The Magical Conception of Faith and Religiosity in Orthodoxy

 

By Archimandrite Amphilochios Miltos,
Parish Priest of the Church of the Evangelistria in Nea Ionia

For many years a magical conception of faith and religiosity has been cultivated, in combination with the ever-existing tendency in man towards superstition. Belief is based on unexplained supernatural events that cannot be disputed and is consumed in their acceptance. We have unknowingly taught the faithful that it is enough for them to venerate a miraculous icon, regardless of whether they obey God's commandments. People come and ask us for holy water, holy oil, to read a prayer against the evil eye, or an exorcism prayer to exorcise evil, and we do not often explain to them that these go hand in hand with other things. It seems as if we have not passed on to people the lesson of the second temptation in the Gospel of Matthew: "You shall not tempt the Lord your God." What role does the New Testament play in our pastoral care? How much does the Bible permeate people's religiosity? If we want to be honest with ourselves, magical religiosity is easier for both the believers and us, more profitable for us and more attractive for them.

 

Source: From a lecture titled "Pastoral Care in the Time of the Pandemic". Translation by John Sanidopoulos. 

The Panagia in the Intensive Care Unit - A Modern Testimony

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

The area of ​​the intensive care unit is a place where the fight against death is intensified. Doctors and nurses are personally fighting with death that has claimed the patient, but the patient is also in a difficult situation. In front of them they see death coming, and this increases their distress, at the same time they are alone, without the presence of their loved ones, whom they see for a few minutes. Then there are the big questions of life and death, of the meaning of life, but there are also regrets of past events.

In the intensive care room there is a strong interest in the health of the body and in the avoidance of death, but there is also no parallel interest in the patient's internal existential questions and spiritual concerns. The clergyman can hardly practice his pastoral ministry. Thus, the patient has to be spiritually reawakened alone, to accept the visits of divine Grace, in accordance with previous internal situations.

St. Gregory Palamas on Augustine of Hippo and Pastoral Theology

By His Eminence Metropolitan Hierotheos

of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

1. Saint Gregory Palamas and Augustine

The work of Saint Gregory Palamas titled "One Hundred and Fifty Chapters" is a concise text, which in the way it is written recalls works of other Fathers of the Church, such as Saint Maximus the Confessor, Saint Symeon the New Theologian and others, and is regarded as a summary of the teachings of the Saint previously developed in his dialogues with Barlaam and Akindynos. In similar cases all writers at one time, after a few years, attempt to make a succinct summary of the teachings they previously delivered. However, this work has recently created concern.

Contemporary Iconoclasts (Archim. George Kapsanis)

By Archimandrite George (Kapsanis),
late Abbot of Gregoriou Monastery

It is a day of joy and glorification of the Triune God for the victory of the correct faith against the accusations of the Iconoclasts and all the heretics. Great was the pain of the Church over the prevalence of the iconoclast heresy for about a hundred years. And this is why today is a day of joy:

"A feast of joy and gladness is revealed to us today, for the teachings of the true faith shine forth in all their glory, and the Church of Christ is bright with splendor, being adorned with the holy icons which have now been restored; and God has granted unity of mind to the faithful" (Matins, Prosomoion of the Praises, Sunday of Orthodoxy).

Holy Relics and Pastoral Theology

By His Eminence Metropolitan Hierotheos

of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

The Orthodox Church is a "laboratory of the resurrection," and it can even be said that it is a laboratory of sacred relics.

The revelation and manifestation of God offered to the saints takes place through deification. A person receives the revelation after participating in the uncreated deifying energy of God. Therefore, revelation is very closely associated with the deification of a person. The highest degree of divine revelation is Pentecost. When a person arrives at deification, they become entirely deified, in both soul and body, which is why we have the existence of grace-bestowing and incorrupt relics. The sacred, incorrupt and wonderworking relics certify the truth of the revelation and the experience of deification.

Saints Clement of Ancyra and His Disciple Agathangelos as Models for our Lives

Sts. Clement and Agathangelos (Feast Day - June 23)

By Protopresbyter Fr. George Papavarnavas

Saint Clement lived the era of persecution, specifically during the reign of Emperor Diocletian. His father was a pagan and his mother a Christian. Orphaned of his father at an early age, his upbringing was assumed entirely by his most pious mother. Therefore the Saint was brought up inside the temperate climate of piety and love for the true God, and from his youth his life flowed with prayer and philanthropy. He was a help and support for the poor and afflicted. When the fullness of time had come, Christ, through the Church, entrusted him with the blessed work of the pastoral care of His reasonable sheep. He was made Bishop of the Church of Ancyra and proved to be a good pastor. Later he was tested in the furnace of temptation and martyrdom "as gold in a furnace". He underwent horrific torture, which he endured with admirable patience and bravery, and finally sealed his confession of Christ with the blood of his martyrdom.

Fr. George Kapsanis, Former Abbot of Gregoriou Monastery of Mount Athos (+ June 8, 2014) [1 of 3]

By His Eminence Metropolitan Hierotheos

of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

On the day of Pentecost, the Former Abbot of the Sacred Monastery of Gregoriou of Mount Athos, Archimandrite Fr. George (Kapsanis), reposed in the Lord. On the same day the service for the reposed was chanted in the Metochion of the Sacred Monastery in Stavroupoli, and the next day, the Day of the Holy Spirit, his funeral service was chanted in the Sacred Monastery of Gregoriou, where he lived in asceticism and served for approximately forty years, proving himself to be a great figure of the contemporary Orthodox Church.

Because we were connected through a perennial fraternal friendship and there was mutual respect, I wanted to record some of my personal thoughts submitted here as a memorial to this great personality.

Saint Symeon the Stylite as a Model for our Lives

St. Symeon the Stylite (Feast Day - September 1)

By Protopresbyter Fr. George Papavarnavas

For the Church, September is the first month of the Indiction, and being its first day it is a New Year. On this day, the first month of September, our Church celebrates the memory of the venerable Symeon the Stylite.

Among the chorus of the Venerable Ones of our Church there are those among our Saints who are called "Stylites". They chose as a way of asceticism to remain on a pillar (stylo), which is how they received the name.

The venerable Symeon the Stylite came from a village called Sisan which was located between the province of Syria and Cilicia. He lived in the fifth century, when the emperor was Leo the Great and the patriarch of Antioch was Martyrios. He loved prayer and asceticism from a young age, and with the help of his spiritual teachers he reached higher stages in the spiritual life. After living the cenobitic life in the beginning, he proceeded to quieter areas and placed himself in a dry well to live in hesychasm, that is, prayer and asceticism. Having then settled in a monastic cell, he acquired great fame and many went to see him. As a result he could not find quietude, which is why he fixed in the earth a high pillar of thirty-six cubits on which he remained standing day and night. Under the pillar of the Venerable One crowds of people flocked to see him and hear his inspirational and comforting words, and many from other religions were baptized.

"With his material body he imitated the life of the angels, so much that some wondered whether he had a bodiless nature." (St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite, Synaxarion)

He left this temporary life at the age of fifty-six. In such a short time he reached such great heights of virtue that he led thousands of people to the knowledge of God, and he benefited and continues to benefit with his intercessions and the many miracles he performs.

Saint Symeon the Stylite, by his way of life, reveals:

First, the way in which the saints exercised pastoral and missionary work. And this way, as things have shown, is the most effective. They teach, admonish and console by their way of life and with their words, which are not cerebral and moralistic, but regenerative and life-giving, since it proceeds out of a pure heart that is regenerated and full of the grace of the Holy Spirit. He did not seek to have people near him, and even more so he did not seek to acquire followers. He did not invite the multitudes, but instead he fled from them and sought quietude. As much as he desired invisibility and quietude, so much did fame chase him. He climbed down a well to hide and they found him. He climbed a tall pillar and they ran to be beneath him and waited through heat and cold to hear one of his words, one of his admonitions, by which he comforted, solved problems, and healed wounds. By his prayers he healed people physically and mentally. He regenerated them, leading them to baptism and the experience of the life in Christ. It seems clear that the mission that is done with example and intense prayer, with selfless and sacrificial love, has salvific effects.

Second, the saints are the greatest benefactors of mankind. They offer people what is needed most of all: answers to our greatest existential questions which torment us, and the way by which we can find meaning in our life. Because the greatest problem of man, today and forever, is to find meaning in his life. To be convinced that his life has some meaning, some purpose, thereby making it worthwhile to live. And that which gives worth and meaning to the life of man is the uncreated grace of God, which helps him transcend death within the limits of his personal life and in this way acquires "life and exceeding life". To experience the death of death and experience life truly. To come out of the prison of the senses, where his passions have held him captive and closed off, and to rejoice in his freedom; true freedom from a life of slavery to sin and the devil. The pillar of Saint Symeon is a symbol of true freedom, true love towards God and man, and the authentic life which has meaning and purpose, since it is intended for theosis, for communion with the Holy Triune God.

The most perfect creation of God is man, and he is the greatest blessing for creation when he remains a man or better, when he progresses further and becomes a god by grace. At the same time the biggest and most ferocious beast on earth is also man, when he is enslaved to his passions and loses his humanity.

In a materialistic age such as ours that is characterized by selfishness and self-interest, by self-love and an enslavement to the passions of avarice, vanity and sensuality, the life and work of the venerable Symeon is a powerful slap to awaken. To conquer one's passions is definitely not an easy thing. It takes willpower, lifelong struggle and prayer. But when it is attained, then a man regains his lost humanity and becomes a true man. He becomes a never-ending source of joy and blessing for the people around him, and for the whole universe.

Source: Ekklesiastiki Paremvasi, "ΟΣΙΟΣ ΣΥΜΕΩΝ Ο ΣΤΥΛΙΤΗΣ", September 2001. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.