A Christian perspective.Saint Sophrony the Athonite.

  

Saint Sophrony the Athonite.

What a misfortune to live in such unstable times. Millions and millions of people suffer all their lives. The whole history of mankind is a nightmare of ceaseless fratricidal wars. And up to this time this humanity remains - forgive the expression - as savage and bloodthirsty, as violent and criminal, as ever. The holy words "the meek [ ... ] shall inherit the earth", will undoubtedly come true at some as yet undefined moment, but thus far it is horror upon horror. This horror has grown in our time, because at each moment all the earth knows about more or less every event, and the events are for the majority gloomy and criminal. But let's hope against all hope that our meeting will take place, now that we are at the end of our sojourn here [on earth]. 

I can tell that your meeting with M. was both joyous and important for all of you. Of course she knew that you are living in poverty, and from that point of view she was not ex­pecting anything. The main thing is the peaceful communion, in love and confidence, between open souls. For our times that is a great thing. As long ago as the thirties Berdyaev was saying that to the degree that the social system is being im­proved, personal communication between people becomes more and more rare, and therefore more precious."Almost everywhere communication takes place on a political footing, or a business footing (for trade, industry, and suchlike), and more rarely on a basis of common spiritual interests, and even more rarely, simply as communion between one person and another.

"Come, Lord Jesus".!..Archimandrite Zacharia Zacharou.

 

"In the midst of the feast, give my thirsty soul to drink of the waters of godliness. For Thou didst cry unto all O Savior: If any man thirsts, let him come to Me and drink! O Christ our God, wellspring of life, glory be to Thee".

 

"If any man thirsts, let him come to Me and drink"

The troparion of Mid-Pentecost renders the meaning of this period beautifully. It perfectly expresses the anguish and longing of the soul, who even when she is attacked from every side by the despondency waging war against the children of this age, turns with all her strength towards the Lord, seeking His mighty help, and the only thing that she desires is the gift of the Holy Spirit, so to be able to hymn the Lord worthily.

“Find a way to save the world”.Saint Sophrony The Athonite.

         

Saint Sophrony with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Orthodox monastery of all Celtics Saints. England.

What I want to write of now happened over half a century ago. It was a period of strain. Much - practically everything - was a puzzle to me. And life is so short! And God so immeasurably great and far off! Who will show me the straight way to Him, prevent me from wasting time on alien paths? Of course I sought such a guide, or guides - preceptors who might help me. But the fact that I was caught up by a hitherto-unknown force in the form of prayer which stayed with me day and night naturally made prayer my constant prop. And there were times when prayer, so I believe, brought enlightenment from God.

Unable to glimpse the divine truth in the destinies of mankind, of people in general, and tormented by my own dark ignorance, I was like a small, utterly helpless child. Feeling that there was something that I had to understand, I writhed impatiently and looked to God for help. And the Lord took pity on my ignorance and was not angry at my temerity but like a mother had compassion on me and was quick to respond. And this not once but over and over again. In like manner He had handled Job who suffered so much and protested so stormily.

I remember one such happening, which occurred in France, in the early twenties - before my departure to Mt. Athos in 1925. I wept and prayed to God: “Find a way to save the world - to save all of us, we are all defiled and cruel.” I would pray with particular fervor for the “little ones”, the poor and oppressed. Towards morning, with my strength waning, my prayer would be disturbed by the thought that if I grieve for mankind with all my heart, how is it that God can look on indifferently at the pain and torment of millions of beings whom He Himself had created? Why does He allow the innumerable instances of brute force in the world? And I would turn to Him with the insane challenge, “Where art Thou?” And in my heart I heard: “Was it you who was crucified for them?”… The gentle words uttered by the Spirit shook me to the core - He Who was crucified had answered me as God.

Experiences of Divine Light.Father George Calciu.

Father George Calciu.

Gheorghe Calciu-Dumitreasa (1925-2006) was a Romanian priest and dissident. He served 21 years in prison during the Communist regime. He was first imprisoned in 1948, but claimed his 1978 imprisonment was harsher. He had criticized Nicolae Ceausescu’s repressions and became seen as an "enemy of the state". Reportedly he suffered beatings and harassment in prison. He was released from prison due in part to pressure from supporters such as U.S. president Ronald Reagan. He spent years in exile in Virginia and ultimately settled there permanently. In the mid-1980s he preached on the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe.

After being defrocked by the Romanian Orthodox Church, Calciu-Dumitreasa became a priest of the Orthodox Church in America, which never recognised his defrocking. In 1989 he took charge of the Holy Cross Romanian Orthodox Church at Alexandria, Virginia. In his last years he revisited his native land several times and met some of those whom he had influenced. He remained critical of certain Romanian Orthodox bishops to his last day, claiming they were former Securitate secret police infiltrators.

Calciu-Dumitreasa died of pancreatic cancer on November 21, 2006 at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Woodburn, Fairfax County. He was survived by his wife of over 40 years, Adriana, and their son, Andrei. He was interred at the Petru Vodă Monastery in Poiana Teiului Commune, Neamţ County, Romania.

 

 

 I will tell you of my experience. Before I was arrested, I always liked the monasteries. So every time I had the possibility to go to a monastery, I was there. Very near to Bucharest is a very important monastery called Cernica. The prayer of the heart to Jesus Christ was taken by George, a disciple of Paisius Velichkovsky, and brought to Cernica. From then until now-nearly two centuries-in Cernica every monk performs this prayer. Even during the persecution by Ceausescu, nothing could stop them from praying, nothing could make them unworthy to see the true Light, the Uncreated Light.

One Sunday I was there in the church of Cernica, officiating at the Holy Liturgy with some monks. At the beginning of the Liturgy Fr. Benedict Ghius (1904- 1990) was there, a very spiritual monk. He had been the spiritual leader (not the organizer) in the Antim Monastery of the Burning Bush, which was a group dedicated to prayer, formed by monks for the sake of the most important intellectuals in Bucharest during the Communist regime. People from the Burning Bush were arrested until the group was exterminated, and many of them died in prison. Fr. Ghius was arrested, too, but he was set free at the same time I was1965. And he gave up everything and entered the Cernica Monastery, where he practiced the Prayer of Jesus. He was perhaps the most loved by God. I never saw him sad or angry.

I was in deep pain. It was wonderful!.Saint Porphyrios of Kafsokalivia.

Saint Porphyrios of Kafsokalivia.

Saint Porphyrios always gave prominence to sickness of soul, regardless of whether the physical illness was seri­ous or not. Many sick visitors insisted that he only pray for the cure of their physical sicknesses. They could not bear them. They thought that if their bodily illness spread it would shake their faith in Christ and would finally lead them to be sick in soul. According to the Saint, exactly the opposite took place, "The sickness of the soul, that they were oblivious to, i.e. sin, blinded their eyes and they could not see the higher educational meaning of their physical sickness. A sickness that was allowed by God's love. The Saint knew that if he only prayed for the cure of their body he wouldn't help them, because in essence they would be incurable. He always tried to link the healing of their bodies with the healing of their souls.

At a religious gathering a Christian psychiatrist was heard to say, "As a psychiatrist I am not a healer of the human soul, but of the nervous system." He was actually speaking literally, because someone who has psychiatric illness, in the literal sense of the term, is the unrepentant sinner. The soul is only ever sick when it sins without repenting. The only true doctor of the soul is Christ. Also, through the Grace of Christ the saint, knowing the soul, has acquired self-knowledge and knowledge of others. How can a person who is not a saint, a person with pas­sions, who is ignorant of the soul, both his own and that of others, be a doctor of souls? Christ, and, by Christ's Grace, the saint, can do the easier thing that is healing the body, insofar as they can do the more difficult thing, that is, heal the soul. This occurs when the former helps the later.

Heavenly justice is nailed on the Cross.Saint Sophrony the Athonite.

           

Saint Sophrony the Athonite.

Yesterday our Abbot said to a certain visitor that for us monks theology is life; life without "external expression" of words; life in silence and internal self-concentration. If it is so, then it is always difficult to find the words to speak about the way of Christ which leads to salvation; the way through which one is led to the Heavenly Father.

                Yesterday, in this small church of St. Silouan, we lived a foretaste of heavenly life. It was, if you like, a triumph of our faith. And perhaps for this reason precisely, we must remember today that, according to the word of Christ, our way is to carry our cross and follow Him to Golgotha.

          In the mind and heart of many people there is a thirst for justice and truth. I opened thus, by chance a booklet with the title Hope, which circulated in the form of a pamphlet during the persecution in Russia. A certain Abbess writes there about those who follow a single aim, that if they were to see justice practiced on earth, they would never come to know what Divine justice is.

          You will hear this translated from Russian: "The man who does not seek anything but righteous judgment or human justice will soon find the end of his way; whereas the widening of the soul in order to grasp and to know the justice of God has no end; just as the Lord, Who is the aim of this lifting of the soul, has no end. If man acts according to human justice, it means that he does not recognize heavenly justice, because there is a difference between them. On earth, Divine justice is nailed on the cross."[1]...

Sunday of Forgiveness.Saint Sophrony the Athonite.

Saint Sophrony the Athonite.

We must say a few words about Sunday of Forgiveness. This day, when we sincerely ask forgiveness from one another, is extremely important. When forgiveness is granted from both sides, the soul then feels free and full of peace. Of course this state of freedom and peace exceedingly softens Lent. Prepare yourselves beforehand then, so that you may toss away from your heart and mind every trace of a negative stance against our brother.

          Already from the beginning of Lent we shall chant about Adam who was chased out of Paradise, and this is important. According to historical order, we shall also later remember the fall of Adam into sin and Christ's decision to blot out the curse. In this ingenious composition of the entire cycle of services, in this amalgamation of theology, prayer and doctrine, which is presented in the books of Great Lent, is written down the entire Tradition. To everything however has been given the form of prayer, so that theology can become the content of all our prayers.

          Forgive me. I have spoken now about the details of our life. Our principle aim I stated in my will. I ask you please to forget my nothingness and to keep that will. I said there that is not about something easy. Nevertheless, each time in such days, as the coming Sunday of Forgiveness, we shall realize this practice and forget all the wounds which were inflicted on us during our life! And when we forgive, from our heart all our brethren, for everything which has piled up in our full of toil, misunderstandings, sorrows, deprivations daily life, then all these are cast off, and our spirit is redeemed and obtains the liberty of the forgiven man, the redeemed from all the consequences of sin and inspired with new hope.

          We should not be surprised that misunderstandings in our life occur, especially during the period of Great Lent. We should however learn to overcome these difficulties, in order to fulfill the law of Christ Who said: "Forgive if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father Who is in Heaven may forgive you your trespasses"[1]. Through the same act, forgiving the sins of our brother, we enter the process of salvation of the entire mankind. Every time temptations or some difficulty appear- because it is impossible to avoid frictions, the consequences of the shortcomings of our flesh-, we must without fail overcome these, and in this will show wisdom.

O my merciful Redeemer!. Metropolitan Kallistos Ware.

Metropolitan Kallistos Ware.

As soon as we make a serious attempt to pray in spirit and in truth, at once we become acutely conscious of our interior disintegration, of our lack of unity and wholeness. In spite of all our efforts to stand before God, thoughts continue to move restlessly and aimlessly through our head, like the buzzing of files (Bishop Theophan) or the capricious leaping of monkeys from branch to branch (Ramakrishna). To contemplate means, first of all, to be present where one is - to be here and now. But usually we find ourselves unable to restrain our mind from wandering at random over time and space.

We recall the past, we anticipate the future, we plan what to do next; people and places come before us in unending succession. We lack the power to gather ourselves into the one place where we should be - here, in the presence of God; we are unable to live fully in the only moment of time that truly exists, now, the immediate present. This interior disintegration is one of the tragic consequences of the Fall. The people who get things done, it has been justly observed, are the people who do one thing at a time. But to do one thing at a time is no mean achievement. While difficult enough in external work, it is harder still in the work of inner prayer.

What is to be done? How shall we learn to live in the present, in the eternal Now? how can we seize the kairos(time), the decisive moment, the moment of opportunity? It is precisely at this point that the Jesus Prayer can help. The repeated Invocation of the Name can bring us, by God's grace, from dividedness to unity, from dispersion and multiplicity to singleness. “To stop the continual jostling of your thoughts,” says Bishop Theophan, “you must bind the mind with one thought, or the thought of One only”.

"I am Yours, save me".(Ps: 118: 94)Saint Sophrony the Athonite.

Saint Sophrony with his spiritual father
Saint Silouan the Athonite.

Blessed be this hour which our good Lord grants us. In peace and calm we can speak about various aspects of our long journey.

          How wondrous is this way! It is beyond our mind. Our spirit is unable to follow the "example" of Christ[1], our God, Who brought down to earth the fire of the Father's love[2].

          Today I will refer to the subject of repentance and filial adoption. Despite the fact that these states in their perfect form are beyond every human description, we, in our foolishness, will speak in the measure of our capacities about these things, which are infinitely and inexplicably great and sublime.

          How many times have we repeated that we begin our journey from the small step of repentance... The end however of this way, according to our understanding, is the deification of man. When we dare speak about these matters, many faint-hearted persons become troubled and annoyed. O, if only they knew with what fear is filled our soul, lest we be mistaken in any of our words, when we refer to the most Holy of all and everything, Father's love!

          How can we however approach this subject? Leaving behind for the time-being some details, we will speak about the most essential.

God’s Distancing From Our Times.Saint Sophrony The Athonite.

         

Saint Sophrony the Athonite.

It is impossible for us to explain every time to new faces that these gatherings are for us a feast.

          Our wish is to live with the Holy Spirit: to live where His Name is called upon. When we come into contact with the Word of God, we cannot of course avoid the fear but neither the joy. How many times have we said, and we will repeat it, that every day and every season and every hour we try to live on holy ground, and this ground is the Church.

        Through what is the Church sanctified.?!.

       Through our effort, struggling not to grieve the Holy Spirit, in trying to grasp every one of His words. These words are written in our hearts: "Christians should speak always from what is given to them by the Spirit and not to philosophize".  If you examine how the Church and the crowds of people reacted to the preaching of the holy Apostles, you would undoubtedly wish to keep that joy and compassionate love for the world.

          Why do I speak with fear about the Word of God.?!.

          Because the Gospel begins with the words: "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God"[1]. Those who have the ability of discerning the spiritual state of a person, will confirm, according with the prologue of the Gospel of St. John, that man does not speak thus. It is therefore useless to seek in philosophical works - as some have tried- the origin of this statement of St. John the Theologian.

          Even the most brilliant of men would not be able to speak thus. The meaning of these words is not revealed through human interpretations, but with the perception of the life enclosed in them.

Persecution and monasticism preparation for sanctity.Saint Sophrony(Sakharov)

Archimandrite Thomas, Saint Sophrony, Mother Mariam,
contemplating the icon of the Mother of God.

  

Fr. Sophrony:

          As always, I come to our synaxes without preparation. My preparation rests on the prayer which you have just chanted: that the Spirit may come and vivify our heart and mind. And once again I rejoice that I am living this moment of our meeting together...

          We are living in an exceptionally important time. Two or three years ago a team of theologians from Serbia visited us. These young Serbian theologians asked me what I thought about the future. Here in our country (England), no one knew at that time the word "perestroika", which all the world today knows. I answered them that I am not a prophet, but my prayer tells me that humanity is living in a tragic tension, which surpasses the capacities of whichever State leader. Thus, if destruction through a nuclear war does not come in the near future, there will occur an inevitable revival of Christianity. And behold, a little while later, we began to hear talk on "perestroika" (= reconstruction- reformation), so that the Orthodox Church in Russia is now undergoing a period of revival.

          As Christ said that through the Providence of our Creator and Father even the hairs of our head are numbered[1], it is obvious that through the same Providence also Russia was preserved throughout this entire period of seventy years. The Word of God entered total kenosis, when He said to the Father, on the Cross : "Why have You forsaken me?"[2]The Apostle Paul tells us that God did not answer His Son who was dying saying, "Father, into Your hands I commit  my spirit"[3]. And precisely from that moment of His death, Christ began to be known not as a Prophet, no matter how great He was, but as God Himself.

          What the Church of Russia lived throughout the period of the seventy years, was allowed by Divine Providence, even though from a human point of view these years were an exceptionally tragic period. The slaughter of Christians was allowed by the Providence of God, at a time when the voices and innumerable prayers of the faithful remained unanswered from the part of the Heavenly Father. Knowing very many texts of prisoners, exiles etc., we can see there the repetition of all that occurred during the first centuries of Christianity. Thus, was granted in our times an exceptionally grand privilege: the privilege not only to believe in God, but also to suffer with Him[4]. In other words, these events, which seem to us terrible and which urged in us tearful prayer for them and for the whole of mankind, permitted a harvest of thousands and thousands of great saints.

Orthodoxy and Salvation.Father James Bernstein.

Father James Bernstein.

Father James Bernstein: Raised in Queens, New York by formerly Orthodox Jewish parents whose faith had been undermined by the Holocaust, Arnold Bernstein went on his own personal quest for spiritual meaning. He was ready to accept God in whatever form He chose to reveal Himself and that form turned out to be Christ. But Bernstein soon perceived discrepancies in the various forms of Protestant belief that surrounded him, and so his quest continued -- this time for the true Church.  In 1981 he and his family were received into the canonical Orthodox Christian Church in America. In 1997 Father James was made Dean of the Pacific Northwest Deanery of the Antiochian Archdiocese, and in 1999 was elevated to the rank of archpriest. In 2017 Fr. James retired as pastor of St. Paul and became priest Emeritus.

Orthodoxy introduces us to a whole spectrum of terminology that spoke of salvation in a non-juridical manner. The Orthodox understand that in Christ's death and Resurrection we are united with Him, not in a legal, positional, or virtual sense, but in a very real, literal sense. This is possible because in the Incarnation, Christ took upon Himself our human nature and united it to His Person. In His Passion, death, Resurrection, and Ascension, the common human nature He shares with us is now glorified.

The Scripture uses imagery that reinforces this concept of organic participation and unity with Christ in His human nature. For example, unity with Christ is presented as being like that between parts of a body. St. Paul often speaks about salvation as being included within the Body of Christ.

Who is Jesus?!.Father Anthony Coniaris.

"Jesus Pantocrator".

 Church of Saint John the Baptist.

 Douma, Lebanon. XVII century.

Who is this Jesus who says, "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30) and "He who has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:19)?!.

Who is this who says that before Abraham was born, He was living: "Before Abraham was I am" (John 8:58)?!.

Who is this Who claims that all the Old Testament prophe­cies concerning the Messiah were fulfilled in Him?!.

Who is this of Whom His enemies said, "No man ever spoke as this man"?

Who is this Who assumes the awful authority of pronounc­ing final judgment on men (Matt. 7:21-23)?!.

Who is this who equates His voice with the voice of God that spoke in the Old Testament: "You have heard that it was said to the men of old: “You shall not kill”... But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother is liable to judgment" (Matt. 5:21-23)?!.

Who is this who said not "I'll show you or teach you or lead you to the way, the truth and the life", but "I am the way, the truth and the life"?!.

The “Master of Eloquence and silence” between the Silence of Man and the silence of God.

Pastoral Letter of Metropolitan Silouan of Byblos, Botrys and dependencies on the 6th Anniversary of the Kidnapping of His Eminence Metropolitan Paul of Aleppo April 22, 2013-2019

 “God finished on the seventh day His work, which He had done:

and He rested on the seventh day of all His work, which He had made”
(Genesis 2:2)

       

Metropolitan Silouan (Musi).

“Metropolitan Paul of Aleppo is on an ecclesiastical mission.” This is an expression that occurred to me in the first days after Monday, April 22, 2013 (the day he was kidnapped), an expression that opened a window through which I have tried to explore the mystery of that great day, a day of God's work in the history of humanity.

Arriving at the threshold of the seventh year of this invisible “ecclesiastical mission,” we notice that infertility and drying up are encircling us; the infertility of hope and the drying up of inspiration. Consequently, you believe that time is uprooting hope from you, while you have no inspiration regarding how to defend the work of God within us and in us. In that case, how can you possibly defend your hope and your faith, and what may you say regarding this matter? An answer comes to you: “Keep silence!” But how could you manage, with silence, to defend your hope and your faith in this “ecclesiastical mission?”

The Winter Is Now Past.Saint Gregory of Nyssa.

"My beloved calls to me, “Arise, my darling. Come away with me, my beautiful one. For now the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. The flowers have appeared in the countryside; the season of singing has come, and the cooing of turtledoves is heard in our land"(Cant2: 10-12).…

And the flowers beamed

 in the countryside...

The Word has spoken to the bride, calling her my love because she is close to Him, and my dove because she is beautiful. He now goes on to say that the sadness of winter no longer dominates our souls. For the cold cannot resist the rays of the sun. Behold, He says, winter is now past, the rain is over and gone (Cant. 2.II).

Sin is given many different names in accordance with its different effects. It is called winter, rain, drops-each name suggesting a different sort of temptation. In wintertime everything that is lovely withers away. All the leaves, which are the natural crown of the beauty of the trees, fall from the branches and are mingled with earth. The song of the birds is silent, the nightingale flies away, the swallow sleeps, and the dove leaves its nest.

Everything imitates the oppression of death. The blossom perishes; the grass dies; the branches are stripped of their leaves like bones of their flesh, and what was once lovely flower and leaf is now an ugly spectacle.

Faith, Hope, and Love.Saint Tikhon Zadonsk.

Saint Tikhon Zadonsk.

Man is more beautiful than any other creature since he is in the image of God. Through the in­carnation he is justified and is no more under wrath. He has become a member of the body of which the heavenly head is Jesus Christ. He mysteriously par­takes of the life-giving Body and divine Blood. He is made worthy to become the habitation of God and the temple of the Holy Ghost. He is in communion with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. Through faith in Jesus he becomes a son, an heir, a co-heir with Christ. Read the Acts of the Apostles and you will see that all these titles are ascribed to man by the Holy Ghost. ... And what will it be in the future life, according to the unfailing promise of God! What goodness, bliss, honor and glory! The unin­terrupted flow of eternal blessedness will be like a river, incomprehensible to the present mind and in­expressible by the tongue, the blessedness which "eye hath not seen" spoken of in (1 Cor. 2. 9). The children of God will shine like the sun in the kingdom of the heavenly Father; they will be as angels, like other gods. Glory be to the Trinity for having so honored and magnified our kind !

The soul cannot live without grace. Grace and faith are the necessary conditions for the soul which strives to restore its innate nobility. "Our own strivings are power­less",read Psalm 118.

Grace is the food and clothing of the saints. It wakens grief in a man's heart, making him dissatis­fied and moving him to seek the reason of this dis­satisfaction. Grace gives sorrow and grace comforts; showing us the poverty of all things, it engenders in us a repentant sorrow for having fallen short of the love of God. . . . One who is possessed by such sorrow will always grieve, for he thinks of God's offended love and not of the fear of hell. It is a grief of love.

This state, approaching what might be called perfect con­trition, is propitious to the growing longing after God; through grace, the love of God is increased in the heart, and the soul "desires nothing more than it desires God." Hu­mility, prayer, thanksgiving, assurance of divine mercy are gifts of grace."

Faith is a spiritual gift; it enters the heart. It comes down from heaven and the heart of man is caught up to things celestial.... Faith is the com­forting perception of the gospels produced in the heart by the Holy Ghost. It purifies the heart, endows it with joy and freedom, that gift of the Son.

Faith is intimately linked with hope, for "we hope in the One in whom we believe"; moreover, faith calls forth love for Christ, which leads to pity for all, love for all and-true fruit of true faith-acts of justice and sympathy.

Alone faith in the Son of God who died for us and rose again justifies us without regard to our works, nevertheless this faith cannot be idle but engenders love as its concomitant. Faith, this divine spark, is kindled in us and bursts into flame with the help of God through the reading of and listening to the word of God, through meditation on the acts of God in the past, through prayer, through the partaking of the holy mysteries and, like a good tree, it reveals itself externally by sweet fruit of love.

Faith is not an emotion divorced from the logical powers of the mind. The creed is a matter of thought and conviction as well as of deep re­ligious emotion produced by response to its historical and spiritual assertions. He never protested against the intellect, but only against the deadly theoretical knowledge of right dogma divorced from its expression in Christian life.

True faith is the keeping and confession of right dogma, that is to say, it consists in true faith in Jesus Christ the Son of God: for knowledge of beliefs is one thing and real faith in Christ is quite another. The first often makes one haughty, arrogant, and fruit­less. Hence, many who possess a right knowledge of dogma live lawless lives; many even preach on faith, and teach and exhort others, but themselves do not move forward, as though they were mere signposts on the road. True faith in Christ is humble, patient, merciful, and full of loving-kindness.

A traditional image best expresses it: faith is the root from which a Christian grows; good works of faith are its leaves and fruits and the more fruit there is, the lower do the branches bend, as true symbols of humility.

It is always good to enquire into one's faith, especially at the present time when there are so many phantasies. Believe, together with the whole Church, what has been revealed by the word of God.

Faith is inseparable from the other theological virtues. In the trinity of the acts of man's mind, heart and will, lies his total response to the perfection of divine love. And with the support of abundant references from the New Testament: "All Christianity and all Christian duty consists in faith, hope and love."

Lord Jesus, the tree of life.

The person of Christ should be everything for us, our estimation. The main obstacle to faith and spiritual growth is estrangement from the Christ of the Bible. It is our only enemy, the Devil who sows doubt, disbelief, and despair of the goodness of God" in people's minds particularly in the mind of a monk or of a man who is making spiritual progress. The Devil strives to tear the Church by schisms, by slan­derous reports on righteous persons and, above all, by blur­ring the image of Christ in people's memory. It is the Devil who turns our eyes away from the suffering of Christ in order to prevent, or at least to endanger, out salvation.

Yet the essential freedom of man remains-that freedom so much in connection with the spiritual combat. It is on account of this freedom that man can respond to divine love, to the sacrifice of Christ, and to the whole problem of the future life and salvation. The atonement has achieved the organic regeneration of man's fallen nature. But salvation has both its divine and its human side: God's love requires man's free response. "Are then all saved?. Salvation is offered to all," but those who reject Christ, or false Christians, deliberately cut themselves away from saving grace, from the fruit of the incarnation-for Christ wishes to save all (1 Tim. 2. 4).

Salvation is both the content of Christian belief and the appropriation by man of Christ's saving life and death and resurrection; it is at once a belief and a mystical experience which has its beginnings here on earth and is to be lived and fully revealed in the life to come: "The beginning of salvation is to learn our own wretchedness”. It is here that we must seek it not after death .... But whilst we neglect it, Satan steals away our immeasurable treasure, the eternal salvation bought by the blood of Christ." Whilst he is alive a Christian must strive after that "which is his dearest hope."

We were created and, having fallen, we have been redeemed for eternal life. We are renewed in baptism and through the word of God, and called to eternal life; to this end has holy scripture been given to us, to this end did Christ the Son of God, come into the world to live as a man, to suffer and die, that we should receive this everlasting life. The first duty of a Christian is eternal salvation.

The token of salvation here on earth is true faith practiced and expressed in acts of love, triumphant in its hope over all temporal tribulations and firm in its fidelity to Christ. Salvation in the future life can be apprehended through cer­tain images and mystically experienced.

You see the rising of the sun and yet when it goes down it seems as if it had never been there­ and then again it appears. This reminds us of the death and resurrection of Christ, and of the resurrection of the dead. Victorious soldiers inspire us to contrast earthly triumphs with the so much greater triumph of the saints whose souls are at peace and who contemplate the beauty of the Heavenly Jerusalem. What rapture overtakes those who put on the garment of salvation! ... If here on earth people listen to sweet singing, and still desire to hear it, and are comforted by it beyond words, how much more so in that mansion where “the voice of praise is ceaseless”. There is peace, harmony and love, and his will, and the fellowship of the saints and angels, complete serenity and perfect wisdom.

Beauty is a reminder to man of his innate dignity; in nature it is a memory of paradise and an image of future harmony.

Reference:

Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk. Nadejda Gorodetzky.(1976)

When God is Silent.

Dr.Daniel and Dr.Jane Hinshaw.*

"Do not lament me, O Mother".
20th century.

Dr. Daniel: Many people who are very sick, suffering, who are near the end of life, feel an increasing sense of isolation. If they are believers, sometimes they experience this as a sense of being abandoned by God; and we can even see this recorded in the Gospel, when our Lord on the cross cried out: “My God, My God why hast thou forsaken me.” That psalm, however, ends up with hope. I think some scholars believe that Christ probably recited the entire psalm. 

There are many different ways of thinking about silence, especially when one considers silence in the relationship between creature and creator. There is a thread within the early fathers, in the writings of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, that speaks about the Holy Trinity in a very interesting way. It says that the incarnation of Christ, God the Father spoke the Word from silence.  God in some very deep way, in the Apophatic tradition of the church, is beyond our understanding, and beyond our comprehension, therefore we encounter God in Silence. For example, in the Anaphora prayers where we speak of Christ, or God, being incomprehensible, inconceivable, beyond our knowing and that God is so utterly other from us, hence we are unable to know directly, the Father the very essence of the Divinity. But God breaks His silence, and speaks His Word, the incarnate Son of God Jesus Christ, a bridge to bring us back to God. 

The noetic prayer is for all Christians .Abbot Haralambos Dionysiatis.

I place below a collection of questions to my ever-memor­able Elder, Father Haralambos, from his spiritual children and pious pilgrims, and the Elder's answers to these.

Question: Elder, what is your opinion, since you teach "noetic prayer", is it only for monastics or does it concern all Christians?

Elder: From all that the Holy Fathers write, but also from my experience, I can see that noetic prayer is for all Christians. However, it's not for the heretics, and it's even more difficult for the heterodox.

"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God 

have mercy on me, a sinner"

- You give us a lot of encouragement by saying that noetic prayer is also for those of us who live in the world. However, we need help. We have tried to apply what is written in the books but it seems hard.

- Of course, it's hard. This work not only requires struggle, it also requires an experienced guide. Do you have a spiritual father?.

- We have, Elder. He is good, but he says that he doesn't know how to teach us about "noetic prayer".

- Let it be. There is even worse. If you don't know, say that you don't know. But don't impede the other from learning.

Well, since you have a confessor, I don't need to confess you.

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.

Geronda Gregory abbot of Dochiariou Monastery.

The brethren of the Dochiariou monastery, who recently bade farewell to their Geronda Gregory (Zumis), offer this text in his memory.

Geronda Gregory (Zumis)

In October 9/21, 2018, around 10:30 pm, Gerondas Gregory , the hegumen of the Dochiariou monastery for 38 years, reposed in the Lord . The monk-ascetic, the charismatic leader, distinguished by an enlightened mind and a critical spirit, a skilled orator, loving spiritual father, renovator and new builder of the ancient monastery Dochiariou.

Geronda Gregory spiritually “grew at the feet” of Saint Amphilochius of Patmos and Saint Philotheos (Zervakos), abbot of the monastery of Longovard on Paros.

At the age of 29, he became the abbot of the “Mirtie” monastery in “Etoloakarnanii” and then the monastery of “Prusso” in “Evritania”. And, finally, since 1980, he became the hegumen of Dochiariou monastery in Mont Athos.