| Metropolitan Tikhon addresses clergy, faithful of the Diocese of the Midwest admin 15 April 2013 April 14, 2013 In a pastoral letter dated April 14, 2013, His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon addressed the clergy and faithful of the Diocese of the Midwest with regard to recent events concerning His Grace, Bishop Matthias. The complete text as it appears below also is available in PDF format . PASTORAL LETTER April 14, 2013 Sunday of Saint John of the Ladder To the Very Reverend and Reverend Fathers, Reverend Deacons, Venerable Monastics, Esteemed Members of the Diocesan and Parish Councils and Faithful of the Diocese of the Midwest, The past eight months have been difficult for the entire Diocese of the Midwest and have seen the clergy and faithful in all of the parishes deeply affected by the matter of the allegations against His Grace, Bishop Matthias. The resolution of this matter has likewise required significant attention and the Holy Synod recognizes the stress that everyone has been under during this time. Since Archbishop Nathaniel’s letter to the diocese of November 3, 2012, the Holy Synod has been carefully reviewing all aspects of this matter, including the Report of the Response Team that investigated the complaint, the Report of the Institute which offered the week-long evaluation and the discussions held at the Assembly and Diocesan Council of the Diocese of the Midwest. At the Spring Session of the Holy Synod, held on March 11-14, 2013, the members of the Holy Synod met with His Grace, Bishop Matthias, and came to a consensus on this matter. After much prayer and deliberation, the Holy Synod regretfully determined to recommend to their brother, Bishop Matthias, that he retire voluntarily from his position as diocesan bishop for the Diocese of the Midwest. Although His Grace was obedient to all the directives placed upon him by the Holy Synod, it was the Holy Synod’s considered opinion that the healing of the Diocese and of the complainant, as well as Bishop Matthias’ own healing, would not be possible should he be returned to the Diocese as a ruling hierarch. The Holy Synod offered him some time to reflect upon this action and to plan for his transition. |
| John Anthony McGuckin Calendar JOHN A. MCGUCKIN The calendar, in Orthodox usage, signifies the manner in which the yearly cycle of liturgical feasts is arranged in the church. From the very beginnings of the Christian Church there was a marked desire among believers to celebrate liturgically that central moment of salvation history: the monumental events surrounding the Lord’s death and resurrection, the great Paschal Mystery which included his cross and his glory as one. Liturgically separated out, so as to provide pause and meditative space for the faithful to “ponder these things” ( Lk. 2.19 ), the Paschal Mystery itself refuses to be divided up by aspect or human chronology. It is one living reality, not a series of disparate events. So, to that extent, it is impossible to set apart the Lord’s ministry from his sufferings, for they make a seamless weave. It is impossible to separate Great Friday from Pascha Sunday, or to divide out the mystery of Ascension and Pentecost. It is only a time-bounded chronological mindset that sets them in different chronological sequences. In God’s work of salvation it is not Chronos (time sequence) that matters but Kairos (the timeless moment of the opportunity of Grace). Pentecost and Pascha are not just things of the past, they are things of the present moment of God’s glory, and of the church’s future hope – its eschatological reality. The calendar, therefore, is a meditative aid to realize the complexity of the eschatological Kairos which the church senses as profound Mystery of Christ. It is not meant to be a ground plan, objectively real and definitive, as much as a cycle of recurring and elliptical reflections on the central mystery of the Word’s redemption of his people. Liturgically, the calendar revolves around Pascha. The Paschal cycle begins four weeks before Lent opens, with the Sunday of the Prodigal Son (announcing the overarching theme of repentance). Prior to Pascha come the Sundays of Great Lent, each with their own theme and motif, announced in the gospel of the day as well as in certain “saints of repentance” who are commemorated (Mary of Egypt, for example, or John of the Ladder), and also the Entry to Jerusalem. |
| Impulsivity, Self-Control, and Relying on Christ Hieromonk Alexis (Trader) The 12th century Ladder of Divine Ascent icon (Saint Catherine " s Monastery, Sinai Peninsula, Egypt) showing monks, led by John Climacus, ascending the ladder to Jesus, at the top right. Resisting temptation , ignoring unwanted thoughts, and altering one’s emotional state when under the onslaught of impulsivity may seem to some as a fool’s errand. Yet, holy men and women have achieved success at just such endeavors for more than two thousand years. They have done so, not because they had iron wills, fewer thoughts, or a permanent smile, though in time their wills did become more conformed to the will of God, their thoughts became more centered on their Savior, and their joy in Christ could no longer be contained. The secret to their success was very simple: they were victorious through their day-to-day, moment-to-moment communion with God, the source of their strength, life, and love. With His help, human efforts at self-control are transformed into a collaboration or synergy between God and man, not to overcome a problem, but to become a child of light. As for the human side of the equation, psychologists have mapped out the areas in which self-control can be used to achieve goals and refrain from impulsivity. For example, Andrew A. Lubusko notes in his dissertation on the subject that there are four primary categories of self-control: “1) impulse control, resisting temptations and refraining from acting on undesirable impulses such as overeating, aggression, etc.; 2) thought control, concentrating, regulating one’s reasoning or inference process, or suppressing unwanted thoughts; 3) affect regulation, efforts aimed at altering one’s emotional and mood states (e.g., escaping negative mood or maintaining positive mood); and 4) achieving optimal performance and controlling performance through efforts such as persistence, optimal management of exertion, and balancing speed and accuracy (Baumeister & Exline, 2000).” Put simply, self-control is about how we react, how we think, how we feel, and how we focus. Our ability to shift the way we react, think, feel, and focus in turn translates into our ability to control our actions and hence deal with impulsivity. |
| At the Last Judgment, so St. Symeon the New Theologian writes, Christ will produce exemplary saints from every station in life and so demonstrate that it is possible for every person, whatever one’s work or employment, to attain to salvation and sainthood, rendering all excuses for what they are. Let us meditate from time to time on this teaching. Among the disciples of Jesus there were mostly Galilean fishermen and ordinary farmers. Matthew the tax collector may have been well educated and a trained professional in the Roman bureaucracy to do his job. John, the brother of James, was intellectually gifted in order to compose the magnificent Gospel of St. John, if he is indeed its author as handed down in tradition. In films Judas is sometimes portrayed as a Hamlet-lite figure, an intellectual with burning conceptual questions, but we know nothing of this from the texts of the Gospels. We have an astonishing variety of persons in the constellation of the saints, including men and women and children: from farmers to teachers, from lawyers to doctors, from ascetics to missionaries, from cooks to theologians, from charismatics to philosophers, from soldiers to kings, from deacons to bishops. St. Luke the Evangelist was a doctor. St. Paul was a missionary. St. Ignatius was a Bishop. St. Justin Martyr was a philosopher. St. Basil was a great philanthropist. St. Gregory of Nanzianzus was a preeminent theologian. St. Macarius of Egypt and St. Symeon the New Theologians were charismatics. St. John of the Ladder was an ascetic. St. Demetrios was a teacher. St. Theodore the Recruit was a soldier. St. Constantine the Great was an emperor. Born in a pagan family (ca. 272 AD), St. Constantine established a career in the military proving to be an exceptional leader and skillful politician. His life was one of continuous struggle for power and dominance, far from a solitary and peaceful climate conducive to sainthood. His inner circle involved intrigues for succession, including members of the imperial family who were executed as real or imagined plotters, under the reign of Constantine. |
| Virtual Conference Brings Orthodox Musicians Together Yonkers, NY – Over 200 church musicians from Europe, Australia, and North America gathered in online presentations and discussions exploring the theme of “Music as Liturgy.” The 3-day event was co-hosted by the International Society for Orthodox Church Music (ISOCM) and St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary (SVS). As choirs and churches around the globe face the uncertainty of how to remain physically safe during the COVID-19 pandemic, participants at the 2020 Pan-Orthodox Music Symposium looked at the question of how clergy, faithful, and in particular singers and chanters “do the liturgy.” “I have never taken part in a music event outside of my parish before now, so the Introduction to Liturgical Conducting Masterclass has given me confidence to conduct when our two choir directors are not available,” said David Galloway of St John of the Ladder Orthodox Church, Greenville, SC, “I have made connections with many Orthodox conductors and music educators to help me learn even more.” The work of church musicians has become particularly difficult in 2020 with the pandemic restricting both the method and number of church musicians who can sing responses during liturgical services. One of the most attended sessions during this year’s Symposium explored ways to move forward in a post-pandemic world. “With many of our churches and schools have been partially or completely closed, the pandemic is challenging us to find ways to pray and make music while also taking care of one another,,” according to Robin Freeman, Director of Music, St. Vladimir’s Seminary, and member of the Symposium organizing committee. “This online Symposium highlighted for many of us the growing possibilities of technology for teaching, learning, and making music together.” While participants were unable to gather in person to celebrate the All-Night Vigil and Divine Liturgy, this year’s event featured masterclasses on 8 different topics to develop skillsets in advance of a return to the kliros and choir lofts in their home parishes. |
| Let us continue our talk about dreams. Abba Evagrius writes: “Sometimes demons concoct dreams out of arrogance and throw one’s soul into a quagmire of thoughts. For example, somebody can often see himself in a dream… either healing bodily sicknesses or worthily wearing a pastor’s vestments and tending his small spiritual flock.” Demons are prone to predict the things that are not edifying or eternal. The aim of these false prophecies is to lead a Christian into temptation (see 1 Cor. 10:13). In this state it is easier to tempt us and occasion our fall. If demons fail in this, they begin to bear malice towards us. Trust in dreams intensifies the state of self-delusion, convinces us that we are right, and often makes our spiritual healing impossible. There is a close link between trusting dreams and spiritual deception. Here is one example, described by Holy Hierarch Ignatius (Brianchaninov) in his Ascetic Experiences: “There lived an elder at the Ploschansk Hermitage (in the Orel Diocese) who was in spiritual delusion. He cut off his hand (thinking that by this he was keeping a commandment from the Gospel) and told everybody that it had supposedly become holy relics and was kept at Moscow Simonov Monastery with honor. Living 500 versts [an old Russian measure of length, about 1.1 kilometers or 0.66 miles] from Simonov Monastery, this elder ‘felt’ when its archimandrite and the brethren venerated his hand. It made the elder shudder and hiss very loudly. He regarded that phenomenon as a fruit of prayer, while everybody saw only a regrettable and laughable perversion in it. Orphaned children who lived at the monastery were amused by this phenomenon: they imitated the elder and thus enraged him, so he attacked them and pulled their hair. None of the venerable monastery’s brethren were able to convince the miserable man that he was in a deplorable state.” St. John Climacus , continuing Abba Evagrius’ thought, says that, “The demons of vainglory prophesy in dreams.” 1 Then The Ladder of Divine Ascent explains to us the mechanism of the so-called “prophetic dreams”: “Being unscrupulous, they (demons) guess the future from the circumstances and foretell it to us… A demon is often a prophet to those who believe him, but he is always a liar to those who despise him.” 2 This is an important remark: there is a direct relationship between the fulfilment of “prophetic dreams” and trusting them. |
| I received an e-mail from someone asking advice on how to find a spiritual father. I had to tell him that finding a spiritual father, in one sense, is very difficult and may take a lifetime. In fact, if by finding a spiritual father he means that he is looking for a relationship with a spiritual mentor that is like what one reads about in the Philokalia or the Sayings of the Desert Fathers, or in the Ladder of Divine Ascent, then I would have to say that it is almost impossible to find a spiritual father. On the other hand, and in another sense, it is very easy to find a spiritual father or mother. Finding a spiritual mentor in this sense has mostly to do with the seeker’s humility and willingness to be taught, and much less to do with the qualifications of the potential mentor. Let me explain: In the writings of the Holy Fathers, especially the ancient Fathers, we are given as examples to be emulated the many stories of absolute and unquestioning obedience of novices to their spiritual fathers. We are told stories of holy men who submitted unquestioningly and with profound humility to spiritual fathers and who themselves became saints because of that humble submission. We are told of clairvoyant elders, full of love for their spiritual children, who unerringly guided their spiritual children on the path to godlikeness, and we are told of spiritual children suffering harsh consequences as a result of disobeying their spiritual mentors. This tradition of discipleship under a wise and experienced spiritual guide (father or mother as the case may be) is an essential part of our Orthodox Christian tradition and a necessary aspect of our growth and transformation into godliness. However, this way of spiritual fatherhood is much misunderstood these days and consequently–even if unintentionally–sometimes results in unhealthy relationships and even spiritual abuse. In such cases, instead of helping one grow in Christ, a inappropriate or misunderstood relationship with someone whom you consider to be a spiritual father or mother (or with someone who presents themselves as a spiritual father or mother) can result in prolonged spiritual infancy, years of confusion or anger, and even in one turning away from Christ completely. |
| John Anthony McGuckin St. John Klimakos (ca. 579-ca. 659) JOHN CHRYSSAVGIS The ascetic author par excellence, John Klimakos (meaning John “Of the Ladder”) lived on Mt. Sinai as a hermit and, later, abbot in the great monastery of St. Katherine there. The precise dates of his life are difficult to determine, but he is probably a contemporary of Maximos the Confessor (580–662). It seems reasonable to place his dates between ca. 579 and ca. 659. It is not known where John was born but he arrived at Sinai when he was only 16. When already quite advanced in age he accepted to write the Ladder at the request of another John, Abbot of Raithou. Originally entitled Spiritual Tablets, as many manuscripts indicate, it was the title Ladder which ultimately prevailed and which gives the book its unique flavor and feature. The Ladder consists of thirty steps (sections), including a range of virtues to acquire and vices to avoid. As a supplement to this John also authored a short treatise entitled To the Shepherd, describing the spiritual task of the abbot and likewise addressed to John of Raithou. Each step opens with a series of brief definitions, followed by a detailed exposition of the theme with illustrative anecdotes, and a terminal summary with inspiration. John is deeply influenced by the early desert tradition of Egypt as well as the Gaza monastics, such as Barsanuphius and John. In some ways, he lays the foundations for the “school” of Sinaite spirituality commonly attributed to Hesychios and Philotheos. His extensive influence is witnessed in the writings of St. Symeon the New Theologian (especially in his teaching on tears) and the 14th-century hesychasts, such as St. Gregory Palamas (especially in his teaching on silence and prayer). With the exception of the scriptures and the liturgical books, no other writing in Eastern Christendom has been studied, copied, and translated to the same extent as John’s Ladder of Divine Ascent. It has shaped not only Eastern Orthodoxy, and especially its monastic tradition, but also the entire Christian world. Even today, the Ladder is appointed to be read aloud in churches or in the refectory, as well as privately in the cells of Orthodox monasteries, each year during Lent, a practice that may date back to the time of the author’s life. There is no equivalent of the Ladder in the West, but its popularity may be compared with that of the Imitation ofChrist, though the two books differ greatly in character. |
| St. Joasaph the Bishop of Belgorod Commemorated on December 10 Saint Joasaph was born at Proluka, in the former Poltava governance, on September 8, 1705, the Feast of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos. He was descended from the old and venerable Little Russian (Ukrainian) lineage of the Gorlenkovi. At Baptism he was named Joachim. In 1712, his father enrolled the seven-year-old Joachim in the Kiev Spiritual Academy. Within the walls of the academy he felt attracted to monastic life. For seven years he studied it further, and finally revealed his intention to his parents. For a long time his mother and father pleaded with their first-born son not to accept monastic tonsure. But in 1725, unknown to them, he became a “rasophore” (“robe-wearing novice”) with the name Hilarion at the Kiev Mezhigorsk monastery, and on 21 November 1727 he was tonsured in the mantya with the name Joasaph at the Kievo-Bratsk monastery. This event coincided with the completion of his studies at the spiritual academy. After the death of His Grace Barlaam, the See of Kiev was governed by Archbishop Raphael Zaborovsky. Archbishop Raphael noticed the abilities of the young ascetic and assigned him to greater service to the Church. He was entrusted with the responsibility of the office of examiner of the Kiev archbishopric. In November 1734, Archbishop Raphael ordained the hierodeacon Joasaph as hieromonk, and he was transferred from the Bratsk monastery school to the Kiev-Sophia archbishop’s house. At the same time, he was appointed a member of the Kiev religious consistory. In fulfilling the office of examiner, he exerted much effort towards the correction of moral deficiencies among the parish clergy. The saint’s service in the consistory office enabled him to develop his administrative abilities. During this time, he made a good study of the needs of clergy-servers, noting both the good points and the failings of the diocese. His talent for administration was combined with his great spiritual effort. He quickly ascended the ladder of spiritual perfection, which can be seen in his work, “The Conflict of the Seven Venerable Virtues with the Seven Deadly Sins.” |
| John Anthony McGuckin Apophaticism JUSTIN M. LASSER The Greek term apophasis denotes a manner of doing theology by “not speaking.” As the alpha-privative prefix suggests, the term is concerned with a negating function. In some forms apophaticism exists as a check on kataphatic or assertive theology or philosophy. The style of apophatic theology was first developed by the Platonic school philosophers, and creatively used by Plotinus, as well as appearing in some of the Gnostic literature (Apocryphon of John, Trimorphic Protennoia). Apophaticism, stressing that God exceeds the boundaries of all terms that can be applied to the divinity by human mind or language, is above all else a means of preserving mystery amid a world of theological assertions. Apophaticism preserves the religious apprehension of the mystical in a more sophisticated way than the simple asseveration of dogmatic utterances. The Nag Hammadi writings (recovered in 1945) exhibit the earliest forms of Christian apophaticism. Clement and Origen of Alexandria both developed early Orthodox forms of apophaticism which were inherited and developed especially by St. Gregory of Nazianzus (Orations 27–8) and St. Gregory of Nyssa (Contra Eunomium) in their controversy with the Arian logicians Eunomius and Aetius. The theology of these radical Arians (Heterousiasts) against which the Cappadocians asserted apophaticism as a way of refuting their deductions about God’s nature (which Aetius had affirmed was simple and directly knowable through logical method and literal exegesis) was itself a form of apophaticism, since they posited the negation “un-originate” (agenetos) as the first principle of their doctrine of God. Evagrius of Ponticus, disciple of the Cappadocians, transformed Christian apophaticism into a theology of prayer, encouraging his disciples to pray without using any mental images. The first Orthodox Christian writer to employ apophaticism systematically was the great 5th-century Syrian theologian Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. His treatises on the Divine Names and the Mystical Theology stand at the very pinnacle of Orthodox apophatic theology. Dionysius believed that the descriptive (affirmative or positive-utterance) elements in revelation were intended to provide a ladder by which the initiate would climb by negating each descriptive assertion about God. Dionysius’ writings, considering the theological controversies that preceded them, were astoundingly thought provoking. Concerning the divinity, Dionysius wrote: “It is not a substance [ousia], nor is it eternity or time. ... It is not Sonship or Fatherhood ... it falls neither within the predicate of non-being nor of being” (Mystical Theology, in Rorem 1987: 141). Even so, Dionysius could still begin his treatise praying to the divine Trinity and would develop all his thought in the matrix of the divine liturgy. Such are the paradoxes of the apophatic approach. |
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