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.

Saint Sophrony (Sakharov).Worship and Prayer. by Mother Mariam (Zacca)

Excerpts from the video presented in the international symposium "Meeting with the Confessor - Elder Sophrony (Sakharov)" that was held in Neamt Monastery, Iasi, Romania - November 2016.

If God knows us, like the wise virgins, we will never die!.Dr. Daniel and Dr. Jane Hinshaw.

{Medicine, health, psychiatry, faith, death… issues discussed by Dr.Daniel and his wife Dr.Jane Hinshaw, through an Orthodox, scientific and spiritual perspective, in a meeting with the community that took place in the dining room of our monastery of  Saint John the Baptist, on Saturday 3 February 2018.}

A special blessing that we would like to share with our readers.

One of the extraordinary things about the Orthodox Christianity’s understanding of reality is Orthodox Anthropology: how do we understand the nature of the human person.

The Eastern fathers of the Church have emphasized how there is a unity of the body and soul and this occurs from the very point of conception, and so as human persons we acquire our personhood because God has called us to be persons, God makes us persons.

      The image of the Trinity is impressed upon each of us as Christians, by our Chrismation and baptism, so the Holy Spirit is there and hopefully will dwell with us as we draw toward the Kingdom. And so God has done everything possible to make us His children. And yet we have this tendency, because of the fall, to continually wander away. In the Church’s use of the Greek language, there has been this term called amartia to describe what sin is, but in classical Greek before the Christian era, amartia in its most basic form meant: not being the way things should be. The classical example was the athlete, the one who would be throwing the javelin and he missed the target. Another extraordinary thing about the Orthodox Church compared to the Western branch of Christianity is, there is a recognition because of the fall of Adam and Eve, that not only do we have sins that we consciously choose to do, but there is also sins that we don’t consciously choose, that this is not the way that should be, where we are not meeting the mark, we are not hitting the target.

A Dedication to Our All Holy Theotokos...

"Meeting with Father Seraphim."

"For the olive tree is like John. He foretold a symbol of his Lord."

Saint Ephrem The Syrian.

   

    In this hymn Ephrem argues that the priesthood and the kingship of the Chosen People have passed through Christ to include the Gentiles along with the Jews. Through Moses and Solomon these offices were bestowed on the Jewish people (str. 1). Zechariah's prophetic vision of two olive trees shows the continuation of these two lines in two covenants, one for Jews, the other for Gentiles (str. 2), but it also presents the typological key for understanding that Jesus is the Messiah, the Anointed One. The olive branch brought back by the dove after the Flood symbolizes not only peace but also Jesus, the Anointed, the First-born of the dead (str. 3-4). The entry into Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, the anointing of Christ by the sinful woman, the preparation of the way of Christ by John the Baptist all are interwoven with the oil of the olive tree, thus implying that Jesus is heir to the priesthood and kingship (str. 5-9). The properties and uses of olive oil itself also point to Christ and his followers: steadfastness (str. 10), the anointing of athletes (str. 11-13), oil as a means of easing conflicting forces (str. 14).

The same melody

 1 - Oil in the likeness of the Heavenly One became the giver of kingship.

From the horn [of oil] a pure cloud descended upon the head of a body,  

as God descended upon the top of the mountain  and gave brightness to Moses,

and Solomon received brightness symbolically.

From the horn of messiahship. From the People to the peoples it went out.

Instead of the few, many will be anointed and cleansed.

Refrain: Blessed is He Who gave eyes to the peoples to see the symbols of the Son, the Anointed.