Beware of a Parent's Curse

by St. Nikolai Velimirovich

Beware of a parent's curse for a parental curse is a dreadful thing. Appreciate and seek a parental blessing for it will accompany you throughout your entire life.

The all-wise Sirach speaks: "For the blessing of the father establishes the houses of children but curse of the mother rooteth out foundations" (Sirach 3:9 Ecclesiasticus 3:9).

The curse by which Noah cursed the descendants of Ham still follows the unfortunate Hamites today. However, to the sons of Jacob, it was the same as their father blessed them in their life.

St. Sergius, as a young man, begged his parents for their blessing in order for him to become a monk. But, the aged parents begged their son to wait awhile and to labor around them until their death and after that to become tonsured a monk. Sergius obeyed his parents and was blessed until his death.

Bishop Hermogenes relates an incident how a son mistreated his wife. When his mother, with tears, began to scold him because of this, the son attacked his mother, beat her and smashed her head against a wall. The sorrowful mother cried out: "Lord, may my son be cursed and may he not have my blessing nor Your blessing." That same day, the son began to tremble throughout his entire body and for thirteen years he lived in this state of trembling not even able to raise a spoon to his mouth. After thirteen years, he made his confession and received the Sacrament of Holy Communion which made it somewhat easier for him and soon after that he died.

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God Must Be Weeping

Weeping Holy Icon Of The Panagia -Theotokos- Paranythia, from Monastery of Eliakon, near Kykko, Cyprus

by Archimandrite Nektarios Serfes

The shortest verse in the New Testament is Chapter 11, verse 35 in the Gospel of John. It is a sentence containing only two words: “Jesus wept.” The occasion was the death of His friend, Lazarus. Before He raised him from the dead, Jesus wept in front of Lazarus’ tomb. He did this to show that He was fully human, capable of feeling sorrow over the human condition, fully able to empathize with the mourners’ sense of grief and loss. But He wept also because, despite all He had told them, they still did not see Him as their Savior Who would give them all immortal life.

The Scriptures tell us that Jesus wept on other occasions as well. Luke 19: 41 – 47 tells us about Jesus’ return to Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday: “And when He was come near, He beheld the city, and wept over it”. From where He stood on the Mount of Olives, He could look down over what was then one of the greatest cities in the ancient world. The Holy City must have been an impressive sight— gleaming in the spring sunshine, with the great Temple built of white marble and ornamented with polished brass, set like a gem in its center!

Jesus knew that hardly forty years would pass before legions of Roman soldiers would attack and destroy Jerusalem and the Temple along with it. And so He wept for what this city could have been but never would be— a true haven of peace where goodness and justice prevailed and God ruled the hearts and minds of His chosen people. But Jesus saw what really was there and so He wept over the selfishness and meanness and apathy of the people, over their refusal to do God’s will and their indifference toward realizing their potential and becoming all that God calls all of us to become.

Today God must spend quite a lot of time weeping over us.

We too have built great cities but they are not cities of peace where God is honored and life is celebrated as a holy gift. Instead, we oppress one another and we rush to war when mere oppression isn’t enough to preserve our power and control.

We are too busy to tend our own families and too irresponsible ourselves to be adequate role models for our youth. And so without guidance, our children are left to fend for themselves. Too many fall along the way and we abandon them to wallow in drugs and despair and to drown in the cultural sewage we’ve allowed to engulf our lives.

We ignore our poor and elderly, the dispossessed, the mentally ill, the stranger in our midst. We are too busy pursuing our own 15 minutes of fame! We have no time to spare to help others, to visit the sick, to comfort the despairing, to guide the lost, to resettle the dispossessed, to show hospitality to the stranger. Abraham entertained angels but we do not even know who our neighbors are! We do not even see the homeless. The pains and trials of those “not of our class” or “not of our race” are “not our problem”!

All around the world, Christianity is out of fashion. Christians are persecuted and their beliefs are under attack from followers of other faiths and from followers of no faith. Science is perversely misinterpreted to “prove” there is no God; evil is gleefully held up as evidence that “God is dead” or, at the very least, He has gone away, forsaking the world at last. Churches are desecrated. Interpretation of Scripture is stretched beyond the limits even of common sense to confuse those who sincerely seek to do God’s will. Atheism and secularism are written into law and public policy; those who persist in publicly witnessing to their faith are subjected to ridicule, censorship and even prosecution.

Life itself is progressively cheapened. People who cannot defend themselves —the unborn, the severely disabled— are treated as things to be managed (or disposed of) by others. In our greed for personal wealth and power, we trash the environment, God’s glorious creation and the web of life that He designed to sustain us all, as if it were merely our property over which we have a right to do as we please.

If Jesus wept at Lazarus’ tomb because he understood and shared one family’s sorrow, how much more must God weep in empathy with entire nations’ despair over the oppression or destruction of entire races and peoples?

If Jesus wept contemplating the future destruction of Jerusalem, how much more must God weep over the nuclear holocaust with which we continue to threaten our neighbors? Over the damage to the planet which our greed continues to worsen? Over our indifference to the suffering of people “not of our class” and “not of our race” who live in Darfur or New Orleans?

Lord Jesus, Thou hast embraced our own humanity, sharing our grief, experiencing our pain and despair, and the weaknesses of our flesh. By taking on our nature, Thou didst show us how to merge humanity with the divine. Let us never cause Thee to weep over us; but keep us focused on Thee that we may transform the earth into the New Jerusalem.

Amen.

Peace to your soul!

Humbly in our Risen Lord,

+Very Rev. Archimandrite Nektarios Serfes
Who prays for you and with you!

September 2007

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St. Maximus the Confessor: 18 Spiritual Interpretations of the Transfiguration (6)

Continued from Part Five

F. The mode concerned with providence signifies through Moses how out of love for humankind it is raised above those who are embroiled in evil and error and wisely distinguishes among human beings the ways of departure from the material and corruptible and bodily to the divine and immaterial and bodiless, and with understanding implants the divine laws.

G. The mode of judgment suggests through Elijah how judgment punishes by word and deed those who deserve it, and deals with others suitably in each case in accordance with the underlying matter and kind of virtue or evil. For according to this scriptural passage, it is from things seen beforehand that Moses and Elijah sketch figuratively divine matters in the best way possible, each in a way appropriate to the mode of spiritual contemplation.

H. From what they [Moses and Elijah] said to the Lord and their speaking of the exodus that was about to be fulfilled in Jerusalem, they were taught not only about the accomplishment of the mysteries proclaimed beforehand and by the law and the prophets, but equally they learnt that the precise measure of the ineffable will of God concerning the universe is not to be apprehended by any being at all, nor the measure of the divine economies consequent on that will, nor yet the measure of his great providence and judgment, through which the universe is led in an orderly manner towards the end that is known beforehand by God alone. Of this no one knows its nature, or how it will be, or in what form or when, it is simply known that it will be, and then only to those who have purified their souls through the virtues and have inclined the whole of their mind wholly towards the divine. To them there is granted, as has been said, an apprehension of providence and judgment of the whole nature of visible things, and the modes through which the end of this present harmony naturally consist, and is well-nigh expressly proclaimed.

From Maximus the Confessor by Andrew Louth (Routledge: London 1999) pp. 128-134.

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Saint Nazarius of Valaam on the Poor and Needy

by St. Nikolai Velimirovich

"Give thanks to the Lord but do not forget His great men, the poor and the needy, for they can accomplish much with God the Lord." These are the words of the illustrious Russian ascetic of the nineteenth century, Father Nazarius, the abbot of Valamo [Valaam] Monastery. He spoke these words to the wife of a high-ranking official in Petrograd [St. Petersburg] who fell into disfavor with the Tsar because of certain serious accusations. The accused official became ill from worry and lay in bed. Hearing that Father Nazarius arrived in Petrograd, the wife of this official hurriedly sought him out and related the misfortune which had befallen them and implored him to pray to the Lord for her husband. "Do you have any copper or silver coins in change?" Father Nazarius asked her. The woman brought the coins and gave them to him. And so, Father Nazarius left. The same evening Nazarius again returned and gladdened the wife with this news: "Glory to God, all those close to the Tsar have promised to pray for you." Naturally, the wife thought of Tsar Alexander Pavlovitch and his courtiers, while the spiritual father was thinking about the beggars on the streets to whom he had distributed the coins and sent them to pray to God for the husband of this woman. And suredly the news arrived that the emperor ordered that the matter concerning this official be taken up again and reviewed. And, it was just what the official wanted. When the woman began to thank Father Nazarius, he said: "Give thanks to the Lord but do not forget His great men, the poor and the needy, for they can accomplish much with God the Lord."

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The Perils of 'Wannabe Cool' Christianity

by Brett McCracken
August 13, 2010
Wall Street Journal

'How can we stop the oil gusher?" may have been the question of the summer for most Americans. Yet for many evangelical pastors and leaders, the leaking well is nothing compared to the threat posed by an ongoing gusher of a different sort: Young people pouring out of their churches, never to return.

As a 27-year-old evangelical myself, I understand the concern. My peers, many of whom grew up in the church, are losing interest in the Christian establishment.

Recent statistics have shown an increasing exodus of young people from churches, especially after they leave home and live on their own. In a 2007 study, Lifeway Research determined that 70% of young Protestant adults between 18-22 stop attending church regularly.

Statistics like these have created something of a mania in recent years, as baby-boomer evangelical leaders frantically assess what they have done wrong (why didn't megachurches work to attract youth in the long term?) and scramble to figure out a plan to keep young members engaged in the life of the church.

Increasingly, the "plan" has taken the form of a total image overhaul, where efforts are made to rebrand Christianity as hip, countercultural, relevant. As a result, in the early 2000s, we got something called "the emerging church"—a sort of postmodern stab at an evangelical reform movement. Perhaps because it was too "let's rethink everything" radical, it fizzled quickly. But the impulse behind it—to rehabilitate Christianity's image and make it "cool"—remains.

There are various ways that churches attempt to be cool. For some, it means trying to seem more culturally savvy. The pastor quotes Stephen Colbert or references Lady Gaga during his sermon, or a church sponsors a screening of the R-rated "No Country For Old Men." For others, the emphasis is on looking cool, perhaps by giving the pastor a metrosexual makeover, with skinny jeans and an $80 haircut, or by insisting on trendy eco-friendly paper and helvetica-only fonts on all printed materials. Then there is the option of holding a worship service in a bar or nightclub (as is the case for L.A.'s Mosaic church, whose downtown location meets at a nightspot called Club Mayan).

"Wannabe cool" Christianity also manifests itself as an obsession with being on the technological cutting edge. Churches like Central Christian in Las Vegas and Liquid Church in New Brunswick, N.J., for example, have online church services where people can have a worship experience at an "iCampus." Many other churches now encourage texting, Twitter and iPhone interaction with the pastor during their services.

But one of the most popular—and arguably most unseemly—methods of making Christianity hip is to make it shocking. What better way to appeal to younger generations than to push the envelope and go where no fundamentalist has gone before?

Sex is a popular shock tactic. Evangelical-authored books like "Sex God" (by Rob Bell) and "Real Sex" (by Lauren Winner) are par for the course these days. At the same time, many churches are finding creative ways to use sex-themed marketing gimmicks to lure people into church.

Oak Leaf Church in Cartersville, Georgia, created a website called yourgreatsexlife.com to pique the interest of young seekers. Flamingo Road Church in Florida created an online, anonymous confessional (IveScrewedUp.com), and had a web series called MyNakedPastor.com, which featured a 24/7 webcam showing five weeks in the life of the pastor, Troy Gramling. Then there is Mark Driscoll at Seattle's Mars Hill Church—who delivers sermons with titles like "Biblical Oral Sex" and "Pleasuring Your Spouse," and is probably the first and only pastor I have ever heard say the word "vulva" during a sermon.

But are these gimmicks really going to bring young people back to church? Is this what people really come to church for? Maybe sex sermons and indie- rock worship music do help in getting people in the door, and maybe even in winning new converts. But what sort of Christianity are they being converted to?

In his book, "The Courage to Be Protestant," David Wells writes:"The born-again, marketing church has calculated that unless it makes deep, serious cultural adaptations, it will go out of business, especially with the younger generations. What it has not considered carefully enough is that it may well be putting itself out of business with God.

"And the further irony," he adds, "is that the younger generations who are less impressed by whiz-bang technology, who often see through what is slick and glitzy, and who have been on the receiving end of enough marketing to nauseate them, are as likely to walk away from these oh-so-relevant churches as to walk into them."

If the evangelical Christian leadership thinks that "cool Christianity" is a sustainable path forward, they are severely mistaken. As a twentysomething, I can say with confidence that when it comes to church, we don't want cool as much as we want real.

If we are interested in Christianity in any sort of serious way, it is not because it's easy or trendy or popular. It's because Jesus himself is appealing, and what he says rings true. It's because the world we inhabit is utterly phony, ephemeral, narcissistic, image-obsessed and sex-drenched—and we want an alternative. It's not because we want more of the same.

Mr. McCracken's book, "Hipster Christianity: Where Church and Cool Collide" (Baker Books) was published this month.

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'Eat Pray Love' Inspired by Gurumayi, Leader of Cult-Like Ashram

by Roger Friedman
August 13th, 2010
Showbiz 411

The whole “Eat Pray Love” movement – now the inspiration for a Julia Roberts movie – comes from a cult-like ashram that gained popularity in the early 1990s, guided by a woman named Gurumayi.

And it makes you wonder: has Julia Roberts, who now says she’s a practicing Hindu, found her own Scientology?

Now 55 years old, Gurumayi Chidvilasananda – her real name is Malti Shetty — is the swami whom Elizabeth Gilbert went to meet in India in the book, “Eat Pray Love.” Alas, Gurumayi wasn’t there when Gilbert arrived. She was never anywhere as I recall. I wrote a piece about her and her cult-like ashram back in the early 90s. Her disciples — mostly young women – met in a church basement on the Upper East Side. There were dozens of them. They were glassy eyed. They were mostly white, upscale, and having trouble with relationships. Sound familiar?

Around the same time, the New Yorker also did a piece about Gurumayi, who’d inherited her platform from Swami Muktananda as a young woman with her brother. Their parents — the father was a restaurateur – had been his followers. But a civil war broke out between the siblings, and Gurumayi snatched Swami Muktananda’s business from her brother. The way to inner peace is often not a pretty one.

Celebrities came, as they do: Meg Ryan swore by her. Raul Julia was reportedly a disciple. A well known New York actor and director, I was told, ended his marriage to a beautiful model because she’d gotten too involved with Gurumayi. The New Yorker article also noted Jerry Brown, John Denver, Andre Gregory, Diana Ross, Isabella Rossellini, Phylicia Rashad, Don Johnson, Melanie Griffith, and Marsha Mason.

She is a real “Slumdog Millionaire.” Her SYDA Foundation - about which it is hard to gain much information – is worth millions in real estate holdings. She also runs an international organization called Siddha Yoga, a business posing as a religion. Both organizations are tax exempt because they’re regostered as churches. If you’re thinking of looking for Gurumayi now, think again. A few years ago she closed the Catskills facility in South Fallsburg, New York, to strangers. She ended her big public relations push to get more disciples. She is rarely seen anywhere. But she is very rich.

Gilbert learned a lot from Gurumayi. She’s turned her glossy spiritual experience into a money maker. Tonight she’s hosting a special screening of “Eat Pray Love” at the Ziegfeld. Tickets are $25.

Marta Szabo knows all about Gurumayi. She worked for her for over 10 years. Now she’s published her own memoir, called “The Guru Looked Good.” Szabo has never met Gilbert, and her book was published before “Eat Pray Love.” What she says is quite different than Gilbert’s movie would lead anyone to believe.

“Gurumayi is not an enlightened being,” says Szabo. “If she were really enlightened she wouldn’t go around telling everyone. You’d know it.”

Szabo has a lot to say about Gurumayi, and it can be found in her book and elsewhere on the internet. But one thing she told me was pretty weird – when the New Yorker article was coming out, Gurumayi used a form of brainwashing on her disciples. “There were secret rituals,” Szabo recalls. “She practiced long distance Reiki” – a Japanese healing process. And there were “meditations” in “secret places.”

Most of it didn’t work, she says. “A lot of people left after the article.” The New Yorker piece detailed the tug of war to own the ashram, violence enacted against Gurumayi’s brother who eventually started his own ashram nearby in the Catskills, as well as accusations of sexual misconduct against Muktananda.

Julia Roberts would do well to read Marta Szabo’s book.

By the way, I asked Marta, where was Gurumayi all the time? “She would disappear for short periods,” Szabo said. “She was probably staying in a rich devotee’s house.”

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The Liturgies at Soumela and Akhtamar on August 15 and 19

Dormition in Turkey. Liturgy on the Black Mountain

It is being celebrated by the Patriarch of Constantinople, for the first time after many years, at a historic monastery that has fallen into ruin, with thousands of faithful including many from Greece and Russia. But Christians don't trust the concessions of the Turkish government.

by Sandro Magister
August 13, 2010
Chiesa

The news was released at the end of June by the agency "Fides" of the Vatican congregation for evangelization. For August 15, which for the Orthodox is the Feast of the Dormition of the Holy Mother of God, the Turkish government has authorized the celebration of a Liturgy in a place that is a symbol of the Christian faith of the East, as much of its flourishing as of its violent uprooting: the Monastery of Soumela of the Mother of God of the Black Mountain.

The concession was greeted with surprise by the Orthodox community, not only in Turkey, where the Greek-Byzantines of the Patriarchate of Constantinople have been reduced to a few thousand, but also abroad, especially in Greece and Russia.

Nonetheless, it's still a concession limited to a few hours. The Liturgy will be allowed to be celebrated only once, outside of the monastery, in front of the ruins.

The Monastery of Soumela, in fact, after withstanding the storms of history for fifteen centuries and staying alive even during Ottoman rule, was emptied and reduced to ruins in 1923, with the expulsion of the Greek Orthodox by the modern Turkish state.

Since then, it has been forbidden to celebrate the Liturgy there. The monastery, a small portion of which has been restored, has become a destination for tourist excursions from nearby Trabzon, the city on the Black Sea where on February 5, 2006, a young Muslim killed the Catholic priest Andrea Santoro.

For August 19, the Turkish government has made a similar concession for the Armenians. It has authorized the celebration of a Liturgy in the Church of the Holy Cross in Akhtamar, on an island of Lake Van.

This church, which had also fallen into ruin, was renovated in 2007. But it was set up as a museum, and until now the Liturgy has not been permitted to be celebrated there.

When the Armenian patriarch asked for permission to place a cross on top of the renovated church, the Turkish authorities refused. The church had to remain without a cross, without bells, without sacred markings, without pastors, and without faithful. Instead, the ceremony for the conclusion of the renovations prominently featured images of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the modern Turkish state.

The Liturgies at Soumela and Akhtamar on August 15 and 19 will be attended by a few thousand faithful, many of them from abroad: an unusual number for Turkey, a cradle of the early Christianity propagated by Paul and for centuries a land of flourishing Christianity, but where today the churches – or the little of them that remains – don't even have legal recognition.

Moreover, last August 5 two churches dating back to the fourth and sixth centuries in the village of Yemisli in the region of Mardin in southeastern Anatolia were reopened for worship. The buildings were renovated by seventy-two families of the Syriac Orthodox community, which numbers about five thousand faithful in Turkey.

The concessions made this August by the government of Ankara are being interpreted as a move on the chessboard of Turkey's problematic entry into the European Union, which is impossible without minimal standards concerning religious freedom.

But these and other appearances of openness continue to be accompanied by massive and persistent constraint. One of the reasons why the Turkish authorities oppose religious freedom is the fear that an increase in places of worship would bring out into the open the many secret Christians, registered as Muslims, believed to be living in the country.

On the two imminent celebrations, and in particular on the history and symbolic significance of the Monastery of Soumela, here is what was written for the August 1 issue of "L'Osservatore Romano" by a highly informed expert on the subject, Franciscan Fr. Egidio Picucci.
_____________

CELEBRATION AT THE MONTE CASSINO OF THE EAST

by Egidio Picucci

The month of August will be remembered in Turkey for two extraordinary religious events: on the 15th, after 87 years, the "divine Eucharist" will be celebrated in the former Monastery of Soumela, on the outskirts of Trabzon, ancient Trebizond, abandoned by the monks in 1923; and on the 19th, another will be celebrated in the Armenian church of the Holy Cross in Akhtamar, built on an island in the splendid Lake Van, in the eastern part of the country.

The Turkish government has granted the authorization, greeted with surprise and satisfaction by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, which is organizing itself so that everything will go smoothly, seeing that about ten thousand Greek and Russian Orthodox are expected (seven thousand at Van), with the attendance of a few politicians from these two countries.

Greek television will broadcast the entire celebration live, so that in particular the descendants of the Greeks who had to leave Pontus during the Turkish occupation will at least be able to see the places where their ancestors lived and come to know one of the most significant places for Eastern Orthodoxy.

In fact, Soumela is known as the Monte Cassino of the East, because for fifteen centuries, from 385 to 1923, it was the monastery-guide for the safeguarding of Greek tradition, art, history, and culture, and of religion all over the territory of the Pontus, whose inhabitants heard their own language being spoken by the apostles in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost.

The monastery is located fifty kilometers from Trabzon, among the gorges of the Altindere (Torrent of Gold), at an elevation of 1,200 meters, spanning forty meters of a long rocky outcrop of Mount Zigana, at the precipice of a deep ravine.

According to tradition, it was the Virgin herself who showed the place to the Athenian monks Barnabas and Sophronios, who, coming from the Chalkidiki peninsula, turned the smaller caves of the mountain into cells and the largest one into a church, displaying there the most artistic of the three icons venerated at that time in Athens and attributed to Saint Luke.

The fame of the mountain shrine and of the sanctity of the two monks, who died in 412 (on the same day, tradition assures us), drew pilgrims, obtained donations, and above all summoned other monks, becoming the leading center of culture and pilgrimage in all of northeast Asia Minor.

Even the emperor Justinian mingled among the humble people who braved the nearly inaccessible mountain, on the way back from one of his campaigns against the Persians, leaving a silver urn to house the relics of Saint Barnabas and the text of the four Gospels written on gazelle skin.

In spite of everything, the monastery was an easy target for bandits, who did not spare even the monastery, pillaged and burned in 640, but rebuilt four years later by Christophoros of Vazelon, a courageous monk who restored the morale of his fellow monks and fortified the construction so ingeniously that Athanasios of Trebizond reproduced it in building the Great Lavra of Mount Athos.

Experience, nonetheless, taught the monks that in order to protect themselves they needed stronger, military-style fortifications, so they made the monastery an almost inaccessible perch, turning it into an oasis of peace in the midst of a growing turmoil of wars and struggles, allowing it to reach its greatest splendor at the time of the empire of the Komnenos family, the rulers of nearby Trebizond.

In 1350, Alexios III asked to be crowned emperor there, and left a "chrysobull," or golden seal, there. With him, the monastery became a masterpiece of Byzantine art. Manuel III was also crowned there, leaving as a gift a relic of the cross, which was placed in the treasury; a great relic in a great reliquary.

The monastery's activity was not even interrupted by the Turkish conquest in 1461. On the contrary, Mehmed II Fatih ("the Conqueror") paid a very respectful visit there, leaving a "firman," an imperial decree, guaranteeing the monks ownership of the surrounding land. Selim I also held it in high esteem, staying there during a hunting expedition and later sending five huge spiral candlesticks, as tall as himself, encrusted with jewels and gold inscriptions. He returned there on the eve of the war against Ismail of Tabriz, and a third time after his victory, to deliver two massive golden candelabra taken from his enemy.

Gifts and privileges came from other sultans and from various patriarchs, sign of a devotion that placed the "Panàgia tu Mèlas," the All-Holy of the Black Mountain (the name Soumela seems to be derived from a corruption of "tu Mèlas") above even the shrine of Hagia Sophia in Trebizond, the glory of the city nestled on the coast of the Black Sea.

The life of Soumela seemed imperishable: faith, art, technology – it is said that an ingenious communication system permitted messages to be sent between the monastery and Trebizond in just ten minutes – and culture had made it the soul of the Pontus, a cardinal point of the spirit for pilgrims, scholars, and artists; the monks had turned it into a balcony wide open to heaven, and not just a way station in the countryside. Its reddish doors seemed to be painted with the blood that saved from death.

But in the winter between 1915 and 1916, the dream was shattered for the first time in fifteen centuries: the war forced the monks to leave mountain and monastery. They returned after the Russian occupation, and again following the armistice of 1918. It was a parenthesis of five years, because the Greco-Turkish war of 1923 drove them away forever, while unknown hands tried to obliterate Soumela with fire.

The memory of the monastery lived on in time thanks to European scholars who sifted among the ruins, bringing to light the remains of frescoes of surprising freshness and of intense spirituality. The monk Ambrosios saved the most precious relics walled up in the church of Saint Barbara: the icon of the Virgin was taken to the Monastery of Dovràs, near Veria, in Greece, and the manuscript of the Gospels went to the Byzantine museum of Athens.

Today, not a few enthusiasts confront the mountain to visit the ancient relic amid the vegetation, so surprisingly attached to the mountain that it seems suspended between heaven and earth. Even if the remains of a few heavy windows seem like the eyelids of death, behind them flutter recollections of life. The library, the remains of the church of the Dormition, the refectory, the 72 cells for the monks distributed over four floors, the lookout spot on the fifth floor pulse with memories and are a genuine balcony over the infinite, cradled by the waters of the Altindere, snaking through rocky ravines.

Led by Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I, the Orthodox will therefore experience at Meryemana Monastiri, the present Turkish name for Soumela, moments of profound emotion, proud that such ancient vestiges of faith have withstood the fury of time and of men.

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Bulgaria Looks to John the Baptist to Resurrect Flagging Economy

Archeological Find Promises Fame, Tourists; Questions Remain Over Relics' Authenticity

By Joe Parkinson
August 13, 2010
Wall Street Journal

Bulgaria's Orthodox church hierarchy has declared that the bones are authentic. "This is a holy find. It doesn't matter about the science," says Metropolitan Bishop Joanikii of Sliven, who oversees church affairs in Sozopol. "The holy relics of St. John radiate miraculous force. I cannot explain it by using words."

Kazimir Popkonstantinov, the archaeologist responsible for the finding in Sozopol and now hailed as a national hero, insists his discovery is in the same league as the Shroud of Turin. "This kind of discovery happens perhaps once every two hundred years," he says. "We have very strong proof that this is genuine. I know this is very important for the whole Christian world."

Some experts, however, are skeptical about the origin of the bones—as well as their earnings potential. Michael Hesemann, a religious historian who helps the Vatican date relics, says the bone fragments "appear to be authentic." But he thinks they lack the "box-office draw" of better-known religious attractions such as the Shroud, which believers say is Christ's burial cloth.

For its part, the Roman Catholic church says the matter requires more study. The Vatican's Pontifical Commission of Sacred Archaeology said tests to gauge the age of the bones and other factors would have to be weighed before it could judge their provenance.

News of the find, meanwhile, is already drawing visitors. At the local church of St. George, where the presumed relics are now on temporary display in a silver chest donated by Bulgaria's prime minister, hundreds of faithful line up for a chance to view the bones, mouthing prayers and making the sign of the cross.

The church says attendance at daily mass has jumped from about 100 to more than 3,000. Church officials say they are selling more votive candles in a day now than they used to sell in a year, and have just ordered another two tons of them to meet projected demand.

Bulgaria, the European Union's poorest nation, could use an economic miracle. The country's gross domestic product shrank 5% last year and contracted another 3.6% in the first three months of this year. Manufacturing has languished, and unemployment has climbed.

To help pull Bulgaria out of its worst recession since the collapse of communism here 20 years ago, the government is looking to promote tourism. Touting the relics is part of that plan. Mr. Djankov, the finance minister, says he wants to double government spending on the development of religious tourism so "we can make this history profitable."

Religious pilgrimages are big business globally, according to the World Tourism Organization, which estimates that up to 330 million faithful visit the world's key religious sites every year. Lourdes, the French town where worshippers believe the Virgin Mary appeared in 1858, draws about 5 million visitors annually.

The bones, though, make Bulgaria a member of a not-so-exclusive club of nations that say they are home to pieces of John the Baptist, who was beheaded on the orders of King Herod. Ancient tradition has held that his severed head was entombed in Herod's Jerusalem palace.

Over time, body parts believed to be St. John's have spread across Europe, the Middle East and South Asia. A church in Calcutta, India, claims to house part of a saintly hand.

The cathedral in Aachen, Germany, says it has the cloth used to wrap St. John's head after his decapitation. The Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, former seat of the Ottoman emperors, also claims to hold parts of one of St. John's arms and his head.

The presence of the relics of St. John hasn't translated into a tourist bonanza in any of these other resting places. Still, authorities in Bulgaria remain optimistic.

Orthodox Christians hold John the Baptist, who according to some accounts baptized Jesus, in especially high esteem. Services every Tuesday are dedicated to his memory in Orthodox churches.

There are some encouraging signs. Milenna Dimitrova, who has been selling fresh berries, figs and jams for 20 years from a stall here, says business has been so brisk that she doesn't have time to go to church. "The season was awful before—this is clearly a gift from God," she says.

Still, the hotel business in Sozopol continues to languish. Stanimir Stoyanov, a veteran hotelier who now runs the Hotel Duma, says occupancy is down by about a third since last year. "The government are telling us the town will become the next Jerusalem," he says. "We just hope that they're right."

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The Chapel of Panagia Krifti (The Hidden Panagia)

Forty-two kilometers from Mytilini on the southern coast of Lesvos, Plomari, the ouzo capital of Greece, is built ampithitheatrically near the sea and is the second largest town on the island. This is where one can find the isolated chapel of Panagia Krifti (Παναγιά Κρυφτή).

Panagia Krifti is a picturesque little chapel hidden in a rock above a small bay with hot springs. You can reach it either on foot by the path coming from Melinda Beach or by boat. Access from inland is difficult but the beauty of this beach is worth all your trouble. It is tradition to first venerate the miraculous icon of Panagia Krifti, then dip into the healing springs of the bay.

The chapel dates back to the early 19th century. According to tradition, a beautiful young woman with her child were pursued by Turks on horseback (which is why local villagers from Palaiohoriou today on the feast day come to the chapel on horseback). She came to the area where the chapel is today, and as they closed in on her, she reached a dead end and it was then that she prayed to God to save her. A cave was revealed to her and she hid, and its entrance was no longer visible. This cave, which hid the young woman, was dedicated by her to the Virgin Mary. Thus the name of the chapel is called the Hidden Panagia (Panagia Krifti).

In 1922 when refugees from Asia Minor came to Lesvos, many landed here and consider Panagia Krifti to be their protectress. Many also came here during World War 2 to escape from the Nazi's.

Κρυφή Παναγιά

Πελαγίσια μου αύρα
Ακρογιάλια κρυφά
Ποια σπηλιά, νά ’κρυψε
την Παναγιά μας
Στα ράχτα της Μελίντας,
Να γεννά
Τα πολυπλόκαμα
Κορώνες του βυθού
Βασιλικούς αστερίσκους
Στα απύθμενα της θάλασσας ;
Κορίτσια με Πράσινα
Της ελιάς φουστάνια
Ορμάνε στα Νερά
Κοχλάζει η θάλασσα
Ανάβουνε σπηλιές
Κόκκινα της φωτιάς ,τα βράχια
Τα κύματα υποκλίνονται
Στη Μάνα ,την Κρυφή
Την Παναγιά















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Falling Asleep of Father Zosimas, Disciple of the Blessed Elder Simon Arvanites

I was informed of the falling asleep in the Lord of Father Zosimas on August 10th. He was born on 20 December 1937 and passed away on 10 August 2010. May his memory be eternal!

Father Zosimas was a disciple of the blessed Elder Simon Arvanites and helped him found and build the Holy Monastery of Saint Panteleimon in Penteli of Athens. Father Zosimas was at the side of his Elder till the day of his death. Following the death of Elder Simon, he himself acquired many spiritual children throughout Greece and Cyprus. It is said that Elder Paisios would say that he had never met a more awe-inspiring monk in regards to obedience. Below is an example of such obedience.

Father Zosimas wrote five books about his holy elder and his miracles, and in one he writes the following about him:

"Many times, even though I would sleep near him to take care of him, since he could not see at all, I would hear him speak. When I would ask him with whom he was speaking, he would say:

'You think I am sleeping? Many people come throughout the night.'

Another time a lady told me that the previous night she had wished to ask the Elder about a certain problem, and the Elder entered her house, helped her, and he went away. I told her that this was impossible to happen, since at night I would lock the cell and hold the key until the Elder may awaken me in order for me to lead him outside so he won't injure himself, since he is unable to see.

The Elder then yelled out from his cell:

'Zosima, you say what you want. At night I leave from here.'

One night, after midnight, he called out to me to bring his epitracheli [priestly stole]. I brought it to him, he wore it while he was lying down, and he began to pray for a long time. At about a quarter after one [1:15 AM] a man came who we knew from Penteli enraged. Mastered by anger, he yelled:

'I will kill a man tonight. I will commit a crime.'

The Elder convinced him to bend down under his epitracheli to read a prayer over him. The man had wanted to confess first. The Elder revealed that it was unnecessary for him to say anything, because he saw everything from the time he began his abusing at his house."

Read more here.

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St. Maximus the Confessor: 18 Spiritual Interpretations of the Transfiguration (5)

Continues from Part Four

C. Let us consider whether in each of the above-mentioned forms [of theology] the symbol is really and wisely constituted in accordance with the divine Transfiguration of the Lord. For He accepted to be unchangeably created in form like us and through His immeasurable love for humankind to become the type and symbol of Himself, and from Himself symbolically to represent Himself, and through the manifestation of Himself to lead to Himself in His complete and secret hiddenness the whole creation, and while he remains quite unknown in His hidden, secret place beyond all things, unable to be known or understood by any being in any way whatever, out of His love for humankind He grants to human beings intimations of Himself in the manifest divine works performed in the flesh.

D. The light from the face of the Lord, therefore, conquers the human blessedness of the apostles by a hidden apophatic theology. According to this [light], the blessed and holy Godhead is by essence beyond ineffability and unknowability and countlessly raised above all infinity, leaving not the slightest trace of comprehension to those who are after it [sc. the Godhead], nor disclosing any idea to any being as to how and how far the same is both monad and triad, since the uncreated is not naturally contained by creation, nor is the unlimited comprehended by what is limited.

E. The affirmative mode [of theology] can be differentiated into those concerned with activity, with providence and with judgment. The mode [concerned with activity], starting from the beauty and magnitude of creatures, introduces the explanation that God of all is fashioner, this shown through the radiant garments of the Lord, which the Word shows to be the manifestation of creatures.

Continued Part Six

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Saints Photios and Aniketos the Martyrs of Nicomedea

Sts. Photios and Aniketos the Martyrs (Feast Day - August 12)

Emperor Diocletian once visited the city of Nicomedia with the evil intention to completely exterminate the Christians. But when he began his merciless torture of Christians, St. Aniketos, one of the high ranking officials of the city, boldly confessed before the emperor his faith in Christ the Lord, God incarnate in the flesh for our salvation. Along with this, Aniketos also denounced the idols as deaf and dumb stones and the worship of which is unworthy of a rational man. The emperor ordered his tongue to be severed but Aniketos, by the power of God, continued to speak. They then released a lion against him but the lion cuddled around him. At that moment the temple of Hercules collapsed. Photios, a nephew of Aniketos, seeing the miracles and endurance of Aniketos, kissed him, declared himself a Christian and cried out to the emperor: "O idolator, be ashamed, your gods are nothingness!" The emperor then ordered that Aniketos immediately be beheaded. However, the executioner, raising his hand against holy Photios, struck himself with the sword and died. After prolonged tortures, both Aniketos and Photios were cast into prison where they languished for three years. Then they were brought out, a fire was lighted in an enormous furnace and they cast them into the fire. Many other Christians, men, women and children, willingly followed them into the fire. From the fire was heard the prayer of the Christians who were praising God for the death of martydom. They all suffered about the year 305 A.D. "Saint Aniketos and Saint Photios are invoked in the prayers in the Sacrament of Anointing with Oil [Holy Unction] and in the Blessing of Water." The are both considered Unmercenary Saints.

THE SACRAMENT OF HOLY UNCTION: ANOINTING WITH HOLY OIL

O holy Father, Physician of souls and bodies, who did send Your Only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who heals every infirmity and delivers from death. Heal Thou, also Your servant [Name] from the ills of body and soul which do hinder [Him Her] and quicken [Him Her] by the grace of Your Christ: through the prayers of our Most Holy Lady, the Birth-giver of God and Ever-virgin Mary; through the intercession of the honorable Bodiless Powers of Heaven; through the might of the precious and Life-giving Cross, through the protection of the honorable, glorious Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John; of the glorious and all-laudable Apostles; of the holy, glorious and right-victorious Martyrs; of our venerable and God-bearing Fathers; of the holy and healing, unmercenaries, Cosmas and Damian, Cyrus and John, Pantaleon and Hermolaus, Samson and Diomedes, Photios and Aniketos of the holy righteous Ancestors of God, Joachim and Anna; and all the Saints.

For You are the Fountain of healing, O our God, and unto You do we ascribe glory, together with Your Only-begotten Son and Your Spirit, one in essence, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.


Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone
Thy Martyrs Photios and Aniketos, O Lord, in their courageous contest for Thee received as the prize the crowns of incorruption and life from Thee, our immortal God. For since they possessed Thy strength, they cast down the tyrants and wholly destroyed the demons' strengthless presumption. O Christ God, by their prayers, save our souls, since Thou art merciful.

Kontakion in the Second Tone
With anthems of praise, ye faithful, let us all extol the warriors of God, the yoke-pair of Christ's majesty; and let all of us who love martyrs' contests crown with our hymns of song the staunch heralds of piety, who truly were friends and lovers of our God.

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Cypriots Go To Church More Than Other Europeans, Followed Closely By Greeks

Europe's Irreligious

In which European countries are people least likely to attend religious services?

Aug 9th 2010
Economist

THE proportion of people who regularly attend religious services has declined steadily throughout Europe in recent years. But habits vary widely across countries. According to the latest European Social Survey conducted in 2008 and 2009, over 60% of Czechs say they never attend religious services, with the exception of “special occasions” such as marriages and christenings. France, Britain and Belgium are also secular nations, with over half of respondents never going to services. The most regular attenders among the 28 countries polled are in Cyprus and Greece, where only 2.4% and 4.9% respectively say they do not go to church.

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The Awesome Vision of the Prophet Isaiah

by St. Nikolai Velimirovich

"I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up" (Isaiah 6:1).

Here is the vision of visions! Here is the glory of glories and the majesty above majesties!

God showed great mercy to all of mankind in that He gave them to see this great starry world to see, the work of His hands. Yet, He showed a yet greater mercy to those to whom He gave the eternal and wondrous angelic world to see. However, He showed the greatest mercy to a small number of His chosen ones, to whom He gave Himself to see, the Lord Sabaoth, the Only Uncreated One and Creator of both worlds.

But, how can mortal man see the Immortal God? Did not God Himself say to Moses: "For no man shall see me and live" (Exodus 33:20)? And, does not the Gospel say: "No man has seen God at any time" (John 1:18). Truly, no mortal one can see the face of God, i.e., the essence of God. But, by His condescension and infinite goodness and might, God can reveal to men, to some extent, and in some form, how accessible He is to men. In a particular form and appearance, He appeared to Moses, Elijah, Daniel and to John the Theologian not in His essence but in a particular form and appearance.

Isaiah saw Him on a throne "high and lifted up" i.e., as the Judge raised above all the judges and all the earthly courts. The six-winged Seraphim stood around Him and cried one to another: "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of Hosts" (Isaiah 6:3). The Lord, therefore, is not alone but rather He is the King in His Invisible Kingdom surrounded by the most exalted of beings, who were created by His power. Around Him are the foremost orders of the heavenly hierarchy, the chief-commanders of His innumerable immortal hosts, the foremost lampstands of His light and His unendurable radiance.

This is the wondrous vision of Isaiah, the Son of Amos, the prophet of God.

O, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord, Thrice Holy, have mercy on us and save us, impure and sinful. To You be glory and thanks always. Amen.

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The Great Miracle of St. Spyridon on August 11, 1716

Commemoration of the Great Miracle of St. Spyridon in 1716 (Feast Day - August 11)

Historical sources that certify the authenticity of the following event on the expulsion of the papal forces from the island, include the historical notes given by a great saint of our Church, St. Athanasios of Paros. We should all reflect upon the message of the following event.

THE GREAT MIRACLE

In 1716 the Turks had the island of Corfu under a tight siege. They had 50,000 troops and a good number of ships surrounding the island, cutting its lifeline from land and sea.

The barbarian armies had been concentrated at the far walls of the city. Pizani, a general of the forces of the Venetian Republic, was anxiously anticipating the oncoming enemy attack (since Corfu and the nearby islands were occupied by Italy at the time).

At daybreak on August 11, 1716, St. Spyridon, the patron Saint of the island, appeared in front of the enemy lines holding a glistening sword in his right hand. His austere and grandiose appearance horrified the aggressors who began to recede. The Hagarenes, panic-stricken by the most awesome presence and fearless attack of the Saint, abandoned weapons, machinery and animals, running for their lives.

This great miracle became known throughout the island. The Turks had left behind 120 cannons, a large number of weapons, ammunition, animals and food.

After this powerful, surprising and most obvious miracle, the Venetian ruler Andrew Pizani, who was a Papist, wanted to erect a Papist altar inside the Orthodox Church of St. Spyridon (forever pushing for this was also the Papist Cardinal of the island). However, St. Spyridon appeared to Pizani in a dream saying: “Why are you bothering me? The altar of your faith is unacceptable in my Temple!” Naturally, Pizani reported this to the Papist Cardinal who answered that it was nothing but an evil fantasy of the devil who wanted to nullify the noble deed. After this, Pizani was much encouraged, so he ordered the necessary materials to commence construction of the altar. The materials were piled up outside of the temple of St. Spyridon. When the Orthodox priests of the temple and the Greek leaders of the island realised what was going on, they were greatly grieved. They asked to meet with Pizani to ask him to put a stop to this. Pizani’s response was quite disheartening. He said quite bluntly, “As a ruler I will do whatever I please!” At that moment, the Orthodox community of the island turned their eyes to their Saint, beseeching him to put a stop to this abomination.

That same night, St. Spyridon appeared to Pizani as a monk and told him, “I told you not to bother me. If you dare to go through with your decision, you will surely regret it, but by then it will be too late.”

The next morning, Pizani reported all this to the Papist Cardinal who now accused him of being not only faithless but also of being “yellow”. Again, after this, the ruler mustered up enough courage to order the construction of the altar.

The Papists of the island were celebrating their triumph while the Orthodox were deeply grieved. Their grief could not be comforted and with tears they begged for the Saint’s intervention to save them from the Papist abomination.

The Saint heard their prayers and intervened dynamically.

That evening, a terrible storm broke out, unleashing a barrage of thunderbolts on Fort Castelli, Pizani’s base and his ammunition barracks. The entire fort ended up in a holocaust. 900 Papist soldiers and civilians were instantly killed from the explosion, but not a single Orthodox was harmed (as they were not allowed inside the fort after dark). Pizani was found dead with his neck wedged between two wooden beams. The body of the Papist Cardinal was found thrown a great distance from the fort.

But the most incredible fact was that the same night and at the same hour, another thunderbolt struck in Venice, targeting the compound of Pizani, burning his portrait that hung on the wall. Strangely enough, nothing else was damaged. Also, the guard of the ammunition barracks saw the Saint draw near him with a lit torch. He was carried by the Saint near the church of the Crucified without a single scratch.

Kontakion in the Second Tone
Wounded by your love for Christ, O holy One, your mind given wings by the radiance of the Spirit, you put the practice of theory into deeds, becoming a sacred altar, O Chosen by God, and praying for the divine illumination of all.

Video from August 11, 2010 with Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens attending the litany in honor of the feast.
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St. Maximus the Confessor: 18 Spiritual Interpretations of the Transfiguration (4)

Continued from Part Three

B. Lest I appear to any to be more curious than is necessary, another great and divine mystery, I think, is revealed to us in the divine Transfiguration, more radiant than what I have just said. For I think that the divinely-fitting events that took place on the mount at the Transfiguration secretly indicate the two universal modes of theology: that is, that which is pre-eminent and simple and uncaused, and through sole and complete denial truly affirms the divine, and fittingly and solemnly exalts its transcendence through speechlessness, and then that which follows this and is composite, and from what has been caused magnificently sketches out [the divine] through affirmation. By these, so far as it is within human capacity, the knowledge that hovers above concerning God and the divine leads us through symbols naturally fitted to us to both these modes [of theology], through reverent understanding of both kinds of beings establishing their logoi, and teaching that every symbol that transcends the senses belongs to the first mode [of theology], and educating us that the accumulated mighty works of the sensible order belong to the second. For from the symbols that transcend the senses we believe only the truth that transcends reason and mind, barely daring to investigate or to form an idea of what and how and of what kind it is, and where and when, avoiding what is irreverent in the undertaking. And from those things on the sensible level, so far as is possible to us, from thought alone we plainly form conjectures concerning the knowledge of God and say that He is all that we can deduce from the fact that He is the cause of all that he has made.

Continued Part Five

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Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras on Mount Athos

The blessed Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras was the one who came up with the idea to celebrate the 1,000 year anniversary of Mount Athos in 1963 since the founding of Great Lavra Monastery. This took place in the summer of 1963.

And lastly is a photo of Patriarch Athenagoras as a deacon in 1918 taken at the Holy Monastery of Iveron.

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Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I and Orthodoxy

Patriarch Athenagoras I was born in the province of Ioanina, Epirus on March 25, 1886, at that time still apart of the Ottoman Empire. The son of the village doctor, his mother died when he was only 13. In 1903, he entered the Halki Theological Academy near Istanbul. In 1910, he graduated with his degree in theology, was tonsured as a monk and ordained as a deacon. In December of 1922, while still a deacon, he was elected as the Metropolitan of the island of Corfu. In 1930, he was elected the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of North and South America and served as our Archbishop until 1948. During his 18-year tenure, the women’s Philoptochos, the philanthropic arm of the Church was established. He also established an orphanage, St. Basil’s Academy, and a seminary, Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology. Elected Patriarch of Constantinople in 1948, Athenagoras was active in the ecumenical movement, seeking to establish better relationships among Christians. Perhaps most notable was his meeting with Pope Paul VI in Jerusalem in 1964, which resulted in the mutual lifting of the anathemas that had separated Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christians since 1054 AD. This symbolic gesture opened the possibility of authentic dialogue between the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches for the first time in centuries. Patriarch Athengoras died on July 7th, 1972.

The excerpts below are taken from a book, Conversations with Patriarch Athenagoras written by the French Orthodox theologian and writer, Olivier Clement in 1969.

DIALOGUE AMONG CHRISTIANS

I do not deny that there are differences between the Churches, but I say that we must change our way of approaching them. And the question of method is in the first place a psychological, or rather a spiritual problem. For centuries there have been conversations between theologians, and they have done nothing except to harden their positions. I have a whole library about it. And why? Because they spoke in fear and distrust of one another, with the desire to defend themselves and to defeat the others. Theology was no longer a pure celebration of the mystery of God. It became a weapon. God himself became a weapon!

I repeat: I do not ignore these difficulties. But I am trying to change the spiritual atmosphere. The restoration of mutual love will enable us to see the questions in a totally different light. We must express the truth which is dear to us – because it protects and celebrates the immensity of the life which is in Christ – we must express it, not so as to repulse the other, so as to force him to admit that he is beaten, but so as to share it with him; and also for its own sake, for its beauty, as a celebration of truth to which we invite our brothers. At the same time we must be ready to listen. For Christians, truth is not opposed to life or love; it expresses their fullness. First of all, we must free these words, these words which tend to collide, from the evil past, from all political, national and cultural hatreds which have nothing to do with Christ. Then we must root them in the deep life of the Church, in the experience of the Resurrection which it is their mission to serve. We must always weigh our words in the balance of life and death and Resurrection.

Those who accuse me of sacrificing Orthodoxy to a bind obsession with love, have a very poor conception of the truth. They make it into a system which they possess, which reassures them, when what it really is, is the living glorification of the living God, with all the risks involved in creative life. And we don’t possess God; it is He who holds us and fills us with His presence in proportion to our humility and love. Only by love can we glorify the God of love, only by giving and sharing and sacrificing oneself can one glorify the God who, to save us, sacrificed himself and went to death, the death of the cross.

But I would go further. Those who reproach me with sacrificing truth to love have no confidence in the truth. They shut it up, they lock it up like an unfaithful woman. But I say, if the truth is the truth, we must not be afraid for it; let us give it, let us share it, let us show it in its fullness, let us welcome all that there is of light and love in the experience of our brethren. If we continue in this attitude, then truth will become clear of itself, it will conquer all limitations and inadequacies from within, on the basis of the common mystery of the Church. Let us enlarge our hearts, “let each one of us, as the apostle says, look not to our own things, but rather to the things of others” (Phil. 2:4). We have a sure criterion – life in Christ. Faced with a partial expression of the truth, let us ask in what measure it conveys the life in Christ, or in what measure it is liable to compromise it.

Orthodoxy, if it goes back to the sources of its great tradition, will be the humble and faithful witness to the undivided Church. The Orthodox Churches, in coming together themselves in mutual respect and love, will set a movement of brotherhood going throughout the Christian world, giving the example of a free communion of sister Churches, united by the same sacraments and the same faith. As to the Orthodox faith, centered as it is on liturgical praise and worship, and on holiness, it will bring the criterion of spiritual experience to ecumenical dialogue, a criterion which will allow us to disentangle partial truths from their limitations so that they may be reconciled in a higher plenitude of truth.

But we Orthodox: are we worthy of Orthodoxy? Up till the efforts we have made in recent years, what kind of example have our Churches given? We are united in faith and united in the chalice, but we have become strangers to one another, sometimes rivals. And our great tradition, the Fathers, Palamas, the Philokalia: is it living and creative in us? If we are satisfied to repeat our formulas, hardening them against our fellow Christians, then our inheritance will become something dead. It is sharing, humility, reconciliation which makes us truly Orthodox, holding the faith not for ourselves – if we did that we should simply be affirming yet one more historic confession of faith – but for the union of all, as the selfless witnesses of the undivided Church.

COMMUNION AND FORGIVENESS

To those who reduce the Eucharist to a mere brotherly meal one must say that such a meal, even when shared in love, will not prevent us from dying. The Eucharist is first and foremost union with the Risen Christ, who raises us up. It is the bread of heaven which even now imparts eternal life to us. And that is why it is, at the same time, the only meal of total brotherhood, indeed of more than brotherhood, for Christ makes us 'members one of another,' as St. Paul says, and He identifies us in his flesh.

But people do not forget the evil they have done and the evil they have suffered, above all when those who have committed the wrong are men or collectivities that are still alive. People don’t forget. And you can’t force them to forget. But if you lay down your arms, if you dispossess yourself, if you open yourself to the God-man Jesus Christ who makes all things new, then the evil past is done away with, and He grants us a new time, in which all things are possible. Forgiveness; it is God himself who takes flesh, dies on the cross and rises again. He forgives us, and allows us to forgive, for He renews time, even the past. This is the mystery of repentance.

As to the future, we cannot dictate it. We only know that in our lives, as in history, the Resurrection will be the last word. That is why we have no fear; we turn our eyes to God and put absolute trust in him for the events of the future. So we can welcome the present and live in it as intensely as possible. Every day I get up, thankful to be alive, and I receive the new day as a blessing. And every promise of life which comes from the past and is turned towards God’s future, I try to make grow today, as I live the moment in its fullness.

Nothing troubles me. Nothing can trouble me. I am in the hands of God. In suffering and in troubles there always remains for us the naked faith that God loves us with an infinite love. There always remains for us the blood of Christ, and the tenderness of His most holy Mother. I know those moments when the situation is quite beyond you, when you can no more do anything. Then I altogether let go of the weight of my weakness, and abandon myself in trust. And peace comes to me, that peace which the Lord gives us, which passes all understanding.

REPENTING OF OUR SINS AS A CHURCH

What have we done? What have we done? Christ has left us. We have driven him away. Our hatreds, our pride, our pharisaical self-sufficiency have driven out the spirit of the Gospel. And Christ has gone. Christ has gone. Oh, how satisfied we are with ourselves! We are the pure, we possess the truth, and we condemn others! But life and history go on. They are knocking at the doors of the Church, and putting ultimate questions to us. Everything is changing. The scientific revolution is advancing, it is modifying and not only man’s environment, but man himself, his education, the relationship between the sexes, his psychology, and tomorrow perhaps his heredity and character as well. Not that science and technology necessarily build a world without God, as is sometimes said. But they force man, and they will force him more and more to ask where all this is going, what is the meaning of it all, what is the meaning of his own life.

What is most lacking among men of the Church is the spirit of Christ: humility, selflessness, an open welcome, the capacity of seeing the best in others. We are afraid, we want to hang on to what is over and done with, because we’re used to it. We want to be right over against the others, and under a language of conventional humility we hide the spirit of pride and power. We carry on apart from life. We have made the Church into an organization, just like all the other ones. We have put all our energy into setting it up, and now we put all our energy into keeping it going. And it works more or less; rather less than more, but it works. Only it works like a machine, and not like life.

THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH

All the peoples of the world are good; all the races. All must find their place in the unity of mankind. I belong to all peoples. Christian unity must be the ferment of human unity. The unification of mankind is at once the expression and the search for our perfect unity in Christ, where we are all members one of another. There is only one Church, the Church of Christ; only one theology, the proclamation of Christ risen from the dead who raises us up and gives us the power to love. Soon men will be going to the moon, but they no longer know the meaning of life. We Christians ought not to be afraid of anything. We have nothing to ask of others, nothing to impose on them; but we must bear witness that life has a meaning, that life is boundless, that it opens onto eternity. For God exists, God exists; and He, the Unknown, is our friend.

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The Secular Case Against Gay Marriage

by Adam Kolasinski
February 17, 2004
The Tech

The debate over whether the state ought to recognize gay marriages has thus far focused on the issue as one of civil rights. Such a treatment is erroneous because state recognition of marriage is not a universal right. States regulate marriage in many ways besides denying men the right to marry men, and women the right to marry women. Roughly half of all states prohibit first cousins from marrying, and all prohibit marriage of closer blood relatives, even if the individuals being married are sterile. In all states, it is illegal to attempt to marry more than one person, or even to pass off more than one person as one’s spouse. Some states restrict the marriage of people suffering from syphilis or other venereal diseases. Homosexuals, therefore, are not the only people to be denied the right to marry the person of their choosing.

I do not claim that all of these other types of couples restricted from marrying are equivalent to homosexual couples. I only bring them up to illustrate that marriage is heavily regulated, and for good reason. When a state recognizes a marriage, it bestows upon the couple certain benefits which are costly to both the state and other individuals. Collecting a deceased spouse’s social security, claiming an extra tax exemption for a spouse, and having the right to be covered under a spouse’s health insurance policy are just a few examples of the costly benefits associated with marriage. In a sense, a married couple receives a subsidy. Why? Because a marriage between two unrelated heterosexuals is likely to result in a family with children, and propagation of society is a compelling state interest. For this reason, states have, in varying degrees, restricted from marriage couples unlikely to produce children.

Granted, these restrictions are not absolute. A small minority of married couples are infertile. However, excluding sterile couples from marriage, in all but the most obvious cases such as those of blood relatives, would be costly. Few people who are sterile know it, and fertility tests are too expensive and burdensome to mandate. One might argue that the exclusion of blood relatives from marriage is only necessary to prevent the conception of genetically defective children, but blood relatives cannot marry even if they undergo sterilization. Some couples who marry plan not to have children, but without mind-reading technology, excluding them is impossible. Elderly couples can marry, but such cases are so rare that it is simply not worth the effort to restrict them. The marriage laws, therefore, ensure, albeit imperfectly, that the vast majority of couples who do get the benefits of marriage are those who bear children.

Homosexual relationships do nothing to serve the state interest of propagating society, so there is no reason for the state to grant them the costly benefits of marriage, unless they serve some other state interest. The burden of proof, therefore, is on the advocates of gay marriage to show what state interest these marriages serve. Thus far, this burden has not been met.

One may argue that lesbians are capable of procreating via artificial insemination, so the state does have an interest in recognizing lesbian marriages, but a lesbian’s sexual relationship, committed or not, has no bearing on her ability to reproduce. Perhaps it may serve a state interest to recognize gay marriages to make it easier for gay couples to adopt. However, there is ample evidence (see, for example, David Popenoe’s Life Without Father) that children need both a male and female parent for proper development. Unfortunately, small sample sizes and other methodological problems make it impossible to draw conclusions from studies that directly examine the effects of gay parenting. However, the empirically verified common wisdom about the importance of a mother and father in a child’s development should give advocates of gay adoption pause. The differences between men and women extend beyond anatomy, so it is essential for a child to be nurtured by parents of both sexes if a child is to learn to function in a society made up of both sexes. Is it wise to have a social policy that encourages family arrangements that deny children such essentials? Gays are not necessarily bad parents, nor will they necessarily make their children gay, but they cannot provide a set of parents that includes both a male and a female.

Some have compared the prohibition of homosexual marriage to the prohibition of interracial marriage. This analogy fails because fertility does not depend on race, making race irrelevant to the state’s interest in marriage. By contrast, homosexuality is highly relevant because it precludes procreation.

Some argue that homosexual marriages serve a state interest because they enable gays to live in committed relationships. However, there is nothing stopping homosexuals from living in such relationships today. Advocates of gay marriage claim gay couples need marriage in order to have hospital visitation and inheritance rights, but they can easily obtain these rights by writing a living will and having each partner designate the other as trustee and heir. There is nothing stopping gay couples from signing a joint lease or owning a house jointly, as many single straight people do with roommates. The only benefits of marriage from which homosexual couples are restricted are those that are costly to the state and society.

Some argue that the link between marriage and procreation is not as strong as it once was, and they are correct. Until recently, the primary purpose of marriage, in every society around the world, has been procreation. In the 20th century, Western societies have downplayed the procreative aspect of marriage, much to our detriment. As a result, the happiness of the parties to the marriage, rather than the good of the children or the social order, has become its primary end, with disastrous consequences. When married persons care more about themselves than their responsibilities to their children and society, they become more willing to abandon these responsibilities, leading to broken homes, a plummeting birthrate, and countless other social pathologies that have become rampant over the last 40 years. Homosexual marriage is not the cause for any of these pathologies, but it will exacerbate them, as the granting of marital benefits to a category of sexual relationships that are necessarily sterile can only widen the separation between marriage and procreation.

The biggest danger homosexual civil marriage presents is the enshrining into law the notion that sexual love, regardless of its fecundity, is the sole criterion for marriage. If the state must recognize a marriage of two men simply because they love one another, upon what basis can it deny marital recognition to a group of two men and three women, for example, or a sterile brother and sister who claim to love each other? Homosexual activists protest that they only want all couples treated equally. But why is sexual love between two people more worthy of state sanction than love between three, or five? When the purpose of marriage is procreation, the answer is obvious. If sexual love becomes the primary purpose, the restriction of marriage to couples loses its logical basis, leading to marital chaos.

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The History of the Great Paraklesis (Supplication) Canon to the Theotokos

There are two forms of the Paraklesis Canon to the Theotokos: the Small Paraklesis which was composed by Theosteriktos the Monk in the 9th century (or some say Theophanes), and the Great Paraklesis. During the majority of the year, only the Small Paraklesis to the Theotokos is chanted. However, during the Dormition Fast (August 1—14), the Typikon prescribes that the Small and Great Paraklesis be chanted on alternate evenings, according to the following regulations:

- If August 1st falls on a Monday through Friday, the cycle begins with the Small Paraklesis. If August 1st falls on a Saturday or Sunday, the cycle begins with the Great Paraklesis.

- On the eves of Sundays (i.e., Saturday nights) and on the eve of the Transfiguration (the night of August 5) the Paraklesis is omitted.

- On Sunday nights, the Great Paraklesis is always used unless it is the eve of Transfiguration.

In the Russian Orthodox Church, the equivalent of a Paraklesis is the Moleben, which is similar in structure, except that the canon is omitted, retaining only the refrains and Irmoi of the third, sixth and ninth odes. When the full service itself is performed, it is called the "Supplicatory Canon" (Molebnyj Kanon).

The reason these services are called "Paraklesis" (Supplication) is because the faithful gather to supplicate the Theotokos to intercede on their behalf to her Son and our God for our salvation and for the relief of anything that burdens and ails us. They are the prayers of suffering and hurting children addressed to their compassionate Mother, who is their only hope, protectress, and surety in time of need.

According to liturgical Professor John Fountoulis, even though the two Canons to the Theotokos are differentiated with the title "Small" and "Great", in fact they have the same number of Troparia, both having thirty-two with four in each Ode. However the Great Canon is more extensive, though this does not justify the epithet. The real reason seems to be that the Great Canon is chanted in a more festive tone during the Dormition Fast than the Small Canon, as shown in the Dismissal Hymns which begin: "O you Apostles from afar, being now gathered together here in the village of Gethsemane, lay my body in burial; and You, my Son and my God, receive my spirit."

Little research has been done on the historical circumstances that led to the poetry of the two Canons and the final morphology of the two Supplications.

The Small Supplication Service is older than the Great Supplication Service and its authorship is attributed by some to Theosteriktos the Monk, who lived in the ninth century. Others speculate it to be the work of Metropolitan Theophanes the Confessor of Nicaea who lived in the same century. Some even put forward St. John the Damascene as the composer. Regarding this history, see The History of the Small Paraklesis (Supplication) Canon to the Theotokos.


The Authorship and Origins of the Great Paraklesis Canon

Regarding the Great Supplication Service, we have sufficient testimony to its authorship. The poet was Theodore II Doukas Laskaris, Emperor of Nicaea. He was an emperor in exile who reigned from 1254 to 1258 AD following the fall of Constantinople to the Frankish Crusaders in 1204.

Theodore II received a scholarly education by Nicephorus Blemmydes and remained devoted to science and art throughout his life, and he was also very pious who had as his special patron St. Tryphon. He was also a suffering man, suffering from a severe form of paternal epilepsy and having to find the will as a scholar to defend his empire while in exile against such foes as the Bulgarians. It was another suffering soul in the person of Empress Theodora of Arta in Epiros who would eventually teach him an important lesson.

George Akropolites mentions how in 1249 Theodora travelled to Anatolia with her son Nikephoros for his betrothal ceremony to Maria, the daughter of Theodore II Laskaris. The marriage was delayed by the war between Nicaea and Epirus in 1251-52. The time finally came for the marriage to take place in 1256 when Theodora accompanied her son to Thessaloniki and Theodore accompanied his daughter Maria. Theodore and Theodora met and Theodore explained the price of union with the imperial family, which was the cessation to the Nicaean Empire of Dyrrachion and Servia (Theodora's hometown). Though Theodora had hoped for peace with this union, eventually it was to result in another war between the Romans of Nicaea (East) and the Romans of Epirus (West).

Theodora was a godly and pious woman who had made an impression on Theodore. She also had a great devotion to the Theotokos. He learned that in moments of suffering, pain and deep anguish and confusion, that the Mother of God was a reliable helper and healer for those who call upon her with deep faith and compunction.

It was this lesson by Theodora, who eventually became one of the great Saints of the Orthodox Church whose incorrupt relics work many miracles till this day in Corfu and is celebrated on March 11, that inspired Emperor Theodore to compose with his great learning and piety the Great Paraklesis to the Theotokos.

It is recorded how soon before the death of Theodore he became a monk at Sosandron Monastery and took on the name Theodosios. He also requested to confess his sins. During his confession, he fell at the feet of Patriarch Arsenios and with abundant tears he repeated the words: "Christ I have forsaken you".

This same spirit of anguish is reflected in the masterful poetry of the Great Paraklesis Canon. It is within this same spirit that the Church calls all the faithful to approach this service during the first fifteen days of August.

In 1258 Theodore II's epileptic condition worsened, and the emperor died on August 18, three days after the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos.

It is said that even during Theodore II's lifetime, the Service he composed in honor of the Theotokos was chanted at Sosandron Monastery and the surrounding monasteries of the Empire of Nicaea. And as he lay sick dying during the Dormition Fast, the monks of Sosandron Monastery chanted the Service for the alleviation of his suffering. It was chanted every day until his death, and thus was established the tradition of chanting not only the Great but also the Small Paraklesis during the first fifteen days of August.

On 25 July 1261 General Alexios Strategopoulos recaptured the City of Constantinople from the Latins for Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos of Nicaea. This recapture was ascribed to the aid and intercessions of the Theotokos, the patroness of the City. From July 25 through August 15 many thanks were given to the Theotokos, including the chanting of the Great Supplication Service authored by Emperor Theodore II. On August 15, the day of the Dormition of the Theotokos, Emperor Michael entered the city in triumph and was crowned at the Hagia Sophia. This event also helped establish the Great Paraklesis to be chanted during the first fifteen days of August during the Dormition Fast.

However, there was a dilemma. There was a deep feud between Emperor Michael VIII and the dynasty of Theodore II as to who should have been the successor. For this reason Emperor Michael did not want to honor so much Emperor Theodore by having his Service chanted every day for the first fifteen days of August, so it was alternately replaced with the older Small Paraklesis to the Theotokos authored by Saint Theosteriktos. It was this latter Supplication Service that was more often used throughout the year "in every circumstance", while the Great Supplication Canon of Theodore II was relegated only to the first fifteen days of August. We do not know exactly when or how this took place, but it probably was firmly established after the death of Emperor Michael to unite the dynasties of Doukas Laskaris and Palaiologos.

Characteristics of the Great Paraklesis

According to liturgical scholars Nicholas Tomadakis and John Fountoulis, the Great Canon has a more personal touch from the author and "specifically refers to the passions and the adverse circumstances of his life which tortured him as king, having suffered from incurable mental illness." They are an expression of pain, sorrow and anguish towards the Theotokos, and reveals a great poet. It does not leave the reader with despair and hopelessness, but elevates faith and hope to embrace the Theotokos and seek her intercessions and the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ as the only sure hope, refuge and salvation. It acknowledges that only through them can we find the relief and help we need with whatever burdens us.

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