to Eastern Orthodoxy or to its monastic tradition, having even spent two months on the holy mountain of Mt. Athos.

His son’s journey is not an isolated event. Eastern religious traditions are a growing and competing force in American religious life. Buddhism is now the fourth-largest religious group in the United States, with 2.5 – 3 million adherents, approximately 800,000 of whom are American western “converts”? There are actually more Buddhists in America today than Eastern Orthodox Christians! The Dalai Lama (the leader of one of the Tibetan Buddhist sects) is one of the most recognized and admired people in the world and far better recognized than any Eastern Orthodox hierarch? Have you looked in the magazine section of Borders or Barnes and Noble lately? There are more publications with names like “Shambala Sun”, “Buddhadharma”, and “What is enlightenment?” on the shelves than Christian publications!

In addition to losing seekers to eastern spiritual traditions (many of them youth), eastern metaphysics has also seeped into our western cultural worldview without much notice. They are doing a better job (sadly) “evangelizing” our culture than we Eastern Orthodox Christians are!

The Lord Himself commands us clearly

“that repentance and remission of sins (baptism) should be preached in His name to all nations” (Luke 24:47).

Buddhists (of which there are many sects) and Hindus live among us in America in ever-growing numbers, in our college classrooms, on our soccer fields, and in our “health foods” stores – they are right in our own backyards! They are a rich, potential “mission field” for the Eastern Orthodox Church in the United States.

Unfortunately with few exceptions, like the writings of Monk Damascene [Christensen] and Kyriakos S. Markides, we are not talking to this group at all.

As a former Hindu and disciple of a well-known guru, or spiritual teacher, I can tell you Orthodox Christianity shares more “common ground” with seekers of non-Christian spiritual traditions of the east than any other Christian confession!

The truth is when Evangelical Protestants attempt to evangelize the eastern seeker they often do more harm than good, because their approach is western, rational, and doctrinal, with (generally) little understanding of the paradigms and spiritual language (or yearnings) of the seekers of these eastern faiths.

There are three “fundamental principles” that Buddhists and Hindus generally share in common:

1. A common “supra-natural” reality underlies and pervades the phenomenal world. This Supreme Reality isn’t Personal, but Trans-personal. God or Ultimate Reality in these traditions is ultimately a pure consciousness without attributes.

2. The human soul is of the same essence with this divine reality. All human nature is divine at its core. Accordingly, Christ or Buddha isn’t a savior, but becomes a paradigm of self-realization, the goal of all individuals.

3. Existence is in fundamental unity (monism). Creation isn’t what it appears to the naked eye. It is in essence “illusion” and “unreal”. There is one underlying ground of being (think “quantum field” in physics!) which unifies all beings and out of which and into which everything can be reduced.

What do these metaphysics have in common with our Eastern Orthodox Faith? Not much, on the surface. But in the eastern non-Christian spiritual traditions, knowledge is not primarily about the development of metaphysical doctrine or theology. This is one of the problems western Christians have communicating with them. Eastern religion is never theoretical or doctrinal. It’s about the struggle for liberation from death and suffering through spiritual experience.

This “existential-therapeutic-transformational” ethos is the first connection Eastern Orthodoxy has with these traditions, because Orthodoxy is essentially therapeutic and transformative in emphasis!

The second thing we agree on with Buddhists and Hindus is the fallen state of humanity. The goal of the Christian life according to the Church Fathers is to move from the “sub-natural” or “fallen state”, to the “natural” or the “according to nature state” after the Image (of God), and ultimately to the “supra-natural” or “beyond nature” state, after the Likeness. According to the teaching of the holy Fathers the stages of the spiritual life are purification, illumination and deification. While we don’t agree with Buddhists or Hindus on what “illumination” or “deification” means (because our metaphysics are different) we agree on the basic diagnosis of the fallen human condition. As I once said to a practicing Tibetan Buddhist:

“We agree on the sickness (of the human condition). Where we disagree is on the cure”.

Eastern Orthodoxy – especially the hesychasm (contemplative) tradition – teaches that true “spiritual knowledge” presupposes a “purified” and “awakened” nous (Greek), which is the “Inner ‘I’” of the soul. The true Eastern Orthodox theologian isn’t one who simply knows doctrine, but one

“who knows God, or the inner essences or principles of created things by means of direct apprehension or spiritual perception. “

As a well-known Orthodox theologian explains,

“When the nous is illuminated, it means that it is receiving the energy of God which illuminates it…”

This idea resonates with eastern seekers who struggle to experience – through non-Christian ascesis and/or through occult methods – spiritual illumination. They just don’t know this opportunity exists within a Christian context.

As part of their spiritual ascesis, Buddhist and Hindu dhamma (practice) emphasizes cessation of desire, which is necessary to quench the passions. Holy Tradition teaches apatheia, or detachment as a means of combating the fallen passions. Hindu and Buddhist meditation methods teach “stillness”. The word hesychia in Holy Tradition – the root of the word for hesychasm – means “stillness”! We don’t meditate using a mantra, but we pray the “Jesus Prayer”.

Buddhism, especially, teaches “mindfulness”. Holy Tradition teaches “watchfulness” so we do not fall into temptation!

Hindus and Buddhists understand it is not wise to live for the present life, but to struggle for the future one. We Orthodox agree! Americans who become Buddhist or Hindu are often fervent spiritual seekers, used to struggling with foreign languages (Sanskrit, Tibetan, Japanese) and cultures and pushing themselves outside of their “comfort zones”. We converts to the Eastern Orthodox Church can relate! Some Buddhist and Hindu sects even have complex forms of “liturgy”, including chant, prostration and veneration of icons! Tibetan Buddhism especially places high value on the lives of (their) ascetics, relics and “saints”.

The main difference in spiritual experience is that what the eastern seeker recognizes as “spiritual illumination”, achieved through deep contemplation, Holy Tradition calls “self contemplation”. Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov), who was experienced in yoga (which means ‘union’) before becoming a hesychast – monk and disciple of St. Silouan of the holy mountain wrote from personal experience,

“All contemplation arrived at by this means is self-contemplation, not contemplation of God. In these circumstances we open up for ourselves created beauty, not First Being. And in all this there is no salvation for man.”

Clement of Alexandria, two thousand years ago wrote that pre-Christian philosophers were often inspired by God, but he cautioned one to be careful what one took from them!

So we acknowledge the eastern seeker through his ascesis or contemplative methodologies may experience deep levels of created beauty, or created being (through self-contemplation), para-normal dimensions, or even the “quantum field” that modern physics has revealed! However, it is only in the Eastern Orthodox Church and through its deifying mysteries that the seeker will be introduced to the province of Uncreated Divine Life.

It is only in the Orthodox Church that the eastern seeker will hear there is more to “salvation” than simply forgiveness of sins and justification before God. He will be led to participate in the Uncreated Energies of God, so that they

“may be partakers of the divine nature” (II Peter 1:4).

As a member of the Body of Christ he will join in the deifying process, and be increasingly transformed after the Likeness! Thankfully, deification is available to all who enter the Holy Orthodox Church, are baptized (which begins the deifying process) and partake of the holy mysteries. Deification is not just for monks, ascetics and the spiritual athletes on Mount Athos!

Eastern Orthodoxy has much to share with eastern spiritual seekers. Life and death hangs in the balance in this life, not the millions of lives eastern seekers think they have! As the Apostle Paul soberly reminds us,

” it is appointed for men to die once but after this the judgment.” (Heb. 9:27)

May God give us the vision to begin to share the “true light” of the Holy Orthodox Faith with seekers of the eastern spiritual traditions.


References

1. Makarian Homilies; Glossary of The Philokalia
2. Hierotheos Vlachos, Life after Death; 1995; Birth of the Theotokos Monastery
3. On Prayer; Sophrony; pages 168-170


Kevin Allen is a former Hindu practitioner before becoming an Eastern Orthodox Christian, and is also the co-host of the Internet radio program “The Illumined Heart” which is broadcast weekly on Ancient Faith Radio (http://www.ancientfaithradio.com/).

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Cypriot Press Vainly Criticizes Vatopaidi Monastery

Letter in the Press on Vatopaidi Monastery

14 Ιανουαρίου, 2010
VatopaidiFriend
By Olga Konaris Kokkinos

Everyone knows that when one is deliberately ignoring certain facts, one is equally guilty as if had he been falsifying them. And this is true of the press.

In the last twenty days, Cypriot papers have been isolating some quotations from a certain book written by Elder Joseph of Vatopaidi regarding the virtue of obedience, and gave the false impression that “Geronda”, or elder, tried to take the position of Jesus in the monasteries, and that Jesus Himself is nowhere to be found! They also implied that, when Elder Efraim [current abbot of Vatopaidi] travels outside Mount Athos, carrying with him the Hagia Zoni [Holy Belt] of our Lady for people to venerate, he does so in order to promote his image as “The” elder and that any donations offered by the faithful are misappropriated by the monastery.

First of all, the miraculous Hagia Zoni belongs to the faithful who have the right to venerate it and pay their respects as often as possible. The elders, or abbots, knowing they have this duty towards God and His people, leave Mount Athos and their peace, come out into the world to offer the Hagia Zoni or any other precious object to display, so that the faithful will be blessed. Innumerable miracles are also performed. A book detailing the many miracles which are performed by the Hagia Zoni in Cyprus and Greece has already been published and a second book is on the line. These books are offered to people for free.

Secondly, any offerings which are given by the people remain in the churches in which these holy objects are displayed and are not misappropriated by the monasteries.

Thirdly, if one questions whether it is appropriate for the abbot to accompany these objects when they leave Mount Athos, one only has to think how carefully one would look after his own children or his own property or any other precious things he owns and he will recognize that this attention is more than due.

Fourthly, people are hungry for the true word of God and have an unmistaken sense of who conveys this word, and it is they themselves who offer respect and honor to the one they think as worthy of this respect and honor, and thus call him “ Geronda”.

People are also under the impression that the monies collected by the church or the monasteries are kept in a closet and the abbots or the bishops keep counting them all the time and carry out businesses to increase their value. No one knows about the charity that is given out or the works that are carried out or the material or other help that many destitute people and their families, even whole parishes, receive from the monasteries and the Church because charity is by definition a secret deed. This is true of Vatopaidi Monastery and its metohi, especially the one in Porto Lagos, in Xanthi, which lies by the Visthonida Lake, where “the fuss is all about”….

As blessed Elder Paisios was saying: “Let’s not look for the smallest dirt to sit on like the flies, but let’s look for the flowers to harvest the pollen like the bees do."

Let us all, then, wait until the truth shines, rather than throw stones against one another and leave our minds open to doubt and suspicion.

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Saint Maximus Kavsokalyvites on Noetic Prayer

St. Maximos Kavsokalyvites or "the Hut-burner" (Feast Day - January 13)

A native of Lampsacus on the Hellespont, Saint Maximos became a monk at the age of seventeen. When his spiritual father died, he went on pilgrimage to Constantinople, where he took up the ascesis of folly for Christ, pretending madness in order to conceal his virtues and struggles from the world. He then went to the Great Lavra of St Athanasius on Mount Athos, where he lived as a simple monk in complete obedience.

One day, he was told in a dream to go to the summit of Athos to receive (like Moses) the tablets of the spiritual law. He prayed continuously atop the Holy Mountain for three days, after which the Mother of God appeared to him surrounded by angels. She gave him a miraculous loaf for his sustenance and told him to live in solitude on the wild slopes of Mount Athos. Henceforth he lived apart, barefoot in all weather.

He would build himself crude shelters of branches and brush; after living in one for a short time he would burn it and move to a new place. Thus he received the name Kavsokalyvites "the Hut Burner" from the other monks, who dismissed him as a madman.

Saint Gregory the Sinaite, one of the great Hesychasts, heard of St Maximos, and hurried to meet him. When they met, St Maximos put aside his usual silence at St Gregory's pleading, and they discoursed together for many hours. St Gregory asked St Maximos the story of his life, and Maximos told him of the wonders God had accomplished in him since his youth. He said that one day, when still very young, he was praying with tears before the icon of the Mother of God, and as he bent to venerate it a gentle dew-like warmth suddenly filled his chest and heart, producing abundant compunction; and that since then his nous, stationed unshakeably in his heart, had not ceased to invoke the Name of Jesus and that of the Mother of God with unutterable sweetness.

They went on with the following conversation concerning Noetic Prayer:

"In saying the Prayer, are you sometimes rapt in ecstasy?" Gregory asked.

Maximos answered: "I made haste to the desert and have sought solitude for this very thing - in order to find the fruits of prayer in abundance - I mean the pure love of God and the ravishment of the nous by the Lord."

"What does the nous do when that happens? Does it continue to utter the prayer in the heart?"

"By no means", replied Maximos. "When the Holy Spirit visits the man of prayer, prayer ceases; for the nous, absorbed completely in the Spirit of God, ceases to act from its own energy. It lets itself be led 'where the Spirit wills' (Jn. 3:8), into the immaterial heaven of the divine light, or into other contemplations, or even into an inexpressible conversation with God. For just as wax, which is by nature hard, burns and becomes all fire and all light when brought into contact with fire, although remaining a material quite distinct from it, in the same way, the nous, in so far as it remains in its separate nature, conceives only what is connected to its nature and under its power; but when the divine fire, the Holy Spirit, draws near, it burns with the fire of the Godhead, carried away by the power of the Spirit; every thought and every concept vanishes, and the whole nous, swallowed up by the light of God, becomes divine and radiant light."

"What are the signs of illusion and the signs of Grace?" Gregory asked.

"The signs of diabolical illusion are disturbance of spirit, hardness of heart, fear, agitation of the thoughts, vanity, anger, vain imaginations and terrifying visions of light and fire. But when the Holy Spirit draws near to our spirit, He integrates it, makes it wise, humble and restrained. He instills in man the thought of death and of the Judgement, and leads him to weep tears of compunction at the thought of the Savior's loving kindness. He raises the nous to contemplation of things on high, and illumines it by bathing it in divine light. He gives peace to the heart, and conveys unutterable joy and exultation to all its powers. As the Apostle teaches, 'The fruits of the Spirit are joy, peace, patience, gentleness, self-control, compassion and humility'" (Gal. 5:22).

Saint Gregory was astonished at the wonders that God had accomplished in St Maximos, at his depth of spiritual understanding and his eloquence. Returning to the nearby monks, he said "He is an angel and not a man!" He begged St Maximos to give up his nomadic life and his pretended madness, and to live among his fellow monks for their edification. This St Maximos did. He settled in one of his crude huts, living on bread miraculously provided from heaven and on sea-water, which was made sweet by his prayer. He received and counseled any monks who sought him out, and over the years was visited by two Emperors and by the Patriarch of Constantinople. In his last years he returned to a small cell in his Lavra, where he reposed in peace at the age of ninety-five in the year 1365. The monks of Mount Athos immediately venerated him as a Saint.

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Papa Dimitri Gagastathis and the Old Calendarists

- "Father, the Old Calendarists tell us that our Sacraments are invalid. What do you say?"

How do the Old Calendarists say that our Sacraments are invalid? In 1947, while I was doing the service of Sanctification and chanting ‘Great are You, O Lord, and great are Your works’, a smoke came out of the cup and the water was heated up. Even in the cups that pious Christians held, the water was heated up. How, then, can you tell me that the Sacraments are invalid?


- How can God work miracles with the New Calendar if it is not right? How did the miracle of St. Bessarion happen in the village of Dousiko? This is enough to show us that the right faith, love and keeping of the commandments play an important role in the sanctification of man. I wrote about this matter to Fr. Philotheos Zervakos and he responded to me rightly--and so I also believe, the unlearned one, from my experience--that 13 days can neither take you out or put you into the Kingdom of Heaven....I also asked the Archangels about it and they told me, ‘Stay where you are.’

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H1N1, the False Pandemic

Ivica Miskovic
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
AroundGlobe

Wolfgang Wodarg, Head of Health at the Council of Europe, considers that the A H1N1 scare was a “campaign of panic”, a “false pandemic”, “one of the great medicine scandals of the century” and claims that the vaccines, based on cancerous cells, spell the chilling message “there is worse to come”.

For Wolfgang Wodarg, the pandemic of A H1N1, which started as Mexican Flu, then Swine Flu, was no more and no less than a campaign to create a false notion of insecurity for the pharmaceutical companies to cash in. “The great campaign of panic we have seen provided a golden opportunity for representatives from labs who knew they would hit the jackpot in the case of a pandemic being declared,” he declared.

Claiming that the “pandemic” is “one of the great medicine scandals of the century,” Dr. Wodarg has called for an enquiry. The resolution he proposed for an investigation into the role of the pharma companies in the A H1N1 story has been passed by the Council of Europe, which is based in Strasbourg. An emergency debate will be held at the end of January.

“We want to clarify everything that brought about this massive operation of disinformation. We want to know who made decisions, on the basis of what evidence, and precisely how the influence of the pharmaceutical industry came to bear on the decision-making,” declared Dr. Wodarg, adding that a group of people in the World Health Organization “is associated very closely with the pharmaceutical industry”.

Are the vaccines dangerous?

Regarding the vaccines, Dr. Wodarg delivered some chilling statements in an interview with the French publication L’Humanité on Sunday: “The vaccines were developed too quickly. Some ingredients were insufficiently tested. But there is worse to come. The vaccine developed by Novartis was produced in a bioreactor from cancerous cells, a technique that had never been used until now”.

The health expert added that this was not necessary and huge quantities of public money were squandered as a result, developing a vaccine which has not followed the usual processes in place in national and international public institutions: “The latter are now discredited because millions of people have been vaccinated with products with inherent possible health risks”.

Pharma companies made billions from mass hysteria

Wolfgang Wodarg further accused the makers of antiflu drugs and vaccines of influencing the WHO’s decision to call a global pandemic, facilitating the implanting of mechanisms which in turn generated billions of dollars in profits. The British Department of Health, for example, set up special procedures, suspended normal rules, told national and local authorities to prepare for 65,000 deaths, prepare the morgues for record numbers of fatalities and instructed the armed forces to be on stand-by.

The result was less than 5,000 cases and 251 deaths, the vast majority of which occurred in patients with serious underlying chronic health problems, or a death rate 260 times less than that expected.
The seeds had been sown

For Dr. Wodarg, the seeds were sown five years ago with the warning that H5N1, avian flu, could develop a human-to-human transmissible form. According to the health expert, Governments then began panic stockpiling for the eventuality of a pandemic and placed “sleeper contracts” which would be activated automatically once a pandemic had been called by the WHO.

For this reason, believes Dr. Wodarg, drug companies placed people inside the WHO mechanisms to facilitate the calling of the pandemic.

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Orthodox Church to Get Novodevichy in 2010

12 January 2010
By Alex Anishyuk
The Moscow Times

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has signed an order transferring ownership of the 500-year-old Novodevichy Convent to the Russian Orthodox Church.

Novodevichy, which currently houses both a museum and the residence of Metropolitan Yuvenaly of Krutitsky and Kolomensky and is home to more than 12,000 works of art, will be handed over to the Russian Orthodox Church this year, Putin said at a meeting with Patriarch Kirill in Svyato-Danilovsky Monastery in Moscow last week.

Patriarch Kirill praised the decision, calling it “a very important event, taking into account the historic and the spiritual importance of Novodevichy Convent.” Culture Minister Alexander Avdeyev, who was also at the meeting, said the museum would keep its altar screen and would receive another in the future to fill the missing space in a separate church on its premises.

Avdeyev said he met Yuvenaly, the rector of the convent, and assured him that “everything will be all right” and that the convent would not lose any of its property.

Novodevichye Cemetery, which houses the remains of a number of famous Russians and is located nearby, will remain under the control of the city, Avdeyev said Sunday.

The division of responsibilities between the church and the museum administration and other terms of the transfer have not yet been decided on.

“It is premature to say for certain how the whole process of transition will be organized,” said a church spokesperson, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the talks. “Prime Minister Putin announced this decision, and the implementation of these plans is currently being discussed.”

The convent will house a community of nuns, and both the church authorities and the State Historical Museum will cooperate to manage the exposition, said Vladimir Vigilyansky, a spokesperson for the Moscow Patriarchate, Kommersant reported Monday.

“The museum will not be removed. It will keep functioning,” he said. “The state is getting rid of its Soviet heritage in terms of confiscated church property. But it is not about restitution. It is a goodwill gesture.”

Novodevichy Convent, founded by Prince Vasily III in 1524, was confiscated by the Bolsheviks after they seized power in October 1917 and was turned into a museum in 1926. The convent has been managed by the State Historical Museum since 1934.

Alexander Shkurko, director of the State Historical Museum, told The Moscow Times that there was unlikely to be any major problems with the transition. As part of the deal, the museum will get additional properties on Izmailovsky Island, in northeastern Moscow, to house its restoration workshops and part of its collection, he said.

The process of transition has been ongoing for two years and the “only issues left to be solved are technical ones,” mostly the relocation and protection of the exhibits, he said.

Architecture preservationists, however, fear the church is ill equipped to provide proper storage conditions for ancient icons and other works of art.

“The use of ancient icons and other relics in religious rites should be prevented, as most of them are quite fragile and will not survive daily usage. Burning candles will do irreparable damage to them,” said Konstantin Mikhailov, a coordinator for Arkhnadzor, an independent preservationist organization. “Besides, the church should allow the public to see the relics, otherwise the citizens’ constitutional right for free access to the works of art will be violated.”

The church should act as a tenant and strictly observe legislation on cultural protection, he said, adding that the church had recently failed to observe certain laws.

A window trellis built in the 17th century was removed last summer in the Church of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary on Ulitsa Pokrovka in the center of Moscow and the entry gate built in the 19th century was replaced in the Church of Prophet Elijah in Cherkizovo in northeastern Moscow in 2008, according to Arkhnadzor.

The church couldn’t be reached for comment on these cases.

Shkurko rejected concerns that the building and its exhibits may be damaged under their new owner.

“We’ve known our colleagues from the Russian Orthodox Church for many years, and we know that they have an understanding of how important it is to protect our cultural heritage,” he said. “The icons will be protected under a separate agreement with the museum, while the Culture Ministry will oversee the historic monument.”

Shkurko did express fears, however, that public access to the museum’s exhibition could be limited after the transfer if certain compromises can’t be found.

“We voiced our concerns, and we hope that the new owner will sign a contract with the museum putting us in charge of bringing visitors to the convent,” he said.

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Russian Orthodox Open Seminary In Paris

Russian Orthodox Church Opens its First Seminary Outside the Former Soviet Union

Intent to serve Russian diaspora, foster ties between Eastern and Western Christian churches in face of increasing secularization

Lisa Bryant
04 January 2010
VOA News

The Russian Orthodox Church has opened its first seminary outside the former Soviet Union - in a small French town outside Paris. The institution is starting modestly but has big ambitions: to serve Russia's growing diaspora and foster closer ties between Eastern and Western Christian churches.

It is a bitterly cold afternoon, but the large stone building in the heart of Epinay-Sous-Senart is warm and welcoming, with smells of cooking and a Christmas tree in the front hall. Upstairs, half a dozen black-robed students are studying theology.

The building is an old convent. But the nuns are gone and their Roman Catholic crosses have been traded for Russian icons and incense. The students are on the front lines of a bold experiment launched by the Russian Orthodox church, the first pupils of the church's first seminary in the West.

Alexander Siniakov is the seminary's director.

"The Russian Orthodox church needs more than ever good specialists who know not only the life of Christian churches in western Europe, and in the West generally, but also who know the theology, the history of the Catholic Church and the other Orthodox Churches and specialists who know foreign languages and are able to study the experience that Christians in Europe encounter with secularization," Siniakov said.

The seminary was officially inaugurated in November and it is starting modestly with about a dozen students enrolled in its five-year program. Most are from Russia and former Soviet republics, but there are plans to diversify and grow the student body to 40 over the next few years, with the seminarians also earning master's degrees in theology from the Sorbonne University in Paris.

One of the students, 25-year-old Andrew Seebrych Anekcandroviych from Ukraine, says he likes the cross-cultural experience.

"It is a nice possibility to study French and to study and to know how western people live in France and in other Western countries," Anekcandroviych said.

Some students will return home after graduating. But others are being groomed to serve Russia's far-flung diaspora that has ballooned after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Establishing a Russian Orthodox seminary in the West was the idea of Patriarch Kirill, who was elected to head the Moscow church in February. Orthodox priest and researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research, Stephen Headley, says Patriarch Kirill wants to train priests to serve parishes wherever Russian expatriates are located.

Father Headley also teaches at the seminary.

"He wanted to have a seminary in Paris where people would get used to using foreign languages, get used to living in a secularized society, like France," Headley said.

The seminary's director, Father Siniakov, says the institution is open to students of all Orthodox faiths, including those linked to the Patriarch of Constantinople in Istanbul.

The Moscow Patriarchate has also reached out to the French Catholic Church, asking for help in finding a location to house the seminary. French bishops put the Russians in touch with elderly nuns living in Epinay-Sous-Senart, who were moving out of their convent. The nuns still come back to teach the young seminarians French.

Monsigneur Michel Dubost is bishop of the Evry-Corbeil-Essonnes diocese where the seminary is located. He explains why it is important to have ties between the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches.

"We cannot be Christian ignoring the oriental tradition. The church has got two lungs as Pope John Paul said, one occidental and one oriental. And we cannot know the roots of the Catholic Church when ignoring what happened in the Orthodox Church," Dubost said.

The relationship between the seminary and the French Catholic Church reflects more broadly the warming ties between the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church after centuries-old divisions. The dialogue has intensified under the current leaders, Pope Benedict XVI and Patriarch Kirill, who have met several times in the past.

Although differences remain, Father Headley, the Orthodox researcher, believes the leaders are focusing on ways they can work together.

"I think there was a conscious decision on the part of the Vatican and the Moscow Patriarchate to try to cooperate on the social level, which talks about the re-Christianization of western Europe and the Christian roots of western Europe, because that would be a more fruitful and productive venue for them to work on," Headley said.

On a practical level, Father Headley believes the two churches may eventually lobby for causes they believe in. Both Pope Benedict and Patriarch Kirill have conservative views on matters like euthanasia, abortion and homosexuality.

Russian Orthodox church expert Michael Bourdeaux, who founded the British Keston Institute, agrees.

"If the Catholic and Orthodox churches came closer together, they would form a huge beacon for conservatism in the world today. Conservatism in terms of theology which they share, and conservatism in terms of sexual morality, morality in society in general," Bourdeaux said.

As night falls, the students at the Epinay seminary put their books aside and head for the large, plain room that serves as the school's chapel. They chant for Vespers service in Russian, with director Siniakov chiming in in French.

Asked earlier what the Orthodox Church can offer the West, student Anekcandroviych thinks for a while. His answer: spirituality. He says for many Russians, the Orthodox faith is not just a matter of rules and rituals. The Orthodox faith, he says, is alive.

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Ecumenical Patriarch Laments Secularization of Europe

Ecumenical Patriarch Laments Loss of Sacred Vision in Europe

By Ecumenical News International
11 Jan 2010

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomeos I, a spiritual leader who represents Eastern Orthodox Christianity, has urged young Christians to resist secularisation in Europe in a message to an ecumenical meeting that was greeted by global and regional leaders - writes Jonathan Luxmoore.

"After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Europe no longer recognises the place for Christianity that history dedicated to it - it is as if Christianity were being expelled from the history of Europe," said Bartholomeos I, the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.

The Patriarch made his appeal in a message sent to a five-day European Youth Meeting, organised by France's ecumenical Taizé Community in Poznan, Poland.

"We wish to recall here that the identity of Europe is primarily Christian and cannot be considered without this legacy," he said in his message to the 29 December-2 January gathering.

"The secularisation of Europe here takes the form of a rejection of the God of history. Nonetheless, the mobilisation of Christians throughout Europe is an important initiative recalling the Christian roots of this continent, its identity and its values."

Bartholomeos noted the emergence of "golden calves" marked by a tendency to sacrifice "justice, equality and freedom on the altar of consumerism". He said Europe should remember the part played by churches in its recent history, at a time when secularisation was denying "the sacredness of the world, breaking the link that exists between God, man and creation".

The Patriarch said, "Europe has just commemorated the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, an event not possible without the mobilisation of Christians.

"From the non-violent demonstrations organised by the Protestant churches of Leipzig; to international efforts by the Pope of Rome, John Paul II, who kept on crying out 'Do not fear'; through the mobilisation of Orthodox churches inside and outside the Soviet bloc, the fall of the Berlin Wall is not only the end of a historical sequence or a purely political event; its greatness is ecumenical."

A Taizé Community statement said that more than 30,000 young Europeans turned out for [the] meeting, the 32nd since 1978. They were accommodated at 150 Roman Catholic parishes in Poland's Wielkopolska region.

Taizé's German prior, Brother Alois Loser, urged participants, who were most numerous from Poland, Germany, France and Ukraine, to show solidarity with persecuted Christians in China. There the Taizé Community is distributing one million Bibles, he said. He also called on participants to work for "changes" in social structures as well as for greater justice in the world's economic and financial system.

The Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, in his message to the gathering said humanity had been "defaced and injured by false ideas of wealth, by false ideas of security, by false ideas of freedom".

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill I, for his part, said Europe's future will depend on young people's readiness to promote "justice, Christian morality and the idea of the common good".

At the same time, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the meeting's emphasis on social issues and called for "collective action to change the world for the better".

The Poznan meeting was the fourth such Taizé gathering organised in predominantly Catholic Poland, and will be followed in December by a meeting in Rotterdam.

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Orthodox Education in Russia Backfires

Patriarchate’s Drive for Religious Education in Russian Schools Backfires

January 11, 2010
Paul Goble
Georgian Daily

The Moscow Patriarchate’s push for religious instruction in Russian schools is backfiring in at least three ways, revealing how small a percentage of Russians are or are likely to become committed believers and, at least in the case of Orthodox Christianity, pushing more people away from the faith rather than attracting new followers.

First, polls from around the country show that an overwhelming percentage of young people and their parents want to attend courses in secular ethics rather than religion. Second, rights activists are warning that religious instruction particularly if it is given by unqualified people will alienate many young people still further from any interest in religion.

And third -- and beyond doubt the most important -- public reaction to the Orthodox Church’s effort highlights two things that the Patriarchate cannot be pleased about. On the one hand, it shows the impact of Soviet anti-religious efforts were more successful and continue to cast a longer shadow than many in that country and the West have thought.

On the other, this reaction calls into question the Patriarchate’s repeated insistence that more than three quarters of the Russian population is Russian Orthodox because more than three quarters of the population is ethnic Russian and that as a result, the Russian state should defer to Orthodoxy rather than defend the secular values enshrined in the Russian Constitution.

Many surveys have shown little interest in religious instruction, but one reported today is especially striking. A poll of 1331 children in a Urals city found fewer than a 100 wanted to attend courses in Orthodox culture and a mere handful courses on Islam or Judaism, while 93 percent wanted courses in secular ethics (www.fedpress.ru/federal/polit/society/id_168019.html).

This result, the latest in a series of polls conducted by education officials, suggests that relatively few children, perhaps less than one in ten, and their parents are interested in religious instruction, a reflection of both widespread support for secular values and concern about just how religious groups might use such courses.

And because such polls are being used to guide regional administrations concerning the purchase of textbooks and the hiring of instructors, their findings suggest that Patriarch Kirill’s push for such instruction may not have the results that he and the Orthodox Church hoped for or that many human rights activists feared.

Moreover, as Lyudmila Alekseyeva, the longtime head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, pointed out in an interview with Portal-credo.ru, the Church itself should recognize that “in fact, the introduction of a school course on ‘The Foundations of Orthodox Culture” is not in [its] interest” either (www.portal-credo.ru/site/?act=authority&id=1329).

That is because, Alekseyeva continued, there is nothing more likely to drive people away from religion “than lessons which are conducted by illiterate instructors,” something Russians experienced in the 19th century and that, at least in some places, Russians may experience again in the 21st.

Both these polls and those possibilities naturally are a matter of concern for the Russian Orthodox Church – and for the other “traditional” religions of Russia (Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism). But this pattern because of what it says about the pattern of religious belief in Russia carries with it an even greater challenge to the Moscow Patriarchate.

More than the leaders of any other faith, the Patriarchate has insisted on an “ethnic” definition of religious life, even as it has denigrated claims by the leaders of other religions, particularly Islam, that they can count as members of their faith all those who identify themselves with a nationality that historically practiced that religion.

Kirill and his supporters regularly claim that almost 80 percent of the population of the Russian Federation is Orthodox because almost 80 percent of the population is ethnic Russian, and many in the Church use that argument to make three inter-related claims about the nature of the country.

First, they insist that the 80 percent figure makes Russia an ethnically and religious unified country with minorities rather than a composite of several different nationalities and faiths. Second, they say that the state must recognize that reality regardless of what the 1993 Constitution says about the separation of Church and State.

And third, they say that the Russian political establishment must recognize Orthodoxy not just as primus inter pares but as the definer of Russian nationhood and statehood, however tolerant or intolerant the powers that be may prove to be with regard to the other “traditional” faiths or non-traditional ones.

Such claims may seem plausible, but the results of this campaign suggest that Kirill and the Moscow Patriarchate may have made a major miscalculation in pushing so hard for religious instruction in the public schools, a drive that could undermine their claims for Orthodoxy and encourage both followers of other faiths and those of no faith at all to defend their interests.

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