Having entered the Christmas season, we ask those who find the work of the Mystagogy Resource Center beneficial to them to help us continue our work with a generous financial gift as you are able. As an incentive, we are offering the following booklet.

In 1909 the German philosopher Arthur Drews wrote a book called "The Myth of Christ", which New Testament scholar Bart D. Ehrman has called "arguably the most influential mythicist book ever produced," arguing that Jesus Christ never existed and was simply a myth influenced by more ancient myths. The reason this book was so influential was because Vladimir Lenin read it and was convinced that Jesus never existed, thus justifying his actions in promoting atheism and suppressing the Orthodox Church in the Soviet Union. Moreover, the ideologues of the Third Reich would go on to implement the views of Drews to create a new "Aryan religion," viewing Jesus as an Aryan figure fighting against Jewish materialism. 

Due to the tremendous influence of this book in his time, George Florovsky viewed the arguments presented therein as very weak and easily refutable, which led him to write a refutation of this text which was published in Russian by the YMCA Press in Paris in 1929. This apologetic brochure titled "Did Christ Live? Historical Evidence of Christ" was one of the first texts of his published to promote his Neopatristic Synthesis, bringing the patristic heritage to modern historical and cultural conditions. With the revival of these views among some in our time, this text is as relevant today as it was when it was written. 

Never before published in English, it is now available for anyone who donates at least $20 to the Mystagogy Resource Center upon request (please specify in your donation that you want the book). Thank you.



January 19, 2021

Prayer of Saint Mark of Ephesus Before Departing for Italy to Attend the Synod of Ferrara-Florence

 
Prayer of Saint Mark the Eugenikos, 
Metropolitan of Ephesus
 
(Offered Before His Departure For Italy)
 
I who, in the pursuit of virtue, am idle and tormented by thoughts derived from the passions, what can I do, long-suffering Lord? Lest I fall and lose Your great gifts, and to me lest the mystery of Your goodness and good-pleasure become inactive? Don't let that happen to me, O God, You who love compassion and who loves my soul. Let me not be abandoned by You, let me not find myself on the side of the evil one that leads to deprivation, but You who receive the persistent pleas of Your saints and accepts the intercessions of Your sacred angels, especially of our most-superior Lady the Theotokos, give me the strength to follow Your path, demanding from me not the worthy fruit of repentance, but that which is in accordance with my powers. Put in my hard heart Your fear and through it completely cleanse it and soften it in Your immovable love. And when I depart from my body grant me rest in the place inhabited by Your saints, and grant me to be satisfied with the vision of Your eternal glory, for You are blessed unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Source: From Codex 226 of Dionysiou Monastery on the Holy Mountain. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.   
 
 
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