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.

Saint Nicolas Velimirović.Jean-Claude Larchet.

Saint Nicolas Velimirović.

Nicolas Velimirović, le futur saint Nicolas de Jitcha et d'Ochrid, est le né 23 décembre 1880, à Celije, un petit village situé à huit kilomètres de Valjevo, à une centaine de kilomètres au sud-ouest de Belgrade, dans une famille de modestes agriculteurs qui allait compter neuf enfants.

À cette époque les monastères dispensaient un enseignement à la fois religieux et scolaire, et c'est au monastère de Celije, que l'enfant reçut sa première éducation. L'ambition de ses parents se limitait à ce qu'il reçût une instruction suffisante pour qu'il fût capable d'aider les autres villageois à rédiger leur correspondance avec l'administration, mais le «petit Nicolas» montra très rapidement un zèle au travail et des capacités intellectuelles exceptionnels, si bien que ses premières études achevées, son instituteur demanda à ses parents de lui permettre de poursuivre ses études au lycée de Valjevo.

Une fois ses études de théologie terminées, il exerça un temps la fonction d'instituteur, près de Valjevo et aidait en même temps le prêtre du lieu dans les travaux de la paroisse.

À cette époque, il contribua à la fondation et à la rédaction de la revue Le Messager chrétien (Hriscanski vesnik).

En 1905, Nicolas, sur la recommandation des autorités ecclésiastiques, obtint une bourse du gouvernement afin de poursuivre ses études à l'étranger. Ces divers séjours lui permirent de lire et de parler sept langues étrangères, et d'acquérir une connaissance approfondie non seulement de la littérature et de la philosophie, mais encore de la mentalité européennes. C'est lors de ce cursus - en Angleterre surtout - qu'il étudia aussi la sagesse de l'Extrême-Orient et se plongea dans les livres religieux et philosophiques de l'Inde ancienne.

En 1908, alors qu'il était âgé de vingt-huit ans, ses études à Berne en Suisse furent couronnées par un doctorat en théologie, pour une thèse intitulée : “La foi en la résurrection du Christ, dogme fondamental de l'Église apostolique”.

Nicolas passa l'année suivante à Oxford, où il prépara un doctorat de philosophie, mais c'est à Genève et en français qu'il soutint sa thèse intitulée La philosophie de Berkeley.

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.

“Mon fils, donne-moi ton Cœur” (Pr23 : 26).Père Boris Bobrinskoy.

Père Boris 

Bobrinskoy.

Père Boris Bobriskoy, est l’un des grands Théologiens Orthodoxes des XXe et XXIe siècles, auteur de plusieurs ouvrages de théologie et de liturgie.

Il est clair que dans le cadre de l'anthropologie de la Bible et de l'Église, la prière et la vie intérieure engagent l'homme tout entier. Les psaumes offrent des exemples saisissants du rôle du corps dans la prière: “Mon âme a soif de toi, mon Dieu; après toi languit ma chair, Comme une terre sèche, altérée, sans eau.” La chair a part à cette soif, à cette recherche de Dieu. Lorsque Dieu rencontre l'homme et le pénètre, il le pénètre dans sa totalité, le transfigure dans son âme et dans son corps.

Dans une telle perspective, l'origine de la vie spirituelle ne sera plus l'Intellect, l'intelligence de l'homme ne sera plus considérée comme le lieu de la connaissance et de l'union avec Dieu, comme dans les mystiques platoniciennes de contemplation de l'Intelligible par ce qui dans l'homme lui est le plus semblable, c'est-à-dire l'intelligence. Dans les Écritures et l'expérience traditionnelle de l'Église, ce n'est plus l'intelligence, mais le cœur de l'homme qui est l'organe moteur par excellence de toute la vie,

Saint Arsenius bishop of Tver(1409).

Saint Arsenios.

Our holy father Arsenius was born in 1350 to pious and humble Serbian parents in the town of Tver, about 150 miles northwest of Moscow, Russia. (His grandparents had migrated to this territory in Russia some seventy-five years before his birth.)

He was a very serious and intelligent boy, excelling in school while also delighting in serving the Lord as an acolyte in his local Orthodox Church. When Arsenius was still a young boy, both his parents became grievously ill; and just prior to his thirteenth birthday, they both fell asleep in the Lord. On their deathbed they asked Arsenius to fulfill one last wish: to live a holy and devout life, remembering the Lord God all his days, and to remember the poor and needy. At this time, because Arsenius was their only child, they willed all their possessions to him.

After the repose of his pious and God-loving parents, Arsenius spent many hours in prayer, seeking guidance from the Lord as to how to carry out his parents’ last request. During this time, two particular passages of the New Testament continually spoke to his heart: “For what is a mall profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matt. 16:26).

“Le Printemps de l’âme”.Métropolite Stephanos de Tallinn.

"...Moi, je t'ai connu au désert, dans un pays de fièvre" (Osée 13.5)

Un jour trois ascètes décidèrent de choisir chacun un mode de vie différent:
          - Le premier choisit de faire la paix parmi ceux qui se battent.

- Le deuxième se mit à visiter les malades.

- Le troisième gagna le désert.

Peu de temps après, le premier, n’arrivant pas à ses fins, vint, découragé, trouver le deuxième qui lui aussi, était à bout.

Tous deux décidèrent alors de se rendre auprès de celui qui avait opté pour l’hésychia au désert. Ils furent étonnés de sa réussite et l’assaillent de questions. Ce dernier commence par se taire puis il prit un vase, le remplit d’eau. « Regardez cette eau, leur dit-il, combien elle est troublée. » Puis, après un bout de temps, il leur dit encore : « voyez maintenant cette même eau et comment elle s’est reposée». Et là, comme dans un miroir, ils virent distinctement leur visage. Il leur dit alors : « Il en est de même par rapport à nous : lorsque nous vivons au milieu des hommes, nous ne voyons pas nos défauts, alors qu’il en est tout autrement dans le désert. »

Why icons?.Archimandrite Touma Bitar.

Today, brothers, the Holy Church commemorates the fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council which affirmed the veneration of icons after a long period during which those who venerate them were persecuted and most ancient icons that had existed before the eighth century were destroyed.

   

 What is the importance of icons in the Church? First of all, brothers, we honor icons and do not worship them. For this reason, all that can be said about us worshiping idols if we use icons in the Church is false. There is a great difference between veneration and worship. Worship belongs to God and God alone. But man expresses himself with word and image. Man has senses with which he expresses himself. Thus we use incense. Incense, for us, is a sign of venerating the faithful and of worshiping God in the faithful. So too with the Holy Bible. There are words in it, but these words are only vehicles for God's presence among us. We cannot express ourselves in a non-human way.

“Pray… some donor may appear out of nowhere” Kyriakos C.Markides.

His eminence Athanasios
Metropolitan of Limassol.

Father Maximos spent most of the morning in his office chatting with two fellows in their mid-twenties. They had arrived at the monastery two weeks earlier and were staying in a cell reserved for visitors. I assumed at the time that they were potential novices exploring the option of a monastic life. But Stephanos, being a kind of lay father figure to the younger monks and therefore having intimate knowledge of the goings-on in the monastery, informed me confidentially that the newcomers had a very severe drug problem. They had arrived with the aim of freeing them­selves from their deadly addiction, and were not primarily concerned with the salvation of their souls. Father Maximos was their therapist and the monastery was serving as a detoxification center of a sort.

Praying the Jesus Prayer showed me Christ.

In the midst of a painful health crisis, a simple prayer revealed God’s presence not only in the midst of the writer’s own suffering, but also in the suffering of others.

I am no stranger to physical pain. For years, I have suffered from migraines, endometriosis and hip issues; my epidural failed during labor; and in college, I was hospitalized for two and a half weeks for a complicated case of appendicitis. But the suffering I experienced during my most recent health scare -- portal vein thrombosis, a series of three clots blocking my liver’s main blood vessel -- was different.

    Excruciating and intense, the pain and all that came with it left me disoriented and then reoriented. It moved me to lament and to trust. It brought me suffering, but also mercy.