| 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. |
| 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 Metropoplitan Hilarion: The cross which was an instrument of dishonourable execution becomes the symbol of salvation for millions of people On 27 th September 2020, feast of the Elevation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Church of the “Joy of All Who Sorrow” Icon of the Mother of God in Bolshaya Ordynka Street in Moscow. Concelebrating with the archpastor were clerics of the church. During the Litany of Fervent Supplication, prayerful petitions were offered for the deliverance from the coronavirus infection. After the Litany of Fervent Supplication, Metropolitan Hilarion lifted up the prayer which is read at a time of harmful pestilence. After the Liturgy, the prayer service of the Veneration of the Cross was conducted. It was followed by a homily, in which the archpastor said: “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. “Dear Fathers, dear brothers and sisters, “Today we are celebrating the feast of the Elevation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord. This feast was set in honour of the events that had occurred in the 4th century when, by a decision of Emperor Constantine the Great, the city of Jerusalem had been turned into the largest Christian pilgrimage centre. “Prior to that, on the site of the ancient Jerusalem destroyed by the Romans, for three centuries there existed a city called Aelia Capitolina. It was a pagan city with no landmarks which could remind people about the Lord Jesus Christ, His disciples or the ancient Kingdom of Israel. But when Christianity, thanks to Emperor Constantine, Equal-to-the-Apostles, came out of the catacombs and received the actual status of the Roman Empire’s official religion, people remembered about both the Christian shrines and the holy city of Jerusalem. |
| A Homily offered by Deacon Michael Schlaack on the Strength of the Faith of the Centurion This morning’s Gospel reading teaches a very important lesson about salvation: It is not who you are, but how you believe that will ultimately determine your place in God’s Kingdom. The account tells us that Jesus encounters a Centurion in the city of Capernaum. The soldier, a Gentile, approaches the Lord concerning his slave who is paralyzed and, in St. Luke’s telling of this account, the slave is near death. Now if the story had stopped at this point it would have still been very remarkable due to the fact that the Centurion, an officer in the Roman army, was the muscle that enforced the oppressive rule of the Roman Empire against the people of Palestine. One would conclude that the Centurion’s plea to Christ was nothing more than a last-ditch effort to cure his beloved servant. But as with all of the Gospels, the true meaning behind the story goes beyond the act of the physical healing. So often our contemplation about the miracles of Christ recorded in the Gospels are limited to physical realm. We read about the miraculous, “long-distance” physical healing of the Centurion’s servant, and become satisfied that we fully understand the meaning behind the today’s account. Yes, the physical healing was important; to the Centurion as well as to the servant. I am sure that those who had the privilege of observing this event certainly benefitted as well from the miraculous physical healing. But it is because of the greater miracle for which Jesus commends the Centurion: The strength of his faith. In his commentary on this passage, St. John Chrysostom commented that the faith displayed by the Centurion was even greater than that shown by the four friends who lowered the sick man’s cot through the opening in the roof to place the friend in the presence of Jesus, as recorded in Saints Mark’s and Luke’s Gospels. The Centurion’s faith was so great that he did not need to have his sick servant brought into the physical presence of Christ. The Centurion’s prayer was heard and granted…and the servant was completely healed at that very moment. |
| John Anthony McGuckin Hesychasm METROPOLITAN KALLISTOS OF DIOKLEIA The terms “hesychasm” and “hesychast” are derived from the Greek word hesychia, meaning “quietness,” “silence,” or “inner stillness.” From the beginning of Christian monasticism, hesychia has been regarded as a primary characteristic of the monk: in the words ofNeilos of Ankyra (d. ca. 430), “It is impossible for muddy water to grow clear if it is constantly stirred up; and it is impossible to become a monk without hesychia” (Exhortation to Monks, PG 79: 1236B). The essence of hesychasm is summed up in the command given by God to the desert father Arsenios (d. 449): “Arsenios, flee, keep silent, be still [hesychaze], for these are the roots of stillness” (Apophthegmata, alphabetical collection, Arsenios 2). The term “hesychasm” has sometimes been rendered as “quietism,” but this is potentially misleading, since the Quietist movement in the 17th-century West is significantly different from the hesychast tradition in the East. In early sources (4th-6th centuries), hesychia sometimes indicates the solitary life; a hesychast is a hermit or recluse, as contrasted with a monk dwelling in a cenobium or organized community. More commonly, however, especially in later sources, hesychia is given an interiorized and spiritual sense, and denotes silence of the heart. It usually signifies the quest for union with God through “apophatic” or “non-iconic” prayer, that is to say, prayer that is free from images and discursive thinking. From the 5th century onwards, one of the chief means for attaining such hesychast prayer has been the Invocation of the Holy Name or Jesus Prayer. By the 14th century, if not before, the Jesus Prayer was often accompanied by a psychosomatic technique, involving in particular control of the breathing. ORIGINS A decisive role in the emergence of hesychasm was played by Evagrios Pontike (346–99). Taking up a scheme devised by Origen (ca. 185-ca. 254), Evagrios divided the spiritual life into three stages or levels: |
| 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. |
| John Anthony McGuckin Anointing of the Sick SERGEY TROSTYANSKIY The use of oil for healing purposes was well known in Antiquity. Both Jewish and pagan practices of healing are marked by the use of oil, the element which was symbolically associated with joy, gladness, peace, and happiness. In Christian practice, when blessed or accompanied by prayer, oil became a symbol of the Holy Spirit, a mystery of the energy of divine grace, and thus a means of sanctification. The perception of a person as a holistic unity and the assumption that physical sickness, suffering, and death were signs of spiritual not only physical trouble were deeply rooted in the Old Testament tradition. Thus, Genesis described humanity as created to inhabit paradise, to be in perfect communion with God, and to contemplate God. There are no signs of sickness or death associated with paradise. However, the original Fall, the sin committed by Adam and Eve, caused a temporary exile from paradise, a break in communion with God, and, as a consequence, the subjection of humanity to sickness, suffering, and death. For the fathers, the devil stood directly behind this catastrophe, and accordingly this triad of woes is the result of the works of the forces of evil. Moreover, sin, a spiritual disorder, is widely seen among the fathers as the root of physical disorders. Thus, the close, almost causal connection between sin and sickness is clearly affirmed both in the Scriptures themselves and throughout most of patristic commentary on the healings of Jesus. Healing narratives in the Scriptures are viewed and presented as a divine prerogative; the direct result of the work of divine power, and of the forgiveness of sin. Jesus’ ministry adopted healing as an important aspect of his mission, and a symbol (in the form of exorcism) of the advent of the Kingdom of God. Moreover, the Scriptures present Jesus as the ultimate healer of the world, who removes the powers of evil, including sin and sickness, from the world. The apostles’ ministry was also associated with healing. “They expelled many demons, and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them” ( Mk. 6.13 ). The Epistle of James provided a theological basis for the sacramental power of anointing of the sick: |
| About the benefit of obedience and Elder Ephraim A Conversation with Gerontissa Theophano Olga Rozhneva , Gerontissa Theophano The first monastery built by Elder Ephraim in America was the women’s monastery of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos in Saxonburg, PA. Elder Ephraim founded it in 1989. Pilgrims meet here a peaceful corner of nature, where you can forget for a time your worldly cares and anxieties and you can immerse yourself in a world of silence and prayer. The sisters of the monastery labor purely for the prayer of the heart and mind. Here and there you here: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.” The Byzantine singing in church during the services leaves pilgrims in awe. The monastery is a missionary center. It is an oasis in the desert of modern life for those who are experiencing spiritual hunger. Here the afflicted receive spiritual counsel and consolation in sorrows. Children, who with their pure souls share in the nun’s joy in the Lord, especially love to visit the monastery. Fifteen sisters are currently laboring in the monastery (thirteen nuns, two novices). They themselves earn money for bread and the monastery necessities. The monastery has an active icon studio, with the nuns making icons on wood and stone, they work at embroidery and sewing Baptismal garments and priestly vestments, they tie prayer ropes, decorate candles for Weddings and Baptisms, and they produce soap. There is also a monastery garden. The first abbess of the monastery was Gerontissa Taxiarchia. Elder Ephraim of Philotheou, her spiritual father, called her here from a Greek monastery in 1989. Gerontissa Taxiarchia was a clairvoyant eldress, having acquired the gifts of ceaseless prayer and love of Christ. The monastery’s current abbess, Gerontissa Theophano, joined the sisterhood in 1990. Under her spiritual direction the sisters reverently preserve the traditions inherited from their spiritual mother, Gerontissa Taxiarchia. Gerontissa Theophano kindly agreed to speak with us. |
| Buddhism and Eastern Asceticism Compared to Orthodox Christian Asceticism The fundamental difference between Christianity and other beliefs and practices lies in the fact that the Jesus Prayer is based on the revelation of the One true living and personal God as Holy Trinity No other path admits any possibility of a living relationship between God and the person who prays. It is unfortunate that there is widespread confusion, not to mention delusion, in the inexperienced, whereby the Jesus Prayer is thought to be equivalent to yoga in Buddhism, or ‘transcendental meditation’, and other such Eastern exotica. Any similarity, however, is mostly external, and any inner convergence does not rise beyond the natural ‘anatomy’ of the human soul. The fundamental difference between Christianity and other beliefs and practices lies in the fact that the Jesus Prayer is based on the revelation of the One true living and personal God as Holy Trinity No other path admits any possibility of a living relationship between God and the person who prays. Eastern asceticism aims at divesting the mind of all that is relative and transitory, so that man may identify with the impersonal Absolute. This Absolute is believed to be man’s original ‘nature’, which suffered degradation and degeneration by entering a multiform and ever-changing earth-bound life. Ascetic practice like this is, above all, centred upon the self, and is totally dependent on man’s will. Its intellectual character betrays the fullness of human nature, in that it takes no account of the heart. Man’s main struggle is to return to the anonymous Supra-personal Absolute and to be dissolved in it. He must therefore aspire to efface the soul (Atman) in order to be one with this anonymous ocean of the Suprapersonal Absolute, and in this lies its basically negative purpose. In his struggle to divest himself of all suffering and instability connected with transient life, the eastern ascetic immerses himself in the abstract and intellectual sphere of so-called pure Existence, a negative and impersonal sphere in which no vision of God is possible, only man’s vision of himself. |
| A typical newcomer to the Eastern Orthodox Church cannot help but come to the conclusion that Orthodoxy is a culture with a vengeance. Participating in the Orthodox way of life inevitably means adopting the very specific and conspicuous set of beliefs and practices that characterize this community. In the first place, becoming Orthodox means embracing the whole ‘gesture, motion and display’ of incensing, icon veneration, vestments, chanting, processions, bowing and crossing oneself. Outside of the liturgy, Orthodox Christians are expected to fast from all animal products at regular intervals, attend special services during the week, and practice a daily and prescribed rule of prayer. In the majority of Orthodox Christian communities, the cultural expectations are additionally bound up with ethnicity—to be Orthodox means to be Greek or Russian or Romanian or some other culture where Orthodoxy is a ‘native’ religion. In many Orthodox churches—especially those where new converts or old world ideals predominate—the culture of Orthodoxy may may even extend itself into clothing and personal appearance: beards on men, headscarves on women during the liturgy are two of the most prominent examples. While the Orthodox Church does not insist that all of the above practices are equally essential to one’s salvation, there is a sense that the culture of Orthodoxy—those conspicuous practices that can seem so strange upon first encounter—is integral to the fullest possible experience of God in the person of Jesus Christ. Indeed, the Orthodox Church would insist that its particular form of ‘gesture, motion and display’ is precisely what makes its understanding of Christianity fuller than those of other Christian communities. Many Orthodox Christians would take St. Vincent of Lerins’ words—’the rule of faith is the rule of prayer’—as a basic axiom. The form of our prayer is absolutely inseparable from what we believe—the essence of our faith. Only in the past half century has this assumption been tested as never before. With the flowering of historical scholarship in the West around the culture of Eastern Orthodoxy—the origins of its beliefs and practices—Orthodox believers have come face to face with an uncomfortable truth: that our culture has evolved over the centuries. Liturgy, icons, vestments, even rules of fasting and prayer have all developed and changed to the point that they bear little resemblance—at least superficially—to the practices of the first century Christians. |
| The Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America issues Statement, Petitions on the Holy and Great Council Source: OCA The Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in America Statement on the Holy and Great Council to be convened on the Island of Crete June 16-27, 2016 We greet you in the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is the Way and the Truth and the Life (John 14:6). For many decades, the Orthodox Church has witnessed the efforts to assemble a Holy and Great Council as a contemporary witness to the Holy Orthodox Faith. The initiative in this modern endeavor belonged to the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras. The long pilgrimage toward the Holy and Great Council began in the 1960s. There were long pauses in this pilgrimage, followed by a renewed period of intense preparation at the initiative of His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. Through the decades, Pan-Orthodox conferences, consultations, and meetings of patriarchs and primates have revised the list of topics. During recent months, as the churches have reviewed draft documents and reflected on their formulations, new proposals have been brought forth and fresh disagreements have arisen. Even at this late stage, participation in the Holy and Great Council is uncertain, and its outcome is equally uncertain. In the midst of all this uncertainty, there is one certainty: the Orthodox Church in America, not being universally recognized as an autocephalous church, is not invited to be a participant. Our reaction to this is one of sadness, but not alienation. With gratitude to God, we affirm our identity as the Orthodox Church in America. We also affirm with gratitude to God our autocephaly, as granted to us by the Russian Orthodox Church, and as recognized by the Churches of Georgia, Bulgaria, Poland, and the Czech Lands and Slovakia. We affirm with profound gratitude to God our Eucharistic communion with all Orthodox Churches, beginning with the Ecumenical Patriarchate. We therefore accept and affirm our right and duty to accompany the Holy and Great Council with love and reflection and prayer. |
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