What is the purpose of life.?!.Father Andrew Philip.

Saint John the Baptist.
Constantinople, Turkey,
 circa 1300.

Throughout the ages at various times in their lives people in every generation have asked the questions: "What is the purpose of life? What is the point of life?".

Ancient, primitive people, obeying animal instincts, decided that the purpose of life is to multiply, to reproduce, to have as many offspring as possible, simply in order to ensure the survival of the race.

We can see this near the beginning of the Old Testament when Abraham was told “to go forth and multiply”. Gradually, however, as revelation came upon revelation to the chosen people of God in the Old Testament, this command was refined. It was revealed that people were to multiply for a reason other than survival. Barrenness was a stigma, not only because through it men and women failed to ensure survival, but also because it was revealed that somewhere one woman was called to give birth to the Messiah. The Messiah meant the Savior. Thus children were born to various devout and often aged couples, to Adam and Eve, to Abraham and Sarah, to Jacob and Rachel. Thus sons like Abel and Joseph or Joshua and Samuel and many others all in some sense prefigured the Messiah.

Have we found paradise?.Archimandrite Aimilianos Simonopetra.

On Thursday, May 9, Archimandrite Aimilianos, the former Hegumen of Simonopetra Monastery, and spiritual father of many monks, nuns and lay people, reposed in the Lord, at the Monastery of the Annunciation in Ormylia (Chalkidiki) at the age of 85, after a long illness. Memory Eternal!.

“the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Delight to cultivate and keep it” (Gen 2.15).

Archimandrite Aimilianos
 Simonopetra.

 Those plants were like a robe of divine beauty, forming a natural world, a natural expression, of God's majestic holiness. The nat­ural world was a reflection of God's grandeur, and through nature God was visible to the eyes of our first ancestors. In tending the garden they were attending to the glory and majesty of God, care­fully tilling and cultivating the living things around them.

In the first place, then, comes work. We can never experience God without work. People who don't work bard and succeed at their earthly labors are not likely to find much Success in their spir­itual lives. We have to work.

After placing Adam and Eve in the garden, God said to them: “you may eat of any of the trees in paradise” (Gen 2.16). Don't be sur­prised by this. Eating is also a spiritual task, because paradise is a place that relates both to the senses of the body and to those of the intellect. Adam communed with God by means of the fruit of the trees, which was a figure of the food of heaven, about which Christ says: Take, eat, and drink (Mt 26.26-27). By eating of the food of the garden, Adam wasn't merely nourishing his body, but also his soul. It was a way for him to participate in God. And thus when we hear the words: Take, eat, drink, we hear the voice of God calling us to the communion of paradise. But whereas Adam's food was the fruit of the garden, we eat of the bread which came down from heaven (Tn 6.32-35).

Miracles of Saint Seraphim of Sarov.

*A story recorded by doctor S.Apraxin.

 On March 8, 1903, I was invited to Andrew Vasilievitch Vinokurov’s house. After a talk about his own illness, I was asked by the parents to see their daughter, a thirteen-year-old girl. They told me that just before Christmas, Manya, who was a pupil in a college, became ill with acute arthritis. This illness was soon complicated by chorea (an involuntary movement disorder) in its worst stage, so that the patient could neither sit, on account of a motor trouble of the tongue. She could only lie down while her body kept tossing from one side to the other on her bed.

Saint Serphim of Sarov.

After some time, this serious illness was aggravated by a still graver one-namely, endocarditic." Besides the twitching of the limbs caused by chorea, the girl began to have fits of convulsions at night. The neu­ropathologists who treated her pronounced her case very serious and warned the parents to be ready for anything. After five weeks of un­successful treatment, the parents of the girl, on the advice of a relative had recourse to God's help through His Saint, Seraphim of Sarov.

“Suffer little children to come unto me” (Mt19: 14).Father Thomas Hopko.

           

 

Father Thomas Hopko.

Father Thomas John Hopko (March 28, 1939 – March 18, 2015) was an Eastern Orthodox Christian priest and theologian. He was the Dean of Saint Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary from September 1992 until July 1, 2002 and taught dogmatic theology there from 1968 until 2002. In retirement, he carried the honorary title of Dean Emeritus.

In addition to the intellectual and informational aspects of preparing children for liturgical and Eucharistic worship, there are spiritual and moral aspects as well. This part of the preparation, at least in the beginning with small children, has to do with external behavior. To participate fruitfully in Eucharistic worship a certain external and formal discipline must be observed so that the deeper, internal spiritual experi­ences may take place. This means that children must learn how to stand in church, how to pay attention, how not to bother others, etc. It also means that they must be trained in certain ascetical exercises in preparation for Holy Communion, as they are able, according to their age and maturity. These "ascetical exercises" include such things as praying personally and fasting as one can; dressing in a manner proper to litur­gical celebration with others, particularly adults; confessing one's sins in a formal sacramental manner when the time comes when this is possible and necessary; asking forgiveness for one's sins and faults; making acts of reparation and recon­ciliation, etc. The spiritual life the practitioner first learns the letter of the law before he or she can enter into the glorious liberty of gracious communion with the Lord. This biblical principle certainly applies to the preparation of chil­dren (and adults) for Eucharistic worship.