The Hand That Held The Prayer Rope Was Undamaged

 

Recently Fr. Eusebius, who lived in a cell by himself at New Skete of Mount Athos, reposed in the Lord. He had not been seen for 3 or 4 days, so other monks from neighboring cells went to check up on him, and having entered his cell when he didn't answer, they found his dead body.

What astonished them and struck them with amazement, was that although the entire body including his whole left hand was blackened due to sepsis, the right hand that held his prayer rope was completely undamaged. The fathers saw this as a confirmation of the power of the Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me."

 

Saint Makarios of Corinth as a Model for our Lives

St. Makarios of Corinth (Feast Day - April 17)

 By Protopresbyter Fr. George Papavarnavas

Saint Makarios lived in the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries (1731-1805). He was born in Trikala, Corinth, came from the famous Notaras family, and his parents were named George and Anastasia. His baptismal name was Michael. He was first educated in the Monastery of the Panagia, in his own homeland, by the teacher Eustathios who was from Kefallonia. He loved prayer and the hesychast life, and for this he went to the Holy Monastery of Mega Spelaion to become a monk, but his father had him return home. After his teacher reposed, he occupied himself with the work of a teacher successfully for some time. He was loved by the Corinthians for his learning, and especially for his ethos and the modesty of his life. For this reason, after the death of the Archbishop of Corinth, he was proposed to the Ecumenical Patriarch Samuel to be his successor. As Archbishop of Corinth he was devoted to the rational flock entrusted to him by Christ through the Church.

On Noetic Prayer (St. Amphilochios Makris)

St. Amphilochios Makris taught the following about noetic prayer:

When you cultivate the prayer, you are not disturbed by the winds of temptation. Its power is weakened, it can do nothing to you. Let prayer be for you a wall, a shield and armor. We must have patience and prayer. The end of my life draws near. I plead with you all to live a holy life, to walk along holy paths in order to help the Church and our Greece. May your hearts become censers, from where your prayer will ascend to the throne of God.

When I sit on the high rock of prayer, no matter how many waves may come they will do nothing to me, but when they find me somewhere low they cover me. Noetic prayer assimilates, connects, sanctifies. When the soul is ignited with the fire of prayer everything that is dry is burned up and disappears. Noetic prayer is the basis of perfection. The first stage of spiritual ascent is noetic prayer. At the beginning of prayer you feel joy, then sweetness and then finally tears are produced like a fruit. This is because you now feel the presence of Jesus. When you cultivate the prayer you will not tire, you will not be disturbed, you will not be sleepy during services, because your body will be as if it were a garment. What you wear does not become sad, does not become cold, nor does it tire. No matter how many hours I stand I will not get tired.

First Sunday of Great Lent - The Secret Life of Orthodoxy (Metr. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

 

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

"...hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” (Jn. 1:51)

Nathaniel is surprised because the Lord revealed the guilelessness of his heart and the place where he was. Answering his question, the Lord offers a new revelation: "I assure you that hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man." This gives us the opportunity to make a small comment and to present very quickly the greatness of Orthodoxy, which we honor today.

Saint John the Hesychast as a Model for our Lives

 

By Protopresbyter George Papavarnavas

Venerable John the Hesychast was from Nicopolis in Armenia and lived in the fifth century, during the reign of the most-pious emperor Maurice. There he learned sacred letters, and when his parents left this vain world, he distributed his inheritance among the poor, but he built a Sacred Temple dedicated to the Most Holy Theotokos, where he lived in silence and prayer and asceticism with ten other monks. Later he was ordained Bishop of Koloneia, located at the Hellespont, namely the Sea of Marmora. Having exercised his episcopal duties with zeal and dedication for nine years, then, because he loved the hesychastic life, he went to Jerusalem and settled in the Sacred Monastery of Saint Savvas the Sanctified. Saint Savvas did not know who he was, because God had not revealed it to him, so he tried him in various acts of service. Because he was pleased with his behavior and his God-pleasing conduct, he entreated the Patriarch of Jerusalem to ordain him a Presbyter. Saint John revealed to the Patriarch that he was a Bishop, and begged him not to reveal this to anyone. Then the Patriarch said to Venerable Savvas that it was not possible for John to be a Presbyter, and to not bother him about it.

Saint Theoleptos, Metropolitan of Philadelphia (+ 1322)

St. Theoleptos of Philadelphia (Feast Day - June 25)

Saint Nikodemos, in his Introduction to the writings of Saint Theoleptos in the Philokalia, tells us the following about him:

"Theoleptos, the truly great luminary of Philadelphia, flourished during the reign of Andronikos II Palaiologos, around the year 1325. He first lived the solitary life at the Holy Mountain, and from there received the dignity of Primate of the Metropolis of Philadelphia. Saint Gregory (Palamas) the Archbishop of Thessaloniki was his guide and mystagogue in lessons of excellence. He initiated him in sacred watchfulness and noetic prayer, although he still lived in the world, as is written in the life of Gregory written by Patriarch Philotheos.

Saint Nephon the Athonite (+ 1411)

St. Nephon of Kavsokalyva (Feast Day - June 14)

Verses

Nephon was indeed Sober,
Passing his life watchful over the nous.

Our Venerable Father Nephon was born in the village of Lukovë, in the Himarra region of the Despotate of Epirus in 1315. His father was a revered priest. From an early age he studied the Holy Scriptures and the Lives of the Saints, and became an erudite polymath.

Saint Kallistos I, Patriarch of Constantinople (+ 1363)

St. Kallistos I of Constantinople (Feast Day - June 20)

Verses

Kallistos passed through perishable beauty with a right mind,
Now he is beholding beauty imperishable.

Saint Kallistos was a disciple of Saint Gregory of Sinai, and lived an ascetic life as a monk at Mount Athos for twenty-eight years, initially in the Skete of Magoula, near Iveron Monastery. There he was also ordained a Priest. Kallistos was noted for his virtue and deep education. He followed Saint Gregory of Sinai to Paroria where they established hesychastic hermitages, but he soon returned to Mount Athos and entered Iveron Monastery. The Holy Community of Mount Athos chose him to lead the opposition against the Bogomils, who had infiltrated Mount Athos. Kallistos was an enthusiastic follower of the hesychastic teaching of Saint Gregory Palamas. He also founded the Monastery of Saint Mamas at Tenedos, a small island near the Dardanelles.

Saint Basil the Hesychast, Abbot of Poiana Marului Skete (+ 1767)

St. Basil the Hesychast (Feast Day - April 25)

In his autobiography, Saint Paisius Velichkovsky calls his spiritual father Saint Basil the Hesychast "our common teacher and instructor, the most pious and holy elder and schema monk Basil." He was born near Poltava (Ukraine) in 1692 and is a representative of the Russian-Ukrainian monastic migration that occurred in the 18-19th centuries because of the reforms of Peter the Great in Russia and the persecution of the Orthodox believers in Ukraine which was under Polish rule.

He went to Wallachia with his disciple Monk Michael and received monastic tonsure at Dalhautsi-Focshani Skete in 1705 or 1706, laboring in asceticism with great fervor. There he studied the depths of the Holy Scriptures and read many writings of the Holy Fathers. Saint Basil was ordained to the holy priesthood and became abbot of Dalhautsi in 1715. He remained in that position for twenty years, and was a wise instructor of about forty monks, teaching them obedience, humility, and the art of Noetic Prayer. The art of Noetic Prayer he learned at the Pocrov Skete, initiated by Saint Pachomius the Bishop of Roman (+ 1726), decades before the compilation of the Philokalia.

Saint Gregory of Sinai Resource Page

St. Gregory the Sinaite (Feast Days - November 27, February 11, April 6)

Verses

Perceived O Gregory as the consummate standard,
You encourage all to divine prayer.

Saint Gregory of Sinai (+ 1346)

Saint Gregory of Sinai (Intro. to his Writings in the "Philokalia")

Saint Gregory of Sinai as a Model for our Lives

The Life and Works of Saint Gregory of Sinai (David Balfou)

Saint Gregory of Sinai (+ 1346)

St. Gregory of Sinai (Feast Days - November 27, February 11, April 6)

Verses

Perceived O Gregory as the consummate standard,
You encourage all to divine prayer.

By Monk Moses the Athonite

Venerable Gregory the Sinaite was a great neptic father and teacher of noetic prayer to Mount Athos and the Balkan people.

The Prophetess Hannah and Noetic Prayer of the Heart

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos

In the First Book of Kingdoms (First Book of Samuel) we read that God closed Hannah's womb. The direct consequence of this, however, was that the door of Hanna's faith opened, and her noble personality and the inner work she had accomplished came to light. We shall now consider Hannah's visit to the Temple and the prayer she prayed to God.

Hannah went to the Temple to pray to God after eating. When she stood before God, she opened her heart and prayed inwardly in her heart. Eli the priest saw her praying, but he did not hear anything. He looked at her mouth and saw that she was not speaking. This fact also made a profound impression on Eli's boy, who thought that Hannah was drunk. He actually reproached her and told her that she should leave the Temple. Hannah protested, saying that she was not drunk but praying to God. Then Eli gave her the blessing, that God would fulfill the request she made in her prayer. Hannah went home, full of joy and faith that God would hear her petition, but also Eli's blessing.

Who is the Author of "The Way of a Pilgrim"?

Every devout Orthodox Christian has either read or heard about the book The Way of a Pilgrim. The book describes the journeys of a Russian Orthodox pilgrim who goes from city to city trying to understand the saying of the Apostle Paul: "Pray without ceasing." With the help of a monk and the book The Philokalia of the Neptic Fathers, he is able to learn and deepen his understanding so that he could practice unceasing prayer, which is also known as noetic prayer or prayer of the heart, and is summarized in the words" "Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me."

Saint Kallistos II Xanthopoulos, Patriarch of Constantinople

St. Kallistos II Xanthopoulos (Feast Day - November 22)

Verses

Kallistos supplanted the wicked enemy,

Declared a friend he approached God.

Kallistos Xanthopoulos received his surname because he was a monk at the Monastery of Xanthopoulos, which was located in Mount Athos. Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite tells us that he found a letter of this Kallistos at Pantocrator Monastery, which says he lived as a hesychast in the Hermitage of Saint Onouphrios, which belonged to Pantocrator Monastery, and he states that this Monastery was his. By this Nikodemos drew the conclusion that Xanthopoulos Monastery was likely another name for Pantocrator Monastery.

St. Gregory Palamas and the Essence of Hesychasm

Icon of St. Gregory Palamas painted by Fr Stamidis Skliris

The following is translated from a talk given by His Grace, Atanasije (Jevtic), Retired Bishop of Zahumlje and Herzegovina (Serbian Orthodox Church), at the Sretensky Seminary in Moscow on November 1, 2001.

Today we will be speaking about St. Gregory Palamas and the essence of hesychasm. The Council of Constantinople in 1351, which took place 650 years ago, clearly and definitively affirmed the experience and theology of hesychasm. The first such council had met ten years earlier, in 1341, at which Palamas and his Athonite monks presented the Hagioritic Tome, in which they set forth the essence of their experience and of their theological confession against Barlaam. Later, in 1347, another Council met, this time against Akindynos; by then Barlaam had already left and become a cardinal, a bishop of the Pope, after which he took up the fight against hesychast theology.

The Experience of the Transfiguration in the Life of the Athonite Monk (5 of 5)

...continued from part four.

"IN THE LIGHT OF YOUR FACE"

The whole ascetic life of the monk has as its goal soberness, that is, the simplification of the nous and its liberation from thoughts, concepts, or imagination, in such a way as to enable it to focus on itself, taking away from it all the world's distractions, and returning it to its natural place, the heart. When, by God's grace, this unitary state of the human person created in the image of God is restored, then the nous can progress without obstacle toward pure prayer. But, the latter is not the end of the spiritual life. The end of prayer, according to the Holy Fathers, is the ravishing of the nous in the Lord,35 and the illumination of grace through which man becomes himself light and, by adoption, god. Within the abyss of the heart, during the night, the nous of the monk is progressively purified and made transparent, in order that it be enabled to receive the light, like a crystal. It is then that the monk may await the visitation of grace. In the same text, Saint Gregory pursues this theme:

"Thus in leaving things behind, even little by little its ties with the best of them, the nous leaves all existent things completely behind. This ecstasy is distinguished as far superior to the theology that operates through negative reductions. It is the privilege of those who have been clothed with impassibility. But, this is still not union, in that the Paraclete has not yet come from on high to illumine the man of prayer who stands at the very limit of his natural capacities, as in an upper room, awaiting the promise of the Father, that through that revelation He might bear him away in order to bring him to the contemplation of light."36

The Experience of the Transfiguration in the Life of the Athonite Monk (4 of 5)

...continued from part three.

THE BRIGHT CLOUD

At sunset, after having finished his diakonia, accomplished his daily tasks, and retired to his cell, the monk does not cease to continue living the Transfiguration under the two forms that the Disciples experience in an exemplary manner on the summit of Tabor. While during the liturgical assembly he sees Christ in the light of His glory, and shares with the community and the visible world in the light of the Kingdom of Heaven, when he closes the door of his cell behind him - like the stone rolled up against the entrance of the Lord's tomb (Mk. 15:46) - then, in the depths of the night, he is covered by the cloud. At that moment, alone with God, he truly lives as a "monk," monachos [i.e., solitary]. Every vain glimmering of this world is extinguished - all sensual delights, preoccupations, ideas. The consolation of the brother's presence and the reflected glory of the New Jerusalem in the liturgy have withdrawn from him, and he must confront his own inner depths, the darkness of his passions, his unwavering, the scattering of his nous, and the hardness of his heart. He descends thus into his own inner hell in order to triumph there together with Christ, the conqueror of death.

Life and Works of Saint Diadochos of Photiki

Brief Life and Teachings

Saint Diadochos was born around 400, and served as the Bishop of Photiki in Epirus of Northern Greece. In 451, he took part in the Fourth Ecumenical Synod of Chalcedon as Bishop of Photiki, and supported Orthodoxy against the Monophysites. He was most likely part of a group of notables from Epirus who were captured during a Vandal raid between 467 and 474. The group was later released in North Africa, somewhere around Carthage, from whence all vanished. His exact date and place of death are thus unknown, although it is assumed he died before 486.

The Term "Romiosini" According to Fr. John Romanides

By Protopresbyter Fr. John S. Romanides

First we must have in mind that historically there was never a distinction between the so-called Byzantine Empire and the Roman Empire. Our ancestors only knew that they were citizens of the state known as Romania and that this state in the years of the greatest leader of Romiosini, Constantine the Great, spread throughout the entire Mediterranean area, which today covers England, Portugal, Spain, France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, the Balkans, all of North Africa, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, and the Russian coast of the Black Sea.

St. Maximos of Kapsokalyvia and Fourteenth-Century Athonite Hesychasm

By Bishop Kallistos of Diokleia

"Here every stone breathes prayers", Fr. Nikon of Karoulia (1875-1963) used to say when walking along the steep and rocky paths of Athos. But while each part of Athos possesses its own distinctive sense of the divine presence, there is one region in particular where the spirit of the Holy Mountain can be felt with an especial intensity. This is the district extending eastwards from the Skete of Great Saint Anna, round the southern tip of the peninsula, as far as the Great Lavra. In scenery it is the wildest and most spectacular area of Athos, a land of ravines and precipices, with the slopes of the Mountain rising abruptly from the sea to the summit over six thousand five hundred feet above. Access here is only by boat or by rough footpaths; for the roads that disfigure the Athonite landscape elsewhere have not penetrated as far as this, and it may be hoped that they never will. There are no cenobitic houses in this section of Athos but only small hermitages, some grouped in monastic villages such as Great Saint Anna or Kerasia, others hidden and isolated. This is the living heart of Athos, its inner sanctuary.