When you can't go there…

…in person, at least you can enjoy a ‘virtual tour.’

The Church of the Resurrection (aka the Church of the Holy Sepulchre) can be visited online at this link. When you get there, don't forget, you can make the view full screen by clicking on the 'full screen' button that appears in the lower right corner of the screen, next to the back and forward arrows.

Καλο το Σάββατο!

Point of entry

Examining the reasons why Buddhism supplanted Nestorian Christianity in early medieval Japan might give us some insight on how to evangelize the Japanese people today.

Buddhism in Japan is a very highly developed philosophical system, divided into many sects, but understanding some things about the two main ones,
天台宗 Tendai and 眞言 Shingon, can help us see into the Japanese mind.

Just as the overall influence of Christianity has lingered in the cultures of the Western world long after it has ceased to be the faith practiced by more than a minority of people, so also has the influence of the Japanese version of Buddhism cast its shadow over the Japanese people for many generations, even though relatively few Japanese can be said to actually practice it. The ritual aspects of Buddhism, as well as of 神道 Shinto, the native Japanese religion, affect most Japanese at least in the culture of the family.

Births and marriages are intertwined with Shinto rituals and regulations. Human mortality is addressed and ministered to by Buddhist monks and their rites.

When a child is born, its name is registered by the local Shinto shrine, and enrolled among ‘the living’ and commemorated and prayed for, in general, with ceremonies. After the person lives his life and dies, his name is transferred to ‘the dead’ and is commemorated as a kami or ‘god.’ When a person moves, they can have their name added to the ‘list’ at the Shinto shrine where they now live. People go to Shinto shrines to ask for help of the kami in their day to day lives, but only the ‘religious.’

Death, on the other hand, and what happens to the dead is actually the domain of the Buddhists, almost their specialty. This is their function for the ‘non-religious’ Japanese. Those who actually do practice some form of Buddhism would find much more to do than just funeral rites. In an odd sort of way, practicing Buddhists in Japan can be compared to their Christian counterparts, people who go to church regularly and volunteer for various churchly activities. Again, these are both minorities in each culture. In conclusion, when a Japanese dies, he is often cremated and buried in a cemetary on the grounds of a Buddhist temple. What happens after that has some similarities to cemetary customs in any culture: graves are cared for, flowers and incense offered, people speak to the dead, etc., as if they could hear, and they are often resorted to when guidance is needed: ‘Just ask Mom.’

Back to Japanese Buddhism, it’s worth noting that it really is a different ‘religion’ from other forms of Buddhism.

Great emphasis is placed on the boddhisatva, that is, a being who has attained the status of an enlightened being (a buddha) but who has relinquished, at least temporarily, leaving the world of men and instead chooses to be ‘left behind’ to help other mortals still struggling to break free. Both Tendai and Shingon forms of Buddhism emphasize that ‘anyone can become a buddha’ and this idea is at the back of the Japanese mind, a noble principle of self-sacrifice, even self-immolation, for the sake of others.

This pervasive legacy is a point of entry for Jesus Christ.
‘…anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for My sake, and the sake of the gospel, will save it.’ (Mark 8:35)
‘A man can have no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends.’ (John 15:13)
‘This has taught us love—that He gave up His life for us; and we, too, ought to give up our lives for our brothers.’ (1 John 3:16)

The contexts of this self-sacrifice may be different in Buddhism and in Christ, but the content is the same. In each case, one foregoes one’s personal well-being and safety, so that others can escape, like a man using his body to keep open a collapsed mine shaft entrance, so his work-mates can get out.

So far, a point of entry for Christ into the Japanese mind has been identified. Where did this emphasis come from in Japanese Buddhism, that makes it so distinctive? Could it be one of the evidences of Christ which Nestorian Christianity bequeathed as a legacy to the Buddhist wave that overcame it?

The Messiah in Person

It was a quarrel, as usual, among men about God and bread, when Jesus interrupted them.

Peter never thought to fish for anything else all his life but fishes, nor Pilate to sentence to death anyone but criminals, nor the Jewish patriots that they were losing their greatest opportunity, nor the heathen of Britannia that they were contemporaries with the very God in flesh of their posterity.

How many times did it happen that Jesus during the first thirty years of His life was present in the temple when a Rabbi read the prophetic passages on the Messiah? Reading the Scriptures the poor Rabbi measured the distance between himself and the Messiah by thousands of years, and lo—the Messiah in person was listening to his reading!

All the controversies in the synagogues and in the streets of Jerusalem were merely repeated platitudes, when a man appeared in Galilee, who claimed the highest authority and showed the greatest humility at the same time.

The Law was the highest authority for the Jews, and the Emperor of Rome the highest authority for Pilate. But Jesus declared himself to be the bearer of an authority which was incomparably higher than any authority existing on earth.

He did not beg either Andrew or Peter or John and James, to follow Him; He commanded them: ‘Follow Me!’ Speaking with authority He gained the confidence of His first followers, and showing humility He also gamed their love.

Authority and humility—two qualities which not often were united in the character of the church-leaders, a good reason why many of them were feared and many others pitied, instead of being respected and loved as Jesus was respected and loved by the first Church. For fear and pity are the degenerate forms of respect and love.

What we call the first Church represented in reality the smallest Church in number as well as in time and space, but the richest in its dramatic changes and conflicts.

Some few fishermen were called by Christ, and this call meant real baptism for them. He let Himself be baptised but He did not baptise His disciples otherwise than by His personal calling to them to follow Him; Pentecost was their ‘confirmation.’

The history of the first Church comprised a time not of some hundred years but of some hundred days. When Andrew and Peter followed Jesus the formation of the Church started. There were already two gathered in His name and conducted by Him in person.

As a matter of fact, they followed Jesus at first merely with their eyes and feet, but with their hearts they still followed Moses and the Law. The Twelve Disciples were at first nothing more than twelve insignificant grains of sand placed upon a big rocky foundation of a palace, which had to be built. Only after their confirmation by the Holy Spirit did they become the real pillars of the palace.

They were uncertain about their Master and everything He said, and they quarrelled about many things. I think they represented through their differences not one church but twelve churches, but by their common respect and love for their Master they represented one Church only.

What a prophetic image of the Church of Christ, say, after nineteen hundred years!

— Nikolaj Velimirović, Bishop of Ohrid and Žiča

Takuma Sawabe 沢辺琢磨

Takuma Sawabe, one of the first three Orthodox Christians in Japan, the son of a samurai and son-in-law of a Shinto priest, was a fierce Japanese nationalist. He hated Christianity and all foreign influences in his country.

One day he angrily confronted the Orthodox Christian missionary to Japan, a Russian priest-monk. ‘Why are you angry at me?’ Fr Nicholas asked Sawabe.

‘All you foreigners must die. You have come here to spy on our country and even worse, you are harming Japan with your preaching,’ answered Sawabe.

‘But do you know what I preach?’
‘No, I don’t,’ he answered.

‘Then how can you judge, much less condemn something you know nothing about? Is it just to defame something you do not know? First listen to me, and then judge. If what you hear is bad, then throw us out.’

After listening to Father Nicholas and learning about the Orthodox Christian way of life, the nationalist samurai who had once endorsed Shintoism now believed in Jesus Christ and was baptized, becoming the first person to embrace Orthodox Christianity in Japan. At his baptism, he appropriately received the Christian name Paul, after Saint Paul, one of the Church’s greatest apostles who, before his conversion, had used his authority to violently persecute the Christian Church. Paul Sawabe would eventually be ordained an Orthodox Christian priest.

Father Nicholas, the missionary who taught Paul the Orthodox Christian Faith and baptized him, was later consecrated as bishop and is today known as Saint Nicholas of Japan. Along with language learning, Nicholas studied the culture and history of Japan. He read their mythology and literature, and learned about Confucianism, Shintoism, and Buddhism. He even attended the sermons of popular Buddhist preachers and public storytellers in hopes of understanding the mind of the Japanese. For close to seven years he continued this intense study. Eventually, he became one of the foremost scholars of the Japanese language and went on to translate service and prayer books, catechism books, and the Scripture, as he waited for opportunities of evangelism to open within the country.

Jesus Christ is in Japan. Pray, brethren, for those who follow Him there, to be faithful in gathering as He does, not scattering, and to let Him reveal Himself through them to the whole Japanese people, for the time is close.

Life in the Holy Triad

Under the new covenant, God has not intended that we should be lone Christians living by ourselves - even if we are living in victory over sin. God's will is that there should be a Body of disciples of Jesus manifesting His glory together.

There is a difference between a Body and a congregation. A congregation is no better than a secular club. The club may be a good club, where people care for one another and help one another. But a Body is more than that. In the Body of Christ, each member is first of all inwardly connected to the Head and then inwardly and inseparably connected to the other members. These members must grow in oneness until their unity is like the unity of the Father and the Son (John 17:21-23).

Satan opposes the building of such a Body anywhere on earth, for he knows that such a Body can rout him, put him to flight, and destroy his kingdom. Jesus said that it is against the Church that the gates of Hell would not prevail (Matthew 16:18). The gates of Hell may prevail against a lone individual Christian. But they cannot prevail against the Church. That is why Satan's attacks on spiritual unity among believers are far stronger than his attacks on purity.

Where any two disciples of Jesus are firmly united in oneness of mind and spirit, whatever they ask for will be granted, for in two such disciples is found an expression of the Body of Christ (Matthew 18:18-20).

In fellowship with other believers, we will discover the selfishness and utter corruption of our flesh much more quickly and more deeply than if we lived all by ourselves. It is only through fellowship with others who have a flesh that our rough edges can be smoothened out.

Many believers merely spin theories about the Church and the Body of Christ. But we must be among those who seek reality. There are enough theories about the church in Christendom. We don't have to add to that number with one more theory or doctrine about the Body of Christ. Let us demonstrate the reality of the Body in our mutual relationships in our local church, and thus demonstrate to the world and to Satan that the Body of Christ is a reality on earth.

— Zac Poonen, The Reality of the Body of Christ

Beyond tomorrow

Even while she was still with us, I found myself talking to her, asking her, when alone and needing some comfort, especially when I awoke in the middle of the night, for prayer. It was hard to understand, and to accept, the story she told us, about the angel, but then, we had no trouble hearing and believing the other story, but that was all about her Son. This time it was about her but, unlike the first visit of Gabriel, which brought the word of good news, this visit seemed nothing but the harbinger of sadness.

How could we put up with it? How could I live suddenly alone? She was my mother, more than only mine, for twenty-four long years. She was a mother to all of us, and it was wonderful to be back in the Holy City again with the brothers, all of us returned to where it all began. Like the scripture says, ‘From north and south, east and west, I gather you.’ She was so calm, and her eyes looked so dreamy, almost as if she were going to weep, when she told me, ‘Just think! Only a fortnight, and I will see him again!’

See him again? ‘What do you mean, Mother? Is this why we have all come back to Jerusalem? Is this why you were so insistent that we all find ourselves here, together, as we once stood on the Olive Mount, watching him go? So that as the angels declared, we could watch him come back in exactly the same way we saw him go?’ Words such as these with half-hope and excitement I blurted out, forgetting all else, and spoiling the serene moment that surrounded the lucid jewel of her expectation.

‘No, no, beloved Son, not that! Not even he could tell us that, nor could an angel of the Most-High! Only the Father knows that time, that hour.’ Still perplexed, I waited for her to continue. What she related was difficult to grasp, and to accept. To blunt its sharpness, she reminded me that the same message would one day be vouchsafed to me as well, but not yet. I too would see the day I would go forth to meet him, but that day was yet far off. No, this was her time. Angels always bring good news.

The word had gone out, I don’t know quite how, but all of us, all except Thomas, were now somewhere in the City, or close by. Over the course of a few days, I had chance to meet with them, with Cephas, with my brother Jacob, with all of the brothers, by ones and twos, and I handed over to them the news that our Mother, our beloved Mother, the Mother of our beloved Master, had given me. It was never easy, and there were tense moments, words of astonishment and incomprehension, even of disbelief.

‘Of this we are sure,’ I told them, ‘that on the fourteenth day after the angel’s visit, the Master will welcome his Mother into the Life eternal, carrying her as a babe in his own arms, escorted by the angelic host.’ No, we would not see what she would see, but we were privileged to encircle her bed at that precise moment, and through her eyes, the Light of Light, even the true God of true God—blessed, blessed, blessed be He!—was to shine on us, casting away forever all shadows from her life and ours.

Twenty-four years of living together, her silence as well as her testimonies teaching and strengthening me, crossing lands and seas, preserved by her witness, by her very being, the Mother of my Lord and Master, Jesus, of my Savior… over, forever over! I was disconsolate. But when had I not known it, understood that this time of blessing would also come to an end, that all that is human must, like a book, be finished and closed? Yet the One who writes us and fills the world with our testimony, He lives.

‘Evening came, and morning came, day one,’ I began counting, clinging desperately to the words of scripture, fervently hugging to myself every moment I was able to spend with her, while she continued living as she always had, caring for me, creating the inner world for me to retreat to after laboring so hard to build the outer—but I, while she waited so patiently and with unperturbed certainty for her Son to arrive, I could not keep myself on task, I could not work. It was a very strange kind of fasting.

Little did I think to feed my body, even though with foods from her hand I would never taste again. No, but I fed my eyes with her beauty, yes, her beauty, for though she was my Mother, to see us together, one would think at most she were my sister. But now, my hair grown white, my beard and side locks the same, though still young inside I was, outside those who did not know me took me for an elder of Israel, and she for my young bride. And indeed, a bride she was, whom we knew as ‘the Unwedded.’

Sojourning among the Gentiles in the northlands, in Ephesos of Diana of the hundred breasts, we walked together, meeting the people where they were, her womanly witness the hidden foundation of mine seen and heard, and when we coaxed her to speak, she speaking of her Son, Jesus, enlivened all hearts and minds, unleashing many from the bondage post, and watering their lives as a life-giving fountain. How many miracles followed us wherever we were sent. Yes, she was a water-bearing rock, for me.

And that day we were cast ashore, alive, from the raging sea. Who would imagine that a humble daughter of Israel would be found following her young son, taking ship and sailing to the copper island, to Cyprus, to visit the only man living who was dead and brought back to life after lying four days in the tomb? But the God and Father of us all, who sent His beloved Son to us as her Son, guarded our path wherever we went, toppling idols as He did when we were cast, boatless, on that rocky shore.

‘Zeus and Hera!’ they shouted, the villagers, as they ran to greet us and ask us to preserve them from the wrath of the earth quake. But we were only humans, the mother of Jesus, and his beloved friend. We sat down together on the shore, made fires to warm ourselves, and waited for the rescue that the Lord would decree, meanwhile calming their frightened faces with the story of the only Lover of mankind. How they took to it! how they believed! not from my lips only, but from the Mother of us all.

My mournful thoughts return to that final day. Long since I had stopped counting as the day drew near. The days count themselves when we are afraid of what lies ahead. It happened so peacefully, everything so in order, as if everyone were directed intimately in thought, word and deed. We gathered around where she lay, and waiting, our fast more natural and unconscious than our own heartbeats. Expecting a miracle, she just fell asleep, and we, afraid to awaken her, just looked on. Fragrance filled the room.

What happened next, I cannot remember clearly. It seems I was brushed aside as others more vigorous in intention and plan—it was obvious they knew what to do—took charge. I saw the holy body of my little Mother carried away somewhere and I, still grieving, sat with my back against a wall, wondering what I would do next, what life I would have beyond tomorrow. My brother Jacob came and raised me up and so much as said, ‘Come along,’ and my body sheepishly followed, my mind lodged in my heart.

The next thing I remember was the sealing of the tomb. My eyes saw, but my heart did not believe, and inwardly I wretched to the core of my being. ‘You will not abandon my soul to She’ol,’ I murmured to myself, remembering my Master, who trampled death by death and bestowed Life to everyone in the tombs. Like Thomas who said it aloud when, arriving a few days later and coming to see us, Mother and me, like Thomas I cried inside, ‘I don’t believe it! It’s impossible! She can’t be dead!’ as I looked on.

And Thomas did finally arrive. Why was he allowed to be late? Why was he the only one not there? Just like the last time, he missed the Lord when he came among us, resurrected. Only this time, none of us saw the Lord with our physical eyes, as we did behind that locked door, in that room. But we believed the word that the angel spoke to Mary, as she told us, ‘The God who loves me is coming.’ Sometimes we have nothing to rely on but our faith but, as Jesus said, ‘Your faith has healed you.’ So, faith is enough.

Again, he must see with his own eyes, or he will not believe! ‘Thomas, can’t you let anything alone? Why must we disturb the rest of her body in the tomb, just for you? We told you, she has been taken by her Son, our Lord. Isn’t that enough for you? Isn’t faith enough?’ He regained his calmness and after a moment, ‘No, faith is not enough, not for me. I want to see her one more time. It’s not that I don’t believe what you’ve told me. I just want to see what all of you saw. Can you grant me that?’

Suddenly, we were ashamed of ourselves. How thoughtless, how unfeeling of us. She was his Mother as well as ours. In fact, Mary had a very tender place in her heart for Thomas and always seemed to dote on him more than on the rest of us when he appeared at her door. They seemed to understand each other, the mother of faith and the brother of doubt. So we relented. With a slow, silent pace we walked to the garden where her tomb was. We broke the seal and with difficulty shifted the stone covering.

There was that fragrance again! The same fragrance we smelled in the room when she fell asleep! Like roses, only richer, deeper, like an essential oil. There were roses scattered about the floor just inside the tomb, at least that is what I saw. Cephas went right in, as he did the last time, but I stayed outside, somehow afraid of what I might see. Thomas followed him closely, and Cephas bumped into him as he abruptly turned about and pushed past him to shout, ‘She is not there! Her body has disappeared!’

Now, as I lie here and ponder the darkness of unknowing, how great is the wisdom of God! how profound His mystery! He does not ask our permission before He moves. He just decrees His will and performs it! ‘Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth, as it is in the heavens!’ we pray over and over, yet when He does what we have asked, we are dumbfounded. The Mother of our Master, of our Lord, yes, the Mother of our God—how can we say such things?—but yes, the Truth is dawning on us.

He is eternal Life, and we are His

Like Mary of Nazareth,
the Theotokos,
let us live our lives in such a way
that when they look into our tombs,
they will find nothing,
not a trace,
nothing even to show
that we passed this way.

Like her,
we have found the greatest Treasure,
the Son and Word of God,
whose friendship is the greatest wealth,
who clothes us with His righteousness
so that we can claim
absolutely nothing as our own.

Like her,
we have left houses, brothers, sisters,
father, mother, children or land for His sake.

Repaid a hundred times over?
And inherit eternal life?
How can we not?

For He is
eternal Life,
and we are His.

Lay aside all earthly cares

So much of what I see in Orthodox Christian blogdom and general communication is devoted to countering mistaken opinions and heresies ancient and modern, comparing our faith to that of other Christians not recognized by us for whatever reason. So much effort and toil, not to build up the welcoming Temple of the living God where all are treated as first-born sons and citizens of heaven, but instead to build higher walls and towers from which to grimly defend or sit in judgment on our brothers.

When I first encountered Orthodoxy, I too was astonished by its otherworldly beauty, I too was emboldened by its apparently reckless audacity in proclaiming the Gospel and affirming the whole Word of God. I too appreciated its various claims to be what it says it is, the original and true Church. And I too had my share of books like Are You Saved? and others sitting on my shelf, that dealt with telling Catholics and Protestants of every stripe how and why they are wrong. They are sitting there still.

There are ‘givens’ with the life in Christ which we have no right to trample, as we witness for Him to others both outside and inside the Christian faith. These ‘givens’ are found in the following of Jesus, and in company with His holy apostles. One of the greatest of these, and the one most commonly overlooked, is that we do not argue the faith we hold, or subject it even to comparison with that of others. Orthodoxy cannot be compared to other confessions of Christianity. Why? Because it includes them.

I used to have a sign hanging over my desk at work (yes, even in the professional world one is a witness) that said in Greek ‘We are Christ-bearers,’ and in English below it, ‘We accept no proselytes.’ That was my way of saying, “There is no division between you and me, in Christ, who loves us equally, shed His precious Blood for us equally, welcomes us equally into His presence, and intercedes for us equally as He stands before His Father. Let us love one another, and learn of Him together.”

Rather than a spirit of contention and controversy, the Christ-bearer has the Spirit of pleading unity, calling outsiders ‘brother’ before they have even realized yet, how much the Father has loved them in the Son. We welcoming them as if welcoming Christ, they are given a glimpse of a Kingdom so great that it has no real enemies, only souls waiting patiently in line for their own awakening. They are given a foretaste of a Banquet so rich that none is ever turned empty away. Why? Because they see us.

Enmity, that is what is already in place between the servants of the living God and those who follow their own lusts, in blindness, in nakedness, in deafness, while boasting of their possessions and authority real or imagined. All whose lives are still a mixture of willful sin and a yearning for righteousness, all who still try to hide from God, or without acknowledging Him or His unrepentant Law still seek to justify themselves in their own and others’ eyes, declare that we are at enmity with them.

But I am not speaking of these others, but of Christians like ourselves, who say they believe in the Word of God and all that proceeds from that belief. Do we ourselves believe in the prayer of Christ that we should all be one, as He and the Father are in each other and are One? Do we not believe that what Christ prays is answered by His Father with “Yes,” with “Amen”? We are the Church, there is no doubt about that. If we do believe, how could we think that the Church can ever really be divided?

Brothers, I am not talking church politics. I am not an ecumenist. All the meetings that church leaders ever put together will never bring about the unity that Christ prays us to have with one another. They are pushing not the will of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They think they have sundered, and so they think to mend, the Body of Christ. But no. There is only One Body, and there is only One Christ, is, was, and to come. Let us finally lay aside all earthly cares, as we sing in every divine liturgy, that we may receive the King of all.

Let us lay aside all earthly cares, that we may receive the King of all, escorted by the angelic hosts, and welcoming Him and them in one another, let us follow Jesus, who never argued with, never scorned, even those who made themselves His enemies. His correction and teaching was His presence among them, betraying a greater love than they had ever thought possible. And in us, his living ikons, He is still walking the world, seeking, finding and gathering His lost sheep, welcoming them all into the Kingdom of His Father, not holding their faults against them, cleansing them of their sins by love, by His unflagging love, welcoming them in us.

If it is Orthodoxy you seek,
if it is Orthodoxy you proclaim,
it is only this…
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:13 KJV

Church, and church, and you

If the official churches have had no other merit but that they have preserved Christ as the treasury of the world, yet they are justified thereby. Even if they have solely repeated through all the past centuries ‘Lord! Lord!’ still they stand above the secular world. For they know at least who the Lord is, whereas the world does not know.

Churches may disappear, but The Church never will. For not churches are the work of Christ, but the Church. Moreover, if the Church disappears, as an institution, the essence of the Church cannot disappear. It is like rivers, sea and water: when rivers disappear into the sea, the sea remains, and if the sea disappears into steam, water still remains.

If Christ ever meant to form the Church as an institution He meant to form it not as the end but as the means, like a boat to bring its inmates safely over the stormy ocean of life into the quiet harbour of His Kingdom.

Like the body in a bath, so the soul disrobes in the Church to wash. But as soon as we get out, we clothe our soul in order to conceal it from the curious eye. Is it not illogical that we dare to show our imperfections to the Most Perfect, while we are ashamed to show them to those who are just as imperfect, ugly and unclean as ourselves? The Church, like a bath, reveals most uncleanness.

The initial and most obvious idea of the Church is collectiveness of sin and salvation. To pray alone and for one’s self is like eating alone without regard to other people’s hunger.

When the sun sees a man of science, wealth or politics, kneeling at prayer with the poor and humble, it goes smiling to its rest.

Full of beauty and wonders are all the Christian churches, but not because of their pretended perfections: they are beautiful and wonderful because of Him whose shadow they are.

You are a Christian? Then do not be afraid to enter any Christian church with prayerful respect. All the Churches have sworn allegiance to the same Sovereign. How can you respect a cottage, in which once abided His Majesty King Alfred, or Charles, while you would not go into a building dedicated to His Majesty the Invisible King of kings?

The real value of any Christian community is not to be found in its own prosperity but in its care for the prosperity of other Christian communities.

— Nikolaj Velimirović, Bishop of Ohrid and Žiča

Our sure destination

Christ is the Master of all of us, and He is the one who keeps us standing in Him, regardless of our condition, knowledge, devotion, lifestyle, opinions, even beliefs.

All beliefs are nothing compared to just standing in the Presence and adoring Him. They were never meant to be anything but placeholders for that experience, and we can stand in the Presence even now, but how much more fully when we finally become alive.

People talk about the saints as if they were dead
and about themselves as if they were alive, but the opposite is true.

Only those who have died are really alive, and that is where Jesus is going as He walks ahead of us, and that is our sure destination too, as long as we keep following Him.

Your love

Isn't life in Christ joyous, and yet so 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 write I try to find beautiful images—ikons, paintings, photographs of people, places, nature—to accompany what 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, faithfully sustaining the world by His word of command.

How good our heavenly Father is! for even when we have to suffer, if we keep seeking 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, that we 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

The God who loves me is coming

Follow the Lord to Golgotha.

A man wounded, knowing how to bear weakness
Isaiah 53:3 Septuagint

Be wounded
and know how to bear pain.
The Cross must be familiar and acceptable to you as a place to be and a mode of existence.

Then the Lord will come at some time, without fail, as He knows best. He will come and find you. He will touch your aching head, as "…He touched the leper" (Matthew 8:3).
He will speak to you. He will enter into you like light, repose, paradise. You will be aware of Him. You will feel Him. You will actually live His passion and resurrection. You will find yourself inside the icon of the Resurrection, of the Descent into Hades.

This icon will be an expression of your life. Christ will be constantly leading you by the hand, bringing you to light, to freedom, to an unending journey which is Himself.

You understand then the words of the Lord, "Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory?" (Luke 24:26) Christ had to suffer and to come forth as a Bridegroom from the tomb.
A great mystery!

You feel that you had to suffer, to endure pain, to die in the earth like a seed, so that there might shoot up from within you something that does not pass away.

I am created for some specific purpose, for something intangible, invisible to the naked eye, and yet incarnate.
I know it. I believe it. I experience it.

When I move away from it, everything goes awry, in my soul and in my body. When I am within it, I am firmly grounded and recover everything, the health of my soul and body. When I am alone, I am in communion with the saints. When I am in a crowd, I am nourished by the pure spring welling up in the desert within.

Reverence for this least and greatest thing takes the form of constantly going outdoors without protection, of asking at every moment only that His will should be done. Asking it not with my mouth and voice, but with my whole manner of living, all the time.

And when you ask that His will should be done, when your whole being is one bleeding petition, it happens. But this happening is not something you can determine in advance. It may happen by happening or by not happening. It may be that before your petition is even finished, the answer comes. Or you may wait years and wear yourself out, and be disappointed, and reach utter exhaustion, and be destroyed. And then, when you are no longer expecting anything—neither you nor anyone else—He Himself will come to raise you up, to take you with Him on a new journey.
Then you will understand why He was slow in coming for you. He was with you "in another form" (Mark 16:12), even when He had not come and you were waiting for Him.
…
How everything functions as a whole! How nothing is irrelevant, nothing is wasted! How the blessings go deeper than we hoped! How the afflictions, the pains and the perplexities till the field of our souls like a deep-cutting ploughshare! How totally and utterly the strange and heaven-sent rest differs in nature from the rest and satisfaction afforded by any earthly and temporary success! How it teaches us humility, how it schools us in love, how it reconciles us with others! It strengthens us, it invigorates us, and at the same time it makes us weaker, without any prickles or sharp corners which could wound others!

—Archimandrite Vasileios

My citadel is God Himself.

the God who loves me is coming…

Psalm 59:10 Jerusalem Bible (1966)

Exclusive

The primitive Church was very puritanic concerning the Christian spirit. She was not particular as to the vessels in which to pour the new wine, but she was extremely particular as to the wine itself. She borrowed the vessels in Judæa, Alexandria, Athens, Rome, but she never borrowed wine. The Christian spirit and the pagan spirit were just like two opposite poles, like white and black, or day and night. The Church was conscious of it, and jealously watchful that no drop of any foreign spirit should be mixed with the precious spirit of the New Gospel. There existed no thought of compromise, and no idea of inclusiveness whatever regarding the spirit. The terrific conflict of Christianity and Paganism through centuries sprang from the irreconcilability of two different spirits. Were the Church as inclusive as to the spirit as she was to forms, doctrines, customs and worships, conflicts never would arise—but then neither would Christianity arise.

The modern Church is particular as to its institutions, but not particular at all as to its spirit. The Roman Emperors never would persecute the modern Church, for they would easily recognise their own spirit included in her. Nor would the Pharaohs from Egypt persecute modern Christianity. Nor would Areopagus or Akropolis be puzzled so much had St Paul preached to them the modern European Christianity with its complicated spirit of all kinds of compromises with Heaven and Hell, compromise with the State, Plutocracy, Nationalism, Imperialism, Conquest, War, Diplomacy, Secular Philosophy, Secular Science, Agnostic Parliaments, Tribal Chauvinism, Education, Officialism, Bureaucracy, etc., etc. All these things have their own spirit, and every such spirit is partly or wholly included in the spirit of the Church, i.e. of modern Christianity. None of the Christian Churches of our time makes an exception as to this inclusiveness of all kinds of spirits. Even Protestantism, which claims the simplicity of its Christian ritual and administration, represents a lamentable mosaic of spirits gathered from all the pagan corners of secular Europe and mixed up with the Christian wine in the same barrel.

The Church of the East excommunicated thousands of those who crossed themselves with two fingers instead of using three fingers. The Church of the West burnt thousands of those who did not recognise the papal organisation of the Church as the only ark of salvation. Yet there is rarely to be found in the Church annals an excommunication on the ground of chauvinism or brutal egoism. No one of the world conquerors—neither Napoleon nor Kaiser William—have been excommunicated by the Church. It signifies an extreme decadence of the Church. And this decadence penetrates and dominates our own time. Speaking on the reunion of the Churches the peoples of the East are anxious to know, not whether the Church of the West has preserved the unmixed Christian spirit in its integrity, but whether this Church still keeps Filioque as a dogma, and whether she has ikons, and whether she allows eggs and milk in Lent. And the people of the West are anxious to know whether the Eastern Church has a screen quite different from their own screen at the altar, and whether she has been always tenaciously exclusive in teaching, worship and organisation. Who of us and of you asks about the integrity of the Christian spirit? If St Paul were amongst us he would ridicule our controversies on Filioque and all the trifles concerning Church organisation and the external expressions of Christianity. He would ask: What happened with the spirit he preached? What happened with this spirit which excommunicated de facto the Jewish narrow Patriotism and the Roman Imperialism? Have we still this exclusive spirit which moved the world effecting the greatest revolution in History? I am sure he would have to repeat with good reasons to every Church and to everyone of us: ‘If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.’

Well, we must come again to this source of Christian strength and greatness, which is Christ’s spirit. A new revival, yea, regeneration of Christianity, could be possible only in a united Christian Church; and the union of the Church is possible only upon the ground of the primitive Church, which was inclusive in teaching, worship and organisation, but exclusive in spirit. On the day when we all exclude from ourselves the Jewish and Greek and Roman spirit, and retain only the pure Christian spirit, we shall be at once ready to include each other’s Church into one body, into one Christianity. We must be clear about it, and we must confess that the divisions of the church are due to the invasion of a foreign spirit, an unclean spirit, into the Church. When the Church cleanses herself from this foreign unclean spirit she will be victorious over herself, and from this victory to the ultimate victory of Christianity over our planet will be a very short distance.

— Nikolaj Velimirović, Bishop of Ohrid and Žiča

Citizen of Paradise

‘On Your Creation, O Master, take pity. Cleanse me by Your compassion,’ over and over again this morning, these words from the memorial prayers for the reposed, those who have died, and other words too, but mostly these, kept streaming through my head.

The thoughtless who examine and criticise the Church for praying for the dead, saying that it is useless since the dead have already gone into eternal life or into eternal damnation and therefore profit nothing by these prayers, miss the point entirely.

Yes, we pray for the dead, but that is, for us, who think we are alive but who are spiritually dead, they are for us, those who are struggling every day, every hour and moment, gasping for a breath of Life while being buried alive by the weight of our sins and the sin of the world.

The modern or post-modern (I can no longer distinguish them) who hear the Christian cry out, ‘Take pity, Lord! Cleanse me by Your compassion!’ observe the scene condescendingly, thinking, ‘He pretends to be a sinner, so he can pretend to be saved.’

But this is no pretense, our knowing and confessing that we are sinners. I know for sure that I am a sinner, and only one thing I know with more certainty—that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, and, whether I believe it or not, I am the first.

People may praise me, and for a second or two I may forget myself and feel glad. Then I remember, and I know that they are giving me bricks to lay on what they think is my foundation, but in me there is no foundation, not even a poor one. I know that; they don’t.

I may sometimes even do worse things. I may praise myself, trying to amass bricks of gold, not to lay on a foundation that isn’t there, but to store in a strong box that has already been plundered and no longer even has a lock. The greatest earthly riches cannot console me.

Faced with the fact of sin, with the temptation to descend into its filth, put a bible in front of me, and some worldly seduction, side by side, the bible gleaming, the seduction luring to shadow, and left to myself, shunning the God who would tear the net, I let myself be caught in it.

The bible is there, right in front of me. I know much of it by heart. Yet my heart treads water, as I stand in a pool of my own blood, grumbling like Israel in the wilderness, refusing to enter a land of delight, even while praying, ‘make me again a citizen of Paradise.’

O God! Your Word, I confess, is Truth, yet I cannot arise by my own efforts. Nothing I can do is any help. Running to You for strength, my weak soul pines for the liberty of hell, as my eyes are captured by its false promises. Run to meet me, as You always do, and carry me.

I have lost everything, only to know that all that I had was and is and always would be worth nothing. In You alone are the riches of freedom, of love and of peace, freely given to all who come to You, through the Opening torn in the veil of this world, Your Son’s Body.

Yes, Lord, I am the one who was made in Your image, though I am scarred by my transgressions. On Your creation, O Master, take pity, cleanse me by Your compassion, and once again make me a citizen of Paradise.

We are the Message

Εις Μίαν, Αγίαν, Καθολικήν και Αποστολικήν Εκκλησίαν

In One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church

THE SYMBOL OF NICÆA

So, who or what is this ‘apostolic’? Of course, we know that in the Symbol of Nicæa the Church is called ‘apostolic’ and that this means the Church founded by the holy apostles of Jesus Christ and continued from them until today by their successors. And who are these successors? They are those who from the beginning were ordained to carry on their work in the same unity of faith and practice. And how were they ordained? They were ordained, each succeeding generation by its predecessor, by the laying on of hands with prayer. Only those qualify by this definition to call themselves ‘apostolic’. It goes without saying, then, that these ordained and the congregations in which they live and to which they minister, are the Church. This is the definition of ‘apostolic’ held by the ancient Church up to modern times. The Eastern Orthodox claim this means them. So do the Oriental Orthodox, the Roman Catholic, the Anglican, some Lutheran and other ‘Protestant’ churches, usually to the exclusion of the others. Makes sense, doesn’t it?

Others, knowing that they cannot lay claim to a literal pedigree of ordinations as these ‘historic’ churches, claim to be ‘apostolic’ by virtue of following what Christ and the holy apostles laid down. According to them, this qualification needs no literal pedigree, only a ‘spiritual’ one. They do what Christ and the holy apostles did, as evidenced in the Holy Scriptures. Aside from all arguments pro and con, it’s not hard to sit down and compare what churches and their leaders do with what we find in the Bible. Now that ‘the secret’ is out—the Word of God in everyman’s language and in everyman’s hands, every ‘church’, ‘ministry’ and teacher is on the witness stand, like it or not, and we the people sit in the judgment seat. That is, until the real Judge appears. Hence, the tree of disunity and argumentation in the Church has borne bitter fruit which all of us must eat, whether we like it or not.

Still, this is true, this is the only rational approach, taught us by the Word of God Himself, in the holy gospels and in the letters of the holy apostles.

Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.

When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.
Matthew 7:15-29 NIV

And this is prefaced by a saying of Christ even more astonishing, even more dreadful.

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Matthew 7:13-14 NIV

And the holy apostles, following their Master and doing and saying what they saw Jesus doing and heard Jesus saying, write to us with the mind of Christ.

Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and brag about your relationship to God; if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law; if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? As it is written: ‘God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.’

Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised. If those who are not circumcised keep the law's requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised? The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker.

A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man's praise is not from men, but from God.
Romans 2:17-29 NIV

And this is prefaced by a saying of the apostle even more astonishing, even more dreadful.

For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.)
Romans 2:13-15 NIV

Who can stand up and declare themselves ‘apostolic’ to the exclusion of others who reads these words? Who would want to be ‘apostolic’ if they could not share this title with others who may be more worthy than they to claim it?

For, looking past the designation ‘Jew’ and replacing it with a word that to us means the same as Jew, whatever it be, and looking past ‘circumcision’ and replacing it with a word that to us means a ceremonial sign, we can see and understand for ourselves what the holy apostle Paul is saying in his letter to the church at Rome. From the words of Christ in the holy gospel, speaking as He was to those who were literally Jews, we can see the same message.

We cannot rely on our pedigrees to be anything, but our following of Christ and His holy apostles is what makes us ‘apostolic’ in the eyes of the Judge of all the earth.

The pedigrees have their usefulness when used as intended, but that has little to do with the reality, only with the form. They are like the basket that holds the sacred scrolls of the Word of God gone out to all the nations, but ‘everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice’ are the scrolls themselves, ‘the requirements of the law… written on their hearts’.

Whatever else we believe or say we know to be true, we simply cannot put aside what the Holy Scriptures have bequeathed to us, the true written account of the Word of God, and it is up to us if we are ‘apostolic’ to be devoted ‘to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer’ (Acts 2:42), that is, to be the Word of God as it unfolds in daily life, today.

Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.
John 21:25 NIV

You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
2 Corinthians 3:2-3 NIV

Let me reiterate.

The pedigrees have their usefulness when used as intended, but that has little to do with the reality, only with the form. They are like the basket that holds the sacred scrolls of the Word of God gone out to all the nations, but ‘everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice’ are the scrolls themselves, ‘the requirements of the law… written on their hearts’.

We are the Message.

True Man

True man is he who doesn’t want to live long in this world. He wants to give his testimony and return as soon as possible, return home to Christ. He isn’t concerned about living a long life; he only wants to live on earth as long as his Lord wants him to live. Why? Because he is already living with Christ in His kingdom. He knows it with perfect certainty. He is redeemed, delivered from every desire and ambition that snares men and chains them to this world, and he is impatient to be free of this body of death, because he no longer lets it use him to sin. He is already living in heaven with Christ; all he wants is to be living there completely. If he must continue living in this world, he knows it’s only to do here what Christ wants him to do, to do what he sees Jesus doing in this world. He wants only to follow Jesus who, though living visibly in heaven, is alive invisibly on earth. And so, true man lives invisibly in heaven while he is living visibly on earth, following Jesus.

True man lives in the Word of God, and that Word is everything to him, and it makes him a child of the Kingdom, it makes him a disciple of Jesus. And Jesus and the Father come and live with him there, making him one of them by giving him the Spirit to live inside him. The Word of God is everything to him, it is his home, his food, his covering, his companion, his teacher, his protection, his inheritance. He is never without it, whether the Book is in his hand or not. The Word of God becomes his words, becomes his thoughts, becomes his actions. It is his strength, it guards his purity, it is his defense against all the lures and snares of the enemy. The Word of God proves His unalterable faithfulness to him and in him, and makes him faithful to God. The Word of God never leaves him, never leaves him alone, becomes a hedge around him, and makes him a hedge around the Kingdom in which he lives with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

True man is the implacable foe of the evil one, and doesn’t yield for a moment even an inch of territory, because the Word of God lives in him, and he lives in the Word. That is his world, and that world is the Kingdom. His citizenship is there while in the body he lives here. He is an unregistered alien in this world, which either shuns him as it goes along with its trifling affairs, pretending not to see him, or when it can’t help but see him, he is seen as a threat, he is seen as dangerous, and he is opposed with every injustice that can be brought against him in the name of the world’s justice. Because he obeys another Law, fulfills another commandment, that of His Lord, he falls under the condemnation of the laws of men and suffers with His Lord, who is put to death every day by the world. This too is an earthly evidence of his heavenly citizenship. He has nowhere to lay his head, no place in this world where he is comfortable, seeing that everywhere is under the dominion of the evil one, and with Jesus he is turned away at every inn, turned away because he is a God-bearer.

True man is too strong for the men who seek their home and their security on earth, and so he finds no friends among them. His strength is not from himself. He seems to wear his strength effortlessly, while others who claim to be strong or who try to be, make excuses for their weakness. But his strength is not from himself, it is from Christ who lives with him and who supplies him from His armory. His eye looks stern and unfriendly to men who have eyes only for the world, because his eye is single, and it looks always upon heaven, and from heaven where he already is living with Christ. His strength is from his Lord, and it shows in his walk and in his stance, in his speech and in his silence, in what he does and in what he does not do. All of this is a threat to other men who seek their strength only in things of this world, in things man-made, in what will not endure.

True man is in the world, but not of it. Why? Because he lives already in the Kingdom of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. He lives there and he knows it. He has his proof of citizenship in the Word that never leaves him. He has his passport ready and can come and go through a door that to him is never shut between worlds, a door which, if he chooses to shut it, no one can open, and if he chooses to open, no one can close. He has been given this kind of authority because he can be trusted. Why can he be trusted? Because he has proven himself faithful to his charge, because he renews his faithfulness every day in the presence of his Father, by following the Son of God, by doing only what he sees Him doing. He has already been given the crown of life, because he is willing to lay down his life in this world, because of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

Brothers, this is our call in Jesus Christ. This is the guarantee of our salvation. This is the life that has no end. This is the treasure hidden in the field that a man finds and then sells all that he has to purchase the field. This is the true man that has been recreated in the image of the Holy Triad who said, “Let us make man in Our own image, in the likeness of ourselves, and let them be masters…”

Brothers, this is true man.

‘Who's your Friend?’

I believe that Orthodox deacons, presbyters, bishops, and monastics should go around in public in their ‘blacks.’

No, I don't mean just wearing something black, I mean their rassos or anderis, or whatever they call them, yeah, their blacks! And I think they should wear their pectoral crosses if they have one. And I think that they should have long hair tied back in a pony-tail and have at least a nice, trimmed beard, if not a full, shaggy one. I don't feel that it matters if clergy of other denominations, including Roman Catholics, wear their clerical ‘blacks’ in public, but I do think it's important that the Orthodox do.

Why? Because our faith cannot be gainsaid, cannot be ridiculed or opposed, because ours is the ground floor, the foundation of all the others, because ‘we don't move the ancient landmarks set by our ancestors,’ and yet ours is the faith that does not grow old, ‘planted by streams of water, yielding its fruit in season, its leaves never fading.’

So our men and women ‘of the cloth’ should appear fully clad in their uniforms, just as policemen do in the keeping of law and order, because what they are keeping is even more powerful, more precious. There! I’ve given my opinion!
Years ago, when I was a young man living in Edmonton, Alberta, the Orthodox priests used to go about downtown in their ‘blacks’ and I often witnessed the native people (who were Orthodox, usually) and living on the street, reduced to poverty and alcoholism, get up off their blankets and flock to the priests whenever they appeared, kneeling before them, weeping and kissing their hands, asking not for money, but for prayer and a blessing. Witnessing this touched me deeply, and affected me in two ways.

First, that our priests really do represent not just the Church but Christ Himself when they appear publicly in their garb, and thus He clothes them with power from on high.

Second, that any of us who are members of the priestly and kingly race known as Christians have the same calling, the same ministry to the lost, and can always walk with Jesus, ready to help anyone He puts in our path, in whatever way is indicated.

This has made me what I am, and why I wear this attitude in place of my baptismal cross or icon button or whatever. I don't want to wear my decorations before I earn them. I don't want to put on my medal until the war's over and I've come through it alive.

Anyway, that's my rationale as to why I don't purposely wear anything, especially an overt religious symbol, when I'm in the world. I used to do this when I was a young Christian (yeah, that's me in the picture), but there just came a day when I saw that it had to be me and not my flag that would draw people to me for help, because they could see I loved them, and not that I had a product to sell.

When I walk about in the world, at work, at shopping, out on the street, I often whistle a hymn from the Anglican hymnal (I have dozens memorised), one that anyone who’s ever gone to church would probably recognize.

Why? I just want to remind myself, and them, that Jesus is near. I never go out anywhere without at least a pocket New Testament with me, that I can read while I'm sitting waiting for my oil change, or for a friend to come out of the post office, or whatever. When I go to the coffeehouse, alone or with a friend, I always try to have my Greek NT with me, and I like to read it for relaxation, out loud but softly.

At work, my office cubicle has paper icons interspersed with family and friends' photos on the walls. So yes, I do have an appearance, a sign of the presence of Christ in my life, but it's not for show, it all has a purpose in which I live my life. Doing that unabashedly in public or in private, that's the way I let the shadow of Christ fall across my path.

And if others notice the shadow, they may ask, ‘Who's your Friend?’

The Orthodox Way

True love is like the flame of a candle. However many candles you light from the flame, the initial flame remains unaffected. It doesn’t lessen at all. And every freshly lit candle has as much flame as the others do.

I want whoever is near me to feel that he has room to breathe, not that he is suffocated. I don’t call anyone to me. I don’t hold onto anyone. I don’t chase anyone away. Whoever wants comes, whoever wants stays, whoever wants leaves. I don’t consider anyone a supporter or a follower.

Speak more to God about your children than to your children about God. The soul of the teenager is in a state of an explosion of freedom. This is why it is hard for them to accept counsel. Rather than counseling them continuously and reproaching them again and again, leave the situation to Christ, to the Panagia [Mother of God], and to the Saints, asking that they bring them to reason.

I have made an agreement with God: I will empty my pockets in almsgiving and He will fill them. He has never violated our agreement. Will I violate it? May it never happen!

My heart only has entrances. It doesn’t have exits. Whoever enters remains there. Whatever he may do, I love him the same as I loved him when he first entered into my heart. I pray for him and seek his salvation.

My worst hell is to realize that I have saddened a beloved person.

These quotes, from Elder Epiphanios of Athens, are reproduced here from Fr Stephen's post A Heart Without Exits. When I read them I was instantly struck by their familiarity. These ideas are the same as what I have heard and observed in the Orthodox community. I know that every kind of person of whatever belief system can have the same or similar ideas, but I find such as these particlarly abundant among the Orthodox of all nations. Greeks, Russians, Lebanese, Eritreans, Americans—the communities I'm familar with—I know people there who live this way. And I do too, to the best of my ability. For us this is the Orthodox way.

The saying that was truest of all to me is the last one, "My worst hell is to realize that I have saddened a beloved person." And it's a hell that only the grace of Christ can deliver from, because our words and acts cannot ever be taken back by us. Only Jesus can unspeak them for us. Only in Jesus can we have that blessed hope, to be forgiven.

Speak My Name

About this image

Speak my name; by such utterance I will not pass away.
Unfaithful to my own existence,
An echo of your voice grasps me from the outer darkness.

Translate your law to that feeble language of my heart.
Lure me from the cliff of non-being,
By entrusting others unavoidable drawing you through me.

Rich poverty, mighty weakness, wise ignorance.
Empty me that I might be full.
Safe-guard my heart with a benevolent eruption.

— David Dickens, Nothing Hypothetical

As I wrote the author, "You are so rich you can and do give it all away, just not always being able to see what you're doing. Grace hides our virtues and our vices from us, unless we stubbornly go looking for them."

Talitha kumi!

There lived once upon a time twelve men as different as any twelve men could be. And the Holy Wisdom united all of them into one spiritual body. Such was the first Church of the twelve, and such ought to be the last Church of the billion—different in all her parts, but cemented by the Holy Wisdom into one glorious building.

Christ, God’s Holy Wisdom, includes all of us, why should we exclude each other? He was sent for the salvation of China and Japan and India as well as for that of the Jews and Greeks. Well, let us quarrel no more about the ‘circumcision’ while a billion human beings are still waiting to hear for the first time the name of Jesus Christ—yes, for the first time after two thousand years!

Let the present time be the new Pentecost for us all… Don’t look around you and wait; it is yours to start. All the peoples of earth are looking towards you and listening to you. Don’t be too shy to start. To start what? To start a revival of the primitive wisdom of the Church, that is, to confess and declare—

That Christianity in its integrity is one and indivisible;

That Christianity is not a precious stone preserved in a box called the Church of England, or the Church of the East, or Rome, but that it is the common good of mankind, destined for all continents and all races;

That there is no constituent of the present European civilisation, but the Christian religion, which could stop the brutal struggle among men, in one form or another, and guarantee a Godlike peace profitable for the whole of mankind.

But who am I to teach you? ‘A reed from the wilderness shaken with the wind’? Not I, but the present despair of the world teaches you. I am only one loud amongst many suffocated cries from West and East, from North and South, directed to you—lift up your hearts and listen! God is now doing a great thing…

Pray and listen! One thing only is sure, that this great thing will come neither from any [secular authority] but from the living Christian Church. Yes, she is still living, although she looks dead. She is only sleeping. But Christ is standing beside her now, calling: ‘Rise, daughter! Talitha kumi!’

— Nikolaj Velimirović, Bishop of Ohrid and Žiča