…But he will rejoice

“When a man is born,” Metropolitan Amphilohije stated in today’s eulogy for Patriarch Pavle, “the entire world rejoices, only he weeps. But our lives must be lived in such a way that when that man dies the entire world will weep but he will rejoice.”

Another glimpse of true Orthodoxy

True Orthodoxy is not about rubrics and regulations, persistent and demanding dogmatics, magnificent buildings or over-the-top liturgical chanting, but "it is the day to day life of the simple believer," one such as the recently reposed patriarch Pavle of Serbia (memory eternal), of whom these anecdotes are told…

…a woman came to call on the patriarch. During their discussion, she happened to glance at the patriarch’s feet and the sight of his shoes shocked her… they were beat-up, torn, and cobbled-together old boots. The woman thought, “It’s shameful to us that our patriarch should go about in such clodhoppers. Surely, someone could get him a new pair of proper shoes?” Just as she was thinking this, the patriarch said, with great glee, “See what great shoes I have! I found them near the dustbins when I went to the Patriarchate. Somebody threw ‘em out, but, they’re real leather. I sewed ‘em a bit… see, they’ll last for a long time yet”.

Another woman came to the Patriarchate, demanding to speak with the patriarch on urgent business. During the audience, she said that the night before she dreamed of the Virgin. According to her, the Mother of God told her to bring money to the patriarch so that he could buy himself new shoes. With these words, the visitor tried to hand the patriarch an envelope with money inside. Patriarch Pavle, without taking the envelope, asked, “What time did you go to bed?” The woman, surprised, replied, “Well… somewhere around eleven”. “You know, I went to bed later, about four o’clock in the morning”, replied the Patriarch, “and I also dreamed of the Virgin and I asked her to tell you to take your money and give it to somebody who really needs it”. He didn’t take the money.

He could not only repair shoes or cobble himself new boots from old women’s shoes, but, if he saw that a priest had a torn cassock or cloak, he said to him, “Bring it to me, I’ll fix it”. He did the preparations before the service, and he cleaned up afterwards, washing the utensils, and hung up his cassock and cowl. He heard the confessions of the faithful and gave them communion. He didn’t eat much, much as the ancient Desert Fathers did.

One day, Patriarch Pavle was flying somewhere on an airplane. Over the sea, the plane shook as it entered a turbulent patch of sky. A young bishop, sitting next to the Patriarch, asked him if he thought that the plane was going to crash. His Holiness calmly replied. “For me, it’s just God’s justice. After all, I’ve eaten so many fish in my life that it’s not surprising if they now eat me”.

Wait a minute! There's more on Fr Milovan's blog, take a look…

Who do we think we are, and whose?

Jesus Christ is the reason for the existence of the Church. We are His bride, hidden in Him from before the beginning of the universe, and revealed to the world when they pierced His side, and we emerged as Eve did from the gash in Adam’s side.

Set your hearts on God’s kingdom first, and on His righteousness, and all these other things will be added as well.

If you make my Word your home, you will be my disciples, says the Lord Jesus Christ, and He adds, Whoever loves me keeps my commandments.

The institutional Church can exist from generation to generation by promoting itself, by tantalizing us with hope of salvation if we dedicate ourselves to participating in churchly activities. It is satisfied with us if we just show up on Sundays, and if some of us lend a hand in running its earthly functions.

In that institutional Church, however, is the actual Church in which live the apostles, the prophets, the martyrs—in brief, the saints—those who follow Jesus and who know Him and are known by Him. They do what He says, not for show, not for authority, not for reputation, not for money—just because He commands them, and they obey.

Only the obedient believe.
If anyone would be my disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me, says the Lord Jesus.

If we promote religion, we can worry about church statistics, and busy ourselves with trying to figure out why the youth, or any segment of the baptised members, are becoming less and less interested in “church,” and we can try to devise ways to stop this emigration of saved souls back to the world. We do this to no avail, because we are ourselves still part of this world to which they are slowly escaping, and we are using the world’s methods, thinking in a worldly way, and haven’t ourselves left this world.

If we promote Jesus Christ and the Gospel, who He really is, the living One who is in our midst, and live in His Word, making our home there, placing all our trust in Him on a moment-by-moment basis, learning of Him and taking on His yoke, then we ourselves have left this world behind and live already by faith in the new world that He has prepared for us. Then our lives become living words, testimonies of the Gospel in our very flesh, so that not only the youth of the Church, but even those we meet outside, are confronted by a new reality that invites them into itself. We become and are a city set on a hill that cannot be hid. We become for the world either the sweet fragrance of salvation or the stench of death, depending on their response to Christ, who lives in us.

The Church exists because it is in Christ and will always exist because He is in our midst. The question really is, who do we think we are, and whose?

Once we give the right answer, we will no longer have to be anxious for anything, because it is not we ourselves, but Christ in us, who does everything.

We will know the truth, and the truth will make us free.
And who doesn’t want that kind of freedom?

But can wolves become sheep?

Another interesting quote from John Chrysostom got me to wondering, "but can wolves become sheep?" Of course I know what he is getting at, and one must not exceed the reasonable limits of metaphor, but is metamorphosis possible for a wolf? Christ sends us out as sheep among wolves, but is it to seek out the "other sheep not of this fold that He shall also bring" or, again speaking metaphorically, can wolves be changed?

And He bids them have not only gentleness as sheep, but also the harmlessness of the dove. For thus shall I best show forth My might, when sheep get the better of wolves, and being in the midst of wolves, and receiving a thousand bites, so far from being consumed, do even work a change on them: a thing far greater and more marvelous than killing them, to alter their spirit, and to reform their mind; and this, being only twelve, while the whole world is filled with the wolves.

— John Chrysostom

Those Wayfarers

Those wayfarers and you called diaspora
Slaves washed in the blood of the Son
Known by the Father in mother’s womb
Souls of light and life sealed by the Spirit

The One is holy, yourselves also be holy
As the flower of your glory will wither
Know now the Lord’s endurance as your own
A precious thing never knowing shame

That you can rejoice in authentic faith
Know this necessary suffering is purposed
So that the fire might make pure gold
And receive the honor of Christ’s return

You keep this the Word of gospel given
Though not having seen with wakened eyes
Find for yourselves that joy inexpressible!
That foreseen end: a salvation full of glory

The fathers sought this affliction out
By prophecy spoken by our brothers
Virgin sisters suffered much in Christ
For glories mothers martyrs confessed

Christ did come at the appointed time
Both afflication and glory made one in Him
So that the stars’ motion from the first dawn
Might be vindicated in these last times

A promise that your purified hearts keep
In fervent love, that incorruptable seed,
Born again in obedience to truth and Spirit
Knowing the Word of God abides forever

Your former appetites offer no real comfort
That fall was in ignorance born in darkness
Now take a sober mind, gird your loins,
The pillar of fire now draws you to holiness

Drive out hate, and with it the spirit of lies
Care not for the wealth or land of others.
As the pure milk of the word passes your lips
So do not bespoil them by speaking evil.

Having tasted that grace of the Father
Set as more incorruptabile than gold,
Keep yourselves blameless without spoil
And prove His impartial justice in mercy.

May He the living stone of this spiritual house
Rejected by men, but chosen by God
Grant to you the holy priesthood that your
Sacrifice in spirit be made acceptable in Him

This is our living hope raised from the dead,
Preserved in Christ Jesus, perfected by the Spirit
Never fading, ever glorious, most radiant!
The Kingdom Triumphant come to pass. Amen.

— David Dickens, Nothing Hypothetical

Into our ship

Let us, then, cry out loudly with Peter's words, "Lord, save us." And if we are willing to receive Christ into our ship; that is, to have Him dwell in our hearts; we shall immediately find ourselves at the land to which we are hastening. What land is that? Clearly, it is the Promised Land, Heaven, the land of the meek, of them that refrain from evil. With them, then, may we also be vouchsafed to enter that land and be heirs of its good things; in Christ Jesus our Lord, to Whom be glory and dominion, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

— John Chrysostom

Of battle lines

I have good reason to thank God every morning when I awake to find a roof over my head, food if I want it, a car that works with gasoline in the tank, and a job to go to. I have good reason to thank Him for giving me a quiet rest in a safe and clean place, for granting me and my family the blessing of good health, and not least of all, a few very faithful friends.

This month I have extra cause to thank Him for surrounding me with such a great cloud of witnesses from whose lips and in whose lives I hear and experience such Truth, as I cannot remember anymore that anything in this world matters, but to follow Jesus.

Quoting some passages from Fr Stephen’s recent blog post In the Shadow of the Grand Inquisitor,

The case for power is always replete with good reasons. The case for forgiveness is weak in the extreme. It is generally the case that those who take the commandments of Christ so seriously that they actually seek to live them inevitably look like fools against those whose knowledge and cynicism wield worldly power.

Our human lives are repeatedly tempted to take up certain
"Christian" goals and implement them. Indeed, the increased organization and efficiency of modern man seems quite capable of eradicating hunger, abuse, neglect and the like. Strangely, the many efforts towards such worldly perfection (in the name of heavenly goods) has left history littered with failed schemes and occasionally vast amounts of carnage.

Christ did not come into the world to make bad men good, but to make dead men live.

It is not a great scheme through a united world, or a united Europe that will succeed in creating paradise on earth. I find it comical (were it no so tragic) that among the earliest accomplishments of the European courts is to banish crucifixes in the schoolrooms of Italian children. How many empty bellies will that feed? The Inquisitor (now in Strasbourg) will tell us it is for the children’s freedom.

The battle lines are not political (they never have been). The removal of one Inquisitor is simply to create a vacancy for the next. Indeed, the Christian response is not a response to the actions of man: it is a response to the actions of God.

[The] answer to the Grand Inquisitor is not a better-honed argument… it is the day to day life of the simple believer:
“Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world”
(1 John 4:4).

The answer of the Church, apart from everything else, is to live the transforming life of the indwelling Christ. Christians will be persecuted in this world. They will take away our crosses, smash our icons and tell us that we are wasting our time. They will tell us many things.

But Christ tells us:
“Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

Genuine love in action

This story was quoted in Fr Milovan's blog, in his comment to the post, LA Times Demonizes Patriarch Pavle.
I remember this incident when it happened. Thank you, Fr Milovan for bringing it back to our attention.

“…When [Patriarch Pavle] was the Bishop of Kosovo, he was brutally and severely beaten by a young Muslim man. So intense was this beating, that the frail Bishop almost died; and was in the Hospital for a few months. Upon his dismissal from the Hospital, the then Bishop Pavle went to the prison where the young man was incarcerated. He told the one who had almost killed him that he felt he needed to go home to his parents; because they needed him!

“Then he called the warden of the prison and demanded the young man’s release. When the warden refused, Bishop Pavle told him, ‘I have nothing against this young man; and I will not speak against him. Therefore, you must release him now!’

“What true Christ-like love, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ — love which bore a very special fruit: the young man was soon Baptized into the Orthodox Faith!…”

Genuine love

I am always amazed how voices from the past, especially the remote past, can yank us out of our smug satisfaction with our own era and vaunted superior set of cultural or spiritual values. We often take the Church Fathers for granted, paying little or no attention to them, but instead run after modern thinkers and writers, though not always doers, of the Christian faith. Book store shelves are bending with the weight of books by Max Lucado, Rick Warren, and T.D. Jakes, but rarely do we find the writings of those whose faithful lives and writings testify to “Christ among us” from the earliest days.
Why? Do we really think that Christianity just appeared in the 21st century? “Do you think the Word of God came out of yourselves? Or that it has come only to you?” asks the holy apostle Paul (1 Cor 14:36 Jerusalem Bible).

This morning, my faithful friend Presbytera Candace sent me another ageless gemstone of the wisdom of the early Church. This resonates in me very strongly, confirming from an ancient “life in Christ” something that I too have experienced and learned about the Lord, even living today near “the end of the ages.” This is a word about love, about who loves us, and why, and is expressed with more brevity and simplicity than this rambling introduction of mine; but this word is true. Like the words of holy and divine Scripture, drawn from them and leading us back to them, the humble teachings of our holy and God-bearing ancestors point us always to Jesus, the Word of God, and leave little of themselves to glory in.

[God disciplines] …not for any interest of His own, but for you and for your benefit alone. For this is genuine love, and love in reality: when we are beloved, though we be of no use to Him Who loves us, not that He may receive, but that He may impart. He chastens, He does everything, He uses all diligence, so that we may become capable of receiving His benefits, [chastising us], “so that we might be partakers of His holiness” (Hebrews 12:10).

— John Chrysostom

As a postscript…
Something about this quote from John Chrysostom reminds me of the following old Dutch hymn (circa 1625), which is traditionally sung in the autumn, around or at (American) Thanksgiving.

We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing;
He chastens and hastens His will to make known;
The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing:
Sing praises to His Name, He forgets not His own.

Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,
Ordaining, maintaining His kingdom divine;
So from the beginning the fight we were winning:
Lord, Thine be all the glory, The victory is Thine!

We all do extol Thee, Thou Leader triumphant,
And pray that Thou still our Defender wilt be;
Let Thy congregation escape tribulation:
Thy Name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free.

Yes, “He does everything, He uses all diligence, so that we may become capable of receiving His benefits.” Ameen!

Orthodoxy is God-manhood

“God is born on earth, and moreover He is born as a man: perfect God and perfect man – the unique God-man.”

“…another name for Orthodoxy is God-manhood.”

“Why is the God-man the fundamental truth of Orthodoxy? Because He answered all the questions that torture the human spirit: the question of life and death, the question of good and evil, the question of earth and heaven, the question of truth and falsehood, the question of love and hate, the question of justice and injustice. In brief: the question of man and God.”

“Only in Him, in the all-merciful Lord Jesus, does man, tormented by earthly tragedies find the God who can truly give comfort in every misfortune and sorrow, the Defender who can truly defend from every evil, the Savior who can truly save from death and sin, the Teacher Who can truly teach eternal Truth and Justice.”

“In order to acquire spiritual knowledge, a man must first be freed from natural knowledge.”

“The more a man devotes himself to natural knowledge, the more he is seized on by fear and the less he can free himself from it. But if he follows faith, he is immediately freed and “as a Son of God, has the power to make free use of all things….Faith can often ‘bring forth all things out of nothing,’ while knowledge can do nothing, ‘without the help of matter.’ Knowledge has no power over nature, but faith has such power. Armed with faith, men have entered into the fire and quenched the flames being untouched by them. Others have walked on the waters as on dry land. All these things are ‘beyond nature’….He who has faith will ‘lack nothing’….”

Quotations from Man and the God-Man, by Fr Justin Popovich

I am going to get a copy of this book! You can too, by clicking on the title above, which is linked to a webpage where you can buy a copy. As many of you know, I do not promote any book besides the Bible, and a very, very few other books and authors. Fr Justin Popovich is one of them. Great reading with a purpose and effect.

A big thank you to Fr Milovan for bringing this book to my attention at his blog, Again and Again.

Living witnesses

We are living witnesses of Jesus' divinity:
Jesus, who was hanged on the cross.

We are the loud and piercing heralds of this sign that was given.
We confess the power of the Cross that was raised on Golgotha after so many centuries have passed.

From where did this transformation originate?
How did a certain man who was hanged and crucified on a cross in Judaea as a criminal among two thieves conquer the entire world after his death?
How was mankind persuaded to acknowledge as God a man who died on the Cross?
How did mankind follow Him with self-denial, lifting as He did the Cross on its shoulders, ready to ascend eagerly to Golgotha with Him, ready to shed its last drop of blood on His behalf?

How did kings accept Him as the King of kings and the Lord of lords?
How did the nations and peoples decline to worship their own gods in order to offer worship to the crucified Jesus?
Why did they abandon their personal idols in order to honor that which was foreign, and the known to honor the unknown?
How did the cross of dishonor become a most Venerable Cross adorning the crowns of kings and emperors?
What power accomplished all these things?

The power of the Crucified One.
The power of the Son of God, Who descended from heaven.
His divine, almighty power made all these things happen.
His power is the power that conquered the world.

The disciples of the crucified Jesus did not have an army to lead.
They had no weapons.
They possessed neither a bag nor a staff.
Rather, as sheep among wolves, they preached the crucified Jesus, who was a scandal for the Jews and foolishness for the Greeks.
They did not preach with wise rhetoric, but rather with simple, powerful words.

Where, though, did this power come from?

Truly, this was an ineffable power, because with simple commands the fisherman, the tax-collector, and the tent-maker resurrected the dead, cast out demons, repelled death, muzzled philosophers' mouths, sealed orators' lips, defeated kings and rulers, and ruled over Greeks, barbarians, and all peoples.
This was because they preached the Gospel with authority all over the world.

How did the fishermen become Apostles and heralds of the revealed truths?
How did they catch the nations and peoples as fish in a net?

Peter had grown old casting nets on the shores of Tiberias.
How did he become a most-wise and most-eloquent speaker in one day, thus persuading thousands of Jews who had aged in the worship of the Old Law that the external grandeur of their ancient and revered worship was no longer pleasing to God, and that it would be abolished forever?

That all of its mystical services were nothing other than a shadow of the things to come, which were now being revealed?
That the traditions to which they were adhering were commandments of men that opposed God's law?
That He Whom they had condemned, the disregarded man Who breathed His last upon the Cross, is the Great Redeemer Himself, the awaited Messiah Who was pre-announced to them by the prophets?
That they are not the only object of divine providence's wonderful graces, but that all the nations of the earth are invited to share in the delight with them?

How did the fisherman successfully persuade the polytheistic Gentiles to purify themselves, render their thoughts spiritual, detach them from the dead matter they were accustomed to, and return them to the living God?
How did they separate them from the deceptive pleasures of the senses, cleanse them from the passions, and render them wiser than the wise?
How, especially, did they persuade them to worship a man who died on the Cross and transform before their eyes the foolishness of the Cross into heavenly wisdom?
How did the heralds of the Crucified One convince their new followers to denounce their secular interests and live subject to the disdain, humiliation, and derision, to disregard all types of pain and punishment, to resist all temptations, and to endure unto death in a teaching whose rewards are guarded for the next life?

Truly, it is a great mystery.

The foolish things of the world, the weak, the things that are despised, and the things that are not, put to shame the wise, they weaken the powerful, and they abolish the things that are!
He who was crucified on the Cross gave such power to His disciples!
God was hidden in the person of Jesus!
The Son and Word of God, Who contains everything, is contained in a body!
Man becomes a mystic of God's desires!
God's Spirit descends upon men!
Man foresees the future!
The infinite God communicates with finite man, the immaterial with matter, the Creator with creation, the Potter with clay!
God reveals Himself to people, God's Spirit refashions and renews man who has been corrupted by sin.
Man becomes a god; he becomes a communicant of the grace of the Holy Spirit!

In essence, these are truly unfathomable mysteries; their outcome, however, is clear.
We are incapable of understanding how God became man, but we realize that only the God-man was able to accomplish that which is a unique property of God.
We are incapable of understanding how man becomes god, but we realize that without God man could accomplish nothing, especially that which the men of God, that is, the Prophets, the Apostles, and all the Saints, accomplished.
The miracles are truly an enigma, but their power and outcome are obvious.

The Christian Faith is a mystery, but its truth is apparent from its power and effects; because the Christian Faith provides abundant evidence externally and bestows assurance internally.

All the above attest to the divine character of our Savior Jesus Christ, Who provided the great sign sought by the Jews. This sign proclaims most loudly the heavenly descent of the Son of God, Who came to save man in accordance with the will of His eternal Father.

— Nektarios of Pentapolis, Christology,
Part II, Chapter 8, Christ's Divine Nature attested to by the moral rebirth that took place in the world

Nothing so humble as love

Nothing makes a man so humble as love.

We perform the offices of servants to our friends, and are not ashamed; we are even thankful for the opportunity of serving them. We do not spare our property, and often not even our persons; for at times, dangers are also encountered for him that is loved.

No envy, no calumny is there, where there is genuine love. We not only do not slander our friends, but we stop the mouth of slanderers.

All is gentleness and mildness. Not a trace of strife and contention appears. Everything breathes peace.

—John Chrysostom

An argument won’t matter, but a Christian will

“Is the Orthodox faith a set of ideas or a divine reality?”

If it is a set of ideas then we’d better get our arguments together and do it soon.

Christ himself said, “…if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight…” But His kingdom is not of this world – it is not among the things that are passing away. It is that which is coming and it will never pass away. Many accompanying aspects of the Kingdom have come and gone and come and gone (I think of the outward trappings of empire and the like). Those things which have come and gone are of this world and should be of no concern to us.

The ability to remain silent even in the face of an invitation to argue is not weakness, but confidence in the truth.

The faith has never failed because we lacked good arguments and the will to carry them forward. The faith has failed at points because we failed to believe it.

If the Orthodox faith flourishes in this world, at this time, it will be because it flourishes in the lives of those who have embraced it.

We live in a 24/7 news cycle – marked mostly by talking-heads and interminable arguments. Does anyone actually believe that another argument, even when brought by a Christian, will matter?

An argument won’t matter. But a Christian will – precisely because an authentic Christian is so hard to find.

The words above are quoted from Fr Stephen's post I Don't Know About That. If you have never visited Fr Stephen's blog, Glory to God for All Things, I suggest you do it now, and then take a break, read your bible, pray, and thank God that Christians still exist who know these things.

That's what I'm going to do.

Prayers of entreaty and thanks

Born a Slave

I was born into a house of slavery, a slave
How then being freed do I spit on freedom?
Though I have mutilated my flesh
The beast rules me from Gehenna

Holy God, cut off my hands
That I might not be able to wrap my wrists again in chains

Holy Mighty, cut off my feet
That I cannot walk back to that accursed prison cell

Holy Immortal, cut out my tongue
That I will not cry out to my former masters to abduct me

If you must, destroy my body, my life, to save my very soul

Thanks Be

Thanks be to Him who opens doors, maker of life-giving crosses.
Thanks be to Him who manifests in all wisdom, redeems all time.
Thanks unto the One who gives grace in speech having been fulled with salt.
Thanks and again to He who lifted Adam from the dark pit.

Sender of prophets, Illuminer of dreams,
Gift of interpretors.

To Light, to Song, to Faithfulness,
To Grace and Abounding Love.

— David Dickens, Nothing Hypothetical

Three paintings by Orozco: Gods of the Modern World (top), Jesus the Liberator (middle), and Man of Fire (bottom) in the tholos-like dome of the Hospicio Cabanas in Guadalajara, Mexico

Matthew 28:20

The world encounters Orthodox Christianity. People hear about it and become curious, or they see it happening somewhere and maybe they are startled, or even put off. It is not something that one can take in all in an eyeshot, not even really in a panorama, except as one takes in a beautiful photograph or painting. All that can be seen that way is very superficial and almost meaningless, except as beauty has meaning without needing proof.

When they get a little closer to Orthodoxy, they want to hurry up and classify it. They want to ask questions, “Is it Catholic, is it Protestant, is it an Eastern religion, what is it?” but they nearly always want to classify it as a religion. Oddly, sometimes even people within Orthodoxy want to do the same, because they have taken on so many of the world’s expectations of what is needed, what is important. If it can be called a religion, then it can be firmly rejected, or firmly (and fanatically) accepted, and there it is. It’s been identified, pigeonholed, and done. “Yeah, I know what Orthodoxy is.”

But Orthodox Christianity is not a religion, though many of its adherents think of it that way. Orthodoxy is nothing less than the daily proclamation of a profound and powerful mystery—the resurrection of Jesus Christ—and the opening to all mankind, in every place and at every moment of time, the possibility of true brotherhood, and of divine sonship. The life of the Holy Triad is open to us, taking away the purposelessness of life alone in a Godless universe.

Jesus Christ came to pitch His tent among us, not only in His incarnation, but by His life-giving death and resurrection. He is the One who had become dead, and is alive again. He is no mere historical figure to be studied and speculated about. He was, is and is to come, the single most active Person in the history of the human world. He is here now among us.
He is calling us at this very moment, not to religion, but to follow Him.

Who can refuse His call? and why would anyone want to?

ιδου εγω μεθ υμων ειμι
πασας τας ημερας
εως της συντελειας του αιωνος

Behold, I am with you,
every day,
unto the very end of time.
Matthew 28:20

From the ‘Golden-mouthed’

Your Master loved those that hated Him, and called them to Him; and the weaker they were, the greater the care He showed them. And He cried and said, “They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick” (Matthew 9:12). And He deemed publicans and sinners worthy of the same table with Him. And as great as was the dishonor wherewith the Jewish people treated Him, so great was the honor and concern He showed for them—yea, and much greater. Emulate Him.

— John Chrysostom

Yes, just follow Jesus!

Three years in Damascus

I cannot go to Jerusalem to confer with flesh and blood
But spend three years in Damascus eating bitter herbs

The love of my father was still in my heart
In ears were full of my mother’s teaching

This family knew me because they made me
The unmaking returned to them a stranger

O they were proud
O I did excell
In all the teachings
Rhetorics and rules

O lost loves
O forgotten days
Better, I be mute
Than speak against you

But what I received now was not from man
Is it possible for feet to unwalk a road?

I call honors loss; I name fame as dust
There is one consolation I offer my loves

Take no offense at these words, but hear if you have ears
That I am becoming nothing because of Him who is all

— David Dickens, Nothing Hypothetical

“We know...” 1 John 2:3-5

“We know that we have come to know Him if we obey His commands.”

What is the assurance of our knowledge of Him—that we truly are His? Our assurance is our obedience to His commandments. Moshe's Law has been superceded by Mashiach's Law. And does Messiah's law contradict and go against Moshe's? Far be it—no it refines and brings to a point the commandments that the leader of the Exodus inaugurated for all Yisrael. Yet, not only did the Son of Man fulfill all of Moses' commands, He even fulfilled those that He Himself inaugurated at His first appearing. Having appeared in the flesh, the Second Adam (whose composite was that of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin's womb) did all that the first Adam (composed of God's breath and virgin clay) could not and failed to do. We must obey His commands because...

“...The man who says, ‘I know Him,’ but does not do what He commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him...”

So are you a liar? Am I a liar? I claim to know Him. Better to not claim to know Him and disobey, perishing apart, than to claim to know Him and yet still disobey, perishing close and within. Disobedience, then, is the assurance and testimony against us that we are liars, just as obedience is our support and testimony of acceptance. And as lies have no association with truth, so liars are filled with lies and not truth. We are commanded not to be liars, but to be “truthers.”

“...But if anyone obeys His word, God's love is truly made complete in him...”

Yet, obedience does something more. To know the Word, you must obey the word. Doing so brings the completion—God's love perfected. And we know that if something is complete, perfected-love, by the truth, then it cannot be undone. The Lie and lies can never complete love. The Truth, the Lord Christ Jesus and His truth, the Word of God, finishes the love of His God.

— Brock James Smith

Glimpses of true Orthodoxy

Lately I have encountered some very frightening evidence of a militant and unchristlike form of Orthodoxy that seems to be resurging in certain jurisdictions, now that they have been delivered from the scourge of Godless communism. It seems only a matter of time before this cancer may subvert true Orthodoxy, substituting cold formalism and pompous authoritarianism for the warm and merciful spirit of brotherly love and selfless leadership that I experienced when I first entered Holy Orthodoxy.

Whenever it seems we're going to lose that true Orthodoxy, I think on the saints I have personally known, and those I have read about, and I entreat the Lord to not leave us without such testimonies of true Christianity in our midst. Reading about times of true Orthodoxy in the past, helps keep it before our eyes. Here are some reminiscences of Sergei Fudel, from his book Light in the Darkness, glimpses of true Orthodoxy that I'd like to share with all my brethren in Christ…

I saw Father Alexei Mechev several times, at home and when he celebrated in church. I remember the childish pleasure he took in small courtesies extended to the least “important” of his visitors, holding their overcoats for them, etc.

“Some people call me clairvoyant,” he once said. “It is not clairvoyance, it's just knowing people. I can really discern what they feel, as if their feelings lay in the flat of my hand,” and he turned up his thin, dry hand to illustrate his words. He was very slight of build, quick in his movements, with a kind of irrepressible joyousness shining from his wise, all-seeing eyes. He was so different from the usual, somewhat sombre, clerical image of pre-revolutionary Moscow clergy, a real bearer of the “eternal joy” of the Easter service.

Before being ordained to the priesthood my father, Father Joseph Fudel, worked as a civil servant at the Moscow Court of Justice. He was recently married and lived with my mother in a small apartment. It happened at that time that a nun that he knew committed a sin of adultery, was expelled from her monastery and underwent much hardship. She was young and beautiful. My mother especially remembered her beautiful, long hair.

My father came home one day and told my mother that the young woman was in desperate need and homeless. “Will you mind if we take her in?” he asked. My mother burst out crying and hugged him, “in a strange feeling of gratitude,” she said later. The expelled nun made her home with my parents.

I believe that my father, who had never studied in a seminary, passed his final examination for the priesthood on that day. He was ordained by the remarkable Bishop Alexis of Vilno. In a letter we received after my father's death, one of his spiritual daughters wrote, “I remember his last sermon. He spoke about the Lord's Mother and seemed to be shining with joy and a sense of victory. He finished by quoting the words of Bishop Dimitri of Rostov, ‘Rejoice, sinners! The righteous will be led to heaven by Saint Peter the Apostle, and the sinners by the Mother of our Lord herself.’” This message I keep in my heart, when my heart is not dead, and on this note of joy I can end my recollections of him.

The first years after the revolution, 1917~1919, were a time of amazing spiritual uplift, a kind of lightheartedness. We stood at the threshold of a new period in church history. We were terrified, watching the great black clouds gathering, and at the same time we were breathing an air of unknown spiritual freedom.

Something in the life of the Church was returning to its pristine purity and simplicity, something was coming up from underneath centuries of secularization, hypocrisy and externalism. It was the time when Rublev's icon of the Holy Trinity had its heavily bejeweled silver covering of later centuries taken off. Human hearts were rediscovering the joy of the forgotten “first love.” The Church was rediscovering its sacrificial character. It was a frightening and joyous time for us who were young then.

—Sergei Fudel, Light in the Darkness, pp. 100-102.

Confidence in God

Psalm 11, painting by Christa Rosier

Psalms for the 2nd Day
9 10 11 12 13 14

י יא יב יג יד טו טז יז
Hebrew Tehillim

יא

א לַמְנַצֵּחַ, לְדָוִד:בַּיהוָה, חָסִיתִי--אֵיךְ, תֹּאמְרוּ לְנַפְשִׁי; נודו (נוּדִי), הַרְכֶם צִפּוֹר

ב כִּי הִנֵּה הָרְשָׁעִים, יִדְרְכוּן קֶשֶׁת, כּוֹנְנוּ חִצָּם עַל-יֶתֶר--לִירוֹת בְּמוֹ-אֹפֶל, לְיִשְׁרֵי-לֵב

.ג כִּי הַשָּׁתוֹת, יֵהָרֵסוּן-- צַדִּיק, מַה-פָּעָל

.ד יְהוָה, בְּהֵיכַל קָדְשׁוֹ-- יְהוָה, בַּשָּׁמַיִם כִּסְאוֹ:עֵינָיו יֶחֱזוּ-- עַפְעַפָּיו יִבְחֲנוּ, בְּנֵי אָדָם

.ה יְהוָה, צַדִּיק יִבְחָן: וְרָשָׁע, וְאֹהֵב חָמָס--שָׂנְאָה נַפְשׁוֹ

.ו יַמְטֵר עַל-רְשָׁעִים, פַּחִים: אֵשׁ וְגָפְרִית, וְרוּחַ זִלְעָפוֹת--מְנָת כּוֹסָם

.ז כִּי-צַדִּיק יְהוָה, צְדָקוֹת אָהֵב; יָשָׁר, יֶחֱזוּ פָנֵימוֹ

Lam’natzéach l’David:
B’Adonay chasíti, eykh tom’ru l’nafshi,
núdi harkhem tzippór.

For the choirmaster, of David:
In YHWH I take shelter, how can you say to me,
‘Bird, fly back to your mountain?’

Ki hinnéh haresha‘im yidrekún késhet,
kon’nu chitzám al yéter,
lirot b’mo ófel l’yishrey lév.

See how the wicked are bending their bows
and fitting their arrows to the string,
ready to shoot the upright from the shadows.

Ki hashatot yéharesún,
tzadik mah pa‘ál?

When foundations fall to ruin,
what can the virtuous do?

Adonay b’heykál kodshó,
Adonay bashamáyim kis’ó;
eynáv yechezú,
afapáv yivchanú b’ney Adám.

YHWH is in His holy Temple,
YHWH whose throne is in heaven;
His eyes look down at the world,
His searching gaze scans all mankind.

Adonay tzadik yivchán,
v’rashá‘ v’ohév chamás san’áh nafshó.

The virtuous [and the wicked] are under YHWH's scrutiny,
and His soul hates anyone who loves brutality.

Yamtér al reshayim pachím;
ésh v’gafrít v’rúach zil‘afot m’nat kosám.

He rains coals of fire and brimstone on the wicked,
He serves them a scorching wind to swallow down.

Ki tzadik Adonay,
tz’dakot ahév,
yashar yechezú fanéymo.

YHWH is righteous,
He loves virtue,
upright men will contemplate His face.

Hebrew text: Sefer Tehillim
English text: Jerusalem Bible (1966)



Just as Jerome and the monastic women under his care chanted the psalms in the original Hebrew in their monastery in Bethlehem, I also like to read and pray the Psalms in Hebrew as well as in the English of my favorite bible version,
The Jerusalem Bible.


Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.
—Jerome's Prologue to the Commentary on Isaiah

Theophilus the New Martyr of Zakynthos

This morning in Tangerang, Indonesia, our brother in Christ, Yudi Kristanto, was joined by holy baptism and chrismation to Christ's one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. At the same time, a Russian convict held in a prison there was also baptised. In a strange twist of fate and meaning, a man in chains became free, and a free man voluntarily became a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, both washed clean of sin in the same water of baptism. Yudhie took the name Theophilus, which was given to him by his dear mother Indiyati before she reposed about seven years ago.

There are many saints with the name Theophilus (Θεοφιλος, Theóphilos in Greek) starting with the brother to whom evangelist Luke addressed his gospel and the book of Acts. The ikon we found was of a later Theophilus, a new martyr in fact, and so this saint is one of Theophilus Yudhie's name day saints. To mark this day, I want to post the story of new-martyr Theóphilos of Zákynthos along with two ikons of him.

Theophilus was born in Zakynthos in 1617. He was a seaman by profession. While on a voyage he had a dispute with the ship's captain, who acted in a very disrespectful manner. When the ship arrived at Chios, its destination and the home island of the captain, Theophilus left his service. At that point, a certain Turk whom he met there offered to take him aboard his own ship. Because the man was a Muslim, however, Theophilus did not want to work for him or have anything more to do with him. The Turk was persistent, and he would not take "No" for an answer. When Theophilus resisted, the Turk had no other recourse but to slander. He began to accuse him of wearing a Turkish fez, a type of headgear that was prohibited to Christians. Then with others the Turk beat him and dragged him before the Turkish authorities. In front of the judge, they presented their false testimony, that he had been wearing a fez, and so demanded that he must become a Muslim.

Hearing these accusations, Theophilus could not be shaken from his faith in Christ. The usual procedure was followed by the authorities—first, tempt him with flattery and promises of reward, and then if that didn't work, threaten him with harsh punishments and death.

In spite of their failure to convert him, Theophilus was forcibly circumcised (the sign of Islamic membership), and then it was decided to send him on to Istanbul as a "gift" for the sultan, because he was very good looking and only 18 years old. Their plan miscarried, though, for Theophilus was left unguarded during one of the Muslim prayer times, and he escaped.

He hid himself for three days and nights while they searched for him, but he hadn't any food, and he was very hungry. He went to the home of the captain that he had parted from, who gave him food. Then he hid out in a church till he could escape the island and caught a boat going to Samos, where he stayed for awhile. Not being able to stay there, he returned to Chios and to his former captain, but very quickly he was recognized by those Turks who had accused him. They had him arrested and again brought before the Turkish judge.

After numerous hearings at court, and numerous beatings and tortures, because Theophilus would not convert to Islam (which his accusers now claimed he had been a member of, and had abandoned—remember, they had circumcised him), the judge sentenced him to death by being burned alive.

The Turks brought Theophilus to a place in front of the church of Saint George the Great Martyr and started a huge fire. In their cruelty, they forced him to carry the wood to fuel it and to load it to such a height that he could be placed inside the heap. They say the fire was so high and blazed so bright that you could see your way to Chios town at evening by its light.

Entering the flames of his own will, Theophilus began to chant in the midst of them,
"O God of our fathers, blessed art Thou…" Then, making the sign of the cross, he prayed, and cried out "into Thy hands, my Christ, I commend my soul!" and he surrendered his soul into the hands of God, receiving the crown of martyrdom on the 24th day of July, 1635.

Now, God who glorifies those who glorify Him, honored the martyr not only in heaven but on earth as well. For at the destruction of his flesh, a strong and wonderful fragrance emanated from the fire to the comfort of the Christians and the discomfort of the Muslims watching his end. Therefore, to mask the fragrance and to dishonor the martyr whose life they had just taken, the Turks threw a swine into the fire so the air might reek of burning flesh rather than of the fragrant relics of the confessor of Christ. But in vain did they connive. As soon as the flames touched the bound feet of the pig, it escaped and ran. The fire continued burning its sweet incense to the risen Christ, and Theophilus joined the innumerable host that holy apostle John the Revelator saw.

After that I saw a huge number, impossible to count, of people from every nation, race, tribe and language; they were standing in front of the throne and in front of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palms in their hands. They shouted aloud, "Victory to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!"
Revelation 7:9-10 Jerusalem Bible

One of the elders then spoke, and asked me, "Do you know who these people are, dressed in white robes, and where they have come from?" I answered him, "You can tell me, my lord." Then he said, "These are the people who have been through the great persecution, and because they have washed their robes white again in the Blood of the Lamb, they now stand in front of God's throne and serve Him day and night in His sanctuary; and the One who sits on the throne will spread His tent over them…"
Revelation 7:13-15 Jerusalem Bible

The life of the Holy Triad

Human society has been evolving over the centuries from very integrated, homogeneous populations with little or no individual liberties under authoritarian rulers, to very diverse populations with almost unlimited individual freedoms under representative, limited rulers.

The first model of society, a patriarchal monarchy, was an enlarged version of the patriarchal nuclear family. Father rules, mother supports and advises, children obey and are mentored by both. Father’s religion, his political beliefs, his ethics are passed on to mother and children, all questions barred. Hence, the early states of human culture.

Hebrew society, homogeneous, and kept so by pruning, as needed. Greco-Roman society, far less homogeneous, but still held uniform by use of force, even brutal force. Christian society, again more homogeneous like its Hebrew ancestor, and kept so by authoritarian structures modeled on the nuclear family, as before.

Christian society, having within itself something new that was also nascent in Hebrew and Greco-Roman society, the concept of individual as opposed to group identity, evolved and continues to evolve into a society which grows more diverse and individualistic, undermining the bases of all prior human societies.

It has been assumed since the beginning of the age of revolutions (probably the Puritan revolution in England, perhaps earlier) that there is such a thing as human rights, and by that it is assumed, individual rights. With each succeeding revolution, 1688 in England, 1776 in America, 1789, 1830 and 1848 in France, this concept of the individual as paramount, even over every earthly power or authority, has grown in strength and momentum.

Most of these ideas of individual liberty find their origin in the bible, specifically the New Testament. Why, then, the rise of Christian societies that were still every bit as authoritarian and ignorant or contemptuous of human rights as their predecessors? There is a tension in the gospel which is in fact inherited from the Hebrew prophets between the individual and society, both seeming to make demands on us, ethically. It’s this tension, or ambiguity, that lies at the root of what is currently happening in modern society.

Traditional society is based on the family. Modern society is based on the individual. Where does Christian society fit into this, and is there even such a thing?

It goes even further back than this. Traditional societies are organic in the same way that the bodies of complex life forms are organic. The individual cells in a human body have different functions, but none of them has the right to go its own way. None can leave the body, except by death. Dead cells are excreted and replaced by new. Again, the cells in a complex life form have no free will. They are what they are by coming into being as part of an organism.

Modern societies are, from this viewpoint, inorganic. They are something like clusters of single celled organisms that can stay together, creating an illusion of society, but which can go their own way, or even operate against an enveloping cluster in which they find themselves engulfed.

The seemingly unstoppable momentum of modern world society, evolving from traditional, organic societies with little individualism, to a single inorganic one in which individualism is the priority, is actually an illusion. What is happening is, non-individuals are being converted into individuals momentarily, so that they can be reincorporated into a new authoritarian anti-individualism even more brutal than the worst of those seen earlier in history.

The world wants to be a society of individuals with total liberty, and that makes true society impossible, because individual wills seek their own good, not the good of society. The only way, then, to have any semblance or illusion of society at all is to impose authority once again, and there is no way to do this other than by violence to the individual in one form or another.

Nascent within Christian society, even from its beginnings, is the society described by the prophets of Israel, and realized by the first disciples of Jesus Christ. For lack of a better term, I will call this “true society.” Later on, I will give it its proper name.

True society looks like traditional society because it is organic, based on nature, but that is only the beginning. True society has perfect individual liberty, because every individual will is attuned to and voluntarily in agreement with one Mind. Individual wills seek the good of society because they want to, not because they must. Why would they want to? Because love binds them together, not force. Where is there such a society, if it exists?

The life of the Holy Triad is exactly that kind of society. That life was hidden from mankind until the coming of one of the divine Persons in that Triad, namely Jesus Christ, to earth. In His life and commandments we see the possibility of true society, of living the life of heaven on earth, which is the life inherent in the Holy Triad.

This is the society that we were made for, at once patriarchal, familial, ordered, yet providing the greatest degree of personal, individual liberty. Christ came to free us from our passions, and He has accomplished that work in those who follow Him.

This is no “giving us freedom to take it away again.” That is the game of religion. No, the very life of the Holy Triad is open to us, we too can be One just as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are One. That is the essence of Jesus’ high-priestly prayer for us.

The world will continue moving in the direction of greater and greater “freedom” towards a destination of totalitarian chaos, as organic and living society devolves into inorganic and dead society. It has already realized that it cannot have it both ways, and so the machine has begun to take over the functions of the living man.

We who are in Christ, brethren, are moving in the opposite direction, as death is being put to death in us, and we are being raised to life like the son of the widow of Nain.

That procession was heading for the graveyard. Jesus and His disciples were going the other way, and He took death captive, releasing a dead man to life. Let us love one another, and insist on nothing less than living the life of the Holy Triad, the only true society unto the ages of ages.

What matters

The following is the best piece of writing about "what matters" that I probably have ever read. I wish I were the author, but since I'm not, at least it makes me very happy that I know the author a little bit. It is Fr Stephen who writes the blog Glory to God for All Things. He reprinted these words, which he wrote when he first starting blogging, in his post To Live Without Distraction.
Αξιοι οι λογισμοι σου, πατερ αγιε, και αξιος ει συ.
Axios, Fr Stephen, axios!

God matters and what matters to God matters. I know that sounds very redundant, but I’m not sure how else I want to say it. There are many things that do not matter – because they do not matter to God. Knowing the difference between the two – what matters to God and what does not requires that we know God.

And this is theology – to know God. If I have a commitment in theology, it is to insist that we never forget that it is to know God. Many of the arguments (unending) and debates (interminable) are not about what we know, but about what we think.

Thinking is not bad, nor is it wrong, but thinking is not the same thing as theology. It is, of course, possible to think about theology, but this is not to be confused with theology itself.

Knowing God is not in itself an intellectual activity for God is not an idea, nor a thought. God may be known because He is person. Indeed, He is only made known to us as person (we do not know His essence). We cannot know God objectively – that is He is not the object of our knowledge. He is known as we know a person. This is always a free gift, given to us in love. Thus knowledge of God is always a revelation, always a matter of grace, never a matter of achievement or attainment.

It matters that we know God because knowledge of God is life itself. “This is eternal life,” Jesus said, “to know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.”

The Orthodox way of life is only about knowing God. Everything we do, whether it is prayer, communion, confession, forgiveness, fasting – all of it is about knowing God. If it is about something else, then it is delusion and a distraction from our life’s only purpose.

Knowing God is not a distraction from knowing other persons, nor is knowing other persons a distraction from knowing God. But, like God, knowing other persons is not the same thing as thinking about them, much less is it objectifying them.

Knowing others is so far from being a distraction from knowing God, that it is actually essential to knowing God. We cannot say we love God, whom we have not seen, and hate our brother whom we do see, St. John tells us. We only know God to the extent that we love our enemies (1 John 4:7-8).

And this matters.

This blog does not matter – except that I may share something that makes it possible for someone to know God or someone may share something that allows themselves to be known. This matters.

My heart is ready, O God

The following is from the blog of a friend of mine, David R., who just got in touch with me today after many years. You can read his entire post by clicking HERE. I want to share this wonderful word of faith with you, and also invite visitors to my blog to visit his, Finding The Way To The Heart.

On the Heart Ready for God

Homily for October 26-St Demetrios the Myrrh-Gusher, Prologue of Ohrid vol 2, p.450 by St Nikolai Velimirovich

My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready.
Psalm 57:7

Brethren, blessed is he who is able to speak like this to his Lord! Blessed is he whose heart is completely ready to follow the will of God. The readiness of the heart of man lies in this: to joyfully follow the will of God and not be confused by one's own thoughts and desires.

At first, the repentant King David had followed his own sinful thoughts and desires, and was like a boat on a stormy sea. However, when he realized that the storm was going to drown him, he turned to God with great repentance and tears, and turned the boat of his life entirely over to God.

"My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready," he cried out with great peace of soul, for he knew that he had given his boat into the hands of the Most-skilled Helmsman. The storm still raged and the winds and waves still assaulted him, but he was not afraid, convinced that nothing could smash his boat, and that his boat would sail safely to a calm harbor.

A ready heart means a heart cleansed of pride and humbled before the majestic power and wisdom of God. A ready heart means a heart emptied of all worldly desires and illusions, and filled with nothing but aspirations toward God and love for God. A ready heart means a heart that is healed of all restlessness, cares and fears, and is quieted and encouraged by the presence of God's grace.

"I will sing and give praise in my glory," continues the Psalmist. This shows that his heart is truly ready—he is not proud of his royal glory but ascribes it to God. He humbled himself before God as nothing, and now his sole pleasure is to magnify and glorify God. His personal glory only gives him a reason for glorifying His All-glorious God.

O my brethren, let us endeavor that our hearts be ready before God: ready to hear the word of God, ready to follow the will of God, ready to glorify the Living God.

O Lord God, our immortal Creator, help us to ready our hearts, that they may be vessels of Thy life-giving grace. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.

Human history without prophecy

And it came to pass the day after, that he went into a city called Nain; and many of his disciples went with him, and much people. Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow: and much people of the city was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not. And he came and touched the bier: and they that bare him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother. And there came a fear on all: and they glorified God, saying, That a great prophet is risen up among us; and, That God hath visited his people.
Luke 7:11-16 KJV

"…human history without prophecy is nothing but a funeral procession. And the task of prophecy is to stop that procession in the very same way Jesus stopped the procession in this morning’s gospel reading. And, of course, the most singular act of prophecy in the history of the world and man is that day when Christ rose from the dead."

The passage quoted above is from Fr Milovan's post Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost, and if you want to read more, just click on the link. The passage quoted spoke mightily to me, but so does the whole essay.

Human history without prophecy is nothing but a funeral procession.
Amen, Fr Milovan, amen!

Life shall go for life

And thine eye shall not pity; but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
Deuteronomy 19:21

Things take time. The saying goes, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” Another saying I learned from my mentor when I was catechized into the Church, “A fast change in Orthodoxy is one that takes about four hundred years.” I noticed, when studying Rabbinical Judaism, that converts are not readily received. A man approaches the rabbi and says, “I want to become one of you,” and the rabbi rebuffs him, scorns him even, and tells him to go away. The man is undaunted; he comes back, gives it another try. The rabbi receives him a bit more kindly, but explains to him that becoming a Jew won’t be good for him: Jews are plagued by so many persecutions; he surely won’t be able to take it. Again, he is rebuffed, and sent away. The man is confused, but determined. He returns, insisting to the rabbi that he is serious and begins to show reasons why he wants to be one of the chosen people. The rabbi listens a little longer, challenges him again, but lets him stay, just this once. Gradually, the persistence of the convert and the reluctance of the rabbi results in either final acceptance or final rejection. The process takes time.

The Orthodox Church in America, not the jurisdiction but the fact, also by and large throws obstacles in the way of converts racing to the finish line, to slow them down a bit, while at the same time offering hospitality, the “love of strangers” to those who come hesitantly, meekly, to observe the ways of Orthodoxy. It is not as some have unjustly criticized, a convert-hungry, mechanical contraption that sucks in converts like a whale feeding on plankton. A true convert coming to Orthodoxy is often like Jonah, fleeing from God only to be swallowed and caught in the belly of a whale—and that’s no plankton! Unlike Jonah, however, the convert is not spewn out to languish in self-pity under a withering vine, upset because “outsiders” are repenting and being saved. Rather he or she is spewn out of the Orthodox incubator, the process of formal and informal catechesis, to be sent to others, as they are now “in Christ,” as His witnesses.
We are all familiar with the high profile evangelistic crusades wherein a preacher comes and exhorts the audience to turn from their sins and accept Christ, and then people start streaming up to do just that, and to be prayed over, and ostensibly start their new life in Christ. Whatever is really happening in these crusades, God knows. But the world looks on, uncomprehending, because what it often sees is what Christ described as “seed falling among thorns,” and it is not convinced. The world wants it all right now, and expects that if Christ is the God that His followers claim He is, that’s how it should work. The truth is quite different. Conversion to Christ and life in Him may be instigated by a lightning strike, but that isn’t how it is maintained, grows, and bears fruit. Salvation is a process.
It takes time.

The law of Torah cited above from the book of Deuteronomy is a familiar one. We’ve all heard it at least in its shortened form, “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” We all know this has something to do with crime and punishment, or with justice, but certainly not with mercy. It seems very unmerciful, in fact. If we know our bibles, we remember that Christ used this scripture to build upon it His teaching that we should “turn the other cheek” if we are struck on one. We think that is the end of it. Nothing more needs to be said. It’s just an ideal we are supposed to strive for, but rarely succeed. We’re all too ready to smite the offender, give “eye for eye and tooth for tooth,” and Christ will just have to put up with us, so we bring the issue to happy closure by asking for His forgiveness.
“Lord, have mercy.”

Why do I cite this bible verse? Well, it means something entirely different to me. To me, it is linked to what holy apostle John writes, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers” (1 John 3:16). To me, this is what life for life means, indeed, even what the other incidentals mean, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Since Christ gave life for life, saving us, we too sharing in His forbearance, mercy and love, can also give life for life. Ours.
What does this mean?

Things take time. The world teaches us that “time is money,” and most of us, unconsciously at least, have believed this saying. We think we own our time, that we own ourselves, but scripture says, “You are not your own, you were bought at a price.” This buying of souls for eternal life goes on even today, because Christ is in our midst, He is among us. In us, He walks through the world seeking His lost sheep. When He finds them, He cares for them. He doesn’t just pick them up, hurry over to the sheep pen, and drop them in. No, He doesn’t treat us like that, but He remains with us, at our side, to guide and restore us, to save us.

Following Jesus, this is what we also do, no matter how long it takes.

Love, respect and awe

When I set foot in an Orthodox church for the first time probably as a young man of about 22 or 23 years, it was a small, rustic country church in the Ukrainian village of Bellis (“White Woods”) Alberta, and I was overcome at first by the utter simplicity of the house of God itself. Then, the service began, and from behind an ikonostasis made of white-painted garden trellis a deep voice chanted in a Slavic tongue that reminded me of my native Polish, and a sweet fragrance and clouds of smoke emanated from there as well. As the service continued, my earthly eyes saw many things that were strange, though beautiful. At one point the priest emerged with two covered golden vessels and walked carefully through the small crowd of farmers and their families kneeling with heads deeply bowed or down on the floor. As he passed through them, he seemed to hover the cups over each of their heads, and he looked at them with love, respect and awe, as if to say by his actions, "these are the people for whom Christ died." Throughout the rest of the service, that was what struck me the most—love, respect and awe—not just for God, but for one another. This was before I had even come to that point where I was ready to follow Jesus. To me up till now Christianity had been nothing more than a religious exercise with little meaning. I remember thinking to myself, "If Christ is real, and if Christianity is true, this has to be it."

At the age of 24 years, I "accepted" Christ, or rather, accepted His will for me, and promised to follow Him. At the age of 37 years, I "returned" to the Orthodox Church. Returned? What is that supposed to mean? Well, that's what Fr Elías said to the congregation by way of introducing us on the morning we were chrismated. He said we had struggled hard to get back here. I never forgot his words. What was I doing between the ages of 24 and 37 years? Well, let's just say that I was a catechumen for 13 years. Actually, right from the beginning I believed myself to be an Orthodox Christian, identifying with that radiant cluster of Christians I had seen worshipping the living Christ in the village of Bellis, and I hadn't yet grasped that Orthodox Christians belong in the Orthodox Church. I thought the Episcopal church was as close to Orthodoxy as I could get. After all, there were even Greeks going there (at my first parish, Good Samaritan, in Corvallis, Oregon). So the Lord was patient with me. He didn't mind waiting 13 years for me to gradually come to my senses.

But back to the topic. What I experienced when encountering Orthodoxy for the first time was not a "one time" event. The same thing hit me when I entered the Greek church of Aghía Triás (now my family church) for the first time, an incredible sense of mercy, experienced as—love, respect and awe—not just for God, but for one another. This initial impression became the foundation of what Orthodoxy essentially means to me. After being joined to the Church, and growing up in it, as it were, I came to realize what everyone does who becomes an Orthodox Christian—it cannot be learned from books: only in living the life can it be truly comprehended in all its mystery. Theology is a practical science. A trinitarian God may be incomprehensible to the mind, but He can be experienced and understood by the heart of one who lives in the Body of Christ. It is because Christ is in our midst that the Holy Triad also is. Praying for the Church, Jesus says,

May they all be one, Father, may they be one in us, as you are in me and I am in you, so that the world may believe it was you who sent me. I have given them the glory you gave to me, that they may be one as we are one. With me in them and you in me, may they be so completely one that the world will realise that it was you who sent me and that I have loved them as much as you loved me.
John 17:21-23 Jerusalem Bible

Sometimes brethren who are not Orthodox are surprised, even put off, by the kind of love and respect that we show not only to God and the saints of old by venerating (bowing towards and kissing) their ikons and the book of the Holy Scriptures, but also by the fact that we bow down in front of, embrace and kiss one another. Sometimes, even our language seems "a bit too much" for them, as we address the saints that have gone before, as well as the ones that are living now in words and gestures that seem "over the top." Why are you doing that? Don't you know that only One is worthy of worship, only One is Lord? Well, yes, we do. We are not doing to them and to each other what can be offered to God alone, no, we're really not. But what we are doing, loving one another in Christ, and loving Christ in one another, accounting all that Christ has redeemed by His precious Blood to be worthy, everyone and everything worthy, is the preparation for, and the proof of, our divine worship.

The relationship that the brethren share in the Body of Christ with one another is in fact and must be the primary qualification of the Church. This is what we learn from overhearing the high-priestly prayer of Christ recorded in the 17th chapter of the gospel according to John. How we are to treat one another with love, respect and awe is found throughout all the apostolic writings of the New Testament, but particularly in the first letter of the evangelist John. Yet, even in the Old Testament we are taught how to love one another.

We read of Jonathan entering into a covenant with David (1 Samuel 18:1-8). This is a prophetic image of what relationship should be like in the body of Christ. "Jonathan's soul was knit to the soul of David." The word for 'knit' (נקשרה, niksheráh > "was knit") is the same root word (קשר) used in Nehemiah 4:6, which describes the wall of Jerusalem being built (ותקשר, vatikashér > "was joined") so there were no gaps in it. Jonathan's heart was knit with David's without a gap—no space between their hearts for the enemy to come through. Jonathan loved David as himself. This is our calling in the body of Christ too, "that they may be one as we are one," such that there is no gap between us of misunderstanding, jealousy, or suspicion through which satan can slip to divide us.

Jonathan made a covenant with David and, as a symbol, removed his royal robe and placed it on David. This act symbolized Jonathan's desire to die to himself as the next king of Israel and to make David king. The holy apostle Paul writes, "Love each other as much as brothers should, and have a profound respect for each other" (Romans 12:10 JB). We are to die to ourselves and sincerely long that our brothers will be regarded as greater and higher than ourselves—we even take our "robe," if necessary, to cover a brother's nakedness, wherever it is seen. Thus can we make our brothers glorious in the eyes of others. This is the kind of relationship we should have with one another in the body of Christ.

If we can have this kind of relationship, by all means we must.
Love, respect and awe—because Christ is in our midst.

Knowledge of God

The following are some excerpts from the post entitled The Knowledge of God by Fr Stephen, published at his blog Glory to God for All Things. This is an Orthodox priest "who knows his stuff" and whom I rely on for a balanced and truly Orthodox witness on the internet. I am not alone in this, as his statistics prove. He is nonetheless a humble servant of the Most-High, and from time to time I can't resist drawing your attention to what he writes. To read the whole post, just click on the title in the first line above. These are the passages that spoke loudest to me…

I have known brilliant men and women, with degrees from very prestigious institutions, indeed with degrees in various forms of religious disciplines, whose knowledge of God was less than my average catechumen, but whose very “knowledge” reduced the possibility of discovering their ignorance and coming to a knowledge of the truth. Again, knowledge that is not accompanied by ascesis is dangerous – no matter whether the knowledge is of an academic character or of a mystical character. We cannot know God and at the same time not be like Him to some degree. Such conformity to His image is itself a result of such knowledge. It is for this reason that the Scriptures tell us that “by their fruit you shall know them.” If someone claims knowledge of God, but his life is not in conformity with the commandments of Christ, then we know that what we are hearing is largely delusional in character.

…we should pray, fast, repent of our sins, seek to forgive our enemies and do good to all around us. These are clear commandments of Scripture. With such efforts, as God gives us grace and changes our heart, we begin to know. The writings of the Fathers are generally the writings of saints. We will not understand them without ourselves seeking to become saints. All of this, of course, is slow and difficult – but we are talking about reality and our salvation not simply the acquisition of information.

… Neither should we avoid religious “experience,” though this has gotten something of a bad name on account of numerous abuses within the Christian world of today. But like knowledge acquired by study, knowledge of God gained by experience should be accompanied with ascesis as well. Much of modern Pentecostal and Charismatic teaching has offered false information on religious experience to an audience of Americans who wants everything. Too often we want the interior life of Mother Teresa and all of the shoes of Imelda Marcos. It just doesn’t work like that.

The story is told in the Lives of the Desert Fathers that one of the Fathers was in prayer when the devil sought to trick him. A demon appeared in the cell of the monk (who was in prayer) and said, “I am the angel Gabriel sent from God.” Without looking up the monk replied, “You must be in the wrong cell. I am not worthy for an angel to visit me.” The demon disappeared, defeated by the humility of the monk.

This is a description of the proper state of our heart. We desire to know God, but we want to know Him deeply enough, that we refuse to settle for anything less. Much of modern religious experience, as witnessed by its fruit, has little to do with the true God.

Study. Pray. Fast. Give alms. Forgive your enemies. Repent of your sins. Cry out to God for mercy. He is a “good God and loves mankind.” He will not leave us in the dark nor ignore the cry of our hearts. “This is eternal life,” Christ says, “To know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.” Thus we pursue knowledge – true knowledge in the way and in the manner given to us as though our life depended on it. It does.

Unquenchable Desire

Friends, He lit my desire for you, unquenchable
Fear having been cast, chains make hearts bold
Abounding in love with all knowledge and wisdom
So fruits of righteousness might be offered up
In sincerity and without offense until the 8th day

In our Lord Christ such a prison is free indeed
Filthy guards as brushed ushers in service
Beaten bodies remember ancient scourge
Starving stomachs recall 40 days of fast
And the darkened cell, midnight’s Gethsemane

— David Dickens, Nothing Hypothetical

Picture Credit: Paul in Chains, by Richard Serrin

Isn't Orthodoxy joyous…

…and yet solemn, all at the same time? Everything is so full of Light, full of the Word in spirit and in truth, full of beauty.

When I blog I try to find good images to add to the blog—ikons, paintings, photographs of people, places, nature—to mitigate the boring monotony of some of the things I write about. Sometimes I just scroll through and look at the pictures, and remember. They are all ikons, really, not just the ones that are written to be ikons. And to me, ikons are pure beauty, because they all point to the One Who made all things and who lovingly pours His life out for us at every moment, sustaining the world faithfully by His word of command.

How good our heavenly Father is, for even when we have to suffer, if we faithfully seek Him, He fills our open hands, hearts, lips and minds with good things. He pours abundantly, He showers us with His blessings, yet sometimes in self-pity or self-loathing, we turn away. How many times more we turn away from Him, than we feel He turns away from us. In reality, He never turns away, but sometimes He lets go our hands, to let us remember how much we need Him, sometimes even to see how strong we’re becoming.

He wants us to grow up to be just like His Only-begotten Son, our “heavenly elder brother” as the Chinese Taiping emperor Hong Xiuquan used to call Him. It’s not impious to think thus, as long as one is grounded in the truth handed down by the holy prophets and apostles, and does not wander off on flights of fantasy caused by ignorance of the Bible.

What is sweeter to the soul or more precious to the heart of man than God’s Word? Every day He accompanies us, speaking His truth and life into us moment by moment. In His written ikon, the Bible, and especially in the book of the Psalms, are to be found all things necessary for life in this world, and in the world to come, and the word of Life…

God, You are my God, I am seeking You,
my soul is thirsting for You,
my flesh is longing for You,
a land parched, weary and waterless;
I long to gaze on You in the Sanctuary,
and to see Your power and glory.

Your love is better than life itself,
my lips will recite Your praise;
all my life I will bless You,
in Your name lift up my hands;
my soul will feast most richly,
on my lips a song of joy and, in my mouth, praise.

On my bed I think of You,
I meditate on You all night long,
for You have always helped me.
I sing for joy in the shadow of Your wings;
my soul clings close to You,
Your right hand supports me…

Psalm 63: 1-8 Jerusalem Bible

Psalms for the 12th Day
62 63 64 65 66 67

“My dear children…” 1 John 2:1-2

‘…I write this to you so that you will not sin.’

The goal of the Apostles' letters to us—to build us up in our most holy faith. The apostle's hope is that you will heed the words and not give in anymore to sin which, because of Christ, has no power over us any longer—not so that you can boast in self-preservation, for salvation is freely given and can only be freely maintained on the part of the merit of the Son of Man. Yet, the command is to walk in the light, as He is in the light, and that requires obedience, abiding in the truth, and keeping oneself from the pollution of willful sinning.

‘…But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.’

Yet, if you sin, willfully or accidently, or naïvely in correlation to the commands, hope is not lost! Remember Who bought you? You were purchased by the One who is righteousness personified—the Righteous Branch of David. And how does He speak to His Father? He defends us before Him. For we know that God's wrath was once on all men. But the Son of Man, through only the cross, has removed that punishment, taking it upon Himself, in His body, born on the tree. Yet, this does not mean that you now have freedom to indulge the fallen nature in you, nor to offer service to the devil and his kósmos. Being bought, you no longer belong to yourself, but to the Risen One, Who can do with you as He pleases. For man must be mastered—either by righteousness and the living God, or by sin and the false god.

‘…He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world’ or ‘…He is the one who turns aside God's wrath, taking away our sins…’

He places Himself, the Atonement personified, between us and His Father. Yet, His power in this is dual-directional. It is not as though He simply deflects the wrath of God into a different direction and leaves us in our sins. No, for those who believe in His Name, He absorbs the wrath due them and by removing their sins, places them in sonship so that His God is now our God; His Father is our father. And yet, His atonement wasn't just for His generation, or His followers during His earthly walk. Nor is it simply for the people chosen because He, Messiah, was born among them—the Jews. Nor just the Church, comprised mainly of Gentiles. No, His atonement is for the sins of the whole world, open to anyone and everything. But you must choose. Will He be your shield? Will you clothe yourself with the Son of Man? If only the whole world would accept Him—for this is the hope and desire of His Father…

— Brock James Smith

On Those who Think that They are Made Righteous by Works: 226 Texts

Mark the Ascetic is the author of the work named in the title of this post. In visiting the blog of a brother in Sweden, I discovered a post of his in which he quoted just a few of the 226 texts on this subject. They are all to be found in the Philokalia of course, but I haven't read these in awhile and had forgotten how good they are. I am just copying the texts that brother Thomas posted. You can visit his blog (mostly in Swedish) by clicking its name, Omorphia, Greek for "beauty."

Here are the texts
(numbers 8, 9 and 10 were omitted at the source) …

1. In the texts which follow, the beliefs of those in error will be refuted by those whose faith is well founded and who know the truth.


2. Wishing to show that to fulfil every commandment is a duty, whereas sonship is a gift given to men through His own Blood, the Lord said: "When you have done all that is commanded you, say: 'We are useless servants: we have only done what was our duty'." (Luke 17:10). Thus the kingdom of heaven is not a reward for works, but a gift of grace prepared by the Master for his faithful servants.


3. A slave does not demand his freedom as a reward; but he gives satisfaction as one who is in debt, and he receives freedom as a gift.


4. ‘Christ died on account of our sins in accordance with the Scriptures’ (1 Cor. 15:3); and to those who serve Him well He gives freedom. ‘Well done, good and faithful servant,’ He says, ‘you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many: enter into the joy of your Lord’ (Matt. 25: 21).


5. He who relies on theoretical knowledge alone is not yet a faithful servant: a faithful servant is one who expresses his faith in Christ through obedience to His commandments.


6. He who honours the Lord does what the Lord bids. When he sins or is disobedient, he patiently accepts what comes as something he deserves.


7. If you love true knowledge, devote yourself to the ascetic life; for mere theoretical knowledge puffs a man up (cf. 1 Cor. 8:1)
   
8. …
9. …
10. …
    
11. Those who, because of the rigour of their own ascetic practice, despise the less zealous, think that they are made righteous by physical works. But we are even more foolish if we rely on theoretical knowledge and disparage the ignorant.


12. Even though knowledge is true, it is still not firmly established if unaccompanied by works. For everything is established by being put into practice.


13. Often our knowledge becomes darkened because we fail to put things into practice. For when we have totally neglected to practise something, our memory of it will gradually disappear. [For the preceding two instructions cf. James 1:22-24]


14. For this reason Scripture urges us to acquire the knowledge of God, so that through our works we may serve Him rightly.


15. When we fulfil the commandments in our outward actions, we receive from the Lord what is appropriate; but any real benefit we gain depends on our inward intention.


16. If we want to do something but cannot, then before God, who knows our hearts, it is as if we have done it. This is true whether the intended action is good or bad.


17. The intellect does many good and bad things without the body, whereas the body can do neither good nor evil without the intellect. This is because the law of freedom applies to what happens before we act.


18. Some without fulfilling the commandments think that they possess true faith. Others fulfill the commandments and then expect the Kingdom as a reward due to them. Both are mistaken.


19. A master is under no obligation to reward his slaves; on the other hand, those who do not serve him well are not given their freedom.


20. If ‘Christ died on our account in accordance with the Scriptures’ (Rom. 5:8; 1 Cor. I5: 3), and we do not ‘live for ourselves’, but ‘for Him who died and rose’ on our account (2 Cor. 5:15), it is clear that we are debtors to Christ to serve Him till our death. How then can we regard sonship as something which is our due?


21. Christ is Master by virtue of His own essence and Master by virtue of His incarnate life. For He creates man from nothing, and through His own Blood redeems him when dead in sin; and to those who believe in Him He has given His grace.


22. When Scripture says ‘He will reward every man according to his works’ (Matt. 16:27), do not imagine that works in themselves merit either hell or the kingdom. On the contrary, Christ rewards each man according to whether his works are done with faith or without faith in Himself; and He is not a dealer bound by contract, but God our Creator and Redeemer.


23. We who have received baptism offer good works, not by way of repayment, but to preserve the purity given to us.


24. Every good work which we perform through our own natural powers causes us to refrain from the corresponding sin; but without grace it cannot contribute to our sanctification.

Orthodox fatherhood

Fr Stephen posted this excerpt from the book Saint Silouan the Athonite by Elder Sophrony in his blog Glory to God for All Things. I have read the book from which the excerpt is taken (back then it was called The Monk of Mount Athos and I got it from the Episcopal Book Club!), and I have especially treasured the passage that I am about to present. This is the kind of Orthodox father I have wanted to be and tried to be. I failed, of course, but this still is my ideal, even though I am no longer raising my sons. Now, my main task seems to be praying for them, that they will overcome any faults in themselves which they have inherited from me. I wanted to be an Orthodox father, and I still try to be. This was my ideal from the beginning, when I first read this passage at the age of 27 or 28. Speaking of the youth of Saint Silouan of Mount Athos, the passage begins…

Young, strong, handsome, and by this time prosperous, too, Simeon [later to become the monk Silouan] revelled in life. He was popular in the village, being good-natured, peaceable and jolly, and the village girls looked on him as a man they would like to marry. He himself was attracted to one of them and, before the question of marriage had been put, what so often happens befell late one summer evening.

Next morning, as they were working together, his father said to him quietly, ‘Where were you last night, son? My heart was troubled for you?’

The mild words sank into Simeon’s soul, and in later life when he recalled his father the Staretz [elder] would say, ‘I have never reached my father’s stature. He was absolutely illiterate – he even used to make mistakes in the Lord’s Prayer which he had learned by listening in church; but he was a man who was gentle and wise.’

They were a large family – father, mother, five sons and two daughters – all living in affection together. The elder boys worked with their father. One Friday they were out harvesting and it was Simeon’s turn to cook the midday meal. Forgetting that it was Friday, he prepared a dish of pork for their lunch, and they all ate of it. Six months later, on a feast-day in winter, Simeon’s father turned to him with a gentle smile and said, ‘Son, do you remember how you gave us pork to eat that day in the fields? It was a Friday. I ate it but, you know, it tasted like carrion.’

‘Whyever didn’t you tell me at the time?’

‘I didn’t want to upset you, son.’

Recalling such incidents from his life at home, the Staretz would add, ‘That is the sort of staretz I would like to have. He never got angry, was always even-tempered and humble. Just think – he waited six months for the right moment to correct me without upsetting me!’

Timing… timing, love and gentleness, these are what I have tried to live my life by. What of firmness? Well, it is one thing to be firm with others, another to be firm with oneself. I have tried to be the latter, and to exercise firmness with my sons only with great discretion.

Love covers all offenses.
Proverbs 10:12b

And one more thought, a reminiscence, my Dad…

I was 17 years old, had just gotten my driver's license, and had not yet really learned how to handle a car in all situations. I was working the 2nd shift at the country post office where my Dad was the superintendant. It was after midnight, and a drizzly sort of night, and I was going home. Filled with the sense of power I had, driving my Dad's new station wagon, I took a curve at too high a speed, rolled the car into a ditch, breaking the windshield and all the windows, lost my glasses and bumped my head really bad, but the car bounced back onto its wheels and was driveable. I drove the 18 miles to my house, my Mom was up waiting for me, but Dad was already in bed, snoring. She opened the door and asked, "Norm, are you alright?" and then looked at the car, roof smashed down and all the edges lined with grass poking out of sod fragments. She hurried me in, and then went and woke up my Dad. I went with her.

"What happened, Norm?" he asked. I made up a story of how there must've been oil on the road when I took that curve and rolled his new car into the ditch. He slowly got up and got dressed, "Where did it happen?" he asked, then, "Let's go and see if we can find the windshield and get the license sticker off of it, so it can't be traced." We went down and found the sticker and tore it off the shattered windshield, and drove home. We both went back to bed. I feared for my life in the morning.

What did Dad do? Nothing. He just started driving his jalopy to work, tried to salvage parts off the new car (he worked on cars), and rescheduled me to work in the Dead Letter department during his working hours, since we now had only one car in the family. He never blamed me or punished me or even mentioned what happened again. He took the loss, and acted as if he never had that new car.

The Morning Offering

This morning, as I was visiting the blog of my Indonesian brother Yudhie, I happened to notice for the umpteenth time a link in his sidebar to a blog called The Morning Offering. I had never stopped to look at it, but today something made me take a look.

Lo and behold! It was the blog of an old acquaintance (I wish I could say old friend) of mine, Abbot Tryphon of Vashon Island monastery! More than a dozen years ago I met Fr Tryphon, had lunch with him at a downtown Portland restaurant along with my godmother Stephanie and some others from Aghía Triás church who were getting together to try to help Fr Tryphon market his monastery's main product, Monastery Blends coffee.

Orthodox monasteries have always operated by the work of their hands, supplemented of course, by donations from the faithful, some more successfully than others, but rarely do you find Orthodox monastics simply living off donations. They're just too manly (or womanly) to do that. They are the "wild men" of the wilderness (forests in the northern climes, deserts in the southern). And the "wild women" too.

That day many years ago, I was blessed to spend a sunny afternoon of several hours sitting in the rec room of my godmother's house in Gresham, Oregon, getting to know Fr Tryphon personally. It was just he and I, and what a wonderful chat we had, getting to know one another. His Norwegian Lutheran background strangely aligned with my Polish Protestant upbringing, both of us being of that northern type of personality that C. S. Lewis writes about—he was one of us too.
I also met Fr Paul on that visit. In those days, I think it was only Fr Tryphon and Fr Paul. He's the dark haired older monk in one of the pictures I'm posting, shown with the monastery's Norwegian forest cat. Whether or not this is a special breed, I don't know. Maybe the Scandinavian Orthodoxy of the place just affects everyone, even the cat, and yes, the moni is in the forest, naturally. It's part of the northern Thebaïd (a designation for the monasteries of the North in Russia and elsewhere).

I visited Fr Tryphon's blog and really enjoyed it. It's not a typical blog wherein the author's thoughts and ideas or news takes the fore. No, instead it's a consistent, daily clean sheet of the scriptures for the day, a fresh photograph, a nourishing chunk of Orthodox wisdom with which to start one's day. It is so good, that I have also added it to the sidebar of my blog under "Orthodoxy". I've called the link "Abbot Tryphon of Vashon Island" so that it will rise to the top of the list alphabetically and be easy and at hand, when wanted.

I hope my readers will visit Fr Tryphon's blog and, if they live nearby, that they will visit the monastery as well—I plan to, at the earliest possibility. I've been talking about doing just that for years, and here I sit. This latest encounter with my old acquaintance has ignited another spark of interest, and I can thank Yudhie for unintentionally lighting this fire under me.

I have added a bunch of images taken from Fr Tryphon's blog to this post, also to give my readers a quick view of what an Orthodox monastery in the Pacific Northwest looks like. The monastery itself also has its own webpage, the banner of which is at the end of this post, which you can also visit by clicking HERE.

Good morning, Fr Tryphon, Fr Paul, and the brethren! We will be seeing you soon!

An old poem

Today is sorting day, and I came upon an old book of poems I had written when I was in my mid-30's. I have actually blogged some of these poems before, but I'm not sure I've ever blogged this one. I stopped my sorting to read the little book until I reached this, which I needed to hear again right now, and which I share with you…

The word is mighty

The word is mighty,
of this I have no doubt,
though it is but the sound
of the immortal spring that flows with life only,
not with life and death,
to which, when thirsting,
I repair and drink.

The mind has ears

for what it cannot think

as it would join its syllables to breath.

I quiet sit

astride its wanderings

in restoration

never reasoned out.

Some the word as weapon,

some as spade apply,

or verbal idol lavished with applause,

or bait the trap

between themselves and fate.

Some weaken what is strong,
some fortify the feeble
or manipulate the laws,
and I,
I listen,
slake my thirst, and wait.

— Romanós

Preparation

Here is a word of truth that came to me in my email this morning, and it's a word that is never heard today, and we need to hear it, especially those young men who have answered the call of Jesus to minister to His people. It's one thing to be called by Christ, another thing to answer the call, yet another to know what the call entails—preparation—patience, willingness to let oneself be formed and prepared to fulfill the call, waiting on the Lord as He fashions us into "the tool in HaShem's hand" that He wants us to be. So you have been to seminary and graduated? Does He call you to be a priest, or a prophet, to a life of safety or a life of ultimate risk? This is not for us to choose, but for Christ, who says, "You did not choose Me, I chose you…" (John 15:16)

A Splendid Example of a Young Man Who Responded to God’s Call
at the Age of 30
by Pastor Zac Poonen

Ezekiel was the son of a priest who was training to be a priest (Ezekiel 1:3). But when he was 30 years old, God suddenly called him to be a prophet (Ezekiel 1:1). We may plan for a certain ministry, but God may call us to something totally different. And then we must be willing, like Ezekiel, to drop everything and to accept whatever God calls us to.

The life of a priest is actually much safer than that of a prophet.
Priests were not usually killed but the prophets invariably were. A prophet also has a very tough time, because not only does he suffer at the hands of the people, but God’s hand also is heavy on him most of the time. Ezekiel would not have undergone all that, if he had been a priest.

There are certain ministries in God’s kingdom that involve more suffering than others. The Lord told Peter, “When you are old, someone will take you where you won’t like to go” – indicating how Peter would suffer for the faith. But Peter immediately, pointing to John, asked the Lord, “What about him? Will he also suffer like me?” But the Lord replied, “That is none of your business. You just follow Me.” (John 21:18-23).

If God calls you to a ministry which involves suffering, don’t look at anybody else. Don’t worry about whether they have an easy time or not. That is none of your business.

Ezekiel responded immediately. Thank God he responded. If he had not responded we might never have heard of him. If Hudson Taylor had not responded when God called him to go to China, if C. T. Studd had not responded when God called him to go to Africa, if Jim Elliot had not responded when God called him to go to South America, we might never have heard of these men. But they responded as soon as God called them.

The thirtieth year seems to be a very significant time in people’s lives – both in the Old and New Testaments. Joseph was 30 when he became ruler in Egypt. David was 30 when he became king. Jesus was 30 when He began His earthly ministry. Most of the apostles were around 30 when they began their ministry. And Ezekiel too was 30 when he began his ministry.

Even today, it is probably around that age that God wants to begin to lead his children into the specific ministry that He has for them. But prior to that date, God has to spend many years in preparing us for that specific ministry. If you surrender to God totally and allow Him to prepare you during your teens and twenties, then you can be ready by the time you are 30 (or 35), for that specific ministry that God has planned for you.

But a lot of young people are impatient and unwilling to wait. I am not saying that you cannot go out and serve God before you are 30 years old. You can start serving God even when you are 16. But in your early years, God has to keep you under authority in order to guide you and protect you. But many young people chafe under such submission to authority and, as a result, are never broken and prepared for the ministry that God has planned for them.

Even Jesus needed that training to submit to Joseph and Mary for 30 years before He entered into His ministry. How much more we? Ezekiel must have submitted to Jeremiah, in his younger days. He must have listened to Jeremiah’s prophecies and studied them as a youth.

God Who saw the faithfulness of this young man, decided that Ezekiel would be a prophet and not a priest.

One day, God opened the heavens over Ezekiel and gave him visions of Himself and a message for His people. “The hand of the Lord came upon him” - that expression occurs seven times in Ezekiel. It meant that Ezekiel could not do what he wanted to do. It was like God saying to him, “Now, you have to go where I want you to go.”

We can all live like this all our lives, if we want to, with the heavens open over us all the time. That will be easy, if you allow the hand of the Lord to be upon you, if you keep your conscience clean, if you humble yourself and fear the Lord!

At times, we are told that when the hand of the Lord was upon him, Ezekiel went “in the rage of his spirit” (Ezekiel 3:14). He did not feel like going, but he went because he had submitted his life totally to God.

A true servant of God does not live by his feelings.
It’s not a question of whether he feels like going, when God calls him to go. Those who serve themselves live by their feelings. But those who serve God go whether they feel like going or not.

They move because the hand of the Lord is upon them.

“If we claim…” 1 John 1:8-10

‘…to be without sin, we deceive ourselves
and the truth is not in us.'

The second claim—the first being that fellowship with the living God isn't just a vocal declaration; your 'Yes' has to be 'Yes', otherwise you are not living by the Truth. You claim light? Then walk in light—is that, at any point, before or after atonement, if you assert sinlessness, you have beguiled yourself into disillusionment. This is again proof that the Truth of the Son of Man is not residing in you; either never, meaning the whole time has been lip service to the living God, or you have forsaken the path of Truth in some form or another, grieving the Spirit.

‘If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us or sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.’

The opposite holds true though. If you confess your sins, meaning you claim sin, as opposed to rejecting the truth that the seed of lawlessness abides in you, the Son of Man is faithful. You have sided with righteousness; you have sided with the Son of Man, by agreeing to His testimony about you—that you are sinful and in need of His grace and mercy. But it is not just that He overlooks. Far be it from you, Lord! If it were not for Your cross, no atonement could be made for my wretchedness! The price of man is too costly! And so it cost God's Only Son His life. Thanks be, then, to the Son of Man, whose shed blood outweighs the transgressions of earth. This is blood that is heavy. Thus, His blood—blood untainted by the seed of lawlessness—purifies us and makes us clean.

‘If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar and His word has no place in our lives.’

The third claim is this—not only have you deluded yourself by alleging falsehoods, and so placed yourself on a destructive path, but your claim has greater effect—you have, as a consequence, questioned Him that is Truth, and not just questioned, but in fact denied His true testimony, thus proclaiming Him the liar, not you. This is the end of deception—attempted manipulation. The errors that infect you are cast onto the other, and you no longer see yourself as the one who is in the wrong, but the individual who, almost always, is one born of the seed of righteousness. And if He is a liar, what good, then, does His Word do for you?

— Brock James Smith

Fasting unto righteousness

λεγει αυτοις ο ιησους εμον βρωμα εστιν ινα ποιω το θελημα του πεμψαντος με και τελειωσω αυτου το εργον

"My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.”
John 4:34 NIV

Brethren, let's do what we see Jesus doing.

Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion
and to the house of Jacob their sins.

For day after day they seek me out;
they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
and has not forsaken the commands of its God.

They ask me for just decisions
and seem eager for God to come near them.

'Why have we fasted,' they say,
'and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed?'

Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.
Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.

Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for a man to humble himself?
Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed
and for lying on sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD ?

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?

Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.

The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.

Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations…

Isaiah 58:1-12 NIV

How simple it is

This morning as I was praying, I found it very easy to offer thanks for every blessing the Lord has given me, but I found it difficult somehow to pray for needs, and to intercede. Whenever I started to ask, for the healing of a friend's wife, for the safety of my Christian friends in a muslim country, for the happy outcome of another friend's hopes for marriage, for the cure and help of a mentally ill friend, my mind kept coming back to Jesus' words, “Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him,” and then to the prayer He teaches us,

Our Father in heaven, may Your name be held holy, Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven those who are in debt to us, and do not put us to the test, but save us from the evil one.

The perfect prayer, and not just a ceremonial recitation!
As I surrendered to praying these words, they penetrated the burdens on my heart, and calmed my soul from worrying, knowing that our Father knows what we need before we ask. My prayer continues onward even after my prayer time has given way to what I am doing now, as I am reminded of the needs of others and my own needs throughout the day.

My friend Presbytera Candace sent me these words
of Elder Ierónymos of Ǽgina,

Without God, we cannot do anything. Excessive sorrow, and despair, are of the tempter. Always say, “May Thy will be done.” Have joy and sorrow as guests, but not despair. No matter how much sorrow the evil one brings, say, “I have my Christ. He was crucified for me and loves me.”

Can anything be easier or more simple than this? Forgive me, brethren, but this is Orthodoxy to me: the following of Jesus Christ, trusting in Him who walks ahead enduring all my pains and sorrows for me before I come to them, presenting the prayer which is my life to His Father and interceding on my behalf. Nothing more, or less, than this: “I have my Christ. He was crucified for me and loves me.”

Pelagía the Righteous

That is what the synaxárion calls her. During her life of sin, however, she was called by her adoring followers, Margarita, “the pearled one,” and she was the most sought after actress in Antioch, the city where the followers of Jesus were first called Christians, “little Christs.”

From the Greek Archdiocese website,

This Saint was a prominent actress of the city of Antioch, and a pagan, who lived a life of unrestrained prodigality and led many to perdition. Instructed and baptized by a certain bishop named Nonnus, she departed for the Mount of Olives near Jerusalem, where she lived as a recluse, feigning to be a eunuch called Pelagius. She lived in such holiness and repentance that within three or four years she was deemed worthy to repose in an odour of sanctity, in the middle of the fifth century. Her tomb on the Mount of Olives has been a place of pilgrimage ever since.

Apolytikion in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone
In thee the image was preserved with exactness, O Mother; for taking up thy cross, thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds thou didst teach us to overlook the flesh, for it passeth away, but to attend to the soul since it is immortal. Wherefore, O righteous Pelagia, thy spirit rejoiceth with the Angels.

Kontakion in the Second Tone
With fasting didst thou consume thy body utterly; with vigilant prayer didst thou entreat thy Fashioner that complete forgiveness of thy former deeds be granted thee, which, O Mother, thou didst receive. The path of repentance hast thou shown to us.

I found the account of her life for the first time when I was a lad of about 22 years, written in the book The Desert Fathers by Helen Waddell. The chapter on her was entitled, The Life of St. Pelagia the Harlot, and it was paired with the story of another ‘desert mother,’ The Life of St. Mary the Harlot. The latter was not the same as the Mary of Egypt that we are all familiar with from her commemoration on the last Sunday of Lent, but rather a consecrated virgin who was under the care of her old uncle who was a monk. She was tempted by a young, fallen monk, who raped her, after which she ran away from her uncle's hermitage in shame and became a prostitute. The uncle, Abba Abraham, tried to find her, and he succeeded. He went to the brothel dressed as a Roman soldier and asked for her by name. Thus disguised, he got into her room, and revealing himself as her uncle and spiritual father, he reasoned with her, bringing her to her right mind. Trusting in the grace of Christ to forgive all our sins, Mary returned with her uncle, and resumed a life of holiness.

Both of these harlot stories are great reading, and demonstrate the reality of Christ in everyday life, He who is among us, looking for His lost sheep. Abba Abraham went with Him, and found and rescued his neice Mary.

Today the Church commemorates another Pelagía the Virgin-martyr, as well as another converted harlot, Thaïs of Egypt, thus throwing down all our imaginary barriers between virginity and harlotry with ironic strangeness.

The story of Pelagía the Harlot can be downloaded as a Símandron publication PDF by clicking HERE. See also the song, Pelagía.

“This is the message...” 1 John 1:5-7

‘…we have heard from Him and declare to you…’

Will you trust the testimony of His sent ones? They declare the seed that they received, and if you accept the seed, it will blossom to fruit. Why do you ask, ‘How can I trust them?’ Do you suppose that He would entrust His testimony to deceivers? Stop doubting and start knowing! He is from the beginning, and those He trusts, you can also trust.

‘…God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all…’

Darkness hides what is truly present and there; light reveals everything that is present and real. In fact, without light, there is only darkness. Light had to be created. It is the presence of light which throws shadows and vanquishes darkness. Light always overpowers darkness; never can darkness blot out light. In the light, darkness is simply gone. If He is light and reveals all things, why not trust, then, what He has revealed about Himself, His Son, the devil and the world?

‘If we claim to have fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.’

Woe to those who claim the light, yet flee to dark recesses to dwell. Fellowship with Him means we must be where He is, and as He is light, it means that we are exposed. Yet, don't think that fleeing to the shadows will hide anything you do that is opposed to the light. It only means that you are not earnest, that you have doubted Him, and your choice, and have chosen to try and resurrect the natural man who was crucified with Christ and is to remain dead. Your carcass must remain nailed to the tree. That is the only place where the natural man finds his purpose, and it is his ultimate purpose. If we claim to have eternal life, we must live by that Truth and that means daily crucifying the old man in us.

'But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.'

The Son of Man and His Father are one—Absolutely One. If God is light, Christ, His Son is also that light, and He invites us to walk with Him in the light. For we can only follow Him in the light; He never leaves the presence of His Father. Only on the cross, when His God turned away from Him and judged Him guilty for us, was there a separation. And what happened? …Darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. That was the only time when the light receded and the darkness was given rule. Christ had to descend to our darkness; He had to be in the shadows with us, to be numbered with the transgressors. But the darkness was only for a time. And because it was allowed, we have fellowship with Him and now can have fellowship with one another as we walk together with Him in the light. Enmity with one another has been done away with, and we can trust each other as long as we remain in the light. Our High-Priest, and His blood, which He has offered, cleanses us from all sin. So then, what does ‘all’ mean?

— Brock James Smith

“We proclaim to you…” 1 John 1:3

‘…what we have seen and heard…’ and our proclamation is one of hatred and of bigotry—hatred to the devil and his lies, and stubborn refusal of world idealogies and opposition to anything but the Truth. Yet, the testimony of Jesus is peace. It is your natural man that will be opposed to it; the witness will seem narrow-minded, judgmental, unworldly and divisive. That is because your natural man is dead to Christ and alive to the world. But the Truth is keen. No wonder a kósmos, built on lies and a foundation of deception, cannot accept the testimony. It cuts through every crag and crevice, every nook and cranny, leaving the biggest and smallest of lies pierced and exposed. No, what is in your hands to do is this: Crucify your natural man with Christ, so that you die to the world and become alive solely in the risen Son of Man. Once this happens, then and only then is there fellowship.

‘…so that you also may have fellowship with us.’ Until you are regenerated by the Spirit of Christ, the disciple of Christ appears to you as a self-righteous deceiver who cannot uphold his Master's call. But don't you realize that you are the enemy? You are the one who is believing those things which are not from the beginning. Of course, you cannot have friendship with them!—Your fellowship has been with the world from the get-go, and this disciple has murdered your friend, o kósmos. By his faith, this disciple has condemned the world and so, as a consequence, as your umbilical cord has yet to be severed and you are still being fed the lie, it appears as though he is condemning and killing you. But actually, what he is doing is hoping you finally do get born. This world order cannot be saved, yet you can be! Don't remain a fetus; become born from above, otherwise the opportunity will pass, and you will be stillborn and ineffectual from the beginning…

‘And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.’ And so you know that your new fellowship with us is no longer a danger, because we are joined to the One Who is from the beginning. And this fellowship is not simply the goal of this life, but the pinnacle of eternal life—knowledge and fellowship with the Lamb and with His God.

‘We write this to make our joy complete.’ The Apostles’ testimony has been given. What Christ handed over to them, they in turn handed over to their hearers. Not tradition, not religious orders and rites and sanctimonious piety. It is the message of life through the Word. Yet, how is their joy complete? They are waiting for your response! They have testified; now it is in your hands to testify back to them and also to your hearers. Doing so completes the testimony, completes the fellowship, and completes the joy.

— Brock James Smith

“The Life appeared…” 1 John 1:2

It is past; it has happened. Nothing you do can change the reality of the Incarnation. War against it if you must, it is still historic fact. True life has appeared—you must either accept it or reject it. And as the First Parousia has occurred, so now must the Second. What goes up must come down.

‘…we have seen it and do testify to it…’

Seeing isn't just believing, it also means testifying. The moment you testify to the historic reality of the Word of life becoming flesh, and pitching His tent among us, you place yourself in the arena of millions of saints and confessors who have gone ahead, resting in the place He has prepared for us. And yet, though the arena is dangerous, this is where you belong and where your faith is proved. How long will you persist in testifying? Will you halt before the javelin even reaches you? No, testifying changes everything; in one moment, in a flash, the kingdom of heaven is also incarnated, by the preaching of your mouth. Without the Word, the kingdom has no life. All that is left is to proclaim...

‘…and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.’

You must continue until the spear reaches you. And you do not know which one it will be. But that is not your focus. You do not choose your own martyrdom. Your attention must solely be to the message of eternal life, which is not just a state of presence or being, but is The Being. The audience must be shaken up from their mediocrity. Proclaiming eternal life as The Person and not as an ideal is the only word that will cause hundreds of spectators to jump from the stands and become partakers with you. Though the missile hits you, know that your proclamation was not without effect. In the kingdom of heaven, you are never without one to fill your position after you have been poured out. His strategy is the continuation of the message; the new spiritual aish tamid. And since He was with the Father and has now pitched His tent and given the standard to bear, the war of truth has begun. The only thing left is the finishing...

— Brock James Smith

“That which was from the beginning...” 1 John 1:1

Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you that ye should go and bring [forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. John 15:16 KJV]

The Word, being from the beginning, has always been the same and has never changed. Though the Apostles always point us to the spiritual aspect of the Word, in this case, credit and proof is proclaimed on account of the physical; a progression of the senses… ‘which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched…’

Hearing the Word leads to seeing, and seeing leads to the experience—touching and knowing that which is Truth. The Word of God, written or in its completion, the Son of Man, never overpowers, but manifests first as a whisper. The whisper, if we accept it, becomes conviction, and the conviction, if we acknowledge it, becomes the call. For He says that we did not choose Him, but He chose us and appointed us that we should go and bear much fruit—even lasting fruit. This is His call.

Because the Word emanates from the spiritual, following through to the physical, and because the two cannot be undone or separated, we then see the Word manifested as life. For the spiritual can only be seen by our eyes when the physical accepts it and allows the invisible power of the Spirit to manifest and begin His work in the body… ‘this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.’

True life can come only through this way. If we are not regenerated by His Spirit, we are as good as dead. Though our bodies seem very much alive, we know that at some point, death overtakes us. In fact we are powerless when it comes to death. But the Word of life, which was in the beginning, even before death had its beginning in man—He is what overcomes. He, in us, is the only thing that, even if we die, yet shall we live. Why? Because He lives now, and death no longer has any power over Him. And so if we remain in Him, we know that we are remaining in that which was from the beginning…

— Brock James Smith

A new الشهادة ash-Shaháda…

The religion of al-Islám is well-known to be an iconoclastic religion: They hate images. Why? In their scripture, al-Qur'án, the prohibition of images is not explicit. Only the story of Abraham from the Hebrew Torah is retold in Arabic. Yet they absolutely forbid images, ikons, at least in the kingdom of Sa’udi Arabia. That's why it surprised me to see today the image of the Sa’udi flag appear as the latest new visitor to my Ikonostasis blog. Visitors from the Sa’udi kingdom (ranked 44 out of 111 countries) have visited Cost of Discipleship before, and still do, so it's probably not an accidental encounter, but I was surprised to see a visitor from that country on my ikon blog. I wonder if it's one of my regular visitors to this blog?

Taking the current Sa’udi flag, I redesigned it slightly, removing the scimitar and the calligraphic image of the الشهادة ash-shaháda, the Muslim confession of faith, and replacing it with the text of Daniel 2:20. The result, shown below, would make a nice replacement flag for a country that desperately needs Christ. May all the secret Christians of Sa’udi Arabia persevere through this dark time, for it is soon at an end, for them, for us all, “for the Time is close” (Revelation 1:3).

Feast days

Today is the feast day of the protecting veil of the Mother of God, as well as the commemoration of my name day saint, Romanós the Melodist, who some say is the author of the Akáthistos Hymn. This hymn is all about Mary’s role in salvation history, and it is the one place where most, if not all, of her epithets are collected, that is, all the prophetic types that she fulfills, and that is not a few. I love this hymn because in the original Greek it is supernaturally poetic. Even in English translation it is an awesome piece of poetry, but you must read (or sing) it in Greek to immerse yourself in its many nuances.

Fr Stephen, obviously one of my favorite symblogothetes (Greek, sym > together with, blogothete > blogger… I just coined it a moment ago), posted on the feast day of the protecting veil, which drew varied comments, one of them from a classical mainline evangelical (not mainline protestant, there’s a difference). She countered the Orthodox veneration of Mary and the saints, but said it was not so much asking for their prayers, but the idea that we exalt Mary above the saints and make her semi-divine, that irked her. I’m not sure that she was telling the whole truth about her feelings, but along with Fr Stephen, I give her a sympathetic response, while holding the line on where Orthodoxy stands, especially in contrast to Roman Catholicism, against which her arguments really are directed.

About Mary, I want to repeat what Fr Stephen wrote, but just add a bit of organisation:

We do not think of her as Divine.
We do not see her as possessing the singular mediation of Christ.
We do not worship her or expect that she do anything that substitutes or distracts from God.
It would be blasphemy to us were these the case.

But we are very aware of how God has used his servants throughout history, and continues to do so.
She is within that ‘great cloud of witnesses’ in Hebrews.
Her prayers are among those that rise continually before the throne of God as mentioned in Revelation.
She is unique among the saints…
“a sword pierced her own soul also.”

Obviously, Mary is more than the “just anybody” that some Christians say she was, sort of an incubator for the Son of God, who then went on with her life as if nothing extraordinary had happened, having more kids and being a typical Jewish mama. There are enough hints even in the scriptures that somehow she was alone during Jesus’ ministry, that her husband was no more. True, she sometimes came to see Jesus with “his brothers” and so we know for sure He had other relatives, but the fact that He entrusted her to His best friend John tells us something.
Aside from her virginity, which is an act of God in her life, the Orthodox also see Mary as the first Christian, the first to have received (accepted) the first words of the Good News of salvation, preached not by flesh and blood, but by the angel Gabriel,

Rejoice, so highly favored!
The Lord is with you.
Mary, do not be afraid; you have won God’s favor.
Listen! You are to conceive and bear a son,
and you must name him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called
Son of the Most High.
The Lord God will give him the throne
of his ancestor David;
he will rule over the House of Jacob forever
and his reign will have no end.
The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will come
and cover you with its shadow.
And so the child will be holy
and will be called the Son of God.
Luke 1: 28-35 passim

Mary’s response?

I am the handmaid of the Lord.
Let what you have said be done to me.
Luke 1:38

She was not “just anybody.”


The symbol of Nicæa says that Christ was born of a virgin, and that is what we believe. Something extraordinary about that birth carried itself forward and colored everything in its path, to be sure, and as the early Christians pored over the scriptures (of the Old Testament) they began finding what they felt were prophetic utterances that could be applied to Mary. Hence, the Akáthistos Hymn, written by a convert from Judaism who was a deacon in the Church of Antioch, my name day saint, Romanós.

Fr Stephen ended his comment with these words:

It is not an argument. Sometimes the protestant opposition to the communion of saints is puzzling to some Orthodox, just as much of Orthodoxy is a puzzle to many protestants.
May God help our hearts that we may all know Him in the fullness of the Truth.

Orthodoxy is the common heritage of all followers of Jesus, all confessors of His name, and as such it encompasses all those who do not resist Him. Our denominational skirmishes and problems are all at our end, not at His. They are caused by all of us being somewhat imperfect in understanding, in experience, and in love. We have enemies who like to arouse our contempt for one another by abusing history to enflame us. But really, we are Christ’s, all of us, and whether we honor the saints outwardly and dogmatically or not, we worship one Christ, who is King of kings and Lord of lords. There really is only One Lord, One faith, and One baptism, as the holy apostle Paul puts it. Whoever honors and worships the Son of God, also honors the saints by gratitude and worships the Father by faith. As holy apostle and evangelist John writes,

My dear people,
let us love one another
since love comes from God
and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.
…
My dear people,
since God has loved us so much, we too should love one another.

John 4:7, 11 Jerusalem Bible

Laying down your foundations

The well-being of society in any culture depends primarily on the family, how it functions, and on what foundations it’s built and maintained. The scriptures of the Old and the New Testaments used to be the source book of Christian marriage and family life, but even for the majority of Christians, this is no longer true. In the Orthodox faith, we may have a better grasp of these truths, we still know them and are expected to follow them, because the Church has yet to follow the world in playing games with marriage and the rules. Who knows how long this will last, though, because even in the Orthodox Church, the world takes its toll of broken marriages and families, while the Church looks on, sometimes, uncomprehending, unable to help. This is a tragedy that casts its dark shadow even on the inner walls of the Church.

Here are a few thoughts on marriage from an Orthodox perspective, written to a young couple getting ready to take the plunge. Entering into any relationship always requires leaps of faith, all the more with marriage since it’s a relationship “for keeps.”

First, what’s going on in your latest “hard talk” is a necessary step in your growing relationship. It’s what I would call the “constitutional” stage. You need to sort out right at the beginning what the “constitution” of your marriage is, “in order to form a more perfect union…” Of course, for you both, the constitution is the Word of God, Jesus is your Mediator, the Bible your written document to refer to.

The order of marriage, that is, how it works, is pretty clear in the Bible—too clear for most modern people.
“Christ is the head of every man, man is the head of woman, and God is the head of Christ,” (1 Corinthians 11:3) and everything that this verse implies, being amplified and explained and examples of it given in the rest of the Bible.

In Christ there are ‘priesthoods,’ conveyed by means of ta mystiría, “the mysteries.”

The first one is basic, which you receive when you receive Christ (give your permission to Him to be Lord of your life), are baptized and chrismated. That chrismation (anointing) is the symbolic act whereby you are joined (the meaning of sym-bolos, “together-thrown”) to Christ and become one of the royal priesthood, the holy nation. Everyone in Christ is called to be that, as bishop Anthony used to teach, and their ministry and witness is to do 90% of what “ordained clergy” can do.

Another priesthood is marriage, which you receive when you declare that you are one flesh with your betrothed. Here, both the man and the woman give each other permission to each other’s all, which is the only kind of permission that can produce a Godly family. The woman and man covenant with each other to follow what the Bible says marriage is, respecting its order. Their ministry and witness is to produce a family in Christ.

Another priesthood is the ordained ministry. A man must be married, ideally, so that his marriage witness can be the foundation of his now expanded witness and responsibilities. Notice that though the man is the head of the woman, the man cannot be ordained to this priesthood without his wife’s explicit permission. Once she gives it, she acknowledges that both of them have become bondservants of Christ, and the ministry and witness of both of them, individually and as a married couple, now have added dimensions.

The reason I gave this example of the step by step process is to illustrate how, in Orthodoxy at least, the relationship of husband to wife follows the scriptures but within constitutional limits. There is a divine and merciful order in all that our God has prescribed for us. If we follow it, then there is no danger and nothing to fear in entering the marriage covenant, for either party. If we begin to deviate and try to adapt it to fit our preference, things start to go wrong.

The fear that the woman will be considered an “inferior” by her husband is a false fear driven by worldly thinking. There is no “superior” and “inferior” in Christ, but there is order. In the Bible, the matriarchs are all examples of womanliness, and when we read of their submission to their husbands, do we ever get a feeling of inferiority? Ruth, in fact, was so devoted to her husband that when he died she transferred her obedience to his mother Naomi, “I will go where you go, your people will be my people.” Do we ever get the feeling that Ruth was “inferior” in fact or feeling when we read this story? Quite the contrary, she is seen by us as heroic.

In His divine order for our relationships with each other, God gives us not opportunities for bondage but for freedom. He transforms us from rootless plants to “deep-rooted trees by streams of water” (Psalm 1, Mizmor Aleph). He starts with our basic raw natures which are full of fear and doubt and weakness, and He transforms us into heroes.
That is why the Orthodox marriage service culminates in the procession around the marriage altar singing the song of the 40 martyrs of Sebaste, the presbyter leading the couple by the hand—bridegroom in front, bride following—while with his other hand he holds aloft as a beacon or torch, the golden-clad Word of God, the Gospels.

Your marriage is an inviolable tabernacle, a sort of Holy of Holies that no one, not even your future children, can penetrate. This is a given, and knowing this should dispel any man’s or woman’s fear of “what might happen.” The man creates with his brothers the outer world, he protects, he acquires, he extends the borders, he takes captives (for Christ). The woman creates with her sisters the inner world, the hearth, the home, the nurture of children, the sanctuary and paradise of her husband. This is what comes out of our following of Christ in the priesthood of marriage.

In the Orthodox marriage service this is seen in numerous places, and the basic concept of the crowning symbolizes the martyría (Greek, “witness”) of marriage. As with Christ, this martyría has two aspects, the cross, and paradise. Christ’s death on the cross opened for us who believe the gates of paradise. In marriage, our deaths to ourselves open for us and also for our children the gates of paradise, making the Christian family and home an ikon of paradise. That’s why a man and woman are crowned as king and queen, as Adam and Eve, and their future family and home, blessed as Paradise.

Work these things through with each other, get your “constitution” in order “for a more perfect union.” God is with you.

“Bridegroom! Be exalted like Abraham, blessed like Isaac and multiplied like Jacob, walking in peace and righteously doing God’s commandments. And you, O bride! Be exalted like Sarah, gladdened like Rebecca and multiplied like Rachel, being happy with your husband and keeping the precepts of the Law!”

— Final blessing from the Order of Crowning
in the Orthodox Wedding Service

"Who touched me?"

The following ramble on slavery, freedom and love is something that I grabbed off FaceBook, not a place where I normally go for edification. These words were posted by my oldest son Jacob Gorny, and they touched down in me like lightning to earth at a number of places. How little we know of each other's sufferings, thoughts and loves. I found these thoughts worthy, and I hope you do too.

"Being a house slave is better than being a field slave, but you are never part of the family."

It's related to another quote I read someplace about someone who went to do missionary work... "I wanted to be a missionary in the Congo because I wanted to help the poor. Then I realized I wanted to help the poor because I wanted to feel rich. Then I realized that when I got home I thought I was rich but was actually poor. Then I wanted to be with the poor because that was my real home."

Hmm... there was definitely a time when I thought it was because I wasn't Greek. But that's not it, because there are Greek house slaves too. Then I thought it was because I wasn't rich… but there are rich house slaves. It was also possible that it was because I was not part of the family... but I have seen a lot of family members get treated like house slaves... No, I think it is simply because I'm not cool enough.

I do think my statement applies to converts primarily, but I think it also can affect Greeks who are trying to be who they want to be, and not be driven by trends and what other people want. And yet, at this point in time perhaps, it is worth looking at Malcolm X's understanding of the house slave.

"You have to go back to what the young brother here referred to as the house Negro and the field Negro back during slavery. There were two kinds of slaves, the house Negro and the field Negro. The house Negroes—they lived in the house with master, they dressed pretty good, they ate good because they ate his food—what he left. They lived in the attic or the basement, but still they lived near the master; and they loved the master more than the master loved himself. They would give their life to save the master's house, quicker than the master would. If the master said, "We got a good house here," the house Negro would say, "Yeah, we got a good house here." Whenever the master said "we," he said "we." That's how you can tell a house Negro.

"If the master's house caught on fire, the house Negro would fight harder to put the blaze out than the master would. If the master got sick, the house Negro would say, "What's the matter, boss, we sick?" We sick! He identified himself with his master, more than his master identified with himself. And if you came to the house Negro and said, "Let's run away, let's escape, let's separate," the house Negro would look at you and say, "Man, you crazy. What you mean, separate? Where is there a better house than this? Where can I wear better clothes than this? Where can I eat better food than this?" That was that house Negro."

Perhaps this is even why the unspeakable tension caused by people who believe that American Orthodoxy should be autocephalous... who knows. For me, there is an underlying sense that no matter how hard I strive to maintain the Orthodox faith, I am a commodity—owned not by Jesus Christ and the mandates of the gospel, but by the hoops I am asked to jump through and the hazing I am expected to put up with, in order to be a 'member.'

I think part of the Southern Gospel struggle comes from this idea that people are not supposed to own other people, and that we are suppose to live freely under the eyes of God, and to live out a life of service to fellow humans as Jesus Christ did... that through deliverance through Christ they could throw off the shackles of race, social status, and especially of the work of building capital for someone else's dreams.

Well, the situation with house slaves could be pointed at as being a sign that 'slavery works'… Ask the slaves, and they are happy. Ask the masters, and they are happy.

The Church is nothing more than a modern name for the tree of life. Such a structure will always succeed… grows a branch, for example, and branches will fail if they become more concerned with the sturdiness of the branch at the expense of the fruit. A diseased branch consumes the energy to make the fruit… it becomes sterile. The trunk says, 'What's going on here? I'm sending water and nutrients through the system and yet there is no fruit.' It is a misallocation of resources.

I allow it because I hope it will cultivate something good… sometimes a seed, sometimes a plant. But sometimes it is a waste… life goes where it does not belong, because I'm foolish, and I can't see where the true need is.

However, the tree of life is inescapable… I am born into it, because of it, and will live in spite of myself because of it. It's a mysterious grace we have inherited. Slavery has always been about milking that life—that grace—from others.

There are people who believe love is only possible through enslavement. God operates against this and eventually it will fail… through death or isolation. It is entirely inevitable… we aren't designed for it. We were made to be free.
Freely have you received, freely give.

I admit it, I allow people to seduce the energy God gives me away from where it should go… to petty projects, or to dead-end relationships, or to feed their compulsions and addictions. I don't know if knowingly entering into these situations with delusional hope is sinful. But I feel stupid every time it happens… even though it helps me recognize who is trying to use me, and who is not.

"Who touched me?" …I wish it was that easy for everyone to know when they have loved someone or something as God hoped they would.

— Jacob Gorny

Holy

ἅγιοι ἔσεσθε, ὅτι ἐγὼ ἅγιος

Be holy, for I am holy.
1 Peter 1:16

It seems that no matter where I go, or whom I come in contact with, the fact that I esteem and hold the Word of God above my head and everything else automatically positions me in a state of enmity. This has always come as a shock to me; I consider the scriptures greater than all, and so I always thought that because of this, people would trust me and honor me. Instead, they either want to challenge me on all points or end up simply despising me because of the Testimony that I simply will not waver from.

They refuse to understand. I am peace, yet they consider me to be war. They refuse to understand. I want His decrees, His commands, His precepts, His statues, yet they think I am self-righteous, narrow-minded, rash, unkind.

My witnessing is considered survivalism and evasion; must I constantly have to defend the Testimony? It is not mine—I did not create it. It was no emanating spark springing from my faculties. The Testimony was handed down in the Word; I simply accepted it as it is—without adding or subtracting. And because of this, I am wrong.

The language of the Cross may be illogical to those who are not on the way to salvation, but those of us who are on the way see it as God’s power to save. As scripture says: I shall destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing all the learning of the learned. Where are the philosophers now? Where are the scribes? Where are any of our thinkers today? Do you see now how God has shown up the foolishness of human wisdom? If it was God’s wisdom that human wisdom should not know God, it was because God wanted to save those who have faith through the foolishness of the message that we preach. And so, while the Jews demand miracles and the Greeks look for wisdom, here are we preaching a crucified Christ; to the Jews an obstacle that they cannot get over, to the pagans madness, but to those who have been called, whether they are Jews or Greeks, a Christ who is the power and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

Take yourselves, for instance, brothers, at the time when you were called: how many of you were wise in the ordinary sense of the word? How many were influential people, or came from noble families? No, it was to shame the wise that God chose what is foolish by human reckoning; those whom the world thinks are common and contemptible are the ones that God has chosen—those who are nothing at all to show up those who are everything. The human race has nothing to boast about to God, but you God has made members of Christ Jesus and by God’s doing He has become our wisdom, and our virtue, and our holiness, and our freedom. As scripture says: if anyone wants to boast, let him boast about the Lord. 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 Jerusalem Bible

And I am wrong with you, if that's what it is, but the wisdom of God is foolishness to the world, as are the accusations, the scourging, the cross, the nails, the sponge and vinegar, the gash in His side, the taking the body down, the laying it in the rich man's unused tomb, and the resurrection on the third day. So is the 40 day sojourn, the ascent to the right hand of Divine majesty, the never-leaving arrival of the Unearthly Spirit, and finally, so is the second and glorious Coming. I stand on this bedrock with you, so we can share Golgotha with our Master, and also share Paradise with the thief.

Now Your Word is a lamp

Psalms for the 26th Day
119: 105-176 — 97-176 (Hebrew)

נ (Nún)

Now Your Word is a lamp to my feet,
a light on my path.
I have sworn to observe, I shall maintain
Your righteous rulings.
Yahweh, though my suffering is acute,
revive me as Your Word has guaranteed.
Yahweh, accept the homage that I offer,
teach me Your rulings.
I would lay down my life at any moment,
I have never yet forgotten Your Law.
The wicked have tried to trap me,
but I have never yet veered from Your precepts.
Your decrees are my eternal heritage,
they are the joy of my heart.
I devote myself to obeying Your statutes—
compensation enough for ever!

The Hebrew discipline of daily psalm reading starts the reading for the 26th day at verse 97, at the letter Mém…

מ

Meditating all day on Your Law
how I have come to love it!
By Your commandment, ever mine,
how much wiser You have made me than my enemies!
How much subtler than my teachers,
through my meditating on Your decrees!
How much more perceptive than the elders,
as a result of my respecting Your precepts!
I refrain my feet from every evil path,
the better to observe Your Word.
I do not turn aside from Your rulings,
since You Yourself teach me these.
Your promise, how sweet to my palate!
Sweeter than honey to my mouth!
Your precepts endow me with perception;
I hate all deceptive paths.

Meeting again the verses of the psalm for the 26th day is always, for me, like running into a faithful and comforting friend at the end of a long and arduous day of struggle. He holds me closely to him for a moment, then looks me in the eyes and says, "Don't worry! That day is over. The new one is here, when we can serve the God of heaven together and joyfully keep His commandments! You are Home!"

It is fitting that the psalm for the 26th day should fall on the sabbath this month, because for me, yes, it has been a very difficult week, right up to the last moment, but by the mercy of Christ our God, I am home again, in His Word, where I want to live, and where He lights up my path.

The psalm of this day is so precious! Listen to this, just one more stanza, starting with verse 129, at the letter Pé…

פ

Your decrees are so wonderful
my soul cannot but respect them.
As Your Word unfolds, it gives light,
and the simple understand.
I open my mouth, panting
eagerly for Your commandments.
Turn to me, please, pity me,
as You should those who love Your name.
Direct my steps as You have promised,
let evil win no power over me.
Rescue me from human oppression;
I will observe Your precepts.
Treat Your servant kindly,
teach me Your statutes.
My eyes stream with tears,
because others disregard Your Law.

As anyone who prays the psalms will have noticed, much of their content forms the basis of Orthodox liturgical chant. The familiar doxology at the conclusion of the orthros (dawn) service includes a whole series of psalm verses after the original text of the ancient hymn Δόξα σοι τω δείξαντι το φως (Glory to Thee who hast shown us the Light), and among them is the thrice-chanted verse from Psalm 119, "Blessed are You, O Lord, teach me Your statutes" (Psalm 119:12), in Greek, Ευλογητός ει Κύριε, δίδαξον με τα δικαιώματα σου (Evloghitós ei Kýrie, dhídhaxon me ta dhikaiómata su), and in Hebrew (omitting the Hebrew script), Barúkh attá Adonáy, lammedéyni hukéykha. This hymn is so deeply engraved in my consciousness that I often wake up in the morning singing it.

It was a beautiful sunrise this morning, deep golden light making the autumn treetops radiant, and now the day is once again renewed. Glory to You who have shown us the Light!

By the way, the full text of the doxology in transliterated Greek with an English translation is hymn #38 in my booklet Singing the Work of the People, which can be downloaded by clicking HERE.

The Glory of "Holy Russia"

Images and text copied from the Voices from Russia blog.

Metropolitan Hilarion Kapral of New York of the ROCOR has taken the Kursk Root Icon to Russia. Look at the size of the crowd for the procession! There are THOUSANDS present! There are more people here than there are in most American Orthodox archdioceses… reflect on that and understand why all those who bloviate concerning “American Orthodoxy” are all wet. This humbles one… these people had many options… watch TV, listen to the radio, visit friends, go to work, read, go to the shopping mall, or potter at the dacha… instead, they are HERE. Make no more sarcastic and condescending comments about the Church in Russia until you can muster a crowd of THIS size. WOW!!!

Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev (1946- ) of Moscow and all the Russias, the de facto spiritual head of the Orthodox Church, at the procession. Russia is the centre of Orthodox civilisation, being the largest, strongest, and most influential Orthodox state. Therefore, it is no surprise that Vladyki Kirill is the leading hierarch of the Church throughout the world. Numbers do speak… There are more people here present than there are on the entire legitimate canonical territory of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Istanbul… ponder that… it tells us something, no?

I quoted the text above completely without editing, so that my Orthodox brethren and other Christians can see where the Russian Orthodox Church is headed.

There was another news article reporting on the return of the famous Kursk ikon to Russia. It was this article that prompted my response as a comment on Fr Milovan's blog:

Holy Russia, hmm, well, as a historian and an Orthodox Christian, I know much of what that implies. For one, a big, very big country, the biggest in fact as far as size goes, and one that had an Orthodox emperor, just like the old Byzantine state, a fatherly, semi-divine protector of the poor and innocent, and defender and promoter of the Church. For another, a land of immense plains and forests filled with a crowd of hard-working, industrious peasants of simple but immovable faith, worshipping the Lord with thousands of self-crossings and prostrations, the lighting of thousands of candles daily, crowds, crowds of the pious and God-fearing Christians…

So, the ikon of the Mother of God, the miraculous, the not-made-by-hands, returns to its homeland finally, like an exiled queen after the defeat of her enemies, and is greeted by crowds, crowds of the pious God-fearing Christians…

Where were these Christians when the ikon was still overseas in safety? Were they in hiding just as she was, waiting for the opportune and safe moment to come out? Where were these crowds when Holy Russia was being trampled under the feet of Godless criminals? Would there have been enough bullies and bandits to keep a crowd this big in check? Would there have been enough bullets to slay them all and put Holy Russia forever under the earth, just a memory in the pages of history?

As long as the crowds that greeted Jesus with hosannas on His entry into Jerusalem dissipate or, even worse, become the crowd that cried out, “Crucify him!” there will be no “kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven,” and possibly no “Holy Russia” in reality.

Let’s not be blinded by our “devotion” to the Mother of God and the saints, and following Metropolitan Hilarion’s “call on all believers to come to the Church and adore the icon” imagine that this has anything other than ceremonial significance. Yes, it is a historic moment. It does signify what they say it signifies, a kind of “peace” in the Russian Church at large, at home and abroad.

It does certainly give the Orthodox believers of whatever level of commitment and faith a feeling of solidarity. All these things can lead to real faith, if real faith is desired. They can also lead to a whole menagerie of other things, some of them not so praiseworthy or Christian. The “imperial church” has not always been a friend to believers, neither has the “imperial state.”

As glorious as the ikon of Saint George slaying the dragon appears, when you venerate the ikon, which do you kiss, the saint, or the dragon?

This comment elicited a mild rebuke from a Russian Orthodox woman, which can be read at Fr Milovan's original post, to which I also responded, trying to affirm that it was not my intention to be condescending in my comment above. As people who know me will also know where I am coming from, my comment probably needs no further explanations from me. The warning implicit in what I wrote is only this: Crowds can mean many things, and neither numbers nor a show of strength matters. What matters is faith. Let's see what this crowd, or any other, does for Christ. I hope, as always, for the best.

Da, moya shestra Vara, slava Yisusu Kristu, slava Bogu!

Setting the record straight

The modern world culture has made the delight in and the practice of homosexual acts the defining criteria for a new category of humans who are neither male nor female as God made us, but a new kind of being that is equal in all respects to normal humans.

There have always been persons of both sexes who have found themselves in the predicament of being attracted to others of the same sex more than those of the opposite sex. “For some are eunuchs because they were born that way; others were made that way by men; and others have renounced marriage because of the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 19:12) It did not follow automatically that they defiled themselves sexually with others of the same sex. In fact, true manly love between men, such as David and Jonathan, was not homosexual as many claim, even though their love was as strong as or even stronger than the love between a man and a wife. This intensity of love does not necessarily include the performance of homosexual acts. People don’t want to accept this, but rather, they read into manly (or womanly) love a homosexuality that is not intrinsically there. All homosexual desires and the acts that issue from them are a matter of free choice. Born eunuchs they may be, born gays they are not.

The mistake of modern man is to take one kind of response to this predicament and champion it, making it out to be the norm, the way that God intended people to be, and then pushing it on people who find themselves in this predicament. This is especially criminal when it is done within the public school system. Now that the culture hardly knows the scriptures or the tradition of the Church, now that it rejects reason and wisdom, even parents are confused and give in to it when their children decide that they are ‘gay.’ They have bought a bill of goods that robs them of their freedom to choose, and their children become the victims as well.

But we were not created for sinful acts or sinful covetousness. God does not create people in a way that it is unavoidable for them to be saved because of sin. He revealed in many places and times and to all people, really, that the abuse of sex is sinful, and that it stems from an attitude of contempt for God and worship of what is not God.

“Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.” (Romans 1:22-27)

I wonder if even the Church remembers and knows that preference for others of the same sex does not automatically define the person as homosexual.

Soldiers and monastics are two groups of men who understand manly love as it really is. True, there are to be found some who have accepted the lie and indulged in homosexual desire and activity, but this is not the norm—these are sick people.

Those who follow wisdom, who follow Jesus, know what they were made for, when it is not for marriage. Both men and women who are born this way, because their love is not focused on their husbands and wives, their children and their possessions, can give, and have given, such immense love to others not related to them according to the flesh, have done such great deeds for Christ in their fellow men, that we call them ‘saints.’

The element of choice has always been present in every age, as has the element of temptation. We have met both kinds of personalities all through history.

Are the men and women “eunuchs” who followed Jesus and did not choose to express their love in an unlawful and destructive way even recognized by the world system? No, they are not. But they are known to God, and to us who follow the same Lord as they did, and within the nature we have each been given, seek also to glorify with them the God who creates our souls and bodies for righteousness and not for sin.

What response would those who sympathize with the ‘gay’ community have us make to those who defiantly flaunt their sin and blaspheme their Creator with pride in their sinful choice? Welcome them as they are as full members of Christ? If a man who commits sin with a prostitute has joined himself in one flesh with her, denying his Lord, how much more is the one who defiles himself or herself by sexual sin with a person of the same sex cut off from fellowship with the Body of Christ.

Our God is Holy, and He says to us, “Be Holy, for I am Holy.”

There is a better way to deal with this “problem” than to capitulate to a sinful choice and expression. In fact, it is not really a “problem” at all to be “born a eunuch,” but actually a blessing, because such a person can give himself or herself with full commitment to the service of Christ and Christian society.

That is, if there is still any Christian society left.

Insanity

As I drive to and from work every day, part of my route takes me up Portland’s N.E. 82nd Avenue, a main road infamous for its connexions with prostitution, adult video parlors and strip joints.

Yesterday morning, a 40-ish looking prostitute with long curly auburn hair, wearing skin-tight blue jeans, and taking a drag on a cigarette was walking along the road with a man. I just happened to notice her and in that fleeting moment, she stared at me dead on with an intense look of mixed contempt and anger, and then was gone.

This morning, a man in a shabby linen suit, looking about 50 years old, with a shock of red gold hair and a very thick but trimmed beard to match, was standing on that same sidewalk right at the road’s edge shaking his fist at on-coming traffic and shouting angry words. He wasn’t standing at a corner or at a bus stop. He made no move to jay-walk the busy avenue. He was just expressing himself.

Last night, a friend of mine who happens to be a fellow Orthodox, was sitting in my living room and I was upstairs in my bed room. I thought I heard the sound of the front door being opened and shut, and I heard him talking to someone, then silence. I waited a minute or two, and then came downstairs and asked him if there was someone at the door. His response was, “No.”

“Well, who were you talking to then?” I asked. “I was talking to the man who has been tormenting me for the last ten years,” he answered in an annoyed tone of voice, then mumbled as if to himself, “whose been tormenting me for the past forty years…” and then trailed off. “What are you talking about?” I responded. “Spirits! There’s spirits outside! Roman, the world is full of spirits!” he retorted in an angry, panicky tone of voice. I left him there, and went back upstairs to my evening “quiet time.”

It seems that the world we inhabit is full of insanity or, as my friend put it, spirits. Even though he is a Christian, his mental illness continues and deepens. The Church does nothing for him, because everything it is willing to do has to be done with his full consent, and he doesn’t give it. It makes me wonder if an insane person actually has free will.

In a comment to one of my earlier posts, I wrote “Turning to Christ means sanity; turning away from Him means insanity.” The world I see on one leg of my drive to work every day is an insane world, but that world can get very, very close sometimes. It intrudes upon even my Church, even my own family, even on me. It does come down to this, do we turn to Christ or away from Him?

It’s not hard to see how those who live in the world without Christ can be insane, but how can an Orthodox or any Christian be insane? Well, we still have choices and we make them. Some insanity, maybe most of it, is caused by disorders deeper than the level of will, but there are those forms of insanity which we welcome by our persistent rebellion, our refusal to accept help.

We can see it in small doses affecting ourselves, but the same rebellion repeated and unrestrained seems to lead us to a point where we no longer have the will to resist it. Insanity, then, becomes our “normal” state, from which we emerge as necessary to survive in our interactions with others, and into which we retreat when we find ourselves alone.

How can my friend be insane and a Christian at the same time? In his case, it seems to me, it is a disorder of the will, a bent towards the rebellious, a turning away from the real Christ combined with a turning towards an idolatrous image of Christ. He spends his time “praying” and reading the bible in Greek (he doesn’t understand Greek, he just knows how to pronounce it) when he hasn’t found anything else to do. He doesn’t work because everyone “out there” is out to prevent him from working and leading a normal life.

It’s the mercy of Christ, coming to him because of his confession of His name, that is keeping my friend from total insanity, but it’s like hanging on to life by a shoestring.

It makes me wonder just how much of what we do and what we are is only because of God’s grace, and how it is that some find themselves turning to Him, and others away.

As I remember from the Night Litany in the Saint Augustine’s Prayer Book (Anglican), “For the insane, [Lord,] keep them in Thy power.”

Wisdom

Fr Milovan wrote in a comment [italics added] at his recent blog post “A Great Victory for normal Serbia” these notorious words, paraphrasing the teaching handed over to us by Archimandrite Justin Popović and Metropolitan Amphilochios of Montenegro:

That which is new to this world, the venerable Fr. Justin Popović says at one place, and with which the New Testament remains eternally new in heaven and earth, is that we are now called to condemn sin but love the sinner, saving him from sin.

He also states, and I paraphrase, As a being created in the image of God, man is incomparably greater than any one of his sins… It is not permitted that we make Christians cease sinning because of some obligation, but rather through persuasion, words and meekness are we to carry out the salvation of people.

The metropolitan’s words [Metropolitan Amphilohije of Montenegro and the Coastlands] are the position of the Church. No one has, nor are they in any way forced, to listen to or pay heed to any one single thing that comes from the mouth of church leaders. If they are interested in the salvation of their souls, on the other hand, this rule certainly does not apply.


It is by telling and preaching to people the Truth about our salvation that we bring them to the church. Unlike the world of business that uses advertising to make things seem like something else in order to draw them in, ours is not to advertise the Church, but preach the Gospel of Christ.

—Fr Milovan Katanić, Presbyter

God-proof

God cannot enter the world for the world has been rendered God-proof.

Out of all the commendable thoughts expressed in Fr Stephen's recent post, Icons and Words, something about the sentence quoted above grabbed me strongly, and I confess that the thoughts that began to arise out of it have little to do with the topic in his original post, other than that, for me, they are, like words of the scriptures, ikonic to an amazing degree. I often say, "Pictures are supposed to be worth a thousand words, but for me the bible is the word that is worth a thousand pictures." That's what happened inside my head when I read, "God cannot enter the world for the world has been rendered God-proof."

In context, what I think Fr Stephen was expressing is that the drift of modern Western culture has tended towards the elimination of God from every aspect of our lives, and that it has very well succeeded, or at least in popular culture. In an odd way, though, I think he was also saying that even amongst some Christians the same thing has happened. What he writes about is from the viewpoint of an Orthodox Christian looking out of his window on the world, and as a matter of fact, it also looks like that to me too.

The fact is, the world has not yet succeeded in making itself God-proof, and we who follow Jesus are the living, walking reminder of that failure. It may never be able to render itself God-proof as long as we are on the planet. This opens up many other questions to discussion which I won't go into here, but as I read that line in his post and its conditional truth thrust itself deep into my mind, I saw a lot of things that I can't express in words, except one:

Just at that moment when the rulers of this world system are at the point of being able to certify the world God-proof, that is when He won't be able to hold Himself back.

Self-fulfilling poverty and the abuse of images

The scene is common enough, at least in the United States, at least out West. Driving home from church services, I passed not once, but twice, “poor people” sitting or standing at a highway off-ramp or at a traffic-lighted major intersection, holding up a brown cardboard sign, asking for money.
I was surprised that I only encountered two. On a typical day of running errands or even going to and coming home from work, I will encounter at least a half-dozen and up to eight or ten.

These people range a broad spectrum of human types: men and women, young, middle aged and old, black and white (although where I live, Oregon, almost exclusively white), poorly dressed to stylish and well-dressed, dirty to clean and well-groomed in appearance.

The signs advertise a wide range of pleas: “Homeless, will work for food” is the most pathetic, if true. “Disabled veteran, anything will help. God bless” is another one that almost elicits a response, and sometimes does. I used to pass by, looking the other way, but now, I generally pay more than average attention to each beggar, especially when I can stop close. I look them over, then look at them in the face to see if they will look back—some do, most don’t, or only quickly, and when they see the intensity of my gaze, look away. If I have enough time, I try to read every word on their signs.

There have been one or two in the past three months I would’ve helped, but it was at the wrong time. For me, help is not a handout, but going back and talking to them man to man, and find out what it is they need, and if I could, I would help them. But I only help real people, not mere images. Once or twice, after getting done with my errand, I actually drove back to where I saw them to do exactly that, but both times they were already gone. It made me think, “Was even that one only a mirage of need?” but that doesn’t stop me from keeping a lookout.

“The poor you will have with you always, but you will not always have Me,” says the Lord. I ask Him like a Pharisee, “But who is the poor?” and His answer is still the same, even though my question is slightly different, “A man was once on his way down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of brigands…” This is why I don’t want to just pass by, throw a dollar bill into a man’s hat, accept his “God bless you!” and move on. My conscience is not for sale, and even a beggar hasn’t poverty enough to buy it, if it was.

They work on guilt. Living in self-fulfilling poverty, they want to have things on their terms, they want to be supported in their lifestyle, without following the rules that civil society has made to help them stand on their own two feet. Painting themselves into a corner, they have made a habit of blaming everyone but themselves for their “poverty,” while still coveting the prosperity they imagine others have and are cheating them of. They know the bible enough to know that God demands compassion from us for those in need. They take that image and run with it, but as blackmailers.

A poor man is a man who wants to work but is unable to for a real reason, just as a cripple is a man who wants to stand on his own feet and walk but cannot because of a real handicap. Compassion and help to either are the catalysts to their recovery, unless their condition is caused by an uncooperative spirit. Though Judæo-Christian ethics have been officially abandoned after tutoring a civilization to ethical maturity, even what is left after faith and obedience are removed is still enough to help those who wish to be helped, at all costs to themselves, rather than on their own terms.

We speak of self-fulfilling prophecy when describing people who set themselves up to fail. For the topic under discussion, I've changed the wording to self-fulfilling poverty. That’s the kind of poverty that is so proud of itself, that it would rather humiliate the beggar himself and shame the people being begged, than submit to reason, get real help, and be done with.

As for images, we live in an age when every image and name has been bent, profaned, and abused beyond all limit and sense of decency. Images that were meant to invoke compassion are now used to extort it.

Yes, Lord, You are right when You say, “The poor you will have with you always, but you will not always have Me.” Show us Yourself in the real poor, and save us from the deadness of heart that would walk away from their need. As for these others, Lord, Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

How long?

This morning, Saturday, was one of those mornings when I could—believe it or not—actually “sleep in.” For me, what this usually means is I take, or rather give myself, sélah, pause, to consider the things of God. Making myself comfortable in a warm quilt and cuddling with my Jerusalem Bible, my NIV, my Greek New Testament, or my Tehillim (the Hebrew book of Psalms), I pray and thank the Lord, talking to Him as our Father in heaven. Then, declaring the Word of God as both my prayer and receiving it as His word personally addressed to me, His unworthy servant, I let myself go as long as I can, resting in His presence, learning from and feeding on Him. He is the Bread of Life. Now, that’s what I would call, real “breakfast in bed”!

Forgive me, brethren!—I do not intend to be disrespectful or unmindful of the apostolic injunction to “stand in prayer,” but there are many kinds of meetings with our Lord, some we stand for, in others we prostrate, in still others we forget all formality and simply cry out, “Help!” In all of these, God knows. He knows all about us, we can hide nothing. Yet, oddly enough for the divine Being, though we do not know all about Him, He does let us know Him in the only way we can, and from His lovers and friends He also hides nothing. “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” (John 15:15 NIV)

This morning I felt strongly drawn to pray the psalms for the 19th day according to the Hebrew usage, and from the Tehillim, in Hebrew. Of course, I also read those parts in English which I still don’t quite grasp in the original language. It amazes me how the Word of God seems to teach me and open my understanding of the Hebrew sometimes without having to resort to the facing page translation. God is good. Tov Hashém.

The psalms appointed for the 19th Day were Psalms 90 to 96 (again, Hebrew usage, which is slightly offset from Christian usage). I rejoiced when I saw which psalms they were—the psalm Moses wrote (Psalm 90) describing our brief stay on earth and all the troubles we encounter. Then, following it, a psalm that almost seems like our God’s immediate and comforting response (Psalm 91) to Moses’ plea, “Whoever sits in the refuge of the Most High—he shall dwell in the shadow of the Almighty…”

In the Tehillim, rabbinical tradition also ascribes Psalm 91 to Moses. All these psalms belong to the shabbat, the seventh-day, today. As I recited them and prayed them, pausing and rereading the choicest verses, the blessing of the sabbath rest came over me. Again and again, I thanked the Lord for His many kindnesses and mercies to me, a sinner—especially for granting me this morning of shalóm, of peace, something that is denied to many others.

When I came to Psalm 94, something changed in my mood. I read words like, “How long shall the wicked—O Hashem—how long shall the wicked exult?” (Psalm 94:3), and as I prayed I had that sense of abandonment and frustration that God’s hereditary people Israel must have felt all through their history. It’s hard not to be drawn into sympathy with them; the same things happen to us. “If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.” (John 15:19 NIV)

Just as Psalm 91 came “to the rescue” of man’s complaint in Psalm 90, so it seems to me, Psalm 95 comes to bring God’s immediate and living word to the reversal of man’s plight, and the ultimate answer to his complaint in Psalm 94. “Come!—let us prostrate ourselves and bow, let us kneel before God, our Maker. For He is our God, and we can be the flock He pastures, and the sheep in His charge—even today, if we but heed His call!” (Psalm 95:6-7)

“How long?” we cry out to God from inside our various self-made miseries, as if He were not already aware of them all and dealing with us according to our capacities.

“How long?” is the answer we would hear from Him, if and when we only sought to hear His voice, as the psalmist says, “even today, if we but heed His call!”

The psalm painting and the painting of the grieving woman are by Christa Rosier, Huizen, Netherlands. View her other paintings at her website, Psalm Paintings.

All ikon

Father Stephen writes in his post Is the World Literal or Iconic?

Much that passes for Christian theology or “thought” belongs to this world-view today. Thus those who concern themselves with “prophetic” events are constantly working to make a connection between the words of Scripture and the “literal” events of today’s news. The coming of Christ is seen by them as an event that will fit within the headlines of the paper – and even fantasize about the difficulties presented to mainstream media when the event of a “literal rapture” occurs, and a significant portion of the population goes missing.

Casting their nets into the waves of speculation, they bring up no fish, only their own reflection, and nodding in approval to one another, they head back to shore, where they will count the fish that they have not caught, only imagined. Fantasy upon fantasy, when the Lord Himself is not just near us, but among us, notwithstanding His second and glorious coming, the judgment, and the last day. Even as reality is not just planned but all plan, so is the world not just bits of ikon here and there but all ikon. Everything points to and glorifies the One in whom we were hidden before the foundation of the world, and in whose embrace we now live through love, now and unto the ages of ages. Glory to Thee, O God! Glory to Thee!

Violence

ἀπὸ δὲ τῶν ἡμερῶν Ἰωάννου τοῦ βαπτιστοῦ ἕως ἄρτι ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν βιάζεται, καὶ βιασταὶ ἁρπάζουσιν αὐτήν

And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.

Matthew 12:13 KJV

Let us look to ourselves and be sober, brothers. Who will give us back this present time if we waste it? If we actually had to seek these days we would not have found them. Abba Arsenios was always saying to himself, "Arsenios, what have you come for?" We are in such a negligent and ruinous condition that we don't know why we have come; we don't know even what we want and, therefore, we make no progress, but we are always distressed. This comes about because we have no set purpose in our hearts and, actually, if we were to resolve to fight a little, in a short time we should not find life distressing or laborious. For if from the beginning a man does violence to himself and struggles with himself a little, in a short time he makes progress and afterwards he goes on peacefully, when God, seeing that he does violence to himself, brings him help. We must, then, do ourselves violence. Let us lay down a good foundation, let us meanwhile desire what is good.

— Abba Dorotheos of Gaza

At the beginning of the struggle... the holy commandments of God must be fulfilled with a certain forcefulness of will; then the Lord, seeing our intention and labor, will grant us readiness of will and gladness in obeying His purposes. For 'it is the Lord who makes ready the will' (Proverbs 8:35 LXX), so that we always do what is right, joyfully. Then shall we truly feel that 'it is God who energizes in you both the willing and the doing of His purpose' (Philippians 2:13).

— Abba Diadochos of Photiki

Love is like the feet

Love is the hallmark of the true Church—nothing else!—and where love is, God is, Christ is, the Holy Spirit is. Christ does not tell us in the gospels, "Make sure each other is believing in exactly the right doctrine," but rather "Love one another as I have loved you."

I am not saying that doctrine is unimportant, but that it is secondary.

Love is like the feet, very humble, but they're the parts of the body that enable you to follow Jesus, they lead you to Him.

Doctrine is like the head, full of itself, often lost in the clouds of speculation, often misguiding the feet, often putting up "mental roadblocks" where the feet know better, where the feet would go if not restrained.

No one has ever walked by using his head as the organ of locomotion. If you don't have feet, then you must use a wheelchair, but you still don't hop along on your head.

The church I belong to is the one where we are all of one mind because we are all of one loving heart.

The mind of Christ is the only mind that is not flawed, the only mind that does not fantasize, lie or lead astray, or prevent the blessed feet from walking after Him.

The church I belong to is really that one, and you and me, brother, and our Lord, Master and Savior is here with us, among us, and within us, "He pitched His tent among us and became man," so that we might pitch our tent in the heavenlies, and there abide forever in the wedding feast of the Lamb.

What does Christ see when He looks upon the Church?

Nothing and no one that He hasn't placed there.
Whatever and whoever is of the world is as invisible to us, as we are to it and to them.

September 14 — Holy Cross

What our Saviour saw from the Cross - Tissot

There is much more to this feast day than a mere commemoration of the physical relic of the Cross, glorious though it may be. We can never forget, amidst the trappings of religion that often encumber and conceal it, that the Cross was endured for us, and it is also meant for us, those of us who follow Jesus. What does the world look like to us? Are we standing with our feet on the ground, looking up and adoring the crucified Lord? Or is our flesh nailed down to the Cross for love of Him, with whom we look upon a world that, lost in its own sin and suffering, gazes upon us, uncomprehending?

Here follow some gleanings on the Holy Cross from earlier posts on Cost of Discipleship. A blessèd feast day, and fast day, to all who keep this day holy.
In Paradise of old, the tree stripped me bare, for by the eating thereof, the enemy brought in death. But now, the most holy tree of the Cross that doth clothe all men with the garment of life hath been set up on earth, and all of the world is filled with most boundless joy. Seeing it exalted, ye people, now, let us the faithful all cry out with one accord to God in faith: Thy house is full of glory, O Lord.

Feast of the Elevation of the Holy Cross

Sessional Hymn of the Canon

Discipleship means the Cross

The knowledge of the Cross is concealed in the sufferings of the Cross. — Gregory the Great

The Cross is the door to mysteries. Through this door the intellect makes entrance in to the knowledge of heavenly mysteries. The knowledge of the Cross is concealed in the sufferings of the Cross. And the more our participation in its sufferings, the greater the perception we gain through the Cross. For, as the Apostle says, "As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ." — Isaac of Syria

God does not create a cross for man. No matter how heavy a cross a man may carry in life, it is still just wood, from which man himself made, and it always grows from the soil of his heart. — Ambrose of Optina

The way of God from the beginning of time and from the creation of the human race has been the way of the cross and death. How did you get your idea that everything is just the opposite? You must realize that you are outside the way of God, that you are far from Him, that you do not wish to walk in the steps of the Saints, but want to make some special way for yourself and travel by it without sufferings. The way of God is a daily cross. No one has climbed to heaven by living a life of pleasure. — Ignatios Brianchaninov

Christians often assume that to "take up our cross" means simply to carry a burden. When we run into a life trouble, we will say things like "oh, this is just my cross to bear". We basically shrug it off, totally missing the significance of the cross.

Ever consider that the cross is not meant to be a burden? It is meant to cause death.

The cross is meant to kill us! It is an instrument of death! Oh that wonderful cross!

Christianity can be many things to many people, but unless it is first and foremost the cross, it can devolve into ritual, culture, or magic. Not that everyone will have the same cross to bear and to die on, not that what it looks like or feels like will be the same for all, not that those who follow Christ to Calvary will all understand what is happening to them the same way, but nonetheless the cross awaits us all, at least all of us who seek to follow Jesus.

Why, then, do you fear to take up the Cross, which is the road to the Kingdom? In the Cross is salvation; in the Cross is life; in the Cross is protection against our enemies; in the Cross is infusion of heavenly sweetness; in the Cross is strength of mind; in the Cross is joy of spirit; in the Cross is excellence of virtue; in the Cross is perfection of holiness. There is no salvation of soul, nor hope of eternal life, save in the Cross. Take up the Cross, therefore, and follow Jesus. Christ has gone before you, bearing His Cross; He died for you on the Cross, that you also may bear your cross, and desire to die on the cross with Him. For if you die with Him, you will also live with Him. And if you share His sufferings, you will also share His glory. See how in the Cross all things consist, and in dying on it all things depend. There is no other way to life and to true inner peace, than the way of the Cross, and of daily self-denial. Go where you will, seek what you will; you will find no higher way above nor safer way below than the road of the Holy Cross.
— Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book 2, Chapter 12

Cross,
do not fail me
when it comes my hour
to bleed.
As to a strong-masted vessel,
let me be bound to you
to share your power.
Hug me close
as the wind we together wrestle.

Lost,
let them nail me
as my ransomed soul
a steed
of spirit mounts
and my hungers hang.
Let me inherit
what the jailer stole
and hidden,
as I thirst,
what prophets sang.

— Romanós

Who are the many, who the few?

πολλοί γαρ εισιν κλητοί ολίγοι δε εκλεκτοί

For many are called, but few are chosen.
Matthew 22:14

No need to say which English version this short verse comes from in the above quote, as it can hardly be translated any other way. This is the concluding verse of Christ's parable of the wedding feast (Matthew 22:1-14).

Fr Milovan has an excellent post on the significance of this parable, which I recommend to you heartily—you won't be disappointed—for he touches on many more points than I have usually heard in sermons taken from this passage. I especially appreciate his explanation about the original Greek versus modern English connotations given to the word πολλοὶ, pollí, "many," at the conclusion of the parable,

The word “many”, both in Greek and English, refers to a large group of people. In English, ‘many’ is restrictive while in Greek it is inclusive. This means when we say ‘many of the people came’ in English this would imply that most of them did not. If the same is said in Greek that ‘many of the people came’ it would imply that most of them did. Those that did not come are referred to as “the few”, or the English equivalent which would be “some of them.” In the end, this makes up everyone, for everyone is invited.

Another point he makes is the significance of the wedding garment. He writes,

It’s customary nowadays for the bride to look her best at the wedding, for her to be the center of attention, but in ancient times this wasn’t the case. On the contrary, everyone would wear the same kind of garment. It was this imagery that Christ used to tell the Jews about God’s kingdom.

The image at the top of my post is borrowed from Fr Milovan's. It is a good representation of that ancient Middle Eastern wedding feast where everyone was expected to come in a wedding garment. It's even hard to tell who the bride and groom are, although I think they're probably the couple closest to us viewing the picture.

The Father invites the many to the wedding feast of His Son; we don't invite ourselves. But when we have received the invitation, by whomever is sent to us, we have to make a decision, and we have to act: We must say, "Yes, I am coming," and we must get dressed for the occasion. What does this getting dressed, putting on "the wedding garment" mean?

Again, Fr Milovan doesn't mince words, but follows up with the rightly divided Word. He writes,

The wedding garment is a symbol of true repentance and righteousness which is the only way of salvation. In other words, it is not only listening to God’s word but keeping it which ensures our salvation. Or, as St. Paul says in Romans, “for not the hearers of the law of God are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified” (Romans 2:13).

This, of course, does not mean that we are justified by works of the law, but that being made righteous by faith in Jesus Christ, what issues from us who are now covered by His righteousness is an ever-flowing stream from the life-giving Font within us, which He promises to give everyone who believes in Him,

Anyone who drinks the water that I shall give will never be thirsty again: The water that I shall give will turn into a spring inside him, welling up to eternal life.
John 4:14 Jerusalem Bible

To encourage you to read Fr Milovan's post, Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, I will entice you just a little by quoting the first paragraph, which also touched me deeply,

“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints.”
(Psalm 116:15)
With these prophetic words the Psalmist David proclaims the truth that God is most visible in His Saints. It is true that the fingerprint of God is visible in all of His creation but it’s in the holy person that we can truly see God. All the other characteristics of God, such as love, mercy, compassion – they are all seen in men. But none like holiness, that one characteristic that only belongs to God. It’s with this seal that the Lamb of God will recognize us, as we read in the Book of Revelation.

Who are the many, and who the few?
Well, thanks be to God that the 'many' are all of us, because our God is good and desires the salvation of all. It is up to us, to take the grace that accompanies His invitation, and say "Yes, Lord!" and then to put on the wedding garment He also gives us, freely—it is Jesus!

όσοι γαρ εις Χριστόν εβαπτίσθητε, Χριστόν ενεδύσασθε

For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ
have put on Christ.
Galatians 3:27 KJV

Lover of Mankind - ὁ φιλάνθρωπος

We address the Lord in the first of the resurrectional apolytikia as μόνε Φιλάνθρωπε, móne Philánthrope, "only Lover of Mankind." That has always struck me as the most important thing we can ever know about God, or even about man. Only He really and fully loves us, not we ourselves, especially not we ourselves. Though we try, our love for others is usually well mixed with love for ourselves—a love which is not really for ourselves, though, but for our ulterior motives, which are almost always bad for us. The only way we can ever truly love, or even begin to, is by following Him who revealed the love of the Father to us, that is, Jesus. If we follow behind Him closely, and do what we see Him doing, we will begin to love.

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:12-13 NIV

I was reading about Mother Gavrilía Papayanni last night and this morning noticed that at some time previously I had put a sticky bookmark on one of the pages. It happened to be at a passage that describes how she did her "missionary" work in India and other countries that were not already Christian. I found that it very much describes how I try to witness for Christ here in America, where Christianity is ignored and ridiculed if not banned. Our witness does not primarily consist in what we say, but in what we do. If people are to run from their sins, they have to see that "greater love" which is described by Christ in the holy gospels. I want to quote a little of the passage I marked on pages 47-48 of The Ascetic of Love, the book about Mother Gavrilía.

God had sent her to India. At the time, she herself did not know why. What is important, though, is that all who came to know her, whether Indians or Westerners, saw and recognized in her a completely different way of life. They saw and discovered the ascetic character, the humility and the deep spirituality that Orthodoxy has preserved through the centuries. Those of the East saw another West. Those of the West saw their own East, the existence of which they did not even suspect. Had any other missionaries identified themselves, to such an extent, with those they served? Who had ever eaten, drunk, slept or travelled the way these people ate, drank, slept or travelled? Who else had done that? In those days, too, almost all the missionaries lived, wherever they went, under exceptional conditions—good hotels, special food and water, comfortable travelling arrangements—so as to care better for "their" Locals. Who were these people they were calling "theirs"? By never assuming this (sometimes imperceptible and latent in missionary work) attitude of superiority towards those one is ministering to, she always tended and helped without hurting… Yes… This is why her passage left a deep mark. "Indeed, I have become everything in turn to men of every sort." (1 Corinthians 9:22) Actually, she never preached Orthodoxy, but rather, catechized with the heart, without words, with the unique example of her own life.

… Our Lord said: "But he whosoever shall do and teach them…" (Matthew 5:19)…This is how she was "teaching" others. Through her own practice—being herself a living example… This is how, wherever she went, with the grace of God, she opened a window on Orthodoxy and—for us all—a window on the rest of the world, thus making a wide breach in the wall of our acquired fears.

Things new and old

And Jesus said to them, "Therefore every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a head of a household, who brings out of his treasure things new and old."
Matthew 13:52 New American Standard Bible

I knew the verse I wanted, but I also knew what I wanted to express by way of a preface, yet in comparing the English translations, I was amazed at how different the emphasis and even the meaning was between the versions. Though my two favorites are Jerusalem Bible and NIV, I thought the NASB translation hit the mark best (for my purpose only).

Many of my earlier blog posts, as well as the sidebar, contained links to items on a server that I have to abandon, so I spent the morning relocating items and relinking them. One group, PDF files of mostly Símandron publications—that's the "brand" name of my self-published tracts and booklets—used to be accessible in the sidebar, but I want to feature them in this post with thumbnails of the covers and brief descriptions. These are tracts and booklets (up to 40 pages long) that can be opened and read on line, or downloaded to your PC and printed.

Missionary Sorties

3 Winter Forays — Describes how Brock and I started witnessing intentionally in public, using random encounters with people in a coffeehouse.



Contending for the Gospel — An apologia for the mission of reading the Word of God publicly, a ministry which was criticized by other Christians as having no value.


O Pantokrator — A tract that presents Christ as the Pantokrator.




The Freeing of Mickey Landry — A true account of a sortie from beginning to end, how a displaced street boy who was a Christian in the midst of tragedy and trouble, was helped to find his way home.

Evvlogía
(Slang Greek for "Good Blogging" sounds like the word for "Blessing")

a crossbearer's pilgrimage 2006 — Brock's original blog in book format with readers' comments.



Orthodox Tracts

40 Martyrs of Sebaste — The story of these martyrs and their meaning in the context of the married life, with a defense of Christian soldiers.


Indication of the Way into the Kingdom of Heaven — Saint Innocent of Alaska's handbook of the Orthodox life, written originally in the Aleutian language, the best short explanation of what Orthodoxy is and how to be an Orthodox follower of Jesus.


The Lorica — The famous prayer of Saint Patrick, Orthodox enlightener of Ireland.




Pelagía — The life story of Saint Pelagía the Harlot, written by her contemporaries.




Daily Prayer — A simple pamphlet of basic Orthodox prayers for morning and evening, with emphasis on praying the Psalms.


Singing the Work of the People — The Greek Orthodox Sunday Liturgy in transliteration, so those who cannot read written Greek can still sing and understand the songs of the service. Published with the blessing of Fr Elías Stephanopoulos (memory eternal).

The Apostolic Rule — Passages pulled from all the epistles of the New Testament and organized by book, that reveal how simple and direct are the instructions that the apostles have left us about how to live the Christian life.

Photographic Journals from Sorties
Published as memory booklets for our friend Radhakrishn Sannake

Radhakrishn at the Oregon Coast





Radhakrishn in the Columbia Gorge

Sponge, funnel, strainer and sifter

There are four types among those who sit in the presence of the sages: the sponge, the funnel, the strainer, and the sifter.

"The sponge," who soaks up everything. "The funnel," who takes in at this end and lets out at the other. "The strainer," who lets out the wine and retains the lees. "The sifter," who removes the coarse meal and collects the fine flour.

— Pirkei Avot, chapter 5, mishna 18

This saying from the Rabbinical Jewish Talmud describes four types of learners. Needless to say, there is a hierarchy of values going on here. Which of the types of learners do we want to be?

Do we want to be a sponge, soaking up everything? This might at first seem to be the best, but let’s continue.

What about the funnel? No, it’s easy to see that this type of learner is the one described by the phrase “in one ear, out the other,” which probably even comes from this passage.

How about the strainer? It seems to me that this type of learner is one who thinks “too hard,” who strains his mind in inner deliberations, only to let out the wine and keep the lees, that is, the mind loses what is valuable and wastes itself on inanities.

So far, it seems like the sponge may be the best type of learner. But wait, there’s one more…

What about the sifter? This type removes the coarse meal and collects the fine flour. What can this possibly mean? What is the coarse meal, and what the fine flour? It seems to me that this might be the best type of learner, one who not only absorbs knowledge but does something with it, knowing how to separate what is useful from what is not.

It was reading a post on Fr Stephen’s blog that made me think of this wise saying, but what he wrote about is not directly related to the idea behind this mishna. It was this passage that caught my attention:

“Orthodoxy exists as a place for the embracing of teaching and the living out of its reality: it is not a place for the sifting of opinion.”

If this statement were to be placed within the context of this mishna of the Pirkei Avot, it might seem that Fr Stephen is saying it’s best to be the sponge, and not so good to be the sifter, but I don’t think this is what his post was getting at. Rather, as I understand him, and as I understand Orthodoxy, he’s just saying that it is a place to learn what is right and do it and not a place to endlessly wrangle about words.

Even in Orthodoxy, even in Christianity at large, just as in Judaism, we need to be “cunning as serpents and innocent as doves,” as our Rabbi Y’shua ha-Moshíach hayá omér (used to say), or “sifters removing the coarse and collecting the fine flour,” as the Jewish rabbis have taught and recorded in this mishna.

Or even, as Elder Ephrém has so audaciously written, “God doesn’t want us to be ignoramuses.”

With God all things are possible…

The photo above is of Building D at the Universitas Pelita Harapan, the college where Yudhie Kristanto, a dear friend, brother and co-blogger, goes to school. This is a Christian university in Tangerang, Java, Indonesia. I found this photo on the college's webpage, and it just made me very happy to see it.
It was taken during the immediate aftermath of the recent earthquake of 7.3 magnitude. Everyone inside the buildings on campus was rushed out to safety, although from the look of this building, I'd say they were probably not in much danger. This campus is fairly new, and I'm sure the buildings were constructed with possible earthquakes in mind. I looked very closely at the photo to see if Yudhie was in it, but I think he was in a different building when the quake happened.

I really love this photo because it is a strong reminder of the power of faith, echoing the scriptures which say, "All things are possible if you only believe…"

Confronted with the menacing and ugly face of militant Islam all over the world, this photo, taken at a Christian college in the heart of a mostly Muslim nation, Indonesia, also reminded me that wherever we are, in whatever circumstances,
Christ is already there before us, and like our friend Yudhie and his brothers and sisters in Christ at this university, we must trust Him. He is our good and faithful Lord.

Remember to pray for the Church in Indonesia.

Expose yourself to the Word

“Adam!” the Voice cried out, “Where are you?”

Since the beginning, since Paradise, God has been calling us, seeking us, and yet we hide ourselves from Him. “I was naked,” we say when we finally come out of hiding, “and so I hid myself.” And we hear that fearful question, “Who told you that you were naked?”

Why am I always harping on this single topic, “Read your Bible”? Why do I think this is so important? Who is it I am trying to convince? Well, brethren, it is myself that I am trying to convince, not you. It is myself that I have to keep reminding. It’s just that I don’t want to be the only one who must be reminded, and so I pass on to you what it is I am hearing. I hope that you are past reminder; I know I am not. It’s just that I feel safer as part of a crowd, even when I’m hiding from God.

“My sheep know My voice.”

How can we know the voice of Jesus, if we don’t hear it every day? How can we recognize His voice speaking to us in the world amidst so many other voices clamoring for our attention? First, we have to go where His voice is the only voice, and then stay as long as possible, listening to Him. The more we hear His voice as it is recorded in scripture, the more we will hear it in the world outside. In the Bible, it’s true, He is talking to others, to His disciples, to the curious, and to those who hated Him, and many say, “Well, what He said was for them, but not for us!”

Right, and… wrong. Jesus in the Gospels does speak to specific people, and we cannot put ourselves forcibly into the narrative and by our own will decide to be this or that bible character, following exactly what Jesus told him or her to do. Yet, His words are spoken to us even now, sometimes the same as the bible records, sometimes different. It is by knowing His voice in the scriptures, that we recognize it when He speaks to us today. How can He speak to us today? I cannot tell you how, only that He does, and when you do hear His voice, you are given the same opportunity to follow His call as His first disciples were.

“Follow Me.”

How can we follow Jesus if we believe in Him only as some character in the pages of the bible? Yes, we say we believe He is the Son of God, and that He saves us from death and hell, and even that He is risen, truly risen. “But where is He then, so that we can follow Him? Isn’t He in heaven at the right hand of the Father?”

Again, I point to the scriptures. Just as we read His words in the Gospels and through hearing them every day come to know His voice, so also we see Him working in the Gospels and through watching what He does there every day, we come to see Him working here in the world of today. That has to be true. How else can we say “Just follow Jesus,” or “Keep your eyes on Jesus” if it weren’t true? This is the proof of His resurrection and victory over death, that He is here among us. It is by seeing Him every day in the scriptures that we can see Him every day in the world. He says to us, “My Father goes on working, and so do I,” and seeing Him at work in the world, and hearing His voice, we can follow Him.

It is very common to have a book of scriptures that is small and portable, containing just the New Testament and the Psalms. The bible has been reduced for everyday use by everyone in every place, so no one can say, “Where should I start? The bible is so vast; I don’t know where to begin.”

The Psalms are there to teach us not only to pray, but to recognize the voice of God speaking personally to us. Just as we recognize the voice of Jesus in the world by hearing it in the Gospels, so we also recognize the voice of the Holy Triad—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—when He speaks to us in daily life.

The Psalms are like a revolving door to Paradise. By reading and praying the Psalms every day, we make our petitions known to God, and He responds to us both in the words that we read, and also in the world. Again, we are doing no more than learning God’s language, coming to recognize His voice, learning to distinguish His ways from those of the world. “Thus is your servant formed by them; observance brings great reward” (Psalm 19, Jerusalem Bible).

So listen, my soul. Expose yourself by day and by night to the Word of God, that you may hear His voice calling your name in every place, every time, that after this earthly pilgrimage, you will recognize that same voice saying, “Come, faithful servant, into that Paradise prepared for you before the foundation of this world.”

The glory of institutional helplessness

“Anyone but the guy next door.”
A true story scenario, happening now.

An Orthodox Christian man, abandoned years previously by his wife but never divorced, somewhat handicapped, loses his subsidized housing, because he is unable to work at a regular job, and simply falls too far behind with his rent. A group of three or four members of his parish help him in this emergency. One offers to let him stay in a room at his nearly empty house—this man drives a new Mercedes—but has almost no personal contact with him, and after two months abruptly turns him out, because the room is needed for someone else. The other two or three parishioners help him retrieve some of his belongings from his subsidized apartment and let him store these possessions at their homes. When the man is turned out, he becomes homeless, has a few hopeful adventures in trying to find work and rent a modest place to stay, but eventually is turned out of the place he rented after two weeks, and ends up sleeping next to his bicycle tethered to an out-of-sight park bench.

He is an unusual man, his handicap making it difficult to help him through social agencies. He seems to “fall between the cracks” of the official guidelines. His parish priest gives up helping him, but he still is allowed to serve in the altar and at the chanter stand, where he is trying to learn to chant. Does his priest know he’s homeless? Honestly, I don’t know, but it’s hard to imagine that he doesn’t. Isn’t a priest supposed to be a pastor? Can it be that hard to know a member of your flock who comes to almost every religious service and serves with you as a helper in the altar?

So one day, this homeless Orthodox brother calls a friend and asks if he can come over for a visit. The friend knew that he is homeless, and had offered to let him stay the night, do his laundry, let him shower, and feed him, whatever was necessary, but he had never taken him up on the offer.

Well, this time, he comes to visit, and his friend simply cannot turn him out after helping him with his personal things, laundry, showering, and some supper. He asks him to stay the night and then attend liturgy together the next morning at a different parish. The friend is hoping to make some contacts that could him out of being homeless. This doesn’t happen quickly.

The friend cannot turn this Orthodox brother out and decides to just let him stay, since it costs him nothing, and there’s a sofa to sleep on, and starts looking for help. It’s difficult because the friend doesn’t know how to deal with the man’s handicaps.

About a week before he took in the homeless parishioner, he discovered an Orthodox Christian group on line that’s dedicated to helping the poor. “How timely!” he thinks to himself, and writes to the group, explaining the situation. “Here’s someone they can surely help, or at least advise me on what to do, especially because he’s not an ordinary poor man, but an Orthodox brother.”

He writes to a contact at FOCUS North America, and receives a reply almost immediately. The contact says she forwarded his email to two priests within the FOCUS organization, and that they should contact him soon.

A week goes by, and the friend has now taken the man in. He again writes his FOCUS contact to update her on that fact, and also to let her know that no priest has contacted him yet. She tells him that she will contact these two priests again.

Another week goes by, and the friend receives this email from the contact at FOCUS. “I have done everything in my power to get you in contact with a couple of priests. One of them finally responded to me and said he doesn't feel comfortable giving you advice because he lives so far away. Also, he said you probably already knew the advice he could give since he is not too familiar with dealing with individuals in [such] situations. The other priest never responded. There is nothing else that I can do. I will keep you [both] in my prayers. Sincerely sorry, [name withheld]”

“Well,” the friend thinks to himself, “I suppose they’re just not set up to deal with this kind of thing.” He isn’t angry that no one at FOCUS could help him, even with mere advice. What truly disappoints him, is that neither priest even responded directly. One says he is uncomfortable giving advice; the other doesn’t bother to respond at all. Even to have responded and said, “Sorry, I cannot help you,” would have helped, because there is more at stake here than helping even one person in trouble.

We are judged by the very Word we confess. Jesus says, “He who rejects Me and refuses My words has his judge already: the word itself that I have spoken will be his judge on the last day.”
(John 12:48 JB)

So I went and took a look at the FOCUS website. I watched a YouTube video there, in which FOCUS Chairman of the Board, Charles Ajalat, describes what FOCUS is. He ends his short sales pitch with these words, “If we can’t help the poor in this vineyard which God has placed us, we’re not really the Church anyway.”
This is absolutely verbatim, bad grammar and all, but still I wonder if it weren’t perhaps more than a Freudian slip that he says, “we’re not really the Church anyway.”

Wisdom simple as soup

Thanks to Presbytera Candace once again for passing on this hard-to-argue-with good advice. This is one I just couldn't pass up posting. If I was the kind of person that got tattoos, I'd have this saying tattooed on the palm of my right hand, and look at it thirty-three times a day.

Do not justify yourself, do not argue, take into account a person’s character and age. Comfort one and all however you can; do not judge anyone; do not repay evil with evil; love everyone, forgive everyone, be a servant to all.

— An Elder’s Counsels to Christians Living in the World

Patience - Υπομονῇ

εν τη υπομονη υμων κτησασθε τας ψυχας υμων

With regard to patience the Lord says, 'You will gain possession of your souls through your patient endurance,' (Luke 21:19). He did not say 'through your fasting' or 'through your vigils'. I refer to the patience bestowed by God, which is the queen of virtues, the foundation of courageous actions. It is patience that is peace amid strife, serenity amid distress, and a steadfast base for those who acquire it. Once you have attained it with the help of Christ Jesus, no swords and spears, no attacking armies, not even the ranks of demons, the dark phalanx of hostile powers, will be able to do you any harm.

—Abba Gregory of Sinai