| Therefore, let the mouths of all the heretics and neo-protestants remain silent from blaspheming against the Queen of the angels and Mother of God and of the righteous and God fearing Joseph concerning the evil and foolish thoughts that the Most Holy and Immaculate Virgin Mary, the Theotokos, the " full of grace " could have other children. Denying all the dumb blasphemies of the heretics, we, the children of the Church of Christ, let us always have the Mother of God as our continuous supplicator and intercessor for our salvation before God. Let us incessantly honor her name as Mother of the Son of God. Let the virgins glorify her as an Ever-Virgin mother, the priests and monastics as the mother of the Great Arch-Priest Jesus Christ, while we, the pious Christians, together with the angels and the saints let us sing daily the Akathist and the canon of the Paraclete to the Mother of God, repeating all together the holy hymn: " Rejoice, Bride, Unwedded. " From the Journal " Orthodox Filotheos Martyria " published by " Orthodox Kypseli " in Thessaloniki, as found at Impantokratoros . Archimandrite Cleopa (Ilie) 2 декабря 2015 г. Предыдущий Следующий Смотри также Akathist to the Theotokos, Joy of All Who Sorrow Akathist to the Theotokos, Joy of All Who Sorrow Rejoice, O Virgin Theotokos, full of Grace, Joy of all who sorrow! From: The Orthodox Veneration of Mary the Birthgiver of God St. John of Shanghai From: The Orthodox Veneration of Mary the Birthgiver of God St. John of Shanghai The Apostles gave Her most pure body over to burial with sacred hymns, and on the third day they opened the tomb so as once more to venerate the remains of the Mother of God together with the Apostle Thomas, who had arrived then in Jerusalem. But they did not find the body in the tomb and in perplexity they returned to their own place; and then, during their meal, the Mother of God Herself appeared to them in the air, shining with heavenly light, and informed them that Her Son had glorified Her body also, and She, resurrected, stood before His Throne. At the same time She promised to be with them always. On Holy Tradition Elder Cleopa (Ilie) On Holy Tradition Archmimadrite Cleopa (Ilie) Holy Tradition is the teaching of the Church, given by God with a living voice, a portion of which was later written down. Like Holy Scripture, Holy Tradition also contains Holy Revelation, and is therefore fundamental for our salvation. Holy Tradition is the life of the Church in the Holy Spirit; and, in concord with the enduring life of the Church, it is a wellspring of Holy Revelation, and thus it possesses the same authority as Holy Scripture. Комментарии © 1999-2015 Православие.Ru |
| On the Thousand Year Reign (Chiliasm) Ch. 16 from The Truth of Our Faith by Elder Cleopa of Romania Archimandrite Cleopa (Ilie) Today and tomorrow we are presenting a series of four articles on the heresy of Chiliasm, or Millennialsm—that is, that Christ will have a literal, earthly kingdom lasting for 1,000 years at the end of time. This belief, popular amongst many Protestants today, arises from a misinterpretation of Scripture, and our saints and holy elders hold for us the key to properly understanding Scripture, and the end times, as far as it is given to us to know. The first article is an excerpt from The Truth of Our Faith: A Discourse from Holy Scripture on the Teachings of True Christianity, by Elder Cleopa of Romania (Greece: Uncut Mountain Press , 2000). Inquirer : There are those who maintain that between the Second Coming of the Lord and the end of the world Christ will reign upon the earth, governing, Himself, along with His elect for a thousand years. What is the truth of the matter, Father? Elder Cleopa: This idea is an ancient one. In the first centuries of Christianity it was endorsed by the so-called Chiliasts or Millenialists. Against them rose the entire ancient Church and its most important representatives. The divine Fathers of the Church indicated in their writings that the one thousand year reign referred to in the book of Revelation signifies an infinite number of years, i.e. a kingdom that shall have no end. This we know well since from Holy Scripture it is clear that the Kingdom of Christ is not of this world (Jn. 18:36). In Holy Scripture it is clearly indicated that the Kingdom of Heaven is also the Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Christ, in so much as both Saint John the Forerunner and Christ Himself called it so. This Kingdom of Christ will be spiritual and will reign over the internal world of man, while externally being revealed in the righteousness, peace and joy of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17). Christ Himself established this kingdom and explained in His parables how it will appear, who it will include and what power it will possess. His reign will not endure for a thousand years, but eternally (Lk. 1:33). Its inhabitants will include all faithful Christians from all the peoples of the world (Ps. 116:1-2), it will reign over all creation, and it will be a kingdom of righteousness (Dan. 7:13-14). It will be a kingdom made up of souls (Mt. 28:18)—souls that have already entered and lived within it in this present life. |
| In everything, he was first—at prayer, at going to church, at teaching, at fasting, and at almsgiving. For this he was loved and obeyed by all, for he spoke both by word and by deed. In the time of his abbacy, much peace and tranquility reigned in our monastery. Fr. Ioanichie: What were the most notable legacies that these two great abbots, Protosinghel Ioanichie (Moroi) and Archimandrite Cleopa (Ilie), left for the community of Sihastria Monastery? Fr. Joel: Fr. Ioanichie (Moroi), the abbot of us all, left the cenobitic life at Sihastria, founded by him, according to his personal example. His pure life—ascetic, and full of love for the whole community—helped us greatly. Fr. Cleopa bequeathed us the uninterrupted reading of the Psalter in church, his wise teachings which instruct us all on the path to salvation, and his love, which captivates every soul. With Fr. Cleopa in our midst we have no need to care for anything except to follow his instructions. God is with him, and we see and feel the reality of this fact. Many faithful monks, priests, and hierarchs admire him and come to hear him speak, even from abroad, because he has in him the grace of God. All the brothers and monks desire to remain constantly close to him, due to his boundless love, felt by all who are near him. At any place and any time he is ready to give you unequaled counsel. Because of this, we all seek him out and love him. Fr. Ioanichie: What is your opinion of Fr. Cleopa’s transfer to Slatina Monastery as abbot in 1949? Fr. Joel: It was a true blessing from God, both for Slatina Monastery and for the faithful in Bucovina. He formed a strong community at Slatina, with the same monastic rule as at Sihastria, beautiful services, a sermon and a meal for all the worshippers. Through his teachings and sermons he strengthened and united the Orthodox faithful against the sects which seek to deceive them. Fr. Ioanichie: Between the years 1949 and 1959 you were abbot at Sihastria Monastery. How did you carry out this difficult obedience? |
| He lived for a time in the solitude of the Neam Mountains, accompanying Archimandrite Cleopa Ilie during the hard years of persecution of Romanian monasticism. Father Arsenie suffered a hard life, and the trials of the communist prisons where he was humiliated and beaten for his faith in God. While suffering for his religious convictions, he turned his prison into a window to heaven, because faith and love cannot be ever imprisoned inside any walls. After his release from prison, Father Arsenie served as missionary priest in Transylvania and within the Archdiocese of Bucharest, at Cheia, Cernica and Cldruani, and from 1976 on at the Saint Mary Stravropegic Monastery Techirghiol. Father Arsenie was a good orator and writer. His books are lights and steps to resurrection for his readers, because they show that eternity can be hidden in a moment, as he named one of his books, Eternity Hidden in a Moment (2004)—the moment of the meeting with God, transfigured in continual progress in the light and love of the Holy Trinity. As spiritual father of several servants of the Church and of the crowds of faithful, Archimandrite Arsenie (Papacioc) was a wise counselor, even-tempered and merciful, who always urged the faithful to cultivate the greatest Christian virtue—the love for God and neighbor. Fr. Arsenie was more a healer of the souls wounded by sins, than a judge of sinners. He harmoniously merged merciful kindness with encouragement for spiritual improvement. He was a man of peace and spiritual joy. His face, full of light, peace, joy, and hope, was always an icon of the presence of the deifying grace in his spiritual life and work. He had in his soul the peace and joy of the Kingdom of God, which he looked for and preached all his life on the earth. Now the soul of Rev. Archimandrite Arsenie (Papacioc) has departed for the Kingdom of God, full of years, virtues and spiritual gifts, which he cultivated through much prayer, patience and effort. We pray God to give rest to his soul amongst the host of His righteous servants and saints, and we convey words of comfort and blessing in the firm hope of the Resurrection, of the light and peace in the Kingdom of God, to the members of the community of Saint Mary, Techirghiol Monastery, to all his mourning disciples, and to all those who knew and loved him. |
| Dionysiou Monastery, Mt. Athos. Beloved faithful! Today, however, we ought to be glad, for on earth is born the Mother of Life, the Virgin Mary, the holiest human being, Who God chose from before the foundation of the world to bear Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit in Bethlehem of Judea. May babes and virgins rejoice today, children and youths, mothers and widows, priests and monks, for to us is born our spiritual Mother and foremost Supplicator, Comforter, and Intercessor before the All-Holy Trinity. Let us go to Nazareth in Galilee to bring the angelic praises to the Infant and Virgin Mary, the Most Pure Theotokos, born of the holy ancestors of God Joachim and Anna in their old age. However, in order to praise the Child and Virgin Mary, we must have good-natured hearts, as have infants, and a pure life untainted by carnal sins. To praise Her Who was to become the Mother of the Son of God we must have the heart of a mother, the tenderness and patience of a mother, and the love and compassion of a mother for all. Otherwise our prayers and our gifts, if they come from a heart full of sins, hatred and evil, will not be received by the Most Holy Virgin Mary. With these joyous thoughts full of hope and with hearts full of mercy and humility let us enter into the holy churches and, having kissed the icon of the Mother of God, let us raise up to Her with faith this short prayer: “The door of compassion open unto us, O blessed Theotokos, for hoping in thee, let us not perish; through thee may we be delivered from adversities; for thou art the salvation of the Christian race.” Amen. Archimandrite Cleopa (Ilie) Translated by Jesse Dominick 21 сентября 2016 г. Рейтинг: 4.4 Голосов: 3 Оценка: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 The Romanian Orthodox Church uses the New Calendar and thus celebrates these feasts on Sept. 8 and Aug. 15. Canon of the Panikhida, Ode 8. In Scriptural languages her name is “Maria.” The letters correspond in Elder Cleopa’s Romanian tongue. Matins Canon, Theophany of the Lord, Ode 9 Irmos. |
| Elder Arsenie (Papacioc) of Romania †July 19 Today, July 19. 2015 marks the 4th anniversary of the falling asleep in the Lord of the revered elder Archimandrite Arsenie (Papacioc). The twentieth century saw unspeakable persecutions against the Church in Romania, but as is always the case, the Church is made stronger in adversity. " The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church, " and thus the twentieth century also saw great sanctity in the Romanian Orthodox Church. Several world-renowned elders rose up in the Romanian land, including Elder Cleopa (Ilie), Elder Arsenie (Boca), Elder Justin (Parvu), and Elder Arsenie (Papacioc), among others. Laboring in asceticism in secluded Romanian forests and in prisons, Elder Arsenie learned the fine art of true theology —that is, true prayer, and the war against the sinful passions. His counsels are down-to-earth yet profound, and thus many are drawn to his example, both in Romania and around the world. In honor of the repose of this modern-day elder, we offer a video of the elder, giving a word on humility, suffering, and sacrifice, all of which he knew first-hand, followed by a compilation of his sayings on various soul-profiting topics. Watch more videos of Elder Arsenie here Elder Arsenie (Papacioc) of Romania, blessed memory, was part of the great generation of confessors for Christ that had suffered much while imprisoned for their faith under the atheist [communist] regime of the east. His words, not academic but rather simple, down to earth, have great authority as they are spoken from an experience of suffering and with a burning love for everyone. On Humility The humble man never acknowledges himself as such ... for he would not be humble! Humility is the only power that can free the human soul and the nations. There is only one way to follow: humility! Christ was humble, then who are we not to be …? Do you wish to overcome evil: humble yourself and do not judge. Then, you will be free. Humility leads you to God, but love tastes God! |
| The king of Assyria thought that Manasseh would live one week at most, so he gave him only bran bread and water to eat twice a week. And the king of Babylon repeatedly asked his servants: “Hasn’t King Manasseh died?” “No, Your Majesty. He is still alive and stirring in his cage,” he was answered. “It’s a surprise!” So the king of Judah, bound with chains, lived in that cage not for a week or a month, not even for ten months, but for over seven years. And it was an eerie miracle—seeing a man with his head shackled to his feet, giving him a tiny amount of water and bran bread two times a week… But he still was alive. This king was nothing but skin and bones following all these torments, suffering, and tribulations that he had to endure in that bitter sorrow; but God did preserve the spark of life in him. Can you imagine what he went through there? And it was then that Manasseh remembered God and said to himself: “God has inflicted these torments and punishments upon me because I provoked His wrath—I had turned away from Him and compelled my people to make sacrifices to idols!” And he thought in his heart: “If God has preserved my life up to this day, then what does He want from me? He surely wants my salvation!” And then he cried out from the bottom of his soul, shedding tears and fervently praying to God: “Lord, the God of Abraham , Isaac, and Jacob, God of heaven and earth! Lord, since You have done great things for me, not letting me die, prolonging my torments in these awful chains, and not cutting the thread of my life short, You are clearly waiting for me to turn to You. “O Lord my God, I am unable to kneel down, to prostrate myself, to pray to You because I am bound unto great pain with these chains of iron and bronze, which have coiled me up like a ring, head to toe. “I cannot make prostrations, cannot crumble to dust because I have been chained. But I implore Thee, O Lord my God, and bend the knee of my heart: remember, Lord, that if You show mercy to the righteous, it is nothing marvelous. For You have appointed repentance not for Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their righteous offspring, but for the sinners. |
| Tweet Нравится Open Unto Us the Doors of Mercy A Homily on the Nativity of the Theotokos Archimandrite Cleopa (Ilie) Fresco, Studenica Monastery, Serbia (1304). Thy Nativity, O Virgin, Hath proclaimed joy to the whole universe! The Sun of Righteousness, Christ our God, Hath shone from Thee, O Theotokos! By annulling the curse, He hath bestowed a blessing. By destroying death, He hath granted us eternal Life. Troparion of the Feast Beloved faithful! When I think of the great honor and glory with which the Most-Good and Most-Generous God has adorned in the heavens the Mother of God, when I think about the eternal doxology with which the heavenly powers praise Her, then, when I think about those services and prayers which all the children of the Church of Christ lift up to Her here on the earth, and of the laudatory words composed in Her honor by those holy and elect of God, the thought enjoins me, foolishly, to add today, to the bright feast of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos, this tiny droplet to the great sea of praises in Her honor. This is what I would like to say. My beloved brothers in Christ, have you ever pondered why the holy and divine fathers who composed the Synaxarion and established the feasts of the Lord, adorning the course of the year of the Lord, began with the Nativity of the Theotokos and ended with Her Dormition ? After all we, as you know, in the first month of the new Church year, on September 21, celebrate the Nativity of Most Holy Theotokos, and in the last month of the Church year, on August 28, we celebrate her Dormition. The mystical reason why the year begins and ends with feasts of the Theotokos is that the All-Merciful God was pleased to begin and finalize His plan for the salvation of mankind from servitude to the devil and the torments of hell by the intercession of the Mother of God. Understand, dear brothers, that God opened His Divine plan for the salvation of the world through the Theotokos already at the beginning of the world, when He told Eve that her seed would crush the serpent’s head (Gen. 3:15). For about Christ it was said “Seed of the Woman” as having been born not from the seed of a man. At the very beginning of the world the All-Good God already through the old Eve in this mysterious way pointed to the new, spiritual Eve, that is to the Mother of God, able to bear in the fullness of time the New Adam, Christ, Who by His Incarnation crushed the head of the serpent, and death, and sin, for as in Adam all die, so in Christ all are quickened (cf. 1 Cor. 15:22). |
| Tweet Нравится The Bravery and Courage of the Myrrhbearing Women Archimandrite Cleopa (Ilie) Among the great virtues adorning the lives of the holy Myrrhbearing Women , the most striking were their holy zeal for Christ, their reverence, and their courage of soul. The Jews and Pilate placed a protection and fortification at the Tomb of Christ, our Savior, that His disciples could not come by night and steal Him! They rolled a huge stone up against the Lord’s Tomb, sealed it off, and placed strong and armed soldiers on watch. But all of this did not scare or frighten the holy Myrrhbearing Women. Their great zeal, sacred reverence, and courage of soul passed over all the Jews’ obstacles, and all the guards at the Tomb did not shake their resolve. But one thought, but one desire led their minds and hearts— to serve the funeral of their dear Savior with fullness of faith and with reverence. Solomon once said, One man among a thousand have I found; but a woman among all those have I not found (Ecc. 7:28). And here are woman who are more brave than men. Men, the disciples of Christ, were hiding from fear of the Jews. Peter, fervent and firm in faith, thrice denied the Lord, of which he then repented and bitterly wept (cf. Lk. 22:62). But women, by nature timid and weak and often afraid even when there is no danger, here, at the service of the burial of our Most Holy Savior, turned out to be stronger and braver than men. They were not afraid of the Jews’ wrath or the brutality of the soldiers, and the guard at the Lord’s Tomb also did not agitate their hearts. The disciples, men, affrighted and disbanded in all directions, as the Savior had predicted to them beforehand. But the holy women gathered themselves. The men were hiding, but the women went out in the light of day, heading to the market and buying myrrh and spices to anoint the Life-bearing Body of Christ. O, blessed women, how were you not afraid to go out alone at night, and how did you dare to approach that place guarded by royal soldiers, and how did you not fear, but strove to roll away the stone, break the seal, open the tomb and anoint the Body of the Lord with spices? These ascetic feats sprang from the zeal, reverence, and great bravery of your souls. |
| Tweet Нравится The Veneration of the Theotokos According to the Bible Archimandrite Cleopa (Ilie) We Orthodox Christians honor the Theotokos Mary more than all the saints and angels of heaven for she was found worthy to give birth to Christ, the Savior of the world by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. The honor we render to the Mother of the Lord is exceptional, most honorable and most revered, for she is not only " a friend of His,” as are the other saints, but she is Most Holy (Panagia) above all the saints and all the angels. For this the angels as much as people venerate and honor her with prayers, hymns, church services and eulogies. Similarly the Archangel Gabriel greeted her at the annunciation (Luke 1:28-29) as well as Saint Elizabeth, the mother of Saint John the Baptist (Luke 1:40-43). The Most Holy Virgin herself prophesied through the Holy Spirit For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed; for He that is mighty has done to me great things (Luke 1:48-49). From these words we understand that the exceptional honor accorded to the Mother of the Lord is intentional and appointed by God Himself. This exceptional honor that is accorded by the Orthodox Church to the Ever-Virgin Mary forms the veneration of the Mother of the Lord. In the framework of the veneration of the Most Holy Theotokos, we must firstly mention the great feasts of the Mother of God, which are: The Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos, the Entry, the Annunciation, and the Dormition of the Theotokos. Then the services celebrated in the churches and the monasteries in her honor, the salutations, the canons of supplications, the hagiographic icons decorated so beautifully, especially the miraculous ones, and many other prayers through which we ask the help of the Mother of the Lord every day of our lives. We honor the Mother of God because she is the mother who gave birth to the Son of God and the first one who intercedes for the world in the presence of the Most Holy Trinity. She helps us much more in the conquest of salvation by her holy prayers. |
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