| In the light of Christ, in the light of the Holy Spirit, looking into the depth of the human heart and seeing there an image of the workings of various passions, the holy fathers and teachers of the Church call vainglory a multiform passion, the most subtle and difficult to fathom. All other passions disturb a person's peace and are quickly reproached by the conscience, while the passion of vainglory, to the contrary, flatters the fallen son of Adam, brings him supposed delight, and appears to be a spiritual consolation—a reward for his good deed. All other passions can be directly counteracted by their opposite virtues: gluttony is counteracted by abstinence, anger by meekness, and love of money by generosity. Vainglory apparently cannot be counteracted by a single virtue. Like a thief, it steals from a person his remembrance of God, His unspeakable magnificence, His unspeakable sanctity, in Whose sight even the heavens are not clean (cf. Job 15:15), and draws fallen man into admiring himself with approval and pleasure. I am not as other men are (Lk. 18:11), it says. In its blindness, from its own self-satisfaction, vainglory thanks God, forgetting that fallen man can only be thankful to God when he sees the multitude of his own sins and weaknesses; a vision united with the vision of the Creator's inexpressible beneficence for His creation—perishing creation. Vainglory rejoices when it sees that a person is rich in virtues. It hopes to turn every virtue into a sin; it hopes to make every virtue a cause and reason for that person's condemnation at Christ's Judgment. It attempts to prophecy! It brazenly strives to work miracles, and dares to temp the Lord! Foreign to spiritual gifts, it seeks to represent itself as having them, or at least to induce the suspicion in other people that it possesses something supernatural. It deleteriously seeks to console itself through this deception. It is near the ascetic when he fasts, when he prays, when he gives alms, when he keeps vigil, and when he kneels, attempting to steal the sacrifice brought to God, and defiling it with man-pleasing, to render it useless. It stalks the slave of Christ in the solitude of his cell, in his reclusion. Not having an opportunity to bring the ascetic soul-destroying praise from onlookers, it brings him praise in his thoughts. It paints human glory delusively in his imagination. Often it acts without thought and fantasy; but it can be recognized only by the heart's absence of blessed contrition, blessed remembrance of and contrition over sins. " If you do not have heartfelt lamentation, " said one great father, " you have vainglory. " |
| БИБЛИОГРАФИЧЕСКИЙ СПИСОК 1. Агафангел (Гагуа), игумен. Клонирование: православный ответ на очередной вызов дегуманизации. Электронный ресурс: http://www.bogoslov.ru/text/5706534.html . 2. Алтухов Ю.П. О клонировании человека//Православие и проблемы биоэтики. Сборник работ. М., 2017. С. 99-104. 3. Заявление Церковно-общественного Совета по биомедицинской этике «О морально-этической недопустимости клонирования человека»//Православие и проблемы биоэтики. Сборник работ. М., 2017. С.105-107. 4. Кураев, Андрей, дьякон. Наша брань не против науки: клонирование и Церковь. Электронный ресурс: http://halkidon2006.orthodoxy.ru/lk/kuraev30.htm . 5. О смысле жизни. Беседа прп. Серафима Саровского с Н.А. Мотовиловым «О цели христианской жизни». М.: Издательский Дом «Русский Паломник», 2015. С. 88-91. 6. Папа Иоанн Павел II, Обращение к участникам 35-й генеральной ассамблеи Всемирной Медицинской Ассоциации, 29 октября 1983 г.: AAS 76 (1984), 390. 7. Папа Иоанн Павел II, Обращение к участникам 81-го Конгресса Итальянского общества медицины внутренних органов и 82-го Конгресса Итальянского общества общей хирургии, 27 октября 1980 г.: AAS 72 (1980), 1126. 8. Папа Павел VI, Обращение к Генеральной Ассамлее ООН, 4 октября 1965 г.: AAS 57 (1965), 878; Энциклика «Populorum progressio», 13: AAS 59 (1967), 263. 9. Папа Павел VI, Проповедь во время Мессы, завершающей Святой Год, 25 декабря 1975 г.: AAS 68 (1976), 145; Папа Иоанн Павел II, энциклика «Dives in misericordia», 30: AAS 72 (1980), 1224. 10. Православие и проблемы биоэтики. Сборник работ. М., 2017. 504 с. 11. «Donum Vitae» («Дар жизни»). Инструкция об уважении к человеческой жизни с момента её зарождения и о достоинстве процесса человеческого воспроизводства. Электронный ресурс: . 12. Pontificia Accademia per la Vita ., Reflessioni sulla clonazinm. Citth del Vaticano, 1997. Комментарий к этому документу можно найти у Di Pietro M. L., «Riflessione sulla clonazione» Il documento delta Pontificia Accademia per la Vila, «Camillianum», 1997, VIII (16), с 195-202. |
| Epist. 66 (69), 5: The Lord’s words to the Apostles ( Lk. 10:16 ) were addressed to all the Bishops. It should be noted how Cyprian refers to the Apostle Peter as the foundation of the Church’s unity: “God is one, and Christ is one, and the Church is one, and one is the throne (cathedra) which the Lord’s word founded upon Peter” (“Deus unus est et Christus unus et una ecclesia cathedra una super Petrum Domini voce fundata”) (Epist. 43 (40), 5). The nature of this one Church founded upon Peter is made clear by a careful study of the passage immediately following: “no other altar can be instituted, no other priesthood can be established apart from the one single altar, the one single priesthood” (“Aliud altare constitui aut aliud sacerdotium novum fieri praeter unum altare et unum sacerdotium non potest”) (ibid.). From this it is quite clear that Cyprian has in mind here the proliferation of altars within one and the same local Church because of schisms (besides, it is clear from the whole text of the letter that this is what it is talking about); and consequently the ecclesial unity founded on the one throne of Peter is to be found in the episcopal Church which does not admit a second altar. In consequence, each bishop sits on the one throne of Peter. Cf. also De Unit., 4. In view of this, one is justified in asking whether there is any ground, at least as far as the sources of the first three centuries go, for the view (see also in Archim. S.Harkianakis, op.cit, p.44f.) that the hierarchy “in its entirety” constitutes the successor of the Apostles in such a way that the college or “choir” of the Twelve is shared out in the succession to the particular Bishops. Such a collective unity of the episcopate, a unity by addition which easily permits the maintenance of a special office for the Pope as unifying in his person the College of the Apostles which is parcelled out among the various Bishops, is the underlying basis for the theory which has recently appeared among Roman Catholic theologians concerning the “collegiality” of the Bishops. On this see inter alia the collections Le Concile et les Conciles, B.Botte et al., 1960; and L’Épiscopat de l’Église Universelle, ed. Y.Congar and B.Dupuy, 1962, esp. pp.17–28, 227–328, 481–535, and also J.Colson, L’Épiscopat Catholique: Collégialité et Primauté dans les Trois Premiers Siècles de L’Église, 1963; J.Hamer, op.cit., p.237f.; P.Stockmeier, “Bischofsamt und Kircheneinheit bei den apostolischen Vätern” in Trier Theologische Zeitschrift 73 (1964), 321/35; W.de Ries, “Die Kollegiale Struktur der Kirche in den ersten Jahrhunderten” in Una Sancta, 19 (1964), pp.296–317, and P.Rusch, “Bischof. Die Kollegiale Struktur des Bischofsamtes” in Zeitschrift für Kathol. Theologie, 89 (1964), pp.257–85. On this theory from the viewpoint of the conclusions of our research, see general remarks below (General Conclusions) |
| John Anthony McGuckin Paradise PETER C. BOUTENEFF The Greek Paradeisos (cf. the Persian Pardez, meaning “enclosure”) in the Septuagint refers to any enclosed garden (cf. Num. 24.6 ; Neh. 2.8; Eccl. 2.5 ; Jer. 29.5 ), but remains particularly associated with the Garden in Eden ( Gen. 2–3, 13.10 ; also Is. 51.3 ; Ezek. 28.13 ). In Second Temple Jewish literature (e.g., 1 Enoch 60.8, 23, 61.12; Apoc. Abraham 21.3, 6; 3 Baruch 4.10) as well as in the New Testament ( Lk. 23.43 ; Rev. 2.7), Paradise comes to refer also to the destination of the righteous, whether it is an earthly or heavenly topos. St. Paul’s mystical experience which associates Paradise with the Third Heaven ( 2Cor. 12.2–3 ) has deeply influenced the Greek patristic literature, and is frequently cited. PARADISE AS THE GARDEN OF HUMAN ORIGINS Paradise as the earthly garden in Eden, into which the first-created humans were placed, and which Genesis 2 locates on Earth (in what is modern-day Iraq), is treated variously in the Greek fathers. Theophilus of Antioch, almost unique among the early writers for the absence of a typological (christological) exegesis of the Paradise narrative, is concomitantly almost unique in attempting to pinpoint the chronological dating of the events narrated in Genesis 1–3 (as did Eusebius of Caesarea, in his Chronicle, no longer extant). Conversely, and possibly following Philo (cf. Laws of Allegory 1.43), Origen practically mocks anyone who would interpret Paradise as an actual place with physical trees and chewable fruit (On First Principles 4.3.1). Precisely this notion, however, featured strongly in Ephrem’s Hymns on Paradise (Brock 1990). Gregory of Nazianzus is open and provisional in his interpretation: God placed the human person in Paradise, “Whatever this Paradise actually was,” and introduced him to trees which Gregory supposes might represent contemplation (theoria) (Oration 38.12). Contemporary Orthodox theologians tend to follow the fathers in paying scant attention to the question of the physical historicity of the Paradise of Genesis 2–3 , focusing rather on its existential significance or more often on its christological sense. |
| ‘Together we seek to draw the public attention to the suffering of our brothers in the Middle East and North Africa, in Kosovo and Metohija, and now in south-east Ukraine, where the blood of Orthodox Christians is spilt, churches of God are defiled and destroyed, scores of refugees with no roof are exposed to continued danger coming from radical forces motivated by the ideology of ethnic and religious intolerance’. Speaking about the situation in Ukraine, Patriarch Kirill said, ‘The Lord Jesus Christ says, He who does not gather with Me scatters (Lk. 11:23). Therefore we are not surprised to see that those who have renounced the unity of the Church by going into schism are now destroying the unity of their people and country through aggressive propaganda of war, encouraging violence and slurring the canonical Church in Ukraine accusing her of a lack of patriotism only because she calls to peace and people’s accord’. His Holiness also spoke about the unity of the Orthodox Church which should be manifested at the Great Council of the Orthodox Church under preparation. ‘We expect from the forthcoming Council the adoption of documents addressed to our contemporaries – all those for whom the voice of the Orthodox Church has authority and power… We expect the documents to deal with pressing problems of the day, not problem which have become irrelevant things of the past’. The preparations of the Pan-Orthodox Council, he said, should be carried out in the spirit of unanimity ‘so that the Council could have an opportunity to address the whole world with a bright and strong prophetic message. It is such a message that the world expect from us today’. In conclusion of his remarks, His Holiness thanked all the bishops, priests and lay people for having undertaken to come to Moscow for the St. Vladimir celebrations. Metropolitan Apostolos of Mileta greeted Patriarch Kirill on behalf of His Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople and all the representatives of Local Orthodox Churches. He spoke in detail about the historical journey made by the Kiev principality and its rulers to the adoption of Christianity and the significance of the personality of St. Vladimir, who ‘not only asserted Christian faith in the Russian land but also became a reformer who brought in culture, playing the same role as Constantine the Great did for Byzantium’. |
| Juan, severo asceta, no pudo satisfacer con su llamado a la contrición y al arrepentimiento a fariseos y escribas, quienes aguardaban al Mesías como a un gran Rey-Conquistador. Tampoco Jesucristo, Quien a diferencia de Juan, no se rehusaba a compartir la mesa con pecadores para salvarlos, pudo complacerlos. «Mas la Sabiduría ha quedado justificada por sus hijos.» Estas palabras son explicadas por el Bienaventurado Teofilact: «Desde el momento, dice Cristo, en que ni Mi vida ni la de Juan los complace y ustedes rechazan todos los caminos hacia la salvación, entonces Yo – la Sabiduría Divina – estoy justificado ante Mis hijos pero no ante los fariseos.» Por «hijos de la Sabiduría» se entiende al simple pueblo judío, publicanos y pecadores arrepentidos, aquellos que creyeron de todo corazón en Cristo y recibieron Su Divina enseñanza: ellos «justificaron» a Dios y Su Sabiduría, son ejemplos demostrativos que el Señor, fiel y sabiamente, dispuso la salvación de la humanidad. Y a ellos les fue revelada la Sabiduría Divina, inaccesible a los orgullosos fariseos. Recriminación a las ciudades impías. ( Mt. 11:20–30 ; Lk. 10:13–16 y 21–22). Cristo, con gran pena en el corazón, pronuncia Su «lamento» por las ciudades de Corazaín y Betsaida, situadas respectivamente al norte y al sur de Cafarnaum, pues a pesar de haber visto muchos de Sus milagros, no se habían arrepentido. Nuestro Señor las compara con las ciudades paganas de Tiro y Sidón, en la vecina Fenicia, las que el día del Juicio serán tratadas con menos rigor que las ciudades judías. A estas últimas les fue dada la posibilidad de salvarse pero rehusaron arrepentirse, como sí lo hizo en su momento Nínive con cilicio (tosca vestimenta que ocasionaba dolor físico) y ceniza (era señal de profunda contrición permanecer sentado sobre ceniza cubriéndose la cabeza con ella), fruto de la predicación de Jonás. Nuestro Señor también anuncia la destrucción de Cafarnaum por su extrema altanería debida a su prosperidad material. Cristo compara la impiedad de Cafarnaum con la de Sodoma y Gomorra, castigadas por Dios y destruidas con una lluvia de azufre y fuego. |
| The importance of fasting and its observance today: Draft document of the Pan-Orthodox Council Source: DECR Draft document of the Pan-Orthodox Council, adopted by the 5th Pan-Orthodox Pre-Council Conference in Chambésy on October 10-17, 2015. Photo: http://www.patriarchia.ru/ Published in compliance with the decision of the Synaxis of Primates of the Local Orthodox Churches, Chambésy, January 21-28, 2016. 1. Fast is God’s commandment (Gen 2:16-17). According to St Basil the Great, fasting is as old as humanity itself; it was prescribed in Paradise (On Fasting, 1,3). It is a great spiritual endeavour and the foremost expression of the Orthodox ascetic ideal. The Orthodox Church, in strict conformity with the precepts of the holy apostles, the rules of the Councils and the patristic tradition as a whole, has always proclaimed a great significance of fasting for people’s spiritual life and salvation. The annual cycle of liturgical celebrations fully reflects the patristic teaching on fasting, as well as the teaching on the necessity of constant unrelaxing watchfulness and on how to succeed in spiritual endeavours. The Triodion praises fasting as bringing the light of grace , as the invincible arms , the beginning of spiritual warfare , the perfect path of virtues , the nourishment for the soul , the source of wisdom , the life imperishable and imitation the angelic life , the mother of all blessings and virtues , and as the image of the life to come . 2. As an ancient institution, fasting was mentioned already in the Old Testament (Deut 9:18; Is 58:4-10; Joel 2:15; Jonah 3:5-7) and affirmed in the New Testament. The Lord Himself fasted for forty days before entering upon His public ministry (Lk 4:1-2) and gave to people instructions on how to practice fasting (Mt 6:16-18). Fasting as a means of abstinence, repentance and spiritual growth is presented in the New Testament (Mk 1:6; Acts 13:3; 14:23; Rom 14:21). Since the apostolic times, the Church has being proclaiming a profound importance of fasting, having established Wednesday and Friday as fast days (Didache, 8,1) and the fast before Easter (St Irenaeus of Lyons in Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica 5, 24). |
| The Lord predicted the persecution of Christians in the world: ‘They will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake…’ (Lk. 21:12). In my report on the Persecution and Discrimination of Christians in Today’s World: Causes, Scale, Prognoses for the Future’ made at the above-mentioned conference on November 30, 2011, in Moscow, I cited many facts of the persecution of Christians. Therefore in this survey of the situation in the world I would like to make today, I will dwell mostly on the facts that have taken place since that time. A matter of the greatest concern is the recent increase in anti-Christian actions in the two countries in which Christians comprise at least 10% of the population, namely, in Egypt and Syria. According to the 2007 data, there were 107 million people in Egypt, most of them being Arabs – 91,9%. Almost all of them (90% of the population) confess Islam. Christians live mostly in Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities. They comprise about 10% of the population. After the events of January-February 2011, a clear tendency has developed to make the sharia the only legal system in that country. It should be taken into account that those who demand the introduction of the sharia today are usually adherents of radical views whereby Christians are equated with pagans and should be converted therefore to Islam. I believe the sharia should be applied to Muslims alone; it by no means should be applied to Christians. It is my conviction that both Christians and Muslims should have the same rights and guarantees granted by the state. Throughout 2011, Christians in Egypt continued to be objects of attacks. In my report I have cited many examples of this. The authorities of that country, instead of protecting Christians, have sometimes themselves become sources of violence towards them. On October 9, the Copts organized a demonstration in the Egyptian capital, but armed forces under the command of the Egyptian Military Council broke it up and as a result over 20 Christians were killed and over 200 injured. Christians were literarily crushed by military vehicles. |
| Hochgeweihte Oberhirten, hochwürdige Väter, hochverehrte Mönche und Nonnen, liebe Brüder und Schwestern! In dieser lichthellen Nacht erleben wir geistig erneut die Freude, dass die Welt ihren Heiland aufgefunden hat. Wir schauen erneut den Sohn des lebendigen Gottes, der in der Krippe von Bethlehem liegt. Erneut hören wir in unseren Herzen die Engelstimme, lobpreisend den Schöpfer und Erlöser: „Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe und Frieden auf Erden und den Menschen seines Wohlgefallens“ (Lk. 2, 14). In dem wir das Lob der Himmelsheere beachten, begreifen wir, dass die Geburt Christi von außerzeitlicher Bedeutung erfüllt ist und einen direkten Bezug auf das Schicksal jedes Menschen hat. Sogar derjenige, der noch nicht von der Großtat des Heilands weiß, kann nun die Erkenntnis der Wahrheit gewinnen, Kind Gottes werden und das ewige Leben erben. Die Geburt Christi eröffnet uns die Wahrheit von uns selbst und macht möglich, diese Wahrheit zu verstehen und sich anzueignen. Erinnern wir uns, dass der erste Mensch vom Schöpfer als vollkommen geschaffen worden war, „als Bild und Gleichnis Gottes“ (1 Mos. 1, 26). Aber Adam, der das Gebot übertreten hatte, entstellte die Absicht des Schöpfers über sich. Da die Menschheit die lebendige Gemeinschaft mit Gott verloren hatte, versank sie mehr und mehr in den Abgrund der Sünde und des Stolzes. Und dann der Herr, der seine Schöpfung liebt und ihr Rettung wünscht, sendet seinen Eingeborenen Sohn in die Welt, der die Ganzheit der menschlichen Natur wiederhergestellt hat und der neue Adam geworden ist. Christus hat uns das Vorbild des der göttlichen Absicht angemessenen Lebens gegeben. Dieses Vorbild ist ein zuverlässiger Orientierungspunkt, der uns hilft, vom Wege nicht abzuweichen, und die einzige wahrhafte Richtung zu bekommen, die zur Fülle des Lebens führt, sowohl in den Bedingungen des irdischen Seins, als auch in der Ewigkeit. Wir beschreiten diesen Heilsweg, wenn wir den Rufen Gottes folgen. Ein solcher an uns gerichteter Ruf steht im 1. Korintherbrief vom heiligen Apostel Paulus: „Darum so preist Gott an eurem Leibe und in eurem Geiste, welche sind Gottes“ (6, 20). Dies bedeutet, dass wir nicht nur Gott durch Gebete und Gesänge das Lob emporsenden, sondern auch durch gute Werke zugunsten des Nächsten, zugunsten des Volkes und der Kirche. |
| It is also to fulfill the words of the Lord, give alms (Lk. 12:33), that pilgrims from both the laity and the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church regularly leave donations on the canonical territory of the Constantinople Patriarchate. This is not considered interference in its affairs, and does not at all provoke angry Synodal protests. It also must be added that Patriarch Kirill’s letter, as it states in the text, was not only the result of his own soul’s urgings and sympathy for a suffering man, but also the fulfillment of his archpastoral duty to his own flock. Many Orthodox people in Russia, the Ukraine, Belorussia, and Moldova, including the author of these lines, were sincerely grieved by the news of Fr. Ephraim’s arrest. The proof of this is the thousands of signatures already found on a petition in support of the archimandrite. With all due tact and Christian nobility, our Patriarch decided to bring our pain to the attention of those who can decide whether or not to release Fr. Ephraim during the investigation. In fact, if the Patriarch of Constantinople would have used Patriarch Kirill’s letter, along with the voices of support from other Local Churches, to actively defend the abbot of Vatopedi Monastery, he would have indeed strengthened his authority in the Orthodox world, and would most likely have led to Fr. Ephraim’s release. Instead, through its strange statement, the Constantinople Patriarchate has primarily given Fr. Ephraim’s opponents an excellent excuse to ignore the voices of the Orthodox world; and secondly, he has compromised himself not only before Mt. Athos and the Russian Church, but before all Orthodox Christians, including Greeks. Yes, not everyone in the Greek world loves the Russian Orthodox Church, but even its fiercest critics, hand on heart, have to admit in this case that if they were to find themselves in Fr. Ephraim’s shoes they would much rather see Moscow’s attitude toward their misfortune than Constantinople’s. The above-mentioned Bishop Amvrossios of the Greek Orthodox Church makes yet another point: “If the Russian Patriarch has inadvertently interfered in the affairs of another Patriarchate, why then aren’t the Churches of Greece, Cyprus, and Bulgaria also cited? Their leaders made similar statements. It would appear that the Ecumenical Patriarchate is essentially contradicting itself and is acting unilaterally.” |
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