| Photo: Andrey Kiselev, www.pravmir.ru While we are busy making our ways in the world we still feel something inside, a dissatisfaction, a slight discomfort, a feeling that something isn " t quite right. We aren " t really happy and we don " t know why. Nothing seems to fill the hole we feel inside no matter how hard we try to fill it. So after we fill up the barns we have and find no lasting satisfaction in them, we accumulate more stuff and build bigger ones. Still, the excitement doesn " t last and we think, " I will build an even bigger one! That will do it! Just one more! " But that doesn " t do it either. Happiness is always just one step, one barn, one trophy spouse, one toy, one achievement away. Always just around the bend. The excitement over winning the lottery fades quickly, dissolving into that black hole inside we sense is ready to devour us. It is the fear of that interior emptiness that drives us so relentlessly. Life turns into a frantic exercise in trying to stay ahead of the uneasy feeling that is biting at our heels. It is an exhausting way of life with only momentary benefits and finally comes the day when it all ends in death and all we have worked for crumbles into dust or ends up in somebody else " s hands leaving us nothing to hold on to. It is easy to understand the existentialists, nihilists and the writer of Ecclesiastes, " vanity of vanity, all is vanity. " Why? Because we have forgotten the message. We are made in the image of the invisible God. If we ignore invisible things we are badly missing the boat. The road to happiness does not lie without, it lies within. When we finally recognize that everything we can put our hands on is passing away and everything we can gather is like sand through our fingers, then we begin to regain our memory. We are made in God " s image. Nothing we can see, touch or gather can make us happy, but God can. Until we pay attention to the vague sense of uneasiness we feel and get a handle on what that is all about, we will never find the way out. We have to stop trying to make it go away with whatever it is that gives us momentary relief and get on with finding some real answers. This means we have to stop running away and face the music. We need a little courage. It is, as we suspected, not an easy road. There is a barn made by God inside of us that needs filling. It is much bigger than we could ever build and there is only one thing that can fill it. |
| About Pages Проекты «Правмира» Raising Orthodox Children to Orthodox Adulthood The Daily Website on How to be an Orthodox Christian Today Twitter Telegram Parler RSS Donate Navigation Christ is Born! Glorify Him!: Homily for the Nativity of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ Source: Eastern Christian Insights Priest Philip LeMasters 07 January 2022 We gather today to celebrate the birth of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ for the salvation of the world. If our celebration were merely a sentimental time of good feelings or a cultural event, it would provide nothing more than a passing distraction from familiar problems that are often well beyond our control. Thanks be to God, Our Lord’s Nativity is not a momentary escape from reality, but an invitation to enter into reality itself and find the healing of our humanity in Him. If we are ever tempted to think that God is somehow remote from or unconcerned with our brokenness and pain, we need only look at the conditions in which the Son of God was born in order to be delivered from such delusions. Perhaps we have heard the story so many times that we no longer see the details clearly. The One Who is fully divine and fully human was born in a cave that served as a barn, and He had an animal’s feeding trough for His crib. He came into the world like a homeless person as the Son of a transient Jewish couple forced by the occupying Roman authorities to take a long, difficult, and dangerous journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem. The Theotokos endured the ordeal in the latter stages of pregnancy, accompanied by her elderly guardian Joseph. Since the wicked Herod wanted to kill the Messiah from His birth, the family fled for their lives in Egypt. Their situation was as precarious as that of refugees today who risk everything to escape from death at the hands of brutal, oppressive regimes. No doubt, some refugee babies are born in barns along the side of the road to this very day. In order to enter into the holy mystery of Christmas, we must allow our hopes, fears, and assumptions to be called into question by the Lord Who became a vulnerable baby born in the most dangerous of circumstances of the sort that remain all too common in our world of corruption. |
| About Pages Проекты «Правмира» Raising Orthodox Children to Orthodox Adulthood The Daily Website on How to be an Orthodox Christian Today Twitter Telegram Parler RSS Donate Navigation A Priest Remembers His Beatitude Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern America and New York Archpriest Peter Olsen 22 May 2022 Photo: orthochristian.com For those of us who were gifted to know Vladyka Hilarion, it was with deep sorrow and grief when the news reached us that Vladyka had passed over into the arms of the Lord in the Heavenly mansions. The news of Vladyka’s repose was an unexpected surprise for me, because I did not know that he had been ill. I had expected that Vladyka would be with us for some time to come. I count myself among all those who are grieving with shock and sadness. I first knew Vladyka at Holy Trinity Seminary in Jordanville, NY when I was a seminarian between 1977-1980. At the time Vladyka was a priestmonk. Vladyka Lavr (future Metropolitan of the ROCOR) had just been appointed as bishop in Jordanville. Vladyka Averky had just fallen asleep in the Lord. It was a golden era of the monastery. Among the monastic brotherhood there were still many of the original grace-filled and amazing elders who emigrated from Pochaev. Among these great monastics were Fr. Kiprian the iconographer, Fr. Vladmir who worked in the bookstore 1 , Fr. Sergei the “econom” ( эконом , financial steward), Hierodeacon Innokenty, Fr. Flor, Fr. Iov (still living) with whom I worked in the cow barn, Fr. Antony, Fr. Guriy, Fr. Nil the carpenter, Fr. Ionah, who sewed, baked bread in the fired kiln in the basement of the monastery building, and helped in the refectory, Fr. Ionah’s son Fr. Ignaty who conducted the choir, and Fr. Prokopy the cook. I can still hear Fr. Ionah yelling to Fr. Prokopy as the food was passed out to the brethren, “Davai kartosh а !” (Давай картоша ) , “Pass out the potatoes!” The story of these fathers is a whole story unto itself and could comprise an entire book similar to the popular book “Everyday Saints.” 2 |
| About Pages Проекты «Правмира» Raising Orthodox Children to Orthodox Adulthood The Daily Website on How to be an Orthodox Christian Today Twitter Telegram Parler RSS Donate Navigation Preparing to Appear with Christ in Glory Source: Eastern Christian Insights Priest Philip LeMasters 27 December 2015 In our time of so many distractions and worries, it is easy for forget why Christ was born, why He came among us a helpless baby in a cave used for a barn with an animal’s feeding trough for His crib. As St. Paul wrote in today’s epistle lesson, He appears so that we may appear with Him in glory. Both the first coming of His birth and the second coming of His return are so that we may share in His salvation. But to encounter Christ at either of His appearances is also to undergo a kind of judgment, for the truth about ourselves becomes evident when we enter into His presence. How we respond to Him reflects the state of our souls. The same is true of how we prepare to receive Him during this blessed season of Advent, of the Nativity Fast. Throughout the history of the Old Testament, there were those who ignored both the Law and the Prophets, who did not prepare and were not ready for the coming of the Messiah. That was also true at the time of the Savior’s birth when the wicked Herod tried to kill Him. On this Sunday of the Holy Forefathers, we commemorate those who did prepare, all those in the Old Testament who foretold or prefigured the coming of Christ. The first coming of our Lord at His Incarnation did not simply occur one day as a random event, but was the fulfillment of God’s plan to bring us into His divine life, which took many generations to fulfill. No one was forced to get ready for Him, and today we honor those who accepted the invitation to prepare for the coming of the Messiah. We want to use this season of prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and reconciliation to become more like them. That is difficult because we constantly face temptations to focus on other things. Like the guests invited to the great feast in today’s gospel, we often think that we have more appealing things to do. They turned down the invitation because they had land to inspect, oxen to test, or family responsibilities. In other words, they were normal human beings with everyday obligations. So their places at the banquet were taken by the most unlikely guests: the poor, the maimed, the blind, and the lame. Strangers from the highways and hedges came to the celebration, but none of those who were originally invited bothered to show up. |
| About Pages Проекты «Правмира» Raising Orthodox Children to Orthodox Adulthood The Daily Website on How to be an Orthodox Christian Today Twitter Telegram Parler RSS Donate Navigation Storms of Life Source: An UpWord Glance Fr. Stephen Powley 10 April 2019 Many years ago, a farmer owned land along the Atlantic seacoast. He constantly advertised for hired hands. Most people were reluctant to work on farms along the Atlantic. They dreaded the awful storms that raged across the Atlantic, wreaking havoc on the buildings and crops. As the farmer interviewed applicants for the job, he received a steady stream of refusals. Finally, a short, thin man, well past middle age, approached the farmer. “Are you a good farm hand?” the farmer asked him. “Well, I can sleep when the wind blows,” answered the little man. Although puzzled by this answer, the farmer, desperate for help, hired him. The little man worked well around the farm, busy from dawn to dusk, and the farmer felt satisfied with the man’s work. Then one night the wind howled loudly in from offshore. Jumping out of bed, the farmer grabbed a lantern and rushed next door to the hired hand’s sleeping quarters. He shook the little man and yelled, “Get up! A storm is coming! Tie things down before they blow away!” The little man rolled over in bed and said firmly, “No sir. I told you, I can sleep when the wind blows.” Enraged by the response, the farmer was tempted to fire him on the spot. Instead, he hurried outside to prepare for the storm. To his amazement, he discovered that all of the haystacks had been covered with tarpaulins. The cows were in the barn, the chickens were in the coops, and the doors were barred. The shutters were tightly secured. Everything was tied down. Nothing could blow away. The farmer then understood what his hired hand meant, so he returned to his bed to also sleep while the wind blew. AND THE MORAL TO THIS STORY : When you’re prepared, spiritually, mentally, and physically, you have nothing to fear. Can you sleep when the wind blows through your life? The hired hand in the story was able to sleep because he had secured the farm against the storm. |
| About Pages Проекты «Правмира» Raising Orthodox Children to Orthodox Adulthood The Daily Website on How to be an Orthodox Christian Today Twitter Telegram Parler RSS Donate Navigation Take Care of What is Most Important Source: Ramblings of a Redneck Priest Archpriest John Moses (+2019) 29 September 2019 Photo: миамир.рф A farmer once had a mule that was the hardest working mule that any farmer ever had. All of the farmers in the area would marvel at the strength and stamina of this mule, and what amazed them the most is that no matter how hard the farmer worked him, the mule never seemed to balk or complain like most mules. Clearly, the wealth and success of the farmer rested on the back of this faithful animal. One day, while working in the barn, the farmer got to thinking of his success and wondered how he might increase his profits. The land was producing all it could, so what else could be done? Then he thought, “What if I reduced the amount of grain that I give to the mule; I wonder what would happen?” So, the next morning he cut the amount of feed by one quarter. Sure enough, the mule worked just as hard and didn’t complain. Then a week later, he cut the grain by a third and again, the mule continued to work. The following week, he cut the grain in half. The mule seemed to go a little slower, but all in all, the work was good. The farmer became pleased with his plan since he saved a bit of money on the feed. This went on for a quite a while. Finally, the miserly farmer cut the feed by three-fourths. The mule struggled and labored but refused to give up and would not complain or balk at the yoke. Then, one morning, the farmer came out to yoke the mule, and found him dead in the stall. The moral is simple: feed the mule. You would think that such a thing would be a no-brainer: take care of what is most important. Yet, I have witnessed the tragedy of “cutting the feed” to the important things of life. I’ve seen it happen in families, in churches and in the hearts of Orthodox men and women. |
| About Pages Проекты «Правмира» Raising Orthodox Children to Orthodox Adulthood The Daily Website on How to be an Orthodox Christian Today Twitter Telegram Parler RSS Donate Navigation “For Me, the Bible is Bread”: A Conversation with Archpriest Gennady Fast Archpriest Gennady Fast 02 July 2012 Archpriest Gennady Fast On June 8, 2012, Archpriest Gennady Fast – Rector of the Church of Sts. Constantine and Helen in Abakan (Republic of Khakassia, Russia) and author of several fundamental works in the field of Biblical studies – gave a talk to students of the Moscow Theological Academy. Following his lecture, Fr. Gennady replied to questions addressed to him by Archpriest Leonid Grilikhes, head of the Department of Biblical Studies at the Moscow Theological Academy. Fr. Gennady, we are very grateful to you for meeting with the students of our academy and conducting a seminar on the Song of Songs. Meeting with you is always a “feast” of Biblical study. Please tell us how you first became acquainted with the Bible. I come from a deeply pious Protestant family. Our mother helped my brother and me study Holy Scripture from childhood. We lived in Kazakhstan from the time I was two, and one might say that I grew up on Bible stories from a children’s Bible. When I was ten, my cousin brought me a small New Testament in German. It stunned me; I read it hiding behind the barn. This was one of the most powerful impressions of my childhood. I took delight in the Word, reading it in my native German; it touched my soul and called me to God. From that time forward I began to search for how to be born again. This became the most important thing in my life, even though I was only ten. Later, after we had moved to another city in Kazakhstan, we formed a Bible study group, where we often gathered. Later, as a university student, I encountered Orthodoxy. I discovered that I had been swimming in only a small lake, while Orthodoxy was an entire ocean. This concerned above all the works of the Holy Fathers, in which I immersed myself completely. I began my study of ancient languages later. The Bible has always been my daily reading. One reads it not just for information, or even just as something holy, but as the word of God, as food for the soul. Once, in a vision, the Prophet Ezekiel ate a book. For me, the Bible is bread. |
| Augustine. Part 1. A book by Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov) is now in process at the Sretensky Monastery publishing house. It contains true stories that took place throughout the years, and were later used to illustrate points in the author’s sermons. The story that we are publishing today was related in a sermon on God’s Providence given in the Donskoi Monastery, 1992. The Holy Dormition-Pskov Caves Monastery. Photograph from temples.ru. This took place in 1986. I was still a young novice then, and had only one month previously been transferred from the Pskov-Caves Monastery to Moscow. Some one had had told Archbishop Pitirim, the head of the Moscow Patriarchate Publishing Department, that in the Pskov-Caves Monastery there was a novice (me) working in the cow barn, who had a degree from the university of cinematography. That very year, the government authorities had finally granted permission to the Church to prepare for the celebration of one thousand years since the Baptism of Russia. Trained people were needed right away, because for the first time in history Church life would be shown on television, and films would be made about Orthodoxy. So, I would come in handy. For me, returning to the city that I had left only a few years earlier for the Pskov-Caves Monastery, was a real tragedy. But my spiritual father, Fr. John (Krestiankin) said, “Obedience is above all. Stay in the place that your superiors have put you.” Nevertheless, once I was in Moscow, I took every opportunity to return to my beloved monastery, if only for a day. Well, one day Fr. Zenon, a monk-iconographer who lived in the Pskov-Caves Monastery at the time, called me on the phone, all upset. Without explaining anything over the phone, he asked me to come to the monastery immediately. I don’t remember what excuse I gave to Vladyka Pitirim, but the next morning I was in Fr. Zenon’s cell. What did Fr. Zenon tell me? Under conditions of great secrecy, he told me how several weeks ago, from the mountains of Abhazia, from the region where for some three or four decades monks had been living secretly under illegal circumstances, one monk was forced to descend into the world, and he was in serious danger. |
| Memory Eternal to Hierodeacon Makary On August 13, 2010, after a long and difficult illness, a monk of the Sretensky Stavropegic Monastery in Moscow, Hierodeacon Makary (in the world, Ivan Stanislavovich Lobodiuk) reposed in the Lord. Fr. Macary was born in 1972 in the city of Vorkuta to a family of geologists. After high school he entered Leningrad State University, where he studied art history. One day he went to visit Archpriest Nicholai Guryanov on Zalit Island, and the elder showed him his path to salvation—a monastery. Even as a youth, Ivan often visited the Pskov-Caves Monastery. Later he went to live there, fulfilling his obedience in the cattle barn and doing other domestic chores for two years. His stories about this period of his life were filled with vivid recollections of his first steps in religious life. He always remembered his monastic brothers there with great warmth and gratefulness. When in 1995 a podvorye of the Pskov-Caves Monastery was opened in Moscow, Ivan came there as one of its first novices. He labored for a while in the monastery’s publishing house, and was greatly responsible for building up its professional staff. Ivan received the monastic tonsure on January 1, 1999, receiving the name Makary in honor of Elder Makary of Optina. He was ordained a deacon soon after his tonsure, and in 2000, on the feast of the Meeting of the Vladimir Mother of God (the monastery’s patronal feast) he was awarded the double orarion by Patriarch Alexei II. Fr. Makary was a remarkable deacon, and his prayerful service adorned each Vigil Service and festal Liturgy in Sretensky Monastery. His voice was full and strong, and his every pronouncement and reading was solemn and festal. Fr. Makary was beloved by all because he himself loved everyone and never nursed any grudges for anything; no one was ever intentionally hurt by Fr. Makary. He was joyful, with a sharp wit and excellent sense of humor—just a word from him was enough to lift your spirits. For the past few years, Fr. Makary was seriously and incurably ill. Knowing his fatal diagnosis, he never desponded over it or lost his good spirit, but rather bore his cross of illness with humility and thankfulness to God. He even found the strength at all times to encourage his brothers who could see his deteriorating physical state. On August 8, his last Sunday before his death, Fr. Makary overcame an especially torturous crisis of what proved to be his death agony, and served as senior deacon at the Divine Liturgy. |
| Miraculous appearance of icon of St. Nicholas in village of Velikoretskoye Kirov, January 5, 2017 A miracle has occurred in the village of Velikoretskoye—an icon was found. An image of St. Nicholas has shone through on a piece of old roofing which was being used for household needs, reports GTRK-Vyatka . It occurred at the Trifonov Monastery farmstead, where livestock are usually kept for the needs of the parish. Recently one of the novices, stopping by the barn, felt someone’s presence. Looking around, he found that on an old piece of metal covering up one of the outbuilding’s windows there was manifested an image of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. It is no accident, the clergy believe, that the icon appeared on the third day after the feast of St. Nicholas. On that day the first service in the renovated church in Velikoretskoye, named for the saint, took place. It is emblematic that this is the second such acquisition in the village’s long history. Hieromonk Nikolai: “Of course, it is perhaps too early to search for any signs, but for some it is already a sign. But definitely one thing is clear, that such events come not from man… After all, nobody could propose such a thing… Imagine, in a barnyard, in a cowshed, suddenly… Such tokens, signs, reminds us that, as our Lord Jesus Christ said, above all we must seek the Kingdom of God, and the rest will be added unto you.” The icon is now found in the Transfiguration church in the village of Velikoretskoye. It was placed in a wooden frame and now they are serving Molebens. The image, the clergy say, is on its own becoming clearer with every day. People from all over the region have come to see the miracle. Ukhat resident Alexander Zhemirev found himself passing by Velikoretskoye coincidentally. Hearing about the miraculous finding of the holy image, he was glad to have wound up there at precisely that time. “I was pleasantly surprised that this happened. I take this as God’s mercy which the Lord gives us sinners to strengthen our faith. Now we have New Year’s coming and people are beginning to think more about food and things like that, and here the Lord shows us that not everything is confined to the New Year’s meal—there is still fasting and prayer,” said Zhemirev. |
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