Concerning Patience

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Orthodox Christianity and the World

Concerning Patience: A Sermon on the Sunday of the Paralytic
Archimandrite Kirill (Pavlov) - May 18, 2008

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ! The Gospel which we read today tells us about the great miracle of the healing of the paralytic, which our Lord performed, and of His mercy to suffering humanity. This Gospel pertains to each of us quite specifically, and can bring us great edification and comfort.

The Gospel tells us that, not far from the temple in Jerusalem, there was a sheep’s pool. An angel of the Lord used to come down to this pool and stir up the water, thus imparting to it a healing power, and whoever first went into the water after it was stirred by the angel would receive healing of any sort of disease that might be afflicting him. This healing power drew may sick people to the water. Among them was a certain man who had born a grievous sickness for thirty-eight years; but nevertheless he did not lose hope of healing.

On the occasion of the feast-day, our Lord Jesus Christ came to Jerusalem and visited the sheep’s pool. Turning His attention to the paralytic, who had patiently awaited the mercy of God, the Lord asked him: Do you wish to be made whole? The sick man answered, “Indeed, Lord. But I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into pool. While I am still coming, someone gets there before me.” Then the Lord said, “Arise, take up your bed, and walk.” (John 5:6-8) And – O! the wonder! The Lord healed the sick man instantaneously by His Divine Power alone. The man who has born a grievous illness for thirty-eight years became well right then, picked up his bed and went his way. But this was one the Sabbath, and the Jews said that it was not permitted to carry one’s bed on the Sabbath. Then the healed man said, “The one who healed me said to me, ‘Take up your bed and walk.’” (John 5:11) Jesus Christ was not there. He had hidden himself among the people. But then, when the Lord met the healed man in the temple, He added this saying: “Behold, you are healed. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.” (John 5:14)

The first thing that should catch our attention is the firm faith of the sick man in the mercy of God. For thirty-eight years he suffered from a heavy sickness, but did not wane in his patience and hope. He believed and hoped to receive what he asked for, and the Lord remembered him and gave him healing. Learn, dear ones, from this example to be patient when afflictions, which are many, visit us. Strive to hope in the Lord God, and to draw strength and courage from this hope in Him, that you may bear the various afflictions and failures of life without murmuring. No matter how heavy our afflictions are, no matter how long they last — believe that the Lord can help you, and sooner or late he will ease your suffering, if only you will have firm, unwavering hope in His mercy. Everything is possible to the Lord, and He alone is able to instantly change your sorrow into joy. Truly, afflictions and sorrows and often beyond human strength to bear, and we, from our own pusillanimity and impatience, often lose hope in the mercy of God. We weep and murmur, saying “I suffer and pray, but the Lord does not see my tears.” And already we start to fall into despair. Look how often we are little of soul! May the example of the paritent paralytic who bore his illness serve to edify each of us.

Dear brothers and sisters! If we believe that God exists, that He gave His Only-begotten Son over to death for us, if we believe that no one other than the Heavenly Father is directing our entire lives, then we must also put all of our hope in Him. Cast your care up the Lord, and He will nourish you. (Psalm 54:23)

Sometimes we wish for our prayers and requests to be immediately fulfilled, not thinking about the fact that God knows better than we do what is good for us, and when to give us consolation. We weep and groan, calling ourselves unhappy, as if we have innocently suffered for our entire lives, forgetting the declaration of the Apostle Paul: “Whome the Lord loves He chastens; for He scourges every son whom He receives. (Hebrews 12:6) Through the bearing of afflictions and bodily sufferings, the Lord heals our souls, preparing them for the life to come. He teaches us humility and unhypocritical hope in His mercy. The visitation of afflictions clearly witnesses to the fact the Lord has especially turned His attention to you at this time. He wants to make you wise unto salvation, to give you the opportunity to show Him how rich you are in faith, hope and love. These are the essential Christian virtues, without which a man cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

Not is vain did the saints and righteous ones consider themselves forgotten by God when they were without suffering for a long time. Apostle Paul says, “We not only boast that who have received justification and hope in things to come through faith; but we boast in afflictions, knowing that from afflictions come patience, from patience experience, from experience hope, and hope will not be made ashamed, because the love of God is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us.” (Rom. 5:3-5) Afflictions are our teachers. They teach us patience, experience, and ingenuity. And experience is the main thing in life. Experience leads a man to success through faith.

And yet we do not want to nourish this wondrous power in ourselves. Even when the Lord Himself, in His love for man, decides to make this power grow in us, then when murmur at Him, weeping at our fate: Why does fate demand of us exertion, violence, worry, and work beyond our strength? We are unaware that by our pusillanimity we are hindering the grace of God from helping us. We become utterly helpless, not knowing how to receive the grace of God, which demands that we decisively give ourselves over to the will of the Lord.

The words of today’s Gospel, addressed by the Lord to the paralytic, can’t fail to catch our attention: “Behold, you are healed. Sin no more, lest a worse thing befall you.” (John 5:14). From these words it is obvious that there is the closest link between sickness and sin. Before the first human beings had sinned, they were healthy in body and soul. But afterwards, since they could not keep themselves from sin, sickness followed sin as a result. This phenomenon is repeated today, and the law of this dependence will be in effect until the end of the world. Every transgression of law – as in the bodily realm, so in the spiritual – brings with it a disordering of our nature, and is necessarily accompanied by disease. Knowing this, therefore, let us flee from sin by all means, as from the cause of the corruption of our spiritual and bodily nature.

But there is not man who can consistently protect himself from sinful deeds. According to the word of God, there is no man who lives who does not sin, even if he lives on earth for a single day. But the grace of God gives a means to be continually cleansed of sin in the Mystery of repentance. No matter how many times a man falls, he always the ability to get up. Having become conscious your sin, and regretting that you have grieved the all-good Lord, obtain a firm intention to be corrected, and the Lord will forgive you according to His mercy and will vouchsafe you His grace. But if we have fallen into misery and the fulfillment of our petitions shall be delayed, then let the thirty-eight year suffering of the paralytic serve for our comfort unto hope in the mercy of God.

Let us say, in the words of the Apostle James: Be patient, and let your hearts be strengthened (James 5:8). Give your life over to the will of God. Believe that the Lord knows better than we do when He should look upon us, and when to turn His all-pure face away from us. And no matter what happens in your life, always cry out: My hope is the Father, my refuge is the Son, my protection is the Holy Spirit. O Holy Trinity, Glory to Thee!

Amen.

[Source pravmir.com]

The Way of the Pilgrim

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Orthodox Christianity and the World

The Way of the Pilgrim
Fr. Vasile Catalin Tudora - May 12th, 2011

I just returned from a pilgrimage to Mount Athos and as much as I would like to share what one feels in such a spiritual journey, it is difficult to put into words. Everything is so impressive and so divine that you can’t choose what to say. One may tell stories about the historical buildings, the vistas, the old icons, the relics, the music, but at the end of the day the one thing that boldly comes out and makes all the other things possible is the monk’s commitment to a life in Christ, their desire to go beyond the image of Christ and achieve also His likeness.

Living for a week in a monastic republic, in a place where everyone you meet is trying to become a saint is an extraordinary experience because it reveals, in opposition your shortcomings and you start questioning the depth of your own faith and the real state of your own commitment.

Living a life that has it’s sole purpose to achieve union with God, seems a no brainer on Mount Athos because everyone there is trying the same thing, is something as common as breathing, it is natural and the pilgrim is attracted in this movement, either realizing it or not. By conforming himself to the monastic life he also starts pursuing the same goal of self edification and the grace of God changes something in him. He’s not impatient anymore and the 5-6 hours night services seem short, even though a week before an hour-long service may have seemed interminable. He get’s used with silence more than noise, he get’s to think more about spiritual food than the gastronomical rewards of the city. Without realizing it the pilgrim is aligned in this grace-attracting environment. All starts to seem natural to him, despite the fact that his usual habitat, the noisy and secular city, has disappeared. This new rhythm of life fits him like a glove because it is what he really wants, it is what he was supposed to follow all along, but did not even knew it existed.

But here comes the moment of leaving the mountain. One is initially happy to go home to the family and share the experiences, the beautiful places, the chanting, the relics, the conversations. But as the boat takes the pilgrim away from the mountain and the mountain fades in the haze of the horizon there is an unexplainable longing that starts settling in his soul. As he gets closer to the world there is something that calls him back and that call, he does not realize it now, will be with him forever. This is the gift of the mountain.

The greatest shock however is when he is back into the world and meets the first “man from the city” (Luke 8:27) as Jesus met the demoniac in Gadara. The colors of the city hurt the pilgrim’s eyes now, the loud and rhythmic music inflicts pain in his years, everything disturbs the inner peace he was able to briefly experience on the mountain. This is the moment when he realizes, in this contrasting encounter, that there is something wrong with the world he was living in. He can see clearly now that the world is corrupted and does not follow God anymore, that the world is indeed possessed by a legion of demons (Luke 8:30) that drive all the people in a spiritual desert, far from the richness and the abundance of the spirit, in a barren place where the mere existence of God is forgotten.

But he did not realize it until his eyes were open. So he desperately tries to share this with someone from the world, tries to tell them that what they do is wrong, that this is not what God wants from us to be selfish and greedy, and pursue only the needs of the flesh, that one has to take care more of the soul and what he gets in return is laughter, irony and indifference. The same happened with the Gadarenes, they saw Christ miracle, the saw the possessed coming back to normality and instead of asking Christ to stay with them and cure them also, they sent Him away as something strange and unknown that might change their self sufficient way of life (Luke 8:37).

So at this moment the pilgrim realizes that he is the cured demoniac of Gadara, and, released from his demons, he is sent now in the world to be a witness of the healing power of Jesus Christ “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” (Luke 8:39).

He is however not alone because God has His people spread around the world; they are the salt of the earth. They are not perfect, as the monks are not perfect, but they share a deeper understanding of the purpose of life, their eyes have been open to paradise and that vision will stay with them and will motivate them despite the world around.

So the pilgrim continues his way into the world and as he fades into the horizon, swallowed by the crowd, one can distinctly hear him saying loud and clear: Lord Jesus Christ Son of God, have mercy on me the sinner. Amin.

[Source pravmir.com]

Battling Evil Thoughts

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Orthodox Christianity and the World

Battling Evil Thoughts
Fr. Stephen Powley - Jun 15th, 2011

Have you had a particular bad thought that caused you problems? Sometimes it is just in our minds, and other times it manifests itself in our lives. Have you ever confessed that particular sin, only to have it rear its ugly head soon afterward? I am betting you have … unless somehow you are unlike everyone else in this world. If it has happened to you, then you probably said something like me: “Hey, wait just a minute here … I confessed that sin and I know God has forgiven me that sin! How could it be back in my head? Shouldn’t I have total victory over it when I confessed it? Maybe God didn’t forgive me after all!”

The details of your particular struggle are not the subject of this article. Suffice it to say that within us all there is a battle that takes place within our minds. The enemy of our souls always attacks us at our weakest point. For some it is lust … for others greed … or pride … or slander … or … the list just goes on and on. Often these evil thoughts have already been confessed, but they continue to plague us. It is so very important to realize that just because someone has confessed these thoughts as sin, doesn’t mean that they will suddenly have great victory over it. Often spiritual warfare will increase after confession, because the enemy is losing ground.

What is being experienced in this is the same type of warfare that many of the great saints of our faith went through: attacks in the mind. They won victory – sometimes after years of struggle – but they won. The Elder Joseph the Hesychast (+1959) went through many, many years of such a battle and eventually was given victory. I recommend the book named after him for some excellent reading. Ultimately, what made him such a great man of God was not the actual victory, but the years of struggle. He didn’t give up the fight, even though it was so very discouraging to him at times, to the point of shedding many tears. He didn’t realize it at the time, but God was using his struggle to mold and shape him into the man of God he would become.

Much of the shaping of our spiritual lives takes place in the struggle, not in the victory. God will use our struggle to shape us into the vessel He has in mind for us to be, and only He knows what that will be. In Jeremiah 18, the Holy Prophet is told by God to go down to the potter’s house and watch him. This is what he saw and what he was told by God: “Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something at the wheel. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make. Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying: ‘O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?’ says the LORD. ‘Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand.’”

Struggling with evil thoughts is not an easy task. There are some who will eventually shake an angry fist at God and demand to know where He is, why He hasn’t given them victory over this matter: “God, I have confessed it to you and I have begged for help. Why have you abandoned me to this sin?” Yet, perhaps it is simply the Potter’s way with me, the lump of clay, to make me into something more. These words of St. Paul in Romans 9 say it well: “But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ Does not the potter have power over the clay?”

The important thing is that we fight; we do not quit struggling, no matter what. It is in the struggle that we grow, even though it is so very uncomfortable. Also, we should return to the Lord in confession regularly, confessing our struggle with this matter. It is in confession that we will find medicine for our souls. We need to realize that some medicines take time, but it is vital to keep taking it. So it is that we continue to receive the spiritual medicine we need through confession.

To the question, as to how to be rid of persistent evil thoughts, Abba Poimen answered in the fourth century: “If a man has on one side of him fire, and on the other side a vessel with water, then if he starts burning from the fire, he takes water from the vessel and extinguishes the fire. Like to this are the evil thoughts, suggested by the enemy of our salvation, which like a spark can enkindle sinful desires within man. It is necessary to put out these sparks with the water, which is prayer and the yearning of the soul for God.”

Back in my smokejumping days with the Forest Service, most of the forest fires we parachuted in to fight were caused by lightning strikes. No sooner would we have one fire under control than we would have another one to fight, and another, and another. Lightning does not simply strike once in a storm, and certainly evil thoughts in the same way do not simply come our way once. If an evil thought has caused us to stumble at some point, then we will be tested by that thought many times. So it is that we will need to be putting that “water on those sparks” that Abba Poimen mentioned, over and over again. No matter how long the struggle continues, it will always be worth it!

Let the final thought on this matter be from that man who finally found victory after so many, many years of struggle, the Elder Joseph the Hesychast:

God always helps. He always comes in time, but patience is necessary. He hears us immediately when we cry out to Him, but not in accordance with our own way of thinking .… Since you do not see beyond what is apparent and do not know how God governs the world, you want your request to be fulfilled like lightning. But this is not how things are. The Lord wants patience. He wants you to show your faith. You cannot just pray like a parrot. It is necessary also to work towards whatever one prays for, and then to learn to wait. You see that what you longed for in the past has finally happened. However, you were harmed because you didn’t have the patience to wait, in which case you would have gained both the one and the other: both the temporal and the eternal ….

So then, there is no point in losing heart, getting upset, complaining. You must close your mouth. Let no one perceive that you are disturbed. Don’t fume with anger, as if to work it out of your system, but rather be calm. Burn the devil through patience and forbearance. The Lord, Who destroys all who speak lies, is my witness that I have greatly benefited by the advice I am giving you. The temptations I had were strong enough to make you think that your soul would depart due to the pain, as if from a flaming furnace. Nevertheless, once the trial is over, so much consolation comes that you feel as if you were in paradise without a body”.

[Source pravmir.com]

Children and Church

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Orthodox Christianity and the World

Children and Church
Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann - Apr 4th, 2011

As a general rule, children like attending Church, and this instinctive attraction to and interest in Church services is the foundation on which we must build our religious education. When parents worry that children will get tired because services are long and are sorry for them, they usually subconsciously express their concern not for their children but for themselves. Children penetrate more easily than do adults into the world of ritual, of liturgical symbolism. They feel and appreciate the atmosphere of our Church services. The experience of Holiness, the sense of encounter with Someone Who is beyond daily life, that mysterium tremendum that is at the root of all religion and is the core of our services is more accessible to our children than it is to us. “Except ye become as little children,” these words apply to the receptivity, the open-mindedness, the naturalness, which we lose when we grow out of childhood. How many men have devoted their lives to the service of God and consecrated themselves to the Church because from childhood they have kept their love for the house of worship and the joy of liturgical experience! Therefore, the first duty of parents and educators is to “suffer little children and forbid them not” (Matt. 19:14) to attend Church. It is in Church before every place else that children must hear the word of God. In a classroom the word is difficult to understand, it remains abstract, but in church it is in its own element. In childhood we have the capacity to understand, not intellectually, but with our whole being, that there is no greater joy on earth than to be in Church, to participate in Church services, to breathe the fragrance of the Kingdom of Heaven, which is “the joy and peace of the Holy Spirit.”

Church attendance should be complemented from the earliest days of childhood by the home atmosphere, which precedes and prolongs the mood of the Church. Let us take Sunday morning. How can a child sense the holiness of that morning and of that which he will see in Church if the home is full of the blare of radio and TV, the parents are smoking and reading the papers, and there reigns a generally profane atmosphere? Church attendance should be preceded by a sense of being gathered in, a quiet, a certain solemnity. The lighting of vigil lights before the icons, the reading of the Scripture lessons, clean and fresh clothes, the festively tidied-up rooms – so frequently parents do not realize how all these things shape the religious consciousness of the child, make an imprint which no later tribulations will ever efface. On the eve and on the day of Sundays and Church feasts, during Lent, on the days when we prepare ourselves for Confession and Communion, the home must reflect the Church, must be illuminated by the light that we bring back from worship.

And now let us speak of the school. It seems self-evident to me that to organize so-called “Sunday School” lessons during Divine Liturgy is in deep contradiction with the spirit of Orthodoxy. The Sunday Liturgy is a joyful gathering of the Church community, and the child must know and experience this long before he is able to understand the deep meaning of this gathering. It seems to me that the choice of Sunday for church school is not a very good one. Sunday is primarily a liturgical day; therefore, it should be Church-centered and Liturgy-centered. It would be far better to have church school on Saturdays before the Vigil or Vespers service. The argument that parents cannot and will not bring children to church twice a week is merely admitting indolence and sinful negligence of what is important to our children. Saturdayevening is the beginning of Sunday and should be liturgically sanctified just as much as Sunday morning. Why, in all Orthodox churches the world over Vespers or the Vigil is served on the eve of Feasts and Sundays. There is no reason why we too cannot arrange our church life according to principle: School—Vespers—Liturgy, where School would be for children the essential preparation and introduction to the Day of the Lord, His resurrection.

[Source pravmir.com]

Do All Non-Orthodox People Go to Hell?

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Orthodox Christianity and the World

Do All Non-Orthodox People Go to Hell?
Fr. Bill Olnhausen - May 30th, 2011

Question: When Church Fathers such as Cyprian of Carthage make such bold statements as, “He cannot have God for his Father, who has not the Church for his mother,” does that mean that all non-Orthodox people are going to hell? What is the Orthodox perspective on the condition of Christians and non-Christians outside of the Holy Orthodox Church?

Fr. Bill Olnhausen responds: Orthodox theologian Georges Florovsky was even bolder when he wrote, “Outside the Church there is no salvation, because salvation is the Church.” Let’s define terms. “Salvation” (soteria in Greek) means spiritual wholeness, health. Salvation is not an instant experience, nor is it a reward for getting a passing grade in holiness, nor is it the result of God’s arbitrarily waiving heaven’s entrance requirements.
Salvation is the successful completion of a long process of spiritual growth, until finally we become “perfect, just as [our] Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Salvation consists of becoming holy. In order to be saved, we must cooperate with God’s saving process. This requires a correct understanding of God, a right relationship with God-”true doctrine” and “true worship.”

The Church is essential to salvation for many reasons:

1) We cannot save ourselves. God alone can save us. The only way to perfection and eternal life is through union with the eternal and all-perfect God who is life, and who pours His saving power into us. God is salvation.

2) Jesus Christ is God Incarnate, through whom we are united with God. “No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). “Without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Jesus Christ is salvation.

3) The Church is the Body of Christ, an essential part of Christ’s Incarnation, through which we are united with Christ. We are saved in the midst of a community. Salvation is not individual, but corporate. The Church is where Christ our God saves us. Therefore, the Church is salvation and salvation is found in the Church.

4) Orthodox believe that by His grace God has revealed and preserved “true doctrine” and “true worship” in the Holy Orthodox Church. The Orthodox Church is the true Church.

Does this mean that all now outside the Church will go to hell? No. Bishop Kallistos Ware suggests that “While there is no division between a `visible’ and an ‘invisible’ Church yet there may be members of the Church who are not visibly such, but whose membership is known to God alone. If anyone is saved, he must in some sense be a member of the Church; in what sense we cannot always say” (The Orthodox Church, p. 248, 1993 edition). Christ our God may be working in others in ways unknown to us and even to them, to bring them to salvation. And in due time, perhaps not till after death, they may recognize God and accept Christ and be united to His Body the Church-so that they can be saved.

This is in accord with the teaching of Christ. In the parable of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25), notice that it is the “nations” (v. 32), the nonbelievers, who are being judged (this is obvious, because they are surprised to learn that Christ dwells in the needy), and some of them are welcomed into the “kingdom prepared for [them] from the foundation of the world” (v. 34).

Regarding God’s mysterious work outside the Orthodox Church, we have nothing to say. We make no judgments about what God is doing there, or about what happens to the souls of those who are not Orthodox or not Christian on earth. It is all we can do to try to “work out [our] own salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12).

[Source pravmir.com]

Slowing Down and Ordering Your Life

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Orthodox Christianity and the World

Slowing Down and Ordering Your Life
May 11th, 2011

Modern life is a too-busy life. We are all driven to work faster and faster and more and more efficiently. Our kids are involved in multiple activities with demanding schedules. With all the demands of work and family, there is little time left for reflection and prayer. As a result we can become insensitive to the needs of others and feel the burden of stress. Such a fast-paced life makes us feel tense, inefficient, insecure and even superficial.

There are many ways you can slow down and simplify your life. To start the process, you can begin by getting up earlier. (which means you also need to go to bed earlier.) When you get up in the morning, your first activity should be prayer. At least thirty minutes is desirable (start with 15 minutes and work up to 30 minutes). This includes prayers of thanksgiving, repentance and intercession. You also should include the practice of the Jesus Prayer at this time. After you have prayed and you have taken care of all your personal hygiene needs, you should plan time for your other responsibilities such as getting the kids ready for school. You should allow time for a leisurely breakfast. Help others in your household get off to a peaceful start of the day. You do not want to start the day being pressured by time. Remember, harried people create harried people and calm people create calm people. If you don’t start the day with calmness there is not much chance that the rest of the day will be calm.

The easiest way to find this time is to examine the way you spend time with the different forms of media such as television, the Internet or the cell phone. Most likely, television is the biggest culprit. Give up just one of your programs and you will automatically have an extra hour to start the day off on the right foot. Media usage places a huge burden on all our lives. A recent survey by Nielsen Media Research shows that the average person spends more time than ever in front of the TV, over 133 hours a month. In addition, we spend on average another 26 hours using the Internet. Both of these have shown significant increases over the prior year. Now the phone is connected to the Internet and we can even spend another 3 hours watching video and TV on the phone. The mobile phone is becoming a significant use of our time as well as being an instrument that diverts and scatters our attention. So, this is the prime area to look to reallocate your use of time so you can make time to be with family and friends, to help others in need, or to make time for your daily prayer, attend worship services and most importantly to get a calm start each day. If you watch TV or surf the Internet to get relief from the tensions of the day or because of boredom, prayer will bring you even greater benefits.

To change the pace of your life, eliminate some activities from your “To Do” list. Identify those things that do not promote your spiritual growth and conflict with the Orthodox way of life. At work you carefully set priorities and make sure you are doing those things that are the most important. Do the same for your personal life. At the end of the work day you need to separate yourself from the work activities. If you leave work at work, then you can better enjoy your friends and family when you are off work. You will be able to take time to listen to your children and your spouse. The end of the day should be one of slowing down until it is time for your regular period for prayer, to read some Scripture, or to read from the works of the Church Fathers. Have your conversation with God, and then go to bed focused on His love and great mercy. Organize your life so this period after work is a leisure time detached from all work activities.

Do not confuse slowing down with being lazy or slothful. These are quite different things. Laziness leads to procrastination and inefficiency. A lazy person will not make the effort to organize time for prayer. As you slow down you will find you pay more attention to the details. Concentrate on even the smallest things you are doing. The quality of your actions will improve in everything you do.

Jesus constantly warns against having anxiety about material things, even food and clothing. God knows and provides everything you need, but most likely you have taken your needs and exaggerated them beyond what are your basic necessities. To follow Jesus, He asks you to abandon your attachment to possessions and the priority you are placing on things of this created world, and to take on a simpler lifestyle focused on God where you are not encumbered with excessive demands to accumulate material things for your happiness. The key is a balance. Plato and Aristotle taught mankind, hundreds of years before Christ, that the ideal is a golden mean, which implies a path through life that is neither burdened with excess nor with deprivation. By slowing down or simplifying our lives we are not talking about being less productive or rejecting the whole of this material world. We are simply being more effective, balanced, and doing what we do with much greater care, which includes the exercise of the moral imperatives that God has laid down for us.

There is no magic formula to slowing down and simplifying your life. The possibilities are endless. Start by clarifying your priority values. Then make a list of all your activities. Record them over a week’s time. Take time to reflect on what you have recorded and determine which ones fit with your priorities. Think about what you can eliminate to put a different priority in place in your life. Begin to consciously reengineer your pattern of life. Experiment with ways to slow down and simplify and you will find yourself coming closer to God in your daily activities. Through your prayers, seek God’s help in this task.

[Source pravmir.com]

The Liturgical Effectiveness of Pews

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Orthodox Christianity and the World

A Call for Liturgical Renewal:
The Liturgical Effectiveness of Pews
St. Michael's Skete (OCA) - Mar 26, 2009

Implied in the Orthodox liturgical tradition, and axiomatic as well in the modern Liturgical Movement, is the basic principle that what we do and what we say in corporate worship directly influences our beliefs, our attitudes and our daily behavior. That influence is indeed one of liturgical worship's intended effects. Liturgy teaches. Liturgy is designed to affect life. Bad liturgy therefore has bad effects. Heretical worship sows the seeds of error. Boring services of worship bore. But the Divine Liturgy served in the beauty of holiness manifests the light of truth and inspires holy living.

Few Orthodox believers in North America today would deny the validity of the above fundamental principle, especially when it comes to using, the language of the people in our services of worship. For how can the Word take full effect, if that sacred Word is spoken exclusively in a foreign tongue? We are quite conscious as well that the quality of the preaching, the excellence of the teaching, the beauty of the iconography, the loveliness of the singing, and everything else that contributes to the liturgical celebration, also directly influence the thinking and the living of those who participate in that Liturgy. But have we thought about the direct effects of having pews (or rows of chairs) installed in our churches for use during the Divine Liturgy and the other rites of the Church?

Few Orthodox believers in North America today would deny the validity of the above fundamental principle, especially when it comes to using, the language of the people in our services of worship. For how can the Word take full effect, if that sacred Word is spoken exclusively in a foreign tongue? We are quite conscious as well that the quality of the preaching, the excellence of the teaching, the beauty of the iconography, the loveliness of the singing, and everything else that contributes to the liturgical celebration, also directly influence the thinking and the living of those who participate in that Liturgy. But have we thought about the direct effects of having pews (or rows of chairs) installed in our churches for use during the Divine Liturgy and the other rites of the Church?

Are pews, which we borrowed not so very long ago from the Protestants and the Roman Catholics (who borrowed them from the Protestants) a liturgical accretion without consequences? Or, do pews (and pew-like rows of chairs) make a significant difference in the life of the Church? Or is the idea they do make a difference perhaps only the bothersome complaint of reactionaries who want to obstruct the progress of Orthodoxy in the name of a false traditionalism? Asking ourselves these questions, we came up with the following painful observations. They lead us to the inescapable conclusion that pews and rows of chairs make a significant difference, a big difference, in our Orthodox Christian lives. That has absolutely nothing to do with jurisdictional differences or with shades of opinion in the Church, or with labels like "traditionalist" and "modernist." It has everything to do with the Orthodox understanding of the Body of Christ, and the nature of liturgical worship.

Whether we want to believe it or whether we don't, pews (or rows of chairs) influence the way we think about the Church. Pews mold the way we think about the Liturgy itself. Pews affect the way we think about ourselves as Orthodox Christian lay people. Pews directly influence our spirituality and our behavior. The use of pews is shaping the future of Orthodoxy in North America.

Here are just some of the remarkable things a "mere addition" to Orthodox worship like pews accomplishes. A few of the following comments may come across as sarcastic. They are not. They are simply an open expression of what possibly a majority of lay people, and maybe even a few clergy, think in their "heart of hearts." These ideas have taken root among us in large part because pews have taught us to think them.

1) Pews teach the lay people to stay in their place, which is to passively watch what's going on up front, where the clergy perform the Liturgy on their behalf. Pews preach and teach that religion and spirituality is the job of the priest, to whom we pay a salary to be religious for us, since it is just too much trouble and just too difficult for the rest of us to be spiritual in the real world of modern North America. Pews serve the same purpose as seats in theaters and bleachers in the ball park; we perch on them (even during the Litanies which are the specific prayer of the People) to watch the professionals perform: the clergy and the professionally-trained altar servers, while the professionally-trained choir sings for our entertainment.

2) In teaching us to sit back and relax, pews give us the impression that any inconvenience, much less suffering no matter how slight, is foreign to the Christian life. Aren't you supposed to enjoy church and have fun as a Christian? Church is one of the few times we can take it easy and avoid real life. We don't come to church to work. (But doesn't the word liturgy mean precisely, "the work of the people"?) How many American Orthodox today have the "legs of steel" of old world Orthodoxy? Pews teach us to be spiritual wimps. "Could you not watch with me one hour?" asks the Lord. Would we who shrink from standing one hour, be willing to suffer for Christ, as millions of our Orthodox brothers, sisters, fathers and mothers in this very century have had to suffer?

3) Pews destroy the traditional feeling of freedom in church. With the installation of pews, we are no longer "bothered" with all the moving around which used to take place. You know, grandmothers lighting candies, children kissing icons, and the worshippers gathering around their priest like a family gathered about their father.

4) Pews fill up the open space in the middle of our temples, where the clergy and the people used to join together in a sort of sacred dance as the clergy, censing and processing, moved amidst the constantly changing configuration of the Laity.

Today this is reduced to the priest and servers marching in and marching out. How can we dance with pews on the ballroom floor? Pews transform worship for us into the merely formal and frosty affair that it has become in mainline American religion. The colder worship gets, the less attention we must pay to the unreal demands that religion, as our forebears knew it, puts on us. Certainly we can't allow our religion to become our way of life, if we expect to get ahead in the real world.

5) If children must be brought into the Church, at least they can play under the pews, where they won't be distracted by the ceremonies going on up front. Do kids understand all that anyway? Wouldn't they be better off in Sunday School coloring pictures and playing games, where they don't bother the adults while they sit back and enjoy the liturgical music concert?

6) Although pews are admittedly not a feature of the Orthodox liturgical tradition as our ancestors knew it, we're in America now, and here things are different. We need to be relevant. The more we can be just like the big and important religions in America, the more influence Orthodox Christianity will have. We can't afford to lose our big chance to mold American thought, and we will lose it if we cling to silly traditions with a little t, like pewless temples. And besides, is it not crystal clear that if we look too different we won't be able to achieve prestige, success and power in our society? Isn't that what life is all about?

7) Thanks to pews, on the weekdays of Lent we no longer have to endure those humiliating prostrations. Other [Christian groups] don't do that kind of thing in church, not even the Catholics. Why should we? And during funerals, pews spare us from gathering around the casket like we used to. Isn't the function of the modern funeral to shield us from the unpleasantness of death? The accepted modern American view is that we never really die, we just fade away.

These blunt observations are not meant to offend, but to hammer the point home vividly. The Liturgical Movement and the Orthodox liturgical tradition are both absolutely right: what we do in liturgical worship molds our thinking, attitudes and behavior. That's precisely why the issue of pews is so critically important. We hope this call for renewal will not be dismissed out of hand as "off the wall extremism," for this is not a "party" issue; it is a matter of life and death for American Orthodoxy. Pews are a spiritual carcinogen. Like Social Security in politics, pews may be an "untouchable" issue, but in spite of that, Orthodox America must begin renewal in this regard.

The pews in our churches are a much bigger problem than the use of foreign languages, for pews silently speak louder than words. Pews outshout the greatest of preachers and the most effective of teachers. Pews skillfully contradict the most excellent administrator and the most caring pastor. Pews drown out the words of our greatest scholars. A parish priest can brilliantly teach his flock about the place of the Laity as members in the priestly Body of Christ and co-celebrants in the Divine Liturgy, while the pews his people are sitting in, with the subtle dynamics of liturgical drama, insidiously whisper the very opposite. "Psst ... all you really need to do is pay your dues, call yourself Orthodox, watch the Liturgy, and leave the full-time practice of religion to the paid professionals." Neither unknown languages, nor choirs, nor even operatic compositions, could ever deprive the Laity of their active participation in the Divine Liturgy as members of the priestly Body of Christ. For they also serve who only attentively stand to pray. But when the Laity, as a mistaken gesture of kindness, were given pews so they could sit back, relax and watch the show, it was as if they had been deposed from their Sacred Ministry.

We're not calling for fanatic "pewoclasm." Liturgical renewal must not be divorced from loving pastoral concern. But we do need to face it: the use of pews and rows of chairs in our churches is a liturgical distortion which powerfully distorts our self-understanding as Orthodox Christians. We need renewal in the Orthodox teaching that we come to church not to be entertained but to work, to do together the Work of the People, the Holy Liturgy. Perhaps we could begin that renewal by removing several front rows of pews, inviting the faithful to stand before the iconostasis from the Great Entrance through Communion. Then let us progress back as fast as is pastorally feasible to the traditional practice of having seats only around the periphery of the church interior for the elderly, the infirm, for mothers with babies, for the weak and for the tired. That practice is not "merely traditional." It expresses a vital and fundamental aspect of Orthodox liturgical teaching.

[Source pravmir.com]

Those Kneeling Prayers!

Pravmir.com
Orthodox Christianity and the World

Those Kneeling Prayers!
Fr. David Thatcher - May 24th, 2010

This past Monday Eve — that is, on Pentecost Sunday afternoon — we prayed the Kneeling Prayers at the Vespers for Holy Spirit Day, on Monday. I love coming to each feast day, in its distinctiveness, and partake of some unique aspect of the Gospel of Jesus Christ communicated through that liturgical celebration. And Pentecost does not disappoint, with its annual Kneeling Prayers.

Yet, as a priest and the one leading the people of God in these important prayers, I must admit a certain degree of struggle with these prayers. Undoubtedly, “love-hate relationship” is much too strong, but you get what I mean. These prayers are, well, quite long; priests are tempted to read them quickly, which would result in less than full comprehension. They’re read once a year, so there’s no opportunity to absorb them over time by repetition, week by week. They’re written in classic Byzantine style, not certainly in classic English style, with its genius of directness and simple elegance. (You can tell I teach writing, eh?) I wish that I were more pious, less of a sinner, so that such thoughts wouldn’t enter my head like so many birds stealing the fruits of faith, but there you have it.

So, let’s look more closely at them, in order to understand them better. In these Kneeling Prayers there’s actually seven different prayers, done in three sets of kneeling: two in the first set, two in the second set, and three in the third set.

Each set ends, sealed as it were with a lovely capstone, with one of the ancient vesperal prayers for light, from the Great Church of Holy Wisdom, in Constantinople. That much makes sense: praying for light as we re-enter the world from the heady days of Pascha-Pentecost, and enter “ordinary time” in our cycle of the church year. We need the light of Christ in the dark paths of this world, as our Gospel for the Feast proclaimed.

I believe that the latter is important to the content of these prayers: all the talk (prayer) about forgiveness, strength, and even death makes sense as we turn the corner from the glory of Pascha and into the normal mode of sacramental discipleship. We kneel. We fast. We sin…and confess. We beg for God’s mercy. We die…or rather enter into eternal rest in the God of the living. These are the dynamics of authentic spirituality and real life in Christ. Such things always involve struggle, spiritual warfare, and self-denial as we joyfully offer up our lives as a living sacrifice to God, holy and acceptable. They are the core of sacramental discipleship, of preparation and fulfillment in our festal cycles, of self-emptying and divine infilling by the Holy Spirit. Walking in the light is no cakewalk. So, we kneel. And we pray, at length, prayers which embrace the various dimensions of being a Christian seeking the fulness of the Spirit of God this Pentecost season.

St. Paul commanded us to pray with understanding. Certainly this is all the more true on the Great Feast of Pentecost. For on this day the Apostles spoke in languages they did not know, in order to be understood by the crowds of non-Palestinian Jews in Jerusalem for the feast. The holy fathers call Pentecost the Anti-Babel: God’s remedy for the confusion of tongues when He judged the builders of Babel. So, we need to understand these Kneeling Prayers. Heed, then, the wise words of the late Father Alexander Schmemann, onetime Dean of Saint Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, about these special Pentecostal Prayers:

We are invited to kneel. This is our first kneeling since Easter. It signifies that after these fifty days of Paschal joy and fulness, of experiencing the Kingdom of God, the Church now is about to begin her pilgrimage through time and history. It is evening again, and the night approaches, during which temptations and failures await us, when, more than anything else, we need Divine help, that presence and power of the Holy Spirit, who has already revealed to us the joyful End, who now will help us in our effort towards fulfillment and salvation.

All this is revealed in the three prayers which the celebrant reads now as we all kneel and listen to him. In the first prayer, we bring to God our repentance, our increased appeal for forgiveness of sins, the first condition for entering into the Kingdom of God.

In the second prayer, we ask the Holy Spirit to help us, to teach us to pray and to follow the true path in the dark and difficult night of our earthly existence. Finally, in the third prayer, we remember all those who have achieved their earthly journey, but who are united with us in the eternal God of Love.

The joy of Easter has been completed and we again have to wait for the dawn of the Eternal Day. Yet, knowing our weakness, humbling ourselves by kneeling, we also know the joy and the power of the Holy Spirit who has come. We know that God is with us, that in Him is our victory.

Thus is completed the feast of Pentecost and we enter “the ordinary time” of the year. Yet, every Sunday now will be called “after Pentecost” — and this means that it is from the power and light of these fifty days that we shall receive our own power, the Divine help in our daily struggle. At Pentecost we decorate our churches with flowers and green branches — for the Church “never grows old, but is always young.” It is an evergreen, ever-living Tree of grace and life, of joy and comfort. For the Holy Spirit – “the Treasury of Blessings and Giver of Life – comes and abides in us, and cleanses us from all impurity,” and fills our life with meaning, love, faith and hope.

[Source pravmir.com]

Three Muslims are Baptized

Pravmir.com
Orthodox Christianity and the World

Three Muslims are Baptized
Jun 10th, 2011

A week after Fr Zacharias Kerstyuk baptized a Muslim in Spain, three other Muslims who had survived the crippling of the ship decided to become Christians. Fr Zacharias now tells Pravmir how and why this came about.

The last moments before the sacrament

The men who have become Christians are all members of the crew on board the same ship which had been crippled. They are of Georgian nationality. There were six Georgians from Ajaria on board the ship, three Orthodox and three Muslims.

The last moments before the baptism were a trial. I had spoken to the men for a long time and allowed them to be baptized, convinced that they were really ready for it inside themselves. And then at the agreed place on the shore we all waited, with the ship just nearby, but the sailors were not there. We waited for twenty minutes and still they did not come.

I thought to myself: ‘What a pity, but probably they had just given way to emotion and than at the critical moment they changed their minds’. The captain had come long before the service was to begin. But then another moment went by and we saw the men hurrying towards us, smiling.

Now they are Orthodox Christians.

The change in their consciousness had not at all been sudden

They had been impressed by what the captain had done, they had been penetrated by his zeal for Christ and his gratitude. However, the change in their consciousness, unlike with the captain, had not at all been sudden.

At first they had thought about it, watched what was happening and asked questions. It was clear that something profound was going on inside them. And then, some time later, they told me their intentions.

Two of the young men have Christian wives and they supported their husbands in their decision. On the eve of the baptism I spoke to the wife of one of the new converts on the telephone and she is very happy because now their family is of the same faith.

They had searched for God and found Him

I thank God for this event that has happened in my life as a pastor. This past month there have been so many things happening in my priest’s soul, more than ever before. They had searched for God and found Him.

Now there are only three Muslims left on board the ship, two Turks and one Syrian. The Turks are getting on in years and probably would not want to change anything in their view of life, although they realize that something they cannot explain has happened. The Syrian is a convinced Shiite. I know from Libya that it is virtually impossible to convert a Shiite to Christianity. But nevertheless they all continue to wear the crosses they have recently been given with pleasure and they glorify Jesus. They say: ‘The prophet Isa helped us’.

After they had been baptized, the Georgians fixed up a real feast for our parish, with Georgian dishes and songs. They even ran up their flag. I have not seen people so happy for a long time.

‘I remember who I am now’

I and the ship’s captain who was baptized the day before continue to meet and talk with warmth. He helped organize the baptisms. He tries to take communion more often, asks me about the prayer rule and whenever we meet he always smiles and makes the sign of the cross, as if to say: ‘I remember who I am now’.

[Source pravmir.com]

A Muslim is Baptized

Pravmir.com
Orthodox Christianity and the World

A Muslim is Baptized
Jun 8th, 2011

This story comes from Archpriest Zacharias Kerstyuk, who works for the external relations department of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. Fr Zacharias used to look after the parishioners at St Andrew’s Church at the Ukrainian Embassy in Tripoli in Libya, but now serves in Spain.

The Muslim

He is Turkish, a ship’s captain and travels all over the world. He is 49 years old and has spent 25 of those at sea and has been in all sorts of difficult situations. He is a clever man and speaks some five languages.

At Sea

This spring his ship was in the Atlantic, when suddenly it broke down. The main engine stopped and the generators packed up.

They drifted for a long time, unable even to send out an SOS. There was nothing to eat or drink and the crew began to get alarmed. Everything they tried ended in failure. Despair set in. There were over thirty in the crew, Georgians, Syrians, Turks and two Ukrainians. Their only hope was in God.

Prayer

The Muslim captain began to pray for help. He also saw how sincerely the Georgian Orthodox prayed. Then he himself turned to Jesus: ‘If Jesus helps me, then I’ll become a Christian’, he decided. The day was not over before the engines came back to life.

They reached Algiers on the smoky engines, but the port would not take them in. All they would do was allow them to take some food and drink on board and anchor in their territorial waters. They stood at anchor for a whole month there, waiting for spares from the shipping company. Refusing to wait any longer for help from the ship’s owners, the IMO (International Maritime Organization) ordered them to proceed to the nearest European port. This was Cartagena in Spain. The ship stopped five miles from shore – it had run out of fuel. With great difficulty they were towed into port.

The Baptism

Since there were Ukrainians on board and I am a Ukrainian, I was at once contacted about the irregular situation in which our nationals were involved. I went aboard and met the Ukrainians who introduced me to the rest of the crew. I spoke at length with the captain about Orthodoxy, about God. I saw that the man had really taken a conscious decision.

I had three preparatory talks with the captain. Since this was a very important step I received his wife’s permission. These people had been born into Islam but only kept it superficially, just like the many who among us call themselves Orthodox only because they were baptised in it in childhood.

The wife said that she accepted her husband’s decision, as that was his will.

The man said to me: ‘I want to be Orthodox, Jesus helped me, I’ll keep everything that is asked of me because I believe’. Seeing such a firm will in him, I baptized him in the Mediterranean Sea.

He told me that he had never sensed or felt the presence of God in Islam, but he could feel Jesus in his heart. The next Sunday the captain came to communion for the first time.

The Crew

The captain invited his friends to the service, six of whom also took communion. I have not seen people taking communion with such devotion for a long time the way he did. At the moment another two sailors in the crew also want to get baptized. We are having preparatory talks and I hope to baptize them next week.

At my first talk with the captain, I asked: ‘Aren’t you afraid that the Muslim sailors will cut your throat?’ He answered: ‘So what, I’ll lock the doors tighter at night’.

During the talk Muslim sailors came along and looked at me in such a way that I felt frightened. The second meeting was much more pleasant and the third very easy. I answered their questions. We spoke about life, joked and I showed them crosses which I offered them.

They took them, put them on and I heard them talking to each other: ‘Perhaps it’s true and Jesus did help?’ After that I went to see them again and I saw them, Syrians and Turks, still wearing the crosses around their necks as before. Having been at death’s door, these people can now make sense of a lot more.

[Source pravmir.com]

Euthanasia and The Sixth Commandment

Pravmir.com
Orthodox Christianity and the World

Euthanasia and The Sixth Commandment
Archpriest Victor Potapov - Apr 20th, 2007

Thou shalt not kill.

All societies have attached great importance to death and dying. Our many forebears who lived in agricultural communities accepted death fatalistically: Death was just in the nature of things and accepted with customary ceremonies. Contemporary industrial and postindustrial societies, however, have new set of experiences and sensibility in the problems of death and dying. Medical science and technology permit us to prolong life, and we live much longer than our forebears. However, many older people do not find that the additional years turn out to be the best time of life, but that they are a slow and steady advance into enemy country. For some, this experience can be unbearable.

In 1990, Americans were shaken by the following event: Dr. Jack Kevorkian, a retired pathologist, constructed and offered to interested persons a device that journalists christened “the suicide machine.” At the request of a 54-year old woman who was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, he inserted into one of her veins a syringe connected to this machine. The patient pressed a button, a solution of potassium chlorate began to enter the vein, and within a few minutes her heart stopped.

In the Netherlands, the sick who experience unbearable sufferings can now ask a physician to help them die. If several physicians testify to the incurability of the illness, the sick person can get a lethal injection. Opponents of such “medical assistance” are careful to point out that such injections–when used to execute the death sentence for criminals in American prisons–are frequently called “a cruel and inhuman punishment.”

Does a person have the right to end his life with dignity? Must a physician or a guardian prolong a person’s life when it is obvious that he has no chance to lead a “normal life”? Can an ethical physician cut short the life of a hopelessly sick person to free him from unbearable suffering? These questions are timely because life expectancy keeps increasing, and mankind strives to better the quality of life on earth. Every physician and priest and every other person who has anything to do with the sick and dying must answer these questions. The Church does have a teaching concerning “euthanasia,” which is a Greek word meaning “a good death.”

The Orthodox Church teaches that euthanasia is the deliberate cessation of human life must be condemned as murder. However, the headlong progress of medical technology and artificial means of sustaining life requires that Church moral theologians define the Church approach more precisely, to the problem of euthanasia and the problematic “right of a person to put an end to his life.”

To define more precisely, let us say that euthanasia is killing people painlessly who are hopelessly sick. Advocates point out that contemporary medicine for the hopelessly sick does not help their recovery but prolongs their dying. In turn, one must ask it is murder, not to use the good things of contemporary medicine to prolong the life of the hopelessly ill.

The Church Fathers taught that death is unnatural for man, because man was created not for death but for life. Along with suffering and illness, Death does not occurs according to God’s will. The Book of Wisdom says–For God made not death: neither hath he pleasure in the destruction of the living. For he created all things, that they might have their being (Wisdom 1:13-14). And in the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, we read: For I desire not the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God; wherefore, be converted and live (Ezekiel 13:32).

The Holy Fathers taught that the meaning of Adam’s sin is that man, who was created in the image and likeness of God and infused with breath by His Spirit, chose death instead of life, chose evil instead of righteousness. And so death passed upon all men, for that in him [Adam] all have sinned (Romans 5:12), says the Apostle Paul. And having sinned, man brought death also to his children, who share his nature and life.

Spiritual life for the Christian is first dying with Christ to sin and the world and then passing with Him through the experience of bodily death in order to be resurrected in the Kingdom of God. Christians must transfigure their own death in the affirmation of life, meeting the tragedy of death with faith in the Lord and conquering, according to the words of the Apostle Paul, the last enemy death (I Corinthians 15:26) by the power of one’s faith.

I am the resurrection, and the life: He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die (John 11:25-26).

The deeply believing Christian must be ready to accept any death, for his faith in the Resurrection and in the infinite goodness of God are measured by his acceptance of death. A Christian is called to have the remembrance of death, that is, not to forget his mortality, but to remember that the final triumph of light will appear only after the resurrection of the dead. Preparedness for death does not mean that earthly life loses its value. On the contrary, it remains the greatest good, and the Christian is called unto the fullness of the present life, insofar as he can fill each moment of this life with the light of Christ’s love.

This patristic description of life and death implies that a Christian is forbidden to participate in the deliberate cessation of the life of others, including the lives of the hopelessly ill.

Although the Church suffers together with people in extreme misfortune, the Church cannot forget her mission to preserve the sacred gift of life. The Church approves the use of various medicines and even narcotics to decrease the physical pain of the sufferer. Where death is clear and inescapable, and when the person is spiritually prepared for death by means of confession and communion, the Church blesses that person to die, without the interference of various life-prolonging medical devices and drugs.

The Church tries to instill in the sufferer that his illness is caused by sin: his own and that of the whole world too. If he bears his sickness righteously, manfully, and patiently, that is, with faith, hope and even joy, then he becomes the world=s greatest witness to God’s salvation. Such patience is the glorification of God amid suffering and sickness. It is the greatest offering that man can ever make during his life on earth.

All the saints suffered some physical infirmity. Even those who healed others by their prayers never asked for healing. And the obvious example is Jesus Himself. For as much then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, teaches the Apostle Peter in his First Epistle, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God (I Peter 4:1-2).

According to the grace given us by the Lord, Christians must spiritually partake of the sufferings of Christ. Inasmuch as the Church blesses the hopelessly ill person to prepare for death consciously, not resorting to artificial means of life-support, the Church decisively parts from those who would call prolong the life of all of the dying by any means. In Her prayers at the parting of the soul from the body, the Church prays for God to send to the hopelessly ill a speedy and painless end. The Church teaches that prolonged life of the hopelessly ill conflicts with God’s planning for that person. One ought not to generalize. Maintaining the life of the each gravely ill individual needs a careful and all-round discussion with the relatives of the ill person, his physician, and spiritual director, together with prayer for God’s guidance.

[Source pravmir.com]

We are All Called to Be Apostles of Christ

Pravmir.com
Orthodox Christianity and the World

We are All Called to Be Apostles of Christ

After Pascha, people complain of ‘Post Paschal’ depression. After the intensive prayer life during Great Lent, frequent church services, fasting, Confession, doing good deeds for others in a special way, and the great spiritual, emotional and psychological build up to the celebration of Pascha, the Feast of Feasts and celebration of all celebrations, it’s logical that people would feel a sort of let-down after all that. Some people feel a real void and find it truly difficult to re-integrate themselves into their postlenten life.

The Apostles gathered in the upper room later on the day of the Resurrection, and, huddled there in fear, in walked Jesus through the door. And a week later, Jesus came in again to appear once more to Saint Thomas, putting an end to his doubts. The Myrrhbearers, as they neared the tomb early on the morning of the Resurrection, were met by an angel who said to them that they should not be looking for The Living One in the tombs, but gave them the order to go proclaim the good news that Christ is Risen. And the Paralytic, who waited 38 years for someone to put him in the water when the angel stirred it up, was met by Christ who told him to take up his bed and walk – and who met him later in the Temple and told him to go and sin no more lest something worse happen.

In all three of these Gospel lessons, we see people who had been stopped from spreading the Good News of Christ, His Holy Gospel, and who were healed by our Lord or by the Holy Spirit.

At the time of a man’s ordination to the priesthood, the Bishop lays his hands on the head of the priest-to-be, praying ‘the Grace Divine, which heals that which is infirm, orders all things and fills all that is wanting,’ elevates N to be a priest. It’s this same Divine Grace which healed the Paralytic, set straight the Myrrhbearers and provided for the weaknesses of the Apostles and gave them courage to face the world and to preach to all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That same Divine Grace, which we all received at Baptism and shared again at Pascha, heals us and gives us the gift to make up for our shortcomings and even heals our physical and spiritual illnesses, gives us the command to go and preach the Good News of Christ’s Resurrection to the entire world.

Perhaps we’re not all called to be apostles, preachers, ascetics, confessors, martyrs, or other saints who function in very open and dramatic ways, but we are all called to be the friends, co-workers, children and apostles of Christ, showing the Good News as the motivating force in our lives so strongly that people would look at us and say ‘there goes a true Christian’! Christ is Risen! and we have work to do! Since we believe in the Risen Lord, we have no more shortcomings, laziness or illness. Let us all live this commandment of our Lord to teach everyone His Good News, which fulfills the Resurrection and shows it through us to the whole world.

The celebration of the Greatest of Feasts, the Resurrection of our Lord, has passed for this year. But we are all called to do as the Apostles and Disciples of the Lord did after the Resurrection. The Lord said that He will send the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth. He said that, “The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you.” (John 14:17) The Lord promised that the Spirit will teach us all things. The Lord promised that the Holy Spirit will be with us forever, living in the Church, available and accessible for every Christian. The Holy Spirit was given to us on the Day of Pentecost and of our individual Baptisms.

It only makes sense that the Lord sends us the Spirit so that we can be useful. The Holy Spirit is never sent into a void, but only into hearts burning with the Love of God, desiring to continue the work that Our Lord began. This is our function as Christians. He sends us out into the world, to work and teach and help and be kind and generous, as a Divine command. “Go ye therefore and teach all nations…” He commands us.

[Source pravmir.com]