| Yes, quite often repentance is understood as self-flagellation and self-condemnation, consistent long-term and extremely painful (which is a prerequisite) admitting oneself to being completely and absolutely wrong and very bad. A significant part of penitential prayers is based on such rhetoric, sometimes using exceptionally strong imagery: “ For just like a swine lying in the mud, so I serve sin”, “From sullied lips, from an abominable heart, from a tongue impure, from a soul defiled”, etc. Everyone who read it remembers. It entered the language, into the mass consciousness. When one reads about someone “repenting”, one imagines how they beat themselves in the chest, tear their shirt, knock their head on the ground, in other words they are humiliated in every possible way and suffer. Suffer terribly. Actually, a strong connection has formed in people’s minds that “repentance” equals “suffering”. Everyone remembers Eustace the Dragon from the “Chronicles of Narnia” whose skin was peeled off and everyone remembers that he was in pain too. There is even an idea, which is usually not expressed aloud, that the more painful is the better. Repentance is thus more effective. The more you treat yourself like dirt and the harder you criticize yourself is the better. It means that you have repented. No, we, of course, all read that repentance is a joyful process, some even remember the words “joyful grief”, which sound like something only saints could do, some special people, not us, but someone better. We are left with repentance, which we read like “we are left with suffering”. Everything in the world can be divided into two groups: not even good and bad, but valuable and worthless. The valuable is good in itself, no matter what. In fact, the only valuable one is God, Who is the source of everything precious. Everything else can be valuable in relation to Him. People are of value, because they are loved by God and were redeemed by Him. Even very bad people. Even completely disgusting ones are still valuable. |
| Instructions of the Holy Fathers on Spiritual Life Who are these venerable men — ascetics and how are they unlike other Christians? While the majority of people were content to lead ordinary lives, these were people since ancient times, in Christ’s Church, whom He called " not of the world " (John 17:14). These righteous individuals dedicated their lives totally to God by isolating themselves away from worldly cares and falsehood, in wastelands, in deep forests, or in some other way shielded themselves from earthly temptations and the presence of outsiders. These were people thirsting for the truth, pining for higher spiritual values and ablaze with love for God, seeing the Kingdom of Heaven as their only motherland. Some of these righteous individuals attained spiritual heights and experienced blessed enlightenment that a majority of people could never see or imagine. Introduction This booklet appears as the first in a series of collections, from which we intend to publish the selected instructions of Orthodox ascetic fathers concerning Christian living. In compiling this first collection, the following books were used: Five tome collection of “Philokalia” (edited by Theophan the Recluse); “The Ladder” of Blessed John, Abbot of the Sinai hills; “Spiritually Beneficial Instructions” of Abba Dorotheos; “Unseen War” of St.Nikodemus of the Holy Mount; thoughts of Sylian of Athos; “Otechnik” of Bishop Ignatius Branchaninov, and other various ascetic collections. From these works, we have selected those instructions that apply to people living secular lives, and disregarded those sections that are essentially relevant to a monastic or reclusive environment. Judging by the large number of pre-revolutionary catalogues of publications, the Lives of Saints and their directives were favorite reading to the spiritually disposed Russian individual. Indeed, it is this literature that contains within itself a power of attraction, because it is not a dry and abstract philosophy but reflects a saintly life in a righteous soul. To read about his life or his instructions is like visiting him and drawing upon his treasury of spiritual experiences. |
| Скачать epub pdf The nature of faith Our soul possesses the amazing ability to sense God. Although this awareness of the Divine presence is weak and hazy in a person just beginning to grow spiritually, it gets stronger and becomes more and more conscious with a virtuous way of life. This, in turn, strengthens onés faith in Him, so that the inner feeling of God grows to a strong religious conviction. In such a state, the omnipresence of God, His infinite love and fatherly care are continuously felt and become a source of inner peace and strength. True faith cannot be satisfied with a cold recognition of God " s existence but strives to be in close communion with Him. The believing soul naturally reaches to God, as a sunflower turns toward the sun. In turn, an active relationship with God further strengthens the person " s faith, so that his faith becomes a spiritual guide, based on personal experience. In some particularly gifted people faith grows into an all-illumining and constantly inspiring idea, that leads them from this world of vanity into the transcendent world of eternal life. Among such people were the Virgin Mary, Saint John the Baptist, the Apostles John and Paul, and countless saints like Sergius of Radoneszh, Seraphim of Sarov, John of Kronstadt, Herman of Alaska and Blessed Xenia of Petersburg, to name just a few. The significance of faith in a person " s development lies in that it gives proper direction to all his aptitudes and powers. Specifically, it gives clarity and the correct outlook to his intellect, direction and purpose to his will, it ennobles and refines his senses. Faith brings harmony to a person " s inner world. It frees one from base earthly interests and leads him into a realm of higher and holier experiences. Faith and knowledge In our time of many scientific achievements it has become customary to belittle faith in comparison to intellect. Knowledge is regarded as something firmly founded, positive, and completely objective. Faith, on the other hand, is considered to be arbitrary, subjective and unproved. However, both high confidence in scientific knowledge and disdain of faith are pitiable misconceptions. |
| 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. |
| Anger blinds and deafens. Anger keeps us from thinking clearly and from paying attention to and loving the human beings in our presence right now. CHLOE EFFRON//WIKIMEDIA COMMONS (PLUTARCH), ISTOCK (SMOKE) If I were to venture a guess as to the most commonly confessed passion that I hear in confessions, I would say that it is anger. Just about everyone is angry. According to many of the saints, anger and misdirected desire are the two main passions from which all vices and passions come. The sources of anger can be varied, but I think there are two sources of anger that are most common in the people here in western Canada whom I confess and with whom I often have ‘confessional chats.’ The first source is, it seems to me, cultural expectation. There is a cultural expectation in Canada, and in North America generally—especially among the privileged class (usually of European descent, working class or better off financially, and that is most pronounced among the better educated)—an expectation that life would, could, and should be fair. We in North America generally have egalitarian suppositions and expectations. We expect the courts, institutions, businesses and other people in general to treat us fairly and equally. And when this is not the case, when either I or someone with whom I identify is treated unfairly, I become angry. Anger coming from this source, if the source is not a particular injustice I am experiencing, often comes from politics, from identifying with a particular political position, party or issue. That is, although I myself am not immediately or directly effected by a real and immediate injustice, I identify with those who are or seem to be or even might possibly be effected. Some Christians, particularly those especially interested in political action, argue that such vicariously acquired anger is a good thing because it motivates one to work politically for change in unjust systems. The Church Fathers of the desert and philokalic tradition, however, see things differently. |
| Orthodox Saint a Missionary to Be Proud Of Source: The Pueblo Chieftan America " s first Orthodox saint was a failure by American standards. He never possessed anything more than the clothes on his back. He had no formal education or career. He never achieved sexual fulfillment. Priest Barnabas Powell 08 June 2010 America’s first Orthodox saint was a failure by American standards. He never possessed anything more than the clothes on his back. He had no formal education or career. He never achieved sexual fulfillment. I don’t know when or where he was born. I can’t say with certainty when he died, since he was alone when it happened and his body waited months for burial. I can’t even tell you his full name, only the one name given at his monastic tonsure: “Herman.” Like most American Orthodox saints, Herman was an immigrant. Together with a small band of monks from Russian Finland, they came to Alaska in 1794, when it also belonged to Russia. Their primary mission was to catechize and confirm Aleuts who’d been baptized by Russian fur traders, many of whom married native Alaskans. This effort eventually led to the full-scale evangelization – at their own request – of the Aleut, Tlingit, Yupik and other First Nations. After traveling literally halfway around the world to get to Spruce Island (near Kodiak), Herman spent his first year in America living in a pit he dug in the ground. He later upgraded to a one-bedroom, no-bathroom hut made of twigs. There he established a school and orphanage for natives peoples and “Creoles” – children of mixed Russo-native parentage. Herman’s goal wasn’t to make the children Russian, but Christian. His students weren’t abducted from their families or beaten for speaking indigenous languages. In fact, when Herman discovered how brutally the management of the Russian American Fur Trading Co. was exploiting native people – men for their labor, women for sex – he became a persistent thorn in the side of his countrymen. Repeatedly slandered, marginalized and beaten, he was always vindicated by investigators from Moscow, to whom he denounced Russian abuses. |
| 4. Древний этап Традиции: «исихазм до исихазма» Справочно-библиографические материалы См. также соотв. статьи CPG, BHG, ВНО, BHL, DS, LTK, TR и отечественные публикации по коптологии и греко-римскому Египту. 1 . Библиографический указатель/Сост. Шрон Г. С. Л. 1989. 2 . Русская и иностранная библиография по истории византийской Церкви IV-IX вв. (Алфавитный список авторов и краткий обзор их трудов. Прил. к соч. доц. Ф. Терновского ). Киев 1885. 3 . Bibliotheca Sanctorum. Roma 1 (1961) – 13 (1970), Prima Appendice. 1987. [BibS] 4 . Leclercq H. Hésychastes//DACL 1925. 6:2. 2362–2365. [Период до преп. Иоанна Лествичника ]. 5 . Νεοελληνικ βιβλιογραφα περ Μοναχισμο. θναι 1972. 23. 6 . The Coptic Encyclopaedia/Ed. Atiya A S. Ν. Y. 1991. 1–8. 7 . Vivian T. Reading the Saints (II): An annotated bibliography of early monastic texts and resources available in English//CistSt 1998. 33:3. 329–344. Интернет-ресурсы 8 . The Christian Classics Ethereal Library (www.ccel.org): Cassian’s Conferences 9 . The Ecole Initiative (www2.evansville.edu/ecoleweb/): Житие Антония и др. произведения (напр., жития св. Павла Фивейского и Марии Египетской). Общие проблемы древней аскезы 10 . Османкина Г. Ю. Монашеское движение в первые века возникновения византийской империи//Verbum 3 9 .1524). 105–110. 11 . Сидоров А. И. Древнехристианский аскетизм и зарождение монашества. М. 1998. 528. [Популярный очерк. Библ.: 362–396. Приложение: Казанский П. С. Общий очерк жизни иноков египетских в IV и V веках. ( 1 М. 1872)]. 12 . Сидоров А. И. Становление культуры святости. Древнее монашество в истории и литературных памятниках//Он же. У истоков культуры святости: Памятники древнецерковной аскетической и монашеской письменности. М. 2002 [Сидоров. У истоков культуры святости]. 15–130. 13 . Филарет (Гумилевский) , архиеп. Черниговский. Жития святых подвижниц Восточной Церкви. СПб. 2 1885. М. 1994. 300. Подвижницы Александрии и ее окрестностей (Синклитикия, Сарра, Феодора, Александра и Пиамуна, Ефросиния, Фомаида, Таисия, Феодора, Аполлинария, Марина, Анастасия); 2: Верхнего Египта (Таисия, Пахомия, Исидора, Талида, Тафра, Евпраксия, Феодула, Юлия и неизвестные по имени); 3–6: Подвижницы палестинские, сирские, малоазийские, Константинополя и Эллады]. |
| More than 20,000 people were executed at the site in a little more than a year — an average of about 50 people per day. On May 10, the Russian Orthodox Church will hold its annual special service in the Church of New Martyrs and Confessors in Butovo, a little-known site that is home to Russia " s largest collection of holy relics. In the forest near old Butovo, about 5 kilometers south of the Moscow Ring Road, lies the largest burial place for victims of Stalin’s purges in the whole Moscow region, a site of mass executions. At the small plot of land known as the Butovsky Shooting Range or “Butovsky Poligon,” about 20,760 people were executed between August 1937 and October 1938. Among this were men and women, the old and the young, people from 70 different nationalities and many faiths and social classes. Seventy-seven years ago, in August 1937, the head of the NKVD ordered a high fence be erected around a remote five-hectare patch of oak forest glade. The construction was largely ignored by locals, who were told the site would be a shooting range, a rumor that frequent gunfire seemed to verify. More than 20,000 people were executed at the site in a little more than a year — an average of about 50 people per day. The diversity of those executed was stunning, including South African communists, Polish nationalists, Germans, Hindus, Chinese, Tatars and Jews. However, the site “specialized” in executions of Orthodox Christian clergy, targeted by the Soviet Union as supposedly counter-revolutionary elements in their atheist state. About 1,000 of the victims were clergy from the Russian Orthodox Church, and about 300 people from that number have since been beatified as saints. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian Orthodox Church began commemorating the site, establishing a small wooden church on the site in 1996 and a larger church that has been active since 2007. Since the year 2000, the patriarch has led an annual service in the church of the martyrs to commemorate those killed in Butovo. |
| Материал из Православной Энциклопедии под редакцией Патриарха Московского и всея Руси Кирилла КАЛЛИН [Каиллин; ирл. Caillin, Cállin, Caillén] (VI в.?), св. (пам. зап. 13 нояб.), основатель церкви Фиднаха (Фина, на месте совр. сел. Фина, графство Литрим, Ирландия). До XIII в. сведения о К. в источниках немногочисленны. Поминовение святого указано в мартирологе, составленном ок. 1170 г. аббатом Маэл Муире О Горманом (Марианом Горманом) (Félire Húi Gormáin: The Martyrology of Gorman/Ed. W. Stokes. L., 1895. P. 218-219). Согласно сборнику родословий ирл. святых, К. принадлежал к той части племенного объединения Конмакне, к-рая проживала на территории совр. графства Литрим (Конмакне Маге Рен) (см.: Corpus Genealogiarum Sanctorum Hiberniae/Ed. P. Ó Riain. Dublin, 1985. N 146, 442, 662.200). О К. упоминается в повести «Докучливые гости Гуаре» (Tromdámh Guaire), составленной в XIII в. на основе саги «Как было явлено «Похищение быка из Куальнге» (Faillsigud Tána bó Cúailnge, XII в.). Основная тема повести - поиски верховным филидом (поэтом) Сенханом забытой саги «Похищение быка из Куальнге». Вместе с др. ирл. святыми К. выступил посредником при соглашении между правителями и поэтами (Tromdámh Guaire. 124-129) и помогал своему брату Сенхану в поисках утраченного сказания. После поста и молитвы К. и др. святые вызвали из могилы Фергуса, сына Ройга, со слов которого и было записано «Похищение...» (Ibid. 1234-1295). Как отметил Ш. О Колянь, составитель повести заимствовал сведения из многих источников и активно перерабатывал доступный материал ( Ó Coile á in. 1977). Так, перечень святых, к-рые участвовали в соглашении между правителями и поэтами, основан на прологе к поэме «Похвала Колуму Килле» (составлен в 1007-1008, см.: Herbert M. The Preface to «Amra Coluim Cille»//Sages, Saints and Storytellers: Celtic Studies in Honour of Prof. J. Carney/Ed. D. Ó Corráin et al. Maynooth, 1989. P. 67-75), где, однако, имя К. отсутствует. Упоминаний о К. нет и в др. произведениях, на которые опирался автор повести «Докучливые гости Гуаре». |
| Материал из Православной Энциклопедии под редакцией Патриарха Московского и всея Руси Кирилла Св. Иулиан, еп. Ценоманский. Литография. 1896 г. (ГИМ) [франц. Julien] (I или IV в.?), свт. (пам. 13 июля; пам. зап. 27 янв.), 1-й еп. г. Ценоманы (ныне Ле-Ман, деп. Сарта, Франция). Большинство сведений, относящихся к жизни и деятельности И., носят легендарный характер. Самый ранний источник относится к сер. IX в.- это «Деяния Ценоманских епископов» (Actus pontificum Cenomannis in urbe degentium), история Ле-Манской кафедры в 19 частях, составленные по заказу еп. Альбериха. На его сведениях основывались 2 версии 1-го Жития И. (BHL, N 4545, 4546), содержащие заимствования из Мученичества сщмч. Дионисия, приписываемого Венанцию Фортунату (BHL, N 2171), и Мученичества сщмч. Климента Римского (BHL, N 1848). «Деяния...» и обе версии Жития, по мнению У. Гоффарта, принадлежали авторству т. н. Ле-Манского поддельщика, анонима, который с помощью агиографических источников и местных преданий пытался обосновать претензии Ле-Манского епископа на мон-рь Сен-Кале ( Goffart. 1966. P. 55). Первое Житие И. известно в нескольких списках (кодексы из Флёри Vat. Reg. Christin. lat. 318 (кон. IX в.), Paris. lat. 12606 (нач. XIII в.) и утраченная в 1944 рукопись из Шартра), что может объясняться большей популярностью др. Жития (BHL, N 4544), написанного мон. Летальдом из аббатства Сен-Мемен-де-Миси для Ле-Манского еп. Авесгауда де Беллема (кон. X - нач. XI в.). Оно представляет собой переработку более ранней версии Жития, к-рую Летальд ошибочно считал древней (см.: Head T. Hagiography and the Cult of Saints: The Diocese of Orleans, 800-1200. N. Y., 1990. P. 224). Впосл. Жития И. или краткие упоминания о нем включались в различные легендарии и агиографические сборники, в т. ч. в «Золотую легенду» Иакова из Варацце , «Зерцало истории» Винцентия из Бове, «Каталог святых» Петра Наталиса. В XIII-XIV вв. появились варианты Жития И. на старофранц. языке (см., напр.: Lecocq A. Légendaires et sermonnaires du XIVe siècle. Chartres, 1865. P. 16-19) и 2 сборника чудес святого (BHL, N 4549-4550). |
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