Knowledge versus simplicity

Let all of us who wish to attract the Lord to ourselves draw near to Him as disciples to the Master, simply, without hypocrisy, without duplicity or guile, not out of idle curiosity. He Himself is simple and not composite, and He wants souls that come to Him to be simple and guileless. For you will surely never see simplicity bereft of humility.

If knowledge puffs up most people, simplicity and lack of learning can perhaps in the same measure humble them. All the same, here and there there are people who pride themselves on their ignorance.

- Ladder of Divine Ascent 24.26 and 24.29

Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Boston, 1991

A hymn for the week of Thomas

Fourth Tone. As one valiant.

This illustrious, festive day * is the day which the Lord hath made; * let us all be glad and rejoice herein with joy. * For, lo, the Giver of Life is risen; Hades hath been despoiled. * And the apostolic choir * hear the tidings of joy today, * while the doubting one, * even Thomas, hath touched the Master's side and by this touching hath proclaimed Christ * to be of two natures, God and man. 

- from the Aposticha of Matins, Friday of Thomas Week

Pentecostarion, Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Boston, 1990

Traditions and Types in Holy Friday

From the Synaxarion for Great and Holy Friday: 

It is fitting to understand that on the sixth day of the week, Friday, the Lord was crucified because on the sixth day of the week during Creation, Adam, the first man, was formed. Furthermore, at the sixth hour of the day, He was suspended on the Holy Cross because at the sixth hour, tradition tells us, Adam stretched out his hands toward the forbidden tree to eat the fruit and inherited death. Therefore it was fitting that at the same shattering hour the Old Adam would be created anew. 

The Lord's Crucifixion was in a garden because Adam was deceived in a garden in Paradise. The bitter drink which the Lord tasted on the Cross healed the tasting of Adam. The Holy Cross replaced the tree in Paradise. The slap on the Face signified our awakening from the stupor of sin. The spitting and the dishonorable behavior toward the Lord makes manifest the value He places on us. The crown of thorns relieved us from the curse surrounding the head of Adam and Eve. The purple cloak replaced the garment of skin and symbolized the royal garment with which He covers us. The nails indicated our total immobility in our sins. The pierced Side of the Lord, from which our salvation came forth, represented the side of Adam, from which Eve came forth and out of whom the transgression occurred. The spear removed the fiery sword which guarded Paradise after the disobedience. The water from His side was an image of Holy Baptism. The blood and the reed were the means through which the Savior, as though writing in imperial red ink, decreed, as a King from on high, the restoration of the ancient homeland.

It is said that the skull of Adam lay where Christ, as the Head of all, was Crucified, and Adam was "baptized" through the Blood of Christ, which flowed from Him and down onto Adam's skull. It is called the Place of the Skull because during the Flood the earth expelled the skull of Adam, which rolled around by itself in a circle, and this was viewed as a fearsome sign. The Holy Prophet and King Solomon, out of respect toward the Forefather, covered it up with many stones. Moreover, the eminent saints say, as is the tradition, that Adam was buried there by an angel. Therefore, where Adam's corpse lay, there Christ stood as the everlasting King, the New Adam, healing by the wood of the Holy Cross the Old Adam who had fallen by the wood of the tree.

Confession and the Consequences of our Sins

Some people are disturbed that forgiveness, it turns out, is so easy to receive. A person sins, then repents, then sins again, then repents … and over and over? Without any repentance?

Why do you say that? Who told you such a thing? At confession, sin is forgiven; but even so, a person still has to bear the consequences of his sin. The classic example is the repentant thief who was crucified on the cross beside Christ. He repented, and the Lord said to him, Today you will be with Me in Paradise. Nothing unclean can enter into Paradise, so we know that the Lord has already purified him and forgiven him his sins; nevertheless, he remained hanging on the cross! And if that weren't enough, the Gospel tells us that the soldiers then broke his legs (cf. John 19:32). A person all the same has to bear consequences for his sins, although certainly not to the degree he deserves to suffer.

Many Christians, although they confess every week, nevertheless remain sinners, in no visible way differing from everyone else. Furthermore, they repent over and over again of the very same sins. It turns out, does it, that confession hasn't helped them?

Nothing of the sort. He who constantly labors over himself already differs from other people. Regarding the very same sins, even the Apostle Paul was given athorn in the flesh, some kind of pain, suffering, or trial, so that he would not get puffed up. As they say, "Until the last breath, even up to the gates of Paradise, the battle with sin goes on.” St Mary of Egypt repented, but for another 17 years she struggled fiercely with sin!

From an interview with Fr. Valerian Krechetov. 

See the full interview on OrthoChristian here. 

Christ is born!

Wishing all a blest Nativity Season. 

Dear Anglicans . . . .

Regarding last week's vote in the Church of England not to consecrate women as bishops, I highly recommend reading this outstanding little essay on the subject. Speaking as a former Episcopalian, I must say that the author hits the nail on the head. The Anglican hierarchy's hand-wringing over the results of the vote was nothing short of pathetic.

(A little exploring of her blog will also yield several other excellent recent essays on the same topic.)

Who is mentally ill?

[Almost] everyone is mentally ill according to the Patristic meaning of mental illness. You do not have to be schizophrenic in order to be mentally ill. The definition of mental illness from a Patristic point of view is that people are mentally ill when the noetic energy they have inside them is not functioning properly. In other words, being mentally ill means your nous is full of thoughts [logismoi], not only bad thoughts, but good thoughts as well.

. . . In other words, according to the Church Fathers, anyone whose soul has not been purified from the passions and who has not reached the state of illumination through the grace of the Holy Spirit is mentally ill, but not in the psychiatric sense. For a psychiatrist, being mentally ill is something else. It means suffering from psychosis or being schizophrenic. For Orthodoxy, however, if you have not been purified of the passions and have not reached a state of illumination, are you normal or abnormal? That is the question.

Who is considered a normal [i.e., spiritually healthy] Orthodox Christian in the Patristic tradition? If you want to see this clearly, read the service of Holy Baptism, read the service of Holy Chrism that is held at the Patriarchate of Constantinople [and in various other patriarchates] on Holy Thursday, read the service for the consecration of Church sanctuaries. There you will see what it means to be a temple of the Holy Spirit. There you will see who is illumined.

In all of the Church services, as well as the ascetic tradition of the Church, mainly three spiritual states are mentioned: (1) the state in which the soul and body have been purified from the passions, (2) the state in which the human nous has been illumined by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and (3) the state in which the human soul and body experience theosis [deification, glorification]. For the most part, however, they speak about purification and illumination [the first two stages], since the Church services are expressions of reasonable [rational, logiki] worship.

So who is the normal Orthodox Christian? Can someone who has been baptized but not purified be considered normal? What about someone who has not yet been illumined? Or is it someone who has been purified and illumined? Naturally someone in the last category is a normal Orthodox Christian. [In other words, the only non-mentally ill, normal, healthy Orthodox Christians are those who have attained purification (purity of heart) and illumination by the Holy Spirit.]

So what makes a normal [spiritually healthy] Orthodox Christian different from the rest of the Orthodox? Is it dogma? Of course not. [Because all Orthodox Christians share the same dogma, but not all Orthodox Christians are spiritually "normal", i.e., healthy.]

Take the Orthodox in general. They all share the same dogma, the same tradition, the same common worship. A church sanctuary, for example, might hold three hundred Orthodox Christians. Of that number, however, only five are in a state of illumination, while the rest of them are not. The rest of them have not even the slightest idea what purification is. So this raises the question: How many among them are normal Orthodox Christians? Unfortunately, out of three hundred, only five are.

All the same, purification and illumination are specific conditions of healing that experienced and illumined spiritual fathers can recognize. So we have here clearly medical criteria [spiritual illness or health]. Or maybe you are not convinced that these criteria are strictly medical? Consider the fact that the nous is a physiological human organ that everyone has. It is not only Orthodox that have a nous. So do Muslims, Buddhists, and everyone else. So all human beings have the same need for purification and illumination. And there is only one therapeutic treatment.

Or do you think that there are many therapeutic treatments for this illness? And is it really an illness or not?

Present-day Orthodox are hard-pressed to respond to these issues, because they have become so far removed from this tradition today that they no longer think of the Orthodox Christian way of life in the context of sickness and healing. They do not consider Orthodoxy to be a curative course of treatment, even though all the prayers are perfectly clear on this point. After all Who is Christ for Orthodox Christians? Is He not repeatedly invoked in the prayers and hymns of the Church as "the Physician of our souls and bodies"?

From Patristic Theology, by Fr. John Romanides. Translated by 

Hieromonk Alexios (Trader). Uncut Mountain Press, 2008. Available here. 

A story about a mistake and a correction

There once lived a most devout priest. Even though he barely knew how to read and write, he was the priest, a clergyman of strong faith, great virtue and of many spiritual struggles. He used to stand upright for hours during the Proskomidia, despite the fact that the veins of his feet had been affected and were hemorrhaging. There were times when one could see the blood running down since he was standing upright commemorating the names of numerous people. He was a man of sacrifice to his last breath. (In fact, it was just after celebrating the Divine Liturgy for the last time that his soul departed.)

As he barely knew how to read and write, by some misunderstanding he did not place the portions on the holy diskos properly.

When we place the portion of the All-Holy Theotokos onto the holy diskos, we say: "The queen stood at Thy right hand . . ." But this holy priest was under the impression that, since he said "at Thy right hand," the particle of the All-Holy Mother of God must be placed on the right side of the Lamb (from his perspective); in other words, he was placing the particle on the wrong side of the Lamb.

Once a bishop visited the Holy Monastery for the ordination of a deacon.

During the Praises of Matins, the bishop enters the Holy Altar. He vests, then goes to the Proskomidia, which has already been prepared up to a certain point. He then commemorates names and completes the Proskomidia himself.

Thus, when the bishop came to the Proskomidia, he noticed that the particles had been placed backwards by the priest.

"You didn't place the pieces properly, Father," he told him. "Father, come here for a minute. The All-Holy Theotokos is placed over here, and the nine ranks are placed over there. Hasn't anyone told you? Hasn't anyone seen how you do the Proskomidia?"

"Certainly, Your Eminence," replied the holy priest. "Every day, when I celebrate," - for not a day went by that he did not serve the Divine Liturgy - "the angel who serves me sees what I am doing, but does not tell me anything at all. I apologize, illiterate as I am, for making such a mistake. I will be careful from now on."

"Wait a minute there! Who did you say? Who serves you in the altar?" asked the bishop. "Isn't your altar server one of the monks?"

"No," answered the priest, as if it were the most normal thing in the world, "it is an angel of the Lord."

The bishop fell silent. What could he say?! He was astonished, and certainly had realized that a holy priest was standing before him.

At noon, following the meal in the trapeza [dining hall], the bishop said goodbye to the abbot and to the monks, and departed.

The following day, or rather before dawn, when the holy priest went to the Holy Altar, as usual, in order to begin the Proskomidia, once again an angel of the Lord appeared and served him during the Liturgy. During the part of the Liturgy when the priest breaks the Lamb, the angel noticed that the priest had placed the portions properly.

"Good, Father, now you have placed them properly!"

"Yes. But if you knew I was making that mistake for so many years, why didn't you correct me?" he asked.

"I could see that you were making the mistake, but I did not have the right to tell you anything. I am not worthy to correct a priest. God commands me to serve the priest. Only the bishop has the right to correct you."

          Follow-up Question: 
             So who has the right to correct a bishop? Is it: 

          A) a layman?           D) a synod of bishops?
          B) a priest?              E) a popular blog? 
          C) a bishop?            F) all of the above? 

Anecdote from Experiences During the Divine Liturgy, by Fr. Stephanos 

K. Anagnostopoulos. Piraeus, 2010. (Translation slightly amended.) 

On judging and slander

"If a man who engages in many ascetic labors sees someone wholly in a state of sin or negligence, and denigrates him, all of his repentance is in vain, since he has rejected a member of the Body of Christ by judging him, by not leaving the judgment to the Divine Judge, and by not attending to his own sins. For in the present life, we are all, as it were, in a doctor's waiting room: one person is suffering from a disease of the eyes, another has a pain in his hand, another has an abscess, or whatever other illnesses there may be. Some of these wounds have already been healed; but when one who has been healed of them eats something harmful, then he suffers a relapse.

"Such is the case also with one who is in a state of repentance and who judges or despises another: he undoes his repentance. Now, if a number of people are in a waiting room, each with a different ailment, and one of them cries out from his own suffering, is someone else going to ask him: 'Why are you crying out?' Is not each person concerned with his own malady? If I had the pain of my own sins before me, I would not be able to see anyone else sinning. Each person in the waiting room is keeping watch over himself, in accordance with the doctor's instructions, by not eating anything detrimental to his wounded condition. Who is there who is not wounded?

A brother asked Abba Poimen: "If I see a brother about whom I have heard that he is a sinner, I do not wish to take him into my cell; but if I see a good brother, I rejoice with him." The Elder replied: "If you do a little good to the good one, you ought to do twice as much good to the one about whose sin you have heard. The latter is the one who is ailing. [If you do this,] God will have mercy on you, too.

- Evergetinos, Vol. 3, pp. 12 and 25. Trans. Archbp. Chrysostomos 

and Hieromonk Patapios. CTOS, 2008. It is good to real all of Vol. 3, Hypothesis 2.

Do not regard the feelings of a person who speaks to you about his neighbor disparagingly, but rather say to him: "Stop, brother! I fall into graver sins every day, so how can I criticize him?" In this way you will achieve two things: you will heal yourself and your neighbor with one plaster. This is one of the shortest ways to the forgiveness of sins; I mean, not to judge. "Judge not, and ye shall not be judged." 

Hasty and severe judges of the sins of their neighbor fall into this passion because they have not yet attained to a thorough and constant remembrance and concern for their own sins. For if anyone could see his own vices accurately and without the veil of self-love, he would worry about no one else in this life, considering that he would not have time enough for mourning for himself, even though he were to live a hundred years, and even though he were to see a whole River Jordan of tears streaming from his eyes. I have observed such mourning, and I did not find in it even a trace of calumny or criticism. 

Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 10: On Slander. 10.7 and 10.10. HTM, 1991. 

As we ponder the above words of our holy fathers, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, with great fear and trembling and in remembrance of our innumerable sins, for each of which we will give account at the most holy judgment seat of our Christ, let us resolve firmly not to judge the sins of another, nor to commit the sin of slander, that is, of making public the sins of others. When there is a necessity to report the sins of another person to the lawful authority, let it be done with discretion and humility, and not in a way that is designed to publicly humiliate.  

Let us note, too, that NONE OF THE ABOVE is morally relativistic; i.e., none of the above means that a sin is not a sin, or that an evil deed is not an evil deed. Evil is evil. We will be called to account. The Gospel of Christ calls us to a high standard morally. We are to be pure, to be chaste, to avoid giving offense or scandal, not given to greed, not corrupt, and so forth. The fact that we are not to JUDGE others for their sins and failings does not mean that their sins are somehow not sins. It simply means that WE ARE NOT THE JUDGES. Christ is the ultimate Judge of the human race. We as Christians do not stand as judge and jury over our brothers and sisters. We are fellow slaves under our common Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. 

Or to put it another way: We all are lying here in the hospital of the Church. Are you among the sick, or are you the doctor? If you are not the doctor, then who are you to be giving out free medical advice to the other patients? 

The role of the body in our repentance

Striving to attain perfect purity, it is needful to bear the labors of repentance both in soul and body, harmoniously and in equal measure. When the mind is granted such grace that it can enter upon its struggle against the passions without self-pity or self-indulgence, it receives suggestions, directions, and comforts of the Spirit, with Whose help it can successfully repulse from the soul all impure impacts that come from the lusts of the heart.

Combining with the mind or the spirit of man, this Spirit helps a man in his decision strictly to fulfill the commandments he has learnt, by directing him to repulse from the soul all passions, both those which mix with it from the side of the body and those of its own, which exist in it independently of the body. He teaches a man to keep the body in order - the whole of it, from head to foot:

eyes - to look with purity;

ears - to listen in peace (or to peaceful things), and not to take pleasure in gossip, slander and criticism;

tongue - to say only what is good, weighing every word, and allowing nothing impure or passionate to become mixed with its speech;

hands - to be moved primarily for lifting in prayer and for acts of mercy and generosity;

stomach - to be kept within suitable bounds in food and drink, allowing only as much as is needful to support the body, not letting lust and gluttony lead it beyond that measure;

feet - to walk righteously, according to the will of God, aiming at the service of good deeds.

In this way, the whole of the body becomes accustomed to every good and, submitting to the power of the Holy Spirit, gradually changes, so that it in the end it begins to participate, in a certain measure, in the qualities of the spiritual body, which it is to receive at the resurrection of the just. 

St. Anthony the Great. Epistle 1.20. From Early Fathers of the Philokalia, 

translated by E. Kadloubovsky and G.E.H. Palmer. Faber and Faber, 1981. 

Should we fear God?

The short answer: Yes, we should fear God. Sacred Scripture and the patristic tradition consistently praise the fear of God as the necessary foundation for our spiritual life. We tremble in the presence of the Lord, and fall on our faces before Him. Christ Himself commanded us to fear "Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell," namely, God.

But it must also be said that fear of God - while a necessary foundation of the Christian spiritual life - is not the end goal of the spiritual life. As St. John the Theologian reminds us in his first letter, "Perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love" (1 Jn 4:18)

This means that when our love for God is "perfect" - when we have arrived at the fulness of love for God - then fear will be cast off as something we no longer need. (See the quote by St. Symeon the New Theologian, below.) We will know that this love is perfected in us by the fact that we fulfill God's commandments. "If you love me, you will keep my commandments" (Jn 14:15). "And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says, 'I know him,' but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected" (1 Jn 2:3-5). Until then, fear of God is extremely useful and even necessary as a deterrent against sin.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; and all who practice it have a good understanding. 

 (Psalm 111:10)

Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob. 

(Psalm 114:7)

And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statues of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good?

(Deut. 10:12-13)

And do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 

(Matthew 10:28 ESV)

Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body [lit., flesh] and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God. 

(2 Cor. 7:1)

That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. 

(Rom. 11:20-22)

Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor. 

(1 Peter 2:17)

With fear of God, and with faith and love draw near.

(Deacon's invitation for the faithful to receive Holy Communion, 

Byzantine Divine Liturgy.)

I no longer fear God, because I love Him. 

(St. Anthony the Great)

A man who, instead of avoiding and running away from sufferings of the heart produced by the fear of eternal torment, willingly accepts them in his heart, will be determined, as he progresses, to tighten this bond (of fear) ever more and more, and will thus advance more quickly. It will lead him to the presence of the King of kings. When this comes to pass, then, as soon as he sees - however dimly - the glory of God, his bonds - fear - will at once fall off, his executioner will hasten away, and his heart's grief will turn into joy which will become in him a fountain of life or a spring for ever gushing forth: physically - rivers of tears; spiritually - peace, meekness and unspeakable delight, together with courage and free and unhindered readiness to strive towards every fulfillment of God's commandments. The latter is not yet possible for beginners . . . 

(St. Symeon the New Theologian, Practical and Theological Precepts, 69)

All Scriptural quotations are from the ESV.

The Discovery of St. Phanourios

We know nothing for certain about the background of St Phanourius, nor exactly when he lived. Tradition says that when the island of Rhodes had been conquered by Moslems, the new ruler of the island wished to rebuild the walls of the city, which had been damaged in previous wars. Several ruined buildings were near the fortress, and stone from these buildings was used to repair the walls at the end of the fifteenth century, or the beginning of the sixteenth.

While working on the fortress, the Moslems uncovered the ruins of a beautiful church. Several icons, most of them badly damaged, were found on the floor. One icon, of St Phanourius, looked as if it had been painted that very day. The local bishop, whose name was Nilus, was called to see the icon. It said, "Saint Phanourius."

The saint is depicted as a young soldier holding a cross in his right hand. On the upper part of the cross is a lighted taper. Twelve scenes from his life are shown around the border of the icon. These scenes show him being questioned by an official, being beaten with stones by soldiers, stretched out on the ground while soldiers whip him, then having his sides raked with iron hooks. He is also shown locked up in prison, standing before the official again, being burned with candles, tied to a rack, thrown to the wild animals, and being crushed by a large rock. The remaining scenes depict him standing before idols holding burning coals in his hands, while a demon stands by lamenting his defeat by the saint, and finally, the saint stands in the midst of a fire with his arms raised in prayer.

These scenes clearly revealed that the saint was a martyr. Bishop Nilus sent representatives to the Moslem ruler, asking that he be permitted to restore the church. Permission was denied, so the bishop went to Constantinople and there he obtained a decree allowing him to rebuild the church.

At that time, there was no Orthodox bishop on the island of Crete. Since Crete was under the control of Venice, there was a Latin bishop. The Venetians refused to allow a successor to be consecrated when an Orthodox bishop died, or for new priests to be ordained, hoping that in time they would be able to convert the Orthodox population to Catholicism. Those seeking ordination were obliged to go to the island of Kythera.

It so happened that three young deacons had traveled from Crete to Kythera to be ordained to the holy priesthood. On their way back, they were captured at sea by Moslems who brought them to Rhodes to be sold as slaves. Lamenting their fate, the three new priests wept day and night.

While in Rhodes the priests heard of the miracles performed by the holy Great Martyr Phanourius. They began to pray to him with tears, asking to be freed from their captivity. Each of the three had been sold to a different master, and so remained unaware of what the others were doing.

By the mercy of God, each of the priests was allowed by his master to pray at the restored church of St Phanourius. All three arrived at the same time and prostrated themselves before the icon of the saint, asking to be delivered from the hands of the Hagarenes (Moslems, descendants of Hagar). Somewhat consoled, the priests left the church and returned to their masters.

That night St Phanourius appeared to the three masters and ordered them to set the priests free so that they could serve the Church, or he would punish them. The Moslems ignored the saint's warning, believing the vision to be the result of sorcery. The cruel masters bound the priests with chains and treated them even worse than before.

Then St Phanourius went to the priests and freed them from their shackles, promising that they would be freed the next day. Appearing once more to the Moslems, the holy martyr told them severely, "If you do not release your slaves by tomorrow, you shall witness the power of God!"

The next morning, all the inhabitants of the homes where the priests were held awoke to find themselves blind, paralyzed, and in great pain. They considered what they were to do, and so decided to send for the priests. When the three priests arrived, they asked them whether they could heal them. The priests replied, "We will pray to God. May His will be done!"

Once more St Phanourius appeared to the Hagarenes, ordering them to send to the church a document granting the priests their freedom. He told them that if they refused to do this, they would never recover their sight or health. All three masters wrote letters releasing the priests, and sent the documents to the church, where they were placed before the icon of St Phanourius.

Before the messengers returned from the church, all those who had been blind and paralyzed were healed. The priests joyfully returned to Crete, carrying with them a copy of the icon of St Phanourius. Every year they celebrated the Feast of St Phanourius with deep gratitude for their miraculous deliverance.

The blessing of "phanouropita,"
bread baked in honor of St. Phanourios.

The saint's name sounds similar to the Greek verb "phanerono," which means "to reveal" or "to disclose." For this reason, people pray to St Phanourius to help them find lost objects. When the object is recovered, they bake a sweet bread and share it with the poor, offering prayers for the salvation of saint's mother. Her name is not known, but according to tradition, she was a sinful woman during her life. St Phanourius has promised to help those who pray for his mother in this way. 

St. Phanourios is commemorated on August 27. 

From the website of the Orthodox Church in America