| XXXI: Prayer to the Saints The saints are above all our heavenly friends, who can help us progress on the path to salvation, on the path to God. And only secondarily are saints those that can help us in specific everyday matters. We continue a series on prayer, transcribed from television episodes presented on Russian television in the spring of 1999 by Fr. (now Metropolitan) Hilarion (Alfeyev) with the blessing of His Holiness, the late Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia. Continued from part XXX The tradition of the veneration of saints in the Christian Church is very ancient; it has existed from the very moment of the Church’s appearance, from the first years of its existence. Christian churches in antiquity were built on the graves of martyrs. And it was the blood of martyrs, according to the words of one ancient ecclesial writer, that was the “seed of Christianity”; that is, Christianity spread through the exploit of the martyrs. The martyrs are people who showed by the example of their own life and death that man can repeat Christ’s exploit; that earthly man, for all his weaknesses and infirmities, can likewise sacrifice himself for people and for God, as did Jesus Christ. He who offered himself in sacrifice became a spiritual hero in the eyes of other people, especially in the eyes of those who knew him. The veneration of this saint began immediately after his death. The tradition has been preserved to the present day according to which an Orthodox church must have at least a small particle of a saint. One should not perform the Divine Liturgy on a simple table: it is to be performed on a Holy Table or special board into which part of the relics of a saint is sewn. The reason for this is that martyrs ant saints are the foundation upon which the Christian Church is built. We pray to saints because these were people who, although they were like us, thanks to the exploit of their lives attained deification, becoming like Christ. We pray to them because they followed the path that we are trying to follow. And the experience of many Christians witnesses to the fact that the saints hear our prayers and answer them. |
| Everyday Saints and Other Stories Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov). Everyday Saints and Other Stories. Translation by Julian Henry Lowenfeld. Pokrov Publications, 2012. 504 pages, illustrated. ISBN 978-0-9842848-3-2, 978-0-9842848-4-9. PREFACE It was a warm September evening, as we, the still-young novices of the Pskov Caves Monastery near Pskov, were strolling about the corridors and galleries of the ancient monastery walls, making ourselves comfortable, looking out high above its gardens and fields. As we talked, we began reminiscing about how each of us had come to be at the monastery. And the more we listened to each other, the more amazed we became. It was 1984 at the time, and there were five of us. Four had grown up in nonreligious families, and even for the fifth in our group, the son of a clergyman, our preconceptions of the sort of people who go off to join a monastery were utterly Soviet. Just a year earlier, each of us had firmly believed that the only people who ever entered a monastery nowadays were fanatics or complete failures in life. Losers, in short—or else victims of unrequited love. But looking at each other, we could see that this simply wasn’t true at all. The youngest in our group was just eighteen, and the oldest was twenty- six. All of us were healthy, strong, and attractive young men. One had graduated with highest honors from university with a degree in mathematics; another, despite his youth, was already an acclaimed artist in Leningrad. Yet another of our group had lived most of his life in New York, where his father was working, and had joined our monastery after completing his third year of university. The youngest (the priest’s son) was a talented engraver and wood carver, and had just completed his education at an art school. And I had recently graduated from the screenwriter’s division of the prestigious National State Cinematic Institute. In short, each of us youngsters had enviable worldly careers to look forward to. So why had we come to the monastery? And why were we planning to stay here for the rest of our lives? We knew very well. It was because, for each of us, a new world had suddenly opened up, incomparable in its beauty. And that world had turned out to be boundlessly more attractive than the one in which we had previously lived our young and so-far very happy lives. In this book I want to tell you about this beautiful new world of mine, where we live by laws completely different from those in “normal” worldly life—a world of light and love, full of wondrous discoveries, hope, happiness, trials and triumphs, where even our defeats acquire profound significance: a world in which, above all, we can always sense powerful manifestations of divine strength and comfort. |
| Everyday Saints and Other Stories being translated into Chinese Shanghai, June 12, 2014 On June 9-11, 2014, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and on the Shanghai International Studies University’s invitation, executive secretary of the Patriarchal Council for Culture and Abbot-Superior of the Moscow Sretensky Stavropegic Monastery Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov) visited Shanghai. The university’s Russian language and literature department has launched an initiative to translate Archimandrite Tikhon’s book, Everyday Saints and Other Stories , into Chinese. Dean of the department professor Chan Zh Li and Archimandrite Tikhon have signed an agreement about translation and publication of the book. The university President professor Cao Deming, teachers, undergraduate and postgraduate students were present at the signing. Also negotiations for cooperation between the Patriarchal Council for Culture and the Shanghai International Studies University were held. Source: the Patriarchal Council for Culture/ Patriarchia.ru . 13 июня 2014 г. Смотри также Комментарии Dr. Fay Mpras 17 августа 2014, 18:00 Will the book be translated into Greek soon? Мы в соцсетях Подпишитесь на нашу рассылку |
| Serbian translation of the book Everyday Saints released Belgrade, November 14, 2012 In late October, the Serbian edition of the book, Everyday Saints by Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov) was released. The book was published by Informatika publishing house and was presented at the Russian books stand in the International book fair in Belgrade from October 21 through 28, 2012. Several well-known Serbian translators took part in the Serbian translation. 14 ноября 2012 г. ... Комментарии Мы в соцсетях Подпишитесь на нашу рассылку |
| “Everyday Saints” wins popular vote in major Russian literary competition Moscow, November 27, 2012 The original Russian version of Everyday Saints and Other Stories by Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov) has won Russia’s highly prestigious “Big Book” literary award for the most popular book. The award ceremony took place on Tuesday, November 27 in Moscow. Readers in Russia were invited to vote for their favorite book out of fourteen finalists on the website, Bookmate. The readers were given an opportunity to freely access the text of the book on the site and read it before they entered their vote. There were two first place awards given by “Big Book”—one determined by a jury, the other by popular vote. The jury chose My Lieutenant, a World War II novel by Daniel Graninu, while an overwhelming majority of readers chose the book of stories by the Abbot of Moscow’s Sretensky Monastery, Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov). This is the second major award earned by Everyday Saints in 2012. In September, it won the “Book of the Year Award” for best prose, also by a wide margin. The book became a runaway bestseller from the time of its release in late 2011, with over a million copies sold. Just a week before the “Big Book” laureates were announced, Archimandrite Tikhon in an online conference stirred even greater enthusiasm among his readers when he confessed that he would not be against writing a sequel. The English version of Everyday Saints was released on October 1, 2012 by Pokrov Publications . 28 ноября 2012 г. ... Комментарии Мы в соцсетях Подпишитесь на нашу рассылку |
| Today, on the first Sunday after Pentecost and the empowering of the Holy Spirit upon the Church, we celebrate All Saints Sunday as we honor all the faithful people throughout history who have dedicated their lives to following Jesus Christ and living a life in union with our Triune God. Look around at the walls of our beautiful church and take note of all the saints, the holy ones. We see men and women, young and old, rich and poor, from all walks of life. Yes, there are bishops, priests, monks and nuns as well as martyrs who suffered and died for Christ but there are also simple, everyday people – some illiterate, others of little worldly influence or power, people that society may think of little yet who in the eyes of God stand in the company of the righteous. As we honor and celebrate all the saints known and unknown throughout history, we must pause and reflect on the fact that sainthood is not reserved for only a few select people! Sainthood should be the normal growth of every Christian’s life in our journey into union with the Holy Trinity. The Good News is that God not only expects us to become living saints because He has created us in His image and likeness and given us divine potential, but He offers us His Holy Spirit to inspire, enlighten, and empower us on this path of holiness! As we reflect on this calling, however, remember that saints are not perfect people but are sinners who live in constant repentance, continually turning back toward God, they are sinners who accept the mercy of God in humility and who continually open their hearts to the Holy Spirit so that they can be illumined by His grace. In other words, saints not only walk with Jesus Christ daily, but they choose to have Christ live in them, they consciously decide to allow the Holy Spirit to guide them at every moment of their lives! In today’s Epistle and Gospel readings, we received some concrete advice on how we can walk this path of the saints. Saint Paul reminds us that “ since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.” |
| How Should I Pray? It seems like a simple thing, yet one of the most frequent questions raised by Orthodox Christians is the basic question, how should I pray? Every Orthodox Christian should have a daily rule of prayer, which should be established with the advice of a priest or spiritual father. This is the basis of daily prayers – morning and evening, the very minimum to keep us in some degree of communion with Christ. Photo: Gabriela23, orthphoto.net But what about other, everyday needs? What about the crises and opportunities that arise in our lives? How do we turn these events into opportunities for prayer, and gain God’s help in everyday life? • We can find great help in calling out to God, “Lord, help me!”, or “Lord, have mercy on me!”, at any time of need; • We can (and should) ask the friends of God – the saints – to pray for us by reading an Akathist to a saint who sympathizes with our situation. These are read at church, and can also be read at home (email the priest if you don’t have a copy of a desire Akathist); • We should use the prayer rope, not just for the Jesus Prayer, but also to repeat 50-100 times “Lord, have mercy on (Name)”, whenever we know of someone in sickness or need: a simple prayer that goes straight to God; • For special needs, travel, and projects, we should ask the priest to pray or to serve a moleben (a service of prayer) dedicated to our specific need. As we enter the Great Fast, let us not make the assumption that prayer is too hard and too remote for everyday life. Without it, we’re alone. Source: All Saints of North America Orthodox Church Code for blog Since you are here… …we do have a small request. More and more people visit Orthodoxy and the World website. However, resources for editorial are scarce. In comparison to some mass media, we do not make paid subscription. It is our deepest belief that preaching Christ for money is wrong. Having said that, Pravmir provides daily articles from an autonomous news service, weekly wall newspaper for churches, lectorium, photos, videos, hosting and servers. Editors and translators work together towards one goal: to make our four websites possible - Pravmir.ru, Neinvalid.ru, Matrony.ru and Pravmir.com. Therefore our request for help is understandable. |
| At 490 pages long, the book is divided into 60 chapters, often but not always sketches of people, often but not always clerics, but all known to the author. Amusing and sad and edifying in turn, they are all profoundly human, but also profoundly touched by the Divine. These are the lives of Orthodox clerics and laypeople, a few of them known to the author of this review, like Bishop Basil (Rodzianko). You feel the author’s compassion, his total lack of any judgement about his subjects. Well, he is right to do this – we all have our weaknesses. As the translator notes in his preface: ‘Ultimately, though it may take a while, love and light and compassion conquer hatred and darkness and indifference’. This book is a compendium of lives of Church people who lived in recent years. He describes how, despite their obvious weaknesses, their lives were transformed by the grace of the Holy Spirit, which, in the words of St Seraphim of Sarov, we are called on to acquire. Probably many Orthodox clergy know enough stories to write such a book – but we do not because we cannot. But Fr Tikhon does because he can. As a Russian, Fr Tikhon is no hypocrite and has no time for that sugary pietism which so mars the lives of Western clericalism and turns people away from Christ. The author pulls no punches and tells the truth: saints are not born, they started off like us, but they became saints. All of us are spoiled by our sins and weaknesses, however, as the Apostle Paul said to the Orthodox in Corinth, ‘My strength is made perfect in weakness’. As Orthodox life is patterned by prayer, conversation with the Living God, it consists of what the world calls ‘coincidences’, that is, ‘God-incidences’. These are the generous and loving and providential interventions of God in our everyday life, showing to us the presence of saints in our midst. This is made clear in another remarkable Church classic of Russian literature, Heavenly Paths, by Shmelyov. But this is also clear in Fr Tikhon’s work before us. Let us take just one short example of his content and style, his description of the saintly old nuns of St Seraphim’s Diveyevo, who had been captives of the Soviet regime for over 70 years, but had kept the faith: |
| Why aren’t we succeeding in imitating the Saints? Because we take their highest, most extraordinary deeds out of context, and those deeds can be way beyond our measure – with our strength, capacity, circumstances, and daily duties in mind. But we can still all carry our own everyday ascetic practices. It may not necessarily be as extraordinary or appealing, and it may not necessarily be commended and praised by men. The saints, before coming into that kind of spiritual life and practices, first carried great inward struggles. That is the hardest thing – a day to day, stable, worthy spiritual life, all until death itself. Remember how I once told you about Saint Acacius who at first believed he could be a martyr, but once it came to the actual martyrdom, he all of a sudden lost that dreamy faith in himself and was overcome with fear. If you want to fast by only eating bread and drinking water, if you desire to not sleep all night long or to be a stylite – well, please try something small first. Do not begin by becoming a stylite, but instead, say, “May it be blessed” and do the work you’re asked to do, from beginning to end, when you’re so exhausted you’re falling off of your feet. If we can’t even accomplish that, why then do we dream of the great things? There’s space for spiritual struggle and hard work for each Christian every single day – it just may not be as extraordinary as those we read about in the lives of the saints. Or maybe the fact it is not as appealing or majestic is what does make it extraordinary. I was once told a proverb on Mount Athos; it goes like this: “Vainglory makes an old man young.” When you’re admiring yourself, you could really move mountains. But when there’s no outward self admiration at play, but instead, there’s mundane, stable, everyday hard work, unattractive, uninspiring, that hard work that may very well be devoid of prayer, attention, warmth, when there are gross things coming out of your heart, but you’re still, no matter what, keep calling on Jesus – that is indeed martyrdom, and that’s what makes one venerable and righteous. That’s the safe, medium path – up from that point until death, here we are, pressing on, moving forward, sighing, sometimes even whining, but we’re still getting up and moving forward, time and again – now that is that very martyrdom. It’s no coincidence that the venerable are called martyrs that shed no blood. That is what being venerable is all about. |
| Contemporary Monasticism, God’s Will, and Everyday Life: A Conversation with Archimandrite Tikhon Anna Danilova spoke with Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov) SOURCE: Pravmir Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov), abbot of Sretensky Monastery in central Moscow and author of the best-selling Everyday Saints and Other Stories , spoke with Anna Danilova, editor-in-chief of pravmir.ru . Many of the questions concerning the state of contemporary monasticism are raised in the context of the ongoing discussion of the revised “Regulations on the Monasteries and Monastics,” submitted to the dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church for review by a commission of the Inter-Council Presence, of which Fr. Tikhon is a member. Monastery vs. World Fr. Tikhon, what is the primary purpose of a monastery? Should a monastery serve the world? The primary purpose of a monastery is to help a monk leave the world and everything that is in the word in order to serve God and people for the salvation of his soul. If, by Divine providence, a monastery is located in the center of a large city, and if the Lord has led a monk thereto, then he should not turn his back on pastoral and educational service, if the Church calls him to such. Is there some way to set the balance between a monastery’s outward and inward life? I don’t know. Sretensky Monastery’s given obedience is the training of future pastors. Is this an inward or an outward activity of the monastery? Amazing fellows come to our seminary; I truly admire them. We publish books, which is an outward activity – it’s how we support the monastery and seminary. But, most importantly, this is also the spiritual obedience bequeathed to us by Fr. John (Krestiankin). Or, speaking of inward service: does this just mean only private prayer and divine services? I don’t think that’s right. We started building a skete in the Ryazan Oblast [southeast of Moscow] so we could get away from the hustle and bustle now and then. But there we found new parishioners, ruined churches, and even a collective farm [ kolkhoz ] in need of care. We had to restore the whole village, so there’d be a church with people living around it. Our new parishioners need the new church we are building. They can’t fit into the old church on great feast days, being forced to stand outside. But the brothers don’t need a large church. Is this then an outward activity? |
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