Why Didn't the Holy Spirit Come Right After the Ascension?

By St. John Chrysostom

But why did the Holy Spirit come to them, not while Christ was present, nor even immediately after his departure, but, whereas Christ ascended on the fortieth day, the Spirit descended “when the day of Pentecost,” that is, the fiftieth, “was fully come?”(Acts 2:1)

And how was it, if the Spirit had not yet come, that He said, “Receive ye the Holy Spirit?” (John 20:22)

In order to render them capable and meet for the reception of Him. For if Daniel fainted at the sight of an Angel (Dan. 8:17), much more would these when about to receive so great a grace.

Either this then is to be said, or else that Christ spoke of what was to come, as if it came already; as when He said, “Tread ye upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the devil.” (Luke 10:19)

But why had the Holy Spirit not yet come? It was fit that they should first be brought to have a longing desire for that event, and so receive the grace. For this reason Christ Himself departed, and then the Spirit descended. For had He Himself been there, they would not have expected the Spirit so earnestly as they did. On this account neither did He come immediately after Christ’s Ascension, but after eight or nine days. It is the same with us also; for our desires towards God are then most raised, when we stand in need. Accordingly, John chose that time to send his disciples to Christ when they were likely to feel their need of Jesus, during his own imprisonment.

Besides, it was fit that our nature should be seen in heaven, and that the reconciliation should be perfected, and then the Spirit should come, and the joy should be unalloyed. For, if the Spirit being already come, Christ had then departed, and the Spirit remained; the consolation would not have been so great as it was. For in fact they clung to Him, and could not bear to part with Him; wherefore also to comfort them He said, “It is expedient for you that I go away.” (John 16:7) On this account He also waits during those intermediate days, that they might first despond for awhile, and be made, as I said, to feel their need of Him, and then reap a full and unalloyed delight. But if the Spirit were inferior to the Son, the consolation would not have been adequate; and how could He have said, “It is expedient for you?” For this reason the greater matters of teaching were reserved for the Spirit, that the disciples might not imagine Him inferior.

From Homily 1 of Acts of the Apostles.

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Confessions of an Atheist Darwin-Doubter

May 21, 2012

By James Barham

Editor's note: Among the self-protective claims you hear from Darwin defenders is that there's no use engaging scientific Darwin doubters because evolutionary heretics are all motivated by religious conviction and the religiously faithful are impervious to reason. Strangely, this doesn't prevent Darwin's own faithful from tirelessly attacking Bible-based creationists. James Barham, a nearly lifelong atheist, tells an interesting story of how he came to question the adequacy of the mainstream neo-Darwinian account of life and evolution. We admire Barham's writing and think you will too.

I was born in Dallas, Texas, in 1952, and was raised primarily in the Southern Baptist faith. However, my parents were not particularly observant and I was seldom taken to church as a child. My acquaintance with my religious tradition was pretty much limited to the Bible stories I heard at my grandmother's knee.

I became an avid reader at an early age, and among my most vivid childhood memories are the simplified picture books I was given on various scientific subjects, from atomic physics to rocketry to dinosaurs. By the time I was eight, I used to say I wanted to be either an astronaut or a paleontologist when I grew up. So, my interest in science goes back practically as far as I can remember.

Sometime around the age of 11, if I remember correctly, Bertrand Russell's Why I Am Not a Christian fell into my hands. I recall spending some bad moments worrying that my belief in God was slipping away. I even went so far as to pray to Him to forgive me in advance if that were to happen. After a few months, I considered myself a confirmed atheist.

I'm ashamed to report that I remained a militant village-atheist for many years. It was only in my thirties that I began to read seriously in the philosophy of religion, and to understand the complexities of theological questions. Today, I have come to recognize the cogency of the inference from the contingency of the world to a necessary being. But in saying that, I am, at best, affirming "the God of the philosophers," as Pascal famously put it. I still cannot see my way to believing in "the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." Nevertheless, I find myself in greater personal sympathy with many religious believers than with most atheists.

The reason is this. In addition to my early interest in science, as a teenager I developed a very strong interest in the humanities. For many years, I fancied I would eventually become a novelist or some other sort of writer. In the end, I took the easier academic route. I obtained a BA in Classics from the University of Texas at Austin in 1972, and went on to complete all of the coursework for a PhD in the History of Science at Harvard University. Unfortunately -- for personal reasons I won't go into here -- I never completed my dissertation, which consisted of translating and editing a late-Byzantine astronomical manuscript. By the time I officially dropped out in 1983, I was married and had a small son. For the next 20 years or so, I was essentially a househusband and faculty spouse, working at an array of minimum-wage jobs to help make ends meet. During this period, though, I continued reading and thinking about life, mind, and evolution.

By the 1980s, I had become conversant with the standard critiques of neo-Darwinism, such as Karl Popper's. Also, from my classical studies, I was familiar with Aristotle. So, I knew there were problems with Darwinism as a metaphysical system, and that alternatives existed. Gradually, too, I became conscious of a growing cognitive dissonance between my Darwin-inspired philosophical materialism and reductionism, and my first-person experience of the fundamental importance of purpose, value, and meaning for human existence. I was familiar with various schemes that had been proposed for explaining away the latter, such as Daniel Dennett's "intentional stance," but I could see they were just evading the issue. So, I was left with a contradiction between two aspects of my mental life that I had no idea how to resolve.

Then, one day while browsing in the stacks -- this was around 1988 -- I stumbled across an essay collection entitled Self-Organizing Systems: The Emergence of Order (ed. F. Eugene Yates; Plenum Press, 1987). This volume was devoted to efforts that were then underway to use dynamical systems theory as a means of modeling the operation of various physiological systems. I immediately had the experience of the scales falling from my eyes. I saw in a flash that the concept of a nonlinear oscillator -- and its associated "basin of attraction" -- might be a way to model the end-directed, or teleological, feature of biological functions. (A basin of attraction -- or "attractor," for short -- is a mathematical representation of dynamical behavior as a "trajectory" through an abstract multidimensional space.) And upon this foundation, I could already vaguely see that an emergentist metaphysics might be erected which might provide a robustly realist, yet rigorously scientific, account of the phenomena of purpose, value, and meaning.

I was aware of well-known criticisms of both of the then-current reductionist accounts of function: the "causal-role" theory and the Darwin-inspired "selected-effects" theory. In a nutshell, the problem is that neither theory can explain the normative character of biological processes in a coherent manner. (Biological processes are "normative" in the sense that they may either succeed or fail in fulfilling their functions.) With respect to the "causal-role" theory, there is no way to distinguish between functional and non-functional parts of a biological system without presupposing the normative character of the overall system as a whole -- which begs the question at issue.

With respect to the "selected-effects" theory, the problem is that selection history is conceptually irrelevant to the identification of function. True, it has a role to play in explaining how present-day functions have come to exist. But selection history cannot possibly explain what it is about a biological process that constitutes it as a function. This is a logical point that Darwinists simply miss. The reason is that our concept of function in no way depends on evolutionary history. If it did, then biologists like Aristotle, Galen, Harvey, and innumerable others who lived long before Darwin would not have had the means to identify the functions of organs, which they of course did. Sometimes, they got it wrong, as when Aristotle placed the seat of perception and thought in the heart, instead of the brain (though some of his predecessors got it right). But Aristotle's mistake was due to his inadequate knowledge of physiology, not to his ignorance of evolution.

What I realized that day in the stacks was that the mathematical concept of a high-dimensional, phase-space attractor gives us a way out of this dilemma. It does so by providing us with a mathematical representation of the end-directedness of physiological systems directly, without either begging the question of the normativity of the larger system of which the function is a part, or relying on irrelevant selection history. I wrote up my ideas, and published my first scholarly paper in 1990, at the ripe age of 38. I later discovered that I was not the first person to realize the value of dynamical systems theory for modeling the teleological character of biological functions, but I arrived at the idea independently, and I believe I can say that I have pursued it more doggedly than anyone else. I have now published some dozen papers on various aspects of this fundamental insight, and have recently completed a PhD dissertation at the University of Notre Dame on the topic.

To bring my story up to date, after graduating last year, I was fortunate enough to find employment with an education-oriented Internet startup called TheBestSchools.org, where I now work as General Editor. I also maintain a blog there, where I am able to comment on cultural matters, especially as they relate to education, philosophy, and the media. My special focus is the threat of scientism to morality and our commonsense understanding of the human person. It is very gratifying finally to have work that permits me to pursue my intellectual passions.

To return to my ideas on the conceptual foundations of biology, in recent years I have come to realize that the dynamical-systems approach, while helpful, cannot be the whole story. The reason is that a theory is still required in order to explain how physiological systems are capable of operating in an end-directed way, from the point of view of fundamental physics. Cybernetic control theory is useful as a description of such systems, of course, but considered as a master explanation, it too ends up begging the question of what causes a particular physical state of a living system to count as a goal state.

I now believe that living things are best understood as intelligent agents -- not machines -- and that we are missing something fundamental about the physical underpinnings of intelligent agency. Perhaps the way forward lies through an adequate quantum field theory of the living state of matter. But that is mere hand waving, at present.

What is certain is that the Darwinian explanatory framework is logically confused and scientifically superficial with respect to the phenomena of normativity, teleology, and agency. Darwinism is a gigantic obstacle obscuring these important problems from our view, and I doubt we will make much progress towards solving them so long as Darwinian dogma retains its death grip on the minds of so many.

James Barham has discussed his intellectual journey at greater length here.

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Video: Sacred Mount Athos: Treasures From The Byzantine Millenium

Award Winning Documentary - Sacred Mount Athos: Treasures From The Byzantine Millenium

Produced and directed by Christine Schiwietz

(Duration: 27 minutes)

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Video: The Attarouthi Dove & the Byzantine Empire

The silver dove, with wings spread and feet tucked up as if in flight, represents the Holy Spirit that appeared over the head of Christ as he was baptized by Saint John the Forerunner (John 1:32). Early authors mention the presence of doves over altars in churches from Constantinople to Tours in France. This is the earliest known example of the type. Originally a small cross hung from the loop in its beak. It dates to the late 6th–early 7th century and comes from Attarouthi, Syria.

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The Ascension of the Lord in the Flesh to Heaven

By Sergei V. Bulgakov

This Feast is celebrated on the 40th day after Pascha, which always comes on Thursday of the 6th week. It has received its name from the commemoration and event glorified on this day, the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh to heaven (Мark. 16:16-20; Luke 24:50-53; Acts 1:4-12). On the last day of His visible stay on earth the Lord Jesus Christ revealed Himself to all the apostles who had gathered together and commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the coming of the Holy Spirit on them that was promised by Him. He has "led them from the city of Jerusalem to Bethany" on the Mount of Olives 1). While on the way He talked with them about the organization of His Church on earth. On the top of the Mount of Olives the Lord, explaining to the Holy Apostles what their purpose will be, said to them: "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth". And when He had said this, the Savior lifted up His divine hands and blessed His disciples. "And when He blessed them 2), He receded from them, and went up again into heaven". The Apostles reverentially bowed to the Lord, Who blessed them, and with trembling and amazement watched Him ascend to heaven while, finally, a cloud took Him out of their sight. But the Lord was not slow to comfort His disciples with such an unexpected and regrettable separation. Behold two men in white clothes revealed themselves to the Apostles. They were Angels whom the ascended Savior as Lord and Master of the Angels sent to earth to the Apostles. The Angels said to them: "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who ascended from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him go into heaven". Having heard from the angels such a comforting message, the apostles, filled with the deepest joy, left the Mount of Olives and returned to Jerusalem. So glorious was the visible ascension of Jesus Christ to heaven, which His Disciples told us. But His further invisible Ascension to an eternal divine kingdom to His Father was much more glorious, as this is described in the church hymns in the present day, in accordance with the prophecies of the Old Testament prophets.

The angels with the sound of the trumpet met the Lord who has gone up and accompanied Him (Ps. 46: 6). The Holy Spirit ordered the heavenly Powers to open the gates of the eternal kingdom of glory for the Redeemer: "Raise your gates, you princes, and be lifted up, you everlasting gates: and the King of Glory shall come in" (Ps. 23:7). And our Savior, "went up to heaven, from where He also had come", as the Son of God, Only-begotten of God the Father, has received that divine glory which He had by the Father before the creation of the world; went up to heaven, as the Son of Man, having exalted mankind in His person "far above all rule and authority and power and dominion " (Ephesians 1:21). The very God the Father with love expected and received to Himself His beloved Son, the theandric Jesus Christ Who Himself sat on His right hand as it has still been described in the Old Testament by the Holy Psalmist: "The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet" (Ps. 109:1; refer to Rom., 8:34; Heb. 8:1). Thus, our Savior not only has ascended to heaven, but also sits on the right hand of God the Father 3) i.e. as the God-man and Redeemer of the world, He has taken on all authority, greatness and glory even in His human nature, which belong to Him in His divine nature, as well as He, after His Resurrection, told the apostles: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me" (Mt. 28:18).

The Feast of the Ascension of the Lord is great in its own meaning, as it verifies the fulfilling of the divine plan in us about the salvation of man and all the world and about the highest glorification of the human nature, which in the person of Jesus Christ is raised higher than the light-bearing spirits and who are seated on the throne of divine glory. And this assures all of us that from now on the entrance into heaven opens for those born on earth, where Jesus has gone as a Forerunner on our behalf (Heb. 6:20) and where His journey to heaven becomes a path for all His true followers 4). Together with this "the present feast", the Blessed Augustine says, "reveals to us in Jesus Christ the mystery of man and God," witnessing to the undivided and unbroken union of the divinity and humanity in the person of Jesus Christ "Who ascended in both natures". In the Divine Services of this Feast, although they describe the sad thoughts that the Apostles originally had, being orphaned, they mainly changed them into a high feeling of joy 5). For, as St. John Chrysostom teaches: "Today people have become like angels, men have been united with the bodiless ones, and from this relationship came a great union. The Lord of all, having ascended to heaven, has reconciled the race of man with the Father. We, who were deemed unworthy on earth, today have ascended to heaven with our own essence. And the nature, from which the cherubim protected paradise, today itself sits upon the cherubim". That is why even the Holy Church in its hymns for this day, calling believers to sing the song of victory to the Lord Who ascended, and causing us to sit together with Him on the right hand of the Father, exclaims: "The earth exults, and heaven rejoices today at the Ascension of the Creator of creation"; "All the world, visible and invisible, celebrates. The angels exult, and men continually raise up doxologies". Calling her children to the joy of the Ascension of the Lord, the Holy Church at the same time according to the words of the angels said to the Apostles after the Ascension of the Lord (Acts 1:11), in its hymns for this day reminds us also about the second coming, strengthening us by this victory to lift up "our eyes and thoughts to the heights", to focus our sights "together with our mortal feelings to the heavenly gates" and to beg the Lord that He "spare our souls, granting remission of our sins". In agreement with this even Saint Gregory Dialogos in his homily on the day of Ascension teaches: "Let us make haste, beloved ones, with all our heart to follow Him to where He has ascended. Let us reject any predilection for earthly objects 6). Having a part in the inheritance of heavenly abodes with Him, let us not search for blessedness on earth. We should take care and think about how He, though now ascended to heaven with meekness, will at one time be revealed with fear and with a terrible presence, and with severity will demand from us all that He now teaches with meekness. Let no one resent the time given for repentance. Let no one neglect himself while there is time. The Savior on the dread judgment seat will demand an account more strictly from us than He would have patience with us now. Brothers, never forget this. Let your spirit in the middle of the present sea of life be stirred up by the mighty storm; soon you will reach a quiet haven in the heavenly fatherland; soon you will be in the light of the unapproachable glory. Now the Lord ascends to heaven for you. Let us reflect more often and more attentively to what our faith teaches us. If we have not become stronger in the deeds of faith and piety, if our physical powers are still weak, then, at least, let us follow our Savior in our readiness and love for Him". "And if we live piously," as Saint John Chrysostom teaches, "and that we remain unshakably pious, always with diligence multiplying this good; and if we are deprived of all boldness and we recognize in ourselves alone only sins; then we would be corrected to get that same boldness, and there together also with one mind to meet with due glory the King of Angels and enjoy this blessed joy of our Lord Jesus Christ".

The establishment of the feast of the Ascension undoubtedly goes back to the earliest times. Besides the importance of the commemoration of this event on this holiday, that they speak of it from the earliest times positively witnesses to its antiquity. So, already the Apostolic Constitutions prescribed it to be observed on the fortieth day after Pascha. St. John Chrysostom calls this feast a great and most important one and relates it to the category of feasts undoubtedly established by the apostles, that is with Pascha and Pentecost. The Blessed Augustine also calls it a most ancient and universal feast.

Notes:

1) According to the explanation of the Right Reverend Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow, the Lord selected the Mount of Olives for His Ascension, as one may consider, that it was His favorite place before which He blessed with His repeated visits and prayer, and is where He began His special saving Passion for us, even unto death with spiritual grief, and His very difficult prayer, resulting in the outpouring of bloody sweat. Having returned to the place of the beginning of His sufferings, to the place where He completed His glorification, He through this has signaled that His suffering and glorification compose one harmonious structure of the salvation for us in the plan of God, one golden chain produced in the hearth of the wisdom of God, for the raising up again to heaven man who fell from paradise.

2) The evangelist did not say: "when you bless" but "when you have blessed", i.e. God blesses, and yet does not end His blessing, but continues to bless, and meanwhile ascends to heaven. According to the explanation of the Right Reverend Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow, he specifically says that God does not want to end the blessing, but continues to endlessly bless the Church and all those believing in Him. Having received the blessing of Christ through the Apostles they distribute it to others, and thus, all those belonging to the Holy, Catholic (Sobornaia), Apostolic Church are made participants of the one blessing of Jesus Christ and His Father, "blessing us all in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens" (Ephesians 1:3). As the dew "of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion" (Psalm 132:3) this blessing descending on any soul rising above the passions and carnal desires is higher than the vanities and cares of the world. As the indelible seal, it marks those who are in Christ, so that at the end of the ages according to this sign He will pronounce to them from the midst of all the human race: "Come, receive the blessing"!

3) The Right Reverend Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow, teaches: "Having heard that the ascended Lord 'sits at the right hand of God' should not present to the mind anything corporal and sensual, but should think only that Christ has the same authority with the Father Almighty, is one in glory with him, one in the ruling consideration for all the world, and especially for the Church that is saved. In general, do not boldly turn the tested ideas at this immense height to flight: there is 'unapproachable light' (1 Tim. 6:16). If before the created light of the visible sun you have blinded your eyes, how is the uncleanness from the mud in the eyes of your mind not removed before the eternal light of the Sun of the spirits, before Which even the highest of the Angels close before the Person? And the Apostolic eyes from nearby could follow the Lord Who is ascending; the cloud took Him and hid Him from them. And as they during this time 'worshiped Him': so even you, after a modest look to heaven in faith, fall down, son of ashes, humbly into the ashes, even before the inscrutable greatness in almost silent awe."

4) The Ascension of the Lord, similar to His death and resurrection, includes the most precise paradigm in the plan of our salvation, and therefore was predicted and celebrated, in all its greatness even by the Prophets. And the Holy Apostle Peter, after the Descent of the Holy Spirit, in the hearing of all the Judeans asserted that "Heaven must receive Christ Jesus until the time for establishing all" (Acts 3:21), i.e. up to the end of the world. The time for the humiliation of the Lord has forever ended in His cross and tomb. After the resurrection the acceptance of all Authority by Him on earth and in heaven (Matthew 28:18), the time of glorification has essentially come to Him. But our earth, rough, corrupted by our sins, gravitating under the curse, obviously, is not a place of rest and glorification, but of temptation and wandering. The earth serves as a dwelling place only for those who are from the earth. But the Son of Man, "Who descended from Heaven" (John 3:l3), did not belong to the earth. To tell the truth, "having shared in our flesh and blood" (Heb. 2:14), He had a body from the earth. But how long this body was similar to ours was as long as He lived on earth similar to us. In the resurrection His body changed and has accepted such properties that was visible, and at the same time became invisible, was tangible, yet passed through closed doors, accepted food, and was not subject to change. The resurrected Savior was on earth for forty days; but during this time He has been seen only when He revealed Himself to the Holy Apostles. Where and how He spent His other time is not known. But, obviously, the earth could not be still His dwelling place. For a body immortal, glorified and deified, it is much more natural to dwell in heaven than on earth. Already immediately after the resurrection from the dead the Savior tried to ascend to the most heavenly world, to the Father (John 20:17). And if He still remained on earth, then it is because of special love for the disciples and for the need to continue His conversations with them, "speaking of the Kingdom of God" (Acts 1:3). And when also this need has been satisfied, and when these holy chains begin to have power, then the Savior was glorified for His extreme effort on the cross for humanity. Similarly the fragrant incense is directed from the Mount of Olives to the eternal Sun. There, where all is in compliance with His purity and glory, and where He should be until that time, so that by His action and by His power all will be cleansed and enlightened and filled, and the very earth will be divested of its roughness and curses. Then the earth will be able to become the place of the visible eternal dwelling of God with men (Rev. 21:3). This was demanded also with new, great applicability of the Son of Man after His resurrection. As in the situation of humiliation He was forced to be an offering for all, so that in the situation of His glorification it fell to Him to become the manager and the head of all. But where ordinarily is the place for the head? Is it above the whole body? According to the same law (if the law is also necessary for the Lawgiver) returned and now: as the Head and the Ruler of the whole world, the God-man is seated "on the right hand" of God the Father, "in the heavens far above all rule and authority and power and dominion" (Eph. 1:20-21), that, in the expression of the Holy Apostle Paul "to unite all things" in Him "things in the heavens and things on earth" (Eph. 1:10), to accept divine "worship from all knees" not only "on earth and beneath the earth", but also "in heaven" (Philip. 2:10), "to reign" over all in heaven and on earth, and over all worlds, "until He has put all his enemies under His feet" (1 Cor. 15:25, Heb. 1:13), that all visible and invisible, all tribes and tongues confess, "that Jesus Christ" is truly "Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philip. 2:11), "King of kings and Lord of lords" (Rev. 19:16). If there were no Ascension to heaven and glorification of the God-man, then the matter of our expiation would remain incomplete, unfinished and uncrowned. Being raised upon the cross, the Savior took all to Himself only up to the height of a cross; meanwhile He took all even up to the height of heaven, even up to the throne of glory (John 14:3). Therefore, "having accomplished" on earth "the work which Thou gavest Me to do" Father, "yes created" (John 17:4), He ascends to heaven to draw all men to Himself (John 12:32), prepared a place for us in the mansions of the Heavenly Father (John 14:2). But the mansions of the Heavenly Father, which the Blessed One prepared for us, is open for all, but is not accessible to all. For the entrance into them it is required that we here on earth be clothed in appropriate dress, worthy of heaven. These clothes are prepared for us by the suffering of the God-man, adorned and sealed by His priceless blood; but under the divine plan of the management of our salvation, it belonged to the Most Holy Spirit to create our vestments in the "light and pure fine linen of righteousness" (Rev. 19:8). And the Son of God, after the end of His great work upon earth, i.e. after the forgiveness of people by His death, after His descent into Hades and after His resurrection, after His visible and solemn departure to heaven, so that His ascension opens the way to the invisible benefaction of the activity of the Comforter Spirit, only through whose assistance we can "put off the old man with its practices", and "to put on the new", with the primordial "righteousness and holiness" (Eph. 4:24, Col. 3:9-10). "It is to your advantage that I go away", the Savior told His Apostles, "for if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you" (John 16:7). And before the Descent of the Holy Spirit to earth "it was necessary for Christ to enter into His glory" (Luke 24:26) to receive "all authority in heaven and on earth" (Mt. 28:18) to ascend to heaven and "to sit on the right hand of the Father, (Mk. 16:19). For "the Holy Spirit was not yet" on earth while "Jesus was not yet glorified (John 7:39). Thus, in the trihypostatic council of God it follows that the fulfillment of the work of reconcilement, which remains with us on earth, is already not of the Redeemer Son of God, but of the Holy Spirit, Who, abiding in us, would regenerate in us a strengthened, consoled, spiritual life, and "helps us in our weakness (Rom. 8:26), also "intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words" (Rom. 8:26). But under the same plan of the management of our salvation it follows that also the Son of God "through the cross destroyed the enmity (Eph. 3:16 sic) between heaven and earth, went up to the heavenly saints who stand with Him before God the Father ever to decree peace to the world and to save those of the sinners, who, repenting of their sins, even up to seventy times seven (Mt. 18:22), again will come through Him to God with faith and a broken spirit. And our Lord Jesus Christ as the eternal High Priest, passed into heaven "now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf" (Heb. 9:24), "to make intercession for them"(Heb. 7:25), for us guilty before the righteous judgment of God, so that, "if any one does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John. 2, 1). (See details in the Collected Works of Innocent, Archbishop of Chersonese, vol. 1, pp 353-359; Words and speeches of Sophonius, Bishop of Turkestan, vol. 1, pp. 15-23).

5) After the cloud hid the ascending Lord from the visible sight of the Holy Apostles, their hearts were filled with sadness, as before, when the Lord only told them before about His going to the Father (John 16:6). The faith of the Holy Apostles still could not reach the end of the Ascension of the Lord (John 14:25, 16:7); they now only saw that the Lord will no longer live on earth and they will no more see His corporal eyes. But their reception, then, of the message being revealed to them by the Holy Angels was for their faith to the end of what they could not reach, or, at least, to what their intellectual insight was not now directed. This message distracted them from their sad thoughts that the Lord will probably not be present any more among them, to talk with them, but has poured into their hearts faith and hope that the Lord who disappeared from their visible sight has ascended in divine glory, as well as He Himself told them before, that He will come again in the glorious image in the opening of the eternal kingdom of glory. And the Holy Apostles "returned to Jerusalem with great joy". Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow said, "They rejoice now because their faith opened their mind to the perfect understanding of the mystery of Christ: they believe and know that as Christ through His resurrection shattered the gates of Hades and opened the exit from it for the believer, so through His ascension opened the gates of heaven and the entrance into it for the believer. They rejoice because their love is perfect. It is delightful for them that their beloved Savior ascended to heaven in blessedness and glory, though they remained on earth for ascetical feats and suffering. They rejoice because their hope is perfect. They wait for and feel that the ascended Lord, according to His promise, will soon send them another Comforter, the Holy Spirit. And that, finally, according to the angelic announcement, 'This same Jesus, who ascended into heaven, will so come' (Acts 1:11). And that He may come to keep His other promise: 'I will come again and receive you to Myself' (John 14:3)." And this holy joy as the Right Reverend Demetrius, Archbishop of Chersonese teaches, remained forever the inalienable property of the souls of the Holy Apostles, the inexhaustible treasure of their heart, the plentiful source of comfort for all their subsequent life. Nothing in the world could take away from them this holy and lifecreating joy of the Lord. As they seem lonely and helpless in the world, 'like lambs among the wolves', how many are surrounded by their enemies and persecutors, how they met their 'trouble in the cities, trouble in the deserts, trouble from the pagans, trouble from relatives, trouble from malevolent brothers'. They always and incessantly rejoiced in the Lord, rejoiced in the work and ascetical feats of the annunciation of the Gospel of Christ, rejoiced in temptations, troubles and misfortunes, rejoiced amidst slander and intrigues, prosecutions and persecutions from the Jews and the pagans, rejoiced even in the very suffering for the name of Christ.

6) If we do not vainly carry on ourselves the all holy name of Christ, if for this we were buried with Him through baptism into death (Rom. 6:4), in order to live with Him for ever and ever; then it is already impossible for our souls to be attached to anything terrestrial and temporal, it is impossible for our hearts to be intimidated by this temporal dwelling. It would mean to renounce everything that is made for us by the incarnation, death and resurrection of the Son of God. It would mean to act contrary to the all-good counsel of God for us, contrary to our own faith and belief. We believe that for this the Son of God came down to earth, "that for us He will ascend to heaven"; for this also He arose and again ascended to heaven in order to open the way even for us to ascend there, "where the forerunner Christ went for us". Also what could attach our heart to the earth? Doesn't the earth even when we water it return thorns and thistles to us? On earth aren't there passion and vice, evil and untruth, poverty and sorrow, illness and suffering, crying and tears? Aren't our ancestors and parents, relatives and acquaintances, in the earth, and doesn't it also swallow up our body and transform it into corruption and ashes? Sooner or later we should leave it necessarily. Death will overcome and place us before God in heaven. But what then will happen to us if we are infatuated with the earth but be foreign to heaven? Can we live, so to say, in the heavenly abodes if we do not now get used to ascending there in our mind and our heart, to live there in our spirit, to breathe and feed on the heavenly air? Can we be installed in the community of Holy Angels and the chosen of God if we are not one with them in spirit and our heart? Can we not be pulled together with them in our thoughts and feelings, in our character and deeds? So, we need to draw near with the inhabitants of heaven beforehand, to now get comfortably used to the paradigm of heavenly life, to beforehand get accustomed to live with our spirit in heaven in order that upon death we do not leave for the abyss of Hades. How will we achieve it? Certainly, we will not by own power and not by earthly means. "No one will enter heaven, except those who go to heaven with the Son of Man, Who exists in heaven". No one can even raise us to heaven, except Him. Only He has the strength to lift up with Himself all who are attached to Him in faith, who love Him with all their heart, with all their soul and all their mind, who turn themselves to Him entirely and undividedly, with all their soul and heart, who with their entirety and destiny will love eternal life in Him, who will make the first and main purpose of all their activity the center of all their hope and desire, all intentions and aspirations. Such He will attach to Himself by the power of His grace. He will lead all the minds and hearts of those who, living in the flesh on earth, live in the spirit in heaven higher to heaven: "for where your treasure is, there also will be your heart", and where the heart is, there is the whole person, there is all his life and activity. For the true Christian all treasure is hidden in Jesus Christ, who ascended to heaven, and that is where his heart is, and where his life is (Philip. 3:20). If we shall only think of heaven, to wish and search only for the heavenly, then neglecting all the terrestrial, the fears for our earthly affairs, for our fleshly necessities and needs, for our family and citizen duties are in vain! It is vain to think that all our affairs will then come to extreme frustration! On the contrary, then all our earthly affairs will accept a correct and successful course. All our work will be accompanied by blessed success. All our pleasant occupations, which they neither were nor of what they consisted, will be spiritualized and will be consecrated with the blessings of God and will receive the God-pleasing vision of the God-fearing services to the Lord, fulfilling His most holy will. If all the people with their mind and heart would strive for God their Father, wishing to please Him, as His good and obedient children, keeping His holy commandments, searching for heavenly blessings and the high place of the fatherland with all their desire and would do everything for the glory of God and for the salvation of their souls; if they would have expelled all evil passions, which make people both malicious and unhappy, from human societies, then would not human societies be truly blessed and happy? Would not our earth also become a most abundant paradise blessed by the Lord? At least, there would not be so much untruth and evil in it, tears would not pour so much, and cries and groans would not be heard so much, there would not be so much trouble and sorrow, which people create for themselves with vices and depravity, with their evil and untruths, with their unquenchable thirst for carnal pleasures, earthly treasures and contemporary honors. (See details in the Complete Collection of Sermons of the Right Reverend Demetrius, Archbishop of Chersonese. vol. 1, pp. 199-207).

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Video: A Reconstruction of the Chapel of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives

A reconstruction of the Chapel of The Ascension on the Mount Olives in Jerusalem, Israel. Original name IMBOMON, was built by Poemenia around 384 AD, was destroyed by the Persians at 614 AD and rebuilt by Father Modestus. Again it was destroyed in 1012 by the Muslims and now it is a mosque. Jesus's footprints are said to be still in the middle of the mosque.

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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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