| John Anthony McGuckin Holy Spirit SERGEY TROSTYANSKIY The subject of the Holy Spirit is one of the deepest mysteries in the church. He is the Sanctifier who never becomes incarnate and whose personal being always stays mysteriously hidden, though universally extensive. From the beginning to the present day the Holy Spirit has never been a subject to comprehend, or an easy subject to speak about. Sergius Bulgakov suggested that this will not change until that time beyond time when the glorified church in Heaven, at the last day, will be able to look upon the true icon of the Holy Spirit, in the form of the glorious communion of elect saints, the completion of the sanctifying operations of the Divine Spirit in the cosmos; as then it will have a more graphic understanding of his hypostatic reality. In the meantime, the church knows him through his fundamental energy of sanctifying believers, molding them into conformity with the redeeming Christ. This mysterious character is equally present in the history of the expression of the church’s theological tradition. Orthodox pneumatology passed through a number of stages in its development. The basic insights of the New Testament authors presented the Spirit as a personal being. They concurred with the Old Testament view that the Spirit raised up judges, prophets, and seers, friends of God who led the people correctly in worship and belief, speaking as of God himself ( Judg. 3.10, 6.34 ; Neh. 9.30; Is. 11.2 ). The Old Testament also associates the gift of the Spirit with creativity ( Gen. 1.2 ), with the finding and making of beauty (especially human craft and skill: Ex. 35.31 ). However, the proper terminology capable of expressing the Spirit as a personal subsistence (hypostasis) of the trinitarian God was yet to be developed. The profound teachings on the Spirit as presented by Jesus in the final discourses in the Gospel of John have always been the church’s goal and inspiration for all pneumatological thought. The early patristic authors, in their turn, attempted to comprehend the Spirit in terms of his operations and relations to the Father and the Son. These attempts were not without certain historical and semantic confusions, witnessed among the early 2nd-century writers such as Theophilus of Antioch, and other early fathers concerned with understanding God’s work of creation and revelation. |
| Patriarch Kirill: St. Sergius is the Embodiment of Holy Russia Holy Russia is what we call a meta-reality, that which lies beyond the boundaries of human reality. The annual celebration on July 18 of the finding of the sacred relics of St. Sergius, Abbot of Radonezh (1422), this year became the culmination of the feast dedicated to the 700th anniversary of this great Russian ascetic struggler. Following the Liturgy at the cathedral square of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, His Holiness, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia addressed the numerous pilgrims with the following sermon: Photo: http://www.patriarchia.ru Your Eminences and Graces! Revered Father, Mother Abbesses, Brothers and Sisters! Eminent state officials! I would like to greet you all cordially on this great feast for our entire historical Fatherland and all of Rus’: the feast day of our Holy and God-Bearing Father, Sergius, Abbot of Radonezh. Sergius, the Venerable God-Pleaser, is truly a luminary through his entire life and across all of history. As the flame on a candle concentrates all of its energy, so too did the personality of St. Sergius concentrate all the light and spiritual strength of Holy Russia. When we say “Holy Russia,” what do we have in mind? Some people think that this is just a mythologema, an idea that was typical of our people in the Middle Ages. Others try to find the embodiment of Holy Russia in one historical period or another and, pointing at one or another period, say: this was Holy Russia. But neither the one nor the other is correct. Holy Russia is not a myth and Holy Russia is not an historical reality. Holy Russia is what we call a meta-reality, that which is beyond the boundaries of human reality. But if we use the word “reality,” then that which is beyond it has a bearing on our everyday life. And it becomes clear that Holy Russia is the undying spiritual and moral ideal of our people, and that the expression of this idea, its dominant, is holiness. Surprisingly, if one asks a simple question: where else was holiness the basic, principal idea of people’s lives? Then we are talking neither about monasteries, nor about closed groups of people dedicated to the service of God, but about an enormous nation. Usually people have different ideals connected with earthly life: the ideals of wealth, power, and might. But the ideal of our nation was holiness; this was the national ideal, and therefore those who attained holiness, who realized this national ideal, became heroes: heroes of the spirit, ascetic strugglers, and luminaries. This applied to princes, boyars, rulers, military leaders, simple peasants, monks, and laypeople. And of all those who embodied the idea of Holy Russia, the Holy Venerable Sergius, Abbot of Radonezh, is in the first place. |
| Michael Prokurat, Alexander Golitzin, Michael D. Peterson Скачать epub pdf TRINITY TRINITY. According to the understanding of the Orthodox Church, the confession of faith in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (q.v.) is as old as Christianity. It is not the product of human reasoning, but the articulation of divine revelation, and it is embedded in the earliest Christian documents. The Apostle Paul, for example, closes 2 Cor with a Trinitarian blessing sometime in the A.D. 50s, and it seems to be the case that he is himself but repeating a formula already employed in Christian worship. The Gospel of Matthew concludes with the Trinitarian formula for Baptism (q.v.) already in use in that community ca. A.D. 80. The “Last Supper” discourse in Jn 14–16 contains four passages on the Holy Spirit which make it clear that the Spirit is regarded as a distinct person, “another Comforter/Advocate,” together with the Son. While profession of the three persons is from the earliest Christian scriptural witnesses, the Church also inherited the confession of God (q.v.) as one from the Hebrews: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord” (Duet 6:4). There do not appear to have been any speculative attempts to square this circle earlier than the 2nd c. Father, Son, and Spirit were simply facts of primitive Christian experience; they were acknowledged as such in tandem with faith in the divine unity. The word, “trinity” (Greek trias and Latin trinitas), does not appear until Theophilus of Antioch (Greek) in the 180s and Tertullian (q.v.) (Latin) a decade or two later. The latter, together with Irenaeus of Lyons (q.v.), provide the first attempts at explaining the dual confession of God as one and three. Tertullian relies primarily on a Stoic model, the divine substance in three different and eternal modes of expression. Irenaeus uses the analogy of the human person, speaking on some occasions of Son and Spirit as the Father’s Word and Wisdom, and elsewhere as his “two hands.” In the 3rd c. Origen, borrowing from Platonism and the earlier work of Clement of Alexandria and Justin Martyr (qq.v.), arranges Father, Son, and Spirit in a descending hierarchy of hypostases (persons, or substances). His terminology was preserved in the Greek East during the great Trinitarian controversies of the 4th c. But his notes relating to subordination and hierarchy were rejected as a result of the ultimate victory of the Nicene Creed championed by Athanasius (qq.v.). It was the glory of the Cappadocian Fathers, especially Basil’s On the Holy Spirit, Gregory of Nazianzus’s Theological Orations, and Gregory of Nyssa’s (qq.v.) Against Eunomius and “On Not Three Gods,” to supply the language and concepts reconciling Origen’s terms with the Nicene homoousios (consubstantial) in such a way as to become the classical formulation of the Orthodox doctrine of the Trinity. |
| “The Success or Failure, the Progress or Destruction in Spiritual Life Begins with the Marriage” Source: Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America Human life is certainly a serious matter, a spiritual battle and a course toward a goal that is heaven. Marriage is the most critical and most important vehicle of this course. Message of His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to the 42nd Clergy Laity Congress in Philadelphia July 7, 2014 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Your Eminence, Archbishop Demetrios of America, most honorable Exarch of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, beloved brother in the Holy Spirit and concelebrant of our Modesty, Your Eminences Metropolitans, brother members of the Holy Eparchial Synod, Your Graces, Bishops of the Holy Archdiocese of America, Most Devout and Reverend Clergy, Most Honorable Archons, those holding official of the Holy Mother Great Church of Christ, honorable representatives of Parishes and Communities and of all individual bodies and organizations of the Holy Archdiocese, Most Erudite educators, members of the National Ladies Philoptochos Society and of individual Philoptochos Chapters, all esteemed members. All of you, beloved brothers, sisters and children of the Lord and of our Modesty, who will convene in the forty second (42 nd ) Clergy Laity Congress of this Eparchy of our Ecumenical Patriarchate in the City of Philadelphia; grace and peace and blessing from our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ be with you. Our Modesty, your Patriarch feels great spiritual joy and affection by seeing in spirit from Constantinople the children of the Holy Mother Great Church of Christ in America, participating through their representatives, clergy and laity, in the works of the 42 nd Clergy Laity Congress of the unified Holy Archdiocese of America that is being navigated for fifteen years in a God-loving way, prudently and blessedly by your beloved Eminence, holy brother Archbishop Demetrios of America. We glorify and bless the most holy Name of the Lord, from Whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, for He gave to the Ecumenical Patriarchate as inalienable inheritance the blessed people of God who live in America and the largest and most glorious active ecclesiastical Eparchy in the free Land of America. |
| Accept The site uses cookies to help show you the most up-to-date information. By continuing to use the site, you consent to the use of your Metadata and cookies. Cookie policy Metropolitan Hilarion: Holiness is a constant striving to imitate the Lord Jesus Christ On June 27th, the 1 st week after Pentecost, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for external church relations (DECR) and rector of the Ss Cyril and Methodius Institute of Post-Graduate Studies (CMI), celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Church of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist in-the-Woods. The church is a part of the Patriarchal Chernigov Metochion, which houses the CMI. Among the archpastor’s concelebrants were the head of the doctoral department of the CMI, Archpriest Alexy Marchenko, the vice-rector for educational work of the CMI, Hieromonk Pavel (Cherkasov), clergymen of the Metochion. During the Litany of Fervent Supplication, petitions were offered up for deliverance of the coronavirus infection. After the Litany, Metropolitan Hilarion lifted up a prayer recited at the time of the spread of baneful pestilence. In his sermon at the end of the divine service, Metropolitan Hilarion said the following: “In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! On the first Sunday after the Pentecost, the Church commemorates all the saints. On the feast of the Pentecost, we remembered how the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles, and they spoke in tongues, and everyone from different nations began to recognize their dialect; how the illiterate Galilean fishermen became bold preachers of the Resurrection of Christ. And today, on the 1st Week after Pentecost, we remember how the Holy Spirit continued to work in the Church throughout the two thousand year period of its history. The Holy Spirit descended on the disciples of the Savior and inspired them to preach Crucified and Risen Christ. During the following centuries, up to the present time, the Holy Spirit has been acting and will continue to act in the Church. Thanks to His action and the assistance of people, the Church has never become impoverished and will not become impoverished in saints. |
| Epistle of Patriarch Kirill and the Holy Synod on the Occasion of the 1,030th Anniversary of the Baptism of Rus’ Source: Official Website of the Moscow Patriarchate Epistle of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill and the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church to the archpastors, clergy, monastics, and laity on the occasion of the 1,030th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus’ This document was adopted at the July 14, 2018 session of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. Baptism of Rus’ Blessed is the Lord Jesus Christ Who came to love new people, the Russian land and enlightened it with holy baptism (Tale of Bygone Years) Beloved in the Lord eminent archpastors, all-honourable presbyters and deacons, God-loving monks and nuns, dear brothers and sisters: Today the plenitude of our Church is commemorating the Holy Grand Prince Vladimir, Equal-to-the-Apostles, and recalling with gratitude how 1030 years ago, thanks to this chosen man, mighty in spirit, a watershed event in the history of the Slavic peoples took place. By the action of the Omnibenevolent Holy Spirit, the Prince freed himself from pagan delusions, embraced in faith the Only-Begotten Son of God Jesus Christ and, having received the holy Baptism with his brothers-in-arms, brought the salvific light of the Gospel to Rus’. Why do we call the Baptism of Russia the watershed in the history of our peoples? We do so because it changed forever the entire Slavic civilization and predestined the further course of its development. It was indeed the decisive turn from darkness to light, from wandering in the dark of false ideas to finding the divinely revealed truth and salvation. The Generous Lord the Lover of mankind granted us the unrivalled mercy and great happiness – the possibility to belong to the Orthodox Church, to make up One Body of Christ and to partake of the inexhaustible “spring of water welling up to eternal life” (Jn 4:14). Thus, we “are no longer strangers and sojourners, but… are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone” (Eph 2:19-20). |
| John Anthony McGuckin Chrismation SERGEY TROSTYANSKIY Chrismation is the second sacrament of the Orthodox Church, part of the initiation (baptismal) mysteries. Through Chrismation one is anointed with specially consecrated oil of myrrh ( Ex. 30.25 ) in order to receive the gift of the “Seal of the Holy Spirit.” In Orthodoxy Chrismation normally takes place immediately after the baptism of water. It is an organic part of the baptismal mystery and is performed as its fulfillment. Chrismation conforms the initiate to Christ, “the anointed one” and opens the door to deification, in Christ, by the transfiguring grace of the Holy Spirit, who is the Illuminator and Sanctifier. St. Cyril of Jerusalem, in his baptismal catecheses of the 4th century, noted that by becoming partakers of Christ we are called “Christs,” since we receive the anti-type of the gift of the Holy Spirit. Thus, after being baptized with the sanctified waters, one receives this anti-type in the form of Chrismation, the same Holy Spirit with which the Savior was anointed in his earthly ministry by the Father. The sealing of the believer with Holy Chrism renders them into prophets, priests, and kings. The ancients widely practiced two types of anointing: social anointing and symbolic anointing. The Scriptures present the first type of anointing as being performed primarily as a sign of hospitality. In addition it was performed for healing purposes and also for the preparation of the dead for burial. In the two evangelical stories of the anointing of Jesus, the first concerning Jesus in the house of Simon the Pharisee ( Lk. 7.38–50 ) and the other relating the sign Mary of Bethany gave ( Jn. 12.3 ), we can see several of these strands coming together (also with allusions to the other type of anointing symbol). The sinful woman anoints Jesus when his host has neglected that honor, and he accepts it as a symbol of the redemption God brings through love. The anointing Mary offers (which carries overtones ofmessianic status) is rebuffed as a messianic symbol and accepted as a symbol of burial precisely because the evangelist knows that no human can ever anoint Jesus as the Messiah, rather it is a gift of the Father. For this reason, when the myrrh-bearing women come to anoint the Lord, they are unable to achieve their goal: in his resurrection the mysteries of glorification have already taken place. |
| Patriarch Kirill Speaks on the Importance of Unanimity Photo: Sergei Vlasov/patriarchia.ru On November 29, 2020, the 25th Sunday after Pentecost, the commemoration day of the Apostle and Evangelist Matthew, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia officiated the Divine Liturgy at St. Alexander Nevsky Church near Peredelkino, reports the official website of the Russian Orthodox Church. At the end of the service, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church delivered the following sermon: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit! In the passage from the Apostle Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians, which was read today during the Divine Liturgy, we heard the following words: “I beseech you, brothers, to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (see Eph. 4: 1-3). These are amazing words. The Apostle does not ask, but begs people to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, that is, he speaks of the reality that alone is capable of truly uniting people. There is a word that seems to cover the call of the Apostle Paul to establish a special relationship with each other. This word is “unanimity.” Sometimes it is replaced by the word “like-mindedness”, but like-mindedness is only part of what the word “unanimity” encompasses. Like-mindedness presupposes the presence of common thoughts and common beliefs. Like-mindedness is absolutely essential in life when people are united by common goals. For example, if those who are working on a difficult problem do not reach consensus, there will be no result. Like-mindedness is needed in scientific work, production activities, in many other areas of human life, where different people participate in a certain common process, because without like-mindedness this process is impossible. But unanimity is something else entirely. Unanimity is unity in the spirit. And what is spirit? It is known that God is the Spirit, and all other explanations of the concept of “spirit” are imperfect. They are imperfect as much as human imagination and human knowledge are limited. We do not know what spirit is, because we do not know who God is in all His fullness; we know about God only what He Himself tells us about Himself. Unanimity, in all likelihood, is impossible without God. There can be like-mindedness. We know, as I have already said above, that much cannot be accomplished in human life without like-mindedness. But a single soul, and unity that people find in spiritual life, are a great gift from God. |
| Patriarch of Jerusalem: The Annunciation of the Theotokos Announces the infinite love of God Photo: en.jerusalem-patriarchate.info On Wednesday, April 7, 2021, the Patriarchate of Jerusalem celebrated the feast of the Annunciation of our Most Holy Lady Theotokos in the city of Nazareth, at the holy shrine where this event took place. On this feast, the whole Orthodox Church in joy and gratitude towards God, commemorates according to Saint Luke the Evangelist (Ch. 1:26-36), that Archangel Gabriel was sent by God to the Virgin Mary and announced that She was going to conceive by the Holy Spirit and bear in the flesh His Only Begotten Son. With Mary’s reply, “behold the maiden of the Lord, let it be done unto me according to thy word”, the Bodiless was made flesh, He became incarnate, for the sake of the rebirth, renovation, and salvation of the humankind from the corruption of death. This festive divine service was officiated by Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem, during which the Patriarch of Jerusalem delivered the following sermon : “O sing unto the Lord a new song: sing unto the Lord, all the earth. Sing unto the Lord, bless his name; shew forth his salvation from day to day” (Psalm 95:1-2), Prophet-King David chants. Beloved Brethren in Christ, Noble Christians “Today there is the true joy and gleefulness of the whole world,” Saint John Damascene says, praising the Annunciation to the Theotokos by Archangel Gabriel, in the holy place where the grace of the Holy Spirit has gathered us all to celebrate in Eucharist the annunciation of the “salvation of God”, the joyful message of the incarnation of God the Word by the pure flesh of the Ever-Virgin Mary in the city of Nazareth. “Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women” (Luke 1:28) the Archangel Gabriel exclaimed. The interpreters of Evangelist Luke’s testimony on this say: “because God told Eve she was going to bear children in sorrows, Eva’s sorrow is dispelled through this joy”. “Through ‘Hail’, Christ came to dispel the sorrow”. “He called her ‘full of grace’, as she was granted the grace beyond logic”. And “because the snake brought Eve the sorrow, rejoice, because the Lord is with Thee”. “One should know that at the time of the annunciation the Virgin conceived immediately paradoxically”. |
| Synodal Tomos on the canonization of Venerable Saints Neophyte and Meletios from Stânioara Monastery and Daniel and Misael from Turnu Monastery Synodal Tomos of Canonization no. 1/2016, approved by the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church through its decision ref. no. 2212/25.02.2016, and made public today, 28 September 2016, in the church of Saint Anthimos – Troianu Monastery, dedicated to the Life-giving Spring: The Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church, To the most beloved clergy, the monastics and the true believing Christians in the Romanian Patriarchate, Grace, mercy and peace from God, and from us, hierarchical blessings! Blessed and praiseworthy is it to honor the memory of those who have fallen asleep in the Lord in holiness, who have gained confidence from God for their devout lives full of good deeds. The Most Holy Trinity has foreseen from eternity that they will grow in the likeness of God, partaking of the light of the grace of the Holy Spirit and numbering them in the Church of the first-born, in the ranks of the saints. Our Savior Jesus Christ says about them that because they have listened to His word, they have become His friends (John 15:16). The Church honors these saints with praises and hymns, as the God-inspired Prophet Daniel says: But your friends, O God, were greatly honoured by me, exceedingly were strengthened their beginnings (Psalm 139:17). The saints have truly fulfilled God’s word and will, as we read in the Psalms: As for the saints who are on the earth, They are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight (Psalm 16:3). Among Gods chosen ones are numbered the venerable fathers from the hermitages of Stânioara and Turnu: Neophyte and Meletios from Stânioara Monastery and Daniel and Misael from Turnu Monastery.These great ascetics and lovers of God from Cozia Monasterym founded by the renowned Prince Mircea the Great, after dedicating themselves entirely to the anchoretic life life and reaching perfection, received from the Holy Spirit the gift of counsel and of spiritual guidance on the path to salvation. Being experienced laborers of the prayer of the heart, they have been honored together with the great hesychasts of Romanian monasticism, being also named hermits. Thus, they remain in the living memory of the Church, in the devoted memory of hierarchs, priests, monastics and lay people, as examples of sacrificial love, of restraint, humbleness and diligent spiritual guidance. |
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