orthodox faith fall 2012

ORTHODOX

FAITH

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!

Fall 2012ISSN 1920-1672

ORTHODOX FAITH Summer 2012

We invite you to take part in Orthodox pilgrimage to Jordan:

“In the footsteps of the ancient

saints” Mar. 4 - 14 , 2013

For ten days, our pilgrimage group will be visiting numerous holy places and the most famous archaeological parks of Jordan.For details please consult our

website: WWW.ORTHODOXTOURS.COM

The cost of travel for a group of 15 pilgrims - 1,600.00 U.S. dollars. Pricing shown does not include airfare. To register for a group or for

more information, please contactarchpriest Ilya Gotlinsky:

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WHY DO WE JUDGE OTHERS?

THE TRUE REPENTANCE

HARMONY IN THE UNIVERSE

THE BEGGAR BOY AT CHRIST’S CHRISTMAS TREE

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THE THEOLOGICAL NECESSITY FOR HUMOR

ON THE WORLD AND FAMILY18

ADVICE ON PEACEMAKING FROM THE SAINTS

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6INATTENTION DURING THE SERVICES

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With the blessing of His Eminence Metropolitan JOSEPH, Diocesan prelate of the Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Diocese of the USA, Canada, and Australia.

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Fall 2012

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Christ is born! Glorify Him!

Dearest Beloved,

Greetings to you on the occasion of the Nativity of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

My desire now is to speak faith into your lives, encouraging you not to be discouraged but to assure you that with the coming Lord your best days are ahead.

I want very much this Nativity message to be filled with hope, intended to do just that. My prayer also is to inspire you and expand your vision so you might find the courage to overcome any obstacles and accomplish your dreams.

With His coming the Only-begotten Son of God assures us that He has great things in store for us. A new hope is coming to ignite our faith that He loves us and as Emmanuel He is always with us (Matthew 1:23).

Christ is born to amaze us with His goodness! We learn that we do not have to seek blessings. We don’t have to seek the right people or seek material things. If you seek Christ; if you put Him first and honor

Him with your life; the blessings will seek you, when you live a life of integrity, when you have a spirit of excellence, giving, serving, and treating people right, Christ’s blessings will chase you down and overtake you. The Holy Scripture says in Psalm 36:4: “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”

May the Young Child give you strength not only to fortify your faith, but also to inspire and to help see that He is born to work in your life. He walks with you. With Him in your heart you will persevere and prevail. It is time now to believe that you are one of our Father’s children.

Therefore, as you read this message, keep yourself pure, strive for excellence and prepare yourself because it’s your time for God’s goodness and restoration. It’s your time to walk in the fullness of His blessings.

Have a wonderful Nativity of Christ and Happy New 2013 Year!

+ Metropolitan Joseph

Diocesan prelate of the Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox

Diocese of the USA, Canada, and Australia.

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His Holiness, Patriarch Maxim of

Bulgaria, 98, fell asleep in the Lord as a result of heart failure on November 6, 2012.

Patriarch Maxim led the Bulgarian Church for over four decades. Eighty percent of Bulgaria’s 7.4 million citizens claim membership in the Church.

Born Marin Naidenov Minkov on October 29, 1914, he graduated from the Sofia Seminary in 1935 and entered Sofia University’s theology department in 1938. He was elected to the Patriarchal See on July 4, 1971.

May Patriarch Maxim’s memory be eternal!

MEMORY ETERNAL TO HIS HOLINESS PATRIARCH MAXIM

OF BULGARIA

Fall 2012

Why do we judge our brethren? Because we do not make an attempt to know ourselves. Whoever is busy trying to gain knowledge of oneself, such a one has no time to look at others. Judge your own self and you will cease to judge others.

We must look upon ourselves as the greatest of sinners and we must forgive our brethren for their

bad deeds, while hating only the devil who has tempted them. It happens that someone’s deeds may seem to us to be bad, while in reality they are good because of the good intentions of the

doer. Moreover, the door of repentance is open to all, and you do know who will enter it first - you, who are judging, or the one who is being judged by you.

You may judge a bad deed, but do not judge the doer of it. If you pass judgment on your neighbor, teaches us the venerable Antioch, together with him you yourself will be judged for the very deed you are judging.

Saint Seraphim of Sarov

.

The sin of judging others is the most abhorrent sin. This is confirmed by the following story. The venerable John the Sinaite tells the following: “Once there came to me a monk from the neighboring monastery and I asked him - how are the fathers doing? He replied: very well, by your prayers.

Then I asked him about a monk of ill repute, and the guest said to me: he hasn’t changed at all, father!

Hearing that, I exclaimed: too bad! and as soon as I said that, I immediately felt myself as though in a state of rapture, and I saw Jesus Christ, crucified between two thieves. I made a move to worship the Saviour, but He suddenly turned to the angels surrounding Him and said to them: expel this man, for he condemned his brother before My judgment. And when I was being expelled in accordance with the Lord’s command, my mantle was left in the doorway, and then I came to my senses. Woe is me! - I said then to the visiting brother, - what a terrible day for me! Why so? - asked the latter. Then I told him about my vision and explained to him that my mantle having been left behind signified that I was deprived of God’s help and protection. And from that time I spent seven years in deep repentance, until I once more saw my Lord, Who gave me back my mantle.”

Protopriest Victor Guryev - “Prologue in homilies”.

WHY DO WE JUDGE OTHERS?

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Repentance is the renewal of baptism. Repentance is a contract with God for a second life. A penitent is a buyer of humility. Repentance is constant distrust of bodily comfort. Repentance is self-condemning reflection, and carefree self-care. Repentance is the daughter of hope and the renunciation of despair. Repentance is reconciliation with the Lord by the practice of good deeds contrary to the sins. Repentance is purification of conscience. Repentance is the voluntary endurance of all afflictions.

It is impossible for us who have fallen into the pit of iniquities ever to be drawn out of it, unless we sink into the abyss of the humility of the penitents.

Do not be s u r p r i s e d that you fall every day; do not give up, but stand your g r o u n d courageously. A n d assuredly the angel who guards you will honour your patience. While a wound is still fresh and warm it is easy to heal, but old, neglected and festering ones are hard to cure, and require for their care m u c h t r e a t m e n t , c u t t i n g , p l a s t e r i n g a n d cauterization. Many from long neglect b e c o m e incurable. But with God all things are possible.

Before our fall the demons say that God is merciful, but after the fall they say that He is unforgiving.

After your fall, do not believe him who says to you of small shortcomings: ‘If only you had not done that great fault! But this is nothing in comparison.’ Often small gifts appease the great anger of the Judge.

He who really keeps account of his actions considers as lost every day in which he does not mourn about his sins, whatever good he may have done on it.

We must carefully consider whether our conscience has ceased to accuse us, not as a result of purity, but because it is immersed in evil. A sign of deliverance from our falls is the continual acknowledgment of our indebtedness.

Nothing equals or excels God’s mercies. Therefore

he who despairs is committing suicide. A sign of true repentance is the acknowledgement that we deserve all the troubles, visible and invisible, that come to us, and even greater ones. Moses, after seeing God in the bush, returned again to Egypt, that is to darkness and to the brick-making of Pharaoh, symbolical of

the spiritual pharaoh. But he went back again to the bush, and not only to the bush but also up the mountain. Whoever has known contemplation will never despair of himself. Job became a beggar, but he became twice as rich again.

In my meditation, or rather, in my repentance, a fire of prayer will be kindled consuming the sins. May the Christ, the Son of God and God, enlighten you in the resurrection of true repentance.

By repentance you will purify the five senses, and by voluntarily accepting retribution and punishment, you will escape the punishment which is everlasting.

BY ST. JOHN CLIMACUS FROM «THE LADDER OF DIVINE ASCENT»

Fall 2012

Before our fall the

demons say that God

is merciful, but after the fall they say

that He is unforgiving.

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The Purpose, Original State, and Fall of ManIf the entire sequence of the non-organic and organic

world was created in a single moment, so-to-speak, by the Creator’s omnipotent words – let it be! – then the creation of man was distinguished from the creation of all other creatures. Speaking in our limited human language, prior to the creation of man a Council took place within the Holy Trinity: “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness” (Gen. 1:26). The very process of the creation of man took place as follows: (1) out of the dust of the earth God created the body of man; (2) into the body of the first-created man God breathed the breath of life; (3) having indicated man’s supreme purpose – to be the king of nature, i.e. possess the earth and be master over all creatures, God created a helper similar to the first man – a wife.

That the soul is absolutely distinct from the body, already noted in Genesis, Moses, is also confirmed by numerous testimonies in the Old and New Testament. According to the teaching of the wise Ecclesiastes (12:7): “Then shall the dust return to earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God Who gave it.” In a burst of poetic religious ecstasy the psalm-writer David expresses his hope that the Lord will not leave his soul in hell, neither will He suffer His holy one to see corruption (Psalm 16:10). The holy Evangelist Matthew warns us that above all we should fear those who can destroy both our soul and our body in hell (10:28).

Together with clear testimony of the soul’s being entirely distinct from the body, the Holy Writ also describes all the characteristics of the human soul. The soul is not only simple and incorporeal, it is also free. Since man has been given commandments, this means that obedience is required. This means that there may also be disobedience. Moreover, a reward is promised for the fulfillment of commandments. “If thou wishest to enter eternal life, thou must keep the commandments,” – thus replied the Lord to the question posed by the wealthy young man: “What good must I do in order to attain eternal life?” Only in being free may we please God, for God, as an All-holy and All-perfect Being, does not constrain man’s free will. According to the teaching of the Church fathers, without freedom there can be neither religion, nor moral law, nor merit before God.

Man’s soul is immortal. After its separation from the body, the soul returns to God Who had given it to man. “For we know that if our earthly house of this

tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens,” – says Apostle Paul (2 Cor. 5:1). According to the same Apostle, here on earth we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come (Heb. 13:14).

An Orthodox person must know what the difference is between the image and the likeness of God in man’s soul.

The Church fathers thus describe the difference: God’s image is given in the very nature of our soul, in its mind, which continuously aspires to the truth, in the freedom of its will, in its immortality and striving towards good, while God’s likeness is in the proper development and improvement of these qualities and powers of man’s soul, in good deeds and holiness. We receive the image of God together with our soul’s being, while the likeness to God we must attain ourselves, having received from God all endowments and full possibility for this. This distinction between the image and the likeness of God is also indicated in the Holy Scripture. Moses says in the Book of Genesis (1:26): “And God said: let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness,” while in verse 27 of the same chapter he says: “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him, male and female created He them.” – “Why is it not said in the second case – and He created them in His image and likeness?” – asks St. Gregory of Nyssa. Did the Father become weak? It is sacrilegious to think so. Did He change the intent of the Council of the Holy Trinity? It is sacrilegious to think so. Nothing is said about the likeness in the second case only because this likeness to God we must attain within us on our own. We have only been given the possibility of being like unto God, but God does not apply force to make people like unto Him, for this goes against the grain of His Divine Holiness and Perfection.

Having elevated man above all earthly creatures, having endowed him with intelligence and freedom, and having adorned him with His image and all the qualities for freely being like unto Him, the Creator assigned man an especially lofty purpose in the universe, to wit:

1. In regard to God, man must maintain fidelity to the covenant or union between God and man, must continuously strive towards his Prototype, and must glorify God in the body and in the spirit, which are God’s (1 Cor. 6:20). Addressing man as a vessel well-endowed for glorifying his Creator, St. Basil the Great says that man has specifically been created to

Fall 2012

HARMONY IN THE UNIVERSEWRITTEN BY PROFESSOR G.A. ZNAMENSKY

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be a worthy instrument of God’s glory. For man the whole world is like a living book, which preaches the glory of God and proclaims to the one who possesses intelligence of the mysterious majesty of the Creator. “It was necessary, – says St. Gregory the Theologian, – that the veneration of God not be limited to only the supreme and heavenly angelic host, but that there should also be some venerators down below, in order that all be filled with the glory of God, because everything is God’s, and it is for this reason that man was created and endowed with God’s image and personal creation.”

2. In regard to himself, man must develop and exercise his moral powers and become more and more like unto his Prototype, as said in the Holy Scriptures: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father Which is in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5:48), glorifying God with his good deeds.

3. In regard to his surrounding environment, man’s assignment is defined by the fact that God created him last, as the king of nature. “In view of his being the king of nature, – says St. Gregory the Theologian, – it was necessary to first create a place of habitation for him, and only then to bring the king into it in the presence of all the creatures.” For such a royal purpose man was created with all requisite qualities. Out of the hands of the Creator he came out good, free, and innocent. The first people, remarks the writer of Genesis, Moses, were both naked and not embarrassed. St. John Damascene explains this height of dispassionateness by the complete balance between the spiritual and the bodily self in the blissful state of the first people.

But no matter how perfect the natural powers of man, he, being a limited creature, did not have life within himself; he required constant fortification from God, and God manifested His special assistance in helping man attain his lofty purpose. The garden planted in Eden (which means delight), fragrant with eternally-blooming flowers, surpassed all idea of supreme beauty. It was truly a Divine country. “Paradise, – says St. John Damascene, – is imagined physically by some and spiritually by others, but I believe that for man, who was a spiritually-physical being, paradise was a holy temple for both his spiritual and physical existence. With his body man inhabited a Divinely-beautiful country, while with his soul the first man resided in an infinitely higher place, where his abode and his bright robe of delight were the rapturous contemplation of God. God Himself conversed with him.” In order for man to exercise his will for good, God gave him His grace, which, according to the Church fathers, served him as a heavenly garment, and by means of it Adam was in contact with God. For continuous sustenance and sanctification of the first-

created man’s bodily strength God planted the tree of life. In order to exercise and develop man’s physical powers, God commanded Adam to tend the Garden of Eden, and Himself brought all the animals over to Adam. In order to strengthen man in goodness and obedience, the Lord God commanded man, saying: “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Gen. 2:16-17).

Why was such a commandment necessary, ask the holy fathers, and in response to this question they offer the following thoughts: man’s freedom becomes strengthened exclusively through acting in compliance with a single concrete rule. Although man’s conscience comprises the entire moral code of law, its fulfillment is possible only when a particular situation presents itself. This engenders the need for positive commandments. Moreover, by freely fulfilling the commandments, man to some degree earned his state of bliss. Obedience to the will of God guarded him from the danger of thinking too highly of himself and falling into the great sin of pride. Of course this commandment seems too trivial. Nevertheless, it expresses the entire moral law of our relation to God and our fellow man. “With this commandment, – says St. John Chrysostome, – God wished to show man His dominion over him. (In regard to nature man is king, but in regard to God he is only an intelligent overseer on earth.) If Adam and Eve had loved the Lord, they would not have transgressed His commandment. If they had loved their fellow man, i.e. each other, they would not have believed in the serpent’s persuasion; they would not have committed suicide by losing their immortality; they would not have committed theft by surreptitiously tasting the forbidden fruit; they would not have become accessories to the devil’s false witness.”

Although the serpent, in whom resided the devil, was the original cause of the forefathers’ sin, the main cause in the fullest sense of the word, however, were the forefathers themselves. Already from the deceitful approach of the serpent, who was controlled by the father of deceit – the devil, – asking Eve: “Is it true that God told you not to eat of any tree in paradise?” – Eve should have realized that some kind of malice was hidden in this and should have turned away from the serpent; but Eve even related God’s commandment to the serpent. And at this point the tempter began lying with even greater arrogance and asserting everything absolutely contrary to what the Lord had said.

Thus Eve fell not out of necessity, but entirely freely, believing the serpent, and after her Adam, abusing his free will, also sinned.

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Having created man free, the Lord gave him the lightest commandment for exercising himself in goodness and obedience, a commandment expressed with great clarity and protected by a terrible threat in the event of transgression, and also gave him all the means for fulfilling this commandment. This means that the entire fault for the Fall lies with the forefathers themselves.

The importance of the forefathers’ sin lay not in the externals, but in violating the spiritual essence and meaning of the commandment itself, in violating unconditional obedience to God by disobedience. “Obedience, – says Blessed Augustine, – is the mother and guardian of all virtue. With their disobedience the forefathers transgressed the entire moral law.” – “What could be easier than this commandment, given for exercising man’s free will? – asks John Chrysostome. – What disregard the forefather manifested towards this commandment! In place of infinite and continuous gratitude and humility before the Creator, man responded with terrible pride and the greatest ingratitude.” – “Not only is there pride here, – says Blessed Augustine, – because man wished to be in his own power and not God’s, but here was also committed manslaughter, because man freely gave himself over to spiritual and physical death; here there was also adultery of the spirit, for the purity and chastity of the human soul were violated by the serpent’s persuasions; here was also committed the theft of the forbidden fruit; here was also greed, for they desired greater things, being caught on the hook of the devil’s prideful lure – ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” According to the teaching of the Church father Tertullian, the entire Decalogue was transgressed here – all of God’s ten commandments.

The great sin was accompanied by the great destructive consequences of the Fall. The initial union of God with man was abrogated, the grace of communion with God was lost, and spiritual death occurred. So great was the obfuscation of the mind that the first people even thought to hide from the Omnipresent One. With their loss of innocence and with their newly-revealed tendency towards evil, the first people felt themselves more animal than spiritual beings and wished to hide from themselves as from beasts, in view of the violation of the harmony between their spiritual and physical selves, which they had not noticed previously. By luring the soul into terrible desires, – says Basil the Great, – sin distorted the entire beauty of God’s image in man. Just as a coin, whose stamped image of the king is spoiled, loses also the value of the gold from which it is made, so with the distortion of God’s image within himself man also lost in God’s eyes his former innocence and his special

destiny of eternal bliss, immortality, and infinite participation in the Divine glory of the Creator. Having desired to become God, man lost even his quality of being the image of God, says St. Macarius the Great.

The consequences of the Fall were also reflected in the body: illnesses, sorrows, exhaustion, death; and together with expulsion from paradise also came a diminishment or loss of power over the animals, who were formerly Adam’s servants and now “the beasts no longer knew him and came to hate him as a stranger” (John Chrysostome). Created for man’s delight and now condemned for man’s sin, the earth also began to act adversely in regard to man’s well-being and tranquility.

Whence did evil appear on earth, when, according to the writer of Genesis, Moses, “God saw everything that He had made and, behold, it was very good” (Gen. 1:31)? Whence came the devil who destroyed the blissful and innocently-happy life of our forefathers?

The sinful fall of our forefathers, replies the holy Orthodox Church, was preceded by a sinful fall in the angelic world. And had there been no fall there, perhaps the sorrowful act of our forefathers’ Fall would never have occurred either.

Violation of Harmony in the UniverseThe Fall of man was preceded by the Fall that

occurred in the angelic world. According to the united teaching of the Church fathers, the first to fall out of the great sin of pride and disobedience to God was one of the foremost and most perfect angels, and afterwards this supreme angel lured away other angels who were in his power and subordination. Having abused his free will, this angel fell into the great sin of the mind; he “did not hold on to truth” (John 8:44) and from that time became a liar and the father of deceit and murderer of mankind. This ringleader among all the evil spirits, called the devil, also bears other, most unattractive names: the tempter, Beelzebub prince of demons, Belial, Satan, prince of this world, etc., while the other evil and unclean spirits are called demons, fiends, angels of Satan, fallen angels.

In clarifying the essence of the sin out of which the supreme angel fell, the Church fathers express two opinions. Some say that “death entered into the world through the devil’s envy”; but others, notably St. Gregory the Theologian, say that through the devil’s envy death entered into the blessed earthly life of the first people. The fall of the devil himself occurred through his pride. On this basis the wise Ecclesiastes says that the origin of sin is pride.

The devil’s pride was manifested in his insane

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desire to be the equal of God, and some Church fathers believe that the devil’s pride was manifested in his desire to become even higher than God. Some Church fathers say that the supreme angel, the one closest to God, having learned that the Second Person of the Holy Trinity – the Son of God – was to suffer for the sins of mankind in the future, was unable to enter into the great mystery of the redemption of mankind and, doubting the Divinity of the Son of God, did not wish to worship Him, or – in the opinion of others – envied His being preferred over all the angels. In his second epistle to the Thessalonians (2:4) Apostle Paul depicts the devil as God’s opponent. According to the teaching of the same Apostle, the coming Antichrist will reveal this incorrigible demonic pride in all its hideousness and shamelessness. The Antichrist – this man of iniquity and son of destruction, who will oppose God and will set himself up higher than all that is God’s, “will sit in God’s temple as God, declaring himself to be God.”

The Fall in the angelic world was immeasurably deeper and more audacious than the Fall of the first people. Being bodiless spiritual forces, free from all temptations of the flesh, the angels fell out of the sin of pride, having audaciously rebelled against their Creator according to a previously calculated plan. Not only the chief angel, but all those who followed him have fallen so deeply, that they will never again rise out of the abyss of their irredeemable pride. Both the devil and all the angels who followed him, “who kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, are reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day,” according to Apostle Jude (1:6). There was a time, before they were thrown down from heaven, when they could have repented; but the fallen angels did not repent and now no longer have any possibility of repentance. St. Basil the Great says that a certain possibility still existed for the devil to repent before the first man was tempted. But then the physical world was established, the Garden of Eden was planted, and within it appeared innocent and blissful man, with a commandment of obedience to God. It was then that the devil’s envy increased at seeing the blissful life of our forefathers. Instead of repentance, the devil’s pride and spiritual death grew exponentially, and the possibility for repentance was lost forever. For this reason the private opinion expressed by Origenes, that the time will come when even the devil will repent, was condemned by the entire Church, which repudiated all possibility of “the evolution of the devil and his angels.”

In the Holy Scriptures we find many testimonials to the unquestionable existence not only of the devil, but also of other unclean spirits and evil demons, which

the Lord and His apostles expelled from people.There are wicked ones among them, but there also

those who are “most wicked” (Luke 11:26). When the seventy disciples came back from their preaching, they joyfully told the Saviour: “Even the demons obey us in Thy name.” When sending the twelve apostles out to preach, the Lord gave power over the evil spirits to them as well.

The number of fallen angels who have become evil spirits is immense. The Lord healed many from evil spirits and expelled the demons from them, while out of one man He expelled an entire legion of demons. Based upon the words of St. John the Theologian that “the serpent’s tail drew the third part of the stars (angels) of heaven, and did cast them to the earth” (Rev. 12:4), some Church fathers conclude that the devil took away with him one third of the angels.

“The devil who had sinned from the beginning” (1 John 3:8) apparently took away with him angels of all ranks and levels, who retained these levels of subordination even after their fall. For this reason Apostle Paul exhorts us to “take up the whole armour of God, so as to be able to withstand against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world” (Eph. 6:11-12).

And so it is that God did not create the evil spirits. The evil spirits do evil not because of their originally-created nature, essence, or purpose, but because of their free evasion from obedience and subordination to their Creator, because of the tendency they acquired in their sinful fall to oppose God and all that is precious and holy in the eyes of God. Thus St. John the Theologian ascribes the origin of evil in the world exclusively to the devil, who destroyed universal harmony by the tolerance of the All-holy Creator, Who does not coerce the free will of His free creations – both angels and humans. In denouncing the unbelieving Jews, the Saviour said: “Ye are the sons of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning and stands not in the truth, because there is no truth in him; when he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own (i.e. out of his own nature, distorted by pride), for he is a liar, and the father of it” (John 8:44).

However, there used to be and can even now be found “wise men of this world,” who find it more logical to allow that evil has existed from eternity and that supposedly there were eternally two origins battling between themselves: the good and the evil. At the same time some dualists view this coeternal existence of the two origins in the following manner: the evil origin, no matter how strong it may be, is always lesser in might than the good origin.

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Other dualists, however, consider these two opposing origins to be equal in power, battling eternally, and for this reason there is no absolute good in the entire universe nor absolute evil, and either one or the other origin is continuously prevailing. Nevertheless, there is much that is incongruous and logically contradictory in this dualist system, namely: if the two origins had been absolutely equal, they would have mutually weakened each other, and then there would have been neither good nor evil in the world. If one agreed with the first opinion that evil and good are not equal, then the stronger one would have destroyed the weaker, and there would have existed in the world – depending on who was stronger – either solely the good or solely the evil origin. One may well ask – how do these origins exist? As opposing and mutually destructive origins, neither can exist within the other, nor one near the other. This means, if one accepts the dualists’ viewpoint, that it must be supposed that each of them occupies a special part of the universe, and from there they attack each other??? Who, then, assigned a sphere to each origin? They could not have done it themselves, because if evil came to an agreement with good, or good came to an agreement with evil, they would cease being evil or good. Consequently, it must be supposed that neither good nor evil, but a Third Being, Who, moreover has power and dominion over these origins, exists in the universe. More correctly, it turns out that there is One Supreme Origin in the world, to Whom everything in the world is subordinate. And again human reason comes to the conclusion that there is One (Sole) God. As to evil and good, these are manifestations of lower, in comparison to God, free origins, namely: (1) the good spirits or angels, as servitors obedient to God, created good by God Himself, and (2) the evil spirits, i.e. the devil and his servants, who fell of their own free will and were thrown down from heaven.

The dualists say that their system supposedly helps explain the existence of evil in the world, for it is impossible for evil to come from good.

Naturally evil did not come from good, for how can good beget evil? When God created the world, says the writer of Genesis, Moses, “God saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good” (Gen. 1:31). This means that everything came out good from the hands of God, and evil did not exist at first. Evil appeared only when some of the free creatures stepped away from natural obedience to God and embraced an unnatural existence without God and outside of God. All free creatures may be good only by being within God, the absolute and real Good.

As for the Fall of the first people, it was not as terrible and destructive as was the Fall in the spiritually-

bodiless angelic world.The fallen first people wept, repented, recognized

their error, and suffered to have so offended their Creator and, therefore, the will and the reason of the first people could again receive a different orientation towards good, rectification, and submission to God. The devil fell of his own free will, while man became the victim of the tempter. However, even for fallen man it was impossible to arise on his own from the abyss of sin without special aid from the Lord and Creator Himself. Fallen man committed three terrible evils: (1) by his sin he infinitely offended the infinitely Benign, vastly Great, endlessly Just Creator, and became subject to damnation; (2) with his sin he infected his entire being; (3) with his sin he caused destructive consequences not only in his human nature, but in all of nature around him. Therefore, the following are necessary for the restoration of fallen man and for his salvation: (1) to satisfy God’s Justice; (2) to destroy sin in man’s entire nature, enlighten his dimmed reason and will, restore the image of God within him; (3) destroy the profound consequences of sin in man’s nature. Who could do this? No one except God.

The infinitely great offense had to be exculpated by an infinitely great sacrifice. Only the One Who was without sin could restore God’s image, rectify the will and reason, and destroy sin in man. According to Church teaching, neither angels nor man himself could restore human nature damaged by sin, but only the One Omnipotent God.

God’s Wise Management of Mankind’s Salvation.Christianity is the religion of God’s restored union

with man, who in his fall had violated his original union with God.

For this reason the management of mankind’s salvation, for which there had been no need in man’s original blessed state, became the focus, essence, and primary subject of apostolic preaching: “But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:23-24). According to the same Apostle Paul, the preaching of the crucifixion, which seems foolishness to the damned, but the power of God to the saved, became the alpha and omega of the New Testament. Through the extraordinary depth and beauty of Divine Wisdom, the wise management of mankind’s salvation literally eclipsed the entire triviality of the pathetic fantasies and philosophies of the ancient pagan world, which had become puffed up with pride and had departed from the original source of Truth, and which had become all tangled up in

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contradictions (what is Truth?) and was undergoing a terrible religious and moral crisis prior to the Saviour’s coming into the world. The edifice of the wisdom of the human mind, darkened by sin, crumbled as though rotten, or founded upon the sand of human pride, when faced with the teaching on the wise management of the salvation of mankind, which opened up limitless and entire new horizons for a Christian-minded person in resolving such painfully difficult questions as the meaning and final purpose of man’s life on earth, that from time immemorial had agitated the curious human mind. In the light of Christ’s teaching, says Apostle Paul, even simplicity and foolishness in God’s universe appeared to the world wiser than men, and weakness in God’s universe appeared stronger than men. “For ye see, brethren, – declares the Apostle, – who ye are that are called, how that not many of ye are wise men in the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are… But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, Who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. Thus according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord” (1 Cor. 1:25-31).

In setting forth the teaching on God as Saviour of the world, the Church fathers divide this teaching into two parts: (1) on God as Saviour per se, i.e. on how the One Triune God manifested Himself in our salvation, and (2) on God the Saviour in His special unique relation to mankind.

Both in the Holy Scriptures and in the teaching of the Church fathers the task of our salvation is ascribed not only to the Second Person of the Holy Trinity – the Son of God, but to God in general, as a joint task of all the Persons of the Holy Trinity. For this reason God is generally called our Saviour. Apostle Paul calls himself an apostle of Jesus Christ by commandment of God our Saviour, and the Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope (1 Tim. 1:1).

The Church also deals with the issue of the limits and value of human efforts in the task of our salvation. Although a person is unable to be saved through his own efforts, yet for salvation to take place he must show sincere effort and a thirst for such salvation with help from above. “The belief of those people who say that man is absolutely incapable of any good is quite unfair,” – says St. Macarius of Egypt. – “An infant, although unable to do anything and unable to go to his mother by himself, still moves about, cries and weeps, seeking his mother. The mother will take pity on him

and is glad that he is crying out for her so earnestly. And although the infant cannot come to her, she herself goes to him, motivated by her love for the infant, takes him into her arms, presses him to her breast, and feeds him with great tenderness. So does the loving God do with the soul which turns towards Him and seeks Him” (Discourse 46). No matter how difficult the efforts to attain salvation on the part of man himself – that slave of vice and diverse pleasures, with his strength of will paralyzed by sin and his mind darkened, – he will be saved “not by righteousness which we had done, but exclusively by the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man” (Titus 3:4-5).

Thus all the Persons of the Holy Trinity participate in man’s salvation, which is quite in keeping with the very dogma that all the Persons of the Holy Trinity are one-in-essence and indivisible in all things except personal characteristics. Therefore, the salvation of fallen man is accomplished by the single will of the Triune Divinity. In particular, the relation of the Holy Trinity to the redemption and salvation of man is as follows: the Son of God came into the world and became incarnate of the Most-holy Virgin Mary, the Father sent His Only-begotten Son into the world, while of the Holy Spirit it was announced to the Virgin that “the Holy Spirit shall come upon Thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow Thee; therefore also the Holy One which shall be born of Thee shall be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). All Persons of the Holy Trinity were also present at the Baptism of our Lord: here the Holy Spirit descended upon the baptized Christ, while the Father attested to His beloved Son (Matt. 3:16-17).

St. Dimitry of Rostov speaks thus of the participation of all the Persons of the Holy Trinity in our salvation: “The incarnation of God the Word was by benevolence of the Father, by the coming upon and action of the Holy Spirit, and with the consent of the Word Itself (the Second Person of the Holy Trinity).”

What was the significance of the means which God had chosen for our salvation? For the restoration of fallen man God had found a means so wise that, speaking in the poetic language of the psalm-writer King David, “mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have embraced each other” (Psalm 85:10). What does that mean?

It would be well for all of proud mankind which has reached an impasse, and especially for us who call ourselves Orthodox Christians, to remember how the harmony of the universe, once violated by the original sin of our forefathers, was once again renewed by the power of God’s Wisdom, with fallen mankind being granted full opportunity for salvation and regeneration.

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I am a novelist, and I suppose I have made up this story. I write “I suppose,” though I know for a fact that I have made it up, but yet I keep fancying that it must have happened on Christmas Eve in some great town in a time of terrible frost.

I have a vision of a boy, a little boy, six years old or even younger. This boy woke up that morning in a cold damp cellar. He was dressed in a sort of little dressing-gown and was shivering with cold. There was a cloud of white steam from his breath, and sitting on a box in the corner, he blew the steam out of his mouth and amused himself in his dullness watching it float away. But he was terribly hungry. Several times that morning he went up to the plank bed where his sick mother was lying on a mattress as thin as a pancake, with some sort of bundle under her head for a pillow. How had she come here? She must have come with her boy from some other town and suddenly fallen ill. The landlady who let the “concerns” had been taken two days before the police station, the lodgers were out and about as the holiday was so near, and the only one left had been lying for the last twenty-four hours dead drunk, not having waited for Christmas. In another corner of the room a wretched old woman of eighty, who had once been a children’s nurse but was now left to die friendless, was moaning and groaning with rheumatism, scolding and grumbling at the boy so that he was afraid to go near her corner. He had got a drink of water in the outer room, but could not find a crust anywhere, and had been on the point of waking his mother a dozen times. He felt frightened at last in the darkness: it had long been dusk, but no light was kindled. Touching his mother’s face, he was surprised that she did not move at all, and that she was as cold as the wall. “It is very cold here,” he thought. He stood a little, unconsciously letting his hands rest on the dead woman’s shoulders, then he breathed on his fingers to warm them, and then quietly fumbling for his cap on the bed, he went out of the cellar. He would have gone earlier, but was afraid of the big dog which had been howling all day at the neighbor’s door at the top of the stairs. But the dog was not there now, and he went out into the street.

Mercy on us, what a town! He had never seen anything like it before. In the town from he had come, it was always such black darkness at night. There was one lamp for the whole street, the little, low-pitched, wooden houses were closed up with shutters, there was no one to be seen in the street after dusk, all the people shut themselves up in their houses, and there

was nothing but the howling all night. But there it was so warm and he was given food, while here—oh, dear, if he only had something to eat! And what a noise and rattle here, what light and what people, horses and carriages, and what a frost! The frozen steam hung in clouds over the horses, over their warmly breathing mouths; their hoofs clanged against the stones through the powdery snow, and everyone pushed so, and—oh, dear, how he longed for some morsel to eat, and how wretched he suddenly felt. A policeman walked by and turned away to avoid seeing the boy.

There was another street—oh, what a wide one, here he would be run over for certain; how everyone was shouting, racing and driving along, and the light, the light! And what was this? A huge glass window, and through the window a tree reaching up to the ceiling; it was a fir tree, and on it were ever so many lights, gold papers and apples and little dolls and horses; and there were children clean and dressed in their best running about the room, laughing and playing and eating and drinking something. And then a little girl began dancing with one of the boys, what a pretty little girl! And he could hear the music through the window. The boy looked and wondered and laughed, though his toes were aching with the cold and his fingers were red and stiff so that it hurt him to move them. And all at once the boy remembered how his toes and fingers hurt him, and began crying, and ran on; and again through another window-pane he saw another Christmas tree, and on a table cakes of all sorts—almond cakes, red cakes and yellow cakes, and three grand young ladies were sitting there, and they gave the cakes to any one who went up to them, and the door kept opening, lots of gentlemen and ladies went in from the street. The boy crept up, suddenly opened the door and went in. oh, how they shouted at him and waved him back! One lady went up to him hurriedly and slipped a kopeck into his hand, and with her own hands opened the door into the street for him! How frightened he was. And the kopeck rolled away and clinked upon the steps; he could not bend his red fingers to hold it right. the boy ran away and went on, where he did not know. He was ready to cry again but he was afraid, and ran on and on and blew his fingers. And he was miserable because he felt suddenly so lonely and terrified, and all at once, mercy on us! What was this again? People were standing in a crowd admiring. Behind a glass window there were three little dolls, dressed in red and green dresses, and exactly, exactly as though they were alive. Once was a little old man sitting and

Fall 2012

THE BEGGAR BOY AT CHRIST’S CHRISTMAS TREEBy Feodor Dostoevsky

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playing a big violin, the two others were standing close by and playing little violins, and nodding in time, and looking at one another, and their lips moved, they were speaking, actually speaking, only one couldn’t hear through the glass. And at first the boy thought they were alive, and when he grasped that they were dolls he laughed. He had never seen such dolls before, and had no idea there were such dolls! All at once he fancied that some one caught at his smock behind: a wicked big boy was standing beside him and suddenly hit him on the head, snatched off his cap and tripped him up. The boy fell down on the ground, at once there was s shout, he was numb with fright, he jumped up and ran away. He ran, and not knowing where he was going, ran in at the gate of some one’s courtyard, and sat down behind a stack of wood: “They won’t find me here, besides it’s dark!”

He sat huddled up and was breathless from fright, and all at once, quite suddenly, he felt so happy: his hands and feet suddenly left off aching and grew so warm, as warm as though he were on a stove; then he shivered all over, then he gave a start, why, he must have been asleep. How nice to have a sleep here! “I’ll sit here a little and go and look at the dolls again,” said the boy, and smiled thinking of them. “Just as though they were alive! …” and suddenly he heard his mother singing over him. “Mammy, I am asleep; how nice it is to sleep here!”

“Come to my Christmas tree, little one,” a soft voice suddenly whispered over his head.

He thought that this was still his mother, but no, it was not she. Who it was calling him, he could not see, but someone bent over to him, and … and all at once—oh, what a bright light! Oh, what a Christmas tree! And yet it was not a fir tree, he had never seen a tree like that! Where was he now? Everything was bright and shining, and all around him were dolls; but no, they were not dolls, they were little boys and girls, only so bright and shining. They all came flying round him, they all kissed him, took him and carried him along with them, and he was flying himself, and he saw that his mother was looking at him and laughing joyfully. “Mammy, Mammy; oh, how nice it is here, Mammy!” and again he kissed the children and wanted to tell them at once of those dolls in the shop windows.

“Who are you, boys” who are you, girls?” he asked, laughing and admiring them.

“This is Christ’s Christmas tree,” they answered. “Christ always has a Christmas tree on this day, for the little children who have no tree of their own …” and he found out that all these little boys and girls were children just like himself; that some had been frozen in the baskets in which they had as babies been laid

on the doorsteps of well-to-do Petersburg people, others had been boarded out with Finnish women by the Foundling and had been suffocated, others had died at their starved mothers’ breasts (in the Samara famine), others had died in the third-class railway carriages from the foul air; and yet they were all here, they were all like angels about Christmas, and He was in the midst of them and held out His hands to them and blessed them and their sinful mothers. … and the mothers of these children stood on one side weeping; each one knew her boy or girl, and the children flew up to them and kissed them and wiped away their tears with their little hands, and begged them not to weep because they were so happy.

And down below in the morning the porter found the little dead body of the frozen child on the woodstack; they sought out his mother too. … she had died before him. They met before the Lord God in heaven.

Why have I made up such a story, so out of keeping with an ordinary diary, and a writer’s above all? And I promised two stories dealing with real events! But that is just it, I keep fancying that all this may have happened really—that is, what took place in the cellar and on the woodstack; but as for Christ’s Christmas tree, I cannot tell you whether that could have happened or not.

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In a collection of essays called “Holy Laughter”, Conrad Hyers says, “A common trait of dictators, revolutionaries, and ecclesiastical authoritarians alike is the refusal to laugh at themselves or permit others to laugh at them.”

Of course, “them” can easily mean “us.” At times we all take ourselves too seriously, forgetting to laugh at the mirror and refusing to let others see us as we are, as little children toddling toward the Kingdom. If we do not laugh at ourselves, and allow others to laugh at and with us, we tend to worship ourselves. Making fun of ourselves is like making a good confession. Letting others make fun of us is like accepting prophecy.

Many of the sayings of the Desert Fathers are pointed jokes. Did you hear the one about holy Abbot Moses? When he ran into some pilgrims who were coming to see him, the Abbot refused to act important and said of himself, “What do you want with him? The man is a fool and heretic!”

Did you hear the one about the disciple who was instructed to reward everyone who insulted him? For a period of three years, he agreed to exchange money for verbal abuse. When the three years ended, the disciple was relieved of his obligation and journeyed to Athens. When he tried to enter the city, he was greeted by an old man who immediately insulted him. The disciple burst out laughing. “Why are you laughing,” asked the old man. “Because,” the disciple replied, “for three years I have been paying for this kind of thing, and now you give it to me for nothing.”

Like the disciple in the story, we all need to act childlike, letting our laughter shine before men, even before grumpy old men. If we kill the laughter in our lives, some rough beast will rise up to fill the void. God spared Laughter (Isaac) and provided another sacrifice. The ram, a symbol of war, was burned up in Isaac’s place. Now some people in the world, and some people in the Church, would have us put Laughter back on the funeral pyre. In The Joyful Christ, Cal Samra says, “Humor is a balancing, disarming, and therefore peacemaking force that touches on the divine.”

Peaceful men and women have a divine sense of

humor, a healing force. They have an accepting way of rejecting things. The peaceful ones can fight without hating, and therefore seldom fight. As Cal Samra says, “It is possible to wage peace with humor.”

So did you hear the one about the two Desert Fathers who wanted to have a quarrel? The two holy men decided to fight over a brick — a good symbol for land and property — but neither of them won, because in their years of praying and fasting they had forgotten how to fight. “You say the brick is yours? Okay, then you keep it.”

The best humor occurs when the supernatural Gospel is acted out in real life: a three-star general turns the other cheek; a president of a major corporation works for minimum wage; a Paris fashion designer gives up the runway to make robes for nuns. Whenever someone lives out the Gospel, it is a hilarious contra-diction to what the world takes seriously. The world laughs at those who wish to be perfect. The

world laughs at people like Xenia of St. Petersburg who sold everything she had and gave the money to the poor. The world laughs and calls Xenia a fool. The Church smiles and calls her a Fool for Christ, and a Saint.

As we all know, the mirror can be the funniest place in the world. You should have seen me this morning. Thirty-five years old, and I’m still learning how to shave. I had lather up my nose and in my ears, and by some amazing law of bathroom physics, there was a blob of shaving cream snug as a bug in my belly- button. Was that God’s revelation that He really does favor Christians with beards? More likely, the mess was simply a matter of my own impatience, a daily sin of believing I’m too important to live in the given moment.

In Medieval England, there was typically one person who could challenge the ruling king and live. That was the court jester, foolish enough to spout the truth instead of flattery. And in sixteenth-century Russia, Ivan the Terrible would take no criticism from anyone except Basil the Fool. Perhaps today we all need to employ a jester, if not a Holy Fool, in our own little kingdoms.

Fall 2012

THE THEOLOGICAL NECESSITY FOR HUMORBY DAVID ATHEY

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One of the things that folks often mention when they’re making their confession is inattention during the divine services. So, I thought I would use this month’s column to talk about that important subject.

If we want to be focused during the services, one thing we can do is prepare adequately. And even if we can’t do all the prayers that the Church encourages us to do leading up to the Divine Liturgy, we can at least avoid over-stimulation from media. For example, if we stay up late Saturday night to watch an exciting movie and then read the paper or check out our favorite web-sites before we leave for Church—and then listen to music or text our friends right up to the very moment that we get out of the car and walk into the nave, then we’ll probably spend most of the Liturgy processing all those experiences and all that information instead of attending to what the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are trying to say to us. Another thing we can do is spend more time in the Divine Services. In fact, one of the main reasons why our services are so long is because the Church understands that it takes most of us a good while just to relax and calm down before we can ever get around to actually praying. A good rule of thumb that works for most people is one hour in the Divine Services equals about two minutes of genuine interaction with the Most Holy Trinity. Of course, that two minutes can be lifechanging and world-changing. However, if we never actually spend a full hour in the Divine Services, then we’ll never experience that two minutes of authentic prayer. So, the more time we invest in the services, the more focused we will be.

But what if you have an infant or a small child, and you’re constantly in and out during the Divine Liturgy? What if you are an usher or a chanter or you sing in the choir? Does that mean that you’re never going to be able to really communicate with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Of course not, because there is a special grace that accompanies each of those roles. Folks who are raising young children or helping with the service are performing important tasks, and the Most Holy Trinity is going to make sure that they get what they need while they are doing their jobs. But we’re not going to receive any special grace if we just wander in and out of the nave because we’re bored or because we don’t like to be still.

Still another thing we can do to stay focused during the services is to be honest about who we are. For example, if we are concerned about our health or stressed about our job or anxious about a family

situation, it’s not going to do any good at all to pretend like we’re not thinking about those issues. But rather than just obsess over those things, we should turn them into prayers. And there are lots of ways to do that: we can light a candle for each of those problems when we first go into the nave; we can make the sign of the cross or make a metania every time one of those subjects pops up in our mind; we can touch the priest’s vestments during the Great Entrance and attach all those topics to his intercessions; we can raise all of those issues up to the Most Holy Trinity when the deacon elevates the Holy Gifts over the altar. It may take quite a while and a lot of effort, but, eventually, we will clear all that stuff out of our hearts, and then we will be able to hear what the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are saying to us.

Worship is hard work—there’s no doubt about it. But it is the most important work that we do all week long, because it’s how we are getting closer to the Most Holy Trinity, it’s how the people we love are going to get closer to the Most Holy Trinity, and it’s how this world is being transformed through the love of the Most Holy Trinity. And the more attentive we are during at that work, the more those incredibly important goals will be realized.

Fall 2012

ON INATTENTION DURING THE DIVINE SERVICESFR. AIDAN WILCOXSON

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May an angel of God, my child, follow you and show you the path of God and of your salvation. Amen; so be it. I pray that God gives you health of soul, for this is a special gift of sonship which is bestowed only upon those souls that have been completely devoted to the worship and love of God.

The world attracts the youth like a magnet; worldly things have great power over the newly enlightened soul that just started to find its bearings and see its purpose in life and the duty calling him. “Friendship with the world is enmity with God. Whoever, therefore, wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” (Jas. 4:4 ) God has stored up pleasures for eternity, for both He and our soul are eternal. There is no comparison between the pleasures of the world and the pure pleasures of God.

The pleasures of the world are obtained with toil and expenses, and after their momentary enjoyment, they are followed by various consequences, so that they are incorrectly called pleasures. The pleasures of God, however, do not have such consequences, because spiritual pleasures down here on earth are the firstfruits of an eternal series of pleasures and delights in the kingdom of God. Whereas on the contrary, one who has been corrupted by the pleasures of the world is compelled to undergo eternal damnation along with the first instigator of corruption, the devil.

The time of our life, my child, has been given to us as a sum of money so that each of us may trade for his salvation, and depending on the trade we deal in, we shall become either rich or poor. If we take advantage of the “money” of time by trading to increase our spiritual wealth, then we shall truly be skilled traders, and we shall hear the blessed voice: “Well done, good and faithful servant! You were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord.”

At the end of our life, an exact account will be demanded of each one of us: how and where we spent the money of time, and woe to us if we have squandered it in movie theaters, in entertainments, in debauchery, in futile dreams, in carnal pleasures. Then what defense will our tied tongue be able to utter, and how will we be able to lift up our eyes and see our Christ, when He enumerates the countless benefactions which His boundless love profusely poured upon us?

Now that we have time, now that the money of time has not yet been spent completely and we still have it

at our disposal, let us reflect sensibly on the vagrant world which seeks to rob us. Let us push it away like a putrid dead dog, and with that money let us run to buy precious works which, when tried by fire, will become very bright—gifts worthy of our Holy God, fit to be used as a decoration in the holy Jerusalem of Heaven. We should not purchase chaff, that is, punishable works of darkness, for we shall go down with them into the eternal fire of damnation, where the multitude of people who embezzled God’s gifts will reap whatever they sowed! Sow good works with tears, and then in a time of visitation you will reap the sheaves of enjoying eternal life!

2. It is from God that you are being tested, because He is training you for battle; He is drilling you, just like the soldiers who are trained through severe labors in their drills. There, first they learn the theory of warfare, and then at the sound of the trumpet in the real war, since they have already been trained, they rush into the battle with the inner assurance that they know how to fight, and they are ready to sacrifice themselves for their cause and ideology.

You are also in a similar situation: since you have been called to become soldiers of Christ and to fight against His enemy, He trains you in order to ascertain your love towards Him: “Who is it that loves me, but he who keeps my commandments?” (cf. Jn. 14:21 )Take courage, my children; remain loyal and dedicated to Him Who has loved you with perfect love.

Before a battle begins, the generals boost the soldiers’ spirits by singing various battle hymns and relating various stories of heroic deeds to kindle their sense of self-sacrifice. This tactic gives them great strength and bravery in the battle about to be fought.

Likewise, we too should contemplate, as the Saints did, the struggles of the martyrs and of the holy monks: how they lived ascetically, how they renounced the world and everyone, and how nothing prevented them from following the path that leads to Jesus. This contemplation will greatly strengthen your good disposition and intention, for there have been many who were unaware of the concealed traps, with the result that their souls succumbed to temptation and thus they fell from the hope of eternal life.

Contemplate the love of our Jesus; the love of Jesus will overpower every other natural love. The more we renounce, the more love of God we shall enjoy.

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Let us attend on high, where Jesus sits at the right hand of God. Let our eyes look on high, for the eternal and everlasting things are above, not below; for everything here is dust and ashes. Reflect on the luxuriousness of heaven: the infinite wisdom of God is there; inconceivable beauty is there; the angelic melodies are there; the riches of divine love are there; the life free from pain is there; the tears and sighs will be taken away there; only joy, love, peace, an eternal Pascha, and an unending festival are there, “Oh, the depth of the riches and knowledge of God!” (cf. Rom. 11:33) “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” (1 Cor 2:9 ) Attend to the prayer; persevere in prayer, and it will put everything in order. Do not yield at all; remain firm in your holy goal. Remain beside Jesus to live with spiritual happiness. There is no happiness anywhere except in Christ. So-called “happiness” outside of Christ is incorrectly called happiness, since it is obtained with reprehensible means and since it ends quickly and leads man to the eternal unhappiness.

Struggle, my children; the angels are weaving crowns with flowers of paradise. Our Christ regards the struggle as a martyrdom—what is more excellent than to be a martyr for Christ!

3. I received your letter, my child, and we all rejoiced at your firm desire and wonderful aspiration for monasticism. “I have chosen to be an outcast in the house of my God rather than to dwell in the tents of sinners.” (Ps. 83:11 ) May no other love separate you from the love of Christ; consider everything rubbish so that you may gain Christ. The sufferings of this present life are not worthy to be compared with the future glory which will be given to those who struggle. (cf. Rom. 8:18 )Now is the time for struggles, afflictions, and labors for God; whereas the future is the time for crowns of eternal glory, rewards, praises, and dwelling together with the holy angels beside the supreme throne of God.

Youth passes by silently; the years roll by quietly, imperceptibly, like the water in a creek; hours disappear like smoke in the wind. This is how the present life passes and vanishes. God’s strugglers advance toward eternal prizes of glory, whereas the indolent and lovers of the world proceed towards an eternal damnation with the demons.

The allurements of the world and its pleasures will transform into eternal affliction and pain for those who delight in them, if they do not repent. While on the contrary, for the people of God a little deprivation will be recompensed by an eternal felicity and blessedness of God.

Do not let familial affection hinder you; reflect that you will be alone in the hour of death, and then you will need to have God as a helper. So if you love Him more than them, you will have Him. But if you succumb, you will reap the crops of bitter remorse all on your own. So for the love of our Christ, make the decision and begin your new life.

4. (To a spiritual daughter)Everything depends on your will. Entreat our

Panagia very fervently to warm your holy desire, so that you decide with self-denial to renounce the vain world along with that dream which is called life, and to follow Christ the Bridegroom, Who will give you Himself and His sweetest love, and will count you worthy to become an heir of His kingdom. Entreat the Panagia to help you make the holy decision, and when she does, make the sign of the cross and follow the salvific voice of Jesus, saying: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” (Mt. 16:24 )

In the dreadful hour of death, no one will help us; only the good works that we have done for God and our soul will help us. Therefore, since the monastic life in general consists of Works of God which are very conducive to our soul’s salvation, why shouldn’t we sacrifice everything to live such a life which will make us rich in the kingdom of God? “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Mk. 8:36)

The life of man hangs by a hair; at every step, our life hangs in the balance. How many millions of people woke up in the morning, never to see the evening? How many millions of people fell asleep, never to wake up? Indeed, the life of man is a dream. In a dream, one sees things that do not exist: he might see that he is crowned a king, but when he wakes up, he sees that in reality he is just a pauper.

In this life that we live, man labors to become rich, to become educated, to have an easy life, to become great; but unfortunately, death comes and foils everything. Then what he labored for all his life is taken by others, while he leaves life with a guilty conscience and a soiled soul. Who is wise and will understand these things and will renounce them and follow Christ the Bridegroom, so that all the works he will do will be recompensed infinitely in His kingdom?

Always, my daughter, remember death and the judgment of God which we will unavoidably undergo. Bear them in mind to have more fear of God, and weep for your sins, because tears console the soul of him who weeps.

Fall 2012

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St. John Chrysostom:Do you wish to honor the Body of the Savior? Do

not despise it when it is naked. Do not honor it in church with silk vestments while outside it is naked and numb with cold. He who said, “This is my body,” and made it so by his word, is the same that said, “You saw me hungry and you gave me no food. As you did it not to the least of these, you did it not to me.” Honor him then by sharing your property with the poor. For what God needs is not golden chalices but golden souls.

–St. John Chrysostom / “On the Gospel of St. Matthew”, 50, iii (PG 58, 508)

If you are a Christian, no earthly city is yours. Of our City ‘the Builder and Maker is God.’ Though we may gain possession of the whole world, we are withal but strangers and sojourners in it all. We are enrolled in heaven: our citizenship is there! Let us not, after the manner of little children, despise things that are great, and admire those which are little! Not our city’s greatness, but virtue of soul is our ornament and defense. If you suppose dignity to belong to a city, think how many persons must partake in this dignity, who are whoremongers, effeminate, depraved and full of ten thousand evil things, and at last despise such honor! But that City above is not of this kind; for it is impossible that he can be a partaker of it, who has not exhibited every virtue.

– St John Chrysostom, Homily 17 on the Commissioners

For what advantage is it, that the world enjoys profound peace, if thou art at war with thyself? This then is the peace we should keep. If we have it, nothing from without will be able to harm us. And to this end the public peace contributes no little: whence it is said, ‘That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life.’ But if any one is disturbed when there is quiet, he is a miserable creature. Seest thou that He speaks of this peace which I call the third (inner, ed.) kind? Therefore when he has said, ‘that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life,’ he does not stop there, but adds ‘in all godliness and honesty.’ But we cannot live in godliness and honesty, unless that peace be established. For when curious reasonings disturb our faith, what peace is there? or when spirits of uncleanness, what peace is there?

– St John Chrysostom, Homily 7 on 1 Tim 2:2-4

St. Basil the Great:Nothing is so characteristically Christian as being

a peacemaker.– St Basil the Great, Letter 114

I cannot persuade myself that without love to others, and without, as far as rests with me, peaceableness towards all, I can be called a worthy servant of Jesus Christ.

– St Basil the Great, Letter 203,2

I have learnt to know one who proves that even in a soldier’s life it is possible to preserve the perfection of love to God, and that we must mark a Christian not by the style of his dress, but by the disposition of his soul.

– St Basil the Great, Letter 106 (to a soldier)

St. Gregory of Nyssa:“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called

sons of God.” Who are these? Those who imitate the Divine love of others, who show forth in their own life the characteristic of the Divine energy. The Lord and Giver of good things completely annihilates anything that is without affinity and foreign to goodness. This work He ordains also for you, namely to cast out hatred and abolish war, to exterminate envy and banish strife, to take away hypocrisy and extinguish from within resentment of injuries smoldering in the heart. Instead, you ought to introduce whatever is contrary to the things that have been removed. For as light follows the departure of darkness, thus also these evil things are replaced by the fruits of the Spirit: by charity, joy, peace, benignity, magnanimity, all the good things enumerated by the Apostle (Gal 5:22). How then should the dispenser of the Divine gifts not be blessed, since he imitates the gifts of God and models his own good deeds on the Divine generosity? But perhaps the beatitude does not only regard the good of others. I think that man is called a peacemaker par excellence who pacifies perfectly the discord between flesh and spirit in himself and the war that is inherent in nature, so that the law of the body no longer wars against the law of the mind but is subjected to the higher rule and becomes a servant of the Divine ordinance.

– St. Gregory of Nyssa / The Lord’s Prayer and the Beatitudes, Ancient Christian Writers series, Newman Press

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When our hearts are reluctant we often have to compel ourselves to pray for our enemies, to pour out prayer for those who are against us. Would that our hearts were filled with love! How frequently we offer a prayer for our enemies, but do it because we are commanded to, not out of love for them. We ask the gift of life for them even while we are afraid that our prayer may be heard. The judge of our soul considers our hearts rather than our words. Those who do not pray for their enemies out of love are not asking anything for their benefit.

Jesus, our advocate, has composed a prayer for our case. And our advocate is also our judge. He has inserted a condition in the prayer that reads: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Sometimes we say these words without carrying them out. Thus our words bind us more tightly.

– St. Gregory the Great, “Be Friends of God”

St. Maximus the Confessor:

“But I say to you,” the Lord says, “love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who persecute you.” Why did he command these things? So that he might free you from hatred, sadness, anger and grudges, and might grant you the greatest possession of all, perfect love, which is impossible to possess except by the one who loves all equally in imitation of God.

– St. Maximus the Confessor

St. Ambrose of Milan:The peace which removes the enticements of

the passion and calms the perturbations of the spirit is loftier than that which puts down the invasion of barbarians. For it is a greater thing to resist the enemy inside you than the one far off.

– St. Ambrose of Milan, On Jacob 2,6,29

St. John Climacus:Remembrance of wrongs is the consummation of

anger, the keeper of sin, hatred of righteousness, ruin of virtues, poison of the soul, worm of the mind, shame of prayer… You will know that you have completely freed yourself of this rot, not when you pray for he person who has offended you, not when you exchange presents with him, not when you invite him to your table, but only when, on hearing that he has fallen into

bodily or spiritual misfortune, you suffer and weep for him as for yourself.

– St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent

St. Athanasius the Great:Where the Savior is named, there every demon is

driven out. Again, who has ever so rid men of their natural passions that fornicators become chaste and murderers no longer wield the sword and those who formerly were craven cowards boldly play the man? In a word, what persuaded the barbarians and heathen folk in every place to drop their madness and give heed to peace, save the faith of Christ and the sign of the cross? What other things have given men such certain faith in immortality as have the cross of Christ and the resurrection of His body?

– St Athanasius the Great, On the Incarnation, Chapter 8, 50

St. Isaac the Syrian:Let yourself be persecuted, but do not persecute

others.Be crucified, but do not crucify others.Be slandered, but do not slander others.Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with

those who weep: such is the sign of purity.Suffer with the sick.Be afflicted with sinners.Exult with those who repent.Be the friend of all, but in your spirit remain alone.Be a partaker of the sufferings of all, but keep your

body distant from all.Rebuke no one, revile no one, not even those who

live very wickedly.Spread your cloak over those who fall into sin, each

and every one, and shield them.And if you cannot take the fault on yourself and

accept punishment in their place, do not destroy their character.

St. Vladimir of Kiev:Above all things: forget not the poor, but support

them to the extent of your means. Give to the orphan, protect the widow, and permit the mighty to destroy no man. Take not the life of the just or the unjust, nor permit him to be killed. Destroy no Christian soul, even though he be guilty of murder.

Fall 2012

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ORTHODOX FAITH Summer 2012Fall 2012

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Lives of Saints for Young People(by Archbishop Lazar Puhalo)

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Synaxis Press is a monastic publishing house. It is a missionary outreach of The Canadian Orthodox Monastery of All Saints of North America. It is operated by the brotherhood with the intention of keeping the prices as low as possible. We endeavour to provide quality Orthodox Christian reading material, both for your own edification, and to help you witness to the Orthodox faith. All titles are carefully selected for purity of Orthodox content and complete conformity with the holy and God-bearing fathers of the Church.Our goal is to be the most dependable source of pure Orthodox Christian reading material in Canada and America. Your purchase of books from Synaxis Press makes you a participant in the missionary outreach of The Canadian Orthodox Monastery of All Saints of North America and helps sustain the Monastery.

Fall 2012

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1. The Lord nowhere wishes to compel man against his will, but everywhere makes use of our good will; it is through their own will that people are either good or evil. Therefore it is in vain that we accuse those living with us and surrounding us of hindering and impeding, as it were, our salvation or our spiritual perfection.

2. We receive profit from people only when we do not condemn them.

3. You complain about people’s unfairness in relation to you. But if you are striving to reign with Christ the Lord, then have a look at Him, how He acted towards the enemies surrounding Him who were demanding His death. It appears that He never complained about how His enemies behaved unfairly towards Him but, in all the horrible afflictions brought upon Him by His enemies, He saw only the will of His Heavenly Father.

4. You are upset that everyone is trying to humiliate you. If they are trying to humiliate you, that means they want to humble you; and you yourself are asking God for humility. Then why, after all this, do you let people upset?

5. Instruction and edification for one’s own life should be taken more from the example of Christ the Savior than from the example of people, in whom it is not possible to find full perfection, due to human weakness. Therefore we should not be upset, under a seemingly good pretext, when certain people do not give us the edifying example that we would have liked.

6. The Lord has the power to protect and defend those forcing themselves to live according to His holy commandments, if only they are not being careless in striving for mutual peace. Then the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace, and joy in life is found in mutual harmony, and every good success is achieved through peace according to God.

7. Seeing someone’s unfair action, rather than become irritated out of resentment, you must use wisdom to attain your purpose – if not in everything, then at least in that which is most important, or in whatever is possible.

8. Denunciations should take the middle way: one should neither wholly trust them nor entirely reject them, but await how the matter turns out.

9. We should not think that we can make somebody happy or successful. This belongs only to God and a person’s own will, if he abides prudently before his Creator.

10. Just as one pot bumps up against another pot, how much more does it happen that people living together bump up against one another. This comes about especially when people have different viewpoints about things: one thinks about one thing one way, while another thinks another way; one is convinced in his own ideas, which seem solid and fundamental to him, while another believes in his own understandings.

11. People look at the visible, but the Lord sees the inner arrangement of man and the actions of his conscience, both in relation to others and in relation to himself. When we cannot bring benefit to others for some reason, then let us at least work for our own spiritual benefit.

12. Although it is difficult and very insulting to suffer unfair opposition from people who should be defending the truth – not little people, but great and elevated ones – we will take comfort in the unprejudiced judgment of the One Judge of the living and the dead.

13. He who gives way receives three ounces and a half , but he who insists on his rights receives only one ounce, and sometimes not even one, when he gets upset and upsets another.

14. In the spiritual life it is an altogether good thing to explain oneself punctually and prudently, and to ask forgiveness punctually, so as to bring peace to one’s soul and give occasion for others to do the same.

15. Each of us ought to work more on himself, on his own soul, and for his own spiritual benefit, because, according to the words of the Apostle, each of us will give account of ourselves to God. We are confused by the fact that we are more inclined to chastise others, striving not only to convince but also to dissuade, and to make a demonstration by many different arguments.

16. When we are reproached and blamed for that of which we are entirely innocent, then we must turn our thoughts to those occasions when we were guilty before God or before people, and for the attainment of forgiveness of our sins we must forgive the unfairness and offences inflicted on us by our neighbors.

17. I will say this briefly. Contrive to acquire life and avoid death, living with those with whom one is living, and trying to have that which the Apostle commands: i.e., goodness, mercy, compassion, and love, which is the fulfillment of the law. How? Listen to the same Apostle: Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2).

Fall 2012

ON RELATIONS WITH ONE’S NEIGHBORSBY ST. AMBROSE ELDER OF OPTINA

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F R E E S P I R I T U A L G U I D A N C E

O V E R T H E P H O N E A N D A T H O M E

From now on any resident of Toronto and the surrounding area will be able to receive spiritual and psychological assistance, ask questions over the telephone or invite the priest to his/her home. This assistance is free of charge. Moreover, in case of urgent need priest will try to provide all possible assistance.Many people have a barrier in a conversation with a priest, and they might postpone this discussion for years.The task of spiritual instruction is precisely the restoration and

strengthening of the tradition of passing on, preserving, and increasing spiritual experience. The importance of this ministry is shown by the fact that in the Gospel the Lord Himself is called the Teacher. After all, He Himself gave us an example: the Savior walked through Palestine from end to end with His disciples. Christianity offers a very clear answer. Our faith, and the richness of our spiritual lives, is gained first of all through direct communion with God – that is, through

Sacraments of Church and prayer, by which one’s faith is established. Without this, according to Theophan the Recluse – theoretical knowledge and education are of little value. But, at the same time, this does not negate the value of knowledge, which is also an integral part of the spiritual life, one that can by no means be neglected. Why do we have so many problems today, including in the spiritual life? The whole trouble lies in the absence of Orthodox upbringing and of knowledge in the realm of theology. When

a child gains at least some understanding early on of what the spiritual life is, and of what faith is, then he can avoid many mistakes.Communication with the clergy is a step towards such people.After all, at the confession is usually no time to speak «heart to heart», and many need it in a confidential conversation.This is very important. During last four months Fr. Milan Radulovic and Fr. Boris Kriger visited over 90 homes.

Please, call us at (705) 635-3857

or email: [email protected]

25


Our Orthodox FaithBy Very Rev. Prof. Blagoy Tchiflianov

The temporary life begins with birth and ends with death. It has a beginning and an end. But the life in the world to come, while having a beginning, will have no end. That is, it will be eternal and it will be blessed for the believers and those who obey God’s will but will be an endless torment for the unbelievers and the sinners. What is eternal life? It is, above all, a defined state of the human soul. It does not depend on distance or time. Consequently, it begins here on earth. Jesus Christ says: “The Kingdom of God is within you,” that is, it begins and expands here on earth.

Price $ 7.50

ISBN 9781105658990Publisher: Altaspera Publishing & Literary Agency

Please, order through [email protected]

Fall 2012

Baptism, weddings, funerals, memorial services, prayer services for the health,

the consecration of apartments, houses, cars and other rites performed

by arrangement with the priest, at a convenient time for you

Rector Archpriest Milan Radulovic (647) 995-3011 [email protected]

Second Priest Boris Kriger (705) 635-3857 [email protected]

ADDRESS:33 Mosley St.,

Aurora, Ontario, L4G 1G8

Автобусы: #32, 33, 34, 98 YRT / VIVA Yonge St / Wellington, Yonge St / Church St

DIVINE LITURGIES

EVERY SUNDAY

Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Diocese of the USA, Canada, and Australia

HOLY ASCENSION ORTHODOX CHURCH IN AURORA, ONTARIOhttp://auroraorthodoxchurch.org/

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ORTHODOX FAITH Winter 2012

Fr. Milan Radulovich

Outlines of 20th Century Church History

Fr. Milan Radulovich, an Orthodox theologian, had written many articles on a subject of Liturgical Theology, Dogmatics and Holy Scripture. This is his first work on Church History subject.

Price $ 15.00

Please order through: Tel. (647) 995-3011,

[email protected]

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SACRED MURALS STUDIO

Icon-Writing Workshops

by iconographer Philip Davydov from RussiaSign up at www.sacredmurals.com or email:

[email protected]

orthodox faith fall 2012

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