(3) Orthodoxy's Worship: The Worshiping Community

By Protopresbyter George Metallinos

3. The Worshiping Community

The Orthodox Church manifests Herself historically as a worshiping community. Even heterodox such as Erich Seeberg (a major Protestant theologian) have called Her “the religion of worship on the ground of Christianity”. During worship, the faithful partakes of his Church’s way of existence, which is referred to as “a feast of the first-born”, “a house of celebrants” who are “eternally jubilating” in an eschatological foretasting of the heavenly kingdom. The Church’s worship was, from the very beginning, a community act; it was an act of the local Church, and not of the faithful as individuals. During worship, the individual becomes a member of the “community in Christ” (in which he enters with his Baptism) and he then partakes of the life of a specific, local community, and not some universal and generalized notion of Christianity. In worship, the ecclesiastical body becomes evident with its local assembly. Even “private” prayer is understood Orthodoxically as something within the ecclesiastical community - as an extension of it. The Divine Eucharist in particular is the Sacrament of the Church as a body, and is also the purpose of the liturgical act.

The Church’s worship unites the faithful, across time, with all the Saints and the reposed faithful, contemporaneously with the brethren who are presently living “in Christ”. The Church is thus proven in Her worship as “one flock, comprised of people and angels, and one kingdom” (blessed Chrysostom). This unity of the Church, with Christ at the center as Her Head, is portrayed during the “withdrawal” of the “Precious Gifts”, when the distribution of Holy Communion is completed. The Officiator “withdraws” (collects) inside the Holy Chalice the “Lamb Christ” (of Whom both clergy and laity have just partaken), the “portion” dedicated to the Theotokos, the Angels and all the Saints, and the portion for the living and the deceased - this rite normally being performed by the head officiator, the Bishop, who comprises the visible center of the Sacrament (the invisible center being Christ). Thus, the “personal” Body of Christ is joined in an “unconfusable and indivisible” manner to His “communal” (collective) Body – His faithful. Inside the Holy Chalice is “assembled” the community of faithful, together with Christ and one another. Christ is thus manifested as the absolute center and the Head of the Church; the Church as the Body of Christ, and the faithful – both living and deceased – as members of that Body.

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A Paschal Miracle of the Epitaphios in 2011

At the Church of Saint Paraskevi in Lefkadia a miracle occurred with the flowers which adorned the Epitaphios on Good Friday on April 22, 2011. After 37 days, which was three days before the leave-taking of Pascha (on May 29, 2011) and also the Sunday of the Blind Man, the dead and dried up flowers (which symbolize life) which still adorned the Epitaphios (which symbolizes the tomb of Christ) came back to life. When this video was taken (June 12, 2011), which was fifty days after Pascha, new buds were still being produced.

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Abet Hasman: A Crypto-Christian in Greek Politics

Abet Hasman, the deputy mayor of Patras and head of the municipal social services, left a secret revealed only in his obituary, read at his funeral by Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Patras - that he was secretly baptized an Orthodox Christian. Abet, who was born a Muslim and came to Greece from Jordan to pursue doctoral studies at the University of Thessaloniki and finally settled in Patras in 1985, was baptized secretly by Metropolitan Chrysostomos when he was 57 years old. According to the Metropolitan: "He did not say it anywhere. But one day he approached me and asked me to baptize him. He chose the name Alexander, and we baptized a little while later his son. I baptized him in the Chapel of St. John the Theologian of the Diocese." He goes on to mention that he was married in the Church of Saint Andrew, and his son was also baptized with the name Alexander at the Church of Panagia of Paralias. He loved Greek history and especially Alexander the Great, which is why he chose the name for himself and for his son.

Below is a video of the funeral, which took place on 15 May 2012 with Metropolitan Chrysostomos remembering him:

4,000 people showed up for his funeral and burial at First Cemetery, which showed how much loved he was by the people.

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Atheistic "Five-Year Plan" Was Announced in the USSR 80 Years Ago

1929 magazine showing Jesus being dumped from a wheelbarrel by a muscular industrial worker; the text suggests that Industrialization Day can be a replacement of the Christian Transfiguration Day.

May 15, 2012

Interfax

On Tuesday, there will be 80 years since the Soviet government issued a decree on the "atheistic five-year plan."

Stalin set a goal: the name of God should be forgotten on the territory of the whole country by May 1, 1937, the article posted by the Foma website says.

Over 5 million militant atheists were living in the country then. Anti-religious universities - special educational establishments for training people for decisive attack against religion - were organized.

According to the plan on religion liquidation, all churches and prayer houses should have been closed by 1932-1933, all religious traditions implanted by literature and family by 1933-1934, it was planned that the country, and firstly youth, would be grasped by total anti-religious propaganda by 1934-1935, clerics were to eliminated by 1935-1936, and the very memory about God should have disappeared from life by 1937.

However, the census of 1937, where a question about religion was included on Stalin's instruction, puzzled Bolsheviks: 84% of 30 million illiterate USSR citizens aged over 16 said they were believers; the same was said by 45% of 68.5 million literate citizens.

Churches were again closed in big numbers in 1937. About ten thousand churches were closed in 1935-1936, eight thousand in 1937, over six thousand in 1938. According to the modern data, about 350-400 churches from pre-revolutionary churches were open in the early war years.

When bishops were arrested, Metropolitan Sergy (Stragorodsky) had to dissolve the temporary Synod on May 10 and administer all dioceses with the help of his vicar bishop and chancellery, which included a secretary and a typist.

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Serbian Holy Synod Appeal on Behalf of Archbishop Jovan

Announcement of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church on the occasion of the latest imprisonment of Archbishop John

Belgrade, May 12th, 2012

After years of persecution, harassment, arrests and imprisonments, His Beatitude the Archbishop of Ohrid and Metropolitan of Skopje kyr Dr. John, pan-Orthodoxly renowned and recognized canonical Prelate of the ancient Ohrid Archbishopric, was sentenced yesterday, May 11th, to two and a half years in prison under false charges of alleged fraud and embezzlement, the result of a politically motivated and staged pseudotrial of a Stalinist-type, organized upon the blatant request of the schismatic organization calling itself “The Macedonian Orthodox Church”. He was sentenced solely because of His unwavering commitment to the unity of the Church of God; because of his communion with the Serbian Patriarchate and thereby with universal Orthodoxy worldwide; and because of his persistent and confessional fight against the schismatic mentality and anti-Ecclesiastical ethnophiletism. This is a unique case in contemporary Europe – if not in the whole civilized world – of the authorities, by order, to commit an act of cruel violence and an atrocity upon the Orthodox Church and Her lawful senior representatives, most violently breaking both their own laws and international norms and conventions. Fortunately, several diplomats, representatives of the Orthodox Church, as well as representatives from organizations and institutions dedicated to the protection of human rights and religious freedom, attended the “trial”, and thus an accurate report and a clear picture of this sad and ugly scene staged in the Veles courtroom can be made to the relevant factors and the public.

The Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church, under whose canonical jurisdiction the autonomous Ohrid Archbishopric is, condemns with the deepest moral indignation this incomparable violence and persecution conducted under the guise of legal order, and is always with the brothers and sisters from the Ohrid Archbishopric, in prayer and evangelic love, and especially with their Shepherd, who gladly accepts and endures suffering for our forefathers’ faith as well as for the unity of Christ’s holy Orthodox Church. The Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church finally calls:

- for all sister Orthodox Churches throughout the ecumene;

- for all other Christian Churches in the world;

- for the World Council of Churches, the Conference of European Churches and other Christian organizations;

- for the spiritual leaders of major world religions;

- for the for governments and relevant public authorities of legally regulated states, primarily democratic;

- for the international institutions;

- for the institutions and organizations of human rights and religious freedom; and

- for all people of good will;

to provide spiritual, moral, legal and any other possible support to the prisoner of conscience, the Archbishop John, and to contribute to his release from prison as soon as possible.

The Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church

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Greetings in our Risen Lord,

Christ is Risen!

May the joy of our Lord’s Holy Resurrection always be with you!

As many of us already know at this time His Eminence, the Archbishop of Ohrid and the Metropolitan of Skopje has been sentenced 2 ½ years in a prison in Skopje. The Orthodox Church has truly been wounded and crucified on the Cross by this scandal that an Archbishop under the Patriarch of Serbia has been sentenced for this period of time.

Every voice and loving Christian is humbly needed at this hour for an appeal for the release of Archbishop Jovan. The health of the Archbishop is not good at this time, and doctors or any reports about his health is not known to anyone including his own diocesan bishops, priest, monks, nuns, and faithful. The prison authorities have refused any reports as to the condition of the Archbishop.

The above photo says the following: “Archbishop Jovan, they put you in a dungeon, but you are in truth.” Please note the health of the Archbishop in this photo taken before his imprisonment in December 2011.

Now take a look at the you tube of the Archbishop being brought to court on 11 May 2012, note how much weight the Archbishop has lost, since he was put in prison in December, 2011.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68hn_iEqBvM&feature=share

This is not the first time the diocese or the Archdiocese of Archbishop Jovan has been persecuted as this has been a constant situation for the last several years. Note the following you tube where one of the bishops under Archbishop Jovan named Bishop Marko and Hieromonk Irinej are being harassed for doing a funeral service at a local Orthodox cemetery, the Security Police are pushing them around and trying to stop them for performing the funeral service.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vN9ATOXtuzw

Let us without a doubt join the Synod of bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church in our appeal for the immediate release of Archbishop Jovan, and for the proper registration of his diocese, and as well as make further appeals to the free world for his release now today.

The addresses of relevant people to contact are:

1. U.S. Department of State

2201 C Street NW

Washington, DC 20520

2. Ms. Hilary Clinton

Friends of Hillary

1900 M Street, NW

Suite 500

Washington, DC 20036

accountingdepartment@hillaryclinton.com

3. US Embassy in Skopje

Embassy Address:

Str. "Samoilova" Nr.21

1000 Skopje

Republic of Macedonia

Fax: +389 2 310-2499

And Ms. Marisa MacIsaac whom you met: MacIsaacM@state.gov

4. OSCE Mission to Skopje

Address:

Oktomvriska Revolucija bb

MK-1000 Skopje

The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

Fax: +389 2 323 4234

info-MK@osce.org

and Mr. Kristoph Herbst who is following our cases: Kristoph.Herbst@osce.org

5. Delegation of the European Union to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

Address: Mito Hadzivasilev Jasmin 52v, 1000 Skopje

Telefax: (+389 2) 3248 501

E-mail: delegation-fyrmacedonia@eeas.europa.eu

6. The Conference of European Churches

CEC Office in Geneva:

PO Box 2100,

150, route de Ferney,

CH- 1211 Geneva 2

Fax: +41 22 791 62 27

7. Human Rights Watch

New York

Address: 350 Fifth Avenue, 34th floor

New York, NY 10118-3299 USA

Fax: +1-212-736-1300

Washington DC

Address: 1630 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 500

Washington, DC 20009 USA

Fax:+1-202-612-4333

Berlin

Neue Promenade 5 10178 Berlin, Germany

Fax. +49-30-259306-29

berlin@hrw.org

Paris

142 rue Montmartre

75002 Paris, France

Fax: +33-1-43-59-55-22

E-mail: paris@hrw.org

Brussels

Avenue des Gaulois, 7.

1040 Brussels, Belgium

Tel: +32-2-732-2009

8. Freedom House

fax 202-293-2840

info@freedomhouse.org

9. Mr. José Manuel Barroso

President of the European commission

1049 Brussels, Belgium

10. Mr. Olli Rehn, Vice President of the European Commission

European Commission

Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs

B-1049 Brussels

Belgium

Fax (+32) 2 29 809 98

Every voice will help and every Christ-loving prayer for sure shall helps as well for the release of Archbishop Jovan.

Remember if we remain silent then the Archbishop will perish. The Archbishop will die in prison!

Talk is cheap! Action is needed is absolutely necessary to support well intention words; otherwise talk is cheap. Our Lord Jesus Christ bear witness, after prayer comes the act of bearing witness. What is happening in FYROM is a persecution of a wonderful soul Christ-loving by a Stalinist era grouping of make believe Christians! This is the 21st century! What would our Lord have to say about this at this hour?

If you would like to help the Archbishop and his diocese please send your loving donation (tax deductible):

The Archbishop Jovan Fund

c/o St. Herman of Alaska Orthodox Monastery

P.O. Box 70

Platina, CA 96076

USA

May our Merciful-God hear our prayers and our loving appeal for the release of Archbishop Jovan now today.

Peace to your soul!

God love and bless you!

Humbly in Christ our Lord,

+ Very Reverend Archimandrite Nektarios Serfes

President of The Archbishop Jovan Fund USA

Who prays for you and with you!

Cell phone: 208-860-2479

I have run to the fragrance of your myrrh,

O Christ God, for I have been wounded by your love;

do not part from me, O heavenly Bridegroom.

"Wounded by Love," The Life and The Wisdom of Elder Porphyrios

See us at facebook.com/orthodoxchurchboise

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(2) Orthodoxy's Worship: Liturgical Order and Historical Evolution

By Protopresbyter George Metallinos

2. Liturgical Order and Historical Evolution

Ecclesiastical worship has its own order, i.e., the sum of ritual formalities that govern it. “Typikon” (Greek=formal) is the name of the special liturgical manual which provides the outline and the structure of the Church’s worship, according to how the holy Fathers had formulated it over the centuries. With its established “order” and liturgical unity, the Orthodox ideology was preserved successfully - despite all the circumstantial readjustments and local particularities, i.e., the natural flow of events that were observed in the past - thus enriching the liturgical act and also fending off the various cacodoxies and confronting the various heresies. However, the development of ecclesiastical worship took place organically, with an inner order and consistency, without its unity being disrupted. New elements resemble the branches of a tree, which may spread out but still allow for its unimpeded growth. So it is with Orthodoxy, where the Slavic-speaking Churches observe the order of the “Holy Monastery of Jerusalem” (of Saint Savvas), while the Hellenic-speaking ones are based, mainly, on the order of the Great Church of Christ (in Constantinople), of the Holy Studite Monastery. This difference in the order observed does not disrupt the unity of Orthodox worship. The liturgical structure is specific, and is common to all Orthodox Churches, as one can discern in an inter-Orthodox Divine Liturgy.

Various liturgical forms had already appeared, as early as ancient Christian times (the “Eastern” form: Alexandrian, Antiochian or Syrian and Byzantine; the “Western” form: African, Roman, Paleo-Hispanic or Mozarabian, Ambrosian, Paleo-Gallic, Celtic, etc.). The expulsion of all the heresies that had arisen during the Church’s historical course had also contributed towards the appearance of local differences, but in a spirit of freedom. This is why the various liturgical forms are useful for discovering and verifying the liturgical evolution of the local Churches, as well as their interaction within the framework of the unity of the Orthodox Faith.

One landmark in the evolution of ecclesiastic worship was the era of Constantine the Great, with the inauguration of Constantinople-New Rome (in 330 A.D.) which opened up new, cosmogonic perspectives. The development of every area of ecclesiastic life (=the work of the holy Fathers) had an organic continuance, without this meaning in the slightest a “falling away from primeval Christianity”. The post-313 victory over idolatry gave birth to a universal feeling and theology of “victory” and triumph, which permeated even the very structures of worship. Its development went hand-in-hand with the Synodic formulation of the Triadic Dogma, the cultivation of theological letters, the organizing of monasticism, the erecting of a multitude of temples, etc. With a slow but steady pace, the particularities of worship were minimized and ecumenical forms appeared, based on a stable and unchanging core, which assimilated and united all local particularities. The fruits of these developments are the varying architectural forms of temples, the development of liturgical cycles (daily, weekly, annual), and the addition of new feastdays and services. These developments are chronologically classified as follows: the 4th and 5th centuries are discerned for the vast liturgical flourishing and the profound changes in worship; in the 6th and 7th centuries, the various forms are stabilized; in the 8th and 9th centuries, the final “Byzantine form” is established, which, after the 14th and 15th centuries (Hesychasm, Symeon of Thessaloniki), led to the liturgical order that continues to apply to this day.

The “Byzantine form” of Ecclesiastical Worship was reached through Monasticism, which comprises the authentic continuation of the ecclesiastical community and the permanent safeguarding of the purity and the witness of ecclesiastical living. Throughout the ages, it was Monasticism that preserved the eschatological conscience, through its fending off of secularization. This is why its impact on the Church’s course has proven to be not only definitive, but also beneficial.

Monasticism incorporated worship into its ascetic labors, putting a special emphasis on prayer and, through the “Prayer”, turned its entire life into worship. Monasticism cultivated and enriched the liturgical act, by offering the Church Her liturgical “order” and practically all of Her hymnographical, musical and artistic wealth.

Following Monasticism’s victory and the end of the Iconoclastic issue (9th century), the monastic “form” was passed on to the secular dioceses as well, and this “form” was to eventually prevail throughout the Orthodox Church. The monasteries cultivated the main structural elements of Orthodox worship; also its hymnography (poetry) and its music, and it is in them, that the truth is preserved to this day: that worship is not just “something” in the life of Orthodoxy, but that it is the very center and the source of renovation and sanctification of every aspect of our life.

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Testimonies of the 1956 Miracle of St. Nicholas

It was well-known that Elder Seraphim of Glinsk Hermitage took the icon of St. Nicholas from the hands of Zoe (Zoya). Fr. Anatoly Litvinko, who asked Elder Seraphim about this, said: "He bent his head humbly and from his silence I understood that yes, this did happen. He hid this out of humility, but also because the authorities could recapture him, since people would go to his church to venerate the miraculous icon. The authorities sought to transfer the icon to the altar area so the people would not gather."

Many believers from Samara knew Anna Ivanovna Fentotnova. She recalls: "In those days I had gone twice to the house of Zoe. The house was surrounded by police. I asked an officer if it is true that Zoe was stiffened. He told me: 'You ask me just like my wife asks me. However I will not tell you anything. See for yourself.' Then he took off his hat and showed me that his hair turned white, which occurred overnight! 'Is this enough? Words are unnecessary. Besides, we have signed to not speak of this. If you only knew the fear I had looking at her.'"

Recently the parish priest of the Church of Saint Sophia in Samara, Fr. Vitali Kalasnikov, said: "My mother's aunt, Anna Pavlovna Kalasnikova, was a doctor in the ambulance of Kothimpasev. On that morning she came to find us, saying, 'You sleep while the city is on its feet'. Even though she had signed to not speak about the incident, she began to tell us that she saw Zoe look like a stone. She also saw the icon of Saint Nicholas in her hands. She also told us that no matter how many injections they made on her, every needle would break. All of us were astonished. A.P. Kalasnikova worked for many years in the ambulence. She died in 1996. I became a priest before her repose. Many who heard the narration that morning are still alive."

Valentina Nikolaevna from the city of Belgorod remembers: "I had come to Fr. Seraphim. At night I stayed in the house of Mary Romanovna, where many Christians gathered. It was very hot and I could not sleep. After a little while two young people came out. We began a conversation. They were students of the Theological Seminary. I asked them about Zoe. When the miracle happened they were young. Because of this miracle they believed in Christ. Now they had Fr. Seraphim as a spiritual father and confessed that the elder was the one who took the icon from the hands of Zoe. After the service, Matushka Katerina Loutsina (later she became Nun Seraphima) asked if I venerated the icon of Saint Nicholas. 'Yes', I answered. 'Which icon exactly did you venerate?' she asked again. I showed her the large icon of St. Nicholas on the wall. 'Not that one' she told me. 'Venerate the one on the analogion; that is the icon Elder Seraphim took from the hands of Zoe. The Elder told me not to tell anyone. If it becomes known there is a danger they will recapture him.'"

Alexandra Ivanovna remembers: "It was the fifth week of the fast in 1982 when I arrived in Rakitin. At one point I dared to ask, 'Elder, where is the icon of St. Nicholas you took from the hands of Zoe?' He fell into deep silence. He looked at me austerely. I don't know how it came to me to ask at that moment about the icon. In Kuibyshev my relatives lived on the same street as Zoe. I was 14 years old. At night they would shut their lights so people would not gather. The screams of Zoe frightened everybody. My relatives who were eyewitnesses from that time began to believe and attend church. This miracle remained deeply etched in my mind. At that moment, when the Elder was looking at me, the phrase 'woe is me' passed through my mind. The Elder then said, 'The icon is in the church on the analogion. There were times when they wanted to completely remove it from the church.' This confirmed that he took the icon from the hands of Zoe. Two weeks later the Elder reposed."

Claudia Ivanovna Petrounenko from St. Petersburg and spiritual daughter of Metropolitan Nicholas Giarousevich, said the following: "I asked the bishop if he went to Kuibyshev and if he saw Zoe. He responded, 'I went there to pray, but I did not take the icon; it was not yet time. The icon was taken by Fr. Seraphim.'"

Fr. Andrei Antreevitch Savin, who was then secretary in Samara, remembers: "The bishop then was His Eminence Jeronymos. One morning I noticed certain people cramming near a house. At night about a thousand gathered. Policemen were patrolling, but in the first days they were not getting rid of the people. Later they began turning them away on the pretext of disrupting the peace and obstruction of transportation. Despite this many would still come. The atmosphere was tense. People were waiting for answers from us priests. None of the priests approached the house, however. Everyone was scared. They watched us closely and could have expelled us from our position at any moment. One day it was heard that Zoe was forgiven and would recover on the day of Pascha (as Fr. Seraphim had said). The members of Komsomol (Communist youth) had come out in the city those days and were shouting that they had entered that house and there was nothing there. This added fuel to the fire. Then those who had doubts even came to believe that something wondrous was happening in the home of Zoe in Kuibyshev."

Evgeni, Archbishop of Samara and Sarzansk, expressed his own opinion about what happened: "Many people witnessed the miracle. I personally learned of the event in 1957, when I was a student at the Theological Seminary. There is no room for doubt concerning this great miracle. During those difficult years when the church was being persecuted by the atheists, this wondrous appearance of divine power caused a great sensation. Not only to the residents of Samara. For all of us it was a lesson. It was a lesson in how to treat sacred objects. It was a lesson also for atheists. Nobody obliged you to believe, but do not mock sacred objects because you will be punished. If the unbelieving Zoe did not touch the icon, nothing would have happened. Many times the atheists were punished for their treatment of the sacred. There were instances when they would drop the bells of churches down, and they also would fall. During those hard times people had a need for miracles and miracles appear when God wills. When Elder Seraphim took the icon from the hands of Zoe, the authorities punished him, and Metropolitan Jeronymos was expelled from the throne."

In 1989 the Abbot Germanos, who spearheaded the reopening of Optina and who during the 1950's served in the Cathedral Church of Kuibyshev, said: "For what I did not see I don't want to speak. I will speak about what I saw. The road in front of the house of Zoe was filled with police. They were gathering signatures from the people obligating them not to speak. One of the prominent party members called one of the priests of the Cathedral Church and told him to announce to the people that nothing was happening. The priest then said, 'Let me go to the place to see what was happening to know what to tell the people.' He said he would call back. After an hour he called the priest and told him that it was not necessary to say anything to the people. Rumors began to circulate in the city and newspapers could not be uninvolved. Except they only spread that it was a 'lie of the priests'. Shortly after the incident Elder Seraphim was imprisoned for three years. When he was released from prison they sent him to a remote village, to Dnepropetrovsk and later to Mikhaylovsky."

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos

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Elder Seraphim (Tyapochkin) and the Astonishing Miracle of St. Nicholas

Archimandrite Seraphim (Tyapochkin) was born on 1/14 August 1894 in a pious noble family. The infant was called Dimitry and was the last child in the large and amicable family of the Tyapochkins. At the age of seven Dimitry was prematurely accepted into a religious institute. From a young age the boy felt God’s summons and his priestly calling.

In 1911, having received his parents’ blessing, Dimitry entered a religious seminary, and in 1917 he continued his studies at the Moscow Spiritual Academy. After the Academy was closed down in 1919, Dimitry Tyapochkin moved to Yekaterinoslav, where he was married and became ordained as a deacon and later a priest. These were the years of the godless Soviet rule’s harshest battle with the Church. Everywhere sacred objects were profaned, churches and monasteries were destroyed, the clergy was persecuted. In 1933 Father Seraphim’s beloved wife died, and in 1941 he was arrested and condemned to 10 years of concentration camps. Father Seraphim’s path of suffering began in one of the camps in Kazakhstan. Father Seraphim did not like to talk of his life in camp, but it became known from his relatives that while he was in the camp, he continued his service as a faithful pastor of Christ’s Church, led spiritual discussions with the prisoners, baptized new converts, confessed them, gave burial rites to the dead. All of this was strictly forbidden by the camp administration, and violation of the rules led to incarceration, from which one could often not return alive. Therefore, all services were held in the strictest secret from the administration. The prisoners themselves sang the services. They also prepared priestly vestments for Father Seraphim out of towels, and embroidered them with crosses. During these years in the camp Father Seraphim felt himself like a chalice, which was gradually, drop by drop, filling up with grace-filled love for God and others. At the same time his heart was becoming filled with simplicity and childish innocence. This was felt by all the prisoners who were in contact with him, even the most hardened criminals, and all of them trusted him completely.

After ten years of camp, before regaining freedom, the investigator asked Father Seraphim: “What are you planning to do when you are free?” Father Seraphim replied: “I will continue serving as a priest, just as I have up to now.” – “Well, in that case," decided the investigator, "stay for a while yet.” And Father Seraphim was sentenced to another five years and sent into exile in the Krasnoyarsk region.

After being freed from camp in 1955, Father was taken into the Kuybyshev diocese by its Bishop Jeronimus. In 1956 there occurred an event which shook the entire Orthodox world – the famous “Zoya’s stand.” Let us briefly bring back to mind that miracle.

A certain Zoya (or Zoe), who was a worker at a pipe factory, decided to celebrate New Year’s Eve with her friends. Her religious mother was against merriment during Christmas Lent, but Zoya did not heed her. All the friends gathered, and only Zoya’s fiance Nikolai was delayed somewhere. The music played, the young people danced, and Zoya alone had no pair. Mad at her fiance, Zoya took down an icon of St. Nicholas and said: “Since my Nicholas is not here, I will dance with St. Nicholas.” At her girlfriend’s counsel not to do it, Zoya arrogantly replied: “If there is a God, let Him punish me!” With these words she began dancing. At the third round the room became filled with great noise, a whirlwind appeared, a blinding light struck like lightning, and everyone ran out of the room in fear. Only Zoya remained rooted to the spot with the icon of St. Nicholas clamped to her breast, petrified and cold as marble.

She could not be moved from the spot, and her feet seemed to have grown into the floor. However, despite the lack of outward signs of life, Zoya was alive: her heart continued beating. From that time on she could neither drink, nor eat. The doctors applied all possible effort, but could not bring her to her senses. News of the miracle quickly spread all over the city, and many people came to look at Zoya’s stand. But after a while the city administration suddenly realized what was happening, and all approaches to the house were barred, a police guard was put around the building, while the curious and visitors were told that there was no miracle and nothing had happened there at all.

The guard detail that stood at Zoya’s post heard her cry out at night: “Mother! Pray! We are perishing in our sins! Pray!” Medical investigation confirmed that the young woman’s heartbeat had not ceased despite the petrification of her tissues (they could not even give her any shots – all the needles broke off). All invited priests, after finishing their prayers, were unable to take the icon out of her frozen hands. But on the feast of Christ’s Nativity Father Seraphim (then still Dimitry) came, served a moleben, and blessed the entire room. After that he took the icon out of Zoya’s hands and said: “Now we must wait for a sign on the Great Day (i.e. Pascha).”

Before the feast of Annunciation a certain old man of noble appearance asked the guard to let him through. He was refused. He appeared on the next day, but the next shift did not let him through either. On the third day, on the very day of the feast, the guard did not detain him. The guards on duty heard the old man say to Zoya: “Well now, are you tired of standing?” Some time passed, but the old man did not come out. When they looked into the room, he could not be found (all the witnesses were sure that it was St. Nicholas himself who had appeared).

Zoya stood for 4 months, until the very day of Pascha. In the night of the bright Resurrection of Christ, Zoya loudly cried out: “Pray! It is terrible, the earth is burning! All the world is perishing in sin! Pray!” From that time she began to come alive, her muscles became softer, more pliable. She was laid in bed, but she continued to cry out and ask everyone to pray for the world perishing in sin and for the earth burning in iniquity.

By the prayers of St. Nicholas the Lord showed mercy upon her, accepted her repentance, and forgave her sins… All that happened so amazed the inhabitants of Kuybyshevo and its environs that many people turned to faith.

After Father Seraphim took the icon from Zoya, he was arrested. He spent two years in prison. He was forbidden to tell anyone of taking Zoya’s icon, and after his term ended he was sent to serve in a distant village. However, a great flow of pilgrims continued to arrive there, wishing to venerate this miraculous icon, which always stood in the church where Father Seraphim served. After a while the authorities demanded that the icon be removed, and it was transferred to the altar.

In 1960 protopriest Dimitry Tyapochkin was tonsured into monasticism with the name of Seraphim, and the following year hieromonk Seraphim was made an abbot. At first no one came to the services in his village church, sometimes only two or three old women. The walls of the church were covered with frost, and snow fell from above. It was obviously necessary to begin repairs, find people, resources, materials. But Father Seraphim did not make any visible efforts to engage in reconstructive work. Except for daily prayer. And gradually help came. The Lord sent donors, helpers, builders, – all that was necessary.

Father Seraphim loved church services and was piously strict in following church rules. In the altar the elder stood with great awe and always served the liturgy in a pious condition. Father Seraphim considered sermons to be an integral part of the service and constantly preached in church. He spoke feelingly and with heartfelt conviction. To each listener was revealed that which was necessary to him at the moment. During confession Father Seraphim helped people open up their souls with all sincerity. He knew from experience that without help from above a person cannot offer true penitence to God, and so he himself, often with tears, quietly pleaded with God to send the grace of penitence to the sinners.

The Lord granted Father Seraphim a peaceful and blessed Christian end. He reposed in the Lord on April 19 (the 6th by the old calendar), 1982, on the second day of Christ’s bright Resurrection.

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Movie: Aleksandr Proshkin's "The Miracle"

Above is the Russian movie 'The Miracle" based on a true story which can be read about in the links below. The movie is in Russian with Romanian, Greek, and Bulgarian subtitles.

A Strange Miracle of Saint Nicholas in 1956

Aleksandr Proshkin's "The Miracle"

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Byzantine Art Through the Eyes of Greek Modernists

Left: Polykleitos Regos, ‘St Artemios,’ copy of a wall painting from the Protaton in Karyes, Mount Athos, 1934. Right: Omiros, ‘The Annunciation,’ 1998, oil on canvas.

Iouli Eptakili

March 13, 2012

Ekathimerini

During a trip to the Louvre in Paris in the 1930s, Greek painter Yiannis Tsarouchis became enthralled with a Coptic icon from Bawit in Egypt depicting Christ with Saint Minas. Tsarouchis spent hours studying the icon and copying it down to the smallest detail.

The painter had already been apprenticed in the fine qualities of Byzantine art by his tutor Photis Kontoglou, with whom he painted copies of icons on trips around Greece, to Meteora and Mount Athos, as well as numerous churches.

Polykleitos Regos is another artist of Greece’s so-called Thirties Generation who was a great admirer of Byzantine art. His painting of Saint Artemios, for example, from a Mount Athos icon, clearly reveals the modernist influence from Regos’s studies in Paris, with Fauvist touches and obvious Byzantine techniques.

Tsarouchis and Regos were two of many modern Greek artists who were intrigued by Byzantium and whose works are not just reproductions of the originals but paintings that betray the way they perceived Byzantine art.

This perception of Byzantine art by Greek painters, the contribution of the Thirties Generation to the country’s cultural heritage and the influence Byzantine culture had on modern art are the subjects of an exhibition at the Byzantine Museum (22 Vassilissis Sofias, tel 213.213.9572, www.byzantinemuseum.gr) in Athens containing 20th- and 21st-century works from its own collections.

Most are copies (paintings, casts, mosaics, wall paintings) of works by 20th-century artists from Greece and abroad, as well as by conservators who have worked at the museum.

The artists showcased are Greece’s Photis Kontoglou, Demetrios Pelekasis, Yiannis Tsarouchis, Rallis Kopsidis, Polykleitos Regos, Aristotelis Zachos, Pantelis Zografos, Antonis Glinos, Antonis Paterakis, Omiros, Lambros Gatis and Markos Kampanis, as well as Swiss Emile Gillieron pere and Italian Francesco Novo.

“We observe the 20th century in a chronological sequence from the end of the 19th century to the present,” explained curator and archaeologist Ioanna Alexandri, who took us on a tour of the exhibition. “The aim was on the one hand to tell the story of the museum itself in the 20th century and, on the other, through specific works, to discover the way that Byzantine art was understood.”

The exhibition is divided into five sections: The reception of Byzantine art by European and Greek artists, its incorporation into Greece’s national cultural heritage by the artists of the Thirties Generation, the contribution of conservators to preserving Byzantine monuments, the role played by copies both in familiarizing a wider audience with Byzantine art and in documenting its monuments, and, finally, the impact of Byzantine culture on contemporary artistic production.

The first section represents the travelers of the 19th century who flocked to Greece from France, Britain, Germany and Switzerland either in search of work or inspiration.

“What is most interesting is the work of the Europeans,” argued Alexandri. “If you have a clear idea of what the originals are like, here you see that the reproductions are essentially a rerecording through the prism of a Western education. The faces of the saints do not have the Byzantine severity but rather the rosiness and poses seen in Western art.”

The exhibition includes works from the Dionysios Loverdos and Vasileios Lambikis collections which not only reveal the interest shown by intellectual circles and collectors in the interwar years, but are also an expression of highbrow patriotism.

Loverdos, founder of Laiki Bank, in 1938 commissioned Kontoglou and Pelekasis to make copies of the icons that were missing from a number of iconostases in his collection. He also purchased the Athens home of the neoclassical Austrian architect Ernst Ziller and assigned Aristotelis Zachos to make the necessary renovations so that he had a place to house his vast collection of post-Byzantine art. The building, located on the corner of Mavromichali and Academias streets, was eventually bequeathed to the Byzantine Museum and will be undergoing a full revamp with funds from the European Union-backed National Strategic Reference Framework.

Lambikis, meanwhile, was a doctor during the same period. He was interested in Byzantine and post-Byzantine art and commissioned Zografos to paint copies of icons and depictions of church architecture that was in a state of deterioration. Lambikis’s idea was to create a record of the icons and murals and other treasures of churches which could not be renovated due to lack of funding.

“There were many reasons,” said Alexandri. “Political developments in Greece, the Balkan Wars and the Asia Minor Catastrophe compelled Greeks to preserve their Hellenic heritage from the Byzantine period as well.”

In 1917, the northern port city of Thessaloniki was devastated by a massive fire that destroyed hundreds of buildings.

“Right after the destruction, the Byzantine scholar Georgios Sotiriou, who was appointed director of the Byzantine Museum in 1924, was assigned to oversee rescue work at the burned Church of Aghios Dimitrios and architect Aristotelis Zachos was put in charge of its renovation,” said Alexandri as we reached the second section of the exhibition.

“Sotiriou’s first concern was for paintings that were not completely destroyed by the fire to be copied before they were rained on and further damaged. A number of artists made reproductions of the surviving decorative pieces of the church that could be used after its renovation to restore the originals.”

In the third section of the exhibition, the Thirties Generation is represented by Kontoglou, Tsarouchis, Regos and Kopsidis, the latter a student of Kontoglou who did not technically belong to the group but who made a significant contribution to our understanding of the modernist view of Byzantine art today.

The exhibition then pays tribute to the museum’s conservationists with displays of copies and original works influenced by Byzantine art.

“Most of the best restorers of the post-World War II period in Greece did a stint at the museum,” said Alexandri. “They were all artists, trained, who spent most of their lives restoring art as a way of making a living.”

The final section presents the most recent works relating to the theme of the exhibition, such as Lambros Gatis’s 2011 mobile sculpture and a painting by Omiros blending Byzantine and abstract expressionist art.

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The Bright Side of Death: Awareness of Mortality Can Result in Positive Behaviors

April 30, 2012

ScienceDaily

Contemplating death doesn't necessarily lead to morose despondency, fear, aggression or other negative behaviors, as previous research has suggested. Following a review of dozens of studies, University of Missouri researchers found that thoughts of mortality can lead to decreased militaristic attitudes, better health decisions, increased altruism and helpfulness, and reduced divorce rates.

"According to terror management theory, people deal with their awareness of mortality by upholding cultural beliefs and seeking to become part of something larger and more enduring than themselves, such as nations or religions," said Jamie Arndt, study co-author and professor of psychological sciences. "Depending on how that manifests itself, positive outcomes can be the result."

For example, in one study American test subjects were reminded of death or a control topic and then either imagined a local catastrophe or were reminded of the global threat of climate change. Their militaristic attitudes toward Iran were then evaluated. After being reminded of death, people who were reminded of climate change were more likely to express lower levels of militarism than those who imagined a local disaster.

"The differences seen in this study resulted from the size of the group with which the test subjects identified," said Ken Vail, lead author and psychology doctoral student. "In both cases, they responded to the awareness of mortality by seeking to protect the relevant groups. When the threat was localized, subjects aggressively defended their local group; but when the threat was globalized, subjects associated themselves with humanity as a whole and became more peaceful and cooperative."

After real catastrophes, such as the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the Oklahoma City bombing, people's heightened fear and awareness of death had both positive and negative effects.

"Both the news media and researchers tended to focus on the negative reaction to these acts of terrorism, such as violence and discrimination against Muslims, but studies also found that people expressed higher degrees of gratitude, hope, kindness and leadership after 9/11." Vail said. "In another example, after the Oklahoma City bombing, divorce rates went down in surrounding counties. After some stimuli escalates one's awareness of death, the positive reaction is to try to reaffirm that the world has positive aspects as well."

In their personal lives, people also were influenced to make positive choices after their awareness of death was increased. Studies found that conscious thoughts of death can inspire intentions to exercise more. Other studies found that keeping mortality in mind can reduce smoking and increase sunscreen use.

Even subconscious awareness of death can more influenced behavior. In one experiment, passers-by who had recently overheard conversations mentioning the value of helping were more likely to help strangers if they were walking within sight of cemeteries.

"Once we started developing this study we were surprised how much research showed positive outcomes from awareness of mortality," said Arndt. "It seems that people may be just as capable of doing the opposite and 'looking on the bright side of death,' as the Monty Python song says."

The paper "When Death is Good for Life: Considering the Positive Trajectories of Terror Management" was published online on April 5, 2012, in Personality and Social Psychology Review, a journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP).

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(1) Orthodoxy's Worship: Christian Worship

By Protopresbyter George Metallinos

1. Christian Worship

Ever since its founding on the Day of the Pentecost, Christianity (as the Church of Christ), was expressed not only as a teaching but also as worship, which held a centremost place in its life. Worship proved to be not only the means by which the Church expressed Her most profound self, but also the par excellence means that shaped the faith and Her life overall. Without being limited to worship alone, the life of the Church is transformed overall into a worship of the Triune God, Who is Her absolute centre and Ηead.

Ecclesiastic worship is comprehended in Christ only, in Whom God is made known (John 1:18). Faith in Christ as our God and Saviour precedes worship of Him. Christ is the One Who differentiates the Christian faith from every other worship. The Christ-centred character of ecclesiastical worship differentiated it radically, not only from the Gentile faith, but also from the Jewish one (see Hebrews 9). Whatever Gentile or Jewish ritualistic elements the Church may have assumed, are only secondary in importance and peripheral, and they do not affect Her worship.

An essential element of Christian worship is the esoteric one, i.e., the thanksgiving and glorification of God for His gifts, from the heart. That is why Christian worship was founded on what God did for Man and not what Man can do to please God and placate Him. It is not intended as a religious ritual; it is through worship that we have the manifestation of the Church as the “Body of Christ”. The sole, true officiator of the Church is Jesus Christ (Hebrews 8:2), Who, through His Person, introduced into history a different kind of priesthood. The terms “priest”, “sacrifice”, “priesthood” in the Epistle to the Hebrews – the first liturgical text of the Church – are linked exclusively to Christ, the only authentic High Priest, Who offered and still offers the perfect sacrifice – Himself. His sacrifice in the worship of the Church is bloodless and spiritual, and Christ is, after all, the “offerer and the offered and the recipient” of the sacrifice. It is not the priests of the Church who perform the sacrifice (as is the case in the various religions of the world); priests merely “lend” their hands to Christ, so that He may perform everything (Chrysostom). All of the faithful – with their Baptism and their Chrism – partake of Christ’s priesthood, inasmuch as they “present their bodies as a living sacrifice – a holy one, which is pleasing to God” (Romans 12:1).

The Worship of the Church constitutes a revelation of the triple mystery of life: the mystery of God, the mystery of Man and the mystery of Creation, as well as the association between the three. In Orthodox Worship, one experiences the “new Era” that “invaded” history with the Incarnation of the Logos of God, and one is now also equipped with the potential for victory over sin, over deterioration and death. Human existence overall places itself under Christ’s authority and it glorifies the Triadic God, the way He is glorified by the angelic Powers in the heavens (Isaiah 6:1).

In Christian worship, a two-fold movement takes place: Man’s towards God (Who receives our thanksgiving and glorification) and God’s towards Man (who is sanctified by Divine Grace). This is a dialogue between the Creator and His creation; a meeting between Man and “the True One” (1 John 5:20); an offering by an existence to its source, according to the words of the Liturgy: «Ourselves and each other and all of our life let us submit unto Christ the Lord”. The faithful offers thanks to God for his salvation and for God’s continuous gifts, which are “more bounteous than what we asked for”. Man offers God “bread and wine” and he receives the “Body and Blood of Christ” in return; he offers up incense, and receives uncreated Grace. The Church’s worship is not offered to God because He is in need of it; this worship is actually a necessity for Man, who receives far more (and far more important things) than whatever he may have to offer.

Worship is ecclesiastical, when it preserves its supernatural and spiritual character and when it liberates Man, thence leading him into the perfect knowledge (“cognition”) of God (Ephesians 4:13; Revelation 4:10, 5:6, etc.); however, its purpose is not to bring heaven down to earth, but to elevate Man and the world, towards the heavens. It gives Man (and Creation overall) the potential to become “baptized” (to die and be resurrected) within Divine Grace.

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Efi Sarri - The Greek Singer Transformed By A Monastery

The following interview with Efi Sarri was recently conducted by "Down Town Cyprus" in the newspaper O Phileleutheros. Efi Sarri is one of the most popular singers in Greece who went through very difficult times over the past few years, that led her to search deep within herself and rediscover her faith.

What led you to monasticism, Efi?

To start from the beginning: From my childhood my uncle was an integral part of my life. I often went to church with my parents until my teens, I fasted, I prayed, and I went to a priest who was my spiritual father - he was also the one under whom I studied the divine writings in catechism class - and I often confessed. Then, because of my involvement with music, things changed somewhat. But only apparently. Though I did not so often go to church because of my work, always in my dressing room was an icon of the Panagia - that somehow I think protected me from the pitfalls, so I felt that someone, somewhere up there, was watching and looking out for me.

What do you mean? While you were singing "in foreign beds you will dream of me" at the same time you were lighting candles?

Why? What is so strange? The sinless casts the first stone. Who will judge me? The one I did for a living and the other for my soul. Of course I was very careful with these things, because I did not want everyone in the venues where I sang to taunt me about my faith.

To go from believing in God and the Saints to enclosing yourself in a monastery is a very great distance.

I agree. But in a particularly difficult period for me, I came upon the writings of Nun Gavrilia through a trusted colleague of mine - a very famous singer with hits through Phoebus to her credit, but I will not publicly reveal her name - I felt that her words and her "ascetic love" was the hope I was looking for and was surprised to discover that it was only truly found in virtuous people.

When did this happen, Efi?

About four years ago, when Lakis Lazopoulos started mocking me through his show, doing outrageous things against me, raping my soul. It was at this moment that I called by myself one night a female monastery, in the eastern suburbs of Athens. I spoke with the Abbess, I told her who I was, and naturally she recognized me, and she told me that "the way of God is open to the whole world". And from her voice alone over the telephone, I calmed down.

And then you finally went to a monastery?

For about four weeks I went almost every evening to this monastery and prayed. I spoke with some nuns there - one of these actually once did vocals on a CD I put out with Karvelas; her voice was very distinctive in "You want to leave me? Impossible!" - and slowly, day by day, I began to feel the monastery was my second home. I remember in those days I would go daily to the psychologist - I had various psychosomatic issues because of the mud thrown at me by Lazopoulos - and the space of the monastery became my refuge. It was as if I was in my natural field. So I felt.

When did you embrace monasticism?

Two months later since I grew in despair with the worldly, and I told myself: "Efi, now is a time to make a giant step in your life, to take a leap and overcome." For a little while I looked at the beautiful dresses I had in my closet, I took a look at my gold discs, and I remembered a conversation I had with a nun that made me ashamed when she said to me "the 'Naked in Greece' you shouldn't have said". I smiled sweetly thinking of all the small sins I committed in my life, the people who unwittingly wronged me, and I thought that now I may be being punished for all my innocent mistakes, and so I made the great decision. I called the Abbess and announced my deepest desire, and she referred me to another nun who was running a new monastery, several kilometers away from Athens. I locked my house, grabbing only a small suitcase with some necessities, and I called a friend who took me straight there.

As a novice?

Exactly. All the nuns who were there - around twenty - received me and took care of me, giving me passages from the Holy Bible to read with reference to particular passages. Though I remember the Abbess, a holy woman without guile, put me to learn by heart the Second Letter to the Corinthians of the Apostle Paul, saying that these words must become my guide in life. Indeed, because she was an intelligent woman and had a high sense of humor, I remember she said to me characteristically: "In the same way you memorize your songs, so you will learn this as well."

And from that day you participated regularly in the monastic life?

With the utmost regularity! The very next morning I got up at 5:00 to go to Orthros. I took a break during the Liturgy. I sat behind a stall, and I opened a book with the service of the day and I participated with my sisters in the chants. Ultimately nothing is wasted. My voice stood out from all the rest. They all gave me their congratulations. Then I went with a sister, who was somehow responsible for me in the monastery until I became a proper nun, to a large field, which, as the sister told me, belonged to the monastery for many years, and there we gathered olives. I will not hide that this was a little challenging for me, because never in my life had I done anything like this. But, I felt the salvation by thinking of the sharp teeth of my television oppressor, and it was nothing compared.

Did you have difficulties with the cassock?

Plenty. Mainly because it was summer, the month of June, and I was sweating a lot, and until then I was accustomed to getting around wearing a mini and my legs would get air. Despite these things, I endured because this was part of my test.

And could you wake up every day at 5, even though for many years that was the time you would go to sleep?

Most certainly! We would eat dinner around 8 - usually bread, olives, herbs - and right after we would say our prayers and sleep in our cells. Another world!

What did the other nuns say to you? Did they know you?

Everyone recognized me! From the first moment. I will not hide the fact that some were skeptical towards me, and I heard some say "artists do not fit in the House of God", but the vast majority accepted me with great love.

And why didn't you stay in the monastery?

In a conversation I had with the Abbess, she told me that I should struggle and dialogue with the world, that the monastery was always there for me, but that I had to find my way through that which troubled me among people and to solve it; that the monastery was a consolation for me as long as I lived there, but it couldn't become a solution for my life. I was already there for 20 days, and then I gathered my things from my small cell which I shared with another novice and I returned to my home in Alimos.

You want to tell me that you lived all this because of a satirical show?

This particular man trampled my soul with his "humor". The monastery was my resurrection.

In the end, was your stay in the monastery good for you?

Very much. I think I am another Efi now. My contact with the divine helped me to separate myself from many things within me, to pick out people and to categorize, and what I try to do is to forgive them. Even those who hurt me deeply.

Was the monastery perhaps a momentary last resort and nothing deeper?

Is there a way to measure faith and I don't know it? Christ Himself says: "Whoever wants to follow Me, come." And: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst."

Which of the two were you?

I thirsted for understanding; for a serene listener to the difficulties I encountered during that period. And I found this in the Sister Nuns. In my next CD I will refer to this amazing experience of mine.

In other words, you will interpret chants?

It is a combination of ecclesiastical hymns with my old sensational hits. I cannot say more about it.

Why did you decide to record now after all that you lived?

Because of all that Greece is going through now, but also because of the days of Pascha, and I also wanted to give an example to the world: that love and faith save. I who have never been in want of anything in my life tell you this. Because I had many loves, young men and old would fall at my feet begging for a fleeting touch, for money, for publicity, for unfathomable success, and yet, I only needed the evil words of one man to deregulate me and tell me that all I had won throughout the years and becoming one of the top singers in Greek folk songs, were all things of the wind. Without faith I was a nothing. I now know. I am not the Efi which you recognized. My life has separated now from pre-monastery to post-monastery. And believe me, this second season is clearly happier than the first.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos

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Q&A: Chorazin in the First Century

Question: How do you address the skeptic who argues that Chorazin did not exist in Jesus’ day? –J.H.

Answer: Two of the Gospels record that Jesus condemned Chorazin for its lack of faith (Matt 11:21; Luke 10:13). Scholars have identified Chorazin as Khirbet Karazeh, a site located two miles north of Capernaum, but excavations have not revealed remains earlier than the 2nd century AD. You’re asking if this contradicts the New Testament.

First, the incidental reference to Chorazin would hardly have been invented by a Gospel writer. One could potentially use the reference to argue that the Gospels were written only much later in the second century, but there is abundant evidence dating Matthew and Luke to the first century.

Second, in some cases the name of a site is preserved in the area but not at the specific location. Names did move in antiquity as well as today (e.g., Beth Zur, Socoh), and this possibility cannot be ruled out.

Third, another ancient text, the Talmud, refers to the existence of Chorazin in the first century. Rabbi Yose said that they would have brought the wheat from Chorazin to the temple for the Omer offering if it had been closer to Jerusalem (b. Men. 85a).

Fourth, in an unpublished report written in 1926, J. Ory described an earlier synagogue 650 feet (200 m) west of the second-century synagogue: “A square colonnaded building of small dimensions, of a disposition similar to the interior arrangement of the synagogue, 7 columns, 3 on each side...with sitting benches in 5 courses” (cited by Foerster on page 26 of Ancient Synagogues Revealed). This building has not been re-located, but it is possible that this is the synagogue of Jesus’ time.

Finally, we must recognize that archaeology has recovered so little of the ancient world. First-century synagogues in Galilee are a great example, as textual sources indicate the existence of dozens and yet archaeology has found only a handful (e.g., Magdala, Gamla). The fact that these are not known today hardly means that they did not once exist. Perhaps the architecture was different than what archaeologists have been looking for, perhaps the Roman destruction was severe in some cases, or perhaps it is just a case of not having sufficient resources to excavate the hundreds of archaeological sites in Galilee.

A telling example of just how limited archaeology is during this time period is the apparent complete disappearance of the nearby city of Bethsaida-Julias. Archaeologists excavating et-Tell so much want it to be the glorious first-century city constructed by Herod Philip but they have not found it (despite their claims to the contrary). The problem is not with the ancient sources but with the preserved remains and archaeologists’ ability to find them.

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Eldress Agatha: Mother of Elder Cleopa Ilie

Eldress Agatha Ilie (1876 - 1968), formerly known as Maria before being tonsured a nun, was the mother according to the flesh of one of the greatest hesychasts of modern Romania - Elder Cleopa Ilie.

She was from Soulitsa in the district of Botosani. Her husband was named Alexander, who was a cow merchant for a living. God blessed them with ten children. From a young age this pious couple taught their children to love the ecclesiastical services, to pray, and to flee temptations in their personal lives. Nearby their village was the Kozantsea-Botosani Skete, where Fr. Paisios Olarou struggled, who became the spiritual father of Elder Cleopa as well as the entire family. This is where the children of this large family would go to pray and to listen to the teachings of Elder Paisios, as well as help graze the animals of the Skete.

But God, Who alone is All-Good, and Whose ways are beyond comprehension, allowed this large pious family to suffer many bitter trials. One by one each child was taken from this life, much like the children of Job. This occurred between 1915 and 1935, by the will of God. John died at the age of 16. After a year his sister Porphyria died at the age of 18. After two years the 26 year old Maria died. Their mother Maria was in deep sorrow constantly for the loss of her children. She would go to the Skete and Elder Paisios would console her saying that she was sending angels to heaven. Her sorrow would continue after a few years when Basil and George left to become monks at Sihastria Monastery, and in 1931 she was informed that Basil had died as well. George, who had taken the name Gerasimos, would die two years later. One year later another terrible loss came upon Maria, when her daughter Katherine died; she was only 20 years old and was a novice at Agapia Monastery. Eight children had died at this point, and two were left for her consolation. Every time a child was taken from her, Fr. Paisios would say: "Your children are chanting to God like angels, Maria. There you will meet again." In 1949 Maria went to inform Fr. Paisios that her ninth child died, named Michael. He told her: "Your nine children have gone to the Lord and received nine martyric crowns." Shortly after this her husband, Alexander, died. Her last surviving child, Constantine, had already gone to become a novice at Sihastria Monastery in 1936, and came to be known as Cleopas upon his tonsure. Cleopa was urging his mother at this point to become a nun, and Fr. Paisios informed her: "Go Maria, you also become a monastic and pray for the living and the dead."

In the winter of 1946 Maria went to join a convent, at the age of 70, after first visiting Sihastria Monastery to venerate the tombs of her two sons. From there she went by carriage to the Monastery of Old Agapia, where she stayed for good. There she took the name Agatha and lived for another 22 years. All her life she was illiterate and could not read books or the Divine Services. What characterized her was her goodness and innocence of soul. Her soul was child-like, without evil, without pride, without bad thoughts in her mind. Whatever somebody told her, she believed, and whatever she was asked to do, she did with obedience, because she loved everybody and had no discrimination. She spoke with everyone, and cried for the misfortune and pain of all people.

When she was asked what obedience she had at the Monastery, she would respond: "I cut wood with the saw, I take care of the flowers, and I help with the cooking." Another job she had was to go into the woods all day to gather sticks for the kitchen, the whole time praying while she worked, and she would return before sunset.

One year before her repose, she ceased altogether speaking of her children. If a nun happened to ask Sister Agatha about her children, she would groan a little bit, but then be happy as a child, saying: "How good are these sisters. They care for me like a mother. Behold, here I am alone. Abbess Olympia also reposed. I have remained alone."

Her only consolation now was the Church and the Sisters who took care of her in her cell. She lived the 22 years of her monastic life with humility, prayer, silence, love, quietude, and spiritual prayer.

Old Agapia Monastery was a haven for Eldress Agatha. Though she sent all but one of her children to heaven before her own repose, through prayer she was ever near them together with all the saints through the grace of the Holy Spirit. In the Monastery she found comfort and peace of soul. In the summer of 1968 Eldress Agatha began to feel weak. She only had the strength to walk to the balcony of her cell to catch some warmth from the rays of the sun. For a few days she was bedridden. "Eldress Agatha, won't you eat some food? Here are a few apples," said the nuns who took care of her. To this she responded: "Apples I will eat in Paradise, where I am going soon." On 15 September 1968, at the age of 92, her soul went to Paradise, after saying farewell to the entire Sisterhood of the Monastery.

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A Letter of Saint Valeriu Gafencu To His Mother

7 March 1946

My beloved mom, I saw you in the heart of Norika [his sister], when she visited. You were good, gentle, very understanding. I remained silent and looked within myself. There I found love ... Today I'm so happy! I look calmly at my life and life around the world and see God's intervention in everything. I look at our lives and see the miracle of God.

My dear mom, I feel you so much! Tell me mom that you feel my love! Tell me mom that you always feel me by your side! Tell me mom you're happy! I have so much to tell you, mom! At night I wake up from sleep and pray. I send my thoughts to my mom and then there is so much peace within me! And I feel my dad, I feel the endless love. And I often think of the love you had for my father. What a beautiful family you have created! And what beautiful love!

Mom, remember the summer days when I was a student in high school and we were walking together in our garden, among the trees. I remember what thoughts you had and you told me about my future.

My primary thoughts then were that I would become a man of great value. I meant by this to become a man who played a great role in history and bring many good things to the nation. I wanted to do much good in the world, but man plans and God decides. Life has followed its rapid and imposing journey. I arrived by myself to the University in Iasi. There I saw that truly there is opened for me a great future. I lived a normal life, I was one of the most gifted students, a friend of all, with an unusual thirst for the ideals of a new world, in which govern love and justice, the perfect harmony.

Well, I arrived in prison. I knew that my prison life would bring, through suffering and isolation from the world, many problems. I do believe that I suffer for the truth. This circumstance has brought to my soul a deep peace. I was satisfactorily fulfilling the course of my ideal.

And, my beloved mother, I want you to know that I have suffered much. The first winter I would wake up at night from my sleep, and the loneliness of my incarceration, cold and hungry, I would look into the darkness and whispering low, so that I only heard myself, but loud enough for God to hear: "Mom, I'm cold, hungry!"

At first it was very difficult. But God was always with me. He did not forsake me even a moment. I began to confront my bodily sufferings, and slowly began to savor new joys. I saw that I am a sinful man. I am appalled by my sins and my weaknesses. I realized then that I, who wished with all my heart for an ideal world, was a sinner. Therefore, I first had to become a pure new man. And so I began to war with the evil that was inside me.

Slowly there descended upon me the light of truth. I began to live the happiness in pain. And the hole in my heart was overfilled by Christ, my great love. And I realized then that truly great is he who has this great love, though he seems small. Today I am happy. Through Christ I love everyone. It is a difficult journey for these things to be accepted and known by the people! But I am very convinced that it is the only path that leads to happiness.

Translated by John Sanidopoulos

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