We Ought To Rejoice in the Resurrection Joy of the Theotokos

By St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite

Reflect, my beloved, that we have a duty to rejoice with the Virgin Panagia, who upon seeing her Son and God risen, was filled immediately with such great joy which was as great as her grief experienced during His Passion.

Her pains and sorrows were measured with the knowledge that she had of the infinite worthiness of the incarnate Logos, and of her love for Him, not only as God and as a child of her womb, but also as the only begotten Son and because she only was His mother without a father. All this did not allow her love to share in other things, but it focused only on her sweet Son.

Because she knew Him more, she loved Him more than those who knew Him and loved Him, even all the angels in heaven. Therefore we can say that the Virgin Panagia suffered the Passion of her Son more than all creation together; and her sorrow cannot be compared with any other, except the sorrow tasted by her beloved Jesus. "And your own soul a sword shall pierce" (Luke 2:35).

...For she first went around midnight to see the tomb of her Son. For her only did the earthquake occur and the Archangel Gabriel, her usual aid and subsistence and evangelist, rolled the stone from the door of the tomb and sat upon it wearing bright white garments like the snow. For when divine Gabriel descended, O how she immediately converted into overwhelming joy from her extreme sadness! O how her spirit rejoiced when she saw that for her alone did the tomb of her Son open! Just as by virtue of the Theotokos were heaven and earth opened for mankind, so also for the Theotokos the life-creating tomb of the Lord opened, according to the great one of Thessaloniki Gregory Palamas.

She first saw the Resurrection of her Son! O how much she rejoiced when she approached her beloved Jesus and took hold with great reverence and love His holy feet and venerated them! And also when she saw full of the divine light of the Resurrection the members of her sweetest Son, which a short while earlier were all torn up and disfigured! Above all, however, how much she rejoiced when she heard from the divine mouth of her Son the joyous word He said to her, the "rejoice", even though the Evangelist Matthew says that Mary Magdalene was with her and she also touched the feet of the Lord, and she also heard the "rejoice", so that the Resurrection of the Lord would not be questioned if only His mother the Panagia witnessed to the event, by virtue of their physical relationship, as evidenced by Gregory of Thessaloniki (and Xanthopoulos in his synaxarion for Pascha). What mind can understand the perfect love and joy between the Theotokos and Christ, between such a mother and such a son!

Therefore, brother, if the Theotokos is the physical mother of Christ, it stands that she is the spiritual mother of all Christians, and especially such a mother as Christ instructs us not to call anyone a father on earth, because one is our Father, the Heavenly One. This is exactly how we are right to say that another mother we have not but only the Theotokos. If, I say, the Theotokos is the mother of Christians, you as a Christian brother and son of the Theotokos owe it to rejoice in her great joy. If during the time of her much happiness you do not rejoice with the Theotokos, you will certainly prove unworthy of her love. And if you prove to be unworthy of her love, you will reveal to be unworthy to become accepted under her protection; and being the mother of us all, if she does not accept you under her protection, woe to you! What hope is left for your salvation? This is the mother of mercy and all the graces of God pass through her hands both in heaven and on earth, to angels as much as humans.

...Rejoice therefore with your whole heart together with the Lady of Heaven and Earth, the receptacle of joy, because to her was first given the joy even before the Resurrection, at her Annunciation, and after the Resurrection, even today. Rejoice with the Theotokos, for the entire Church of Christ rejoices with her in many sections of the hymns of praise which are chanted joyfully and solemnly.... What am I saying? Rejoice with the Theotokos as all of irrational and senseless creation rejoices with her, and celebrates the Resurrection of her Son and offers her the most beautiful and important gifts and the joys of sweetest spring. Do you not see with your eyes, that now the sky is clearer? That the disc of the moon is brighter and more silver, and all the stars of heaven appear clearer? Do you not see the earth is crowned with multicolored flowers and its fragrant roses and daisies, which some have come out entirely from their buds, while others take a while and still others are enclosed? Do you not hear with your ears the symphonic and panharmonic music, which now comes from the sweetest voices atop the green leafy trees, from the nightingales, the swallows, the blackbirds, the cuckoos, the partridges, the magpies, the wild doves, the finches and other birds?... Do you not see now how the springs run clearer, how the rivers run richer and water wherever they go throughout the earth? How the orchards smell? How the grass waves? How the young and tender lambs jump and dance in their grassy plains and fields? Do you not see how the working bees emerge from their hives, buzzing and flying around luscious fields and orchards, sucking the flowers and molding their combs by placing straight lines across the corners for added safety and beauty of their work, making sweet honey? Do you not see how the winds are at peace now? How a sweet breeze is blowing? How the sea is calm and serene? How sailors are traveling safely and how dolphins are traveling with the ships, swimming and blowing and sending sailors off cheerfully?... Do you not see how all of visible creation, wherever you turn to see, is delightful, fragrant, fresh, joyous, and delight the five senses of the body? And how they appear to have resurrected with Christ and they were reanimated though previously dead from the frost and cold and winter?

...The greatest joy which you can give to the Theotokos, however, is the decision to conquer your passions and at every moment to live with chastity for the love of the Virgin.

Translated by John Sanidopoulos

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British Archaeologist Charles Warren and the Holy Light

Sir Charles Warren was born in 1840 in Bangor, Wales and was an archaeologist, an officer in the British Royal Engineers, and later General of the British army which participated in battles in Africa and Asia.

In 1867 he went to Jerusalem as a member of the Palestine Exploration Fund and conducted a series of excavations that lasted until 1870. Amongst his findings is a network of galleries located under the Dome of the Rock, as well as an underground water supply system that was later named after him (Warren Shaft). He also completed a detailed topographical map of the old city of Jerusalem.

A portion of the results of his excavations was published in his work titled Underground Jerusalem that was published in 1876 in London. In a chapter of this work titled “Holy Fire,” Warren speaks of all he knows of the miracle of Holy Saturday which was of particular interest to him. In the first paragraph of this chapter he poses a crucial question: “What is that fire?,” and immediately responds to his question:

"What is that fire which on Easter-eve lights up the lamps in the Holy Sepulchre?... That a miracle attends the ceremony, there cannot be a doubt."1

The British archaeologist was an eyewitness to the ceremony all four years he stayed in Jerusalem and according to his assessment there is not a doubt in his mind that it was a miracle.

The first ceremony in which he participated was Holy Saturday of 1867. On the following Holy Saturday, through the intermediation of distinguished French scholar Charles Clermont-Ganneau, Warren secured a spot on one of the raised balconies of the Latins, from where he had an unobstructed view of the Holy Sepulchre. Situated at this salient and advantageous spot, he states the following:

"I had seen the miracle of the Holy Fire on a former occasion, but now I was to have a more complete view, through the influence of M. Ganneau, who had procured me a place in the Latin Gallery, to the north, and overlooking the Holy Sepulchre."2

And he continues, describing the moment when the Holy Fire appears:

"At last there is a feeling that the fire is at hand, masses of tow are thrust forward, a flash at the opening is seen, the tow is lighted… In a moment, as though by magic, the fire extends itself in all directions."3

Warren, even though he is a member of the Anglican Church, does not hesitate to acknowledge the miracle’s authenticity. Moreover, the miracle does not belong to the Greeks or to the Orthodox in general. It belongs to all Christians and everyone can partake in it. The Holy Fire cannot be imprisoned or caged within religious orders. It can, however, be enclosed in the hearts of all simple and virtuous people.

Rapturous from what he experienced, Warren is the fourth eyewitness to describe the descent of the Holy Fire as a flash that descends from above. As he states, the flash appeared at the opening of the dome, which at the time still had a small opening toward the sky.

Furthermore, he speaks of a torch that lights simultaneously with the appearance of the flash and immediately afterwards he describes a miraculous dissemination of the Holy Fire inside the church. He is not referring to the usual dissemination of the flame from candle to candle that needs quite a bit of time, but he describes a supernatural dissemination that was performed by the Holy Fire itself which, “in a moment, as though by magic,” flooded the entire Church of the Resurrection, extending in all directions at once.

The British archaeologist’s description is particularly revealing and in line with the testimonies of the previous centuries. Aside, however, from his personal account, in the same chapter of his book there are two more very important testimonies: that of Cypriot Bishop Meletios and that of Patriarch Kyrillos II, who led the ceremony the first two years in which Warren participated - the years 1867 and 1868 respectively.

The British archeologist, impressed by all he experienced during the ceremony, wished to further investigate the miraculous event and find out exactly what occurred inside the Sepulchre just as the Holy Fire appeared. The only people who could answer his questions were the two Greek hierarchs mentioned above. So, once he met with them at different times, he asked them to describe all they experienced inside the Holy Sepulchre. Let us examine exactly what they told him.

Notes:

1. C. Warren, Underground Jerusalem, London 1976, p. 425.

2. Warren, op. cit., 430.

2. Warren, op. cit., 435.

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Video: Pascha In Old Greece

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Macedonia Police Detain 17 Monks, Nuns, Believers

Stefan J. Bos

May 22, 2012

BosNewsLife

Macedonian security forces have detained 17 monks, nuns and other believers on tax evasion charges as part of a fresh crackdown on the Serbian Orthodox Church in Macedonia, representatives and investigators told BosNewsLife Tuesday, May 22.

They were captured after police entered several monasteries and homes of church members, who fall under the responsibility of the Serbian Orthodox Church's "Ohrid Archbishopric" in Macedonia, said Centar 9, or 'Center 9' in English, a major Balkan religious rights watchdog.

"Prosecution of monks, nuns and believers of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Macedonia continues," Center 9 General Secretary Drasko Djenovic told BosNewsLife. "[It is] the situation in that ex-Yugoslav state," he said.

The raid reportedly began early Monday, May 21, when police in the eastern Macedonian town of Stip "was looking to arrest Bishop Marko of Bregalnica" area but he was not present as he attended the spring session of the Serbian Orthodox Church Synod in Belgrade, Serbia, according to investigators. However a nun, identified as Pelagija, was said to have been detained in that raid.

Elsewhere, in Macedonia's capital Skopje, police entered a monastery of the Assumption of the Holy Mother of God looking for Bishop David of the ancient town of Stobi, Center 9 added.

PRIORESS DETAINED

He was not found, but Prioress Kirina was taken into custody, BosNewsLife learned. While she was trying to report of what was going on, her mobile phone was allegedly taken away. "Police performed a search and arrest while video recording all," Center 9 claimed.

In a separate statement attributed to Bishop David and obtained by BosNewsLife, the church leader explained that "According to our understanding, 17 nuns and monks are arrested today [Monday]."

"Considering that the Macedonian police was trying to arrest me this morning, I expect to be arrested as soon as I cross the border line and enter Macedonia,“ he stressed, while returning from the synod meeting in Belgrade.

"Bishop Marko stayed at the synod meeting, since someone needs to inform the public of the events in Macedonia, as our Archbishop Jovan is already in prison," Bishop David added. "Such persecution and repression, in a desire to annihilate the whole Church, is not remembered in a modern and democratic Europe.“

Also, in the country's southwestern city of Bitola, police entered the monastery of St. John Chrysostom during the liturgy, in an attempt to "arrest the Mother superior Olimpijada" Center 9 told BosNewsLife.

MORE DETENTIONS

"When Center 9 called a mobile phone of Mother Olimpijada, another nun responded confirming that Mother Olimpijada is in a ‘safe place and not arrested’. However, one nun was taken to police custody."

In a statement she was quoted as saying: “This morning, during the service, police entered the monastery with arrest warrants and did a thorough search. No one is injured, but everything is upside down."

In the southern Macedonian city of Prilep police entered a monastery of the Assumption of the Holy Mother and arrested [monk] Mojsej, Center 9 reported.

Police reportedly said the raids were part of an investigation into "tax evasion fraud". But rights investigators have linked these and other raids to the government's refusal to register the Serbian Orthodox Church in Macedonian.

Only the Macedonian Orthodox Church has been recognized as the Balkan nation's main religion.

BLACK LIST

An Interior Ministry blacklist issued in recent years reportedly lists over 20 Serbian Orthodox bishops banned from entering Macedonia.

The Serbian Orthodox Church Synod in Belgrade earlier condemned as “political and not judicial” the sentence of two and half years to Archbishop Jovan, who is behind bars in Macedonia's Idrizovo prison.

Several other court cases are pending against Jovan and at least 15 other persons, trial observers said. Family members of Archbishop Jovan were among those detained in the latest raids, in addition to the nuns and monks, Center 9 said, adding that they were all expected to be brought before an investigative judge.

Macedonian police was to give more details later Tuesday, May 22.

It was not immediately clear how the European Union would react to the latest developments. Macedonia is seeking membership of the EU and the NATO military alliance, efforts so far blocked by Greece amid a dispute over the country's name.

The tensions over religious and national identities in the region are a left-over of the Balkan wars of the 1990s, according to Western obervers and rights activists.

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The Apodosis (Leavetaking) of Pascha

On Wednesday of the sixth week of Pascha, we celebrate the Apodosis or Leavetaking of the Feast of Feasts - Holy Pascha. While most Feasts have their Leavetaking on the eighth day, Pascha, the Feast of Feasts, has its Leavetaking on the thirty-ninth day. The fortieth day is the Feast of the Lord's Ascension, which marks the end of the Lord's physical presence on earth. He does not abandon us, however. He has promised to be with us always, even until the end of the age (Matt. 20:28). As we sing in the Kontakion for Ascension, "Thou didst ascend in glory, O Christ our God, not being parted from those who love Thee, but remaining with them and proclaiming: I am with you and no one will be against you." There is a similar thought expressed in the Apolytikion for the Dormition: "In falling asleep, you did not forsake the world, O Theotokos."

Every major feast has its Apodosis. Why?

The main reason is that the Church once again gives us the opportunity to celebrate the beauty of the feast. When we see or experience something beautiful, it is human nature to desire to have that experience again. When we taste a delicious food, we desire to eat it again. The feasts of Christ and the Theotokos are a sweetness to the soul which arouses the desire to celebrate more than just once.

Such sweetness we experience most of all on the feast of Pascha, which is, as we said, the "Feast of Feasts". For forty days we celebrate the victory of Christ's Resurrection, and the Apodosis ends this celebration on the liturgical level. The festivity of the Resurrection however continues with us throughout the year, especially every Sunday during the Divine Liturgy which is known as a "Small Pascha". But it is not only the Resurrection we celebrate at every Divine Liturgy, but the entire life of Christ and the Theotokos and the Saints.

The services today are celebrated just as on the day of Pascha itself. The daily readings from Holy Scripture, of course, will differ. After the Dismissal at Liturgy, the paschal hymns are no longer sung. The prayer "O Heavenly King" is not said or sung until Pentecost.The Winding Sheet (Plaschanitsa or Epitaphios) is taken from the altar and is put in its proper place. Even though today is a Wednesday, fish, wine, and oil are permitted.

Troparion

Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and to those in the tombs He has given life!

Hypakoe

Before the dawn, Mary and the women came and found the stone rolled away from the tomb. They heard the angelic voice: "Why do you seek among the dead as a man the One who is everlasting life? Behold the clothes in the grave! Go and proclaim to the world: The Lord is Risen! He has slain death, as He is the Son of God, saving the race of men."

Kontakion

Thou didst decend into the tomb, O Immortal One, and Thou didst destory the power of death! In victory didst Thou arise, O Christ God, proclaiming "Rejoice" to the myrrhbearing women, granting peace to Thy apostles, and bestowing resurrection to the fallen.

Paschal Hymn to the Theotokos

The angel cried to Her who is Full of Grace: Rejoice, O Pure Virgin! Again I say: Rejoice! Your Son is Risen from His three days in the tomb! With Himself He has raised all the dead! Rejoice, all you people! Shine! Shine! O New Jerusalem! The Glory of the Lord has shone on you! Exalt now and be glad, O Zion! Be radiant, O Pure Theotokos, in the Resurrection of your Son!

For more on the Paschal and the Pentecostarion period, see the Pentecostarion Resource Page.

Also celebrated on the Apodosis of Pascha, is the Discovery of the Panagia Ypapanti Icon in Kalamata.

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(6) Orthodoxy's Worship: The Liturgy

By Protopresbyter George Metallinos

6. The Liturgy

The Divine Liturgy is the centre of ecclesiastical worship in whole, culminating in the Divine Eucharist, the centre of Orthodox life, experience and conscience. According to Fr. Alexander Schmemann, a major liturgiologist of our time, “the Divine Liturgy can be regarded as a journey or a course that eventually leads us to our final destination, during which course every stage is equally important.” This course begins, from the moment that the faithful leave their homes to go to the liturgical assembly. The assembling of the body is the first and fundamental act that introduces the faithful into the new world that God instituted in history, i.e., the Church. The faithful assemble inside the temple, in order to participate in the Liturgy, along with all of the saints and their brethren in Christ – both the living and the departed. This act culminates in the “Small Entrance”, during which all of the assembly, along with the Bishop, journey towards the celestial sacrificial altar.

One cannot be perceived a Christian, outside the liturgical assembly. In times of persecutions, the Christians placed themselves in great danger in order to participate in the assemblies of the local communities. The expression “I belong to the Church” means: "I participate in Her liturgical assemblies"; because it is through them, that the “here and now” of the ecclesiastical body manifests itself. It is the synagogé (=the gathering together) of the people of God - in which even the catechumens and the repentant also participate to a certain extent - and not just an “elite” of chosen ones. The faithful constantly deposit their sinfulness before the Divine Love, so that it may be transformed, through repentance, into sanctity. That is why the Holy Fathers recommend frequent participation in the liturgical assemblies; because that is how “the powers of Satan are undone ..... in the congruence of the faith” (Saint Ignatius the ‘God-bearer’, †107).

In the first part of the Liturgy, up to the end of the Scriptural recitations, it was the custom for the catechumens to also participate, which is why it was called the “Liturgy of the Catechumens”. The remaining part is called the “Liturgy of the Faithful”, and it contains the Sacrament of the Divine Eucharist, whose main characteristic is the sacrifice. The Eucharist is a “theophany” (a “manifestation” of God), and as such, it transforms all of Creation into a theophany. With the Divine Eucharist, the Church offers Her “bloodless” sacrifice. The faithful offer God’s gifts ("Thine own, of Thine own, do we offer Thee"), confessing their unworthiness and their spiritual poverty ( “..... for we have done nothing good on earth .....”). The only reciprocation to God’s gifts that we can offer is to consciously subject ourselves to Divine Love.

The Divine Eucharist is not a prayer or a ritual like other services. It is the mystery of Christ’s actual presence in the midst of His praying Church. It is firstly Christ’s Eucharist (=thanksgiving), then it becomes ours also, because, without ceasing to be “co-seated with the Father on high”, Christ is also simultaneously “here below, invisibly, with us”. According to the blessed Chrysostom, “Whensoever (the faithful) receives Holy Communion with a clean conscience, he is performing Pascha (Easter) ... There is nothing more in the Sacrament performed for Pascha, than in the Sacrament now being performed”. By partaking of Christ’s “humanity” (=human nature), which is distinctly and indivisibly joined to His Godhood, the faithful receives inside themselves all of Christ and become joined to Him in this way.

In the Divine Eucharist, the ecclesiastical body experiences a perpetuated Pentecost. Pentecost, Eucharist and Synod in the life of the Church are all linked to the actual presence of Christ in the Holy Spirit. This is what our liturgical language also expresses; we speak of “spiritual mysteries”, “spiritual sacrifice”, “worship in the spirit”, “spiritual table”, “spiritual body”, “spiritual food and drink”, etc. Everything becomes spiritual during the Divine Liturgy, not in the sense of a certain idealizing or immaterializing on our part, but on account of the actual presence of the Holy Spirit therein.

Above all, however, the Divine Eucharist becomes the sacrament of unification of the Church. Those participating in it become “ONE” in Christ (Galatians 3:28), through the unity of their hearts (“in one voice and one heart ....”). That is what the Apostle Paul teaches in his First Epistle to the Corinthians (10:15-17). The one ecclesiastical body relates therein to the Eucharistic bread: “For we, the many, are one bread, one body”. This is why it is such a contradiction, when all of the faithful do not receive Holy Communion, even though all of them have heard the Eucharist-thanksgiving prayers in preparation of Holy Communion.

Holy Communion transmits Christ’s life into each member, so that it may live in Christ, together with all the other members. Saint Symeon the New Theologian sees this union with Christ as a lifting of man’s solitude: “For the one participating in the divine and deifying graces is in no way alone, but with You, my Christ, the three-sunned light, which lights the entire world ...” . With Holy Communion, the individuals become members of the Lord’s Body and thereafter, individual survival “mutates” into a communion of life. Ever since the first centuries, the very existence of the Liturgy of the Pre-Sanctified (Gifts) verifies the need to participate in the Divine Eucharist. Naturally, none of the above occurs through any kind of automation, but only when the participants live the life of an ecclesiastical body. That is why “he who eats and drinks unworthily, is eating and drinking of a crime unto himself” (I Corinthians 11:29).

During the Divine Liturgy, the Church is literally lifted to the heavens, partaking of the Death, the Resurrection and the Ascension of Christ and living Her own “ascension” into the heavenly realm. “And You have not abstained from doing everything, until You have lifted us all to heaven and bestowed us with Your future kingdom ...”, we confess during the Liturgy. The Liturgy becomes the Paschal gathering of all those who encounter the Lord and enter His kingdom. We do not move along Platonic forms, by seeking perfection in a certain “beginning”; instead, we seek it in the eschatological, in the fulfillment of that which is evolving within Time, through to the final outcome of the existence of the faithful-to-Christ person. The worship of the Church is thus directed by the historical past of Divine Providence, to the confirmed-in-Christ future. During the Divine Liturgy, even Christ’s Second Coming is referred to as an event of the past! “In remembrance of all that came to pass for us: of the Cross, of the Tomb, of the third-day Resurrection, of the ascension to heaven, of the second and glorious Second Coming…” is what we confess, prior to the sanctification of the Precious Gifts.

To underrate the liturgical congregation is to cloud its eschatological character. Besides, with the proliferation of Eucharistic congregations in a multitude of parishes, in chapels, in monasteries, etc. and the absence of the Bishop – the head of the gathering of every local Church – the term “congregation” has lost its true meaning. Only the joyous character of the Liturgy now testifies towards its eschatological atmosphere, to the point where it could even be regarded as inconsistent with fasting. During the period of Great Lent, a period of strict fasting, no Divine Liturgies are performed on weekdays, only the Liturgy of the Pre-Sanctified Gifts. The Divine Liturgy is not one of the many means of sanctification for the “fortification” of Man; it is the Sacrament of the Church, which transposes the faithful into the future age. Church and Eucharist are inter-woven.

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Is Holiness Practical Today?

By Monk Moses the Athonite

All the saints of our Church "ended their lives after a good struggle and keeping the faith".

The saints are good-conquering strugglers and undaunted confessors. They were visited by the Holy Spirit and graced. They were not just good, kind, noble, smiling, and ethical, but they were icons of Christ. They are the ones that remain always indissolubly united with Christ, who reveal to the world and lead people to Christ. The saints assure us that the gospel is feasible and practicable throughout the centuries and we can if we want strive to unite with Christ. The saints by accepting Christ in their lives unreservedly are made christ-like, and become christ-bearers and christ-seers. In this way they testify, confess, preach, and present everywhere and always Him. They cannot live without Christ. For them He is everything.

Quite often we are given various opportunities to confess Christ. Sometimes we do it promptly and pleasantly, sometimes with difficulty and sometimes out of fear or shame not at all. The true believer confesses Christ always fearlessly, because they keep living in repentance and humility. He feels weak, but trusts fully in Christ and is richly strengthened. He confesses Christ Who is in him. Sometimes it is hard to confess Christ even to those very near and dear to us. Then, according to the Gospel, they become "household enemies of this man". It happens that our own people do not understand us, but shouldn't we make an attempt to discreetly talk about Christ. Or sometimes we go to the opposite end. We talk to them so much about Christ, where in the end we fatigue them, sicken them, and repress them, so they do not even want to hear about Christ. We can never push or dominate or threaten anyone, and even more our own people, to follow Christ.

Christ is freedom and love. He invites, and requires no blackmail. We are called to inspire people to love Christ. When man is self-imprisoned by the mighty "ego", suffering from selfishness, individualism, egopathy and pride, it is difficult to love others, more so God. And thus he is unable to confess in front of people. Whoever does not confess, this means that they don't have love. Whoever does not love is self-sentenced to an icy loneliness, which will begin in this life and continue to eternity. The selfish egoist feels the love of God as fire, and cannot resist it, does not want it, is bothered by it, and it burns him.

...

Today there are Christians who love the saints, study the lives of the saints, running to their feasts, lighting oil lamps to them, venerating their icons, building temples in their honor, as well as shrines, icons, lamps, bread, prosfora, boiled wheat and so on. There also exist those who do not love the saints, and I am not speaking about atheists, the impious and the irreligious, but those influenced by rationalism, from an intellectual modern theology, which considers all these things as sicknesses of non-theological popular piety. Unfortunately much of the Christian world has not fully realized the great value and importance of saints in our lives.

The reverence, piety and fervor of the faithful lovers of saints have not disappeared in our days. One can see and rejoice over houses full of icons, with an unwaning vigil lamp, unquenchable candle and censer; simple grandmothers speaking with tears about the wonderful presence of the saints in their lives, hoping in the intercessions of the saints and the Theotokos to save them and help them to enter into Paradise. The lovers of saints are those who seek also today real saints to be upheld and benefited. They do not create and imagine saints, nor follow those who play a god or false saints, but bow to true and genuine holiness. The lovers of saints are the finest of the congregation in the parishes. They continue the tradition, honor reverently the memories of our saints, are not easily scandalized by false saints and are not affected and ridden by ecclesiastical scandals, real or not. When found in difficult conditions, such as being under a totalitarian regime, they endure bravely, hopeful and victorious.

The saints always remain humble, because they have the certain conviction that what is good has been given from above, and are not their own spoils. So the saints can't boast about their gifts, being given by the Father of Lights. Our saints, in full consciousness of their gifts, give all glory, honor and worship to God the Gift-giver. When they are praised by people they praise the Source of all good, the All-Good God. The more God sees man humble himself, the more He blesses him and graces him, since always "to the humble He gives grace". A charismatic who uses his gifts to his own glory and gain, surely will soon lose it, and be exhibited miserably in the eyes of people he exploited. From this life he will be confused, bewildered and wretched and he will expect eternal hell.

There exists, my beloved, plenty of hidden holiness in our troubled times. Not only in life nameless, unknown, obscure monks in the deserts and monasteries, but also in the world. Spouses who endure the resignation and capricious prodigality of spouses - drunkards, night owls, worthless and indifferent. Who are not led to divorce, but endure and hope and pray and leave a good example for their children. The attitude of the mother teaches the children, she is an excellent example, an incitement to virtue. This course they will not ever forget in their lives. This heroic attitude can convert a violent husband and definitely give you the crown of patience for the long, and sometimes a life of, suffering. We have known such rare heroines of faith, who for many years lived a horrible secret and torment in silence, patience, prayer, tears, humility, trust and hope in God. How can God not grace such beautiful souls?

You see, holiness has many aspects. Those in the world will not be judged because they do not do a lot of prayer, though there are some who do more than monks. St. John Chrysostom said: the laity will be saved by almsgiving. Almsgiving shows a humble soul who knows how to love. In this wicked and challenging era, whoever is humbled, chaste, pure, honorable, honest, fair, righteous and prudent will have much in heaven.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos

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Saints Constantine and Helen Church in Plovdiv

The Church of Saints Constantine and Helen is the oldest church in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. It was built in 337 at the sight of an ancient pagan temple in the acropolis on one of the fortified hills. The church is named after Emperor Constantine the Great and his mother Helen.

According to tradition, this is the site of the martyrdom of Sts. Severian and Memnos together with 36 other holy martyrs of Plovdiv, who were martyred by beheading in 304 during the reign of Emperor Diocletian, near the eastern gate of the ancient city now located in Tsar Shishman Square. Their relics were once kept here and the church originally was dedicated to them. According to archaeologists and historians, the first church was built about 30 years following the martyrdom of these Saints. At some point in history, the name of the church came to be dedicated to Sts. Constantine and Helen.

In 1578 a German theologian described the church as the darkest in Plovidiv. By 1830 it was described as being in ruins with no roof, mainly due to constant destruction and rebuilding during Ottoman times. It was at this time that Todor Moravenov donated 200 grosha to rebuild the church, and locals from Bratsigovo rebuilt the church in 1832. Another eminent Revival period figure, Valko Chalakov, obtained a Sultan’s ferman granting permission to rebuild both St. Nedelya Church and Sts. Constantine and Helena Church. The newly built church was one of the largest of its time - 26m long, 18m wide and 8m high. Its magnificent frescoes and icons were painted by masters of one of the most famous Bulgarian Icongraphic Schools: the Debar School. Some of the icons and painting of the church were made by the famous Bulgarian National Revival painter Zahari Zograf who lived and worked in Plovdiv between 1834 and 1866. Unique also for Plovidiv is the iconostasis and fretwork in the Baroque style made by Joan Pashkula in Vienna. Later on, Nikola of Edirne and Stanislav Dospevski also painted icons for the church. In the period of 1894-1866 the walls were painted by Stefan Andonov and Atanas Gyudzhenov from Pazardzhik. They gilded the iconostasis and added polychrome decoration to the woodcarvings.

The church also contains a small icon of Sts. Constantine and Helen that is believed to be miraculous.

The Church of Sts. Constantine and Helen is included on the list of the 100 National tourist sites of Bulgaria and is the most visited by tourists Orthodox church in Plovdiv.

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Documentary: The First Christian Emperor

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Was Constantine the Great Baptized An Arian?

A common myth circulated by critics of Constantine the Great to discredit his character and the good he did for the Church is the accusation that he was baptized into the Arian heresy by Eusebius of Nicomedia, who was an Arian, in May of 337, a few days prior to his death.

Of course this is not a recent issue, as it was addressed about 150 years ago by the historian Constantine Paparrigopoulos (1815-1891), who criticized western historians for circulating such misconceptions, which he called "insults and slanders". He writes of these historians: "They have even gone to the point of erasing his orthodoxy because he was baptized by Eusebius of Nicomedia" (History of the Greek Nation, vol. 2; p. 150).

The whole misconception about Constantine the Great being baptized an Arian originated from an incident of the First Ecumenical Council, during which Eusebius of Nicomedia was presented as a leader of the Arians. This is the only connection critics have associating Constantine with being an Arian, having accepted baptism from a supposed heretic.

However, critics have not taken into account the entire historical data available to establish the truth of the matter, relying instead on speculation and conspiracy theories that are unfounded to push their own agenda. Without taking into account the fact that the Church faced these issues, they inevitably lead to the wrong conclusions. Because according to Ecclesiastical Tradition, which is crystallized in its Canon Law, one is not considered a heretic if he professes falsehood until he is invited to revoke and renounce his cacodoxy (false teaching).

The fact that one cannot be considered a heretic until one is invited to revoke and renounce his cacodoxy is a key element in arriving towards the truth of this issue regarding Constantine the Great. Furthermore, it must be emphasized that the characterization of a man as a heretic cannot be determined by one person or by a set of opinions, but must be determined by competent ecclesiastical organs, since it is not possible for every Christian to determine by himself who should be determined a christian and who should be determined a heretic.

Regarding Eusebius of Nicomedia's confession of faith prior to the baptism of Constantine and during the First Ecumenical Council of 325, John Karmiris writes: "All the Fathers of the Synod accepted unanimously the Holy Creed, including those who professed Arianism, other than the above two, after around the six day dogmatic deliberations, and they signed on the 19th of June in the year 325" (The Dogmatic and Symbolic Writings of the Orthodox Catholic Church, vol. 1; p. 118).

This makes clear that the 318 Fathers who attended the Council unanimously professed Orthodoxy. As for the phrase "other than the above two", Professor Karmiris noted a few paragraphs earlier that Theonas and Secundus were the only ones who confessed Arian teachings and did not accept the Nicene Creed. Eusebius of Nicomedia, though he did struggle to defend Arian doctrines, in the end he did sign in favor of the Nicene Creed, but together with Theognis of Nicaea and Maris of Chalcedon refused to excommunicate Arius. For this refusal and disloyalty, Constantine had not only Arius, Theonas and Secundus exiled, but also Eusebius of Nicomedia, Theognis of Nicaea and Maris of Chalcedon. Not long after however they were reinstated by the Church, according to the historian Sozomen, who writes:

Not long after, Eusebius, bishop of Nicomedia, and Theognis, bishop of Nicæa, regained possession of their churches after expelling Amphion and Chrestos who had been ordained in their stead. They owed their restoration to a document which they had presented to the bishops, containing a retraction: "Although we have been condemned without a trial by your piety, we deemed it right to remain silent concerning the judgment passed by your piety. But as it would be absurd to remain longer silent, when silence is regarded as a proof of the truth of the calumniators, we now declare to you that we too agree in this faith, and after a diligent examination of the thought in the word 'consubstantial,' we are wholly intent upon preserving peace, and that we never pursued any heresy. Having proposed for the safety of the churches such argument as occurred to us, and having been fully convinced, and fully convincing those who ought to have been persuaded by us, we undersigned the creed; but we did not subscribe to the anathema, not because we impugned the creed, but because we did not believe the accused to be what he was represented to us; the letters we had received from him, and the arguments he had delivered in our presence, fully satisfying us that he was not such an one. Would that the holy Synod were convinced that we are not bent on opposing, but are accordant with the points accurately defined by you, and by this document, we do attest our assent thereto: and this is not because we are wearied of exile, but because we wish to avert all suspicion of heresy; for if you will condescend to admit us now into your presence, you will find us in all points of the same sentiments as yourselves, and obedient to your decisions, and then it shall seem good to your piety to be merciful to him who was accused on these points and to have him recalled. If the party amenable to justice has been recalled and has defended himself from the charge made, it would be absurd, were we by our silence to confirm the reports that calumny had spread against us. We beseech you then, as befits your piety, dear to Christ, that you memorialize our emperor, most beloved of God, and that you hand over our petition, and that you counsel quickly, what is agreeable to you concerning us." It was by these means that Eusebius and Theognis, after their change of sentiment, were reinstated in their churches. (Ecclesiastical History, Book 2, Chapter 16)

This letter given to us through Sozomen is significant, because it states that Eusebius of Nicomedia accepted the Orthodox Faith and sought communion with the Catholic Church and renounced the heresy of Arius. It also reveals why Eusebius was sent into exile originally - because he refused to excommunicate Arius.

Certainly in the years following the First Ecumenical Council in 325 Arian disputes continued to arise and gained resurgence, and Constantine did sometimes show favor to Arian bishops, but he did this sparingly in order to keep the peace of the Empire and the unity of the Church. For Constantine, as long as you showed loyalty to the undivided Church, he did not over-question personal intentions and thus disturb the peace. And if anyone did disturb the peace, be they Orthodox or not, they were sent into exile, as was the case with St. Athanasius of Alexandria. But as far as Constantine knew, Eusebius repented of his error in his letter and he was restored to his See and gained the favor of Constantine precisely because he was Orthodox. And it was from this canonical bishop of the Orthodox Church, Eusebius of Nicomedia, that Constantine received Holy Baptism, fully in canonical communion with the Church. Consequently, there is no hesitation on the part of the Orthodox Church, which takes the entire historical data into account, that Constantine the Great was baptized as an Orthodox Christian by an Orthodox bishop.

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A Miracle of Saint Constantine in 1947

By Emmanuel Lagouvardos of Moscow

In 1947 I was seven years old and living with my parents in Tirnavos. Christmas eve we went to my grandmothers from Tirnavos to her village in Grevena Town, where we waited for my grandfather. In Elassona we visited my aunt, to stay a few hours until the military vehicle came out that was a minesweeper, because the road had mines.

Playing with my cousin of the same age at my aunt's house, the warmer stumbled and charcoal fell onto the carpet. Saddened by the mess I escaped, disappearing from my aunt's house and I went to the river Titarisiou that crosses Elassona. I returned home when it started getting dark. The military vehicle was gone and we stayed the night at my aunt's house.

At night my grandmother saw in her sleep her patron St. Constantine, who told her not to go to Deskati but to return to Tirnavos because her daughter's life was in danger.

In the morning we returned to Tirnavos where my mother was in danger of dying from bleeding (she was giving birth to my sister Vasiliki) and doctors were not found anywhere. This was the state of guerrilla warfare. My father was looking to find a doctor in Larissa. Finally we found a military doctor who was like a guardian angel and stayed several days with us to be constantly on the side of my mother, until he escaped the danger.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos

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Forty-Two Martyrs of Momisici Canonized

COMMUNIQUE FROM THE HOLY ASSEMBLY OF BISHOPS OF THE SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH, FROM MAY 17, 2012

The Holy Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church, during today's session rendered the decision to enter two priest martyrs and forty students-martyrs of Momisici and that their celebration (formal declaration of sainthood; canonization) be at the Holy Hierarchical Divine Liturgy at the St. Sava Memorial-Church on Vracar on Saturday, May 19, 2012, led by His Holiness Patriarch Irinej of Serbia at which their long and prayerful respect among the faithful of the Serbian Orthodox Church will be confirmed.

History of the Martyrs of Momisici

Two priests, serving as religious education teachers, and their forty students, children from the parish mostly from the brotherhood of Popovic were burned alive in 1688 at the St. George Church in the modern day Podgorica suburb of Momisici, at the hand of the Sulejman-Pasha army of Skadar, as a sign of retaliation which the Osmanlija Turks suffered from the hill tribes the previous months, particularly from Kucha.

Their relics were gathered and buried beneath the holy altar table of the St. George Church. During the entire time of Turkish rule, the relics remained in this church until 1936 when, with great honor and the litiya-procession of the people the relics were transferred to the renovated St. George Church in Momisici and placed beneath the holy altar table there. In 2006 the relics were taken out for the faithful to venerate on the feastday of the Holy 40 Martyrs of Sebaste, known commonly among the people as Holy Youths Day, after which Metropolitan Amphilohije, together with the clergy, washed them with wine and anointed them with rose oil according to the ancient Orthodox custom. Since then they can be found in a reliquary on the left hand side of the iconostasis of the Momisici church of St. George, which, since then, has also been dedicated to their holy memory. In commemoration of the last finding of their relics, for some years now in the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Coastlands their liturgical commemoration is celebrated on the feast of the Holy Martyrs of Sebaste [March 9].

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11 New Martyrs of Estonia Canonized

It was with great emotion in Estonia that the decision of 22 February 2012 by the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate for the canonization of eleven clergy and laity of the Orthodox Church of Estonia was accepted.

His Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in a letter to the Metropolitan of Tallinn and All Estonia Stephanos, accepted the recommendation for recognition "of those who died in prison as martyrs" among the Estonian Orthodox, and are numbered with the saints and the martyrs of the Church. These seven priests, a presvytera and three laymen who confessed Christ before the Soviet prosecutors who ruled Estonia and were martyred in prison and exile, suffered martyrdom for the Orthodox faith between the period 1940-41.

This is the second decision of canonization for the Orthodox Church of Estonia by the Patriarchal Synod, which decision is really grounded in the blood of the new martyrs. By the same decision their memory will be honored and celebrated by the faithful on June 14th annually "with hymns of praise".

The Estonian Orthodox Church prepares to celebrate the festive canonization of the new martyrs on Thursday, June 14th with a Synodal Divine Liturgy in the Metropolitan Church of Saints Symeon and Anna.

The Church of Estonia

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos

It should be further told that an Estonian priest, Fr. Andreas Põld, is credited with discovering these new martyrs after researching their life stories in the archives of old newspapers and from the memories of those who knew them, which lasted for years. Unfortunately the published material is not clear about the fate of all eleven new martyrs; some were executed, some died in prison, while others were deported, but there is not sufficient clarity.

The names of the new martyrs are as follows:

Priests - Vassili Ristkok, Johannes Kraav, Joann Sergejev, Arteemi Vapper and Nikolai Leisman;

Deacons - Vassili Astanin and Peeter Koslov;

Presvytera - Marta Leisman;

Laypeople - Joann Lagovski, Theodor Petai and Anna Petai.

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Manuscript of Great Historic Importance Found in Istanbul

Marianna Tsatsou

May 16, 2012

Greek Reporter

An important manuscript was discovered in Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. Topkapi was the residence of the Ottoman sultans for almost 400 years. The manuscript found is of significant meaning, because it consists of information regarding the years before the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, but it also describes the early years after Constantinople was turned into Istanbul and became capital of Turkey.

The document belongs to Michael Critovoulos, a Greek politician, scholar and historian, who lived between 1410 and 1470. His birth-name was Kritopoulos, but he changed it to sound more ancient Greek-like.

He experienced the Siege and Fall of Constantinople and wrote about Mehmed II the Conqueror.

The discovery sheds light on issues, such as taxation during the Fall, relationships between Greeks and Ottomans, the contention between Venetians and Genoese.

Critovoulos refers also to the construction of the Rumeli Hisari fortress, which was the knockout blow for the Byzantine Istanbul. The chronicle of destruction and looting of the city by the Ottomans, in order to make it their capital, is also mentioned.

His book, according to the Turkish website Hubermonitor.com, was printed with the contribution of the Pavlos and Alexandra Kanellopoulos Foundation. This will be a bilingual issue, having the original manuscript and the Turkish translation by Aris Tsokonas on the one page and the colourful photocopy of the text on the other.

The book will be presented at Pera Museum, located in Istanbul, on May 21.

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Faith & Logic Can Co-exist, UBC Study Contends

Douglas Todd

May 19, 2012

The Victoria Times Colonist

"The atheist, by merely being in touch with reality, appears shamefully out of touch with the fantasy life of his neighbours." - Sam Harris, celebrity atheist

Some atheists are delighting in a groundbreaking University of B.C. psychology report that suggests analytical thinking can be harmful to religious faith.

Published in the journal Science, the study of 650 North Americans has gained worldwide attention for revealing religious belief drops after subjects perform analytical tasks or are exposed to Rodin's sculpture, The Thinker.

The ABC News headline on their story, for instance, reads: "Religious faithfuls lack logic, study implies." Nature News went with: "Is rationality the enemy of religion?" Many atheist and science blogs boast that the UBC study proves religion is unadulterated fantasy. They denounce religion with the same passion as celebrity atheists such as Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris.

But psychologist Ara Norenzayan, co-author of the UBC study, said this week he has spent most of his time telling global journalists what he and Will Gervais were not trying to say in their report, titled "Analytic thinking promotes religious disbelief."

Even though the two psychologists found religious belief went down, temporarily, after subjects performed mathematical computations and other mental challenges, the duo's report makes clear "analytic" thinking is just one way humans understand reality.

Another way is "intuitive" thinking. The UBC duo's innovative study opens the door to what could be an enlightening cultural discussion of the many different ways humans think and feel -- and how they influence our convictions about life, love, truth and spirituality.

For instance, many religious people would probably accuse me of being too "analytic." Even though I affirm the spiritual impulse, I try not to accept too much on what some call "blind faith."

That's why I'm drawn to philosophy and systematic theology, which is often rigorously rational.

Given this, neuro-psychologists might suspect I am predominantly a "left-brain" thinker, since rationality is associated with the brain's left hemisphere.

At the same time, I'm more than open to what can be learned about reality through intuition, or socalled "right-brain" thinking.

Intuition governs much of what we do and experience - in our relationships, habits, imaginations, values and approach to the arts.

To be clear, I don't have much problem with some of Dawkins' and Harris's denunciations of religious fundamentalism. There is a lot of authoritarian, thoughtless extremism in the world, though it's hardly confined to the religious.

I have been disturbed, however, by the fact they have made small publishing fortunes arguing atheism alone is rational, while religion is nothing more than silly magic.

A common misunderstanding about religion comes from the way people define the word "rational."

Dawkins and Harris are hardly alone in assuming any kind of thinking that is not analytical, or rational, is thereby "irrational." Indeed, Harris argues that faith is "belief without evidence." His crusade is to eradicate faith so that reason can prevail.

However, it's incorrect to assume anything that is not "rational" is therefore nonsensical, illogical, absurd and ridiculous. Instead, there is an entire realm of human, animal and ecological experience that is best described as "non-rational."

Such "non-rational" realities - including intuitions, emotions, the unconscious and creativity itself - are just as real, if not more so, than many things understood through rationality alone.

Many great thinkers have been aware of this distinction. Albert Einstein was one of them.

"Imagination is more important than knowledge," Einstein said. "For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand."

Still, many continue to have a difficult time overcoming today's conventional wisdom, which claims rationality is always superior.

Prof. Dan Ryan, a sociologist at Mills College in California, struggles to educate people about the limits of rationality.

"If rationality is all it's cracked up to be," Ryan says, there should be more convergence in society. Instead, "rational experts often disagree."

The Yale-educated sociologist says many human functions are not strictly rational.

Sigmund Freud, an atheist, pointed to one: the power of the unconscious mind, which harbours hidden fears and desires. Karl Marx, another atheist, taught that people don't realize many of their values are based on their economic class.

In addition, the California professor says people who stress rationality might argue it's often smarter to be selfish - by cheating or free-riding.

But most people try to act morally, because of an unspoken social contract. Indeed, Ryan is not alone in maintaining that an over-reliance on rationality can be dangerous to our well-being.

A leader in the intersection of science and spirituality, Georgetown University's John Haught, says "rationalism imprisons human minds no less than the worship of idols keeps religious people from developing a liberating relationship to the whole depth of being."

There are thousands of things humans accept without hard rationalistic proof. These things include compassion for partners, children and animals; the wisdom of dreams and emotions; and the appreciation of beauty.

In his book God and the New Atheism, Haught writes: "Theology thinks of faith as a state of selfsurrender, in which one's whole being, and not just the intellect, is experienced as being carried away into a dimension of reality that is much deeper and more real than anything that can be grasped by science or reason."

A Canadian neuropsychologist, the University of Montreal's Mario Beauregard, celebrates some of these deeper dimensions in his latest book, Brain Wars: The Scientific Battle Over the Existence of the Mind. Beauregard challenges the materialist mindset of atheists such as Harris, who tend to believe "the brain is just a computer made of meat" and who teach everything can be objectively reduced to rationality.

Examining the emerging science behind such "unexplained" phenomena as the placebo effect, self-healing, meditation and near-death experiences, Brain Wars asks readers to consider the immense untapped power of the mind. Brain Wars points boldly to what the UBC researchers only briefly touch on in their report in Science magazine, where they acknowledge humans have always used both "analytic" and "intuitive" minds.

Even though Harris and other atheists claim science is essentially analytic, another novel study has thrown a wrench into such simplistic stereo-types separating scientists and religious people.

The recent psychological study of more than 200 climate change scientists, performed by Susan Weiler, discovered three out of four of the scientists were highly "intuitive" - compared with only one of four in the general population.

In other words, as Einstein suggested, authentic scientists may well be rational and analytic - but they also have imagination, vision, empathy and a sense of values and esthetics. All of which helps guide them in their intellectual pursuits.

In that way, scientists are just like many spiritual people.

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Constantine And Christianity

Daniel Larison

February 1st, 2010

The American Conservative

Comment: You could argue, in fact, that Constantine’s adoption of Christianity as a state religion was an original sin from which Christianity has still not recovered.

You could argue this, but it would have no basis in fact. This may seem a minor point, but the misunderstanding of Constantine’s relationship to Christianity is a common and very frustrating one. Regardless of what one thinks Constantine’s reasons for becoming first a patron of Christianity and then a convert may have been, it is very important to understand what his patronage and involvement did not entail. First of all, Christianity did not become a state religion under Constantine. Christianity became the emperor’s favored religion, and this meant a diversion of wealth away from pagan cults and towards the Church, but the religion did not achieve a distinct and higher legal status until considerably later.

The establishment of Christianity (and a particular form of Christianity at that) as the official, state religion occurred later closer to the end of the century under Theodosios I, when it first became illegal to engage in public pagan religious practices. Even after this, especially in the eastern empire, secular law and ecclesiastical canons remained largely distinct and separate until fairly late in Byzantine history, and the involvement of the emperor in the Church was mostly limited to adjudicating intra-Christian doctrinal disputes. Non-Christians and heretics were under legal disadvantages because of their beliefs, but in most cases they were left in peace.

What more than a few historians and theologians have dubbed "Constantinianism" had nothing to do with Constantine. For that matter, it had very little to do with Byzantium later on. Like the equally mythical concept of Caesaropapism, the picture of a church intertwined with and directed by the imperial government is the product of modern historiography reacting against church-state relations that prevailed in the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. The phenomenon of state churches in which the secular power ruled over the Church directly began with Henry VIII and repeated itself throughout northern Europe. This particular fusion of politics and religion was a decidedly modern phenomenon, and had little to do with ancient or medieval practices in Byzantium.

[...]

Comment: Christianity was "set on the road" towards becoming a state religion under Constantine.

No, Christianity was not “set on the road” towards becoming a state religion under Constantine. That is the worst kind of teleological, anachronistic historical interpretation. At the time that he was emperor, he was providing patronage to one of a number of religious cults that still flourished in the empire. One of his successors could and did abandon Christianity and promoted traditional pagan cults. The break with past Roman practice was not nearly as decisive or momentous as everyone seems to assume. He provided the Church with legal protections and endowed it with significant property. The Church did not become an “active political entity.” In the east, it is debatable whether we can say that it became such an entity during most of the Byzantine period. Bishops acquired secular authority in those places where imperial authority was lacking, not where it was present.

Comment: Previous to Constantine, the primary symbols of Christianity were not the cross, but the fish, and other life-giving signs.

This is nonsense. Eusebius included cross imagery in his Life of Constantine to establish Constantine’s reputation as a Christian. Constantine was not the one who made the Cross into a major symbol of Christianity. Besides, the Resurrection remained the overriding symbol and idea of Eastern Christianity before and after Constantine. The special attention to Christ’s death was something that developed in western Europe for entirely different reasons. Constantine did not make Christianity into a militant religion. His Christianity did not emphasize violence. Indeed, if you read his letters during the Donatist and Arian controversies, he stressed the importance of concord and peace as ideals. Decades after Constantine, soldiers were still required to abstain from communion for three years if they had shed blood.

Most of the things that are laid at Constantine’s feet came about decades or centuries after him and had little or no connection to anything in his career.

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(5) Orthodoxy's Worship: Liturgical Theology

By Protopresbyter George Metallinos

5. Liturgical Theology

Faith - not only as the ecclesiastical ideology and one’s fidelity to the Saviour Christ but as a teaching also - is a fundamental and inviolable prerequisite of ecclesiastical worship. It is the motivating power of the worshiping faithful, expressed by external acts and moves that comprise its ritual. Worship materializes faith and renders it a group event, while it simultaneously preserves and augments it, thus helping one to delve deeper into it.

Orthodox worship is Trinity-centred in its topics and its structure. Its strength and its hope spring from the Triadic God. The Church liturgically offers up “glory to the Father, and the Son, and to the Holy Spirit”.

The Eucharist “anaphora” (referral) is addressed to God the Father. The Son is also the recipient of the offered sacrifice, given that He is “of the same essence” and co-enthroned with the Father, and He is the central axis of that sacrifice as well. He is “the offerer and the offered and the recipient” during the Divine Eucharist. Ecclesiastical worship is the continuation of Christ’s redemptive work, and it incorporates the Mystery of Divine Providence. Christ is the “ecclesiast” (“churchifier”) Who gathers us unto His Body and the faithful are the “churchified” who participate in His worship and are recipients of His glory. Those who receive Holy Communion “worthily” (II Corinthians 3:16) prove to be a temple of Christ, and the mystery of Faith is officiated inside their hearts.

But ecclesiastical worship is just as equally Spirit-centred, because the Holy Spirit is also present during worship, the way that the luminous mist was present when it “overshadowed” the Disciples and the entire Mount during the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:5). Orthodoxy’s true worship is the Holy Spirit’s prayer-rousing energy inside the heart of the faithful, as is the case with the Saints, who are the true worshipers of God because they are participants of the celestial worship. The entireness of worship is the work of the Holy Spirit, Who “holds together the entire establishment of the Church”. The prayer, “Thou Heavenly King, the Paraclete, the Spirit of Truth…” is the one that inducts us into every Service.

In divine worship, a “communion with the Holy Spirit” takes place. Everything is governed by the sanctifying power of the Paraclete. At the peak moment of the Sacrament, we beseech the Holy Spirit to “come upon us” (the officiators) and upon the “holy gifts” (the bread and the wine), as well as upon “all of the people”, and to perform the “spiritual sacrifice”, by transforming the offered gifts into the Body and Blood of Christ and uniting all the participants into one body.

The Church’s worship stands out for its “traditionality”. This is the most dynamic carrier of ecclesiastical tradition. “Tradition” in the Church is the perpetuation of the Christian mode of existence; it is life in the Holy Spirit, which can lead to the Church’s true purpose: Man’s theosis and the sanctification of Creation. The truly faithful person will persist in those elements that comprise the genuine ecclesiastical stance. That is what Faith is basically all about: for one to remain faithful and unswerving towards the will of God and the Tradition of the Saints. The criterion for the genuineness of ecclesiastical worship is its degree of “traditionality”. This also contributes towards the unity of local churches, both contemporaneously and across Time.

The liturgical texts provide the liturgical theology, which constitutes a pristine expression of the ecclesiastical dogma. That is why worship becomes “a school for piety” that teaches the faith, with the support of the media of art, and especially iconography - that “most eloquent book” of the Church, as Saint John the Damascene had said. Orthodox worship throughout the ages has shaped the mentality of the faithful, as one can see from certain church-loving personalities such as the heroic General Makriyannis or the pious author Alexandros Papadiamantis. A person’s association with worship is an indicator of his ecclesiastical demeanour.

It therefore stands to reason that one can speak of an Orthodox and a non-Orthodox worship, because the Orthodox element underlying worship is not composed of faceless structures; it is the faith that is being materialized by these structures. Ever since ancient times, one’s confession of faith was linked directly to worship. Worship remains the sermon of truth throughout the ages, as personified by the Saints and the “remembrance” of the redemptive events found in the Old and the New Testaments. However, beyond being the sermon of faith, ecclesiastical worship also contributes towards its own defence, by fending off heretical fallacies. It is already a known fact that ecclesiastical theology is usually formulated as a response to heretical provocations. This is evidenced by the feast-days and the special church services dedicated to Holy Fathers and Ecumenical Synods. Vespers and Matins provide us with the theology of every single feast-day, in lieu of a theological arsenal for the faithful. The observant faithful becomes, for all intents and purposes, a theologian of the Church.

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Documentary: Elder Iakovos Tsalikes of Evia

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Holy Scripture and Holy Men of God

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

"Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:21).

This is witnessed by the Apostle Peter who himself was a holy man of God, a rock of faith and a knight of the Cross. As a holy man of God he, by his own personal experience, explains how the holy men of God spoke and what they said and he says: "They spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." However, they did not speak according to their own reasoning nor according to their own memory nor according to their own speculation nor according to their own eloquence but rather they spoke from the Spirit and according to the Holy Spirit. The wisdom of God flowed through them and the truth of God was revealed through them. Holy Scripture was not written with "the false pen of the scribes" (Jeremiah 8:8), but was written by the servants and the chosen ones of the Holy Spirit of God. Neither was Holy Scripture written by men whose writing was a vocation, but rather it was written by the saints of God, directed and compelled by the Spirit of God. Often, not even wanting and, at times even protesting, they had to write as the Holy Prophet Jeremiah witnesses saying: "I will not make mention of Him, nor speak any more in His Name. But His word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing and I could not stay" (Jeremiah 20:9).

O my brethren, Sacred Scripture is not of men but of God; it is not of the earth but rather from heaven; neither is it from the body but from the Spirit; yes, from the Holy Spirit of God. Inspired by the wisdom and truth of the Holy Spirit, these holy men of God wrote: Prophets, Evangelists, Apostles, Fathers, Teachers, Hierarchs and Shepherds.

O God the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Wisdom and Truth, inspire us by Your Life-creating breath, that we may recognize Wisdom and Truth and by Your help to fulfill them.

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A Ripe Fruit of Ecumenism - Anglican Priest Converts To Orthodoxy

By Protopresbyter Dr. John Mesolora

At the end of the year on 31 December 2011 Wayne Burke ended his tenure in the Anglican Church and on 1 January 2012 he entered the Orthodox Church. Metropolitan Spyridon of Kefallonia approved his application to enter the Orthodox Church and he was catechized by Protopresbyter Dr. John Mesolora who anointed him with Holy Myrrh at the Church of Saint Spyridon in Argostoli in the evening of December 31 and the next day he received his first Holy Communion.

Wayne was baptized as an infant in the Episcopalian Church in San Francisco, California. He served as an altar boy and was a member of the church choir. He received his college degree and graduate degree in communication rhetoric at the University of San Francisco and a PhD at the University of Cardiff in Wales. His theological and priestly studies, required for ordination, were done at St. Stephen's House at Oxford. He was also a reader of the Anglican Church. At Oxford he met the Orthodox bishop and professor of that University, Kallistos Ware, whose books The Orthodox Church, The Orthodox Way and The Lenten Triodion he studied after their meeting. The Anglican Church offered him to become a priest and he accepted, but he asked to do his practicum at the Orthodox Church of the Holy Trinity at Oxford, which he did. Here he learned much about Orthodox worship and ecclesiastical music.

He was consecrated deacon then priest by Bishop Geoffrey Rowell of Gibraltar and went on to serve as reader, deacon and priest for the Anglican Church of Saint Paul in Athens. In Athens he came in contact with the Hagiorite Metochion of the Ascension in Vyrona with Metropolitan Nicholas of Mesogaias and Lavreotikis under whose spiritual guidance he was under with the blessing of the Anglican bishop of Gibraltar.

Wayne was a member of the Anglican-Orthodox Dialogue, was a founding member of the Community of Saints Sergius and Alban in Athens, and participated in a mission to the Ecumenical Patriarch to the Leadership 100 Society in America. Today he teaches rhetoric and communication at the American College DEREE in Athens.

He was married with an Orthodox wedding (the mystery was celebrated by Fr. Haralambos Haritou in Kefallonia Caves) to a scholar and professor and native of Kefallonia, Anna-Maria Konstantakis, and they have one daughter, Maria Ourania. This is also how he came to know Saint Gerasimos, who at some critical moment of his life appeared in his dream accompanied by a nun, and he tended his hand and called him near to him. The call of this "Orthodox patron" played a crucial role in his final decision to leave the Anglican Church, whose continuous "deviation from tradition" he watched with sadness, and he sought refuge in the Orthodox Church. The admission ceremony took place in my Church of St. Spyridon in Argostoli in English from the SERVICE BOOK OF THE HOLY ORTHODOX-CATHOLIC APOSTOLIC CHURCH of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of New York and all North America....

His sponsor was Mrs. Helen Konstantakis and Wayne was given the name Gerasimos according to his wish. May he prove worthy of such great grace.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos

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