From Orthodox Christian West news:
"FR. MICHAEL IN HOSPITAL
Thursday the 21st of May 2009, Hobart, Fr. Michael of Saint Petroc Monastery was admitted to the Royal Hobart Hospital to have a pituitary tumour removed. He is expected to remain in hospital until the 27th.
FR. DAVID IN HOSPITAL
Jacksonville, Florida. Monday 18th May, 2009. Fr. David, the Hieromonk at Holyrood Hermitage has been taken to St.Vincent's hospital having had a large brain tumour discovered. He will be operated on Tuesday. The surgeons are hopeful of a complete recovery. Fr. David has the care of the aged Abbot Augustine at the instruction of Metropolitan Hilarion."
Both Fr. Michael and Fr. David have made it through their respective surgeries - Thanks be to God. We continue to pray, and ask prayers of all the Faithful for our clergy.
5.23.2009
11.08.2008
Being Christian in a Western Democracy
BEING CHRISTIAN IN A WESTERN DEMOCRACY
Fr. Ilya Gorsky
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Our first and foremost concern is our salvation. We are on this earth to seek out God, to love Him, and to do all in our power to be like Him. The holy Scriptures stress this again and again. In [the Gospel of] Matthew our Lord says, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." In Chronicles we read the same: "Seek the Lord and His strength. Seek His face continually." And there are many other quotes from the New and Old Testaments. The emphasis is on continuous seeking to be God-like. This, of course, means keeping oneself away from sin. We long for God and the next world. The next world is our home, not this one.
In the course of this discussion we must also remember that good government or a good society is not an end to itself; but rather, they are just the circumstances within which we must earn our salvation.
Why are we talking about being Orthodox Christians in a western democratic society? There are many forms of government in the world and one should be able to live a Christian life in any of them. Particularly, since this world is just a temporary abode for us. Throughout the Holy Scriptures, we are taught to respect government. As we well know, Our Lord, in response to the Pharisees' questions on paying the Roman taxes said, "Give unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and unto God that which is God's." The Apostle Paul clearly states, "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers for there is no power but of God and the powers that are ordained of God." We may be familiar with this passage but Saint Paul continues this verse with the following: "Whosoever therefore resists the power, resists the ordinance of God. And they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same. For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil be afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain for he is the minister of God. A revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. For this cause, pay ye tribute also for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom, respect to whom respect, and honour to whom honour."
Why can't we just follow these commandments and try to live a Christian life, seeking the kingdom of God? What is this special concern that we need to talk about democracy? To be brief, the answer is that western democracy is filled with traps, half-truths and deceptions. Good and evil have been so intertwined that one can easily mistake one for the other. One may thus be committing grievous sins and not be aware of it. The answer has everything to do with one's salvation.
Just to give you some examples of traps and half-truths and deceptions...
All men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. This statement is taught and accepted by democratic peoples as the mainstay of American democracy. This statement is purported to mean that all men are to be treated equally by the law. By its reference to God, this statement seeks to make itself more credible as if it is God-sanctioned. However, this reference to God is grossly misstated. God created people with an equal chance of salvation. But even then, different people are endowed by their Creator with different numbers of talents, each to facilitate their salvation. As for earthly equality, which is referred to by that statement, people are born as unequal as night and day. A person who is born a millionaire with all the facilities at his disposal, is he equal to someone born, for example, in Harlem? How could you say these two persons are equal? Are both treated equally before American law?
Then the issue of tolerance, another example. Tolerance in western democracy is billed as a supreme and unquestionable good. God endowed men not with inalienable rights but with free will. And God forces no one to be with God, but longs for men to freely choose to love Him from their hearts. However the tolerance, this preoccupation with tolerance has degenerated to extremes. Open tolerance, for example, of homosexuality and not only tolerance, but promotion.
As we see from Saint Paul, throughout the history of man government has been instituted by God to keep man away from sin, to aid man in his quest for salvation. In the pre-Mosaic law, in the Garden of Eden, the first government consisted of one single law, instituted by God, to allow man to obey God out of his own volition. As we know that first law was broken by Adam and Eve and they, and the entire human race, became estranged from God. Adam and Eve were thus punished for their sin. The consequences of their sin are borne by mankind to this day.
The Hebrews received God's law through Moses on Mount Sinai. This law was both religious and secular. Actually, it was just one set of laws for both. Any disobedience to it was a sin against God. There existed no dichotomy between secular and religious laws. There was no contest between secular laws and religious laws. And also, each person was responsible for his own sins before God. As we know, the Hebrews were punished many times for disobeying God. God sent judges to help the Hebrews in time of need, for example, Gideon and Samson, and to bring them back to God when they strayed, like the judge and prophet Samuel.
In today's language, this would be called a theocracy. In the eyes of the western democratic society in which we live a theocracy is a most oppressive intolerant form of government, markedly worse than a dictatorship. In reality, it is the best form of government. Laws were given to man directly from God, each person answering only to God. God was the head of that state. However, what we are taught in this democratic society, is that that was the most evil of forms of government whereas our Church teaches that this is the best.
The Hebrews, however, saw that other peoples were governed by kings and were envious. They sowed discord among themselves and felt that a king would restore order. They asked the prophet Samuel, who was also the judge at the time to anoint for them a king. Samuel at first refused but received word from God. "And the Lord said unto Samuel, 'hearken unto the voice of the people and all that they say unto thee, for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. Hearken unto their voice and make them a king.' And Samuel anointed Saul to be king. Note that the Hebrews did not rebel openly against God, but asked God's judge and prophet Samuel to anoint for them a king, and God so instructed Samuel.
From the time of the kings there became a dichotomy in laws - the secular law, in other words, those issued by the king, and God's law, those given to the Hebrews on Mount Sinai. But that is not really the main issue. The king anointed by God to rule His people was now personally responsible to God for the laws that he imposed on the people. If the king issued laws contradicting God's law and thus led his subjects into sin, God would hold the king accountable for the sins of the people whom he was leading astray. The people, being sworn to support the king, God's anointed, would be judged by God much less severely for any of their sins caused by improper laws instituted by the king. Throughout history, we have seen how God punished the kings who have led God's people astray, those who have abused the power with which God entrusted them to lead the people to salvation, because as we remember, government is there, instituted by God for the salvation of the people.
We must remember, though, that God punishes to seek the repentance of the sinner, and the king is no exception. A person who is beyond repentance may be left alone by God and in this earthly life may appear to flourish. Likewise, such a king may be allowed to rule by God to punish people who deserve such a king. (A saint who once lived in a country ruled by a particularly harsh king asked God, "Why did You place such a bad king over us?" God answered, "Because I could not find anyone worse.")
Imagine an Orthodox Christian monarch anointed by God, who governs his people with a fear of God in his heart. He understands the heavy burden placed on him by God for he must answer to God for all the souls of his subjects. If his laws are too loose, he is not using his sword to keep his people from evil. If his laws are too strict, he may be pushing his subjects to sin. Imagine being governed by such a monarch. You can almost relax and not question the righteousness of his laws for he is the God-fearing, the "Father-King", fulfilling, to the best of his abilities, the heavy cross which is imposed on him by God, the cross to govern the people. Imagine the weight of such a cross. Millions of souls are your responsibility. No wonder the coronation of an king or queen is compared to the sacrament of ordination. But our western democratic society looks on all monarchs as being equivalent to dictatorships. The aspirations of an Orthodox monarch to govern his subjects according to God's law are equated to a dictator's lust for power and riches. Both are considered equivalently evil.
Then the time came and the people again rejected God's appointed ruler as in the time of Samuel. But this time the people rejected God's anointed ruler not by asking, but through force, via revolution. This time they were not asking God for a king. Now they want to be kings themselves and they did not ask but usurp and they killed God's anointed. And again, God allows this to happen. They seek to be masters of their own destiny. They seek to be answerable to no one. They seek to make their own laws, a government "of the people, by the people, for the people", through democratic voting. But with the usurpation of the throne of God's anointed, they have also taken the heavy cross of governing - for themselves.
The people now choose their rulers and the laws which the rulers choose in their name. Now the people are responsible for the laws and bear the same full accountability that God's anointed king used to bear. For example, if a king issued a law allowing abortion, all the resulting murders of innocent babies were sins of murder on his soul.
Likewise, having usurped the the throne of God's anointed, if you knowingly vote for the politician who espouses abortion, all resulting abortions are sins of murder on your soul. "But wait", you say, "I am not the only one. There are millions of others who voted with me." Yes, that is true, but a sin is a sin. If ten people conspire to commit murder, does each one carry just one tenth of the sin? If so, then if the conspiracy involved a hundred, a thousand , or a million of people, then for each person, it's almost not even a sin? But no, we know, that if ten people commit one murder, each
person's soul carries the full weight of such a sin.
So what is happening in our country? We have the sins of millions of murders of innocent babies on the soul of each voter who cast his vote. How many repent? How many such sins continue to mount on each person's soul? And we have not even touched the other so called issues like homosexual rights - this abomination before the eyes of the Lord, is protected and promoted, and taught openly to the innocent children of our schools. How many people freely chose the rulers who passed such laws? We have the AIDS epidemic, and we have more frequently occurring earthquakes, hurricanes and floods. We can no longer remember a time when one could walk safely in our streets. Very faintly and very infrequently we may hear a voice saying, "This is punishment from God." We also then hear many persons' response, "These epidemics could not possibly be a punishment from God. Innocent people and even babies are struck. I refuse to believe who God is so cruel."
But who is truly innocent in a western democracy? Each one votes for the candidate of their choosing. Each one can open their mouth in protest or defence of a law but how many do? According to the Apostle, one who has an opportunity to do good and does not, has committed a sin. So who is innocent? The babies, perhaps. But the consequences of sins of the parents are borne by their children. This is a spiritual as well as a physical law. Physically speaking, babies born of drug addicts are addicted themselves. Spiritually speaking, according to the scriptures, a parent's sin is borne by seven generations of offspring. It may be theologically debatable whether the number seven, in this case, is the specifically countable seven, or the generic seven, like the seventy times seven number of times we are instructed to forgive one who commits a sin against us. The consequences of the first sin of Adam and Eve are still being borne by us, removed only through the sacrament of Baptism-Chrismation.
Considering the multitude and magnitude of the sins in our society, in other words, how many sins are being committed, and they're all placed on so many people, with each person responsible for those sins, there is no question that these epidemics are punishment permitted by God. He is jolting us to repentance. The wonder is that He does not smite us from the face of the earth as in Sodom and Gomorrah. I suppose there must still be more than ten righteous men in this society.
So our democratic society has usurped the place of God's anointed. Is it now content? The answer is of course, "No." Although this country has proclaimed itself a Christian country for the last two hundred years, it is now coming to the next step. Not content with being kings, the people now want to take the place of God. They want to become gods, but not through the path of salvation offered by God, but again through usurpation. Laws being enacted currently are anti-God. The current laws protect and exalt the sin and the sinner while the worship of God is curtailed. As we know, one can hardly mention God in the schools at all.
So, how should we then live? We must return to our primary concern, our salvation. When we vote, we must be cognizant of what we are doing. We are selecting our rulers and as with all our actions, we must answer to God for them. But we must realise that when we vote, we bear the responsibility of a king. We are effecting the enactment of laws which will affect many souls, either promoting sin or preventing sin. And we answer to God with the full weight of the cross of governing. Once we acquire the right to vote if we do not vote to promote righteousness when we are able, we commit the sin of inaction. How great is this sin. We remember Eli, the high priest and judge who raised the prophet Samuel, his entire house was put to death for the sin of inaction for not restraining his sons who were evil priests. We read in the holy Scriptures, "because his sons made themselves vile and he restrained them not."
How much of the Apostle Paul's commandments concerning government authority is applicable here? We must particularly note the passage "For rulers are not a terror to good works but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same. For he is the minister of God to thee for good, but if thou do that which is evil be afraid for he beareth not the sword in vain. For he is the minister of God a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil."
When the governmental authority is clearly opposite, it rewards evil and persecutes God, we must be extra diligent. Saint Paul was speaking in the time of pagan Roman emperors, and when the emperors demanded sacrifices to the pagan gods, Saint Paul did not obey the authorities, but as many other Christians, received the martyr's crown. We thus must not blindly obey the governmental authorities.
In conclusion, let us reflect on our salvation. We must seek the kingdom of God. Christ told many parables in which He said "the kingdom of God is likened unto ...." and He would relate a parable. All of these parables are extremely important to us, for Christ is explaining to us that which we must seek. We have all heard the parable of the talents many times. The talents are being given to us not just at birth, but throughout our lives. The talents are our tickets to the kingdom of God, our opportunities to do good. If we accept them, take up the cross given to us, and work the good presented to us, we will gain more talents. If we reject the opportunities to do good, these talents will be taken away from us and given to another who will bring them to fruition at the appointed time. A simple but poignant example is Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco, who comforted and took in so many orphans. These orphans were in the streets of Shanghai and undoubtedly could have been cared for by any one of a multitude of people besides Archbishop John. The orphans were, in fact, talents given to all these people by the Master, but each one of these people rejected them, buried the talent, and said to God," Here is your talent, as you have given it to me. I do not want to do your work." And so the talent, the opportunity to do good is taken from the evil servant and given to one who already had ten other talents - to Archbishop John, who accepted the cross of the talent and raised a multitude of orphans and brought fruit a hundredfold.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A transcript, edited by Fr. Hieromonk Michael of Saint Petroc Monastery with the permission of the author, of a talk given at the Saint Herman Conference in1994
Fr. Ilya Gorsky
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Our first and foremost concern is our salvation. We are on this earth to seek out God, to love Him, and to do all in our power to be like Him. The holy Scriptures stress this again and again. In [the Gospel of] Matthew our Lord says, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." In Chronicles we read the same: "Seek the Lord and His strength. Seek His face continually." And there are many other quotes from the New and Old Testaments. The emphasis is on continuous seeking to be God-like. This, of course, means keeping oneself away from sin. We long for God and the next world. The next world is our home, not this one.
In the course of this discussion we must also remember that good government or a good society is not an end to itself; but rather, they are just the circumstances within which we must earn our salvation.
Why are we talking about being Orthodox Christians in a western democratic society? There are many forms of government in the world and one should be able to live a Christian life in any of them. Particularly, since this world is just a temporary abode for us. Throughout the Holy Scriptures, we are taught to respect government. As we well know, Our Lord, in response to the Pharisees' questions on paying the Roman taxes said, "Give unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and unto God that which is God's." The Apostle Paul clearly states, "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers for there is no power but of God and the powers that are ordained of God." We may be familiar with this passage but Saint Paul continues this verse with the following: "Whosoever therefore resists the power, resists the ordinance of God. And they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same. For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil be afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain for he is the minister of God. A revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. For this cause, pay ye tribute also for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom, respect to whom respect, and honour to whom honour."
Why can't we just follow these commandments and try to live a Christian life, seeking the kingdom of God? What is this special concern that we need to talk about democracy? To be brief, the answer is that western democracy is filled with traps, half-truths and deceptions. Good and evil have been so intertwined that one can easily mistake one for the other. One may thus be committing grievous sins and not be aware of it. The answer has everything to do with one's salvation.
Just to give you some examples of traps and half-truths and deceptions...
All men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. This statement is taught and accepted by democratic peoples as the mainstay of American democracy. This statement is purported to mean that all men are to be treated equally by the law. By its reference to God, this statement seeks to make itself more credible as if it is God-sanctioned. However, this reference to God is grossly misstated. God created people with an equal chance of salvation. But even then, different people are endowed by their Creator with different numbers of talents, each to facilitate their salvation. As for earthly equality, which is referred to by that statement, people are born as unequal as night and day. A person who is born a millionaire with all the facilities at his disposal, is he equal to someone born, for example, in Harlem? How could you say these two persons are equal? Are both treated equally before American law?
Then the issue of tolerance, another example. Tolerance in western democracy is billed as a supreme and unquestionable good. God endowed men not with inalienable rights but with free will. And God forces no one to be with God, but longs for men to freely choose to love Him from their hearts. However the tolerance, this preoccupation with tolerance has degenerated to extremes. Open tolerance, for example, of homosexuality and not only tolerance, but promotion.
As we see from Saint Paul, throughout the history of man government has been instituted by God to keep man away from sin, to aid man in his quest for salvation. In the pre-Mosaic law, in the Garden of Eden, the first government consisted of one single law, instituted by God, to allow man to obey God out of his own volition. As we know that first law was broken by Adam and Eve and they, and the entire human race, became estranged from God. Adam and Eve were thus punished for their sin. The consequences of their sin are borne by mankind to this day.
The Hebrews received God's law through Moses on Mount Sinai. This law was both religious and secular. Actually, it was just one set of laws for both. Any disobedience to it was a sin against God. There existed no dichotomy between secular and religious laws. There was no contest between secular laws and religious laws. And also, each person was responsible for his own sins before God. As we know, the Hebrews were punished many times for disobeying God. God sent judges to help the Hebrews in time of need, for example, Gideon and Samson, and to bring them back to God when they strayed, like the judge and prophet Samuel.
In today's language, this would be called a theocracy. In the eyes of the western democratic society in which we live a theocracy is a most oppressive intolerant form of government, markedly worse than a dictatorship. In reality, it is the best form of government. Laws were given to man directly from God, each person answering only to God. God was the head of that state. However, what we are taught in this democratic society, is that that was the most evil of forms of government whereas our Church teaches that this is the best.
The Hebrews, however, saw that other peoples were governed by kings and were envious. They sowed discord among themselves and felt that a king would restore order. They asked the prophet Samuel, who was also the judge at the time to anoint for them a king. Samuel at first refused but received word from God. "And the Lord said unto Samuel, 'hearken unto the voice of the people and all that they say unto thee, for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. Hearken unto their voice and make them a king.' And Samuel anointed Saul to be king. Note that the Hebrews did not rebel openly against God, but asked God's judge and prophet Samuel to anoint for them a king, and God so instructed Samuel.
From the time of the kings there became a dichotomy in laws - the secular law, in other words, those issued by the king, and God's law, those given to the Hebrews on Mount Sinai. But that is not really the main issue. The king anointed by God to rule His people was now personally responsible to God for the laws that he imposed on the people. If the king issued laws contradicting God's law and thus led his subjects into sin, God would hold the king accountable for the sins of the people whom he was leading astray. The people, being sworn to support the king, God's anointed, would be judged by God much less severely for any of their sins caused by improper laws instituted by the king. Throughout history, we have seen how God punished the kings who have led God's people astray, those who have abused the power with which God entrusted them to lead the people to salvation, because as we remember, government is there, instituted by God for the salvation of the people.
We must remember, though, that God punishes to seek the repentance of the sinner, and the king is no exception. A person who is beyond repentance may be left alone by God and in this earthly life may appear to flourish. Likewise, such a king may be allowed to rule by God to punish people who deserve such a king. (A saint who once lived in a country ruled by a particularly harsh king asked God, "Why did You place such a bad king over us?" God answered, "Because I could not find anyone worse.")
Imagine an Orthodox Christian monarch anointed by God, who governs his people with a fear of God in his heart. He understands the heavy burden placed on him by God for he must answer to God for all the souls of his subjects. If his laws are too loose, he is not using his sword to keep his people from evil. If his laws are too strict, he may be pushing his subjects to sin. Imagine being governed by such a monarch. You can almost relax and not question the righteousness of his laws for he is the God-fearing, the "Father-King", fulfilling, to the best of his abilities, the heavy cross which is imposed on him by God, the cross to govern the people. Imagine the weight of such a cross. Millions of souls are your responsibility. No wonder the coronation of an king or queen is compared to the sacrament of ordination. But our western democratic society looks on all monarchs as being equivalent to dictatorships. The aspirations of an Orthodox monarch to govern his subjects according to God's law are equated to a dictator's lust for power and riches. Both are considered equivalently evil.
Then the time came and the people again rejected God's appointed ruler as in the time of Samuel. But this time the people rejected God's anointed ruler not by asking, but through force, via revolution. This time they were not asking God for a king. Now they want to be kings themselves and they did not ask but usurp and they killed God's anointed. And again, God allows this to happen. They seek to be masters of their own destiny. They seek to be answerable to no one. They seek to make their own laws, a government "of the people, by the people, for the people", through democratic voting. But with the usurpation of the throne of God's anointed, they have also taken the heavy cross of governing - for themselves.
The people now choose their rulers and the laws which the rulers choose in their name. Now the people are responsible for the laws and bear the same full accountability that God's anointed king used to bear. For example, if a king issued a law allowing abortion, all the resulting murders of innocent babies were sins of murder on his soul.
Likewise, having usurped the the throne of God's anointed, if you knowingly vote for the politician who espouses abortion, all resulting abortions are sins of murder on your soul. "But wait", you say, "I am not the only one. There are millions of others who voted with me." Yes, that is true, but a sin is a sin. If ten people conspire to commit murder, does each one carry just one tenth of the sin? If so, then if the conspiracy involved a hundred, a thousand , or a million of people, then for each person, it's almost not even a sin? But no, we know, that if ten people commit one murder, each
person's soul carries the full weight of such a sin.
So what is happening in our country? We have the sins of millions of murders of innocent babies on the soul of each voter who cast his vote. How many repent? How many such sins continue to mount on each person's soul? And we have not even touched the other so called issues like homosexual rights - this abomination before the eyes of the Lord, is protected and promoted, and taught openly to the innocent children of our schools. How many people freely chose the rulers who passed such laws? We have the AIDS epidemic, and we have more frequently occurring earthquakes, hurricanes and floods. We can no longer remember a time when one could walk safely in our streets. Very faintly and very infrequently we may hear a voice saying, "This is punishment from God." We also then hear many persons' response, "These epidemics could not possibly be a punishment from God. Innocent people and even babies are struck. I refuse to believe who God is so cruel."
But who is truly innocent in a western democracy? Each one votes for the candidate of their choosing. Each one can open their mouth in protest or defence of a law but how many do? According to the Apostle, one who has an opportunity to do good and does not, has committed a sin. So who is innocent? The babies, perhaps. But the consequences of sins of the parents are borne by their children. This is a spiritual as well as a physical law. Physically speaking, babies born of drug addicts are addicted themselves. Spiritually speaking, according to the scriptures, a parent's sin is borne by seven generations of offspring. It may be theologically debatable whether the number seven, in this case, is the specifically countable seven, or the generic seven, like the seventy times seven number of times we are instructed to forgive one who commits a sin against us. The consequences of the first sin of Adam and Eve are still being borne by us, removed only through the sacrament of Baptism-Chrismation.
Considering the multitude and magnitude of the sins in our society, in other words, how many sins are being committed, and they're all placed on so many people, with each person responsible for those sins, there is no question that these epidemics are punishment permitted by God. He is jolting us to repentance. The wonder is that He does not smite us from the face of the earth as in Sodom and Gomorrah. I suppose there must still be more than ten righteous men in this society.
So our democratic society has usurped the place of God's anointed. Is it now content? The answer is of course, "No." Although this country has proclaimed itself a Christian country for the last two hundred years, it is now coming to the next step. Not content with being kings, the people now want to take the place of God. They want to become gods, but not through the path of salvation offered by God, but again through usurpation. Laws being enacted currently are anti-God. The current laws protect and exalt the sin and the sinner while the worship of God is curtailed. As we know, one can hardly mention God in the schools at all.
So, how should we then live? We must return to our primary concern, our salvation. When we vote, we must be cognizant of what we are doing. We are selecting our rulers and as with all our actions, we must answer to God for them. But we must realise that when we vote, we bear the responsibility of a king. We are effecting the enactment of laws which will affect many souls, either promoting sin or preventing sin. And we answer to God with the full weight of the cross of governing. Once we acquire the right to vote if we do not vote to promote righteousness when we are able, we commit the sin of inaction. How great is this sin. We remember Eli, the high priest and judge who raised the prophet Samuel, his entire house was put to death for the sin of inaction for not restraining his sons who were evil priests. We read in the holy Scriptures, "because his sons made themselves vile and he restrained them not."
How much of the Apostle Paul's commandments concerning government authority is applicable here? We must particularly note the passage "For rulers are not a terror to good works but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same. For he is the minister of God to thee for good, but if thou do that which is evil be afraid for he beareth not the sword in vain. For he is the minister of God a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil."
When the governmental authority is clearly opposite, it rewards evil and persecutes God, we must be extra diligent. Saint Paul was speaking in the time of pagan Roman emperors, and when the emperors demanded sacrifices to the pagan gods, Saint Paul did not obey the authorities, but as many other Christians, received the martyr's crown. We thus must not blindly obey the governmental authorities.
In conclusion, let us reflect on our salvation. We must seek the kingdom of God. Christ told many parables in which He said "the kingdom of God is likened unto ...." and He would relate a parable. All of these parables are extremely important to us, for Christ is explaining to us that which we must seek. We have all heard the parable of the talents many times. The talents are being given to us not just at birth, but throughout our lives. The talents are our tickets to the kingdom of God, our opportunities to do good. If we accept them, take up the cross given to us, and work the good presented to us, we will gain more talents. If we reject the opportunities to do good, these talents will be taken away from us and given to another who will bring them to fruition at the appointed time. A simple but poignant example is Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco, who comforted and took in so many orphans. These orphans were in the streets of Shanghai and undoubtedly could have been cared for by any one of a multitude of people besides Archbishop John. The orphans were, in fact, talents given to all these people by the Master, but each one of these people rejected them, buried the talent, and said to God," Here is your talent, as you have given it to me. I do not want to do your work." And so the talent, the opportunity to do good is taken from the evil servant and given to one who already had ten other talents - to Archbishop John, who accepted the cross of the talent and raised a multitude of orphans and brought fruit a hundredfold.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A transcript, edited by Fr. Hieromonk Michael of Saint Petroc Monastery with the permission of the author, of a talk given at the Saint Herman Conference in1994
Season of Advent
This season of four weeks' preparation for the feast of the Saviour's Nativity, while ancient as an observance, has also been a variable one. In some periods it has been a season of celebration and joy and in others a time of penance and sobriety. Even today we find these mixed notes in the Advent Liturgy. For example, at Matins the triumphant hymn of the Te Deum is omitted, and at Mass we do not sing the Gloria in excelsis Deo, so we might sing it with all the more joy on the night of the Saviour's birth. And yet, at Mass and in the Hours the joyful Alleluia is retained. On the third Sunday of Advent, called Gaudete Sunday, notes of joy are prominent in the use of rose vestments as well as in the texts of the Liturgy on that day. Advent, then, is not simply another penitential Lent kept before Christmas, though it is marked by greater fasting and abstinence than usual. (In the Ambrosian and Mozarabic Rites of the West there is no liturgical observance of Advent, but only fasting.) In this season the Church wishes to awaken in us both sorrow for sin and joy for the One who saves us from our sin.
Traditionally we recall in Advent (from the Latin advenire - "to arrive or to come") the three comings of our Saviour: first, in time and history at His birth in Bethlehem: second, in grace within our souls through His holy sacraments; and third, in majesty at the end of time to judge the world. All three of these notes are sounded throughout Advent, usually by the two scriptural figures who dominate the liturgy of this season: the Old Testament prophet Isaiah and the New Testament Forerunner John the Baptist - each of whom points to the coming Saviour and Messiah.
The number of weeks in Advent has varied over the centuries, being fixed at the present four around the tenth century (six weeks in the Ambrosian Rite of Milan). In the Advent Wreath each of the four candles represents a week of Advent, with the light increasing each week until, by the fourth week, all four are ablaze with the light of the coming Messiah.
One of the notable elements of our Advent liturgy is the series of solemn Magnificat antiphons that begin on 16 December, each of which begins with the word "O" and follows with some designation of the Saviour: Wisdom, Adonai, Root of Jesse, Key of David, Day-Spring, King of Nations, Emmanuel. The last of these, sung on 23 December, is sung to the Mother of God: "O Virgin of Virgins." Each of these is sung to a noble soaring chant that culminates in the word "Come." A popular paraphrase of these can be found in the well known Advent hymn "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel," though the chant of that hymn is different from those of the antiphons themselves.
- from Christminster Chronicle Nov-Dec 1999, Dom James (Deschene) Christ the Saviour Monastery.
Traditionally we recall in Advent (from the Latin advenire - "to arrive or to come") the three comings of our Saviour: first, in time and history at His birth in Bethlehem: second, in grace within our souls through His holy sacraments; and third, in majesty at the end of time to judge the world. All three of these notes are sounded throughout Advent, usually by the two scriptural figures who dominate the liturgy of this season: the Old Testament prophet Isaiah and the New Testament Forerunner John the Baptist - each of whom points to the coming Saviour and Messiah.
The number of weeks in Advent has varied over the centuries, being fixed at the present four around the tenth century (six weeks in the Ambrosian Rite of Milan). In the Advent Wreath each of the four candles represents a week of Advent, with the light increasing each week until, by the fourth week, all four are ablaze with the light of the coming Messiah.
One of the notable elements of our Advent liturgy is the series of solemn Magnificat antiphons that begin on 16 December, each of which begins with the word "O" and follows with some designation of the Saviour: Wisdom, Adonai, Root of Jesse, Key of David, Day-Spring, King of Nations, Emmanuel. The last of these, sung on 23 December, is sung to the Mother of God: "O Virgin of Virgins." Each of these is sung to a noble soaring chant that culminates in the word "Come." A popular paraphrase of these can be found in the well known Advent hymn "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel," though the chant of that hymn is different from those of the antiphons themselves.
- from Christminster Chronicle Nov-Dec 1999, Dom James (Deschene) Christ the Saviour Monastery.
3.25.2007
Refreshment Sunday
[Ed. note - apologies for this being a week late. I was still recovering and was unable to post. I hope to make a post about our Simnel Cake from last week on the Editor's Personal Blog - http://orthodox-okie.blogspot.com ]
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From Saint Petroc Monastery, Cascades, Tasmania.
"LENT IV
This Sunday, “Mid-Lent Sunday” has, from very ancient times, also been known as “Refreshment Sunday” - possibly because of the Gospel of the day, the feeding of the five thousand and possibly reinforced in later times by the First Lesson of Evensong for the day, which ends with the refreshment of the brethren by Joseph (in many ways, himself the type of our Blessed Lord). The flavour of the variable parts of the Liturgy today is somewhat that of relief from the prevailing sombreness of Lent. The “Mi-Carême” of the Church of France, the “rejoice” of our Office, the “gladness” and “peace” of the Gradual, the “trust” of the Tract, the “comfort” of the first Collect and the “praises” of the Offertory all seem at odds with the predominant theme of Lent. The “free Jerusalem” springing out of the bondage of Sinai, in the Epistle and the Gospel’s feast in the wilderness, together with the other variable parts of the Liturgy, all show the way to the miracle which gives point to this Sunday, revealing our Lord as refreshing men materially by the operation of His providence, and mystically as their spiritual Refresher.
This feeding of the five thousand has many levels at which we can look at and learn from it. In the first place it is to be seen in the context of the Passover, as a fulfilment of the prophecies made in the Old Testament regarding the Messiah and particularly in this Old Testament context, it is to be seen in relation to the feeding of the Children of Israel in the desert of Sinai with the manna. Then too, it has very strong overtones in verse 11, of the Eucharist. But let us look at it first as the refreshment of men. From the literal point of view, the miracle was stupendous and well- calculated to show that the providence of God the creator of all, is quite able to take care of those whom He loves. Incidentally, it has been calculated that the two hundred pennyworth of bread mentioned by Saint Philip as being insufficient, would, at the fairly standard Roman Empire price of the day, have meant around 2,000 ten ounce loaves (rather like the modern Pitta bread of the Middle East). Given that Saint Matthew (14:21) states that there were “about five thousand men, besides women and children”, one may extrapolate this as meaning that perhaps there were as many as eight to ten thousand people in all to be fed. Philip was therefore very accurate in saying that the amount of bread that each would get from two thousand such loaves would be insufficient for perhaps ten thou-sand who had not eaten all day. Hence the stupendousness of the feeding of these thousands of people from the five barley loaves and two small fishes. The literal, material power of God to do what He will for those whom He loves is well demonstrated at this level of viewing the miracle.
The mystical meaning of the miracle is shown by the several acts recorded in the eleventh verse and these are certainly of a distinctly Eucharistic character:
The loaves are placed in Jesus’ hands as an oblation and He in turn, offers them to God the Father. Jesus gives thanks for the loaves before handing them to the Apostles to start the distribution. This eucharistisation of the loaves endows them with capacities which they did not previously possess. He distributes them to His ministers as to persons receiving gifts from Him
for the benefit of others. By the intervention of these ministers, not by direct distribution from Jesus to the multitude, do the people receive the eucharistised bread, by which their hunger is satisfied. Jesus final instruction to gather up the leftovers that nothing may be lost tends to emphasise the eucharist-like character. This the type of the work of the Church is set in front of us in the midst of the Lenten sorrow for our failure to do that which is required of us. Our eyes are lifted momentarily to the work which we must do. Both fasting and abundance are at the command of the Lord."
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From Saint Petroc Monastery, Cascades, Tasmania.
"LENT IV
This Sunday, “Mid-Lent Sunday” has, from very ancient times, also been known as “Refreshment Sunday” - possibly because of the Gospel of the day, the feeding of the five thousand and possibly reinforced in later times by the First Lesson of Evensong for the day, which ends with the refreshment of the brethren by Joseph (in many ways, himself the type of our Blessed Lord). The flavour of the variable parts of the Liturgy today is somewhat that of relief from the prevailing sombreness of Lent. The “Mi-Carême” of the Church of France, the “rejoice” of our Office, the “gladness” and “peace” of the Gradual, the “trust” of the Tract, the “comfort” of the first Collect and the “praises” of the Offertory all seem at odds with the predominant theme of Lent. The “free Jerusalem” springing out of the bondage of Sinai, in the Epistle and the Gospel’s feast in the wilderness, together with the other variable parts of the Liturgy, all show the way to the miracle which gives point to this Sunday, revealing our Lord as refreshing men materially by the operation of His providence, and mystically as their spiritual Refresher.
This feeding of the five thousand has many levels at which we can look at and learn from it. In the first place it is to be seen in the context of the Passover, as a fulfilment of the prophecies made in the Old Testament regarding the Messiah and particularly in this Old Testament context, it is to be seen in relation to the feeding of the Children of Israel in the desert of Sinai with the manna. Then too, it has very strong overtones in verse 11, of the Eucharist. But let us look at it first as the refreshment of men. From the literal point of view, the miracle was stupendous and well- calculated to show that the providence of God the creator of all, is quite able to take care of those whom He loves. Incidentally, it has been calculated that the two hundred pennyworth of bread mentioned by Saint Philip as being insufficient, would, at the fairly standard Roman Empire price of the day, have meant around 2,000 ten ounce loaves (rather like the modern Pitta bread of the Middle East). Given that Saint Matthew (14:21) states that there were “about five thousand men, besides women and children”, one may extrapolate this as meaning that perhaps there were as many as eight to ten thousand people in all to be fed. Philip was therefore very accurate in saying that the amount of bread that each would get from two thousand such loaves would be insufficient for perhaps ten thou-sand who had not eaten all day. Hence the stupendousness of the feeding of these thousands of people from the five barley loaves and two small fishes. The literal, material power of God to do what He will for those whom He loves is well demonstrated at this level of viewing the miracle.
The mystical meaning of the miracle is shown by the several acts recorded in the eleventh verse and these are certainly of a distinctly Eucharistic character:
The loaves are placed in Jesus’ hands as an oblation and He in turn, offers them to God the Father. Jesus gives thanks for the loaves before handing them to the Apostles to start the distribution. This eucharistisation of the loaves endows them with capacities which they did not previously possess. He distributes them to His ministers as to persons receiving gifts from Him
for the benefit of others. By the intervention of these ministers, not by direct distribution from Jesus to the multitude, do the people receive the eucharistised bread, by which their hunger is satisfied. Jesus final instruction to gather up the leftovers that nothing may be lost tends to emphasise the eucharist-like character. This the type of the work of the Church is set in front of us in the midst of the Lenten sorrow for our failure to do that which is required of us. Our eyes are lifted momentarily to the work which we must do. Both fasting and abundance are at the command of the Lord."
9.14.2006
A Light From The East
Another new post from the Abbot's Study of Christ the Saviour Monastery (ROCOR), Providence, Rhode Island, USA. See more at Christminster.org
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A LIGHT FROM THE EAST by Fr. James (Deschene)
As the long night of official atheism wanes in the former Soviet Union, we who live in the West cannot help but wonder what will stand revealed in the new dawn of freedom for the Orthodox Faith. Our hopes, great as they may be, will surely pale before the gracious reality God will work out, if the phoenix of the persecuted Church rises, renewed by grace and repentance.
However interesting it may be to speculate about the future of the Church in the former Soviet Union, we in the West must also look at ourselves in this new light. What stands revealed most clearly in this light is the West's own dark secret -- its own brand of godlessness.
The atheism of the West is less dramatic than the atheism of the Soviet state, but it is no less violent. We do not see -- and this is our tragedy -- a godlessness so insidious that, unlike that of the former Soviet Union, it needs no external force to spread its evil. The godlessness of the West has its source within the human heart -- in its ancient yearning for autonomy, its passion to be a law unto itself, its refusal to serve God and obey His laws.
In the heart of Western man the sanctuary is often as empty and ruined as any church razed by communist authorities. Where the image of the Holy Trinity should have its throne within us, sweetly and rightly ordering and directing our hearts and our lives, there stands more often the image of our preferred god, the god of our true idolatry -- the monarchical self, autocratic, imperial, totalitarian in its demand for satisfaction, for having its own way, always and at any cost.
Listen, for example, to the rallying cry for unbridled "rights", whether these be the "right" of a mother to abort an unwanted child, or the "right" to a sexual life free of moral or even social restraints, or the "right" to end one's life. The exercise of these "rights"-- each of them directed against life and the Creator of life -- is as militant and violent and godless as any Soviet purge.
And what of the media -- television, books, movies -- which support and encourage such autonomous behavior, such moral lawlessness? Is not such support of godlessness as effective as any Soviet censorship? There is a ready acceptance by the western media for any ideology other than that of traditional Christian teaching. Only look at the extraordinary success of
"new age" teaching and the readiness of the media not merely to air such teachings but to glamorize them. Or consider the atmosphere of "political correctness" that has prompted lawmakers to design "hate legislation" that embraces and punishes those teaching politically incorrect but authentically Christian doctrines and morality from the pulpit.
What need have we for an external authority to empty churches and close monasteries when Western man, on his own initiative, abandons the churches and spurns the monastic life as foolish or meaningless? The enormous exodus of priests, monks and nuns from the clerical and religious life within the Roman Catholic Church -- an exodus largely ignored by its hierarchy -- has occurred without any open persecution of the Church.
What stands revealed in the West is the success of Kierkegaard's formula for undermining the moral life of mankind -- to maintain the facade of religious institutions while emptying them of inner meaning. We can see some Western Churches, in their passion for relevance, adapting themselves to the spirit of the age as effectively as any churchman in the Soviet Union who may have sacrificed fidelity to the true Faith for the sake of easier relations with the atheistic state.
This is indeed a bleak picture, but it is, in God's good providence, not the whole picture. For what the West can now begin to see more clearly is the miracle of Orthodoxy -- its divinely-given power to endure in the face of militant godlessness, and to endure without the aid of all those things in which the West puts its trust: money, power, bureaucracy, buildings, programs, and the like. In the great crucible of suffering, the Orthodox faith of the Russian people has endured without the material supports the West considers essential. In the West we need this vision of the Orthodox faith rising phoenix-like from the fires of atheism, so that we might turn to the one thing which endures in the violent winds of change -- the unchanging Orthodox Catholic Faith of the Holy Fathers.
As the West further declines, what can deliver us from the despair of discovering our empty heart? Only the light of the true Orthodox Faith-burning brighter than any persecutor's fire-can lead us out of the darkness of this way of life. By our faithfulness to the precious gift of Orthodoxy, by our obedience in joy to holy Tradition, our hearts must become what they were meant to be -- living and visible temples of the Holy Trinity, living icons of God's loving and gracious rule over His creation.
If each Orthodox Christian humbly prepares his heart to be God's throne, the heart of Western man, grown weary of his self-idolatry, may begin to see the true light from the East.
God, in His good providence, has sent holy Orthodoxy into the Western world in these last days not to be a curiosity, a museum-piece, a relic of the old world. He has sent the light of Orthodoxy throughout the world to be a light unto the nations in their time of greatest darkness. Like the sun, Orthodoxy may have its dawning in the East, but its destiny is to illumine the whole world, to scatter the shades of night and the darkness of death, and to reveal to a dark and weary world the living presence of the Risen Christ.
Each of us, transfigured by grace and by joyful obedience to His rule, must become a living icon of this true Light that has come into the world.
It is the folly of the West to have believed in the transformation of the world by economics, politics and social agenda. It is the folly of the Soviet authorities to have believed that such forces could destroy the true Faith. War, revolution, social, political and economic upheaval are the tools the world trusts in to bring about change. Against all of these, the Orthodox Christian must proclaim by his life the one power that can heal and change the world -- transfiguration through love and grace.
This happens in secret, in silence, in prayer-in the depths where man meets God in love. Only then and there is the wounded human heart filled with healing, joy and peace-our gifts to suffering humanity. And these gifts may be had only by a total surrender to Christ's love, by a death to all things that would separate one from His love. We must become obedient unto death by entering into the mystery of the suffering of Christ whereby the whole world is made a new creation. We must be "signs" of the end, of the Kingdom -- a kingdom that is the end of all our petty securities, our selfishness, our false ideals and comfortable habits. Yet we must show that the end, though it will be an utter catastrophe for our old ways, will be finally a deep and gracious blessing, filling our emptiness with God, feeding our eternally hungry hearts with His unfathomable love.
We must show the world, even as its ways and institutions crumble into dust, that Christ has already overcome the world: Christ is risen and the power of death has been vanquished. The world needs to see us as living icons of Christ undaunted by the world's last days. We must be, as Saint Paul tells us, unknown, and yet well known; dying, and behold, we live; chastened, and not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, yet possessing all things (II Cor. 6:9-10).
In our quiet, obedient observance of the Holy Orthodox Faith, our life must radiate the light of Christ into the darkness of our days. The end draws near, but it will be the end not of life, but of darkness and death. And in that dawn made bright with the risen Christ -- the true Light from the East, the unsetting Sun, that final, perfect dawn -- we shall sing with the psalmist:
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A LIGHT FROM THE EAST by Fr. James (Deschene)
As the long night of official atheism wanes in the former Soviet Union, we who live in the West cannot help but wonder what will stand revealed in the new dawn of freedom for the Orthodox Faith. Our hopes, great as they may be, will surely pale before the gracious reality God will work out, if the phoenix of the persecuted Church rises, renewed by grace and repentance.
However interesting it may be to speculate about the future of the Church in the former Soviet Union, we in the West must also look at ourselves in this new light. What stands revealed most clearly in this light is the West's own dark secret -- its own brand of godlessness.
The atheism of the West is less dramatic than the atheism of the Soviet state, but it is no less violent. We do not see -- and this is our tragedy -- a godlessness so insidious that, unlike that of the former Soviet Union, it needs no external force to spread its evil. The godlessness of the West has its source within the human heart -- in its ancient yearning for autonomy, its passion to be a law unto itself, its refusal to serve God and obey His laws.
In the heart of Western man the sanctuary is often as empty and ruined as any church razed by communist authorities. Where the image of the Holy Trinity should have its throne within us, sweetly and rightly ordering and directing our hearts and our lives, there stands more often the image of our preferred god, the god of our true idolatry -- the monarchical self, autocratic, imperial, totalitarian in its demand for satisfaction, for having its own way, always and at any cost.
Listen, for example, to the rallying cry for unbridled "rights", whether these be the "right" of a mother to abort an unwanted child, or the "right" to a sexual life free of moral or even social restraints, or the "right" to end one's life. The exercise of these "rights"-- each of them directed against life and the Creator of life -- is as militant and violent and godless as any Soviet purge.
And what of the media -- television, books, movies -- which support and encourage such autonomous behavior, such moral lawlessness? Is not such support of godlessness as effective as any Soviet censorship? There is a ready acceptance by the western media for any ideology other than that of traditional Christian teaching. Only look at the extraordinary success of
"new age" teaching and the readiness of the media not merely to air such teachings but to glamorize them. Or consider the atmosphere of "political correctness" that has prompted lawmakers to design "hate legislation" that embraces and punishes those teaching politically incorrect but authentically Christian doctrines and morality from the pulpit.
What need have we for an external authority to empty churches and close monasteries when Western man, on his own initiative, abandons the churches and spurns the monastic life as foolish or meaningless? The enormous exodus of priests, monks and nuns from the clerical and religious life within the Roman Catholic Church -- an exodus largely ignored by its hierarchy -- has occurred without any open persecution of the Church.
What stands revealed in the West is the success of Kierkegaard's formula for undermining the moral life of mankind -- to maintain the facade of religious institutions while emptying them of inner meaning. We can see some Western Churches, in their passion for relevance, adapting themselves to the spirit of the age as effectively as any churchman in the Soviet Union who may have sacrificed fidelity to the true Faith for the sake of easier relations with the atheistic state.
This is indeed a bleak picture, but it is, in God's good providence, not the whole picture. For what the West can now begin to see more clearly is the miracle of Orthodoxy -- its divinely-given power to endure in the face of militant godlessness, and to endure without the aid of all those things in which the West puts its trust: money, power, bureaucracy, buildings, programs, and the like. In the great crucible of suffering, the Orthodox faith of the Russian people has endured without the material supports the West considers essential. In the West we need this vision of the Orthodox faith rising phoenix-like from the fires of atheism, so that we might turn to the one thing which endures in the violent winds of change -- the unchanging Orthodox Catholic Faith of the Holy Fathers.
As the West further declines, what can deliver us from the despair of discovering our empty heart? Only the light of the true Orthodox Faith-burning brighter than any persecutor's fire-can lead us out of the darkness of this way of life. By our faithfulness to the precious gift of Orthodoxy, by our obedience in joy to holy Tradition, our hearts must become what they were meant to be -- living and visible temples of the Holy Trinity, living icons of God's loving and gracious rule over His creation.
If each Orthodox Christian humbly prepares his heart to be God's throne, the heart of Western man, grown weary of his self-idolatry, may begin to see the true light from the East.
God, in His good providence, has sent holy Orthodoxy into the Western world in these last days not to be a curiosity, a museum-piece, a relic of the old world. He has sent the light of Orthodoxy throughout the world to be a light unto the nations in their time of greatest darkness. Like the sun, Orthodoxy may have its dawning in the East, but its destiny is to illumine the whole world, to scatter the shades of night and the darkness of death, and to reveal to a dark and weary world the living presence of the Risen Christ.
Each of us, transfigured by grace and by joyful obedience to His rule, must become a living icon of this true Light that has come into the world.
It is the folly of the West to have believed in the transformation of the world by economics, politics and social agenda. It is the folly of the Soviet authorities to have believed that such forces could destroy the true Faith. War, revolution, social, political and economic upheaval are the tools the world trusts in to bring about change. Against all of these, the Orthodox Christian must proclaim by his life the one power that can heal and change the world -- transfiguration through love and grace.
This happens in secret, in silence, in prayer-in the depths where man meets God in love. Only then and there is the wounded human heart filled with healing, joy and peace-our gifts to suffering humanity. And these gifts may be had only by a total surrender to Christ's love, by a death to all things that would separate one from His love. We must become obedient unto death by entering into the mystery of the suffering of Christ whereby the whole world is made a new creation. We must be "signs" of the end, of the Kingdom -- a kingdom that is the end of all our petty securities, our selfishness, our false ideals and comfortable habits. Yet we must show that the end, though it will be an utter catastrophe for our old ways, will be finally a deep and gracious blessing, filling our emptiness with God, feeding our eternally hungry hearts with His unfathomable love.
We must show the world, even as its ways and institutions crumble into dust, that Christ has already overcome the world: Christ is risen and the power of death has been vanquished. The world needs to see us as living icons of Christ undaunted by the world's last days. We must be, as Saint Paul tells us, unknown, and yet well known; dying, and behold, we live; chastened, and not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, yet possessing all things (II Cor. 6:9-10).
In our quiet, obedient observance of the Holy Orthodox Faith, our life must radiate the light of Christ into the darkness of our days. The end draws near, but it will be the end not of life, but of darkness and death. And in that dawn made bright with the risen Christ -- the true Light from the East, the unsetting Sun, that final, perfect dawn -- we shall sing with the psalmist:
Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing:
Thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness;
O Lord my God, I will give thanks unto Thee for ever.
An Orthodox Monastic Response To Islam
[Ed. - original post from Subdeacon Benjamin of the AWRV.]
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AN ORTHODOX MONASTIC RESPONSE TO ISLAM by Fr. James (Deschene)
Several generations ago, in what seemed then to be an unlikely possibility, the writer Hilaire Belloc predicted that the greatest challenge to Christianity in the coming decades would be the rise of Islam in the west. What then was oddly insightful is today the stuff of our daily news.
The responses to the rise (and, for those with a memory of history, the return) of Islam in the west are varied: psychological, legal, military, economic, sociological, theological..
What is missing is an over-arching spiritual approach, one appropriate to Orthodox Christians and monastics – an approach both simple and powerful. That approach is prayer. And the only reasonable prayer to be made is for the submission of Islam to Christ, not by means of the sword but by the weapons of Christian truth and love. To be converted to the love of Christ and his truth, the followers of Islam must come to see clearly in the followers of Christ his truth and love. And these become infused in us by the mystery and grace of prayer.
No doubt, in a general way we Orthodox Christians do pray over this issue, but our prayer may lack focus. To remedy this, perhaps Orthodox Christians (and indeed all Christians) might direct their prayers to a particular heavenly patron whose earthly life was spent in the fiery crucible of confrontation between Christianity and Islam: St. John of Damascus.
The following prayer is offered as a means of focusing our minds and hearts daily on the need for heavenly help in the deepening crisis of our times as Islam once again challenges Christendom. It does not suggest any solution apart from absolute fidelity to witnessing the Christian faith, so ably defended by St. John in his Exposition of the Orthodox Faith – a witness of speaking the truth in love, and a willingness, should it be God’s will, to suffer the loss of all things for ourselves “if only Christ be gained.”
PRAYER
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AN ORTHODOX MONASTIC RESPONSE TO ISLAM by Fr. James (Deschene)
Several generations ago, in what seemed then to be an unlikely possibility, the writer Hilaire Belloc predicted that the greatest challenge to Christianity in the coming decades would be the rise of Islam in the west. What then was oddly insightful is today the stuff of our daily news.
The responses to the rise (and, for those with a memory of history, the return) of Islam in the west are varied: psychological, legal, military, economic, sociological, theological..
What is missing is an over-arching spiritual approach, one appropriate to Orthodox Christians and monastics – an approach both simple and powerful. That approach is prayer. And the only reasonable prayer to be made is for the submission of Islam to Christ, not by means of the sword but by the weapons of Christian truth and love. To be converted to the love of Christ and his truth, the followers of Islam must come to see clearly in the followers of Christ his truth and love. And these become infused in us by the mystery and grace of prayer.
No doubt, in a general way we Orthodox Christians do pray over this issue, but our prayer may lack focus. To remedy this, perhaps Orthodox Christians (and indeed all Christians) might direct their prayers to a particular heavenly patron whose earthly life was spent in the fiery crucible of confrontation between Christianity and Islam: St. John of Damascus.
The following prayer is offered as a means of focusing our minds and hearts daily on the need for heavenly help in the deepening crisis of our times as Islam once again challenges Christendom. It does not suggest any solution apart from absolute fidelity to witnessing the Christian faith, so ably defended by St. John in his Exposition of the Orthodox Faith – a witness of speaking the truth in love, and a willingness, should it be God’s will, to suffer the loss of all things for ourselves “if only Christ be gained.”
PRAYER
Most merciful God, who didst raise up thy servant Blessed John of Damascus to proclaim and defend the faith of thy holy Church, even in the midst of her enemies: we ask, by his prayers, for the wisdom and courage to show forth that faith in our words and in our works, in our living and in our loving, and – if it be thy will – in our dying; that thy holy Church may be defended against all adversities; and that we and all faithful Christians, armed with the spiritual weapons of truth and love, may join valiantly in the struggle to bring the faith and love of Christ thy Son to the minds and hearts of all who follow the way of Islam; that they may come to know and adore our Saviour Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Lord; to whom with thee, Father, and the Holy Ghost, the one true God, all-compassionate and all-merciful, be all honor, glory and dominion, world without end. Amen.
6.19.2006
Trinity Sunday
Sermon from Saint Petroc Monastery
Fr. Hieromonk Michael
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Today begins the longest season of the Church’s year: Trinity-tide, which lasts until the end of November, almost a full month of Sundays. Today as a special matter however, we celebrate the revelation of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. God, we are told repeatedly throughout the Holy Scriptures, is eternal. He has no beginning and He has no end. The Father’s Son is eternal: He is begotten before all ages, the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father eternally. Heaven, the eternal Kingdom of God has no time in any earthly sense. It follows that our earthly, physical time has little significance.in Heaven. What then, does this mean for us when we look at the Church? The worship of the Church? The relationship between us and Christ?
From a Heavenly point of view, everything that has happened and will happen is, in a sense, happening “now”. While we are clearly told that some things which are yet to happen are unknown to any but God Himself, nevertheless, from the Heavenly point of view, Christ is God and man, Christ is being born of Mary who becomes thereby the Mother of God’s Incarnation, Christ is teaching and we are milling around Him, He is being tried, beaten and nailed to the Cross, we are consenting to that and we are at the same time crying for it and for ourselves. He is dying for us, He is being buried, visiting Hell, preaching to and leading the righteous sons of Adam out of Hell, He is rising again, He is teaching the Apostles in detail about what the Church is to be, its mission and how to understand His words. He is ascending to the Father, He is requesting the Holy Spirit from the Father, the Apostles are preaching, the Martyrs are dying, It is not some long-ago thing - it is now - the Church is spreading, the Holy Spirit is instructing the Fathers of the great Councils how to build and guide the Church. It is all happening in the present tense: We are an integral part of all that. It is not the past - it is the present for the Orthodox Believer. That is why we ask our friends to pray for us, to plead on our behalf - our friends - whether they be here on earth or reposed before us, great saints of the last millennium or humble friends of our youth, they are all our intimate neighbours who gather around us and pray to God for us. The Orthodox Believer reads the words of the Fathers and he is at the same time there listening to them, they are his friends, his mentors, his neighbours. It is as natural for him to ask them to intercede for him as it is for him to ask his brother-in-this-world to help him. From all this it follows that the Christian Priest serving before God in the Divine Liturgy, does not (cannot) repeat Christ’s Sacrifice of Himself. What the Priest and the Church do is to participate (both as penitents and as joyful recipients) in that original timeless, once-for-all Sacrifice at Calvary. Our worship is the worship of Heaven, we participate shoulder-to-shoulder with the crowd of Saints, Elders, Martyrs and Faithful. We have no time to make worldly observations during the Liturgy, this is truly our “time out” for we are in another place during the liturgy, with those who are our true friends and fellow disciples all over the world and throughout time, there is no differentiation other than that we are still here struggling to perfect ourselves and they are encouraging us and praying for us as we go. And in a sense, we are already there with them in this participation in the worship of Heaven before the Throne of God. The Holy Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Ghost, the Triune God is eternal and we are part of the eternality in that we have been given the gift of eternal life in Him.
Fr. Hieromonk Michael
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Today begins the longest season of the Church’s year: Trinity-tide, which lasts until the end of November, almost a full month of Sundays. Today as a special matter however, we celebrate the revelation of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. God, we are told repeatedly throughout the Holy Scriptures, is eternal. He has no beginning and He has no end. The Father’s Son is eternal: He is begotten before all ages, the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father eternally. Heaven, the eternal Kingdom of God has no time in any earthly sense. It follows that our earthly, physical time has little significance.in Heaven. What then, does this mean for us when we look at the Church? The worship of the Church? The relationship between us and Christ?
From a Heavenly point of view, everything that has happened and will happen is, in a sense, happening “now”. While we are clearly told that some things which are yet to happen are unknown to any but God Himself, nevertheless, from the Heavenly point of view, Christ is God and man, Christ is being born of Mary who becomes thereby the Mother of God’s Incarnation, Christ is teaching and we are milling around Him, He is being tried, beaten and nailed to the Cross, we are consenting to that and we are at the same time crying for it and for ourselves. He is dying for us, He is being buried, visiting Hell, preaching to and leading the righteous sons of Adam out of Hell, He is rising again, He is teaching the Apostles in detail about what the Church is to be, its mission and how to understand His words. He is ascending to the Father, He is requesting the Holy Spirit from the Father, the Apostles are preaching, the Martyrs are dying, It is not some long-ago thing - it is now - the Church is spreading, the Holy Spirit is instructing the Fathers of the great Councils how to build and guide the Church. It is all happening in the present tense: We are an integral part of all that. It is not the past - it is the present for the Orthodox Believer. That is why we ask our friends to pray for us, to plead on our behalf - our friends - whether they be here on earth or reposed before us, great saints of the last millennium or humble friends of our youth, they are all our intimate neighbours who gather around us and pray to God for us. The Orthodox Believer reads the words of the Fathers and he is at the same time there listening to them, they are his friends, his mentors, his neighbours. It is as natural for him to ask them to intercede for him as it is for him to ask his brother-in-this-world to help him. From all this it follows that the Christian Priest serving before God in the Divine Liturgy, does not (cannot) repeat Christ’s Sacrifice of Himself. What the Priest and the Church do is to participate (both as penitents and as joyful recipients) in that original timeless, once-for-all Sacrifice at Calvary. Our worship is the worship of Heaven, we participate shoulder-to-shoulder with the crowd of Saints, Elders, Martyrs and Faithful. We have no time to make worldly observations during the Liturgy, this is truly our “time out” for we are in another place during the liturgy, with those who are our true friends and fellow disciples all over the world and throughout time, there is no differentiation other than that we are still here struggling to perfect ourselves and they are encouraging us and praying for us as we go. And in a sense, we are already there with them in this participation in the worship of Heaven before the Throne of God. The Holy Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Ghost, the Triune God is eternal and we are part of the eternality in that we have been given the gift of eternal life in Him.
5.24.2006
Reading With the Heart - Part 1
On the Art of Monastic Lectio Divina
Fr. James M. Deschene
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One of the most important spiritual disciplines set forth by St. Benedict in his Holy Rule for monks is that of lectio divina - so vital a part of the daily discipline that he sets aside at least four hours of the daily schedule for it. As the monastic life sets a pattern for all Orthodox Christians to emulate and follow (in so far as they can), it can be helpful to look at this particular spiritual discipline and see how one might incorporate it into one's daily round.
What is lectio divina and how does one go about it?
So particular is the nature of this monastic work that monks often find the phrase untranslatable and simply call it their lectio. Lectio is of course the Latin for reading. From it we get such useful English words as lecture, lectionary, and lectern. But to assume that St. Benedict is simply advising several hours of mere reading would be quite misleading. For what he has in mind is not mere reading - even of spiritual books - but of reading that is somehow divine.
In modern English the word divine has a rather narrow, adjectival sense, referring to the nature of God. We haven't entirely lost the wider, older usages but they are uncommon and quaint to the ear. For example, the noun divine -- as in "the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine", or "a public debate between two noteworthy and learned divines"- means theologian. The word here does retain some of the pre-scholastic aura of the word, reminding us that mere book-knowledge of God does not make one a theologian. It is prayer - direct communion with God (the divine) - that makes one a divine. The now rarely used verb form of divine (as in "to divine the criminal's secret purposes") is also suggestive here, meaning to learn and to know, but in a thoroughly deep and intimate manner.
All of this is helpful in understanding what St. Benedict wishes to teach us about lectio divina., for it helps us to see what he does not mean by the term. He is not suggesting several hours of theological studies each day. Nor is he suggesting hours of what we generally understand by the term spiritual reading. Instead he is actually talking about a form of prayer that involves the use of a book. Since he was speaking of a discipline quite familiar to his hearers and readers, St. Benedict felt no compulsion to define the term in his Holy Rule, but merely prescribed that it should be a major part of the daily regimen of his monks. It is we moderns who need to be clear about what he means for us to do and not to do. And his purpose is primarily not study, or learning, or edification, or self-improvement - but prayer, which must always be the central work of the monk and of the Orthodox Christian man or woman.
What he is conditioning his monks to do is to read in such a way that the reading becomes a base and a springboard for prayer. One the prayer is attained the base falls away, the book is set aside, having achieved its purpose. Listen to a modern Orthodox theologian describe the process: "When a phrase or a word in a psalm, or in personal prayer, takes hold of our soul or makes the heart exult, we should stop and go deep into this 'intuition of God.' We should cease to multiply words, and find rather the silence in the heart of the word, the Spirit at rest in the Word" (The Roots of Christian Mysticism: Olivier Clement).
In doing lectio, we settle down quietly with a spiritual book, setting aside time and space that will be undisturbed. (The monastic notion of holy leisure - otium sacrum - is worthy of note in a future article.) We begin quietly with a prayer to the Holy Spirit who fills all things and dwells in all places to guide and direct our time of lectio. We deliberately set aside all previous habits of study, scholarship, scanning a text. We abandon all preoccupation with quantity of reading ("thirty pages by ten o'clock") and allow ourselves to enter into the realm of quality. For we expect in lectio divina, being under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit who guides us into all truth, that we will be led, by means of what we read, into the reality of communion and prayer with God, God will use a word or a phrase to allure us into communion with Him.
Hence our reading must be unhurried, must find its own pace and rhythm, must feel free to mull, to ponder, to weigh and relish a word or a phrase, to reread. In short, one must unlearn, at least for the time of lectio, many of the habits of reading for study or profit that we learned in school. They are designed to increase our knowledge, but lectio is designed to bring us to a state of prayer.
And yet there is one kind of learning we were given in school that can actually assist us in our lectio, for it is itself a pattern of lectio - a kind of reading not for scholarship or profit, a reading that encourages - even requires - mulling, pondering, rereading, letting words work their wild magic upon us rather than our ensnaring and taming them in the nets of logic and reason. I am referring, of course, to the reading of poetry -becoming perhaps as lost an art as that of lectio divina!
The ancient Orthodox fathers speak of the capacity within us to commune with God as the heart - not the mind or the senses. As the medieval English writer of the Cloud of Unknowing wrote: "By love He may be gotten and holden, but by thought never." The heart, in this sense, has the capacity to integrate the whole of us - body, sense, mind, soul, spirit - into a blessed wholeness, a harmony in which all our faculties bloom forth in truest spiritual health and we become a living hymn of praise - not by our words but in our very being.
Monastic lectio - which is nothing more or less than reading with the heart - is one of the means to such healing of our wounded being. It is an art worthy of cultivation by all Orthodox Christians as part of a well-balanced and fruitful life of prayer.
Fr. James M. Deschene
--------------------------------
One of the most important spiritual disciplines set forth by St. Benedict in his Holy Rule for monks is that of lectio divina - so vital a part of the daily discipline that he sets aside at least four hours of the daily schedule for it. As the monastic life sets a pattern for all Orthodox Christians to emulate and follow (in so far as they can), it can be helpful to look at this particular spiritual discipline and see how one might incorporate it into one's daily round.
What is lectio divina and how does one go about it?
So particular is the nature of this monastic work that monks often find the phrase untranslatable and simply call it their lectio. Lectio is of course the Latin for reading. From it we get such useful English words as lecture, lectionary, and lectern. But to assume that St. Benedict is simply advising several hours of mere reading would be quite misleading. For what he has in mind is not mere reading - even of spiritual books - but of reading that is somehow divine.
In modern English the word divine has a rather narrow, adjectival sense, referring to the nature of God. We haven't entirely lost the wider, older usages but they are uncommon and quaint to the ear. For example, the noun divine -- as in "the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine", or "a public debate between two noteworthy and learned divines"- means theologian. The word here does retain some of the pre-scholastic aura of the word, reminding us that mere book-knowledge of God does not make one a theologian. It is prayer - direct communion with God (the divine) - that makes one a divine. The now rarely used verb form of divine (as in "to divine the criminal's secret purposes") is also suggestive here, meaning to learn and to know, but in a thoroughly deep and intimate manner.
All of this is helpful in understanding what St. Benedict wishes to teach us about lectio divina., for it helps us to see what he does not mean by the term. He is not suggesting several hours of theological studies each day. Nor is he suggesting hours of what we generally understand by the term spiritual reading. Instead he is actually talking about a form of prayer that involves the use of a book. Since he was speaking of a discipline quite familiar to his hearers and readers, St. Benedict felt no compulsion to define the term in his Holy Rule, but merely prescribed that it should be a major part of the daily regimen of his monks. It is we moderns who need to be clear about what he means for us to do and not to do. And his purpose is primarily not study, or learning, or edification, or self-improvement - but prayer, which must always be the central work of the monk and of the Orthodox Christian man or woman.
What he is conditioning his monks to do is to read in such a way that the reading becomes a base and a springboard for prayer. One the prayer is attained the base falls away, the book is set aside, having achieved its purpose. Listen to a modern Orthodox theologian describe the process: "When a phrase or a word in a psalm, or in personal prayer, takes hold of our soul or makes the heart exult, we should stop and go deep into this 'intuition of God.' We should cease to multiply words, and find rather the silence in the heart of the word, the Spirit at rest in the Word" (The Roots of Christian Mysticism: Olivier Clement).
In doing lectio, we settle down quietly with a spiritual book, setting aside time and space that will be undisturbed. (The monastic notion of holy leisure - otium sacrum - is worthy of note in a future article.) We begin quietly with a prayer to the Holy Spirit who fills all things and dwells in all places to guide and direct our time of lectio. We deliberately set aside all previous habits of study, scholarship, scanning a text. We abandon all preoccupation with quantity of reading ("thirty pages by ten o'clock") and allow ourselves to enter into the realm of quality. For we expect in lectio divina, being under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit who guides us into all truth, that we will be led, by means of what we read, into the reality of communion and prayer with God, God will use a word or a phrase to allure us into communion with Him.
Hence our reading must be unhurried, must find its own pace and rhythm, must feel free to mull, to ponder, to weigh and relish a word or a phrase, to reread. In short, one must unlearn, at least for the time of lectio, many of the habits of reading for study or profit that we learned in school. They are designed to increase our knowledge, but lectio is designed to bring us to a state of prayer.
And yet there is one kind of learning we were given in school that can actually assist us in our lectio, for it is itself a pattern of lectio - a kind of reading not for scholarship or profit, a reading that encourages - even requires - mulling, pondering, rereading, letting words work their wild magic upon us rather than our ensnaring and taming them in the nets of logic and reason. I am referring, of course, to the reading of poetry -becoming perhaps as lost an art as that of lectio divina!
The ancient Orthodox fathers speak of the capacity within us to commune with God as the heart - not the mind or the senses. As the medieval English writer of the Cloud of Unknowing wrote: "By love He may be gotten and holden, but by thought never." The heart, in this sense, has the capacity to integrate the whole of us - body, sense, mind, soul, spirit - into a blessed wholeness, a harmony in which all our faculties bloom forth in truest spiritual health and we become a living hymn of praise - not by our words but in our very being.
Monastic lectio - which is nothing more or less than reading with the heart - is one of the means to such healing of our wounded being. It is an art worthy of cultivation by all Orthodox Christians as part of a well-balanced and fruitful life of prayer.
5.12.2006
Novena Prayer to St. John Maximovitch
From Dom James, Prior of Christ the Savior Monastery, ROCOR.
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Novena Prayer to St. John Maximovitch for the Restoration of Western Orthodoxy
O Lord Jesus Christ, who hast called the simple and humble to carry the light of the Gospel into the world; and, in these latter days, hast raised up thy holy servant Saint John (Maximovitch) to foster and bless the mission and ministry of Orthodoxy in the West, pour forth thy wisdom and grace upon those who seek tp spread the Word of thy Truth by encouraging a wider vision of the Orthodox faith and mission; that the West may recover from its apostasy and deep divisions, and its ancient rites be restored in their fullness to they holy Orthodox Church. Open the minds and hearts of all Orthodox peoples and hierarchs to acknowledge the rightful place of their Western brethren within the Orthodox Church, that the efforts of St. John may bear fruit and thy Church may be one. This we ask, Lord Jesus Christ, who, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, livest and reignest, one God, world without end. Amen.
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Novena Prayer to St. John Maximovitch for the Restoration of Western Orthodoxy
O Lord Jesus Christ, who hast called the simple and humble to carry the light of the Gospel into the world; and, in these latter days, hast raised up thy holy servant Saint John (Maximovitch) to foster and bless the mission and ministry of Orthodoxy in the West, pour forth thy wisdom and grace upon those who seek tp spread the Word of thy Truth by encouraging a wider vision of the Orthodox faith and mission; that the West may recover from its apostasy and deep divisions, and its ancient rites be restored in their fullness to they holy Orthodox Church. Open the minds and hearts of all Orthodox peoples and hierarchs to acknowledge the rightful place of their Western brethren within the Orthodox Church, that the efforts of St. John may bear fruit and thy Church may be one. This we ask, Lord Jesus Christ, who, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, livest and reignest, one God, world without end. Amen.
On the propriety of the word 'Church' in Orthodoxy
The following was forwarded to me, and is the work of Fr. John R. Shaw of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad.
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There is a difference in the "range of meaning" between the Russian word "khram" and the English word "temple": In Russian, "khram" means basically the same thing as "tserkov'". Indeed in the pre-Nikonian Slavonic texts, "tserkov" is more common than "khram", even in places where the English uses the word "temple". There is another word in Russian, "kapishche", which specifically means "a pagan temple".
But in English, one does not speak of a Christian church as a "temple". The only exception is in Psalm texts (which of course come from the Old Testament, when there were no Christian churches yet), and in liturgical texts that use Psalm imagery.
In English, a "temple" implies either a non-Christian house of worship: e.g. a Jain temple, a temple of Mars, or else a Masonic temple/lodge, a Mormon temple, and so on. People who "go to temple" are usually members of a Reformed Jewish synagogue.
Some people seem to think that calling a church a "temple" is something "Orthodox", but it isn't: the Greeks do not use this idiom. If a Greek suggests going to a "naos", he is inviting you to visit the temple of Poseidon at Sounion, rather than to attend services in a Greek Orthodox church. In Romanian there is the word "hram" also, but it refers to a patronal
feast of a church.
Our English word "church" is cognate with Russian "tserkov", and there is nothing heterodox in speaking of "the church of St. George" rather than "the temple of...", or in "going to church", rather than "going to temple".
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There is a difference in the "range of meaning" between the Russian word "khram" and the English word "temple": In Russian, "khram" means basically the same thing as "tserkov'". Indeed in the pre-Nikonian Slavonic texts, "tserkov" is more common than "khram", even in places where the English uses the word "temple". There is another word in Russian, "kapishche", which specifically means "a pagan temple".
But in English, one does not speak of a Christian church as a "temple". The only exception is in Psalm texts (which of course come from the Old Testament, when there were no Christian churches yet), and in liturgical texts that use Psalm imagery.
In English, a "temple" implies either a non-Christian house of worship: e.g. a Jain temple, a temple of Mars, or else a Masonic temple/lodge, a Mormon temple, and so on. People who "go to temple" are usually members of a Reformed Jewish synagogue.
Some people seem to think that calling a church a "temple" is something "Orthodox", but it isn't: the Greeks do not use this idiom. If a Greek suggests going to a "naos", he is inviting you to visit the temple of Poseidon at Sounion, rather than to attend services in a Greek Orthodox church. In Romanian there is the word "hram" also, but it refers to a patronal
feast of a church.
Our English word "church" is cognate with Russian "tserkov", and there is nothing heterodox in speaking of "the church of St. George" rather than "the temple of...", or in "going to church", rather than "going to temple".
Russian "Union of Orthodox Citizens" calls for WRO in Europe
23 August 2005, 10:14
Union of Orthodox Citizens appeals to Alexy II to break all relations with the Vatican and start missionary work in Europe and America
Moscow, August 23, Interfax - As the Uniates have become more active in Ukraine the Orthodox public have appealed to Patriarch Alexy of Moscow and All Russia to end all relations with the Roman Catholic Church and begin missionary work in Europe and America.
‘It is necessary to accept in the fold of the Orthodox Church all the Old Catholic communities who wish to join it, to establish a Russian Orthodox school for training Latin-rite clergy for service in Europe and America and to develop intensive Orthodox missionary work there’, an appeal of the Union of Orthodox Citizens to Patriarch Alexy states.
The authors of the appeal, the text of which was given to Interfax, believe that any relations with the Vatican should be interrupted since the Catholic Church is believed to use them only for her own purposes.
‘In our view, any agreement with the RCC pursues exclusively the Vatican’s interests and prevents the Church of Christ from carrying out the service commanded by the Lord. There is only one way to beat a card-sharper - not to sit at a card-table with him’, the Union of Orthodox Citizens maintains.
The Union of Orthodox Citizens is headed by chairman Valentin Lebedev: "Our aim is to make politics Christian, instead of turning all Christians into politicians.”
Interesting news - not having the original, I'm wondering if he meant 'old' Catholics (as in traditional) or 'Old Catholics', which have liberalized to a great degree? Or, he might have meant various groups of Old Catholic origins... I'm unsure.
Originally posted a year ago on Orthodox Okie.
Union of Orthodox Citizens appeals to Alexy II to break all relations with the Vatican and start missionary work in Europe and America
Moscow, August 23, Interfax - As the Uniates have become more active in Ukraine the Orthodox public have appealed to Patriarch Alexy of Moscow and All Russia to end all relations with the Roman Catholic Church and begin missionary work in Europe and America.
‘It is necessary to accept in the fold of the Orthodox Church all the Old Catholic communities who wish to join it, to establish a Russian Orthodox school for training Latin-rite clergy for service in Europe and America and to develop intensive Orthodox missionary work there’, an appeal of the Union of Orthodox Citizens to Patriarch Alexy states.
The authors of the appeal, the text of which was given to Interfax, believe that any relations with the Vatican should be interrupted since the Catholic Church is believed to use them only for her own purposes.
‘In our view, any agreement with the RCC pursues exclusively the Vatican’s interests and prevents the Church of Christ from carrying out the service commanded by the Lord. There is only one way to beat a card-sharper - not to sit at a card-table with him’, the Union of Orthodox Citizens maintains.
The Union of Orthodox Citizens is headed by chairman Valentin Lebedev: "Our aim is to make politics Christian, instead of turning all Christians into politicians.”
Interesting news - not having the original, I'm wondering if he meant 'old' Catholics (as in traditional) or 'Old Catholics', which have liberalized to a great degree? Or, he might have meant various groups of Old Catholic origins... I'm unsure.
Originally posted a year ago on Orthodox Okie.
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