Synaxarion of Saint Ephraim, Patriarch of Antioch (+ 545)

St. Ephraim of Antioch (Feast Day - March 7)

Verses

Ephraim the shepherd is joined with the shepherd,
Lesser with the greater, O great dignity!

Saint Ephraim came from Amida and was a count by office, when Justinus the Thracian was reigning in 518. He came to Antioch to rebuild it because it had been destroyed by earthquakes for a second time. By royal command he was consecrated Bishop by the people of Antioch in 527, as Meletios (vol. 2) writes, and as it had happened in times of old with Ambrose of Milan and Nektarios of Constantinople.

Saint Basil the Great Resource Page

St. Basil the Great (Feast Day - January 1)

Verses

 

Basil lives and dies in the Lord,

He lives also with us as speaking from his books.

Basil died on the first of January. 

 

Life

 

Synaxarion for Saint Basil the Great

 

The Dual Feast of St. Basil the Great and the Circumcision of Christ 

 

December: Day 31: Teaching 5: On the Eve of the Feast in Honor of Saint Basil the Great

 

January: Day 1: Teaching 5: Saint Basil the Great 

 

Prologue in Sermons: January 2 

 

Encomium for Basil the Great (St. Gregory of Nyssa)

 

Funeral Oration for Saint Basil the Great (St. Gregory the Theologian) 

 

Homily on the Circumcision of Christ and Basil the Great (St. Amphilochios of Iconium) 

 

Homily on the Circumcision of Christ and on Basil the Great (St. Andrew of Crete)

 

The Repentance of Basil the Great 

The Relationship of St. Ephraim the Syrian and St. Basil the Great

The Death-Bed Wager Between Saint Basil the Great and a Jewish Physician

The Church Fathers and Heathen Literature Under Julian the Apostate

Basil the Great and the Hesychastic Life (Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos) 

Basil the Great and Common Sharing (Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos) 

12th Century Hymn to St. Basil

Three Hierarchs Resource Page

The Relics of Saint Basil the Great

"Basil the Great, the Lion of Christ" (Documentary)

 

Miracle of Basil the Great in Nicaea (January 19) 

 

Commemoration of the Miracle of St. Basil the Great Against the Arians 

 

The Dialogue Between Basil the Great and the Arian Prefect Modestus

 

Prologue in Sermons: January 1 

About

The Fourth Century as the “Golden” Age of the Church (Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos) 

Saint Basil and our Spiritual Roots

Basil the Great and Disfigured Christianity (Photios Kontoglou)

"What Would Saint Basil the Great Do if He Lived in our Era?" (St. Paisios the Athonite)

The Orthodoxy of St. Basil and the Extremism of Patriarch Nikon

Even Saints Can Be Deceived About People

From Basil the Great To Santa Claus

"John the Blessed": A New Year's Eve Tale by Photios Kontoglou

The Meaning Behind the Vasilopita (1 of 2)

The Meaning Behind the Vasilopita (2 of 2)


Teachings and Writings

The Benefit of Reading the Works of Basil the Great

The First Ecumenical Synod and the Contribution of the Cappadocian Fathers to the Symbol of Faith 

Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Isaiah (St. Basil the Great) 

A Summary of "On the Holy Spirit" by Saint Basil the Great

"Give Heed To Thyself" (A Homily of St. Basil the Great)

Homily on Giving Thanks to God For All Things (St. Basil the Great)

Homily on Humility (St. Basil the Great)

The Hunger of the Poor and the Greediness of the Rich, According to Saint Basil the Great 

Sermon to the Rich (St. Basil the Great)

"I Will Pull Down My Barns": A Homily of Basil the Great on Covetousness

Was Jesus Ignorant of the Time of His Second Coming?

Paradise and Hell According to Basil the Great and Gregory the Theologian

The Didactic Nature of Jesus Weeping According to Basil the Great and John Chrysostom

St Basil's Eschatological Vision: Aspects of the Recapitulation of History and the 'Eighth Day'

St. Basil the Great: "Love Cannot Be Taught"

Scriptural and Patristic Conceptions of the Holy Spirit (St. Basil the Great)

St. Basil the Great's Homily On Fasting (1 of 3)

St. Basil the Great's Homily On Fasting (2 of 3)

St. Basil the Great's Homily On Fasting (3 of 3)

Imitating the Fast of Christ in our Spiritual Warfare

The Commandments of Saint Basil to Priests

Basil the Great on Unceasing Prayer

On the Operations of the Nous According to St. Basil the Great

Saint Basil the Great, Protector of the Poor

Address to the Youth on How to Derive Benefit from Greek Literature (St. Basil the Great)

St. Basil the Great on the Purpose of Environmental Calamities

Saint Basil On Human Trafficking

Where Did You Find Your Property? (St. Basil the Great)

Basil the Great on the Vanity of Reading Genesis as Science

Basil the Great and the Allegorical Interpretation of Genesis

St. Basil the Great on the Intelligent Cause of Creation

How Did the Saints Write About Creation?

Saint Basil the Great on the Book of Psalms

The 19 Letters of Basil the Great to Amphilochios of Iconium

A Letter of Basil the Great to Ambrose of Milan (Letter 197)

Saint Basil the Great on the Origin of Evil

St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite On Vampirism

Saint Barsos the Confessor, Bishop of Edessa


Feasts and Saints

A Homily of Basil the Great to be Read on the Day Before Theophany

Homily on the Holy Martyr Gordius (St. Basil the Great)

Saint Gordius the Martyr of Ceasarea

Homily on the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste (St. Basil the Great)

On the Intercessions of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste (St. Basil the Great)

On Saint Gregory the Wonderworker (St. Basil the Great)

Saint Meletios of Antioch as a Model for our Lives

Saint Amphilochios of Iconium as a Model for our Lives

Miracles of the Holy Martyr Mamas

By Honoring Saint Mamas One Honors Virtue (St. Basil the Great)

Holy Martyr Barlaam of Antioch: Summaries of the Encomiums of Basil the Great and John Chrysostom

Holy Martyr Julitta of Caesarea

Holy Great Martyr Mercurius of Caesarea in Cappadocia

Saint Ascholios, Bishop of Thessaloniki (+ 383)


Family

Feast of the Holy Family of Saint Basil the Great (2nd Sunday of January)

Life of Saint Macrina the Elder, Grandmother of Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa

Saints Emmelia, Nonna and Anthousa - Mothers of the Three Hierarchs (Sunday After Feb. 2nd)

Saint Emmelia, Mother of Saint Basil the Great

Saint Emmelia as a Model for our Lives

Saint Gregory of Nyssa Resource Page

Saint Macrina the Younger Resource Page

Saint Theosevia the Deaconess of Nyssa

Saint Naukratios, Brother of Basil the Great

Saint Peter, Bishop of Sebaste (+ 391)

The Orthodox Church in Mesopotamia

By A.K.

Mesopotamia, the mythical East, the land of Eden, Babylon, the Persians and the Arabs, is in a constant turmoil of war.

The Church there was founded through the preaching of the Apostles Thomas, Thaddeus and others of the Seventy.

We will make a brief mention and tribute to this Church so that we will remember it and be moved to pray for it to the Lord and for our brethren there.

Christmas: An Ancient CHRISTIAN Feast

The present Feast, commemorating the Nativity in the flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, was established by the Church. Its origin goes back to the time of the Apostles. In the Apostolic Constitutions (Section 3, 13) it says, "Brethren, observe the feastdays; and first of all the Birth of Christ, which you are to celebrate on the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month." In another place it also says, "Celebrate the day of the Nativity of Christ, on which unseen grace is given man by the birth of the Word of God from the Virgin Mary for the salvation of the world."

In the second century St Clement of Alexandria also indicates that the day of the Nativity of Christ is December 25. In the third century St Hippolytus of Rome mentions the Feast of the Nativity of Christ, and appoints the Gospel readings for this day from the opening chapters of St Matthew.

In 302, during the persecution of Christians by Maximian, 20,000 Christians of Nicomedia (December 28) were burned in a church on the very Feast of the Nativity of Christ. In that same century, after the persecution when the Church had received freedom of religion and had become the official religion in the Roman Empire, we find the Feast of the Nativity of Christ observed throughout the entire Church. There is evidence of this in the works of St Ephraim the Syrian, St Basil the Great, St Gregory the Theologian, St Gregory of Nyssa, St Ambrose of Milan, St John Chrysostom and other Fathers of the Church of the fourth century.

St John Chrysostom, in a sermon which he gave in the year 385, points out that the Feast of the Nativity of Christ is ancient, and indeed very ancient. In this same century, at the Cave of Bethlehem, made famous by the Birth of Jesus Christ, the empress St Helen built a church, which her mighty son Constantine adorned after her death. In the Codex of the emperor Theodosius from 438, and of the emperor Justinian in 535, the universal celebration of the day of the Nativity of Christ was decreed by law. Thus, Nicephorus Callistus, a writer of the fourteenth century, says in his History that in the sixth century, the emperor Justinian established the celebration of the Nativity of Christ throughout all the world.

Patriarch Anatolius of Constantinople in the fifth century, Sophronius and Andrew of Jerusalem in the seventh, Sts John of Damascus, Cosmas of Maium and Patriarch Germanus of Constantinople in the eighth, the Nun Cassiane in the ninth, and others whose names are unknown, wrote many sacred hymns for the Feast of the Nativity of Christ, which are still sung by the Church on this radiant festival.

During the first three centuries, in the Churches of Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria and Cyprus, the Nativity of Christ was combined together with the Feast of His Baptism on January 6, and called "Theophany" ("Manifestation of God"). This was because of a belief that Christ was baptized on the anniversary of His birth, which may be inferred from St John Chrysostom's sermon On the Nativity of Christ: "It is not the day on which Christ was born which is called Theophany, but rather that day on which He was baptized."

In support of such a view, it is possible to cite the words of the Evangelist Luke who says that "Jesus began to be about thirty years of age" (Luke 3:23) when He was baptized. The joint celebration of the Nativity of Christ and His Theophany continued to the end of the fourth century in certain Eastern Churches, and until the fifth or sixth century in others.

The present order of services preserves the memory of the ancient joint celebration of the Feasts of the Nativity of Christ and Theophany. On the eve of both Feasts, there is a similar tradition that one should fast until the stars appear. The order of divine services on the eve of both feastdays and the feastdays themselves is the same.

The Nativity of Christ has long been counted as one of the Twelve Great Feasts. It is one of the greatest, most joyful and wondrous events in the history of the world. The angel said to the shepherds, "Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, Who is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you: you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. Then suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts, glorifying God and saying: Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." Those who heard these things were astonished at what the shepherds told them concerning the Child. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen" (Luke 2:10-20).

Thus the Nativity of Christ, a most profound and extraordinary event, was accompanied by the wondrous tidings proclaimed to the shepherds and to the Magi. This is a cause of universal rejoicing for all mankind, "for the Savior is Born!"

Concurring with the witness of the Gospel, the Fathers of the Church, in their God-inspired writings, describe the Feast of the Nativity of Christ as most profound, and joyous, serving as the basis and foundation for all the other Feasts.

Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

Source

Saints and Feasts of March 7

On the seventh the seven fathers were carried off in death.

Holy Seven Hieromartyrs of Chersonesos, 
the Bishops Ephraim, Basil, Eugenios, Agathodoros, 
Elpidios, Aitherios and Kapiton

Synaxarion of the Holy Seven Hieromartyrs of Chersonesos

Saints Arkadios and Nestor,
Bishops of Tremithus in Cyprus

Saints Arkadios and Nestor, Bishops of Tremithus in Cyprus

Venerable Paul the Simple

 

The Life and Miracles of Saint Paul the Simple 

 

How Saint Paul the Simple Overcame a Most Powerful Demon

 

Saint Paul the Simple as the Rule and Type of Blessed Simplicity (St. John Climacus)

 

Venerable Paul the Simple in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

 

The Church of Saint Paul the Simple in Egypt

Saint Ephraimios, Patriarch of Antioch 

 

Synaxarion of Saint Ephraim, Patriarch of Antioch (+ 545)

 

Saint Ephraimios of Antioch and the Conversion of the Stylite Monk Who Was a Severian 

 

Saint Ephraim of Antioch as a Model for our Lives

Venerable Laurentios of Megara, 
Founder of the Sacred Monastery 

of Phaneromenis in Salamina

Saint Laurentios of Megara, Founder of the Sacred Monastery of Phaneromenis in Salamina

The Wonderworking Icon of the Venerable Laurentios in Nea Ionia

Venerable Aimilianos the Roman 

with his Companions James and Marianos

 

Saint Aimilianos the Roman

 

March: Day 7: Venerable Aimilianos the Roman
 

Holy Martyr and Confessor Johannes of Ilomantsi

Holy Martyr and Confessor Johannes of Ilomantsi (+ 1918)

Two New Saints from Finland Canonized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate

Synaxis of All Saints of the Dodecanese

 

Synaxis of All Saints of the Dodecanese

 

 

Prologue in Sermons: March 7
 

The Orthodoxy of St. Basil and the Extremism of Patriarch Nikon

By Riassophore-nun Paisia (Reid)

History offers many lessons, and the nearly 2,000 year existence of the Church is replete with illustrations of what and whom to emulate and what to avoid. The following essay concentrates on two celebrated hierarchs who, although widely separated in time and culture, were both faced with periods of severe ecclesiastical unrest which threatened to tear the very fabric of the Church. The fourth-century Cappadocian Father, Saint Basil the Great, and Patriarch Nikon of Moscow from the 17th century, are an unlikely pair. But the similarity of their respective situations allows for an interesting comparison of the effects they had on their times, and the divergent legacies they have left the Church. Patriarch Nikon's character and attitudes foreshadowed in many ways the temperament often found in Orthodoxy today, and his effect on the Church in Russia offers a timely warning whose importance cannot be minimized. St. Basil, on the other hand, provides a sobering and inspiring counter balance, to the trend of much current Orthodox inclination.

St. Basil grew up in a family which numbers among its members several illustrious saints--both men and women. It is therefore not surprising that even after being steeped in the Greek classics and having tasted glory as a talented rhetorician, St. Basil should abandon the secular arena and passionately devote himself to serving Christ. Full of pastoral and monastic idealism, he did not shrink from shouldering the yoke of the episcopacy, but willingly sought it out when he saw that his energies and talents could be used to defend the Faith against the tide of heresy and apostasy which threatened both, Church and Empire in his time. Bt. Basil was richly gifted, ascetic, learned, tireless in pursuit of his object--in a word, he was eminently suited to the task before him.

His surpassing spiritual and intellectual capabilities gave him a broader scope than many who, as St. Gregory Nazanzius wrote, used the Faith "as a weapon in their private differences." Basil's efforts to steer the Church onto the Royal Path met with resistance on both sides. The "liberals" and Arians he opposed in matters of dogma called him proud, hard, self-seeking, disobedient, power-hungry; the Orthodox zealots, dissatisfied with his carefully worded public statements on the nature of the Trinity, called him a crypto-Arian more concerned with keeping peace with heretics than with preaching the True Faith.

What both sides refused to admit (or failed to see) was that St. Basil was determined to preserve the good order of the Church, and the balance between Church and Empire, at a time when both were in danger of buckling under the assaults of heresy and anarchy. With an Arian in almost every episcopal seat, and the barbarian tribes pounding at the gates of the Empire, he refused to compromise the integrity of the Faith or jeopardize the fragility of the Empire.

When the Arian emperor Valens subdivided St. Basil's see, in a deliberate attempt to weaken the Orthodox presence in the region, Basil retaliated by immediately creating new bishoprics in his remaining territory so as to consolidate a power-base and slow the Arian advance. He defied and rebuked the Imperial emissaries sent to threaten and flatter him into compromising or abjuring the Nicene Creed. Nonetheless, when the Emperor came to Basil's church, the Saint communed him, as Emperor, and remained unmoved by the impassioned outcry of the anti-Arian zealots who were outraged by the Saint's breach of "purity" and "correctness." When at last he was sentenced to banishment and exile he submitted meekly and even volunteered to leave his city secretly by night, to prevent the danger of revolt in his defense.

He, as an anointed defender of the heavenly realm, was willing to suffer whatever God willed for the sake of his faith and his flock. But he was not willing to rebel against the anointed ruler of, the earthly realm, even in the ostensible defense of Orthodoxy, because he knew he could not hope to preserve the Faith by rending the fabric of God-established order. He prepared, in all humility, and faith, to obey. Twice he was sentenced, and twice God dealt with the Emperor so overwhelmingly that Valens cancelled his decrees himself. St. Basil, so unyielding and imperial as a Bishop, so meek and humble as a subject, was saved by the God in Whom he trusted, through the king whose order he helped preserve.

Basil spent only a few more years in freedom before he died. Although he continued to preach a true and undefiled Orthodoxy, he never saw the full restoration of the faith. When he died in 379 an Arian still sat in the seat of the Emperor, and heresy seemed almost to have devoured all the light of truth. Small wonder St. Basil wrote of the Church in his time, rife with faction and apostasy, "How terrible is the famine of love among us!" Truly it seemed, then and for a long time to come, that the love of God and the knowledge of True Orthodoxy were gone from the earth. Where then is St. Basil's triumph? What is his witness to us today?

Although he surely knew he could do very little to influence the final outcome of events in his lifetime, St. Basil never deigned to use the apparent bleakness of the external situation as an excuse for indulging his passions, his arrogance, or his despair (even in a "spiritual" disguise). This worthy hierarch, who passed his life in genuine persecution and struggle for True Orthodoxy, remained to the end as he had always been—a strict monk, a loving shepherd, a humble servant of God, a loyal subject of Church and State, a defender of the Faith who loved God too well, and knew his own weaknesses too clearly, to risk using his position and the circumstance of his time as cloaks for faithlessness, self-opinion, and pride. In this way he is a supreme example of godly courage and balance for al! who seek to preserve Orthodoxy in the face of apostasy without losing sanity and sobriety of soul.

Patriarch Nikon and the 'Correctness Disease'

In Patriarch Nikon we find similar talents and character traits, but his love for the Church was tainted by his weakness for power and an unyielding self-opinion. Aflame with an all-encompassing vision of Orthodoxy and its possible effect on society, he devoted himself entirely to the "best," the "purest," the most "traditional," the most "otherworldly'' form of Orthodoxy he found available, and was resolved to awaken the souls of the indifferent and revive what he considered a moribund Church Establishment. Although he remained confident to the end, assured of the purity of his intent and the nobility of his stand, he succeeded only in bringing the Russian Church to a grievous schism. [1]

It would have been hard to predict such an outcome on the basis of Nikon's outwardly exemplary life as a monk wherein, his biographer Philip Longworth writes, "he had been guided by the rule of St. Sabbas in his extreme asceticism and by St. John Chrysostom in his charity." Although of peasant origin, and lacking any formal education, he was truly gifted, perhaps even a genius. Few could fail to be impressed by this "towering figure of a man" whose physical dimension was matched by his charisma and indefatigable energy. Small wonder that when he came to Moscow in 1646 to collect alms for his monastery in the far north, the young Tsar Alexi Mikhailovitch, pious and impressionable, was swayed by his dominant personality and sharp mind.

A close relationship soon developed which had the potential of benefiting both Church and State. Nikon influenced Alexis to issue decrees against drunkenness, and the Tsar began to raise the level of piety throughout the realm, beginning with his own court. His confidence in Nikon prompted the Tsar to entrust him with the reigns of government when he himself had to go off to war. It was not long before Alexis begged Nikon to join him in fatherly joint-rule of the Russian Orthodox. In fairness to Nikon it must be said that he did not reach greedily for power by seeking the throne himself, and even refused it several times. But at last he could resist the fatal temptation no longer and accepted the patriarchy, on one condition--and in this condition we have a "key" to the complex and tragic personality of Patriarch Nikon. Nikon insisted that everyone, whether in secular or spiritual life, must unceasingly honor him as chief shepherd and allow him to "regulate the affairs of the Church" without interference. Once assured of the full allegiance of Church and State he consented to sit on the patriarchal throne, "and thus pronounced against himself the sentence of his own doom."

Although he remained a strict monk throughout his life, utterly pure, utterly “correct” in his observance of the monastic rule, he had set foot on a dangerous path by aligning himself so completely with the temporal affairs of Russia; here was the "beginning of those strong temptations of spirit, under the weight of which he gave way at last and, from being exalted, was led to exalt himself."

Nikon tried to justify his intrusions into the affairs of state by promoting the idea of a theocracy according to a dubious Byzantine model which he interpreted to his own advantage. His authoritarian nature began to reveal itself, and although his manner of life continued to be above reproach--he was generous in almsgiving, Unexcelled in pastoral zeal, solicitous in promoting a "due magnificence" in church services--his high-handed manner in dealing with any opposition and his increased isolation in his own self-opinion, created an upheaval which had a calamitous and long-lasting effect on both Church and State.

The correction of the Russian Church's Slavonic books is usually seen as the match that touched off the explosion, although the need for some correction of texts had hardly been discovered by Nikon. The Council of the Hundred Chapters had recommended a review and reform of liturgical texts long before, and a number of corrections had already been effected. Graduates of the theological academy in Kiev, established by Metropolitan Peter Mogila earlier in the century, were invited to Moscow in 1649 to apply their knowledge of Greek and Latin in examining the service books. The task of reform was complicated by the widespread suspicion of Greek Church authority which had been compromised in its acceptance of the union with Rome in 1439. Nevertheless, the Tsar himself supported the reform movement, and it could very conceivably have proceeded with success were it not for the growing excesses of the Patriarch's zeal and the ruthless manner in which he forced the reforms to be carried out.

"There is a way which seemeth right unto a man but the end thereof is death." (Prov. 14:12)

Waving all caution aside, Nikon pressed the Tsar and Synod for faster, more wholesale changes, modeled after the newest Greek texts. In this he was supported and encouraged by the Patriarch of Constantinople, Paisios, who "at the same time entreated [Nikon] to he indulgent to those who had erred not in any essential doctrine of the faith but only in some unimportant external matters, so that he might retain them within the pale of the Church, and it would have been more prudent had the mild counsel of Paisios been followed; but unfortunately the natural hastiness of Nikon's temper, joined to his ardent zeal..., carried him beyond the bounds which pastoral longsuffering might have observed." 

What made Nikon's passionate concern for correctness still less tolerable is the fact that many things in the Russian books which he and his followers perceived as being incorrect, "impure," "modernist," or otherwise "un-Orthodox," in reality in no way compromised the integrity of the faith. Nikon, and the Nikonian reformers, lacked an understanding of the essential Orthodox concept of living continuity with Holy Tradition, a concept intimately linked with all aspects of daily Orthodox life, including texts of services, rubrics; etc. While "reforming" a few real errors, Nikon committed the far greater mistake of breaking continuity with the living Orthodox past of the Russian people.

Not satisfied with reforming the books, Nikon launched a crusade against icons which showed Italian-style influence. Houses were searched and the Patriarch personally took part in burning the sacred images which the simple people held in veneration. His Savonarola-like character, nurtured on the throne of power, fired his opposition: "Traditionalists hated him for enforcing the liturgical reforms;...churchmen feared him for his harshness; ministers resented his highhandedness.., the environment of hostility towards him extended even to members of the Tsar's own family."

Sensing the waning of his authority, Nikon petulantly declared himself unable to continue in his rank because of the Tsar's "weakness," the corruption of the government, and the lack of support for himself and his reforms. The "roar of a wounded lion and a forsaken friend," it marked the end of his reign. A Church Council of 1660 decided his abandonment of the Patriarchy constituted abdication and permitted them to proceed to the election of a successor. But since no precedent for this existed the question could not be easily nor immediately resolved. Nikon did not agree that he had effectively resigned, and it therefore became necessary to depose him. In 1666 he was tried in the presence of the Tsar and Greek and Russian clergy, including the Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch. It was a long dramatic struggle, suitable for Shakespeare, but ill-befitting a monk, a bishop, a Patriarch. Finally deposed, Nikon was sent to a monastery for "perpetual confinement,'' calling out along the way to any who would listen, "Blessed are the persecuted!"--a cry that echoes even today wherever proud churchmen are criticized.

Even though Nikon remained personally "correct" in all his external behavior, he had departed from the path of True Orthodoxy. By chasing after an ephemeral phantom of "pure Orthodoxy," he became like those who today dismiss the living witness of Orthodoxy as being filled with "error" and "Westernism" and seek fruitlessly after some abstract and self-created fourth-century perfection.

For all his desire to increase the power and prestige of the Church, Nikon, like all extremists, actually helped further the process of spiritual decline. By attempting to usurp secular authority, and by disrupting the organic continuity of the Russian tradition. he upset the dynamic tension between Church and State, creating an instability and conflict that led to Peter the Great’s Westernization of society and shackling of the Church.

By contrast, St. Basil poured out all his passion, his willfulness, his pride, not on the Nikonian forging of a new society, in which a reformed Church could dictate to a chastened State, but on the preservation of all that which he was given, and on the restoration of that life-giving synergy between "pious Kings and right-believing Bishops," between the City of God and the City of Man, which was the golden dream of Byzantium, the hope of Holy Russia.

By preserving the hierarchical interplay of spirit and state, St. Basil's real meekness barred the door Nikon's presumption cast open. Once Nikon lost sight of the Royal Path in his own life he became quite unable to preserve the flock given him by Christ. Having failed to achieve, or preserve; an understanding of himself he became blind to everything outside, unable to admit his errors or profit from counsel. He sank deeper and deeper into the self-righteous isolation  of his "unjust" punishment at the hands of an "apostate" power.

The bitter chill which emanated from the heart of this proud patriarch finds its antithesis in the radiant warmth of St. Basil who suffered no less at the hands of an apostate power. Though there may indeed have been a famine of love around this holy hierarch, in him there was no lack, and all who came to him found food for their souls and peace for their hearts, courage to persevere and wisdom to rise above despair. It was indeed fitting that St. Ephraim the Syrian, when told by God in a dream to "feed upon intellect," was sent to find St. Basil preaching undaunted in his ruined diocese, and saw the Holy Spirit sitting dove-like on the hierarch's shoulder, giving him the words of sober endurance and mystical joy that still feed the flock of Christ today.

St. Basil, by humbly preserving in his teaching, and embodying in his life, all he was given by his Fathers in the Faith, saved many and preserved True Orthodoxy. Nikon, by attempting an artificial, academic recreation of a theoretically superior Orthodoxy having nothing in common with the organic continuity of Holy Russia, destroyed himself and shattered the Church. Choices like these face every Orthodox Christian at many points in his life, in many guises. Let us take a lesson from history--and be wise.

There are many who will come to us and tempt us with all manner of subtle rebellions and impassioned causes. It is important that we preserve a true fidelity not to the letter of the law--which will only infect us with Nikon' s 'correctness disease,' but to the living Faith as we received it. If we struggle to acquire a sober humility and trust not to our own opinions, we can hope that through the prayers of our holy Father Basil, God will grant us the wisdom to persevere to the end on the narrow path of the King's highway - despite the passions of our times, the weakness of our faith, and the darkness of our age. Amen.

[1] Those who refused to accept Nikon's reforms, the "Old Believers," were persecuted and alienated from the fold of the Church.

Source

Elder Ephraim of the Holy Mountain and Arizona

Elder Ephraim holding Metr. Hierotheos' book on Saint Paisios the Athonite

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

On Saturday 7 December 2019 Elder Ephraim fell asleep in the Lord and the Holy Monastery of St Anthony in Arizona in the USA. His funeral service was held on 11 December 2019 at the same Monastery in the midst of many of his spiritual children, whom he brought to new birth spiritually: clergy, monks and laypeople of all ages and categories.

He was honoured by the Ecumenical Patriarch with a message that was read out during the funeral service by the Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Philotheou on the Holy Mountain, Archimandrite Nikodimos, who afterwards spoke on his own behalf, as well as by the presence of Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, who described his personality and the work that he had accomplished.

I have been linked with the ever-blessed Hieromonk Ephraim in many and different ways over many years, and in this article I shall set out some of my thoughts about the Elder of blessed memory.

Fr. George Florovsky Resource Page

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Georges Vasilievich Florovsky: Philosopher of the Orthodox World (1 of 8)

Georges Vasilievich Florovsky: Philosopher of the Orthodox World (2 of 8)

Georges Vasilievich Florovsky: Philosopher of the Orthodox World (3 of 8)

Georges Vasilievich Florovsky: Philosopher of the Orthodox World (4 of 8)

Georges Vasilievich Florovsky: Philosopher of the Orthodox World (5 of 8)

Georges Vasilievich Florovsky: Philosopher of the Orthodox World (6 of 8)

Georges Vasilievich Florovsky: Philosopher of the Orthodox World (7 of 8)

Georges Vasilievich Florovsky: Philosopher of the Orthodox World (8 of 8)

Fr. George Florovsky and a 1976 Super Bowl Commercial

30th Anniversary of the Falling Asleep of Fr. George Florovsky (+ August 11, 1979)

The Grave of Fr. Georges Florovsky and His Wife Xenia

A Contemporary Miracle: Fr. George Florovsky and the Wild Child

Zee Most Beautifool Face!

The Relationship and Correspondence Between Fr. George Florovsky and Fr. John Romanides

My Teacher Fr. John Romanides and my Spiritual Father Fr. George Florovsky

Fr. John Romanides' Encounter With the Zoe Brotherhood

Theology in Greece in the 1960's

Contemporary Theological Movements in Orthodoxy (Metr. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos)

Romiosini and the "Neopatristic Synthesis" of Florovsky

Apostolic Tradition and Apostolic Succession in the Mystery of the Church

The Theological Crisis and Its Impact on Daily Ecclesiastical Life (2 of 6)   

Fr. George Florovsky: The Latest Most Up-to-Date Bibliography   

 

Rare Film Footage of Notable Russian Orthodox Thinkers at the St. Sergius Institute of Paris Between 1926 and 1934

 

 

Writings 

 

The Year of our Lord 

 

The Incarnation and Redemption (Fr. George Florovsky) 

 

Did Christ Have A Fallen Human Nature? 

 

The Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Redemption (Fr. George Florovsky) 

 

The Theology of the Cross and the Theology of Glory - (Theologia crucis-Theologia gloriae): Part 1 of 4

The Theology of the Cross and the Theology of Glory - (Theologia crucis-Theologia gloriae): Part 2 of 4

The Theology of the Cross and the Theology of Glory - (Theologia crucis-Theologia gloriae): Part 3 of 4

The Theology of the Cross and the Theology of Glory - (Theologia crucis-Theologia gloriae): Part 4 of 4 

 

The Gospel of Resurrection 

 

And Ascended Into Heaven... (Fr. George Florovsky) 

 

Ecumenical Synods as Charismatic Events that Represented the Church 

 

Fr. George Florovsky on the Authority of the Church Fathers 

 

The First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (Fr. George Florovsky)

 

On the Veneration of the Saints (Fr. George Florovsky) 

  

Fr. George Florovsky on St. Ignatius of Antioch 

 

On Saint Polycarp and his Martyrdom (Fr. George Florovsky)

 

The Life and Works of Saint Irenaeus of Lyon (Fr. George Florovsky)

 

Athenagoras of Athens: Life, Works and Thought (Fr. George Florovsky)

 

Life, Work and Thought of Saint Athanasius of Alexandria (Fr. George Florovsky)  

 

Saint Cyril of Jerusalem: Life, Works and Thought (Fr. George Florovsky) 

 

Saint Anthony and Anchorite Monasticism (Fr. George Florovsky)

 

The "Spiritual Homilies" of Saint Makarios of Egypt (Fr. George Florovsky) 

 

The Life, Work and Thought of St. Amphilochios of Iconium 

 

Life, Works and Thought of Saint Ephraim the Syrian (Fr. George Florovsky)

 

The Theological Thought of Saint Gregory of Nyssa (Fr. George Florovsky) 

 

The Life, Works and Thought of Saint Gregory the Theologian (Fr. George Florovsky)   

The Life, Works and Thought of Saint John Chrysostom (Fr. George Florovsky)

 

St. John Chrysostom: The Prophet of Charity 

 

St. John Chrysostom On Poverty and Wealth 

 

The Life, Work and Thought of Isidore of Pelusium (Fr. George Florovsky) 

 

The Teachings of Diadochos of Photiki (Fr. George Florovsky) 

 

Saint John Climacus and his Heavenly Ladder (Fr. George Florovsky)

 

Corpus Areopagiticum (Fr. George Florovsky) 

 

Life, Writings and Theology of Saint Maximus the Confessor (Fr. George Florovsky) 

 

St. Gregory Palamas and the Tradition of the Fathers 

 

Fr. George Florovsky on St. Silouan the Athonite 

 

The Reformation and the Rejection of Monasticism 

 

The Challenge of Our Time 

 

The Hagia Sophia Churches (Fr. George Florovsky)  

 

On Nuclear Restraint and Responsibility (Fr. George Florovsky)

 

 

Book Reviews 

 

Three Scorching Reviews in One: Fr. George Florovsky Reviews Three Introductory Books on Orthodox Christianity

 

Book Review: "The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church" by Vladimir Lossky

 

Book Review: "The Orthodox Church. Its Past and Its Role in the World Today" by John Meyendorff

 

Book Review: "Eastern Christendom: A Study of the Origin and Development of the Eastern Orthodox Church" by Nicolas Zernov

Book Review: "Christology of the Later Fathers"  

 

Book Review: "The Patriarch Nicephorus of Constantinople. Ecclesiastical Policy and Image Worship in the Byzantine Empire

 

Book Review: "The Eastern Schism: A Study of the Papacy and the Eastern Churches During the XIth and XIIth Centuries" by Steven Runciman

 

Book Review: "Christian Thought from Erasmus to Berdyaev"

 

Book Review: "Nicholas Berdyaev: An Introduction to His Thought" by George Seaver

Yoga and the Christian Faith

Dr. Christine Mangala was born a Hindu, a Brahmin, the highest and priestly caste in India. She was brought up on yoga. Her grandfather, in fact, was a personal friend of one of the expounders of modern yoga and Vedanta philosophy, the well-known Swami Sivananda, who is the founder of the Divine Life Society. She became a Christian at age 22, and later converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity. She received her doctorate in English literature from Cambridge University, and has authored articles on literature and books of fiction, of which she has written several, as well as various spiritual subjects, including yoga and Christianity. She is married to Dr. David Frost, the director of the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies in Cambridge, England with whom she has four children, and she attends St. Ephraim’s Russian Orthodox Church in Cambridge, UK, England.

By Dr. Christine Mangala Frost

I was born a Hindu, became a Christian at the age of 22 and have been an Orthodox Christian for ten years. I was brought up with yoga. My grandfather was a friend of one of the founders of modern yoga, Swami Sivananda, who used to send his books on yoga to my grandfather along with a vitamin-rich sweet herbal concoction we loved to eat. As children we were encouraged to do certain postures and breathing exercises, always with a clear warning that there are different ways of breathing for men and women as their bodies are differently shaped. When I got married and had children, I passed on to them some of the ideas I had found useful from my childhood yoga lessons. We lived on top of a hill, and as the children walked daily to school (we did not have a car), they had to climb up a steep incline. At times, they would complain about how their legs hurt. I would say, without thinking for one moment how odd it might sound, "breathe through your knees." Somehow they seemed to understand what that meant and did as told, and soon found it less of an effort to climb. Later on, as they grew up, they learnt to do postures from modern western manuals and benefit from the exercises. They were brought up in a Christian home and were in no danger of being led astray by esoteric Hindu spiritual ideas, such as "self-realization", which often accompany modern yoga. On a visit to India, when they met such ideas in an ashram, they were rather repelled by them as they were by the idolatrous, cultic atmosphere that prevailed in that ashram.

I recount this chiefly to emphasize that there is more to yoga than mere exercise and that we need, more than ever, the gift of discernment when we attend yoga classes or read about it in books. We need to have a clear idea of what we are dealing with if we want to use it without compromising our Christian faith.

Yoga was once regarded with awe in India as an esoteric branch of Hindu spiritual discipline that required great physical and psychological daring. It was sought by the solitary spiritual seeker eager to ascend the higher rungs of a Hindu ideal of spiritual perfection. Such a seeker would undertake an austere regimen of physical and mental discipline strictly under the guidance of a revered master, a guru of spiritual discernment who would monitor his disciple's progress vigilantly. The ultimate goal of yoga was nothing short of experiencing the divine within oneself.

Since the nineteenth century, largely due to the relentless propaganda efforts of Hindu missionary gurus such as Swami Vivekananda, yoga has been stripped of its mystique and complexity. It has been remolded in the idiom of American schools of self-help and positive thinking and marketed as a safe and easy pathway to bliss within the grasp of all. Both in the East and West, yoga is now a household word; a highly popular keep-fit routine taught and practiced by large numbers in church or school halls and sports-venues. While some yoga teachers promote it as a mere technique for ensuring one's well-being, others advocate it as an all-purpose answer to not only the ills of modern life but to the ultimate questions of life itself. Some yoga teachers and students play down the importance of the Hindu ethos in which the psycho-spiritual jargon of yoga is anchored, others eagerly embrace that very ethos, especially those who find the creeds, rituals and demands of institutional Christianity irksome. Many Christians practice yoga untroubled by its spiritual baggage while others feel some unease, and often meet with disapproval from their priests and bishops.

As Orthodox Christians, what are we to make of modern yoga?

Is yoga safe for Christians to practice? Or, is it so counter to the Christian faith as to be shunned totally? The conundrum posed by modern yoga was brought into sharp focus by a report in The Times (Friday, 31 August, 2007) which caused a stir. "Vicars ban unchristian yoga for toddlers" so ran the headline: "A children's exercise class has been banned from two church-halls because it is teaching yoga. The group has been turned away by vicars who described yoga as a sham and unchristian." The slant given in the report seemed to suggest that the vicars were being unreasonable, bigoted and unduly alarmist. The yoga teacher Miss Woodcock is said to have been "outraged" by their ban on her "Yum-Yum Yoga class for toddlers and mums". She claims that she explained to the church that her "yoga is a completely non-religious activity." She does, however, concede that "some types of adult-yoga are based on Hindu and Buddhist meditation but it is not part of the religion and there is no dogma involved."

"Exercise", not "meditation": in saying this, this yoga teacher is drawing our attention to the two major types of yoga prevalent today: Modern Postural Yoga and Modern Meditational Yoga. Realizing that meditational yoga often takes one deep into spiritual realms and goals incompatible with Christianity, Miss Woodcock is eager to keep "exercise" apart from "meditation." Is such a defusing of yoga to make it "safe" possible?

The vicars disagree: " The philosophy of yoga cannot be separated from the practice of it, and any teacher of yoga (even to toddlers) must subscribe to the philosophy. Yoga may appear harmless or even beneficial, but it is encouraging people to think that there is a way to wholeness of body and mind through human techniques—whereas the only true way to wholeness is by faith in God through Jesus Christ."

Any reliance solely on "human techniques" for achieving wholeness divorced from faith in Jesus Christ is understandably castigated by the vicars, one an Anglican and the other, a Baptist. Their rejection stems from a fear of nullifying the role of faith and grace in salvation and of falling into the heresy of Pelagianism. Protestant tradition in general tends to be nervous of any suggestion of "spiritual effort" despite the fact that St. Paul admonishes us to "work out our salvation with diligence".

The concept of synergy

In the Orthodox tradition the role of human freewill in responding to the divine call to "wholeness" or "holiness" is beautifully encapsulated in the concept of synergy. The Incarnation of Christ as fully human and fully God means that we now have a way through Him for what St. Maximus calls divine-human "reciprocity". God becoming human makes possible our participation in His life, a lifelong process which is described as theosis (deification). Our salvation is not an automatic result of an initial assent, or a legal status of being redeemed from our "slavery" to sin but an "active perfection" in love to be realized in the body of Christ, in his Church.

Therefore baptized Christians are urged to fast, pray, give alms, repent, confess, participate in the life and liturgy of the Church; all these require an initiative on our part, a willingness to prepare ourselves to receive and respond to the grace of God. Like the Prodigal Son, remembering God, "Our Father," means setting our heart towards our journey home back to Him. There is a subtle symbiosis between human readiness or willingness and the work of the Holy Spirit. To adopt a telling image from St. Ephraim, the human person is a "harp of the Spirit." To play well the music of the Holy Spirit our harp needs to be well tuned, its strings neither too tight nor too slack. Yoga techniques are primarily aimed at achieving a psychosomatic equilibrium or poise. So we may well ask, without falling into any heresy, is it not possible to treat yoga-techniques as means "to tune up" our body and mind so that we become better receptors of God's grace? Can Hindu yoga help a Christian to fulfill the command heard by the psalmist "Be still and know that I am God?" What role, if any, can yoga postures and meditation play in fulfilling the commands of Christ : "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. . Love your neighbor as yourself." (Mathew 22: 37-39)?

The Hindu-Buddhist Ethos of Modern Yoga

Before I attempt to answer these questions I need to sketch in brief the types of yoga one encounters today and the Hindu-Buddhist ethos they are steeped in. One writer cites four types: Hollywood Yoga, Harvard Yoga, Himalayan Yoga and Cultic Yoga.[1]

1. Hollywood Yoga , as the name implies, aims at beauty, fitness and longevity.

2. Harvard Yoga sets its sights on mental clarity, concentration and psychic calm.

3. Himalayan Yoga goes way beyond the other two and aims at a mystical state known as samadhi (absorption).

4. Cultic Yoga centers round a charismatic guru. Enlightenment is said to be imparted by the mere touch of a guru to a disciple who worships him or her as God.

5. Purist Hindu practitioners claim to follow the guidelines provided in the original Sanskrit text, Patanjali's Yoga Sutras; their teaching follows the "eight-limbed" (ashtanga) yoga. Doing postural exercises is a relatively minor matter in an agenda that lays stress on mental and moral purification and a harnessing of psychic powers for spiritual perfection. The "eight-limbs" consist of :

"five restraints" (yamas)

"five disciplines" (niyamas)

"physical postures" (asanas)

"regulation of vital force" (pranayama)

"sense organ withdrawal" (pratyahara),

"concentration" (dharana),

"meditation" (dhyana)

"absorption" (samadhi).

The first two "limbs" aim at cultivating virtues such as truthfulness, selflessness and non-violence. Some Hindu teachers of yoga regret that the third, "physical postures", is now widely taught without any reference to moral perfection. They insist that the poise attained by the practice of postures is meant to set the yogi on a journey whose ultimate goal is spiritual, a state of permanent bliss known as samadhi or "absorption".

Absorption into what? This meets with different answers depending on what you believe.

If you are a Hindu who believes that there is no difference between his Self (atma) and the Supreme Self (brahman), "absorption" means arriving at an experience of undifferentiated oneness with brahman. Such a Hindu sees the ultimate spiritual reality as Impersonal and strongly contends that belief in the Impersonal is superior to any belief in a Personal God.

If you are a Hindu who worships God as a deity, a theist who cultivates a personal relationship of love with his or her god or goddess, and seeks liberation by the deity's grace, "absorption" means a drowning of self in the Godhead.

If you are a Buddhist and do not believe in a Creator-God (as the Dalai Lama reiterates often) "absorption", means entering nirvana, a "blowing out", an ultimate extinction of self.

Though the ambitious spiritual program of Patanjali's Yoga morphed into keep-fit routines in Western Yoga classes and manuals, one still meets some mutation or other of the complex, inter-dependent psycho-spiritual concepts from the original author. Underlying them all is the view derived from a system of philosophy known as samkhya. According to samkhya, our ordinary psychosomatic self is a by-product of biophysical processes and that by the disciplines of yoga, one peels oneself like an onion to reach the core where one finds "pure consciousness." As one yoga teacher explains: 'once the individual grasps that he is essentially pure consciousness different from and separate from psychophysical processes, he is disunited from his false notions. At the same time the individual is also united in his thoughts, feelings, emotions and actions to his real self.'[2]

"Pure Consciousness" or Kingdom of God?

It seems a questionable claim that a systematic severing of contact with the external world creates an integrated human being. On the contrary, as R.D. Laing has shown in his The Divided Self, embarking on a radical withdrawal from external reality may well render one schizoid. Not only does the yogic inward journey run the risk of mental illness, but the goal of such yoga raises some serious problems for a Christian. Jesus admonishes us to seek the Kingdom of God within, not "pure consciousness." When a Christian prays, "Thy Kingdom come," he is paradoxically envisaging the reign of God as an external as well as an internal happening. Even in the Christian monastic traditions, which recommend withdrawal from the world, from the objects of sensual experience, the monk is in search of an "inner kingdom" (cf. Metropolitan Kallistos' choice title for his writings). In this "inner kingdom", God the Holy Trinity, our God who has "revealed" Himself to us in Jesus Christ reigns supreme. We recognize Him and commune with Him in the power of the Holy Spirit and by the power of the same Spirit we call upon God as "Our Father." In countless parables, Jesus describes what that phrase, the "Kingdom of God" means. Among other things it stands for a "life abundant" here and hereafter; and it encompasses the whole of creation. As Patriarch Ignatius IV reminds us, 'The Kingdom of God is nothing other than the glorified Body of the risen Christ, in which each day humanity enters into communion.'[3] The Christian goal of "the Kingdom of God" is a far cry from whatever one understands by "pure consciousness."

Influential Hindu missionaries like Vivekananda and his followers deploy certain yoga techniques to promote a pop-mysticism based on the notion of "Self-realization." which has become a yoga buzz-word. The path to "Self-realization" through yoga is presented as of universal appeal, free from dogma and strictly non-denominational. However, a close scrutiny of Vivekananda's writings reveals a strong bias in favor of one specific Hindu tradition, that of the non-dualist, (advaitin) Vivekananda bowdlerized the subtle metaphysics of Hindu non-dualism (advaita) and championed its cause in the marketplace with the ardor of a philosophical imperialist. Random quotes from his writings illustrate his reckless syncretism and the audacious, often preposterous claims he made for his mode of "Self-realization."[4]

"All is my Self. Say this unceasingly. "

"Go into your own room and get the Upanishads out of your own Self. You are the greatest book that ever was or ever will be, the infinite depository of all that is."

"I am the essence of bliss. " "Follow no ideal, you are all that is. " "Christs and Buddhas are simply occasions upon which to objectify your inner powers. We really answer our own prayers. "

" We may call it Buddha, Jesus, Krishna, Jehovah, Allah, Agni, but it is only the Self, the 'I'."

"The universe is thought, and the Vedas are the words of this thought. We can create and uncreate the whole universe. "[5]

When Vivekananda realized that he needed something more than loose philosophical talk for his brand of "Self-realization," he wrote his seminal work, Raja Yoga, which is a practical manual for those seeking the so-called "Self-realization."

"Know thyself": in Yoga and Christianity

There are many reasons why the spiritual ethos underpinning modern yoga is incompatible with Christianity, chief among them being the inordinate focus on self. Self-deification, from a Christian point of view, is at the very root of evil. In Christian understanding, the very Fall of Man is a turning away from God towards a misguided, rebellious reliance on self. This rupture of communion with God results in sin and death. Commenting on the Socratic dictum, "Know Thyself," (which is also a message of modern yoga), Orthodox theologian Mantzaridis writes: 'If there exists something that man can and must seek and find within himself, it is not the self which deviated but the new man in Christ, born through baptismal grace and the other Church sacraments. Man's return to himself can only truly exalt him provided it takes place within the life in Christ.'[6] The Christian goal and the means to that goal are succinctly put by the same author in his explication of St. Gregory Palamas: 'Direct and personal knowledge of God is achieved through a mystical communion with Him. Man gains true knowledge of Him once he is visited by deifying grace and united through it with God. The more man accepts the divinizing transformation worked within him by the Holy Spirit, the more perfect and full is his knowledge of God.'[7]

St. Paul reminds us, to know God is to be known by him, that is, to be loved by Him. Love implies a relationship, a communion, not annihilation nor "absorption", least of all "self-absorption".

Christian Yoga?

Given that the spiritual ambience and goals of yoga, by and large, are incompatible with Christianity is there any way a Christian can disengage it from its Hindu ethos, use its techniques and still remain a committed Christian?

Some Christians believe that this is possible. A notable example is the Benedictine monk, Dechanet, who argues that yoga can do a great deal for Christians, well beyond improving our physical wellbeing. He believes that yoga can help us to be better Christians, provided we practice it within a framework of Christian prayer. In his book Christian Yoga Dechanet takes up the challenge of Christianizing yoga. This he does, with an acute awareness of the counter-Christian ethos of traditional yoga. He states emphatically how the two are dissimilar: 'The Christian starts from faith, and reaches a certain experience, in divine charity, of the God of Revelation, experiencing "Emmanuel", God with us, God with me. The Hindu has only empirical data to guide him and at the end of his road discovers a sublime but almost savage isolation.'[8]

Dechanet gives careful guidelines as to how one can do yoga to be a better Christian: in prayer, worship, in one's love of God and love of one's neighbour. He presents a set of yoga exercises and advice on breathing as ways of presenting ourselves to God with integrity and sincerity: 'Our whole aim is to bring calm and peace to the whole being; to make a good and faithful servant of the body; to free the soul from anxieties and problems that are all too common; and to finally to arouse the spirit.' [9]

A Critique of Dechanet

I must confess to being somewhat troubled by that last phrase, "arouse the spirit". This is the language of a Hindu yogi who believes in "arousing" dormant powers by masterful self-effort; and therefore it is not suitable to describe a Christian experience of the Spirit. Our Orthodox prayer to the Holy Spirit, "O Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth..." makes it very clear that, as fallen creatures, what we need most urgently is an infusion of new life. So we ask to be cleansed and purified by Him who is "everywhere present and fills all things." This prayer clearly positions us as supplicants seeking the Spirit's abiding presence within us.

When I started work on this essay, I decided to test out Dechanet's recommendations, and practiced some basic yoga postures during my morning prayers; and I found that with some conscious effort and concentration it was possible to synchronize my petitions, praise and thanks with the postures. It certainly curbed the level of anxiety, and I could tell myself that I was able to "consider the lilies of the field", as our Lord commanded us to do, a little better than I normally do. The breathing exercises infused a sense of wellbeing and increased my ability to deal with the turmoil of the day.

However, there was one thing that troubled me somewhat in combining yoga with prayers. I found myself much more aware of myself praying. There was a degree of self-consciousness I felt uncomfortable with: I would rather have forgotten myself while saying the words of prayer or entering silence. Instead, I seemed to be watching myself praying. I decided that the sense of well being I had experienced was genuine enough but it was the result of the exercises, which were clearly beneficial. I decided to revert to my old habit of keeping the exercises separate from prayers.

My conclusion:

1. Incompatibility.

Christians undertaking yoga should be fully aware that its Hindu-Buddhist spiritual ethos is incompatible with the Christian faith. For example: even the Dalai Lama's commendable guidelines on cultivating compassion focus on "self-effort," for he frankly admits that he does not believe in a Creator God. For a Christian, love of one's neighbour (compassion) is inseparable from love of God, and, both are kindled in the human heart by the Holy Spirit.

If a yoga teacher introduces concepts and goals incompatible with being a Christian, one needs to resist them. For this one needs to have a good and clear grasp of what it means to be a Christian. If you are well grounded in Christian thinking, prayer and Christian living, it should be possible, by the grace of God to take what is good in yoga and discard its alien ethos. Attempts to Christianize yoga are commendable but may prove distracting.

2. Yoga to keep fit

It is perfectly feasible to use yoga as a keep-fit routine to tune the body, and make it a fit instrument for Christian prayer. We should be grateful that the modern teachers of yoga have reduced it to a gentle form of exercise.

[Editors Note: Even though the respectable author of the article regards that Yoga can be used purely for exercising, there are nevertheless other Orthodox students and authors who disagree and believe that even in such a case, it can still create problems in a person. Further down, you will see that even "Gurus" assert that Yoga has negative side effects on the body. On the basis of this and everything else that you will read further along, we would recommend that the reader resort to other kinds of physical exercise... after all, there are several other kinds, which do not have religious roots.]

3. Caution

I would, however, sound a note of caution. It is important to make sure that you are in normal health before you undertake postural yoga. A medical check-up is a good idea. For example, if you have blood-pressure problems certain postures should be avoided. Some postures stimulate the thyroid, and if you have any problems relating to that gland, again, you need to be careful. Some difficult postures like the headstand should be done only for short spells. One Indian guru, who rejects yoga, mocks its claim to enlightenment with the remark that too many headstands damage the finer blood vessels in the brain, even cause partial brain damage, and the consequent stupor is hailed by some Hindus as a state of enlightenment!

Even greater caution is necessary with what is taught as "meditation." Some advanced forms of meditation-exercises change one's brain rhythms and lead to a sense of euphoria, which can be addictive. As with other addictions, when the effect wears off, one may end up in depression.

4. Psychic Danger

Breathing techniques aimed at rousing what is called kundalini, dormant sexual energy, which is sublimated into spiritual energy, are particularly dangerous, as they expose one to psychic forces beyond one's control. Here it is well to remember Jesus' parable about the unclean spirit (Matthew 12: 43-45). A purified, heightened consciousness without the presence of God is a dangerous state to be in.

5. Mantras and Jesus Prayer

Some yoga teachers encourage chanting of mantras as a means of eliminating disturbance. Mantras are abbreviated invocation of Hindu deities; a mantra's sound vibrations are said to activate unexplored levels of consciousness. Christians need no such mantras. Rather than enter unknown and potentially dangerous psychic realms through such chanting, we can stabilize ourselves by saying the Jesus Prayer. We have in the Jesus Prayer the most perfect invocation of the Divine Name, which we are called to "hallow," that is hold holy. Moreover, our cry is grounded in a sober awareness of our own spiritual poverty as sin-prone creatures; hence, like the blind beggar we say, "Lord Jesus, Have mercy!"

Vocal or silent repetition of the name of Jesus acts like a mantra yet the Jesus Prayer is not a mantra. The Jesus prayer, unlike a mantra, contains in a nutshell the basics of the Christian faith. Unlike a mantra, which works more like self-hypnotism, the Jesus prayer marks a movement to and from God as it embodies a relationship in faith and love. Unlike Hindu mantras, whose ambit is what Christians would see as the "old Adam", the ultimate aim of the Jesus Prayer is, to quote St. Paul ,"to put on the new man." In the writings of the Desert Fathers, of St. John of Damascus, especially in the hesychast tradition so soundly defended by St. Gregory Palamas, and in the works of modern commentators like Bishop Brianchaninov, Metropolitan Kallistos, monk Porphyrios, we have invaluable guidelines for the practice of the Jesus Prayer. As Bishop Brianchaninov puts it, "In the name of the Lord Jesus quickening is given to the soul deadened by sin. The Lord Jesus Christ is life. And His name is living; it revives and quickens those who cry by it to the source of life.'[10]

Having sounded these warnings, I still believe that a modest yoga regimen can help us to stay supple in body and mind, spiritually alert and vigilant and ultimately live a Christian life with greater zest and joy. We can take our cue from the early Church Fathers. The Cappadocian Fathers were trained in pagan schools of rhetoric and logic but discarded the pagan ethos and deployed the techniques of their learning to brilliant effect in their Christian spiritual theology. Similarly, we too can deal with yoga without being swamped or led astray by its alien ethos, provided we entrust ourselves to Christ our Lord, and our God.

NOTES

[1] Ashok Kumar Malhotra, An Introduction to Yoga Philosophy: an annotated translation of the Yoga Sutras, Ashgate, Aldershot, 2001, p. 15

[2] Ibid., p.4

[3] Ignatius IV, Patriarch of Antioch, The Resurrection and the Modern Man, translated by Stephen Bingham, St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, New York 1985, p. 71

[4] For a informative and penetrating analysis of the hybrid origins of modern yoga see, Elizabeth DeMichelis, A History of Modern Yoga: Patanjali and Western Esotericism Continuum , London, 2004.

[5] All these quotations from Vivekananda's Complete Works cited above are from DeMichelis, A History of Modern Yoga, pages 121-122.

[6] George I Mantzaridis, The Deification of Man: St. Gregory Palamas and the Orthodox Tradition, translated by Laidain Sherrard, St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, New York, 1984. pp 82-83. Italics mine.

[7] Ibid.,p.114

[8] Dechanet, Christian Yoga, London, Burns & Oates, 1956,1964, p.121

[9] Ibid., p.85.

[10] On the Prayer of Jesus, translated by Father Lazarus, London: John M. Watkins, 1965, p.27.

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