Met. Anthony of NY reposed on the Sunday of Orthodoxy

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Maria
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Met. Anthony of NY reposed on the Sunday of Orthodoxy

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May his memory be eternal.

He was suffering from stage four cancer and several weeks before he died he asked us to pray for him.

This was Met.Anthony's last encyclical written while he was stricken with cancer.

Posted on behalf of Metropolitan Anthony.

A transcript of Metropolitan Anthony’s address at the Cathedral of the Holy Protection of the Mother of God from 28 February, 2016:

Our life is not always so smooth. It is frequently ocean-tossed. It is frequently difficult for us to discern our way. That is why we must always be ready whenever our Lord God calls upon us to be able to give a good account before His dread judgment seat. Please do not take the matter of the Last Judgment lightly, nor must you believe that it’s going to happen someplace “in the sweet by-and-by”. But rather, that every moment adds to our final place in judgment and placement in the Kingdom.

Our life has been full of blessings. The greatest of which is this congregation and the building that houses it; the greatest of my loves. But I have noticed recently that my energies and my abilities have faltered somewhat. Then when it was followed by very, very serious pains, I was forced to seek the advice of a doctor. He in turn sent me to have a scan and the scan came back with somewhat ambivalent accounts. That is, there is a mass; from the scan it is not entirely clear if it is in the stomach or pancreas. It has progressed quite a bit and that it is something that has to be taken care of, one way or the other. This of course came as a shock. It sort of knocked us off our balance for a little while. But trusting in God’s mercy and in your love and prayers I think I have regained my balance and now we have to see another doctor to see what kind it is exactly we’re facing, what its nature is, what its future is, at least according to the usual practice of the medical profession.

In the meantime, the order of our Parish in terms of the services has been somewhat thrown into a bit of chaos. Fr. Peter has very graciously permitted himself to do the best that he can to fill in any gaps, to fill in as much as possible, the worship life of our Parish. Therefore, I have not issued any kind of a calendar, but what I ask you to do is every week we’re going to put up a white board by the stairs so that we can let you know exactly what is planned for the coming week, otherwise there is no way for us to know. We’re taking this week by week, and we’re not sure where the healing process, if possible, can take place.

I’m asking all of you to show your usual love for the parish, your usual love for our Savior Christ, your usual love and devotion to your own salvations, and for your usual prayerfulness concerning myself, because in your prayers is much of my hope based, and I need them very badly. Because as much as I try, at times it is very difficult for me to keep my courage up and to keep my mind clear. Please pray that our Lord gives me clearness of mind. Please pray that our Lord gives me patience. Please pray that our Lord gives me all those things needful for my salvation.

I personally am asking for only one thing: that He give me time to repent of my many sins. So that when I am taken, whether it be sooner or later, as He wills, that He finds me in a moment of repentance. So that these poor labors of mine, which could not have been done without you all, will not go for naught.

Please, I’m asking this from the very depths of my heart, please keep us in prayer. Please be prayerful for Fr. Peter, because his schedule and program has been terribly disrupted and he will do the best he can to keep the program as much as possible.

I’m going to try and put out a small calendar for the week preceding Holy Week, Holy Week itself and the week following, so that you can have something to refer to in terms of the services. But let’s see how that works out.

In any case, I thank you for your labors, for your love. May God repay you in the Kingdom. Please know that you have my deepest gratitude and that in the end we will all be in Heaven together.

May God grant, I will be letting you know something from time to time. When I know something, you’ll know it, as soon as possible, about how things are going and the structure of any kind of therapeutic measures that the doctors recommend.

Thank you very much. I appreciate your being here. I appreciate your patience. May God grant you all of the good things of Pascha for the rest of your lives, Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner.

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Re: Met. Anthony of NY reposed on the Sunday of Orthodoxy

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Lord, have mercy!

He will be missed!

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Maria
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Re: Met. Anthony of NY reposed on the Sunday of Orthodoxy

Post by Maria »

Thank you. Yes, he will be greatly missed. May his memory be eternal.

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner.

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Re: Met. Anthony of NY reposed on the Sunday of Orthodoxy

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Memory Eternal!

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Re: Met. Anthony of NY reposed on the Sunday of Orthodoxy

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Maria wrote:

Thank you. Yes, he will be greatly missed. May his memory be eternal.

He and I have been in contact for nearly a decade.

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Re: Met. Anthony of NY reposed on the Sunday of Orthodoxy

Post by Maria »

Here is one of his most cherished sermons delivered on 2013 Sunday of Orthodoxy

http://holyprotectionmission.webs.com/a ... c.facebook

I am posting it below because some members and visitors here at E Cafe are not members of facebook.

March 11/24, 2013

Code: Select all

 "In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 Today we celebrate that sweet, that most sweet name, that most sweet term that has ever appeared in human philology, the most sweet term that has ever appeared, and has lain upon the tongue of man, that most sweet word, which is at its depth not simply a word, but at its depth is true action in Christ Jesus. 

 Orthodoxy means that we worship Christ as He should be worshipped; that we believe in Christ as He should be believed in; that we believe, accepting all of those things which the Holy Fathers have given us; accepting them totally in our hearts; and making Orthodoxy the guiding light, the north star upon which we plot our daily lives.

 For this great, great gift of God, that great gift of God of Orthodoxy is, among all of the blessings that God has given us, the greatest of all. Nothing of mankind can we compare with it. Nothing that mankind has philosophized and invented from his mind, however bright he might be, however inspired he might be, however great an engineer or inventor he might be, nothing — and you can think of the most extraordinary inventions of man — none of these things can even hold a candle to Holy Orthodoxy. For all of the things that man has made, as marvelous as they are, are first of all gifts of God. And after that they are, in all cases, things to make our life here on earth easier, to make our ability to communicate easier, to build, to extend humanity and human civilization further and further. But none of them enables us to both see and to aspire to the next life. That life which is eternal; that life which has no end; that life which is the life of those blessed of the Kingdom.

 But we must caution that at its depth, at its essence, Orthodoxy is missionary. Orthodoxy must be extended; it must be shown to others as the great treasure that it is. If it remains simply a philosophy of life, if it remains simply a code of manners, a set of traditions that do not hear the internal, indwelling of the Holy Spirit, then we have done nothing. We have simply been hypocrites; we have simply been liars to ourselves, fooling ourselves, thinking that we are Orthodox, when indeed we are far from anything like being Orthodox.

 The first thing that the Apostle Philip did after he met our Saviour was what? He didn’t just simply stay close to Him to hear what He had to say, but he ran to find his brother. How many of us having seen, having taken into ourselves, having seen the majesty and the height of Holy Orthodoxy have run immediately to show it, to share it, to bring someone with us, to say, Come and see, as the Holy Apostle Philip said to Nathaniel? Come and see; be convinced of your own eyes; be convinced of your own understanding, of your own observation, of not only how this Prophet, this Rabbi, this Teacher speaks, but how He lives. Come and see the supreme love that radiates from Him. Come and see. We must, with our behaviour; we must, with our example, also say Come and see.

 We are not all called to be apostles. This is the excuse that so many of us give for keeping our Orthodoxy tightly, tightly covered in a glass cabinet, sort of as a museum piece, taking it out once in a while to dust it, making sure that not a single spot or anything falls upon it, as if anything the world could do could spoil Holy Orthodoxy. The world cannot — because this is Divine. Orthodoxy is the Truth of the Holy Trinity. It cannot be hurt; we can only hurt ourselves pounding against it, trying to fix it, trying to mold it into our own ways. We break ourselves; we do not hurt Holy Orthodoxy. So do not fear to expose it to other people; do not fear to show this mighty treasure.

 The Holy Apostles — all of whom, except for the Holy Apostle St. John the Theologian, died martyrs  — spread Orthodoxy within one generation, or perhaps a half a generation because they were already grown men when they were called to be Apostles. They spread Holy Orthodoxy from the British Isles, maybe through Scandinavia. We’re not absolutely certain; but we know that from the British Isles eastward to the very borders of China. There are still people who call themselves Christians — St. Thomas Christians indeed — who date from this time, but because of their isolation they have fallen into various errors concerning the teachings of Christ. Nevertheless, they stand as witnesses that truly St. Thomas reached those borders, those places in the East.

 The Christian message was passed north to the Scythians, and south as far as Africa. As far south as to Africa and the kingdom of Ethiopia, where one of the Apostles placed a Bishop, Frumentios, who was the founding father, together with the Apostles, of the Church of Ethiopia — which also, being separated from the trunk of Orthodoxy, has fallen into various differences in matters of Faith. Nevertheless, these people stand as witnesses that they were preached to by the Holy Apostles.

 And what have we done? What have we done so that we can honour the name of Christian, so that we can be worthy of the name of Christian? Because to be Christian is to be an apostle. To be Christian is to be a missionary. We read in the works of the Venerable Bede the history of the English Church and People. How many of the early missionaries to the British Isles, after the Apostolic visitors, how they laboured to bring even one county to the Holy Orthodox Faith. We see their names in the list of the names of the Saints of the day. They are very strange names to us, even as our Greek names must be strange to them. Nevertheless, when you read the Venerable Bede, you see there a reflection of the life of the monks of Egypt, of Syria, of the East, because the Holy Spirit that motivated and animated these Fathers is one and the same.

 We must be missionaries. We must double the talent that we have received. For most of us being weak people, most of us being far from Apostolic stature, have received only one talent, that talent being our Holy Baptism; that talent being our Chrismation and our participation in the Holy Mysteries. Yet we are still expected, as we learned a couple of Sundays ago, we are still expected to at least double that. We are to at least double that talent, so that before we leave this world we have brought at least one more soul to the Holy Faith. We have brought at least one person to the Apostolic Faith, the Apostolic Church, which is Orthodoxy.

 Our Saviour has made it very clear in His Parable of the Talents, that we will not be congratulated by God if we hand Him back the gift, the talent, that He has given us, as we have received it. For He did not congratulate that servant who had received the one talent, who had gone and buried it so that he might not lose it. He did not congratulate him for bringing it back to Him whole, unspotted, unused. But He called him lazy; He called him indolent; He called him unfaithful. Here he is having given back that talent to the Lord Who gave it to him whole, with no diminution, and he’s still called lazy, indolent, unfaithful.

 Who of us wants to hear such a thing? Who of us wants to hear that we have brought back our Baptism unsullied, clean, pure, white, exactly as it was given to us, without spot or wrinkle? If we hand that back to our Saviour on the Day of Judgment, can we expect to hear anything other than what that unfortunate, that miserable, that lazy, indolent and faithless servant heard?

 The matter of spreading the Faith is not only that of saving another person’s soul. As precious as this is, this is not the only reason. We are assured by the Holy Apostle St. James at the very end of his Epistle — which scholars say was probably a sermon that was written down, for its form and content are more of a homily than of an epistle. He says at the end, if we see a brother who is on a wrong path in matters of faith, in matters of behaviour, in whatever, and we turn him from that bad road, that path that leads to destruction; we turn him from that, and we bring him back to Christ, then there is a promise attached. You will not only save a soul, but you will cover a multitude of sins. Who of us does not need this assurance? Who of us does not need this promise? Who of us does not need to hear that not only have we helped in the saving of a soul, but we have also covered a multitude of sins, both of his and of mine?

 I dare to say to you: Be grateful that you as individuals, being laymen, have that glorious title of a priesthood, of a people made holy by priesthood; for the Priesthood of Jesus Christ has made us holy. Everyone participates in this people who have been made holy by the Priesthood, in other words by the Mysteries of the Orthodox Church.

 You must pray for me, because, as you see, I’m covered here with tassels and fringes. I’m covered here with tassels and fringes, which are not decorative, though certainly they do have a beauty to them. But they are to remind this Pastor that, hanging from his throat while he was a Priest there were the ones on his stole, on his epitrachelion, on this garment; then having become a Bishop, I have put on another garment with guess what at the ends: more fringes. And therefore it is a very foolish thing for a man to seek to become a Bishop; an evil thing. For the Episcopate is itself a good thing, as St.Paul says, but it is not a thing to be sought for, because it adds responsibility upon responsibility; it adds burden upon burden; it adds so much, that were it not that the Priest is supported by a multitude of Angels, and by the Great High Priest Himself, Christ Jesus our Lord, surely no one would stand. Our Father among the Saints, John Chrysostom, says very few Bishops will be saved, and of those who sought the office, none. Truly a frightening thing.

 Please pray. Pray for yourselves, pray for your family, become missionaries to your own inner circle, first to yourself, by making yourselves small Christs, and then to your most intimate circle. And then to a wider circle as God gives you grace, being an example without even having to open your mouth, but simply by how you live, you preach Christ Jesus. You preach the uniqueness, the wonder, the joy of being an Orthodox Christian. For to be a Christian is not to have a long face; to be a Christian is not to have a condemning eye; to be a Christian is not to be watching for sins in other people. To be Christian is to have yourself turned inward, careful with yourself, and not hiding the gifts that God has given you.

 For these are the promises of Christ Himself, Who is Orthodoxy. Jesus is Truth; Orthodoxy is Truth; therefore Orthodoxy is Jesus. We pray that our Lord will give us strength — in these evil times, but then again when has the world not been evil; we pray that our Lord will give us strength in these evil times to be true missionaries, first of all to ourselves: to heal ourselves from the schizophrenia that we have because our mind is separated from our heart, and therefore we have all become schizophrenic. We all have a double, at least a double, identity.  To bring through prayer, through the Jesus Prayer, through the prayers, the services, the practice of our Holy Church, to bring our hearts and our minds back together where they were. In that way become true worshippers, true examples, true imitators of Christ Jesus Himself, Who together with His Father and the Holy Spirit, was, is, and ever shall be our only Hope. Amen."[/quote]

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner.

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Maria
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Re: Met. Anthony of NY reposed on the Sunday of Orthodoxy

Post by Maria »

With the permission of Reader Basil Gavalas, I am posting the following announcement.

The funeral arrangements for Metropolitan Anthony are as follows:

Wake on Wednesday & Thursday
12pm until 10pm

The funeral will be Friday from 9am until 12pm.

The wake and funeral will be held at Holy Protection Cathedral
26-37 12th Street
Astoria, NY 11102

Burial will take place at St. Michael's Cemetery following the funeral service.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations to be made to the Holy Protection Building Fund.

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner.

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