Monk Methodios of Byzantium and His Long Beard

Methodios came to the Skete of Kapsokalyva on Mount Athos at the end of the eighteenth century to become a monk, yet he had no beard. Because of this, in order to not be expelled by the fathers of the Skete according to their practice, he prayed before the icon of the Dormition of the Theotokos, praying to the Mother of God that she help him so as to not be expelled. Paradoxically the hairs on his chin began to grow and eventually he had a fully formed beard. In the morning the fathers could not believe their eyes when they found Methodios inside the church with a full beard. They presented him therefore before the Synaxis of the fathers and immediately tonsured him a monastic, at which time he received the name Methodios. At the same time an all-night vigil took place to thank the Panagia for her graciousness. Yet the beard of Methodios did not stop growing that day. In fact, it continued to grow until it eventually reached beyond the height of his body. In order for him to lay out his full beard, Methodios would have to stand on a stool (this stool is still kept by the fathers as a memorial of this miracle).

One day the Turkish Governor of Mount Athos in Karyes, after seeing the frescoes of Sts. Peter the Athonite and Onouphrios, asked: "Hey, this is why you are deceived! How is it possible for people to have such a long beard?"


The Protos of Mount Athos called for Methodios, who layed out his full beard before the Turk to show that the Christians were not deceived. The Governor wrote to the Sultan about this magnificent spectacle, who asked in return that he be sent to Constantinople to see it for himself. The Governor advised Methodios that when the Sultan would offer him many gifts, he should only ask from the Sultan that his life be spared.

And so it happened. The Sultan was amazed when he saw the spectacle and Methodios asked that his life be spared. Methodios then returned to Mount Athos unharmed.

At the Skete of Saint John the Theologian there are stichoi (hymns) written in the Turkish dialect by Methodios preserved till this day. In the Monastery of Proussou there are 112 stichoi by Monk Methodios, in which he is described as the one "whose beard drags upon the earth". One of them reads:

Listen to this soul-profiting and divine advice,
and let all the faithful sing hymns to the Panagia,
from the mountains of Greece to Aitolia,
she alone is all-holy, wonderful, and perfect.

Ψυχωφελή διήγησιν ακούσατε και θείαν
και οι πιστοί υμνήσατε, πάντες την Παναγίαν
εις της Ελλάδος τα βουνά κατά την Αιτωλίαν
είναι Μονή πανίερος, θαυμάσιος, τελεία

In the Chapel of St. Methodios the icon of the Dormition in front of which Methodios prayed for his beard can still be venerated.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos

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Are ALL Creeds Wrong Because They Think They Are Right And Others Wrong?

By G.K. Chesterton

Don’t say, “There is no true creed; for each creed believes itself right and the others wrong.” Probably one of the creeds is right and the others are wrong. Diversity does show that most of the views must be wrong. It does not by the faintest logic show that they all must be wrong. I suppose there is no subject on which opinions differ with more desperate sincerity than about which horse will win the Derby. These are certainly solemn convictions; men risk ruin for them. The man who puts his shirt on Potosi must believe in that animal, and each of the other men putting their last garments upon other quadrupeds must believe in them quite as sincerely. They are all serious, and most of them are wrong. But one of them is right. One of the faiths is justified; one of the horses does win; not always even the dark horse which might stand for Agnosticism, but often the obvious and popular horse of Orthodoxy. Democracy has its occasional victories; and even the Favorite has been known to come in first. But the point here is that something comes in first. That there were many beliefs does not destroy the fact that there was one well-founded belief. I believe (merely upon authority) that the world is round. That there may be tribes who believe it to be triangular or oblong does not alter the fact that it is certainly some shape, and therefore not any other shape. Therefore I repeat, with the wail of imprecation, don’t say that the variety of creeds prevents you from accepting any creed. It is an unintelligent remark.

...

Now it is very right to rebuke our own race or religion for falling short of our own standards and ideals. But it is absurd to pretend that they fell lower than the other races and religions that professed the very opposite standards and ideals. There is a very real sense in which the Christian is worse than the heathen, the Spaniard worse than the Red Indian, or even the Roman potentially worse than the Carthaginian. But there is only one sense in which he is worse; and that is not in being positively worse. The Christian is only worse because it is his business to be better.

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The First Salutations To The Theotokos

An Angel of supreme rank was sent down from heaven to say to the Theotokos, Rejoice. (Thrice) And perceiving You take bodily form at the sound of his bodiless voice, O Lord, he was astounded and he stood shouting to her such salutations:

Rejoice, through whom is the joy to shine forth.
Rejoice, through whom is the curse to vanish.

Rejoice, restoration of Adam the fallen one.
Rejoice, liberation of Eve from tears.

Rejoice, height to which the thoughts of men are hardly able to ascend.
Rejoice, depth which for the Angels’ eyes is very hard to apprehend.

Rejoice, for you are a throne for the King.
Rejoice, for you hold the One who holds everything.

Rejoice, the star causing the Sun’s manifestation.
Rejoice, the womb of the divine incarnation.

Rejoice, through whom is creation re-created.
Rejoice, by whom is the Creator procreated.

Rejoice, O unwedded Bride.


Beholding herself wholly kept in chastity, boldly says to Gabriel she who is holy: The exceptional tidings of your voice seem difficult for my soul to accept. For what do you mean, pregnancy by unseeded conception, crying, Alleluia.


Curious to know knowledge that is knowable to no one, the Virgin cried to the serving Angel: How is it possible for a son to be born of inviolate loins? Tell me please. And he with fear replied to her, albeit shouting thusly:

Rejoice, initiate of secret counsel.
Rejoice, assurance of what calls for silence.

Rejoice, introduction to the miracles of Christ.
Rejoice, consummation of His articles of faith.

Rejoice, heavenly ladder by which did God himself descend.
Rejoice, bridge that conveys unto heaven earthborn men.

Rejoice, the wonder most renowned among Angels.
Rejoice, the wound greatly bemourned by the demons.

Rejoice, who bear the Light inexplicably.
Rejoice, who declare the manner to nobody.

Rejoice, transcending the knowledge of scholars.
Rejoice, illumining minds of believers.

Rejoice, O unwedded Bride.


Divine power of the Most High, to effect her conception, overshadowed the unwedded Damsel; and it made her luxuriant womb to appear as a luscious field for everyone who desires to reap salvation while chanting, Alleluia.


Eagerly did the Virgin, hosting God in her body, then hasten to visit Elizabeth, whose own infant recognized the voice of her greeting at once and rejoiced in the womb; and with leaps and bounds for songful sounds, he shouted to the Theotokos:

Rejoice, the branch with its shoot unwithered.
Rejoice, the ranch with its fruit unblemished.

Rejoice, for the man-loving Husbandman you cultivate.
Rejoice, for the Gardener of our life you germinate.

Rejoice, arable land yielding tender mercies hundredfold.
Rejoice, banquet table whereupon has forgiveness overflowed.

Rejoice, for the meadow of delight you make flourish.
Rejoice, for a haven of our souls do you furnish.

Rejoice, accepted incense of intercession.
Rejoice, the universe’s expiation.

Rejoice, the good pleasure of God unto mortals.
Rejoice, the confidence of mortals before God.

Rejoice, O unwedded Bride.


Fraught within with confusion brought about by doubtful thoughts, the temperate Joseph was troubled as he looked upon you the unwed and suspected adultery, O blameless one. But when he learned that your concep­tion was by the Holy Spirit, he uttered, Alleluia.



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Saint Theodora, Empress of Arta

St. Theodora of Arta (Feast Day - March 11)

The holy and right-believing Empress Theodora of Arta was the wife of Michael II Komnenos Doukas who was the ruler (Emperor) of Epiros in the thirteenth century, during the time of Latin rule of Constantinople. She endured suffering from abuse by her husband, being forced into exile without complaint, and maintained a life of humility, asceticism, and charity. She is commemorated by the Church on March 11.

Theodora was the daughter of John and Helena Petraliphas. John Petraliphas was a sebastokrator and ruler of Macedonia and Thessaly. Theodora is thought to have been born about 1225 as Theodora Dukaina Petraliphaina. She married Michael II Komnenos Doukas Notho Angelos shortly after he became ruler of Epiros about 1231 (about the age of 6, uncanonical for marriage). Through this marriage they had six children, including Nikephoros I Komnenos Doukas, Anna (Agnes) Komnenodukaina, Lady of Kalamata and Clermont, who married Prince Guillaume II de Villehardouin of Achaea and then Nicholas II of Saint-Omer, Lord of Achaia.

She was noted as a person who was not carried away with her new position as empress nor with her luxurious life. Early in their marriage, Michael II became enamored by a noblewoman, causing Michael to reject Theodora. She was banished under a decree that she was not to be supported. She existed in exile by living "off the land" in the open for five years, nobly enduring her life without complaint. During her exile she maintained her virtue, although reduced to picking wild greens for food and while caring for her son whom she bore in exile. A priest from the village of Preniste found her while she was collecting wild greens, and after getting her to identify herself, he took her, with her son, under his care and concealed her until court officials drove the wicked noblewoman out and returned Michael to his senses.

Michael then took Theodora back into his house. Until Michael died, the couple lived virtuously in peace and love, raising their family of children. Michael established two monasteries, Pantanassa and Panagia, while Theodora founded a women's monastery dedicated to the great martyr George, that later was named for St. Theodora.

After the death of her husband, about 1267 or 1268, Theodora entered monasticism and lived a pious life of praying, attending vigils, serving orphans and widows, and the other nuns. She is closely associated with Ss. Athanasia of Aegina and Theodora of Thessalonike, as well as Ss. Matrona of Chios, Thomais of Lesbos, and Mary the Younger who like her suffered abuse at the hands of their husbands.

Theodora foresaw the time of her death; her tomb attracted popular veneration soon after her death and continues to do so to this day.

Source

Read also here.

Read the complete life of St. Theodora here.

Apolytikion in First Tone
You abandoned royal honors, living in chastity and pains and asceticism, and were truly filled with divine gifts, O Righteous Theodora. Because of this Arta harmonically praises you crying out: Glory to Christ Who glorified you, Glory to Him Who crowned you, Glory to Him Who works for us through you healings for all.

Kontakion in the Second Tone
You forsook royal honor and glory, and spent your life in asceticism, O Theodora most-blessed, honor and adornment of Arta, therefore bowing before your sacred relics, we partake of blessings from them, praising Christ Who glorified you.

Megalynarion
Hail the pride of rulers, hail holy boast of the people of Arta, hail treasury of heavenly gifts, O Righteous Theodora, worthy of honor.

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Bringing Forward Tradition - An Interview with Thomas C. Oden

From Religion & Liberty - Volume 21, Number 1, Winter 2011

R&L: You have said your path to orthodox theology really began through patristics. Why are the words and witness the Fathers provide so important today?

Oden: They're important because they're true. They're based upon a consensus of Christian believers, not only from the early Christian period, but from the Apostolic Witness. In other words, what was happening in the patristic period was all exegesis, or all interpretation, of the received Apostolic tradition, which later became canonized. So these writings have gone through a social process and a truth testing. And for Christians, we believe in the presence of the Holy Spirit in that testing process, in the consensus formation process that delivers to the Word of the self disclosure of God in Jesus Christ.

Why do you think many evangelicals, in their searching, are drawn to patristic thought and commentary? What can churches do to encourage those that are searching?

They're drawn to patristic thought because it is wise. They are hungry for wisdom. They are looking for reliable Christian teaching and, in many cases, evangelicals have not been exposed to these documents because they have been focused on Christian doctrine since the Reformation. I, myself, am an example. I grew up in the Methodist tradition and I had some vague idea of what happened before Luther and Calvin and Wesley, but I hadn't really been deeply informed. And even when I went to my doctoral studies at Yale, I did not spend a great deal of time in patristic writers, so I had to find these on my own.

So what can churches do to encourage people that are searching? First of all, they can make accessible the writings that have been long buried, especially within the later Protestant tradition. They were commended by Luther and Calvin and Cranmer and Wesley, but not sufficiently taught and transmitted. The texts themselves have largely been buried. Now, fortunately today a lot of these are digitalized. There's a lot more available. So there's almost no excuse for an evangelical who wishes to know classic Christianity, to ignore these teachings.

Read the rest of the interview here.

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Controversy Over Rising Influence of Church in Romania

Romanian civic organisations are protesting against a law which they say will increase the influence of the church in the country.

Marian Chiriac
March 11, 2011
Balkan Insight

The parliament in Bucharest has just approved a law that will allow the state to reimburse officially recognised churches in Romania up to 80 per cent for their spending on social welfare projects.

As a result, the churches will have to attract from donations or their own sources only 20 per cent of any cost related to the construction of orphanages, homes for the elderly and schools for children, and other such programmes.

There are eighteen officially recognised religious denominations in Romania, with the Orthodox and Catholic Churches, respectively, the largest. More than 85 per cent of Romania's population of 21.5 million belong to the Orthodox Church.

"Such a law will enable the church to perform their traditional role of helping the poor and people in need. The state will only support such projects in the beginning,” MP Raluca Turcan, who backed the law, said.

Meanwhile, many civic rights advocates oppose the law, saying it allows religious groups, primarily the dominant Orthodox Church, to be excessively involved in public life.

"The law is discriminatory as many organisations with expertise in social services are excluded from getting money from the state. Furthermore, many disavantaged groups, such as drug addicts or LGBT, will be excluded from being helped, as their problems are never adressed by the church,” says Sabina Nicolae from the SAMU social organisation.

"In my opinion, the law was mainly designed by politicians interested in courting the church as a way of attracting sympathy from the electorate,” she added.

Civic organisations are now asking President Traian Basescu not to sign the bill into law.

Recently, the Orthodox Church draw criticism for its plan to build a 107-metre-high cathedral, the tallest in south-east Europe, and seeking help from the cash-strapped state for the project. By law, the state is allowed to provide support for church construction and restoration.

The Orthodox Church – which has enjoyed a revival since Communism fell in 1989 - remains the most trusted public institutions in Romania, according to polls.

But it has often been marred by allegations of corruption and nepotism. Furthermore, it has been criticised for having taken an ambivalent stance towards the former Communist regime, with many bishops accused of lauding former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, supporting his policies and applauding his ideas about peace.

After the fall of Communism, the Church never admitted that it cooperated with the regime, though some individual bishops have admitted to collaborating.

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Lent in Narnia

Would C.S. Lewis have renounced Turkish Delight from Ash Wednesday to Easter?

Devin Brown
March 10, 2011
Christianity Today

In his short essay "Some Thoughts," C. S. Lewis examines the paradoxical fact that the Christian calendar is as full of feasts as it is fasts, as full of fasts as it is feasts.

How did the Christian faith come to have this unique "two-edged" character, a stance which is both world-affirming and world-denying? Lewis explains that on one hand "because God created the Natural — invented it out of His love and artistry — it demands our reverence." But at the same time, "because Nature, and especially human nature is fallen it must be corrected and the evil within it must be mortified."

But make no mistake, Lewis writes, its essence is good, and correction is "something quite different" from repudiation or Stoic superiority. And hence, Lewis argues, all true Christian asceticism will have "respect for the thing rejected" at its center. "Feasts are good," Lewis concludes, "though today we fast."

Lewis makes a similar point in his essay "A Slip of the Tongue," where he argues that in the life of a perfect believer, feasts "would be as Christian" as fasts.

Though today we fast, feasts are good. Feasts are, or should be, as Christian as fasts. These statements might serve as helpful signposts as we enter the seasons of Lent and Easter.

This two-edged, world-denying and world-affirming, stance is seen clearly in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in the Turkish Delight which Edmund is tempted with and in the delightful meal served up by the Beavers.

Early in the story, the White Witch creates a box filled with "several pounds" of Turkish Delight which Edmund greedily devours. Donald Glover has called Lewis's specific choice of Turkish Delight a master stroke, one made with clear intention. What would have been lost if the Witch had tempted Edmund with, for example, oatmeal and raisin cookies? Glover argues that Turkish Delight is "a highly overrated sweet," and Narnia fans who have gone in search of the candy may agree, wondering how Edmund could have fallen prey to the overly sugared confection. Surely the name promises more than the candy delivers, and this, perhaps, is Lewis's point. Furthermore, it is not just Delight but Turkish Delight, a title containing, as Glover has observed, "Oriental and romantic overtones," further promises left unfulfilled by the sticky goo.

Gilbert Meilaender, in a chapter appropriately titled "The Sweet Poison of the False Infinite," provides an analysis of the spell that the Witch's candy casts upon Edmund. As Meilaender explains, the phrase "the sweet poison of the false infinite" comes from Lewis's novel Perelandra and refers to any love of secondary things which has become inordinate. In Miracles, Lewis maintains that we are to offer the created things and pleasures of this world "neither worship nor contempt." Meilaender points out that the theme of inordinate loves is one to which Lewis often returns.

The Witch's magic candy is a sickly imitation of the wholesome food the children are served at the Beavers' house. There they eat boiled potatoes with "a great big lump of deep yellow butter" from which everyone can take "as much as he wanted." The main course is "good freshwater fish" followed by "a great and gloriously sticky marmalade roll" fresh from the oven and steaming hot. Afterwards, they each have a big cup of tea, push back their stools, and let out "a long sigh of contentment."

Lewis's point with the Turkish Delight is not that enjoying sweets is bad; in fact, his position is quite the contrary. Enjoyment of life's pleasures in all their variety and plenitude will be an essential quality of proper Narnian life. This was seen earlier in the tea that Mr. Tumnus provided for Lucy which included "a nice brown egg, lightly boiled, for each of them, and then sardines on toast, and then buttered toast, and then toast with honey, and then a sugar-topped cake." Meilaender points out that in both his fiction and non-fiction, Lewis suggests over and over that "to be fully human involves a certain stance toward the things of creation," one of deep enjoyment but not slavish adoration.

Lewis's devil Screwtape explains the situation to his young nephew this way: "Never forget that when we are dealing with any pleasure in its healthy and normal and satisfying form, we are, in a sense, on the Enemy's ground. … He made the pleasures. … All we can do is to encourage the humans to take the pleasure which our Enemy has produced, at times, or in ways, or in degrees, which He has forbidden."

In his essay "First and Second Things," Lewis elaborates on this point, writing:

By valuing too highly a real but subordinate good, we … come near to losing that good itself. The woman who makes a dog the center of her life loses, in the end, not only her human usefulness and dignity but even the proper pleasure of dog-keeping. … Every preference of a small good to a great, or a partial good to a total good, involves the loss of the small or partial good. … You can't get second things by putting them first; you can get second things only by putting first things first.

These real but subordinate goods come in endless variety besides the sorts of activities which are typically given up for Lent, things like eating sweets, smoking, or drinking Coke. Human curiosity, for example, is one of these real goods which must have its ordinate place. We see its proper role in the lives of the four Pevensies when they decide to explore the Professor's house. As the narrator tells us, "That was how the adventures began." The Professor's house is described as having a whole series of rooms lined with books, an indicator of the goodness of curiosity in its proper place in the Professor's life and vocation.

It was not always like this. In The Magician's Nephew, Digory's healthy sense of curiosity became inordinate as he forcibly made Polly stay in Charn while he struck the mysterious bell to find out what would happen. As Jonathan Rogers has noted, here Digory shows "an excessive desire for knowledge." It is fitting that at this point Polly tells Digory he looks just like his Uncle Andrew.

But lest we react too strongly and reject curiosity or any other created thing altogether, Lewis also includes in The Magician's Nephew one of the most awe-inspiring creation scenes in all of literature, as Aslan sings Narnia into existence—each star, stag, bird, and blade of grass. You may choose to despise the things of this world, Lewis seems be saying, but know that they came from the Creator's loving hand with a very different relationship in mind.

"A properly Christian view of things requires more than a right relationship to the things of heaven," Jonathan Rogers writes. "It requires a right relationship to the things of earth too." Rogers concludes that "by allowing the reader to watch the creation of another world, C. S. Lewis evokes an appropriate awe and delight in the things of this world."

As we enter into the season of Lent, it might be helpful to see these 40 days not so much a time of renunciation (unless, of course, we have things to renounce) but a time of reordering, a time to slow down, step back, and carefully examine the things we have actively made or passively allowed to become the first things and second things in our lives.

Devin Brown is a Lilly Scholar and a Professor of English at Asbury University. He is the author of Inside Narnia (2005), Inside Prince Caspian (2008), and Inside the Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010).

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Bulgaria Honors Saint Sophronius of Vratsa (Sofrony Vrachanski)

March 11, 2011
Novinite

The Bulgarian Orthodox Church honors Friday St. Sofrony, Bishop of Vrachnaski, one of the leaders of the Bulgarian National Revival.

A solemn mass will be served in front of the Bishop's monument in the northern city of Vratsa in the presence of officials, citizens and students from the elementary school named after the Saint.

The day to honor Sofrony Vrachanski, March 11, has been chosen by the Vratsa Eparchy, where the Saint has served.

Sofrony Vrachanski, or Priest Stoyko Vladsilavov, was canonized by the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in 1964.

In the beginning of the 19th century, the priest had been considered by the Russian and the Romanian governments the most important representative of the Bulgarian community.

Vrachanski left Bulgaria for Bucharest in 1803 where he served as a high-ranking clergy. He was released from his Bishop duties on his own will, but retained the name Sofrony Vrachanski. Between 1806 and 1812, he served as one of the top diplomats and representatives of Bulgarian people in the relations with the Russian commandment during the Russian-Turkish War. He spent his last years in a monastery near Bucharest where he wrote some of his best works.

The exact date of death of the Saint remains unknown.

Read more about St. Sofrony here.

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'Oldest Cyrillic Writings in the Balkans' Vandalised

Nick Iliev
January 26 2011
The Sophia Echo

A medieval rock monastery near the village of Krepcha has been vandalised systematically over the past four years, since it opened to tourists, the Bulgarian National Television (BNT) reported on January 26 2011.

The site was made famous because it holds the oldest Cyrillic inscription in the Balkans, dating back to 921 CE since the reign of Tsar Simeon the Great, according to Professor Kazimir Popkonstantinov. The monastery is at risk of being destroyed if adequate measures for its protection are not implemented immediately, Popkonstantinov said.

The rock monastery consists of monastic cells, a church and a tomb, and is only two km from the village of Krepcha in northeastern Bulgaria. Vandals have been climbing into the monastery, setting fires, scribbling graffiti on the walls and destroying medieval drawings, the report said.

The individual compartments of the monastery are easily accessible, and the climb up the hill and to the monastery itself is facilitated by a metal staircase.

"There are people who would scribble their own names on the wall of the monastery, and they have no idea what they are destroying" Popkonstantinov told the BNT.

"For many years I have been opposed to this free public access," he added.

The inscriptions in Cyrillic were discovered for the first time in 1972 by Popkonstantinov, who claims that they are the oldest Cyrillic writings on the Balkan Peninsula. The professor has said that they were written by Father Anthony, a predecessor of the most famous medieval hermit, St. Yvan Rilski.

"This monastery is a good indicator that there were monks here as early as the late ninth century and early 10th century, which is a good illustration of the literacy among the population at the time," he said.

The monastery is under the jurisdiction and care of the Krepcha municipality, but they have no funds to protect the monument, the BNT reported.

In August 2010, Popkonstantinov was in the headlines in Bulgaria, for claiming that relics belonging to Saint John the Baptist had ben unearthed at the St Ivan island off the Bulgarian coast. The discoveries were announced on August 1 2010 following the excavation on the island near the seaside town of Sozopol.

Supposedly, the discovered artifacts and exquisite marble reliquary incorporated into the church’s altar contained an urn that had small bones from the arm and leg of the saint, archaeologists told Bulgarian media.

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Patriarch Kirill: Church Must Not Be A Political Power

March 10, 2011
Interfax-Ukraine

It is wrong for a Christian Church to be a political power, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church has argued.

"The church must have no political means of exercising an influence on those in authority," Patriarch Kirill said in answering letters from televiewers in the "Pastor's Word" program on Russia's First Channel television.

The church "loses public confidence" if it becomes a political player.

"The church only has one way to influence the powerful and the powerless, the rich and the poor, the educated and the simple-minded - to preach God's word," Kirill said.

He said there are many believers in government in Russia.

"They are part of our laity, our flock. A sincerely religious person must follow what the church teaches and, whenever possible of course, put into practice the sublime values of Christian ethics in their professional and other activities," the patriarch said.

He expressed the desire that the Church should never "be tempted to replace its spiritual influence upon its people, including the powerful and the powerless, by the use of secular, political power for achieving its goals."

"The church has been able to evade such temptations throughout its history. We hope it will be able to today as well," he said.

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"TRUE JOY" by Elder Moses the Athonite

Monk Moses the Athonite
March 6, 2011
Macedonia

Who does not want to be happy? Joy is an eternal universal desire. Joy is of great importance in our lives.

It's meaning is known and there is no need to analyze it. Today, however, it seems to have lost its true meaning. Pain dominates and joy is absent. Or at least joy is manifested though not in its authentic, essential and fulfilling form, but rather in cheap substitutes, which increase pain in the soul.

Man in Eden was innocent, happy, blessed and perfectly joyful. His source of joy was a comfortable and uninterrupted conversation with God. Wanting to become independent and self-deified, he became estranged automatically from the source of his great joy. Joy is for the soul of man what bread and water is for his body. Joy is divine inspiration, life-giving warmth, the mother of health and sister of wonderful consolation. Some think that joy will be found in unbridled fun, shameless revels, the overnight hunt for pleasure, the celebration of drunkenness, the drunkenness of luxury, extravagance and indulgence. If one could photograph the depths of the hearts of these patrons of so-called entertainment centers, we would observe an abyss of pain, desolation, coldness and hard loneliness. Joy is not sold in any store nor bought with little or much money.

Today people have fun (διασκεδάζει) - from the ancient verb διασκεδάνυμι, meaning "to scatter" (διασκορπίζεται) - and do not entertain joyfulness. Usually their fun is stressful and burdensome. As the wise Solon said, "Forsake pleasure which gives birth to sadness!" They return from secular entertainment jaded, downcast, sad, more alone. Some think that all rich people are quite happy. This is a big lie, which often is confirmed by the same. A clown went to be consoled by a psychiatrist, who made others laugh out loud and himself could not be cheered up. A rich actor, handsome and famous, was considered the happiest, yet he considered himself the most miserable.

Basil the Great points out that an ungodly person cannot be completely and truly joyful. Sophocles in Antigone will say: "Man without God is a seafaring pauper." Saint John Chrysostom says that good will and true joy do not come with the size of one's possessions, nor the amount of one's money, nor the size of one's sovereignty, nor physical strength, nor luxurious tables, nor fashionable clothing, but only in spiritual accomplishments and a good conscience.

Christianity, as opposed to those who casually speak, gave a new, comprehensive and captivating joy. True joy gives internal confirmation and certainty, which is made permanent and inalienable in the human heart, despite external adversity. Pascal says clearly: "No one is happier than the true Christian." The truly humble have great joy. He who has erased his ego has merged with the happiness of all. Those who do good are doomed to always be joyful. Photis Kontoglou said that true joy only issues out of the vein of goodness.

From the Gospel springs forth the theology of joy; the Gospel itself is the source of inexhaustible joy. The Orthodox experience is basically happy and joyful. An old, great hermit, Saint Nilus, states in the patrology very nicely: "Joy destroys sadness, in tragedy it gives patience, in prayers it gives grace, in labors and struggles it gives delight, in obedience it gives merriment, in hospitality it gives shelter, in hope it gives recourse, in mourning it gives comfort, in sorrow it gives assistance, in love it gives decoration, and in patience it gives reward."

Joy is not the laughter, the yelling, the giggling, the lightness, the playfulness, the anecdotes, the satirical, and the continuous jokes, but is the lasting peace and genuine cheerfulness which comes from the heart that is rejoicing and has a clean conscience. Joy is the light of the virtuous. It springs from the depths of existence. It is not something make-believe, exterior, illusory, but something quite profound and certainly more important. A serious, modest and quiet person is not unable to be happy. The first known miracle of Jesus at the wedding of Cana was so that half the joy of the guests from a lack of wine would not be lost. His last miracle, of the resurrection of his friend Lazarus, was to banish sadness and give joy.

The endless food of joy is virtue. The selfish, the individualist, the miser, the hater cannot be happy. Joy cannot be jealous of anyone, nor hostile nor hateful. One's joy is gained with humility, patience, truth, freedom and love. True joy comes lovingly to every sincere, honorable, heroic and saintly person. Our age suffers from a lack of true joy, and sorrow is at a surplus through evil and dishonor. The option is open for the acquisition of true joy indeed.

Translated by John Sanidopoulos

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Elder Porphyrios In the House of Prostitution

Elder Pophyrios spoke of the following experience:

In the old days, during the feast of the Theophany, we used to sanctify homes. One year I also went to sanctify. I would knock on the doors of the apartments, they would open for me, and I walked in singing "In Jordan, You were baptized O Lord...."

As I went along the road called Maizonos, I saw an iron door. I opened it, walked into the courtyard which was full of tangerine, orange and lemon trees, and proceeded to the stairs. It was an outdoor staircase that went up, and down was the basement. I climbed the stairs, knocked on the door, and a lady appeared. Since she opened I began my common practice singing, "In Jordan, You were baptized O Lord...." She stopped me abruptly. Meanwhile, girls began to emerge from their rooms after hearing me from the left and right of the hallway. "I see that I fell into a brothel," I said to myself. The woman walked in front of me to stop.

"Leave", she told me. "It is not right for them to kiss the Cross. I will kiss the Cross and then you should leave, please."

I took seriously her disapproving attitude and said: "I cannot leave! I am a priest, I cannot go! I came here to sanctify."

"Yes, but it is not right for them to kiss the Cross."

"But we don't know if it is right for them or you to kiss the Cross. Because if God asks me for whom it is more right to kiss the Cross, the girls or you, I probably would say: 'It is right for the girls to kiss and not you. Their souls are much better than yours.'"

With that she became a bit red in the face, so I said: "Leave the girls to come kiss the Cross." I signalled for them to come forward. I began to chant more melodically than before: "In Jordan, You were baptized O Lord..." because I had such joy within me, that God had ordained things so that I may also come to these souls.

They all kissed the Cross. They were all made-up, with colorful skirts, etc. I told them: "My children, many years! God loves us all. He is very good and 'allows the rain to fall on the righteous and the unrighteous' (Matt. 5:45). He is the Father of everyone and God cares for everyone. Let us make sure to come to know Him and for us to also love Him and to become good. May you love Him, and then you will see how happy you will be."

They looked at me, wondering. Something took a hold of their tired souls.

Lastly I told them: "I rejoice that God has made me worthy to come here today to sanctify you. Many years!"

"Many years!" they also said, and I left.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos

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The Law of Nature (or Conscience)

By C.H. Dodd

"When Gentiles who have no law obey instinctively the Law's requirements, they are a law to themselves, even though they have no law they exhibit the effect of the Law written on their hearts, their conscience bears them witness, as their moral convictions accuse or it may defend them" (Romans 11:14-16).

Verses 14-15 are conceived in the same spirit as 1:19-20. Pagans have in "natural religion" both a knowledge of God through His work in creation, and also a knowledge of the eternal principles of right and wrong, a "law written on their hearts;" and so, although they "have no Law" (in the sense of a special revelation) yet "they are a law to themselves."

Here Paul comes very close to the Greek moralists. Thus Plutarch (quoted by Wettstein on this passage) asks, "Who shall govern the governor?" and replies, "Law, the king of all mortals and immortals, as Pindar called it; which is not written on papyrus rolls or wooden tablets, but is his own reason within the soul, which perpetually dwells with him and guards him, and never leaves the soul bereft of leadership." Similarly, Aristotle says, "The cultivated and free-minded man will so behave as being a law to himself" (Eth. Nic., 1128A).

This inner law, according to the Stoics, is the "law of nature". Their teaching was that, as the whole universe is rational, each member of it has an immanent law of its being which is consonant with its function in the whole. Thus, for man, right and wrong are determined by the immanent law of human nature as such; and man, being himself rational, is capable of discerning this law and living by it. What is in this sense "natural" is right; what is "contrary to nature" is wrong. A man's "conscience" - that is, his consciousness of himself as a rational and moral being - recognizes the immanent law of his nature, and judges his own actions by its standard. This doctrine of the law of nature and the judgement of conscience is perhaps the most important permanent contribution of Stoicism to ethics.

The Stoics invented the term "conscience", and Paul is speaking exactly like a Stoic when he says, "Their conscience bears them witness, as their moral convictions accuse or it may defend them." Neither for Paul nor for the Stoics is conscience a legislative faculty: it does not make the law; it recognizes it and judges conduct by it. The law is for the Stoic the law of nature, for the Jew the Law of Moses, for the Christian the Law of Christ (Gal. 6:2) or, which comes to the same thing, the Law of the Spirit (Rom. 8:2). This saves the Stoic and Pauline doctrine of conscience from the anarchic individualism which is the danger of some modern forms of doctrine.

Now for Paul the Mosaic Law is the most complete revelation of the will of God there is, in terms of precepts and prohibitions; but the "law of nature" is not a different law, but only a less precise and complete revelation of the same eternal law of right and wrong. Thus the pagan's obedience or disobedience to the law of nature is on all fours with the Jew's obedience or disobedience to the Law of Moses.

In spite of his pessimistic judgement on pagan society, Paul here admits at least the possibility that "Gentiles who have no law obey instinctively [literally, "by nature", in accordance with Stoic teaching] the Law's requirements." Nor is this a merely formal admission in passing: he makes use of it in his argument that a good pagan is better than a bad Jew (2:23). For the purpose of his general argument, he takes the extreme view that no one, whether Jew or pagan, does or can obey the law; but in concrete cases he allows that in some measure at least the good pagan (and of course the good Jew, as he implies in 2:28) can do the right thing. We note this as against the doctrines of "total depravity", and the complete impotence of the human will, which have been attributed to Paul. He would no doubt have agreed with the pessimistic author of 2 Esdras with whom he has so much in common: "Thou shalt find that men who may be reckoned by name have kept Thy precepts; but nations Thou shalt not find" (2 Esd. 3:36). His immediate point, however, is to maintain against his supposed Jewish interlocutor that the pagan has just as good a chance of being "acquitted on the day when God judges the secret things of men" (v. 13), as any Jew, just as the Jew who sins "under the Law" is as certain of condemnation as those who "sin outside the Law".

From The Epistle of Paul to the Romans, Fontana Books (1959) pp. 61-62.

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A Panoramic View of Optina Monastery

http://www.optina.ru/panoramic/monastery/

http://www.optina.ru/panoramic/skete/

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The Celebration of the Forty Martyrs in Romania

March 10, 2011
Nine O'Clock

The Forty Martyrs of Sebaste (The “Holy Forty”) are commemorated by the Orthodox Church every year, on March 9. They lived during the reign of the Roman emperor Licinius (308-324), who persecuted the Christians. The Holy Forty were Christian soldiers in the Legio XII Fulminata, in Armenia. Not all of them were Romans, some of them were Greek, as well as Armenians.

On March 9, all rural communities observed the custom of taking the plough out into the field. After being put through fire by the village ironsmith, the plough was taken out in front of the house in festive style, according to crestinortodox.ro. During the ceremony, the woman in the household was the main protagonist.

After the plough was brought out in front of the house, tillers, usually in twos, would stand with their heads bared in front of the oxen or horses, and the woman would come out of the house, the tillers’ sack in one hand, and a vessel of holy water, frankincense and basil in the other. The woman would come near the plough and cart, she would circle them three times, spraying them with holy water and smoking them with frankincense. The woman would utter, then, most solemnly: “May you be as clean as holy water and frankincense/ And never part when tilling/ And may you never meet any wraith or ghost that could harm you”.

An egg was laid in front of the beasts of burden, as it was said that, if the egg remained unharmed after the cart got going, tillers would be safe from harm, as well, during the tilling season. They were given a sack of victuals, and, then, the woman would pour the remaining holy water in the pail laid before the animals. The egg tradition is of pre-Christian origin, as the egg was considered the measure of all primordial things, which had, here, the role of an omen, meant to offer protection during the ploughing. In some villages, there was a tradition to gather all the ploughs in the village on the village common, on this day, the priest would come to bless the water and spray every plough, and then the tillers would head each to his own plot of land to draw the first, inaugural, furrow.

The Holy Forty’s day was also a time for weather predictions. It was believed that, if it rained on that day, it would rain on Easter as well; if there was thunder, summer would be auspicious for all harvests; and, if there was a frost on the eve of this day, then autumn would be long.

Nowadays, out of all ancient practices, the only ones to endure are the custom that women should bake, on March 9, 40 dough figures, called “holy men” or “martyrs”, reminiscent of Neolithic fertility figures, and that men should drink 40 or 44 glasses of wine (it was thought that the wine drunk on this day would turn, during the year, into blood and vigour). The “holy men” are made of leavened dough and are anthropomorphic versions of the figure eight, the figure of cosmic balance.

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The Prayer For Sailors In "The Admiral" (Aдмирал)

Press "CC" for English subtitles.

To see the trailer, see here.

See the entire movie beginning here.

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The Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebastea

Holy 40 Martyrs of Sebaste (Feast Day - March 9)

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

All of them were soldiers in the Roman army and steadfastly believed in the Lord Jesus. When the persecution of Christians began during the reign of Licinius, they were brought to trial before the commander. When he threatened to strip them of their honor as soldiers, one of them, St. Candidus, responded, "Not only the honor of being a soldier, but take away our bodies, for nothing is more dear or honorable to us than Christ our God." After that, the commander ordered his servants to stone the holy martyrs. While the servants were hurling stones at the Christians, the stones turned and fell back on the servants, severely striking them. One of the stones struck the commander's face and knocked out his teeth. The torturers, angry as wild beasts, bound all of the holy martyrs and tossed them into the lake and stationed a guard around it so as to prevent any of them from escaping. There was a terrible frost and the lake froze around the bodies of the martyrs. So that their pain and suffering would be worsened, and in order to persuade one of them to deny Christ and acknowledge the idols of Rome, the torturers heated a bath by the side of the lake in sight of the frozen martyrs. Indeed, one of them was persuaded. He came out of the water and entered the bath. And behold, an extraordinary light appeared from heaven which warmed the water in the lake and the bodies of the martyrs. With that light, thirty-nine wreaths descended from heaven over their heads. Upon seeing this, a guard on the shore removed all his clothes, confessed the Name of the Lord Jesus and entered the lake so that he could become worthy of the fortieth wreath in place of the betrayer. Indeed, the last wreath descended upon him. The next day the entire town was astonished when they saw that the martyrs were still alive. Then, the wicked judges ordered that the lower part of their legs be broken and their bodies thrown into the water so Christians could not recover them. On the third day the martyrs appeared to Peter, the local bishop, and summoned him to gather their relics and remove them from the water The bishop with his clergy went out into the dark of night and beheld the relics of the martyrs shining brightly in the water. Every bone which was separated from their bodies floated to the top and glowed like a candle. Bishop Peter gathered and honorably buried them. The souls of these martyrs, who suffered for all of us, went to the Lord Jesus, resurrected with glory. They suffered honorably and were crowned with unfading glory in the year 320 A.D.

Read also:

St. Theodore the Studite: Sermon for the Feast of the Forty Holy Martyrs

Discovery of the Relics of the Forty Holy Martyrs

Xeropotamou Monastery and the Forty Holy Martyrs

HYMN OF PRAISE: THE HOLY FORTY MARTYRS

Martyrs in the lake shackled by frost,
Strongly adhering to Holy Faith, by hope illumined,
To the dear God, cried out: "You, Who astonished the world
By Your awesome sacrifice and resurrection, O You, enliven us!
The firmament of heaven and everything created, glorify You,
Behold, the abyss, fire, hail, snow, ice and heat glorify You!
You helped the great Moses, your servant,
And Joshua Son of Nun, and after that Elisha,
That nature, calm the waters and it, to divide,
Now, help your faithful as you have until now,
Do not allow the frost to be stronger than man,
That we, Forty Martyrs, not become the subject of scorn;
Oh, You can, if You want, for You rule over all,
You, when You want, can change ice into heat and heat into ice;
Because of Your Name, the frost consumes us as an angry beast --
Oh, help us that the Name of the Almighty may be praised!"
Martyrs in the lake, shackled by frost,
From heaven, by God's light, were warmed,
Gloriously they fell and remained Forty Martyrs
To the fear, horror and shame of the darkened unbelievers.

Apolytikion in the First Tone
Be entreated, O Lord, by the sufferings endured for You by the Saints, and we pray You, heal all our pain.

Kontakion in the Plagal of the Second Tone
O Forty Champions of the Lord, you abandoned the armies of the world and attached yourselves to the Master in heaven. Having gone through fire and water, O Blessed Ones, you worthily won glory from heaven and a multitude of crowns.

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Metropolitan George of Paphos Interviewed Concerning the Fast of Great Lent

Militsa Polemitou
March 6, 2011
Romfea.gr

Walking the path of the Orthodox Christian Church we encounter fasting on certain days of the year.

The greatest period of fasting is Holy and Great Lent, which along with the observance of religious traditions we also follow that of fasting, as defined by the Orthodox Church; the abstention of foods of animal origin.

The fasting, however, of Holy and Great Lent is not considered enough. It must be combined with spiritual fasting, more prayer and study of the Holy Bible.

Particularly interesting is the following interview with Metropolitan George of Paphos on fasting, the first command given to the first-created by God.

Your Holiness, from Clean Monday to Holy Pascha, the Orthodox Church asks its flock to maintain its religious traditions and fast. Why is this period of Great Lent so important?

We are on the verge of Great Lent, the holiest period of the Church, which prepares us for Pascha. It is called Great Lent to differentiate it from Holy Week. With forty days, it begins on Clean Monday until the Friday of Lazarus.

On the Friday of Lazarus Great Lent has its culmination, and there is inserted the weekend of the Resurrection of Lazarus and Palm Sunday, and then Holy Week begins.

It is a period of intense prayer, fasting and the attempt to acquire virtue, so that we may be able to be found worthy to venerate the Cross and Resurrection of Christ.

Why does "Sarakosti" [lit. "Forty Day" Fast], as it is called, have forty days, beginning on Clean Monday to the Friday before the Saturday of Lazarus?

As for why there was chosen to be forty days in Great Lent, there are two reasons. First, there are biblical prototypes. Moses fasted forty days to receive the tablets of the Law, Elijah also fasted forty days in order to prevent rain from falling and then again to bring rain to the earth; and so forty days is biblical.

And Christ after His baptism fasted forty days. There is, however, another reason. The Jews were forced to give a tithe, that is 1/10 of their property that they acquired throughout the year for the poor, widows, and orphans. We who are the New Israel of grace, give something much more important, we give 1/10 of our lives. Of the 365 days of the year, 40 days of this period is a dedication to God.

A Misunderstood Institution

What is the fasting of Pascha for the Orthodox religion?

Fasting is a tool that helps us to acquire virtue. Fasting is a misunderstood institution by those who fast and those who do not fast. Those who do not fast do not foresee any benefit from fasting, which is why they abolished it. As for how much it was abolished, we can see during Cheesefare Week [i.e. Carnival].

How many people abstain from meat? Or even on Clean Monday, which for our Church has the same weight as Good Friday, since it is the first day that humanity lives far from Paradise.

It is a day of mourning. On Clean Monday, then, people go out into the fields. Not eating anything at all but olives. Many people cook meat however.

This shows how far people have abolished fasting. They see no sense in any fasting. And if you talk about fasting, you receive an ironic smile.

But those who fast have also misunderstood fasting and think that God is pleased with our refraining for short or long periods of some food items.

Within them there is a wrong perception that is non-christian, that some types of food create spiritual uncleaness. When this belief tried to enter Christianity, the Apostles called it the teachings of demons, because there is no creature of God that causes uncleaness.

That which stains humans, Christ said in another case, is not what we eat; that which stains humans is our words, which come from the mind and heart. Therefore, fasting is not associated with this meaning.

It Is Not An End In Itself

What is the meaning of fasting and how useful is it?

There are many reasons fasting was imposed on the Church. The first is for ascetcism. Fasting is a gymnasium, and is not an end in itself.

It is to empower ourselves. Fasting is exercise, because for fifty days our sense of taste in our bodies pushes us and asks for different foods, but we say no.

In this way we learn to oppose the Evil One. If we succeed in fasting and do not succeed in the real battle with the Evil One, there is no success.

Those who are experienced in spiritual struggles, say that there are great benefits in fasting. That is the purpose of fasting, it is an asceticism, evidenced by several provisions that govern it.

First of all the authentically sick should not fast because they are destroying their bodies. Fasting kills passions and not the body. One who is ill, will kill himself with fasting. One cannot undertake spiritual struggles who will kill himself.

The Real Meaning of Fasting

There are some related foods some of which are allowed and some forbidden, such as the olive and olive oil. What meaning does this have because the oil is not derived from animal fat?

We eat olives, but do not eat oil for some days. This is not because there is something wrong with oil, but because this allows a thousand and two foods. You can make all the beans with oil, potatoes, and a thousand and two other dishes, while the olives can be eaten only as olives.

And when the Church endorses asceticism, it forbids oil to limit types of foods?

It is also during fasting that we eat fish roe (tarama), but do not eat fish. It is because of the intensity of asceticism allowed by the Church. Also, because this is the point in fasting, asceticism, it is not allowed in the period of fasting to make many kinds of meatless dishes to delight us as food. There should not be much taste either. Just enough food that keeps you alive. This is the meaning of fasting.

The second reason is that fasting shows our reliance on God and our repentance. If we look in the Old Testament, when the prophets had been preaching repentance, the people understood it as fasting. In Nineveh Jonah was sent, preached repentance, and the people immediately declared a fast. And the king furthermore issued a proclamation, not only for humans but also for animals. This is because fasting is a way of repentance and reliance. When we are free we do whatever we want. When we have the Lord, we obey the commandments. Obeying, therefore, the Church and avoiding certain foods, we show that we are not individualists. We rely on and acknowledge one God.

It is therefore an indication of repentance. This is why the fasts are always installed before major events of our religion. Before Pascha, before Christmas, so we can prepare ourselves in our reliance and our repentance, to celebrate these events.

It Proclaims the Unity of All Orthodox

What other virtues should accompany fasting to bring a person to repentance, as mentioned above?

Other virtues follow from it. Basil says, "True fasting is freedom from passions, temperance of the tongue, abstention from anger, separation from desire, the abolishment of false oaths."

Fasting, therefore, must be accompanied by other virtues to be true. If I fast from meat and judge people and do a thousand excesses, it did not correct anything.

Fasting proclaims the unity of all Orthodox around the world. We all fast for the same purpose. And during the time people did not know theology, they said: "This is not fasting, it is Turkish."

That is, they distinguished the days of fasting of us Orthodox from the non-Orthodox. This indicates, therefore, fasting is the unity of Christians. And there are many other reasons for fasting, for example, to save money on the simplest dishes to give to charity.

Translated by John Sanidopoulos

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St. Basil the Great's Homily On Fasting (3 of 3)

Continued from part two here.

8. Fasting knows nothing of loans; the table of a faster does not reek of usury. A father’s debts do not suffocate the orphaned son of a faster like serpents that coil themselves around their victims. In other ways, too, fasting is the occasion of gladness. For, just as thirst makes a drink refreshing and prior hunger makes a meal pleasant, so also fasting heightens our enjoyment of food. For, by interposing itself and interrupting your constant self-indulgence, it will make the consumption of food appear desirable to you, like an absent friend. Hence, if you wish to make a meal appetizing, accept the transformation that comes about in you from fasting. Because of your intense addiction to lavish fare, you have dulled your enjoyment of food without realizing it, ruining pleasure through hedonism. For nothing is so desirable that it does not become contemptible through constant gratification. It is the things that rarely come our way that we enjoy with the greatest avidity. Thus, He Who created us provided that we should take abiding delight in His gifts through an alternation in our lifestyle.36 Do you not see that the sun is more resplendent after the night, that being awake is more pleasant after sleep, that health is more desirable after the experience of the opposite condition, and that the meal table is more gratifying after a fast? It is the same for the rich and those who dine sumptuously as it is for those whose diet is frugal and improvised.

9. Fear the example of the rich man, who was consigned to the fire by his lifelong luxury.37 It was not for injustice that he was condemned, but for his sumptuous lifestyle, and for this reason he was tormented in the fiery furnace of Hell. Now, in order to extinguish that fire, we need water. Fasting is beneficial not only for the life to come, but even more is it profitable for the flesh itself. For even those in the peak of condition experience reverses and changes, when nature fails and proves unable to maintain an abundance of good health. Beware of spurning water now,38 lest you subsequently find yourself longing for a drop of it, as did the rich man. No one has ever gotten drunk on water. No one has ever contracted headaches from drinking too much water. No one who drinks only water has ever needed someone else’s feet.39 No one has lost the use of his feet or hands through their being nourished with water. Bad digestion, which inevitably dogs those who indulge in dainties, causes serious bodily disorders. The complexion of a faster is venerable, not breaking out in unseemly red blotches, but adorned with the pallor of temperance.40 His gaze is calm, his gait is sedate, his countenance is thoughtful — not demeaned by unrestrained laughter —, his speech is moderate, and his heart is pure. Call to mind the Saints from all ages, “of whom the world was not worthy, [who] wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented.”41 Emulate their way of life, if you seek their portion. What was it that gave Lazarus rest in the bosom of Abraham?42 Was it not fasting? The life of John the Baptist was one continuous fast.43 He did not have a bed, a table, arable land, a plough ox, wheat, a quern, or anything else that pertains to nourishment. For this reason, “Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist.”44 Among other things, fasting, which Paul reckoned among the afflictions in which he gloried, raised him up to the third Heaven.45 To cap all that we have said, our Lord, having fortified through fasting the flesh which He assumed for our sake, submitted to the attacks of the Devil therewith, both instructing us to anoint and train ourselves with fasting for the struggles that we must undergo amid temptations and affording the adversary a handle, so to speak, through hunger.46 For on account of the height of His Divinity He would have been inaccessible to the Devil, had He not submitted to human weakness through hunger. However, before He ascended back to Heaven, He tasted food, giving assurance of the true nature of His risen body.47 Will you not give up fattening and gorging yourself? Will you allow your mind to waste away through lack of nourishment, because you take no thought for saving and life-giving teachings? Or do you not know that, just as in the case of a battle those who fight for one side cause the defeat of the other, so he who sides with the flesh prevails over the spirit, while he who aligns himself with the spirit brings his flesh into subjection? “[For] these [flesh and spirit] are contrary the one to the other.”48 Hence, if you wish to make your mind strong, tame your flesh through fasting. For this is what the Apostle says, that to the extent that our outward man perishes, our inward man is renewed;49 he also says: “[W]hen I am weak, then am I strong.”50 Will you not disdain perishable foods? Will you not conceive a desire for the table in the Kingdom of Heaven, for which fasting here on earth is assuredly a preparation? Do you not know that by immoderate satiety you fatten for yourself the worm that torments? For who amid lavish feasting and perpetual delectation has become the partaker of any spiritual gift? Moses needed a second fast in order to receive the second set of laws.51 If the animals had not fasted along with the Ninevites, the Ninevites would not have escaped the threat of destruction.52 Whose carcasses fell in the wilderness?53 Were they not those of the people who demanded to eat meat?54 As long as they were content with manna and water from the rock, they overcame the Egyptians and journeyed through the sea; there was not a feeble one among their tribes.”55 But when they recalled the fleshpots56 and returned to Egypt in their desires, they did not see the Promised Land. Do you not fear their example? Do you not shudder at their gluttony, lest it exclude you from the good things for which we hope? But not even the wise Daniel would have seen visions, had he not rendered his soul more pellucid through fasting. For certain thick vapors are emitted from rich foods, which, like a dense cloud, prevent the illumination produced by the Holy Spirit from entering the mind. But if there is any food that is proper even to Angels, it is bread, as the Prophet says: “Man ate the bread of Angels”57 — not meat, nor wine, nor those items that are zealously sought after by those enslaved to their stomachs. Fasting is a weapon against the army of demons. “[For] this kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.”58 So many are the benefits of fasting, whereas satiety is the beginning of lasciviousness. For sybaritism, inebriation, and all manner of rich foods immediately give rise to every kind of brutish wantonness. Hence, men become lecherous stallions59 on account of the frenzy wrought in the soul by self-indulgence. Perversions of nature arise from drunkards when they seek the feminine in the masculine and the masculine in the feminine. Fasting teaches moderation in conjugal relations, and, by chastising intemperance even in licit sexual activity, engenders abstinence by mutual agreement, so that married couples may devote themselves to prayer.60

10. Do not, however, define the benefit that comes from fasting solely in terms of abstinence from foods. For true fasting consists in estrangement from vices. “Loose every burden of iniquity.”61 Forgive your neighbor the distress he causes you; forgive him his debts. “Fast not for quarrels and strifes.”62 You do not eat meat, but you devour your brother. You abstain from wine, but do not restrain yourself from insulting others. You wait until evening to eat, but waste your day in law courts. Woe to those who get drunk, but not from wine.63 Anger is inebriation of the soul, making it deranged, just as wine does. Grief is also a form of intoxication, one that submerges the intellect. Fear is another kind of drunkenness, when we have phobias regarding inappropriate objects; for Scripture says: “Rescue my soul from fear of the enemy.”64 And in general, every passion which causes mental derangement may justly be called drunkenness. Pray consider a man smitten with anger, how he is inebriated by this passion. He is not in control of himself, he does not know who he is, nor does he know those around him. He attacks everyone and collides with everyone just as in a night-battle; he speaks recklessly, cannot restrain himself, rails, pounds his fists, utters threats, swears, shouts, and becomes apoplectic. Avoid such inebriation as this, and do not accept the inebriation that comes from wine. Do not precede the season in which you drink only water by consuming excessive amounts of alcohol. Let not drunkenness initiate you into the fast. For neither through greed do you attain to righteousness, nor through wantonness to temperance, nor, in short, through vice to virtue. The door to fasting is a different one. Inebriation leads to wantonness, frugality to fasting. An athlete trains before a contest; a faster practices abstinence before a fast. Do not indulge in drunkenness before the five days as if taking revenge for the days of fasting or attempting to outwit the Lawgiver. For you toil in vain if you afflict your body, but do not receive consolation for your privation.65 The receptacle is unreliable, you are drawing water with a perforated jar.66 For wine flows through your body, coursing along its own path, but sin remains in you. A servant runs away from a master who beats him; but you cleave to wine, which beats your head every day? Bodily need is the best criterion for the use of wine. If you exceed your limits, on the following day you will have headaches, you will be listless and dizzy, and you will reek of putrid wine. Everything will seem to you to be spinning around and unstable. For drunkenness not only brings on sleep, the brother of death, but also a wakefulness that resembles dreams.

11. Do you know Whom you are going to receive?67 He Who gave us this promise: “I and my Father will come unto him, and make Our abode with him.”68 Why do you forestall Him by inebriation and prevent the Master from entering you? Why do you encourage the enemy to occupy your ramparts? Inebriation does not receive the Lord; inebriation drives away the Holy Spirit. For smoke drives bees away, while drunkenness drives away spiritual gifts. Fasting is the adornment of a city, the stability of the marketplace, peace in the home, and security of possessions. Do you want to see its dignity? Pray compare this evening with tomorrow evening, and you will see a city transformed from tumult and commotion into profound tranquillity. Would that today might resemble tomorrow in dignity, and that tomorrow might yield nothing to today in gladness. May the Lord Who has brought us to this period of the year grant us, as contenders, to display steadfast and vigorous perseverance in these preliminary contests and to attain to the Day of the Lord, whereon crowns are bestowed, so that we might now commemorate the saving Passion of Christ, and in the age to come enjoy the reward for our deeds in life at the just Judgment of Christ Himself, for unto Him be glory unto the ages. Amen.

36 That is, through the alternation of fasting and non-fasting seasons.
37 St. Luke 16:19-31.
38 That is, during Lent.
39 That is, to carry him home when drunk.
40 Cf. Long Rules, XVII.2, Patrologia Græca, Vol. XXXI, col. 964C.
41 Hebrews 11:38, 37.
42 St. Luke 16:23.
43 St. Matthew 3:4.
44 St. Matthew 11:11.
45 II Corinthians 11:27; 12:2.
46 St. Matthew 4:2.
47 St. Luke 24:43.
48 Galatians 5:17.
49 II Corinthians 4:16.
50 II Corinthians 12:10.
51 Exodus 34:28.
52 Jonah 3:4-10.
53 Hebrews 3:17; cf. Numbers 14:29.
54 Numbers 11:33.
55 Psalm 104:37, Septuaginta.
56 Exodus 16:3.
57 Psalm 77:25, Septuaginta.
58 St. Mark 9:29.
59 Jeremiah 5:8.
60 I Corinthians 7:5.
61 Isaiah 58:6.
62 Isaiah 58:4.
Mas63
Isaiah 51:21.
64 Psalm 63:2, Septuaginta.
65 That is, by excessive drinking before the Fast or on weekends during the Fast, one impairs his ability to live a more spiritual life by giving himself the spiritual consolation of the prayers appointed for Great Lent.
66 The latter phrase is taken directly from Xenophon (Oikonomicos, VII.40) and cited elsewhere by St. Basil, e.g. in “Homily XXI, ‘That We Should Not Be Attached to Earthly Things,’” §3, Patrologia Græca, Vol. XXXI, col. 545C.
67 That is, in Holy Communion. The verb ὑποδέχεσθαι is very commonly used by the Greek Fathers to denote the reception of Communion; cf. St. John of Damascus, Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, IV.13, Patrologia Græca, Vol. XCIV, col. 1149A.
68 Cf. St. John 14:23.

Source: Orthodox Tradition, Volume XXIII, Number 3 (2006), pp. 6-16.

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History of the Holy Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts

By William Hall

In the Byzantine Church, besides the Liturgies of St. John Chrysostom and of St. Basil the Great, we have a third liturgical formulary, known as the Holy Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. As the very name suggests, the Eucharistic Gifts given in the communion at this service are pre-sanctified, consecrated beforehand. Strictly speaking, this is only a service of a solemn Holy Communion. The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is celebrated during Lent on those days when the ordinary Liturgy is not celebrated. Its origins historically are covered with some haze. Nevertheless, its use reaches back to the venerable antiquity of Christian worship.

1.

All the Liturgies, before having been put in writing, were in use for a long period of time and were handed down by oral tradition. It was only much later that some particular formularies were recorded and thus were preserved for posterity. For this reason it is very hard, if not impossible, to establish an exact date and place of their origin, or to discover all the factors that influenced the evolution of these liturgical formularies.

The same should be said about the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, which, in all probability, came into existence at the beginning of the sixth century in Antioch, Syria. There the other Byzantine Liturgies also originated. At some point during the sixth century the Presanctified Liturgy was transferred from Antioch to Constantinople, where it underwent further liturgical evolution and received its definite shape. The first certain information about the celebration of the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts in the capital of the East comes to us in an anonymous work, Paschalion, written in 616. There we read:

"In the fourth year of Emperor Heraclius (614), under Patriarch Sergius of Constantinople (610-638), commencing with the first week of Lent, the people, following the Psalm ‘Let my prayer ascend to You' [see below] and the celebrant's invocation ‘Through the gift of Christ,' while the Presanctified Gifts were being carried to the altar, immediately started to sing ‘Now the Powers of heaven' [see below]. This hymn is sung not only during Lent, but every time the Presanctified Gifts are celebrated." (cf. P.G. 92,989)

From this first reliable source concerning the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts we can conclude: 1) that at the beginning of the seventh century (about 614) this Liturgy was well developed and celebrated in Constantinople; 2) that starting with Lent of 614, a new, most inspiring hymn "Now the Powers of heaven" was introduced; and 3) that at that time the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts was celebrated not only during Lent, but also on some other occasions. It was limited to the Great Lent by the Council of Trullo (692), which stated:

"Let the sacred Liturgy of the Presanctified (Gifts) be performed on all days of the Holy Forty Days' Fast, except Saturday and the Lord's day, and the holy day of Annunciation" (Canon 52).

More recent legislation limited its celebration to the Wednesdays and Fridays of Lent, and to Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Holy Week. (cf. A. Mikita, Cerk. Typykon, 1901, p. 174) But even on those days the celebration of the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom is permitted (Ibid.; Ordo Celebrationis, Rome 1944, n.216).

2.

The oldest text of the Presanctified Liturgy as celebrated in the Byzantine Rite today can be found in the often mentioned Codex Barberini, from the eighth century. Its author is not mentioned. Only later manuscripts from the 11th-12th centuries ascribe its authorship to various Fathers, like St. Basil (d. 379), St. Epiphanius (d. 403), St. Gregory the Great - the Dialogus (d. 604), St. Germanus (d. 732), or even some of the Apostles. But all these testimonies lack a historical basis or spring from apocryphal sources. As such, therefore, they all are today rejected by the liturgists, who unanimously agree that the original author of the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts remains unknown.

The oldest description of the Presanctified Liturgy belongs to St. Theodore Studite (d. 826), who wrote a short essay entitled "Explanation of the Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified." (cf. P.G. 99, 1687-1680) The ritual as described by St. Theodore in his work is very similar to the one used at the present time.

The Carpathian particular usage of the celebration of the Presanctified Gifts is given to us by Canon Alexander Mikita, in his Cerkovnyj Typykon, printed in Uzhorod, 1901 (p. 200-207), while its commentary is presented to us by Father Eugene Fencik, in his Liturhika (Budapest 1878, p. 197-208), and by Prof. Nicholas Russnak, in his Hungarian work A Keleti Egyhaz Misei (Budapest 1915, p. 114-120).

The ordinary Divine Liturgy was considered by the Fathers a joyous celebration, which usually was followed by the love feast (agape) as mentioned by St. Paul (I Cor. 11:20-22). A Syrian commentator and contemporary of St. John Chrysostom, Theodore of Mopsuestia (d. 426), in his recently (1933) discovered Catecheses writes: "To participate in the Mysteries (Communion) is to commemorate the death of the Lord, which procures for us the resurrection and the joy of immortality." (cf. Catech. 15, 7).

Since Lent was a time of mourning and repentance, the celebration of the Divine Liturgy during the Lenten period was limited to Saturdays and Sundays, as legislated already by the Synod of Laodicea (about 365): "In Lent it is not lawful to offer the Bread (Holy Eucharist), except on the Sabbath and the Lord's Day alone" (Canon 49). Hence the custom arose that on the other Lenten days the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts was celebrated to give to the people an opportunity to receive Holy Communion daily.

3.

The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is composed of three clearly distinguishable parts, namely: 1) Vespers, 2) Liturgy of the Catechumens, and 3) Holy Communion of the faithful.

During Lent, according to ancient tradition, a complete abstinence from food, a true fast, was observed by the faithful until 3:00 P.M. from Monday through Friday (cf. Byzantine Leaflet Series, No. 13). But before taking their evening meal the faithful used to assemble in their churches for Evening Prayers which, eventually, developed into the liturgical services of Vespers. These then form the first part of the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, concluding with the entrance and singing of the vespertine hymn, "O Joyful Light".

The second part, the Liturgy of the Catechumens, is a reminder of the public instructions given to the candidates for Baptism, called Catechumens. These instructions were given during Lent by the bishop in church every day, and were combined with special prayers, exorcisms and blessings. They also were often attended by the faithful. Thus, the second part of the Presanctified was formed, consisting of scriptural readings, solemn blessing with incense and candles, and intonation of "The light of Christ enlightens every man who comes into the world" (Jn. 1:9), as well as the Ekteny of the Catechumens with its prayer (unfortunately now-a-days omitted). All these elements are so many remnants of the venerable institution of the ancient Catechumenate.

The third part of the office consists of a solemn communion with the Holy Eucharist consecrated at the regular Divine Liturgy ahead of time. It begins with the Ekteny of Supplication and follows the patterns of the Divine Liturgy, except for the Anaphora with the consecration. After the prayers for the faithful there follows the Great Entrance with the Presanctified Gifts, while the hymn "Now the Powers of heaven" is being sung. Then the Ekteny of Impetration and the recitation of the "Our Father" prepare the faithful for Holy Communion. The prayers of thanksgiving and the prayer behind the ambo with a dismissal properly concludes the services.

4.

On the Lord's Day the Christians of the first centuries and, later, the monks of the desert assembled for the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, which was followed then by the "meal of love" (agape). On this occasion they received Holy Communion and also took some consecrated particles for their daily communion during the week in their homes. This custom is known in Church history as private or monastic communion, and was confirmed by a "long - continued custom" (cf. St. Basil, Epistle 93). In the same epistle St. Basil mentions that "in Egypt every person, even the laity, has the (Holy) Eucharist in his own home and receives it with his own hand every time when he wishes to communicate".

Later, because of some abuses, private communion was forbidden. To the question, "Whether the monk or nun can take Holy Communion by themselves?", St. Theodore Studite (d. 826) replies: "It is not licit even to touch the Holy Gifts by those who are not priests, except in the case of necessity." (cf. P.G. 99, 1661) Thus private communion was gradually substituted with a solemn communion in church, which subsequently developed into the Holy Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts.

The famous Byzantine canonist, the hieromonk Matthew Blastares, in his work Syntagma, comments: "During Lent we partake of the Presanctified Gifts towards evening in order to strengthen ourselves against the assaults of the enemy (of our salvation). Certainly spiritual food is most suitable in a spiritual combat. For this reason it was ordered that the office of the Presanctified be mystically celebrated in the evening." (cf. P.G. 145, 149) The prayer behind the ambo, recited at the end of the services, beautifully describes the spiritual fruits of the Presanctified Liturgy.

It should also be noted that according to the ancient, if not apostolic "unwritten tradition" (St. John Damascene in P.G. 95, 69), on Good Friday no Liturgy, not even that of the Presanctified Gifts is celebrated in the Byzantine Church, since, according to the testimony of St. Gregory the Great (d. 604), on that day "our Lord offered Himself in sacrifice. And His sacrifice is sufficient for the salvation of all the faithful." (cf. P.L. 78, 893) The only exception made is when the feast of the Annunciation falls on Good Friday. The reason of this exception was recently given by Pope John Paul II: "If the Word of God would not become flesh in the virginal womb of Mary then the passion and the death of Christ would not have been realized." (cf. L'Osservatore Romano, March 26, 1980, p. 2)

THE EVENING PRAYER

r. Let my prayer ascend to You like incense, and the lifting up of my hands like an evening sacrifice.

v. O Lord, I have cried to You, now hear me; listen to my voice when I call to You.

v. O Lord, set a guard before by mouth, and set a seal on the door of my lips.

v. Let not my heart be inclined to evil, nor make excuse for the sins I commit.

(Psalm 141:1-4)

Source: Byzantine Leaflet Series no. 21 (with Ecclesiastical Approbation), Byzantine Seminary Press

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