Vladika's Homilies

[Julianna]

September 1/14, 2003
Beloved Clergy and Parishioners in the Lord, Rejoice!
 
Greetings in Christ from Dormition Skete. We hope and pray that you are all well, advancing in the grace of God, day by day growing in love for God and each other.
 
SUNDAY OF THE THIRTEENTH WEEK
The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 166]. Brethren:

     16  13Keep on watching, standing fast in the faith, conducting yourselves in a courageous way, and being strong. 14Let all your things be done in love.
     15But, I beseech you, brethren-ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is the firstfruits of Achaia, and that they set themselves to ministering to the saints- 16that ye also be submitting to such, and to everyone who is helping in the work and toiling. 17And I rejoice at the coming of Stephanas, and of Fortunatos, and of Achaikos; for that which ye lacked, these supplied. 18For they refreshed my spirit and yours. Therefore be acknowledging such ones as these.
     19The churches of Asia greet you. Aquila and Priscilla greet you much in the Lord, with the church in their house. 20All the brethren greet you. Greet one another with a holy kiss.
     21The greeting of me Paul with mine own hand. 22If anyone love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema. The Lord hath come. 23The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. 24My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.
 
For the Indiction:
The Reading is from the First Epistle of Saint Paul to Saint Timothy [§ 282]. Child Timothy:

     2  1I exhort therefore, first of all, that entreaties, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men, 2for kings and all those who are in authority, that we may pass a quiet and peaceable life in all piety and gravity. 3For this is good and acceptable before God our Savior, 4Who willeth all men to be saved and to come to a full knowledge of the truth. 5For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus, 6Who gave Himself a ransom for all, the testimony in its own times, 7for which I was appointed a herald and an apostle-I speak the truth in Christ, I lie not-a teacher of nations in faith and truth.
 
SUNDAY OF THE THIRTEENTH WEEK
The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 87]. The Lord said this parable:
     21  33"There was a certain man, a master of a house, who planted a vineyard, and put a hedge around it, and dug a wine-vat in it in which to press grapes, and built a tower. And he let it out to vinedressers, and went abroad. 34"And when the season of the fruits drew near, he sent forth his slaves to the vinedressers to receive his fruits. 35"And the vinedressers took his slaves, and indeed beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. 36"Again he sent forth other slaves, more than the first; and they did to them in like manner. 37"But afterwards he sent his son to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.' 38"But after the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and let us gain possession of his inheritance.' 39"And they took him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and sle! w him. 40"Whenever the lord, therefore, of the vineyard should come, what shall he do to those vinedressers?" 41They say to Him, "He will evilly destroy those evil men, and will let out the vineyard to other vinedressers who shall render to him the fruits in their seasons." 42Jesus saith to them, "Did ye never read in the Scriptures, 'The stone which the builders rejected, this became the head of the corner; this came to be from the Lord, and it is marvellous in our eyes [Ps. 117(118):22, 23; cf. Is. 28:16]'?"
 
For the Indiction:
The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 13]. At that time:
     4  16Jesus came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and according to what was customary to Him, He went into the synagogue on the day of the sabbath, and stood up to read. 17And there was handed over to Him the roll of Esaias the prophet. And having unfolded the roll, He found the place where it was written: 18"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, on account of which He anointed Me; He hath sent Me to preach the good tidings to the poor, to heal those who have been broken in heart, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind [Is. 61:1], to send forth in deliverance those who have been broken in pieces [cf. Is. 58:6], 19"to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord [cf. Is. 61:2]." 20And after He folded up the roll, He gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the ! eyes of all in the synagogue were looking intently on Him. 21And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture hath been fulfilled in your ears." 22And all were bearing witness to Him, and were wondering at the words of grace which were proceeding out of His mouth, and were saying, "This is the Son of Joseph, is it not?"
 
Due to the concerted effort we are making on the new building project, Bishop Gregory has asked Fr. George to say a few words for this week's sermon.
 
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.
 
My beloved fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters in Christ: Glory to God that our Saviour has blessed us to pass through another year in His holy Church, in which we have reaped the fruits of repentance. On this day, September 1st, according to the Church Calendar, it is meet that we should recall the events of the past year, giving thanks to God for all His blessings, and also ask that our Lord bless the coming year, crowning it with His merciful blessing. For this reason, at the Vigil on Saturday night, we chanted special hymns of thanksgiving and entreaty, recalling the Old Testament prophecies regarding the house of Israel, that if they would walk according to all the statues and admonitions of the Lord, God would bless them. But if they turned aside from His commandments, from the path that leads to eternal life, God would visit them with trials and tribulations. As we are the true Israel of God, His chosen people, a holy nation, these promises are not ! foreign to us, but are manifested even more keenly in our own times.
 
Let us consider for a moment the transgressions of Old Israel, how God exhorted them time and time again to abstain from the pollutions of idols and to cleave to His commandments, as our Lord alludes to in His parable about the vinedresser. Sending them His servants the Prophets, He exhorted them to render to Him the fruit of the vineyard, but in their stubbornness they refused. O the misery of the Jews! Their stubborn pride lead them to the sin after which there is nothing left to commit: they slew their own Creator. Seventy years later, the destruction which our Saviour alludes to came upon them, for in response to their political ambitions for autonomy, the Romans came and utterly crushed their unlawful uprising, slaying numberless people, tearing down the walls of Jerusalem, and even burning the temple to ashes. Indeed, without the temple, the sacrificial obligations of the Jews became impossible to fulfill, since God had commanded them to offer sacrifice only in ! the temple, of which there was only one.
 
In all things, it behooves us to learn not only from our own past mistakes, but even from the mistakes of our predecessors. It cannot be that the destruction which came upon the Jews was simply a lesson to them: we must also take to heart and consider carefully what impact these events have on us.
 
Had our forefathers in Constantinople considered the apostasy of the Jews of old, they might have changed their course of action, rather than concelebrate the Holy Liturgy on that fearful night of May 28th, 1453, with the papal legates residing in Constantinople. The direct result was the departure of the uncreated light from the City, which was even visible to the blinded Moslems outside the walls, and then a 500 year era of unprecedented suffering, not only for the Greeks of Byzantium, but for generations of generations of people inhabiting the entire Mediterranean region began.
 
There are numerous occasions where it is possible to graphically learn the principle that faithfulness to Christ leads to peace and salvation, while apostasy leads to corporal and spiritual destruction.
 
For us though, the most important example of this is the Communist Revolution. In comparison with the foregoing examples, the Communist Revolution dwarfs them. The previous destructions wrought by the permission of God lack one key element that is paramount in the Communist Revolution. The Communists were not fighting to subjugate a nation into slavery: they were battling for possession of the soul of each individual Russian man, woman and child. To wage war against the soul of a man is something much more serious than slaying his body, for enslavement of the soul will separate it from God, bringing eternal destruction.
 
This battle for the soul has not ended with the collapse of communism; we see this happening around us and to us every day in our modern world. Although the Church has found refuge in the freedom of the West, yet we are in jeopardy of loosing this freedom if we sell ourselves to the materialism swirling around us. In common American parlance, materialism is "keeping up with the Jones'". It means filling our homes, our minds, our hearts, with every sort of thing money can buy. By overcharging ourselves with so many things, the soul will of necessity forget God, forget repentance, forget the spiritual life. The consequence of this inner apostasy is evident from the foregoing examples. Visible apostasy is always preceded by an inner, spiritual apostasy, as is the case with any type of sin. This is why our Saviour repeatedly teaches us to first reject sinful thoughts, that we might not fall into sinful deeds. A thought is comparable to a small weed in the garden: if you! take care to notice it, it is very easy to pluck it out. But if you neglect to keep the garden clean, the weed might take root, and then grow, until it becomes a great tree. In such a case, its removal will take much effort, if it is even possible to remove it.
 
At the end of this sermon, Vladyka has included a few quotes from two Saints, Saint Nilos the Myrrh-Streamer, and Saint Ambrose of Optina, two men illumined by God who wrote of the time we are now living in. Much edification is contained in these quotes, which I have attempted to dovetail with in what I have written thus far. We heard in the Epistle today, "13Keep on watching, standing fast in the faith, conducting yourselves in a courageous way, and being strong. 14Let all your things be done in love." We thank God that He has counted us worthy to be among His little flock, with Bishops who are the true confessors of Orthodoxy in the world today. When you read the prophecies below, and consider our position in world orthodoxy, how we have no contact with apostate bishops or patriarchs, we can truly recognize who are the righteous bishops, although they are so very few, and who are the bishops that the Saints are referring to as apostate! s. What an empty life this would be, if we were not found to be part of the true Church!
 
Beloved children of the Russian Orthodox Church! Let us begin this new year with a renewed commitment first of all to our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us beseech Him that He will send down upon us that soul saving fire of repentance. Let us couple with this our unwavering commitment to remain faithful to the Church until our last breath, becoming martyrs if not in blood, then in our zeal to cut off our sinful thoughts and deeds. Considering the great body of which we are members, not only of all the Saints in ages past, but even of one another, let us strengthen each other in the love of God, and encourage one another to remain steadfast in all our trials. Amen.
 
Monastery News:
 
     Today, Sunday, Vladyka Gregory tonsured Benjamin Euphrosynos Pugsley a Reader. Benjamin is forty-nine years old, was born in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and converted from pseudo-Orthodoxy to the true Church on Pascha.  He moved here to Buena Vista shortly thereafter, and has been a great help to us.
     This past week was very difficult for us.  By the mercy of God, we completed the placement of the eighty-two roof panels.  The roof is almost completed.  This week we hope to put on the ridge cap of the roof, and start putting the siding on the walls.  The weather has been quite cold and rainy, which prevented us from working as much as we would have liked.  This week they predict a very beautiful, sunny, and warm week, and we hope to accomplish more on the building.
 
Please pray for:
 
Our Vladika Metropolitan Valentine.
 
Calendar of Events for Upcoming Week:
 
There was a mistake on the calendar we sent out earlier this year.  Friday is a fast day this week.
 
Crumbs from the trapeza table:
 

END TIME INSTRUCTIONS by St. Ambrosy of Optina (+1891)

SOURCE: St. Ambrosy, Elder of Optina, "End Times and Now Collection of Writings"

[edited from the original translation to improve sentence structure]

Saint Ambrosy (also known as Starets Ambrosy) is one of the better known starets of Optina.  The Russian Orthodox Church declared him a saint in 1988 and his memory is celebrated on October 10th.

     My child, know that in the last days hard times will come; and as the Apostle says, behold, due to poverty in piety, heresies and schisms will appear in the churches; and as the Holy Fathers foretold, then on the thrones of hierarchs and in monasteries there will be no men to be found that are tested and experienced in the spiritual life. Wherefore, heresies will spread everywhere and deceive many. The enemy of mankind will act skillfully, and whenever possible he will lead the chosen ones to heresy. He will not begin by discarding the dogmas on the Holy Trinity, the divinity of Jesus Christ, or the Theotokos, but will unnoticeably start to distort the Teachings of the Holy Fathers, in other words the teachings of the Church herself. The cunning of the enemy and his "tipics" (ways) will be noticed by very few-only those that are most experienced in spiritual life. Heretics will take over the Church everywhere, and they will appoint their ser! vants, and spirituality will be neglected. But the Lord will not leave His servants without protection. Truly, their real duty is persecution of true pastors and their imprisonment; for without that, the spiritual flock may not become captured by the heretics. Therefore, my son, when you see in the Churches mocking of the divine act, of the teachings of the Holy Fathers, and of God's established order, know that the heretics are already present.  Be also aware that, for some time, they might hide their evil intentions, or they might covertly deform the divine faith, so that they might better succeed by deceiving and tricking the inexperienced.

     They will persecute pastors and the servants of God alike, for the devil who is directing the heresy cannot stand the divine order. Like wolves in sheepskin, they will be recognized by their vainglorious nature, love for lust, and lust for power.  All those will be betrayers, causing hatred and malice everywhere; and therefore the Lord said that one will easily recognize them by their fruits. The true servants of God are meek, brother-loving and obedient to the Church (order, traditions).

     At that time, monks will endure great pressures from heretics, and the monastic life will be mocked. The monastic families will be impoverished, the number of monks will decrease. The ones remaining will endure violence. These haters of the monastic life, who merely have the appearance of piety, will strive to draw monks to their side, promising them protection and worldly goods (comforts), but threatening with exile those who do not submit. From these threats, the weak at heart will be very humiliated (tormented).

     If you live to see that time, rejoice, for at that time the faithful who possess no other virtues will receive wreaths for merely remaining steadfast in their faith, according to the Word of the Lord, "Everyone who confesses Me before men, I will confess before My Heavenly Father". Fear the Lord, my son, and don't lose this wreath so as to not be rejected by Christ into the utter darkness and eternal suffering. Bravely stand in faith, and if necessary, joyfully endure persecutions and other troubles, for only then will the Lord stand by you...and the holy Martyrs and the Confessors will joyfully watch your struggle.

     But, in these days, woe be to monks tied to possessions and riches, and who, for the sake of love of comfort, agree to subjugate themselves to the heretics. They will lull their conscience by saying: we will save the monastery, and the Lord will forgive us. Unfortunate and blinded, they are not even thinking that through heresies and heretics the devil will enter the monastery, and then it will no longer be a holy monastery, but bare walls from which Grace will depart forever.

     But God is more powerful than the devil, and will never abandon His servants. There will always be true Christians, till the end of time, but they will choose lonely and deserted places. Do not fear troubles, but fear pernicious heresy, for it drives out Grace, and separates us from Christ. Wherefore Christ commanded us to consider the heretic and let him be unto thee as a heathen man and publican.

     And so, strengthen yourself, my son, in the Grace of Christ Jesus. With joy, hasten to confession and endure suffering like Jesus Christ's good soldier who was told: "Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the wreath of life".
 
 
A Prophecy of St. Niphon
CONCERNING THE LAST TIMES
 
     Until the very end of the age there will not cease to be prophets of the Lord God, just as there will also be servants of satan. However, in the last times those who truly serve God will successfully hide themselves from people and will not perform signs and wonders among them as they do at present, but will go by the path of activity mixed with humility, and in the Kingdom of Heaven they will prove to be greater than the Fathers who have been glorified by signs. Because then before the eyes of men no one will perform wonders which would enflame people and stimulate them to try to struggle zealously.  Those who occupy the thrones of priesthood throughout the whole world will be completely unskilled and will not know the art of virtue.
 
"Answers of St. Niphon of Constantinople", Answer 4.
 
PROPHECIES by St. Nilus the Myrrhstreamer of Mount Athos (1651)
 
After the year 1900, toward the middle of the twentieth century, the people of that time will become unrecognizable.  There will be no respect for parents and elders, love will disappear, and Christian pastors, bishops, and priests will become vain men, completely failing to distinguish the right way from the wrong way.
 
Through the prayers of our holy master, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us and save us.  Amen.

[Julianna]

September 8/21, 2003
Beloved Clergy and Parishioners in the Lord, Rejoice!
 
Greetings in Christ from Dormition Skete. We hope and pray that you are all well, advancing in the grace of God, day by day growing in love for God and each other.
 
The Sunday Before the Exaltation of the Cross

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Galatians [§ 215]. Brethren:

     6  11See with what size letters I am writing to you with mine own hand. 12As many as wish to make a good show in the flesh, these constrain you to be circumcised, only that they may not be persecuted for the Cross of Christ. 13For not even they themselves who are circumcised keep the law, but they wish you to be circumcised, in order that they might boast in your flesh. 14But may it not be for me to boast, except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom the world hath been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision hath any strength, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. 16And as many as walk by this rule, peace be upon them and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.
     17Henceforth, let no one be giving me troubles, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.
     18The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen.
 
For the Nativity of the Virgin Mary:

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Philippians [§ 240]. Brethren:

     2  5Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6Who, existing in the form of God, deemed it not a prize to be seized to be equal with God; 7but He emptied Himself and took the form of a slave, and came to be in the likeness of men. 8And having been found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient even to death-indeed, the death of a cross. 9Wherefore God also exalted Him exceedingly, and freely gave to Him a name that is above every name, 10that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth; 11and every tongue should confess for itself that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
 
The Sunday Before the Exaltation of the Cross:

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John [§ 9]. The Lord said:

     3  13"No one hath gone up into the heavens, except the One Who came down from out of the heavens, the Son of Man, Who is in the heavens. 14"And even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, thus it is needful for the Son of Man to be lifted up; 15"that everyone who believeth in Him should not perish, but may have everlasting life. 16"For God so loved the world that He gave His Only-begotten Son, that everyone who believeth in Him should not perish, but may have everlasting life. 17"For God did not send forth His Son into the world in order that He might condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him."
 
For the Nativity of the Virgin Mary:

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 54]. At that time:

     10  38Jesus entered into a certain village. And a certain woman, by name Martha, received Him into her house. 39And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat down beside the feet of Jesus, and was listening to His word. 40But Martha was distracted about much serving, and she came up to Him and said, "Lord, is it no concern to Thee that my sister left me to serve alone? Speak to her therefore that she should help me." 41And Jesus answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, thou art anxious and troubled about many things. 42"But there is need of one thing, and Mary chose the good part, which shall not be taken away from her."...
     11  27And it came to pass, as He was speaking these things, a certain woman out of the crowd lifted up her voice and said to Him, "Blessed is the womb that bore Thee, and the breasts which Thou didst suck." 28But He said, "Yea rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it."
 
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.
 
     Today we celebrate the Holy Nativity of the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary.  We commemorate in the holy Church every major event of her life, as we do that of Christ and Saint John the Baptist. They comprise the Deisis, which is a term in Orthodox iconography meaning supplication, which means the icon of Christ, with the Virgin Mary, and Saint John the Baptist supplicating Him on our behalf.  In the Resurrection, our Saviour said to the disciples John and Iakovos, who asked that they may sit one on His right and one on His left in His Kingdom, instead of saying no to them, Christ diplomatically said that those places are already reserved, by saying, "but it shall be given to those for whom it hath been prepared by My Father."   [Mt. 20:23]  Well, that means ! the Virgin Mary on the right, and Saint John the Baptist on the left.

     The Virgin Mary is the glory of the human race.  She was sanctified from her very conception.  She was full of the Holy Spirit from the very beginning of her life.  Therefore, we say, "O Thou who art full of grace"  Behold how we, the Orthodox, honor her as no one else does.  We honor her in truth; therefore the honor that we bestow on her is real.  We don't make her into a goddess, and we do not demean her as if she were of no consequence.

     The All-holy Virgin Theotokos' nature is identical to our own. After her free and conscious acceptance of the plan of salvation offered to man by God - offered but not imposed - the Holy Spirit "overshadowed" her, and the power of the Most High "covered" her, and "...at the voice of the Archangel Gabriel, the Master of all became incarnate in her." In this manner our Lord Jesus Christ truly partook wholly of our nature in all things save sin. Thus, the nature of Adam, our nature, the fallen man, which bore the wounds of sin and degeneration, was restored to the former beauty (before the fall). In addition, with the Incarnation, our nature partakes of the Divine Nature. Man's nature, restored and regenerated by Grace, surpasses in Christ Adam's state of innocence previous to the fall. We all know that according to the fathers, "God became man so that man could become God." St. Gregory the Theologian writes: "O marvelous fall that brought about such a salvation for us." Man having been created "...a little lower than the angels," can by the Grace of God surpass the angelic state. For her role in man's salvation, we praise the All-holy Theotokos addressing her as "More honorable than the Cherubim, and beyond compare more glorious than the Seraphim."  Indeed, she is closer to Christ than both the Cherubim and the Seraphim.  She had Christ incarnate within her. 

     God is equally the Saviour of the All-holy Theotokos, even as she herself proclaims, and she is saved by the same Grace by which all those who are redeemed are saved. She is the Mother of all the faithful of the Church, of which she is also a member.

     We therefore reject all doctrines of the Roman Catholics and Protestants concerning original sin, and the false notion of the immaculate conception of Mary. Alien to the teachings of the Fathers, these doctrines distort the position of the Theotokos, whose nature is identical to ours. She truly represented all humanity when she accepted to "lend" human nature to the Second Person of the Trinity for our salvation.  She said, "All generations shall call me blessed" but we see now-a-days that all Protestants do not call her blessed.  So therefore we conclude that all Protestants are not of the generations of the Christians.  Indeed they are not.  They are heretics.  They regard the Scriptures as the sole criteria of their beliefs; but this is a lie because in the Scriptures, the Righteous Saint Elizabeth called the Virgin "the Mother of my Lord,"! which is the same as "the Mother of God."  You will never hear any Protestants say this, even though behold, it is in the Scriptures. 

     Then we go to the opposite extreme, as we said earlier, when we hear the Roman Catholics say that she was immaculately conceived.  That means, if one draws the logical conclusion from their explanation, that she is not of our nature, which is utter foolishness. Then they say that she is so holy that she could not sin even if she wanted to.  So they make her into a goddess.  But enough of this foolishness. 

     We, the Orthodox, honor her the way she was meant to be honored.  And that means we give her Ortho-(right)-doxa-(glory) as we do God and the Saints.
    
     Here is a nice quotation from St. Photius on this feast:
 
Excerpt from  St. Photius the Great, Homily IX (On the Birth of the Virgin):
    
     "Just as we know the root to be the cause of the branches, the stem, the fruit, and the flower, even though it is for the sake of the fruit that care and labor are expended, and yet without the root none of the rest grows up, just so without the Virgin's feast today none of those that spring out of it would appearTo put it briefly and aptly, the whole Divine economy beginning with the Lord's Nativity was because of the Virgin's Nativity.

     "[Moreover, it confirms the Lord's seedless conception and nativity from a Virgin] For inasmuch as a womb,  Anna's, unfruitful and dead for the purposes of childbirth, brought forth, unhoped for, a fair fruit, by that fact the reality of the incorruptibility of [Mary's] virginity and her miraculous conception is proclaimed by manifest deeds. To be sure, generation without a man is a thing to be marvelled at, as is the preservation of virginity after giving birth; but a woman with a dead womb made fruitful in her great old age and giving birth also surpasses the laws of nature, and heralds the Virgin's giving birth, for the sake of which this miracle is wrought."

     "But art thou puzzled, O man, that a woman with a dead womb gave birth? Or rather seekest thou to belittle the wondrous fact, at which thou too shouldst wonder even as we? And how, arguest thou, can a woman with a dead womb give birth? For if she is of a dead womb, she cannot give birth, and if she can give birth, then her womb obviously cannot have been dead. How can breasts dried-up gush with streams of milk? For if an aged old woman is no longer able to store away the blood, how can the breasts transform into white milk what they have not been able to receive? How does a dead womb bring to maturity, give life, encompass and feed the unborn child? Such arguments dost thou devise against thyself and thy salvation?Yet what of Sarah - or did that escape thee? Did she not conceive a child of her great old age and of a dead womb? If Anna confuses and disturbs thy mind, Sara should rather do so since she came first... But if I represent it as a! n act of divine grace why dost thou force grace to be subservient to the laws of nature, of whom she has always been the mistress? Dost thou accept Adam to have been molded out of clay and produced without a birth according to the law of nature, dost thou accept Eve to be the offspring not of intercourse, but of a rib, yet being unable to ascribe these things to natural law?Thou grantest the Godhead to have had at that time the power to do even the most unbelievable things and dost not arm natural law against the Creator; now, however,thou declarest the Godhead too weak for these wonders! If thou didst believe the former, thou shouldst also now unhesitatingly believe this.

     "[S]ince then universal salvation is having its foundation laid today with the Virgin's birth, it is meet and right that we should organize a common festival of all nations and strike up public songs of thanksgiving transcending our worldThe Ladder leading up to heaven is being built"
    
Monastery News:
 
     This past week we worked on the building, trying to finish the roof and working on various other tasks that needed to be done.  In previous sermons, we told you that the roof was more or less complete.  When we put up each panel, to complete it as quickly as possible, we put in the least amount of screws necessary to hold each panel in place.  This week we went back and attached it completely with all the necessary screws.  We also installed the ridge cap this week.  It has an almost finished appearance now. 

     There is just a little more work to be done on the roof, but we don't have the parts for it.  Vladika figured out that there are something like 3,870 screws in the roof. We tried to do every one with a Jesus Prayer. He put most of them in because he would not let anybody else on the roof because it was too dangerous. 

     On Tuesday, the wind was blowing so hard that it was too dangerous to be on the roof.  Wednesday was a calm day, but when Vladika went on the roof, he started slipping because the roof had become so dusty from the previous day's wind, which had blown dust on it.  It was so dangerous that Vladika just gave up and came down.

     Then we were at a dilemma at how to finish installing the screw nails, given the condition that it is in.  Vladika came up with an idea of how to keep from slipping off.  He tied a hundred-foot long rope to himself, and to Brother John who was on the other side of the building.  Brother John stayed on the ground and acted as his counter-weight while Vladika went up on the roof.  That way if Vladika started sliding, he'd have some weight to slow him down a little, and maybe even catch him.  []

     Reader Benjamin Pugsley put up all of the soffets along the porch - two levels of them.  That means he had to cut two hundred forty panels!  It was very slow going.

     We also rented a backhoe and dug a couple of ditches to bury a gas line, and to replace the electrical line going up to the cemetery church, which we ripped up last year during "the big dig".  Contractors are supposed to come here late next week and lay asphalt down for us before it gets too cold to do that.  A good portion of the mountainside runs down the hill with each rainstorm and leaves quite a mess on our existing asphalt, not to mention that it leaves ruts in the ground all the way up to the new building.  If winter comes without asphalt, the mud and dirt problem would be unbearable, to say the least.

     Subdeacon John Phillips helped us this week by putting insulation around all the windows, unloading materials, and a variety of other projects. 

     All in all, it is starting to look like more than just a metal frame up there on the mountainside, but we are waiting to put the siding on until the asphalt is laid because we don't want tar slopped up against the siding.  There is plenty of work for us to do until then, anyway.
 
Please pray for:
 
     Our Vladika Metropolitan Valentine.  His health is not as bad as it has been, we are told, and he is visiting our churches in the Ukraine.
     For the health of the handmaid of God, Helen.
 
Calendar of Events for Upcoming Week:
 
     This Saturday is the Exaltation of the Holy and Life-giving Cross.  It is a fast day, but since it falls on a Saturday, and the Canons say that we are forbidden to fast on a Saturday, oil and wine are permitted.
 
Crumbs from the trapeza table:
 
We are presenting an encyclical of Saint Metropolitan Philaret the Confessor on modesty. Please, everybody, read it to our children who are of age to understand it.
 
An Encyclical of St. Metropolitan Philaret the Confessor (+1985)
 
On Modesty
 

---

     Our Lord Jesus Christ, instructing His disciples and apostles, imbued in them the necessity of observing purity of heart and thought. From the thought and from the heart proceed our sinful impulses: But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart, says the Savior; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses, blasphemies (Matt. 15:1819). Unclean impulses of the mind, and images, composed in the heart, are the origin of sin, and by themselves, as a manifestation of inclination towards it, poison both the heart and soul.

     The Savior pointed to this with the following words: Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart (Matt. 5:27-28).

     This law of the psycho-physical nature of man is well-known to contemporary perverters, who are consciously striving to corrupt our youth.

     We remember how in Russia those who prepared the revolution, and then the communists, began the spiritual weakening of our nation by imbuing the youth with shamelessness and depravity. Special circles were organized for this, which spread contempt for the ordinary laws of morality. Such propagation of "free morals" which surrounds us is even greater, frequently being imbued even among children of school age.

     In our days, as in pre-revolutionary times in Russia, this propagation has the definite goal of corrupting contemporary society. This is an old method. History is filled with examples of nations which perished from the dissemination of depravity. The Lord turned Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes. Babylon fell. The Roman Empire perished. The free West could be subjected to this same corruption - and then, with a weakened will, like a ripe fruit, it could fall into the hands of the communists. Not for nothing does this propagation of so-called "free love" and the fight with the sense of shame come specifically from them, for the sense of shame is a person's first defence against moral downfall. On the contrary, every contact, even a small one, with vice, already brings disease into our heart and poisons it. Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? (Prov. 6:27).

     But the burning coals of shamelessness and dissoluteness are widely spilled about us. Slighting their murderous nature, under the influence of so-called "sex", many gather them and are burned by them.

     What do we see in the life which surrounds us? Indecency and shamelessness in clothing; shameless kisses and embraces on the streets and in public places; shameless advertisements, pictures, photographs, and depictions in magazines; insane, filthy, repulsive pornographic literature ... All of this dissoluteness and perversion pours into life in a wide wave. In truth there is no less shamelessness now, if not more, than in the time of pagans, when the holy apostles and their successors had to exhort Christians with especial zeal in the observance of modesty.

     Man's nature is such that in the sins of the flesh, the active role belongs on the one hand to the male sex, while on the other is evoked in him by the temptation which comes from women. Because of this, Christian cultures everywhere established customs which helped the preservation of good morals, as well as modest dress for women, so that the exposure of the latter should not evoke sinful thoughts and tempting inclinations in anyone. The higher the spiritual culture, the more modest was the dress of the women.

     Modesty in dress is our first line of defence. It must guard the purity of women and keep men from the temptation of sinful inclinations.

     Meanwhile, the evocation of specifically these feelings is the goal of that half-nudity which characterizes contemporary fashion, reaching, incidentally, almost total nudity in the shameless exposure on the beaches.

     What was peculiar before to fallen women, who, in the plying of their low trade dressed provokingly with the goal of evoking sensuality in men, is now becoming the mode and norm for clean maidens, in many cases not taking into account the meaning and consequences of this fashion which enslaves them.

     If the raising high of the hem of a dress, or the sharp emphasizing of the contours of the body, contradicts modesty, which generally should adorn Christian maidens and women - then even more unbecoming is the appearance of them in such dress in the temple of God. Respect for it must be shown first of all in modesty of dress. Not for nothing, until recent times, many heterodox churches demanded that women entering them cover their heads and shoulders, if their dress was too revealing. In this is expressed chaste veneration of something holy and the aspiration that nothing openly sinful and tempting for our neighbors be brought into the House of God.

     With these elucidations, in concordance with the decision of the Synod of Bishops, we now turn to our God-loving flock, in which the pastors and elder representatives of it must take upon themselves the responsibility of reminding the young people that they cease to trample the laws of natural modesty in their following of contemporary fashions.

     The duty of teaching modesty to youth lies especially with the parents who themselves must show an example in this, and persistently explain to their children the sinfulness of contemporary shamelessness.

     We know that the fight against sin, which surrounds us from all sides, is not an easy matter. The path of salvation is made narrower in proportion to the intensification in the world of evil and apostasy. But the ancient pagan world which surrounded the handful of the first Christians was no less corrupt. These latter, however, did not accede to the temptations of the pagan modes, even as some now do not accede to contemporary temptations.

     The virtue and modesty of Christian women was one of the phenomena which conquered the pagan world. Now, when infidelity and the corruption accompanying it are renewed with new strength, our professing of the faith is demanded with especial force, not only in dogmatic teaching, but in everyday life, remembering the call of our Savior, Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father Who is in heaven (Matt. 5:16).

     The Holy Apostle Paul in his epistle to the Philippians (i.e. to the Christians living in the large city of Philippi) wrote that they shone as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation (Phil. 2:15). A lofty spiritual disposition and irreproachably clean, strictly chaste life-these were the characteristic traits of the Philippian Christians, for which the Apostle praised them. We live in later times; nineteen centuries separate us from those days in which the Apostle Paul wrote his epistles. But now, just as the Christians of the first centuries, we are encircled by an environment full of shamelessness and perversion. May the high and holy example of the pure and chaste life of the ancient Christians teach us to be as steadfast and firm in the observance of the laws of Christian morals, and not accede to the temptations which surround us.

     May the blessing of God be upon you all.

+Metropolitan PHILARET

 
Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us and save us.  Amen.
 
In Christ,
 
+Bishop Gregory, and those with me.

[Julianna]

September 15/28, 2003
Beloved Clergy and Parishioners in the Lord, Rejoice!
 
Greetings in Christ from Dormition Skete. We hope and pray that you are all well, advancing in the grace of God, day by day growing in love for God and each other.
 
The Sunday After the Exaltation of the Cross

The Reading is from the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Galatians [§ 203]. Brethren:

     2  16Knowing then that a man is not being justified by the works of the law, except through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed in Christ Jesus, in order that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. 17But if, while we sought to be justified in Christ, we ourselves also were found sinners, is then Christ a minister of sin? May it not be! 18For if I build again these things which I destroyed, I constitute myself a transgressor. 19For I through the law died to the law, in order that I might live to God. 20I have been crucified with Christ; and I no longer live, but Christ liveth in me; and the life that I now live in the flesh I live in faith, in that of the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me.
 
SUNDAY OF THE FIFTEENTH WEEK

The Reading is from the Second Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§§ 176, 177]. Brethren:

     4  6It is God Who said, "Let there be light [cf. Gen. 1:3]" to shine out of darkness, Who shined in our hearts, for the illumination of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
     7But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the preeminence of the power may be of God, and not from us. 8In every way we are afflicted, but not straitened; we are at a loss, but not utterly at a loss; 9persecuted, but not abandoned; cast down, but not destroyed- 10always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. 11For we, the living, are always being delivered to death on account of Jesus, that also the life of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. 12So that indeed death energizeth itself in us, but life in you. 13But having the same spirit of faith, according to that which hath been written: "I believed, wherefore I spoke [Ps. 115(116):1(10)]," we also believe, and therefore speak, 14knowing that the One ! Who raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also through Jesus, and shall present us with you. 15For all things are for your sakes, that the grace, which abounded through the majority, might cause the giving of thanks to abound more to the glory of God.
 
The Sunday After the Exaltation of the Cross

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark [§ 37]. The Lord said:

     8  34"Whosoever is willing to follow after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and keep on following Me. 35"For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever will lose his life on account of Me and of the Gospel, this same one shall save it. 36"For what shall it profit a man, if he should gain the whole world, and lose his soul? 37"Or what shall a man give as an exchange for his soul? 38"For whosoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this generation, the adulterous and sinful one, also the Son of Man shall be ashamed of him, whenever He should come in the glory of His Father with the holy angels."
     9  1And He was saying to them, "Verily I say to you, that there are some of those standing here who in no wise shall taste of death, until they see the kingdom of God having come in power."
 
SUNDAY OF THE FIFTEENTH WEEK

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 92]. At that time:

     22  35A certain doctor of the Jewish law came to Jesus and questioned Him, putting Him to the test, saying, 36"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" 37And Jesus said to him, "'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind [cf. Deut. 6:5, 10:12, 30:6].' 38"This is the first and great commandment. 39"And the second is like it, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself [Lev. 19:18].' 40"On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." 41But while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus questioned them, 42saying, "What think ye concerning the Christ? Whose Son is He?" They say to Him, "David's." 43He saith to them, "How then doth David in spirit call Him 'Lord,' saying, 44"'The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit Thou on My right, until I should place Thine enemies as a footstool of Thy feet [Ps. 109(110):1]"'? 45"If David then calleth Him 'Lord,' how is He his Son?" 46And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor did anyone dare from that day to question Him any more.
 
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.
 
     Today we commemorate the Sunday after the Exaltation of the Life-giving Cross.  As we said earlier, the holy Cross, for Orthodox Christians, is a profound symbol.  It is a weapon.  It is an adornment.  It is protection.  It is sanctification.  It is an agent of power.  We find the symbol of the Cross from the beginning of creation. There are many types of the Cross throughout the Old Testament, from the Tree of Life, through Genesis and all the Prophets, until the reality came when Christ was crucified on this most blessed wood.

     There is one symbolic story which I love to tell about in the Old Testament. When Joseph brought his sons Manasseh the older and Ephraim the younger to their grandfather Jacob, Joseph's father, he brought them to him so Jacob would bless his two sons before he died. As is proper, he put the older son Manasseh in front of Jacob to the right, and the younger Ephraim in front of Jacob to his left and he asked his father to bless his sons. Jacob took his left hand and first put it upon the head of Manasseh and then took his right hand and put it upon the head of Ephraim. Thus, he clearly symbolized the sign of the Cross with his arms. Joseph told his father that Manasseh was the older and that he should put his right hand on Manasseh, but Jacob told him no, the younger shall be greater than the older. This symbolizes the Old and New Testament, how that Manasseh would decrease and Ephraim, symbolizing the New Testament, would increase. And indeed, the tribe of Ephraim became the greatest in Israel. We could write a whole book about the symbolism of the Cross in the Old Testament, but let us talk now about the Cross in our lives.

     An Orthodox Christian has the cross from the very beginning of his life in the Church, to the very end.  From the beginning, we are sealed with the sign of the Cross when the priest comes and names a new-born child.  At its holy Baptism, the water is blessed how many times with the sign of the Cross?  The person is anointed with holy oil in the sign of the Cross.  He goes down into the font, in many cases where the font itself is built in the sign of the Cross.  Then he is anointed with Holy Chrism in the form of the Cross on all his senses.  Then he is tonsured on the hair of the head in the form of a Cross.   Then we are given a Baptismal Cross around our head to keep with us always, and for the first seven days, we carry a Cross.

     Every major event in our life is blessed with the sign of the Cross.  When we are married, we are signed with the sign of the Cross by the priest's hands, by the Cross, by the rings, by the crowns, etc.  When a person is tonsured a monastic - may God grant that we may all be so fortunate!! - we are sealed with the sign of the Cross many times.  We are tonsured again on the head in the form of a Cross.  We are given clothing which has the precious Cross inscribed on it.  The Holy Schema has the Cross sewed on it and the Polystavrion, a lightweight garment made in such a way that it has approximately three hundred crosses on it, if not more, is also worn by a monk. 

      We grow up receiving Holy Communion with our arms crossed over our breast in the form of a Cross as we approach the Holy Mysteries.  Who can number how many times we make the sign of the Cross over ourselves and over our loved ones?  When we leave our homes, when we enter our homes, it is with the sign of the Cross.  We put the Cross over our doorways, we put the Cross with our icons, we put the Cross in our cars, and before we start any journey we make the sign of the Cross. 

     When we repose in the Lord, we are blessed by the priest with the sign of the Cross.  We are laid in the tomb with a Cross in our right hand, and our arms folded over our breast in the form of a cross.  Yes, and after we are buried in the earth, we have a cross placed in the earth on top of us.  How beautiful. 

     The Cross is everywhere in our lives, and this is how it should be, because the Cross is the sign of Christ, and we have put on Christ, as we heard in the holy readings for today.

     Besides the fact that the Cross, or the sign of the Cross, is throughout our lives, there is the significant passage which refers to another type of cross.  This passage from the Holy Scriptures says, "Whosoever is willing to follow after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and keep on following Me."  This is the hard part.  It is very hard to bear one's afflictions, and it reminds me of the famous story of a man who was always complaining about the cross that was his lot to bear in life.  He was praying to God that he would be given a lighter cross to bear, for the afflictions that he had now, he said, were just too much.  One time as he was praying thus, his guardian angel came to him and took him to a place where there were many, many crosses.  The angel said to him, "My child, you are complaining about the size of the cross that God has given you to bear.  Behold, here are a multitude of ! crosses.  Which one do you think you are able to endure, and prefer to have?"  The man looked and looked, and picked the smallest cross he could find amongst all of the multitude of crosses.  And he said to the angel, "I'll take this one."  The angel replied, "This is the one you already have. Pick another."  And since the man saw that all the others were greater than the one he had, he was content not to complain anymore.

     We find ourselves, at times, in great afflictions, or what seems to us as great afflictions.  If we, however, conduct ourselves in a Godly manner, these afflictions will work to be our greatest lesson.  In all things, we must keep the commandment of our Saviour before us.  As faithful Orthodox children of the Russian Church, lay people will be found in distress and affliction throughout their lives.  As monastics and clergy, it is guaranteed that we will be found in distress and afflictions throughout our lives.  But this is how God wishes to crown us if we remain steadfast in our vows as laymen or as clergymen.  Who is crowned if they do not contest lawfully? Remember the symbolism of the irritating little grain of sand in the oyster. It is painful but it endures it, and that sand becomes a pearl.

     The contest in these our times is not only to keep ourselves free from sin, and living a virtuous life, but it is also the maintaining of a pure confession of Faith.  We must be extremely vigilant in keeping the apple of our eye pure.  If Orthodoxy, or the Church, is not pure in its confession, then it is not Orthodox.  For Saint Paul says, "Ö the glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any of such things; but that she may be holy and unblemished."  [Eph. 5:27]

     How is this accomplished?  As we have said so many times, it is what the bishop speaks, his teaching which determines whether the bishop is Orthodox, or hypocrite/heretic.  One should not be so foolish as to think, "This bishop looks so venerable.  I'll place my soul with him."  Or, "This church building is so beautiful, I will belong to this parish.  The chanting in this church is so inspiring, I will attend here.  This church is right next door to my home.  I will be a member of this congregation."  Or, "This church is from my nationality.  I belong here."  Or, "This priest is so kind.  I will be his disciple."  Or, "I was born in this church.  I've gone here all my life.  I belong here."  I could go on and on, and so can you, and think of many illogical reasons that someone could belong to this or that church. 

     But the true criteria is whether or not this is Christ's Church, indeed.  Is Christ there?  Christ is only where the truth is proclaimed, and canonical order is maintained.  It is not that difficult.   For someone to search diligently, it is not that difficult to find the Church. 

     The truth is at the fingertips of anybody who wishes to seek it, or who has ears to hear.  The Gospel denounces ecumenism.  World Orthodoxy praises and accepts ecumenism.  Therefore, World Orthodoxy is not Christ's Church.  The Holy Canons are at the fingertips of all who wish to read them.  The Canons and Councils denounce schisms.  All those who have broken away from the Church over matters that are not of the Faith are in schism.  Therefore, they are not of Christ, and are to be avoided. 

     Now the question is, "Are we able and willing to endure the afflictions and distress of taking up the cross because of the truth?"  This is our cross.  We must stay away from those who call themselves Orthodox, but in truth are the fabricators of their own religion.  If Saint Metropolitan Philaret said that even if he was dying, he would not take communion from a schismatic or heretical "Orthodox", this should be our stand also.  And I thank God that all our people in America and abroad are standing steadfast, one hundred percent behind all our clergy when it comes to these matters. This is the quote from St. Philaret in a letter he wrote to Abbess Magdalane: "To such a degree do I not believe in the grace of the schismatics "manipulations", that in the event that I were dying and it was necessary to give me Communion, I would receive it neither from the "Parisians" nor from the American False-Autocephalites, lest in place of the Holy Mysteries I should swallow a piece of bread and some wine." - St. Philaret, Letter to Abbess Magdalena (Grabbe) of Lesna Convent, Nov. 26/Dec. 9, 1979
 
     I want to end this short sermon to exhort all our parents to impress upon their children who are marital age that their children should not be thinking lightly as those examples above, when it comes to marriage.  For example, do not let anybody say, "I must marry this person even though he is not Orthodox, because I love him/her. Our first love must be Christ, Who is the beginning and end of all things, the Alpha and the Omega.
 
Monastery News:
 
     This past week we continued work on the new building.  We started the siding and learned how to install it.  We did not get very far because the scheduling of laying the asphalt was this past week also.  We had to be with them as they laid the asphalt to make sure that they did it the way we wanted, and not the way that was convenient for them. 

     Jerjis Alajaji, our reader from Pennsylvania, was visiting family in Montreal with his son Naman.  During his trip, he had the opportunity to meet Timothy Rivera in Cambridge, Ontario, and Thomas Panowicz in Buffalo, New York.  Both are interested in joining the ROAC.  Reader Jerjis was very grateful to visit these fine and sincere men, and to speak to them about the truth of Orthodoxy, and the ROAC in particular.
 
Please pray for:
 
     The health of our Vladika Metropolitan Valentine, who just came back from a pastoral visit in the Ukraine.
     The health of our Father George.  His asthma is flaring up.
     Georgia Cunningham.  She is having surgery on her hip.
 
Crumbs from the trapeza table:
 
The Sign Of The Cross

     Saint Athanasios says, "Behold then what men considered the foolishness of God because of the Cross, has become of all things most honored. For our resurrection is stored up in it, and no longer Israel alone; but henceforth all the nations, as the Prophet hath foretold, leave their idols and acknowledge the true God, the Father of the Christ. And the illusion of demons is come to nought, and He only Who is really God is worshiped in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ."

     Saint Kyril of Alexandria (378-444) counsel us, "Let us not be ashamed of the Cross of Christ, but though another hide it, do thou openly seal it upon thy forehead, that the devils may behold the royal sign and flee trembling far away. Make this sign at eating and drinking, at sitting, at lying down, at rising up, at speaking, at walking: in a word, at every act."

     Saint John Chrysostom asks, "Art thou one of the faithful? Sign the Cross; say, this I have for my only weapon, this for my remedy; and other I know none."

     Saint John Chrysostom expounds on signing ourselves with the Cross, saying, "One ought not merely by the fingers to engrave it, but before this to have much faith in the heart. And if in this way thou markest it upon thy face, none of the unclean spirits will be able to stand near thee, seeing the blade whereby he received his wound, seeing the sword which gave him his mortal stroke. For if we, on seeing the places in which the criminals are beheaded, shudder; think what the devil must endure, seeing the weapon, whereby Christ put an end to all his power, and cut off the head of the dragon.

     "This therefore do thou engrave upon thy mind, and embrace the salvation of our souls. For this Cross saved and converted the world, drove away error, brought back truth, made earth heaven, fashioned men into angels. Because of this, the devils are no longer terrible, but contemptible; neither is death, death, but a sleep; because of this, all that warreth against us is cast to the ground, and trodden underfoot.

     "This sign, both in the days of our forefathers and now, hath opened doors that were shut up; this hath quenched poisonous drugs; this hath taken away the power of hemlock; this hath healed bites of venomous beasts. For if it opened the gates of hell, and threw wide the archways of heaven, and made a new entrance into Paradise, and cut away the nerves of the devil, what marvel, if it prevailed over poisonous drugs, and venomous beasts, and all other such things."
 
The Cross Is The Subject Of Glorying

     Saint Paul says, "The word, that of the Cross, to those who are perishing is foolishness; but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" [1 Cor. 1:18]. And "May it not be for me to boast, except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" [Gal. 6:14]. "Truly," remarks St. Chrysostom, "this symbol is thought despicable; but it is so in the world's reckoning, and among men; in heaven and among the faithful it is the highest glory." "The Cross is not a subject for shame," says St. Chrysostom, "I speak of the Cross of Christ. For there is not so great a sign of love of God for mankind, not heaven, nor sea, nor earth, nor the creation of all things out of nothing, nor all else beside, as the Cross." Elsewhere he admonishes, "Be not ashamed then by so great a blessing, lest Christ be ashamed of thee, when He comes with His glory, and the sign appears before Him, shining bey! ond the very sunbeam. For indeed the Cross cometh then, uttering a voice by its appearance, and pleading with the whole world for our Lord, and signifying that no part hath failed of what pertained to Him....The Cross is our glory, and the sum of all our blessings, and our confidence, and all our crown. I would that also with Paul I were able to say, 'But may it not be for me to boast, except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom the world hath been crucified to me, and I unto the world' [Gal. 6:14]."
 
Taken from "The Voice of Orthodoxy in America" Volume 1, Number 5, Sept-Oct 1997.
© 1997. All Rights reserved. Holy Apostles Convent.
 
Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us and save us.  Amen.
 
In Christ,
 
+Bishop Gregory, and those with me.

[Julianna]

September 22/October 5, 2003
Beloved Clergy and Parishioners in the Lord, Rejoice!

Greetings in Christ from Dormition Skete. We hope and pray that you are all well, advancing in the grace of God, day by day growing in love for God and each other.

SUNDAY OF THE SIXTEENTH WEEK

The Reading is from the Second Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [ 181]. Brethren:

6 1We, working together, beseech you also not to receive the grace of God in vain- 2for He saith, "In an acceptable time I heard thee, and in a day of salvation I helped thee [Is. 49:8]"; behold, now is an acceptable time; behold, now is a day of salvation- 3by not giving even one cause of stumbling in anything, that the ministry might not be blamed. 4But in all things commending ourselves as ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in straits, 5in blows, in imprisonments, in instabilities, in toils, in vigils, in fastings, 6in pureness, in knowledge, in long-suffering, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in love unfeigned, 7in the word of truth, in the power of God, by the weapons of righteousness of the right hand and of the left, 8by glory and dishonor, by! ill-fame and good fame; as deceivers and yet true; 9as unknown and well-known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not put to death; 10as ones sorrowful, but always rejoicing; as poor, but enriching many; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.

The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [ 105]. The Lord said this parable:

25 14"A certain man, going abroad, called his own slaves and delivered up to them his property. 15"And to one, indeed, he gave five talents, and to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own strength; and straightway he went abroad. 16"And the one who received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. 17"And in like manner, the one who received two, he also gained another two. 18"But the one who received the one went away and dug in the earth, and hid the money of his lord. 19"And after a long time the lord of those slaves cometh, and settleth accounts with them. 20"And the one who received the five talents came forward and brought another five talents, saying, 'Lord, thou didst deliver up to me five talents; behold, I gained another five talents abov! e them.' 21"And his lord said to him, 'Well done, O good and faithful slave! Over a little thou wast faithful, I will appoint thee over much; enter into the joy of thy lord.' 22"And also the one who received two talents said, 'Lord, thou didst deliver up to me two talents; behold, I gained another two talents above them.' 23"And his lord said to him, 'Well done, O good and faithful slave! Over a few things thou wast faithful, I will appoint thee over much; enter into the joy of thy lord.' 24"And also the one who received the one talent came forward and said, 'Lord, I have come to know that thou art a hard man, reaping where thou didst not sow, and gathering together from where thou didst not winnow. 25"'And I was afraid and went away and hid thy talent in the earth; behold, thou hast thine own.' 26"And his lord answered and said to him, 'O evil and reluctant slave! Thou knewest! that I reap where I did not sow, and gather together from where I did not winnow! 27"'Then it was needful for thee to have put my money to the bankers, and I should have received for myself mine own with interest. 28"'Take away then the talent from him, and give it to him who hath the ten talents. 29"'For to everyone who hath, it shall be given, and he shall be in abundance; but from the one who hath not, even that which he hath shall be taken away from him. 30"'And cast ye out the unprofitable slave into the darkness, the outer one. There shall be there the weeping and the gnashing of the teeth.'"

After He said these things, He cried aloud, "The one who hath ears to hear, let him hear."

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today we heard this parable of the talents, how God gave to each man "according to his own strength." One can safely say that the grace of God that has been given to all the faithful is a talent, or is this talent. Now we, who have been given this talent through holy Baptism, ought according to the Apostle Paul, as we read today, "1We, working together, beseech you also not to receive the grace of God in vain."
Now what does this mean, to receive the grace of God in vain? He means that if we have been given the power and the strength, and the wisdom, to act in an honorable and Orthodox manner to the glory of God, we should by all means do this. But to be given the strength to act properly in all circumstances that come before us, but fail to act properly in a manner pleasing to God is unfortunate, if not a sin.

Saint Paul continues and explains to us what circumstances may befall us, or what our way of life is expected to be like, when he says, "4But in all things commending ourselves as ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in straits, 5in blows, in imprisonments, in instabilities, in toils, in vigils, in fastings, 6in pureness, in knowledge, in long-suffering, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in love unfeigned, 7in the word of truth, in the power of God, by the weapons of righteousness of the right hand and of the left, 8by glory and dishonor, by ill-fame and good fame; as deceivers and yet true; 9as unknown and well-known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not put to death; 10as ones sorrowful, but always rejoicing; as poor, but enriching many; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things! ."

We should all read through this descriptive passage very carefully, and deliberately, and see if we are in contradiction to any of the above. Granted, when he says, "in fastings, 6in pureness" we may say that we fast, and we do not live in sin. When he says "in much patience," are we patient? When he says, "in vigils," do we maintain any vigil for prayer? He says, "in toils." Are we indulgent in laziness? Saint Paul says, "in knowledge." Are we careless in learning, and are happy to remain in ignorance in matters of Faith and sublime learning?

If we are diligent about righteousness, then what Saint Paul continues to say will be readily understandable. We will be glorified and dishonored. We will have ill fame, and good fame. We will be called deceivers, but we will be true. We are unknown to the fools of this age, but well known to those who love God. We are dying, to those who disbelieve and think that the struggles of being Orthodox are going to kill us; but behold we live longer than they! As chastened (persecuted for Orthodoxy), but they can never kill us. There is no death for an Orthodox Christian. As one sorrowful, because we pass through this life mourning, and yet we always rejoice, for there is always joy in our hearts for one who sincerely mourns and hopes in the mercy of God. As poor (in this world), but enriching many with spiritual wealth. As having nothing, in regards to corruptible things, but in fact posses! sing all things in a spiritual sense.

Take, for example, the Twenty-six Bulgarian martyrs of Zographou, whom we commemorate today. (Congratulations to our Bulgarian faithful on this day!) In the year 1274, the emperor of Byzantium, a heretic at that time, by royal decree imposed a union of the Orthodox with the Latins. He hoped by this union to obtain military aid to defend Constantinople from the ongoing ravages of that wild nation called Islam. In seeking to impose this union, the Latins and Latin-minded "Orthodox" went to Mount Athos to force the monks there to commemorate the Pope.

Before they came to the Bulgarian monastery of Zographou, they had also gone to the Great Lavra, Iveron, and Vatopedi, where they committed atrocities. All they wished was recognition of the Pope. In Great Lavra, the monks who did not flee or were martyred, were forced to have a liturgy in which they indeed commemorated the Pope. During that liturgy, witnesses testify an earthquake took place, but the monks continued the liturgy. As we told you before, they became known as the unholy dead, and their bodies are still on the Holy Mountain in a sorry state.

Now the Latins were approaching the Bulgarian monastery of Zographou. Hearken now to this account which has been recorded since it happened, and has been read in Orthodox churches for seven hundred years.
To warn the monks, the Virgin Mary did the following. As one virtuous elder outside the monastery was doing his daily akathist before an icon of the Virgin Mary in his cell, she spoke to him from the icon. He was saying, "Rejoice! Rejoice! Rejoice!" And then the Virgin said, "Rejoice thou also, O elder of God!" She then proceeded to tell the elder to warn the Abbot of Zographou, Thomas, and the brotherhood of the monastery, and these are the words she used: "Cease fearing, but go quickly to the monastery, and announce to the brothers and to the abbot that the enemies of both my Son and I are approaching. Whosoever, therefore, is weak in spirit, in patience let him hide until the temptation passes. All those who desire martyric crowns, let them stay and lock themselves within the monastery. Go, therefore, quickly."

The elder ran to the monastery, and as he approached he found the icon to which he was praying on the door of the monastery. By divine power, the icon was translated before the elder to the monastery gates. He took the icon and fell down before the abbot, and explained all that the Mother of God told him. The abbot assembled all the monks, and informed them of the coming danger. Twenty-two monks decided to remain, including the abbot, and four laymen - twenty-six in all. The others fled to the wilderness around Zographou. No sooner had they disappeared in the forest, when the Latins came and banged on the door of the monastery just as the Virgin Mary foretold.

"Open unto us," they demanded and to make a long and beautiful story short, the twenty-six were in the tower of the monastery, and there was a lengthy dialog between the future martyrs in the tower, and the Latins and their so-called "Orthodox" brothers below. What happened? Eventually, they were all martyred by fire. One of the monks was still alive in the ashes and lived until the tenth of November, and recounted the events so that it was preserved for posterity. His name was Saint Parthenios. We are including a portion of the dialog in the crumbs section of this week's sermon.

What I wish to point out to you here, however, is the fact that we have the mind of the Church. We have the mind of the fathers. We have the mind of the saints. We did not change Orthodoxy to suit the whims of certain unfaithful bishops. We are the Church that has remained faithful to Christ.

We are not ecumenists. The Virgin Mary is not an ecumenist, because she says, "the enemies of both my Son and I are approaching." We, the faithful of ROAC, live in a time when World Orthodoxy has made an about-face, and is walking 180 degrees in the opposite direction which it had always walked throughout history. Orthodoxy today, in the time of this great apostasy, says, according to a notable quote by a senior hierarch of World Orthodoxy concerning the Latins, "We have the same Faith, we worship the same God, we hold the same things sacred and holy. Tradition has divided us...We have been separated for 911 years and now the time has come for us to be found together again. The Catholics and the Orthodox do not belong to two different Churches, but to two branches of the same Church." (Patriarch Athenagoras, Rome, May 14, 1965, Reuters; Milan, Nov. 2, 1965, Corriere de la Sera).

The Virgin Mary, the Ecumenical Councils, and the fathers of the Church, and of course, we who are the remnants of the Russian Church, who have preserved the Faith, say with the Theotokos, "the enemies of both my Son and I are approaching." What has changed to make these "Orthodox" world leaders change their opinion? Have the Latins embraced Orthodoxy? No. So why say we have the same faith? Why say we worship the same God? Would the Abbot-martyr Thomas, whom we commemorate today, agree with the apostate Patriarch Athenagoras? Of course not. Athenagoras, on the other hand, blasphemes the blood of the martyrs of Orthodoxy.

No one can say that this is just an isolated incident of just one Patriarch. His successor, Demetrios, said the following: "When they [Latin faithful] are not near a Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholics are permitted to receive the Holy Communion in Orthodox Churches; and the same is also extended to Orthodox when they are not near an Orthodox Church...It is now permissible for Orthodox and Roman Catholics to pray together, and for the Orthodox Liturgy to be offered in a Roman Catholic Church. Parallel permission is now granted by some Orthodox Churches for the celebration of the Catholic Mass in Orthodox Churches...The Holy Spirit is active both within the Church and outside the Church. For this reason its limits are ever extended and its bounds are nowhere. The Church has a door but no walls." ["Thyateira Confession (1975)" (A synodically-approved confession by Patriarch Demetrios and his synod), pp. 12, 69, 77]

When a bishop openly denies the Faith, those Orthodox bishops who wish to remain in the grace of God, and who wish to remain Orthodox, must do two things. Denounce the false confession of Faith, and break communion with that bishop or patriarch. In all the world, there was only found to be about twenty-five bishops or so who did this - our Saint Philaret the Confessor, of the Russian Church, and certain Greek Old Calendar bishops. None of the patriarchs raised their voice to do what is demanded of them from the Holy Canons. Not the Patriarch of Jerusalem, not the Patriarch of Antioch, not the Patriarch of Moscow, none of the Autocephalous or Autonomous Orthodox Churches broke communion with the heretic Athenagoras. This situation has remained to our time, and it is called "The Great Apostasy" which Saint Paul spoke of in his epistle.

So, my beloved faithful, true Christians in these last times, let us remain strong in the Lord and faithful to His divine commands, and we will hear Him say, Come unto Me, ye blessed of My Father, My little flock, inherit the Kingdom which is prepared for you.

Monastery News:

Tomorrow (Monday), Bishop Gregory and Father George are traveling to Washington State to install icons. They will be home again on Saturday.

This past week we worked very hard to install as much of the siding as possible. We have the house enclosed, but not completely enclosed. It will take at least one more week.

We were visited this week by a parishioner from the state of Washington, Leo Papadopoulos. He was tonsured a reader by Bishop Gregory (Grabbe) and has been a long-time friend of Vladika Gregory. He is an excellent chanter, and will be staying here for about two weeks.

Please pray for:

Our Vladika Metropolitan Valentine, and Father Dionysios' daughter, Helen.
Vladika Gregory and Father George, for their safe travels, and for Father George's asthma illness.
Anthony Tadros. He is having a catheter inserted into his heart which comes through his leg. They say it is not surgical, but anything that invades the body is serious. Anthony is eighteen years old, and has a heart arithmia. The procedure is going to take place on Friday.

Calendar of Events for Upcoming Week:

Wednesday is the feast of Saint Sergius of Radonezh, and Saint Euphrosyne of Suzdal. Oil and wine are permitted if you so wish.

Crumbs from the trapeza table:

The abbot exhorted those [monks and laymen] who remained behind, quoting from Saint Paul's Epistle to the Romans, saying, "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For ye did not receive a spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye received a Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, 'Abba, Father.' The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God: And if children, also heirs-on the one hand heirs of God, on the other hand joint-heirs of Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, in order that we might also be glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy in comparison to the future glory to be revealed in us [Rom. 8:14-18]." Abbot Thomas urged them to keep their faith unhypocritically, and that they rekindle the gracious gift of God, for "God gave us not a spirit of cowardice, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Therefore," says Saint P! aul to Saint Timothy, "do thou not become ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor me His prisoner, but suffer hardship with the Gospel, according to God's power [2 Tim. 1:8]." He then looked upon the brotherhood and told those that feared torture to conceal themselves, and added, "Let them take the precious things of the church with them." The weaker among the brethren took themselves away, concealing themselves in the mountains and caves. Twenty-two of the monks, including Abbot Thomas, stood their ground with four laymen. The abbot then took those that remained and ascended the monastery's tower. They took with them the icon from which the aged monk received the warning. They remained within, expecting both the enemies and their martyric crowns for confessing the Faith.

In a short while the Latins, together with the Latin-minded, arrived. "Open up unto us," they demanded. The abbot answered, "Even if an angel from out of heaven should preach a gospel besides what Gospel has been preached to us, let such a one be anathema [cf. Gal. 1:8]. Declare your teaching. If it is not from God, begone!"

With all their might, the Latins employed every rhetorical technique that their western learning afforded them to madden or move the Orthodox to their way of thinking and interpretation of Scripture. The papists demanded that those of Zographou open the monastery tower and acknowledge the headship of the Pope over the eecumenical Church. In a wily manner, they spoke of the filioque, unleavened bread, shaved beards, and priests as bridegrooms of the Church. If the Orthodox complied, they promised, the Pope's clemency and plenty of gold would be theirs. If they refused, they could expect destruction and death. The venerable monks made a reply to the Latin innovations. They quoted holy writ and the words of our Savior Himself, Who said, "Whenever the Paraclete should come, Whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of the truth Who proceedeth from the Father [Jn. 15:26]." The fathers also recited other passages in the Gospe! l of Saint John: "I will ask the Father, and He shall send you another Paraclete [Jn. 14:16]"; and, "The Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name, that One shall teach you all things [Jn. 14:26]." The fathers, from their tower on high, also gave the example of the Forerunner who "beheld the Spirit descending out of heaven as a dove, and abode upon Christ [cf. Jn. 1:32]. Then there came to be a voice out of the heavens, 'Thou art My Son,' and the rest [cf. Mk. 1:11; Mt. 3:17]." The fathers then concluded this portion, saying, "Thus, it is evident that it is from the Father alone that the Spirit proceeds."

The monks then warned the Latins not to blaspheme, saying, "Christ says that every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven to men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. Whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this age nor in the coming one [Mt. 12:31, 32]. " They added, "No synod or council has stated that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. What canon has been enacted by the holy Fathers that we ought to use unleavened bread or shave our beards? You are filled with seven evil spirits that contradict the seven (Ecumenical Synods. You do not preach the Gospel, but the presumptions of Antichrist, even as Mohammed.

"We do not offer unleavened bread as the Jews. The bread at the Mystical Supper was leavened." We do not shave the hairs of our beard; for there is no decree on this matter in the Scriptures or cumenical synods. Trim not your beards but your tongues. The things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and those defile the man. We do not cut our beards, but rather strive against those things that defile a man, that is, evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false testimonies, and blasphemies [cf. Mt. 15:19, 20].

"Moreover, there are not many bridegrooms, but one Bridegroom, Jesus. And you tell us that your Pope is the head of the Church? From what place do you derive such a teaching? For us, Christ is the Head of the Church! We say to you, therefore, accept Orthodoxy, for neither your violence nor your tyranny shall convert us. We will not pollute our souls nor defile this sacred place. We will not open the gates of the monastery. Depart from this place!" The Latins, greatly maddened, shouted up at them, "Indeed, since you wish it, what remains is for you to die."

The Latins then busied themselves gathering wood, which they placed around the tower and put to the torch. The mighty conflagration reached a great height. None of the monks or laymen consigned to the flames enveloping the tower withdrew. All conducted themselves with a steady and manly bearing, glorifying and blessing the Lord. After they prayed on behalf of their enemies, they surrendered their souls into the hands of God, to Whom is due glory and dominion to the ages of the ages. Amen.

A voice was then heard from on high, "Be rejoicing and be exceedingly glad, for your reward is great in the heavens [Mt. 5:12]." Though the terrified Latins heard the voice, they did not come to repentance. They left and continued their path of destruction. The concealed brethren returned to a devastated monastery. In the ruins of the tower, the icon was found undamaged. It is generally believed that those who suffered martyrdom departed to their much beloved Lord in 1276. The names of the laymen have not been left to us, but the twenty-two martyred monks and confessors are as follows: Abbot Thomas, Barsanuphios, Kyril, Micah (or Michael), Simon, Hilarion, lakovos, Job, Cyprian, Savvas, lakovos, Martinian, Kosmas, Sergios, Menas, Joseph, loannikios, Paul, Anthony, Efthymios, Dometian, and Parthenios the ecclesiarch. Parthenios, however, did not repose quickly. The heretics did not notice that his dashed body was still conscious. When the! brethren returned to Zographou, they found him among the immolated remains of those valiant martyrs. Before he reposed on the 10th of November, he recounted the events of his co-sufferers and confessors.

Taken from The Great Synaxaristes of the Orthodox Church, September Volume, Copyright 2002 Holy Apostles Convent, used with permission, all rights reserved.

This is a great book for everybody to purchase.

Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.

In Christ,

+Bishop Gregory, and those with me.

[Julianna]

Beloved Clergy and Parishioners in the Lord, Rejoice!
 
Greetings in Christ from Dormition Skete. We hope and pray that you are all well, advancing in the grace of God, day by day growing in love for God and each other.
 
SUNDAY OF THE SEVENTEENTH WEEK
The Reading is from the Second Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ mid 182]. Brethren:
     6  16Ye are a temple of the living God, even as God said, "I will dwell in them, and walk about in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be to Me a people [Cf. Lev. 26:11, 12; Jer. 38(31):33, 39(32):38; Ez. 37:27; Zach. 8:8]." 17Wherefore, "'Come out from the midst of them, and be separated,' saith the Lord, 'and cease touching the unclean thing [Is. 52:11],' and I will receive you, 18"'and will be a Father to you, and ye shall be to Me for sons [cf. 2 Kgs. (2 Sam.) 7:14; 1 Chr. 17:13] and daughters [cf. Is. 43:6],' saith the Lord Almighty."
     7  1Having, therefore, these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, bringing to perfection holiness in the fear of God.
 
The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew [§ 62]. At that time:
     15  21Jesus withdrew into the parts of Tyre and Sidon. 22And behold, a Cananæan woman came out from those borders, and cried out to Him, saying, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is badly possessed by a demon." 23But He answered her not a word. And His disciples came and were beseeching Him, saying, "Dismiss her, for she crieth aloud after us." 24And He answered and said, "I was not sent except to the sheep, the lost of the house of Israel." 25But she came and kept on making obeisance to Him, saying, "O Lord, help me." 26And He answered and said, "It is not good to take the bread of the children, and to cast it to the little dogs." 27But she said, "Yes, Lord, indeed even the little dogs eat from the little crumbs which fall from the table of their masters." 28Then Jesus answered and sa! id to her, "O woman, great is thy faith! Let it be to thee as thou wilt." And her daughter was healed from that hour.
 
     In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.
     Behold the beautiful readings we heard today. Saint Paul speaks to us and tells us that we are the temple of the living God. We, as Orthodox, of course, understand this, because of the baptism which we have received and the grace which came with it. He tells us therefore, to come out from the midst of them, meaning, the unbelievers and be separate, meaning from the world. How are we to understand this? We cannot separate ourselves from unbelievers: they are all around us. We cannot separate ourselves from the world: we have responsibilities which must be accomplished by living in this world. Yes, we know what he means. We cannot be united spiritually with unbelievers. We have to be separated from them. One of my parishioners asked me this question: there may come a time when I am eating with a group of co-workers and they will wish to say their prayers before they eat. They will want to hold hands, as Protestants do when they pray around the table. They will expect me to say Amen after they pray. What shall I do? Of course, the answer is that we must be separated from unbelievers. So, we cannot hold hands with them, and we say to them, "I am an Orthodox Christian and I do not pray this way." They will not force you. Usually they will respect a person's method of prayer. If need be, tell them, "I pray before I eat silently within myself and I bless myself with the sign of the Cross." One thing we also do not do is say Amen to anybody's prayers who is not Orthodox. They may say good things which we agree with; that is fine. But we cannot say Amen, because that is participating with them, which we are forbidden to do. Christ does not want us to be united in prayer with unbelievers.

     When we hear touch not the unclean thing, St. Paul means that we should not be spotted by the world and the world of sin. We should be separated from this also, which takes the greatest effort. We do not have to enumerate the many and various allurements of the world which will draw us down to a life of wasted time and energy and a life of sin. We, with the grace of God, have the power to be separate from the world, although we live in the world. And we have the comfort to know that we are God's people, not because of our conduct, but because of our Faith. It is our Faith that keeps the grace of God with us, and then we have the confidence in God's wonderful promises to us  that He will be a Father to us and we will be sons and daughters to Him. So, when St. Paul says, "Having, therefore, these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, bringing to perfection holiness in t! he fear of God", let us live our lives in this way, free of defilement of flesh and spirit. The flesh, as we said, meaning our bodies in the world and the spirit, meaning our faith in true Orthodoxy.

     We all should know, however, that this doesn't come at the twinkling of an eye, or the snap of a finger. It takes effort and great determination to live the ascetic life of an Orthodox Christian, whether in the world or in the monastery. If setbacks or stumblings come, which they will, so I shouldn't say if, I should say when, when setbacks or stumblings come, we should not be as a reed shaken in the wind and give up our resolve in any way whatsoever. God loves perseverance.

     We read today the perseverance of the Syro-Phoenecian woman. This is always amazingly beautiful when we read this Gospel. She was crying to Him, but He gave no attention to her, although He was very attentive. She cried out so much so that when the Apostles beheld Him not paying heed to her, they besought Him to tell her to go away from them. He answered to the hearing, I believe, of her, "I was not sent except to the sheep, the lost of the house of Israel." But this did not dissuade her from persisting in her entreaties. She knew He was the great miracle worker from Galilee and her daughter was possessed and He would be the only one Who could cure her. She was not a Jew. She was from the pagans, but one who believed in Christ. So she kept on making obeisance to Him, saying, "Lord, help me." What was it going to take for this woman to stop beseeching our Saviour? First, He neglected her cries. Secondly, He said, "I am not sent to you, but to the house of Israel." Now, a third rebuke comes from our Saviour when He said, "It is not good to take the bread of the children, and to cast it to the little dogs." Three times our Saviour rebuffs her. She could have easily been fainthearted and lost hope. She could have said, "If He were a miracle worker and had love, at my first cry He would have come to me. Why is He doing this to me," she could have said in self-pity. Now our Saviour compares her to a dog and He waits for her response to show us her great humility. "Yes, Lord, indeed even the little dogs eat from the little crumbs which fall from the table of their masters," she answers.

     First of all, we should admire her perseverance and secondly her humility. Let us all reflect on ourselves if we were in her position, would we endure all she endured? If we say no, then let us change to acquire this humility. Our Saviour said to her, "O woman, great is your faith!" He did not say because you believed, or your faith hath made you whole as He said in other instances, but to her He says, "O woman", as if in great admiration, "great is thy faith!" And because of this, the demon is already out from your daughter. 

     Today we commemorate St. Kyriakos, the great ascetic from Palestine. In his life, we read a portion which we inserted in the crumbs. It deals with the confusion sometimes people have when heresies and schisms attack the Church. Of course, nothing can be compared to the times in which we live, but there were instances in the history of the Church where many people were confused because of their lack of theological understanding. They resorted then with great sincerity, to the mercy of God and this is one instance where God had mercy on us (because it was recorded for generations) and revealed the state of those who cause schism and heresies.
 
Monastery News:
 
     This week Vladyka Gregory and Fr. George traveled to Washington State, where they completed an iconography job. It was hard work, but it was completed in six days. They worked ten hours a day on scaffolding.
 
Please pray for:
 
     Our Vladika Metropolitan Valentine, and Father Dionysios' daughter, Helen.
 
Calendar of Events for Upcoming Week:
 
     Tuesday is the Protection of the Virgin Mary, one of her major feast days. We have added the complete story from the Great Synaxarites for your edification.
 
Crumbs from the trapeza table:
 
     St. Kyriakos constantly exhorted and confessed the Orthodox Faith. It is recorded that while the blessed man struggled toward salvation in a cramped cell near the Jordan, a certain monk named Theophanes visited him, who was an adherent of the Nestorian heresy (which degrades the Son of God and the Theotokos). On learning this, St. Kyriakos exhorted and besought him to forsake his errors and to turn to the holy, catholic, and apostolic Orthodox Church. "There is but one path to salvation," said the saint, "and that is to think and believe as the Holy Fathers thought and believed." Theophanes replied, "All heresies also say that if one has no communion with them, one cannot be saved. What am I to do? My mind is so weak that it cannot grasp the truth and distinguish it from error. Entreat God for me, that He grant me understanding from on high by some revelation!"

     St. Kyriakos rejoiced that his brother was willing to accept correction and enlightenment, and said to him, "Remain in my cell, and I trust that God will reveal to thee the truth."  He then betook himself into solitude and began to beseech God for that brother. Then - lo! - about the ninth hour of the next day, the Nestorian beheld someone who told him sternly, "Come and learn the truth." The stranger led him to a dark and malodorous place where he was shown Nestorios, Arios, Evtychios, Dioscoros, and the other heretics in the unquenchable fire, groaning and gnashing their teeth because of the unbearable torments. The stranger then said, "Behold the abode of these and their followers who reason impiously! Thus if this place is pleasing to thee, abide in thy false teaching; but if thou dost not wish to undergo a similar punishment, turn to the holy, catholic, and apostolic Church to which Kyriakos belongs. I say unto thee that,! if a man performs all that is virtuous, yet does not believe in an Orthodox manner, he shall arrive at this place of torment." Therefore, the herald of the divine will that had appeared became invisible, and the Nestorian, acknowledging his pernicious error, united himself to the Orthodox Church.
 
The Great Synaxaristes of the Orthodox Church, September volume, pp. 729-730, copyright 2002, all rights reserved.
 
On the 1st of October, the holy Church commemorates
the HOLY PROTECTION of the our most holy Lady Theotokos and
Ever-virgin Mary, who covered the faithful with her veil
at the Church of Vlachernai,
as seen by Saint Andrew the Fool for Christ.
Rejoice with God, ranking second only to the Trinity!
[Saint Andrew of Crete]

     The sacred Feast of the Holy Protection of our most holy and glorious Lady and Theotokos and Ever-virgin Mary is celebrated today, brethren, in remembrance of a vision beheld by our holy father among the saints, the venerable Andrew, the fool for Christ's sake, during the reign of Emperor Leo. Saint Andrew's struggles and labors for God, amid the most severe deprivations, took him through the streets of Constantinople. He was vouchsafed many visions, but the last recorded one, which took place during a vigil he attended, served as the basis for the establishment of this Feast of the Holy Protection of the Theotokos. It was Sunday, the 1st of October, in Vlachernai, at the Church of the Theotokos. This church is described as follows by an anonymous Byzantine hymnographer:

"Throughout all the city, of all the churches and chapels dedicated to the Theotokos, this is the most glorious and the most honored." Now according to their cust! om, Saint Andrew and his disciple, Epiphanios, were attending church. At the fourth hour of the night, behold, the blessed Andrew, with his own eyes, observed the most holy Theotokos coming from the beautiful door of the narthex. She shone as the sun and was upraised very high, even as high as the heavens, being borne aloft by the awe-inspiring orders of holy angels. The holy and honorable Forerunner John and Saint John the Theologian escorted, by the hand, the Queen of the angels. The angels, some going on ahead, and others following, were chanting spiritual songs and hymns in a very delightful and pleasant manner. Only Andrew and Epiphanios were able to hear the mystical chanting.

     The Queen then entered the midst of the temple, where the ancient pulpit (ambo) was located, and then stood in the middle of the solea. The Lady Theotokos then kneeled down and was praying and entreating her only-begotten Son for a long while, for the salvation of the faithful, tears streaming down her countenance that bore the likeness of God. Andrew went to Epiphanios and said to him, "Dost thou see, child, the Lady of the cosmos?" Epiphanios said, "Yes, honorable father, I also see by thy holy prayers the Lady Theotokos, and I marvel."

     After the Theotokos prayed a sufficient time in that place, then she rose up and entered the holy sanctuary (bema), wherein was kept the sacred reliquary coffin (soros) containing her veil (maphorion). She took it up into her hands and exited. She then stood before the royal doors of the bema, and placed the veil on her all-immaculate head, wrapping it with beautiful modesty. Then holding it by her undefiled hands, she took that great and fearful veil and solemnly spread it over the faithful that were present, covering all those there that were Christians. The two men observed that, over the faithful, for a considerable time, her omophorion was extended and emitting immaterial and radiant rays, with greater luster than electrum, flashing like lighting. As long as the Lady Theotokos stood there and the holy protection of her veil appeared spread over the faithful, she was distributing gifts of grace. When the Lady Theotokos began to mount to the ! heavens, little by little, her divine protection was becoming invisible, until it no longer appeared, but her grace continued, however, to abide there. Moreover, this protection of the faithful continued on account of the presence of her sacred and grace-filled veil, which was preserved in that very church at Vlachernai.

     This then is the account of the sacred Andrew and his initiate Epiphanios, who was vouchsafed this vision through the mediation of our divine Father Andrew. Saint Andrew was so filled with the grace of lofty and spiritual contemplation and visions of revelations that transcended nature, that he imparted this grace also to Epiphanios. This and many other similar visions, both fearful and extraordinary, were vouchsafed Saint Andrew.

     Thus, the feast we celebrate today was inaugurated by this vision. The Prophet Esaias prophesied that "in the last days the mountain of the Lord shall be glorious, and the house of God shall be on the top of the mountains, and all nations shall come to it [Is. 2:2]." Saint Kyril of Jerusalem (ca. 315-386) tells us that "the Church is called a mountain," and Saint John Chrysostom (ca. 347-407) says that "Esaias shows how indestructible the Church would be." "This is not any earthly mountain," says Saint Kyril of Alexandria (378-444), "but rather the Church which Christ has rescued for Himself. For she is high and conspicuous to people everywhere, and, exalted, because there is nothing in her which brings men down to earth." In a hymn for this Feast, we are told that our Mistress, the Theotokos, is the true fulfillment of Esaias' prophecy, for the mountains and hills have been adorned with the renowned churches of her feast! s. Yet the Virgin is a mountain [Dan. 2:34] more glorious than Sinai, for the latter burned with fire, and thunder and lightning struck it, but she, without being consumed, bore, in her womb, the Logos, the divine Fire. We beseech her as one who has maternal boldness to help us.

     Saint Gregory of Palamas (d. 1359) saw the Mother of God as "the source and root of the race of liberty....The Virgin Mother alone dwells on the frontier between created and uncreated natures, and those who know God recognize also in her the habitation of the infinite." Saint Theophanes (d.1381), Bishop of Nicaea, also known as "the branded," sees the entire cosmos turning around the Theotokos, when he wrote: "It cannot happen that anyone, of angels or of men, can come otherwise, in any way whatsoever to participation in the divine gifts flowing from what has been divinely assumed, from the Son of God, save through His Mother." Mary Theotokos, for this brilliant confessor and hymnographer, was the "dispenser and distributor of all the wondrous uncreated gifts of the divine Spirit." As the fountain, the beginning of life, "She receives wholly the hidden grace of the Spirit and amply distributes it and shares it with others, thus! manifesting it." He then speaks of her spiritual motherhood over us, saying, "The Mother of Him-Who through His unspeakable goodness willed to be called our Brother-is the dispenser and distributor of all the wondrous uncreated gifts of the divine Spirit, which make us Christ's brothers and co-heirs, not only because she is granting the gifts of her natural Son to His brothers in grace, but also because she is bestowing them on these as her own true sons, though not by ties of nature but of grace."

     Let us speak now of these last and terrible times, when sin has abounded and we are placed in multifarious dangers, even as the divine Paul once wrote about his battle with false apostles, Satan transforming himself into an angel of light, and his ministers who transform themselves as ministers of righteousness and enslave and devour the people. We hear that Saint Paul bears dishonor, weariness, concerns, fasts, and blows, and, as an example to us, he tells, "Yes, all those who wish to live piously in Christ Jesus shall be persecuted [2 Tim. 3:12]." He, too, was "in perils of robbers, in perils from mine own race, in perils from Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren [2 Cor. 11:26]." Our Savior tell his disciples what shall be the sign of His coming and the completion of the age, saying, "For nation shall be stirred up against nation, and kingdom agains! t kingdom. And there shall be famines, and plagues, and earthquakes, in place after place [Mt. 24:7]." In these last days, we are assailed by attacks from aliens, civil wars, and deadly plagues. "Let no one be moved by these afflictions; for ye yourselves know that for this we are appointed [1 Thess. 3:3]"; for "through many temptations it is necessary for us to enter into the kingdom of God [Acts 14:22]." The most holy Virgin, the Mother of the Lord, renders her protection over us, that we might be delivered from every peril, whether it be famine, sickness, or earthquake.

     Saint John of Kronstadt (1829-1908) writes in his memoirs: "Holy Virgin, our Lady! O thou, whose love toward Christians surpasses the love of every earthborn mother and of every wife, hear our prayers and save us! May we constantly remember thee! May we always pray fervently to thee! May we ever undoubtingly and unfailingly take refuge beneath thy holy protection!"

     Even as once Saint John the Theologian beheld a great sign in the heaven, "A woman having been clothed with the sun [Rev. 12:1]," thus did Saint Andrew behold in the heavenly church in Vlachernai the unwedded Bride garbed in porphyry and radiant like the sun. Saint John received this great sign after there was much destruction and after the seventh angel sounded a trumpet. "And the temple of God was opened in the heaven, and the ark of the Lord's covenant was seen in His temple. And there occurred lightnings and sounds and thunderings and an earthquake and great hail [Rev. 11:19]." After the disturbance of the elements in heaven and the earth with the lightnings, thunderings, murders, earthquakes, hail, the most blessed one appeared as our refuge and defender in both physical and spiritual perils.

     Our protectress has myriads of shields to guard us. She is spoken of in the Holy Spirit where it says, "Thy neck is as the tower of David, that was built for an armory: a thousand shields hang upon it, and all darts of the mighty [Song 4:4]." Prophet David had once constructed a beautiful and lofty tower between Mount Sion and Jerusalem which lay below and was called "the daughter of Sion." That tower stood between them, as a neck does between the head and body. Upon the tower were hung shields and all the weapons that guarded Jerusalem. Therefore, the Holy Spirit likens the most pure Virgin with the tower of Jerusalem, since she is a daughter of the Prophet David, and stands in the midst between the Christ, Who verily is the Head of the Church, and the faithful who consist of the body of the Church.

     Saint Theophanes used the metaphor of the neck to express her place in the Mystical Body: "Since then the Head of every principality, power and of our Church is the only way which leads to the Father, so that the sacred neck is the only way leading to the Head of all."

     Being higher than any member of the Church, the Theotokos is near to Him, as one having given Him flesh. She stands in the firmament, between heaven and earth, between God and man, between the Judge of the contest and Prize-giver Christ and the struggling Church, even as the tower of David between Sion and Jerusalem. She, too, has those shields which are her all-mighty intercessions. As a Mother to her Son and God, and her Fashioner, she fervently prays with words full of compassion and love, saying such things as these: "O heavenly King, do Thou accept every man who glorifies Thee and invokes Thy most holy name. Do Thou sanctify and glorify those that glorify Thee and honor me, Thy most beloved Mother. Receive their every entreaty and supplication, and deliver them from every necessity and affliction."

     Saint Ambrose of Milan, in his commentary on Psalm 19, speaks of the purpose of David's tower, which was both to defend and adorn the city. Our protectress then is like unto this tower, for she both protects us as a pillar of strength from the face of the enemy, both visible and invisible, and is the adornment of our race. Saint Anastasios the Sinaite comments that "she makes apostles of sorcerers, evangelists of tax collectors, and causes harlots to become more pure than virgins." This was seen in the Life of Saint Mary of Egypt, who surpassed many virgins. The Virgin Mary adorns the whole of the spiritual Jerusalem, the Church of Christ; and thus we chant that "she is the most wondrous majesty and comeliness of the faithful, the fulfillment of the prophets, the glory of the apostles, the adornment of the martyrs, the boast of virgins, and the most marvellous protection of the entire cosmos." Together, with the shields on the tower, the! re are hung "all the darts of the mighty [Song 4:4]," which are the intercessions of the praying saints. She did not appear alone in the air standing, but with the angelic hosts and multitudes of saints clad in white standing in a circle about her. She knows that our enemies are drawn up in battle-order against us, even as it is written: "For many dogs have encircled me, the congregation of evil doers hath surrounded me [Ps. 21:16]. They have opened their mouth against me, as might a lion ravenous and roaring [Ps. 21:13]." The Queen of the heaven, who stands at the right of Christ [Ps. 44:8], wishes to help us vanquish our enemies with all the hosts of heaven, She also summons prophets and apostles, and assembles martyrs and virgins, and gathers together both the venerable and righteous, and comes with them to our aid.

     Let us look at the example of the angels ascending and descending on the ladder seen by Patriarch Jacob, which was a prefigurement of the Virgin. When Jacob departed into Charrhan, "and came to a certain place and slept there, for the sun had gone down, he took one of the stones of the place, and put it at his head, and lay down to sleep in that place, and dreamed. And behold, a ladder fixed on the earth, whose top reached to heaven, and the angels of God ascended and descended on it. And the Lord stood upon it, and said, 'I am the God of thy father Abraham, and the God of Isaac....' And Jacob awoke out of his sleep, and said, 'The Lord is in this place, and I knew it not.' And he was afraid, and said, 'How fearful is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.'...And he called the name of that place, the House of God [Gen. 28:10-19]." Indeed, the angels do not stop to rest, since the Theotokos! , who is unsleeping in her intercessions, commands them to unceasingly help the race of man. Thus, they ascend with the prayers and descend to men with the grace and gift of God.

     In the vision of Saint Andrew, two of the most splendid saints appeared with her: The Forerunner who was spoken of by the Lord Himself Who said, "Verily, I say to you, there hath not arisen among those born of women a greater than John the Baptist [Mt. 11:11]"; and, Saint John the Theologian, the beloved disciple. Our protectress was accompanied by these two, as ones who have great boldness before God; for keep in mind the words of the Apostle Iakovos, "The entreaty of a righteous man hath much strength when it is energized [Jas. 5:16]."

     The most immaculate Virgin stands in the midst of these two virgins, even as the ark between the two cherubim, and the throne of the Lord of Sabaoth between the seraphim, even as Moses when his hands were supported by Aaron and Or, so that Jesus (the son of Navee) routed Amalek and all his people with the slaughter of the sword. For with a secret hand the Lord wages war upon Amalek to all generations [Ex. 17: 11-16].
     Our sins are deserving of chastisement, so the Prophet Esaias exhorts us, saying, "Go, My people, enter into thy closets, shut thy door, hide thyself for a little season, until the anger of the Lord has passed away [Is. 26:20]." But how is it possible to flee from the wrath of the Lord? We, the miserable ones, have found no other place that we might hasten, other than the Lady of the cosmos, of whom it was spoken of in the Holy Spirit, "I covered the earth as a cloud [Wisdom of Seirach or Ecclesiasticus 24:3]." We then are sheltered by her protection, as a cloud that covers the entire earth. She is also likened to the other elements, as spoken of by Solomon, "Who is this that looks forth as the morning, fair as the moon, choice as the sun [Song 6:9]?"

     Also, in accordance with the Prophet's words, "Behold, the Lord sits on a swift cloud, and shall come to Egypt [Is. 19:1]." We call the Virgin, in truth, a light cloud; for, sitting on thee, the Lord has come to overthrow the Egyptian hand-wrought images of deception, and to enlighten them that serve them. Saint Ambrose (339-397) comments that "she was a light cloud because of her virginal integrity. She was light because she did not seek to please man, but God. She was light because she did not conceive in iniquity, but begot a Child under the overshadowing Spirit; nor did she bring forth in fault, but with grace."

     The righteous anger of God has enacted vengeance for all our bad deeds which we have cultivated and refined; for "the Lord is the God of vengeances; the God of vengeances hath spoken openly [Ps. 93:1]." Our own lawlessness has caught up with us, so that we might say, "Evils without number have encompassed me; mine iniquities took hold of me, and I became unable to see [Ps. 39:16]." Thus, our invisible adversary has chased hard after us and outran us: "He has troubled me, as a she-bear lying in wait; he is to me as a lion in secret places [Lam. 3:10]." Our visible enemies also anticipate us, saying, "The enemy said, 'I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoils,...I will destroy with my sword, my hand shall have dominion [Ex. 15:9].'" Nevertheless, let us take courage in the most holy Theotokos, for under the shelter of her protection not even a hair of our head is lost. Cover us, O Lady, with thy preci! ous omophorion, and deliver us from all evil, entreating thy Son, that He save our souls.

     All the days of our life our evil, just as the Patriarch Jacob admitted to Pharaoh, "The days of the years of my life, wherein I sojourn, are a hundred and thirty years; few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, they have not attained to the days of the life of my fathers, in which days they sojourned [Gen. 47:9]." We behold evil days and we ourselves even work much evil, storing up to ourselves "wrath in a day of wrath and revelation of a righteous judgment of God, Who will render to each according to his works: to those on the one hand who with patience in good work seek glory and honor and incorruptibility, eternal life; but to those on the other hand who are factious and disobey the truth, and suffer themselves to be persuaded to unrighteousness, anger and wrath [Rom. 2:5-8]." We ought not to despise the wealth of God's kindness and forbearance and long-suffering for our repentance. Therefore, we are in need, f! or all the days of our lives, and indeed especially on that dread day when our soul is separated from the body, of the Virgin Theotokos' power assistance. We pray that she overtakes us then with her help and protection, and not the evil spirits in the air; but we also beg her mediation during that fearful day of judgment that she might shelter us with her mystical protection.

     Saint John of Kronstadt writes: "It was through the incarnation of the Logos that the all-holy Virgin has been given to us as an all-powerful intercessor, who protects us from sins, misfortunes, and disasters. Praying for us day and night, our Queen, whose power no enemy visible or invisible can withstand, truly is our mother by grace in accordance with the words uttered by Christ on the Cross to the beloved disciple, 'Behold thy Mother!' and to her, 'Behold thy son!'"

The Great Synaxaristes of the Orthodox Church, October volume, pp. 18-27, copyright 2002, all rights reserved.
 
Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us and save us.  Amen.
 
In Christ,
 
+Bishop Gregory, and those with me.

[Julianna]

October 6/19, 2003
Beloved Clergy and Parishioners in the Lord, Rejoice!
 
Greetings in Christ from Dormition Skete. We hope and pray that you are all well, advancing in the grace of God, day by day growing in love for God and each other.
 
SUNDAY OF THE EIGHTEENTH WEEK
The Reading is from the Second Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians [§ 188]. Brethren:
     9  6The one who soweth sparingly shall also reap sparingly; and the one who soweth with blessing shall also reap with blessing. 7Let each give even as he purposeth in his heart, not out of sorrow or out of necessity; for God loveth a cheerful giver. 8And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye, always having all self-sufficiency in everything, may abound to every good work, 9even as it hath been written: "He dispersed, he gave to the poor; his righteousness abideth forever [Ps. 111(112):9]." 10Now the One Who supplieth seed to the sower and bread for eating, may He provide and multiply your seed for sowing, and increase the fruits of your righteousness, 11being enriched in everything to all open-handedness, which worketh out through us giving of thanks to God.
 
The Reading is from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke [§ 17]. At that time:
     5  1Jesus was standing by the Lake Gennesaret, 2and He saw two ships standing by the lake; but the fishermen disembarked from them and washed the nets. 3And He embarked into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and asked him to put out to sea a little from the land. And He sat down and was teaching the crowds from the ship. 4And when He left off talking, He said to Simon, "Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a draught." 5And Simon answered and said to Him, "Master, we toiled through the whole night, and took nothing; but upon Thy word, I will let down the net." 6And after they did this, they enclosed a great multitude of fish; and their net was being broken through. 7And they nodded to their partners, those in the other ship, so that they should come and help them. And they came and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink. 8And after Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at the knees of Jesus, saying, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." 9For astonishment seized him, and all those with him, on account of the draught of the fish which they took together; 10and in like manner also were Iakovos and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, "Cease being afraid; from henceforth thou shalt be taking men alive." 11And when they brought down their ships upon the land, they left all and followed Him.
 
     In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.
     Today we celebrate the feast day of the great Apostle Thomas and have enclosed a famous portion from his life which is very beautiful.  Because of the other interesting articles enclosed herewith, we are foregoing the sermon.  We are enclosing the epistle from our Synod of bishops which addresses the Russian passport question because certain Greek agitators, most likely from the Matthewite extremists, have entered Russia and are causing a disturbance among our faithful. The other article is the announcement of the consecration of Bishop Sebastian.  For your information about Bishop Sebastian, he was received into our church three years ago as a priest by repentance and confession of Faith.  Let no one think that this means that we in any way recognize any of the mysteries of the Moscow Patriarchate.  There are three ways which the Church receives clergymen from heretical denominations:  Baptism, Chrismation, or Confession.  Whichever way a clergyman is received depends on the particular circumstances of that clergyman, and the discretion of the hierarch that is receiving him.  As for the Moscow Patriarchate, let it be known that we hold to the fact that it is a graceless entity.  It is an invention of the Jewish-Communist experiment of the last century, a church started by Stalin. 
    
Monastery News:
 
     We have been working quite hard on a forty-foot cherry picker finishing the siding, soffet, and rake on the ends of the new building.  The siding is almost completed.  Installing the gutter system will be the next job, and Lord willing, we will start the interior walls this week.

     Nathaniel Kapner has moved to Buena Vista, and is in the process of settling in.  Leo Papadopoulos is returning to Washington State, where he is planning to gather his belongings and also relocate to Buena Vista.  While he was here, he translated the complete life of the Holy Great New-martyr Nicholas of Metsovon.  He also translated the complete life of Saint Theodore Stratelates (The General). 
 
Please pray for:
 
Our Vladika Metropolitan Valentine, and Father Dionysios' daughter, Helen.
 
Crumbs from the trapeza table:
 
     After the ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven and the descent of the Holy Spirit, the apostles cast lots amongst themselves to determine where each of them should go to preach the Logos of God. To Thomas fell the lot to go to India, to the Brahmans and the other divers and obscure peoples of those parts, to enlighten lands benighted by paganism and to teach the true Faith to the Parthians, Medes, Persians, Hyrcanians, and Bactrians.

     Thomas was dismayed to be sent to such savage peoples; but the Lord appeared to him in a vision, strengthening him and commanding him to be valiant and not to be afraid; and He promised to abide with him Himself. And soon He showed him a way to enter those lands.

     Gundafor, King of India, desiring to erect for himself as splendid a palace as possible, sent to Palestine, as his agent, the merchant Abban, to seek out a skilled architect who was experienced in construction and could build such palaces as those of the Roman emperors. When Abban was searching for such adept architects in Palestine, the Lord, Who knows the hearts of men, appeared to him in the marketplace, and said to him, "Wilt thou not purchase a captive of Mine, who is a builder by trade?" Abban replied, "Yea." The Savior pointed Thomas out to him, and they agreed to a price of three pounds of silver. The Master then signed the bill of sale, writing: "I, Jesus, son of Joseph the carpenter, do sell My slave Thomas to Abban." When Abban approached Thomas and showed him the bill of sale, he inquired if he were truly a slave. Thomas answered, "Yea. He is my Lord and, in His compassion, has paid a tremendous sum as ransom for me."! Thomas then followed him and served him. That evening, the Lord appeared to Thomas in a vision and, showing him the silver He had received, said, "Know thou the price of thy purchase. May My grace be ever with thee." In time, Abban booked passage on a ship, and he and Thomas set out on their journey with a fair wind.

     When they put in at the city of Andrapolis, they heard there the sound of trumpets and other musical instruments. The king of that city was giving his daughter in marriage, and sent heralds to announce throughout the city that all, rich and poor, slaves and travelers, gather together; and if anyone did not wish to come, he would be liable to the judgment of the king. Hearing this, Abban and Thomas, fearing, in that they were travelers, to anger the king by failing to obey him, went to the wedding festival in the royal palace. When everyone had sat down and begun to make merry, the apostle sat in the very last place and ate nothing; he took no part in the merry-making, but immersed himself in thought. All looked upon him as a strange and outlandish man. Those who reclined next to him said to him, "Why hast thou come hither, when thou neither eatest nor drinkest?" The apostle said in reply, "I have come hither not to eat and drink, but to fulfill the will of the king, for the heralds loudly proclaimed that if anyone should not appear at the wedding, he would be liable to the judgment of the king."

     There was at that time among those who were feasting a certain Jewess who was playing beautifully on the lute, strumming some melody of greeting to each of those reclining at the banquet. Catching sight of Thomas, who was not making merry, but only lifted his eyes up to heaven, she recognized him as a Jew and, playing before him, sang to him a song in the Hebrew tongue, "One is the God of the Jews, Who has made heaven and the earth." The apostle, listening to her singing with pleasure, asked her to repeat the words several times. But the wine-master, seeing that the apostle was not taking part in the revelry, struck him in the face, saying, "Thou hast been summoned to a marriage. Be not sad, but happy, and join the company of those who drink!" Then the apostle said in Hebrew to the one who had struck him, "May the Lord reward thee for this even in this life! May I see the hand which struck me dragged about by a dog in the sight of many!" Not long afterward, the wine-master who had struck the apostle went out to the well, intending to bring the guests water with which to mix their wine. There a lion fell upon him unawares, brought him down and slew him; and having lapped up his blood, it went its way. Then dogs hastened to the scene and rent the body to pieces. And one black dog, seizing the right hand, dragged it into the banquet hall and dropped it in the sight of everyone. All who were present, seeing this, were horrified and asked whose hand it was. And the woman who played the lute exclaimed, "A strange and fearful mystery has taken place among us: either God or a messenger of God is with us among those reclining at this feast. For I saw how the wine-master struck a certain man, and I heard that man say, 'May I see thy right hand dragged about by a dog in the sight of many!' And this, as you can see, has taken place." When they heard this, all were seized with fear.

     After the banquet concluded, the king, hearing of what had happened, summoned the holy Apostle Thomas into his presence, and said, "Enter the palace and bless my daughter who has been given in marriage." The apostle, entering the bedchamber, began to teach the newly-wedded couple chastity and the preservation of pure virginity; and, having prayed over them, he blessed them and withdrew. The newly-wedded pair beheld Jesus in a dream, Who appeared to them in the guise of the Apostle Thomas, and embraced them with love. The husband, thinking that it was Thomas appearing to them, said to Him, "Thou wast the first to leave us. How is it, then, that thou hast come hither again?" The Lord answered, "I am not Thomas, but his Brother. All who have renounced the world and follow Me, as he has done, will not only be My brethren in the life to come, but will also inherit My kingdom. Therefore, do not forget, O My children, what My brother has counseled you; and if, in accordance with his advice, you preserve your virginity inviolate, you will be accounted worthy of imperishable crowns in My heavenly bridal-chamber." And thus speaking, the Lord vanished. But they, waking from sleep, related to one another what they had seen in their dream and, rising up, earnestly prayed to God the whole night. And the words spoken to them they treasured up in their hearts like the most precious of pearls.

     In the morning, the king and the father-in-law entered the bedchamber where the newly-wedded couple had spent the night and found them sitting apart from each other. In perplexity they asked them the reason why they were not together. And they said to them in reply, "We are praying to God, that He grant us the strength, until death, to preserve in our wedlock the perfect chastity in which we now abide, that we may be therefore crowned with imperishable crowns in the heavenly bridal-chamber, as the Lord Who appeared to us promised."

     Then the king understood that the stranger who had been at the palace the night before had persuaded them to preserve their virginity. He grew exceedingly wroth and straightway dispatched his servants to lay hold of the apostle; but they could not find him, for he had already set sail for India with Abban.

     When they arrived in India, they presented themselves to King Gundafor, and Abban said, "Behold, O sovereign, I have brought thee a skilled builder from Palestine, that he may build thee palaces such as are pleasing to your majesty." The king was delighted, and he conducted Thomas to the site of the construction, on which he had set his heart. It was a place of great beauty, replete with delightful springs and divers trees. The king then asked Thomas to draw up a plan, that he might approve it, as he wished the palace completed by the time of his return, for he would be absent for three years on a necessary expedition. The apostle took up a reed-pen and executed a brilliant sketch. According to his plan, the palace's eastern elevation was provided with many windows, which flooded the whole structure with light; the western façade had many doors, to facilitate the passage of cool breezes; the ovens were situated in the north end, because of the heat they generated; and fountains of water were to be positioned to the south, so that the entire edifice would be cool in warm weather. So detailed was the plan, that the king praised the apostle outright, saying, "Verily, thou art a craftsman worthy of the name, and art fit to serve a king!" And he presented him with a large amount of gold for the construction and pleaded with the apostle to begin to lay the foundations without delay. Thomas, however, answered him, saying, "This is not the proper month to begin construction of a palace. Let us wait until October." (By this, perhaps, he alluded to the time when he himself would receive his future recompense.) Thomas, therefore, was given vast quantities of gold, silver, wheat, wine, oil, and other provisions needed for the project. Then the king departed for another country. The apostle, however, went to the construction site and began to distribute all he had received to those in need-the poor and destitute; and he himself, laboring in the preaching of the Gospel, conve rted many to faith in Christ and baptized them.

     At that time, the young man who, on Thomas' advice, had with his wife promised to preserve their virginity, on hearing that the apostle was preaching Christ in India, journeyed there with her to find him. Instructed by the holy apostle in the Christian Faith, they received holy Baptism at his hands. The virgin received the name Pelagia in the font, and subsequently shed her blood for Christ; the youth was renamed Dionysios, and was later counted worthy of the rank of bishop. Returning to their native land with the apostle's blessing, they spread abroad the glory of the name of God, converting the unbelieving to Christ and establishing churches in the cities.

     When two years had passed, the king sent to the apostle to learn whether construction on the palace was reaching completion. The apostle replied to the king's messengers that there remained but to finish the roof. The king was delighted, for he assumed that Thomas was really building him a palace on earth, and he sent him much more gold, commanding him to provide the palace with a magnificent roof as quickly as possible.
     Receiving this additional gold, Thomas lifted up his eyes and hands to heaven, saying, "I thank Thee, O Lord Who lovest mankind, that Thou arrangest the salvation of men in divers ways!" And again he distributed the gold sent by the king to those who asked help of him, while he himself continued diligently to preach the Logos of God.

     Some time had passed, and the king learned that Thomas had not even begun to put his command into effect, but that he had given all the gold away to the poor. Indeed, the builder was giving no thought to the construction, but, going about the cities and villages, he was preaching some new God and working miracles. Then was the king consumed with a great wrath, and he sent his servants to seize the apostle. When they brought the holy Thomas before the king, he asked him, "Hast thou then built the palace?" Thomas replied, "I have built it; and it is, moreover, a magnificent and beautiful one." The king continued, "Let us go and look upon they palace." But the apostle replied, "During thy lifetime thou canst not see this palace; but when thou shouldest depart from this life, thou shalt see it and, dwelling in it with joy, thou shalt live there for eternity." The king, thinking that he was making mock of him, was greatly offended and ordered him cast into prison with the merchant Abban who had brought him thither. There they were to languish in anticipation of execution; for the king intended to have them flayed alive and burned on a pyre.

     While they were in prison, Abban reproached the apostle, saying, "Thou hast deceived both me and the king by calling thyself a skilled architect! And, behold, thou hast now squandered the king's gold to no purpose, and hast ruined my life. Because of thee I am suffering and must die a terrible death, for the king is stern and will slay us both." But the apostle, comforting him, said, "Fear not; the time has not yet come for us to die. We will live, and in freedom; and the king will hold us in honor for the palace I have built for him in the kingdom of the heavens."
     That very night, the king's brother, Gad, fell ill and sent word for him, saying, "Because of thy grief I also fell into melancholy, and from this anguish I have taken ill; and now I am nigh unto death." And not long afterward, the king's brother did indeed die. The king, forgetting his former distress, fell into a new sorrow and inconsolably lamented the death of his brother. But the angel of the Lord, taking the soul of the dead man, bore it up to the mansions of heaven; and leading it about the habitations of that place, showed it the innumerable magnificent and brilliant palaces, among which was one so beautiful and splendid that it was impossible to describe its beauty. Then the angel asked the soul, "In which of all these palaces shouldest thou be pleased to dwell?" And the soul, gazing upon that most beautiful of palaces, said, "If it were permitted me to abide in but a corner of this palace, I should need nothing else." But the angel said to it, "Thou mayest not dwell in this palace, for it belongs to thy brother, with whose gold the stranger Thomas, who is known to thee, built it." Then said the soul, "I entreat thee, lord: let me go to my brother, and I will buy this palace from him, for he is yet unaware of its beauty; and having purchased it, I will return hither again."

     Then the angel returned the soul to the body, and the dead man returned to life. As though rising from sleep, he asked those about him of his brother, and besought them to bring the king to his side as quickly as possible. The king, hearing that his brother had returned to life, rejoiced exceedingly and hastened to him; and when he saw him alive, he was all the more glad. Then the man who was risen from the dead said to him, "I am certain, O king, that thou lovest me as thy brother; I know that thou didst weep over me inconsolably, and, if it had been possible for thee to free me from death, thou wouldest have given up half thy kingdom." The king replied, "Yea, this is quite true." "If thou lovest me so," the king's brother said to him, "I ask of thee a single gift. Do not refuse it to me." The king answered, "Everything I own in my kingdom will I give thee, my beloved brother," said the king, and he confirmed his promise with an oath. Then the risen brother said, "Give me the palace which thou hast in the heavens, and in return take all my property."

     When he heard these words, the king was troubled and fell silent, as though he had lost the power of speech. Then he said, "From whence can I have acquired a palace in the heavens?" "Truly," the king's brother replied, "in the heavens there is such a palace, of which thou art unaware and the like of which thou hast never seen under the sun. It was built for thee by Thomas, whom thou holdest in prison. I have seen it and marvelled at its indescribable beauty, and asked to dwell in but a corner of it, but that was not permitted me; for the angel who was leading me said, 'It is not possible for thee to dwell therein, for this palace belongs to thy brother and was built by Thomas who is known to thee.' I asked the angel to let me return to thee, that I might purchase the palace of thee. And thus, if thou lovest me, give it to me and take in its stead all my property!"
     Then the king rejoiced over his brother's return to life and because of the palace built for him in the heavens. But he said to the resurrected man, "My beloved brother, I have promised not to refuse thee anything which is under my authority on earth; but I did not promise thee that palace which is in the heavens. But if thou dost wish, we have an architect who may erect just such a palace for thee also."

     And having said this, the king straightway dispatched servants to the prison to bring forth the holy Thomas and the merchant Abban who had brought him to India. When they appeared before the king, he went forward with haste to greet the apostle and fell at his feet, asking his forgiveness for his sin against him, which he had committed in ignorance. And the apostle, giving thanks unto God, began to teach both brethren faith in our Lord Jesus Christ; and they, moved of soul, received his words with love. Soon afterward, he baptized them and taught them to live as Christians, and by their great almsgiving the brethren erected for themselves eternal mansions in the heavens.
 
Extract from "The Life of the Apostle Thomas," courtesy of Holy Apostles Convent, Buena Vista, CO (POB 3118, Buena Vista, CO 81211, or tel. 719-395-8898). Taken from Convent publications of The Lives of the Holy Apostles ($21), containing the Lives of the Twelve and the Evangelists, and The Great Synaxaristes: October Volume of the Lives of the saints ($39.99), available from Holy Apostles Convent. Copyrighted material. All rights reserved. (to be continued)

[Julianna]

Extract from "The Life of the Apostle Thomas," courtesy of Holy Apostles Convent, Buena Vista, CO (POB 3118, Buena Vista, CO 81211, or tel. 719-395-8898). Taken from Convent publications of The Lives of the Holy Apostles ($21), containing the Lives of the Twelve and the Evangelists, and The Great Synaxaristes: October Volume of the Lives of the saints ($39.99), available from Holy Apostles Convent. Copyrighted material. All rights reserved.
 
EPISTLE OF THE SYNOD OF BISHOPS OF THE (AUTONOMOUS) RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH TO THE GOD LOVING FLOCK, CLERGY AND LAY PEOPLE
REGARDING PERSONAL IDENTIFICATION NUMBERS

Beloved in God Fathers, Brothers, Sisters, and venerable Monastics, entrusted to us by our Lord Jesus Christ and the Savior of the world Himself!

May the Lord's peace and blessing be with you!

     All of us see and begin to understand that the world around us is ceasing to be Christian. Even more, it is now not even a post-Christian world, but already a post-religious one, in which even the concept of religion totally disappears, any sense of the need for religion. A long time ago Christianity subdued the world, and now the world, which has broken off from the power of Christ, expels true Orthodoxy from its midst. The Kingdom of Christ - the Church - is not of this world, as the Lord Himself has told us: "I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you" (John 15:19). The contemporary civilization of the postmodern epoch gave birth to informed society (the main subject of which is not so much money, but information) in which the traditional world outlook disappears, traditional forms of economy, while money gradually looses its material value and transforms into the virtual signals of computers. The growing virtualization" of the human activities little by little is including all forms of human society. In the information society the old technology of subduing people through money and power becomes the manipulation of consciousness. In various ways, sometimes even by unnoticed means, people are led into committing sins, their will power is broken, they are led into slavery of the passions and the ruler of this world, Satan. In this there is hidden a great danger.

     The Holy Apostle Paul directs us to stay in the freedom that Christ has granted us (Gal. 5:1). This freedom is spiritual freedom, freedom from the power of sin and death. We should not be slaves to the passions and sin; we should not participate in the general apostasy, but we are not able to stop being so. "Apostasy is tolerated by God, therefore do not try to stop it with your weak hand. Stay away from it yourself," St. Ignatius Brianchaninov teaches us. But since we live in this world and the Church continues to be in the world of this contemporary godless society, she remains an object of the influence upon her by this society. In connection with this the matter of personal identification numbers worries our flock.

     The Holy Fathers teach us that sin is rooted in our will, in our free choice. If we are convinced that PIN Numbers are "the seal of antichrist" and our conscience would accuse us of accepting it, then, by all means we should renounce it, because someone who desecrates his conscience sins, as Holy Scripture teaches us (I Cor. 8:7-12). We should renounce any conscious participation in any anti-Christian deeds of this world, which is rushing toward the antichrist and should act according to the words of the Apostle Paul and be like those "that buy, though they possess not". The criterion and judge of our acts remains our conscience. It judges our actions. Therefore, every Christian decides for himself the degree to which he can allow himself to participate in the life of the godless and theomachist civilization, guided by the internal voice of his own conscience and the Holy Gospel. The world rushes to separate us from God and His Holy Church, to entangle us by the chains of various "virtual conveniences," to blind us through the pride of technological prowess, to enslave our soul with worldly matters. If we consciously permit ourselves to be involved into this process, we sin.

     However, we should not imitate the exalted inhuman and hypocritical opponents of the PIN Number from the MP, who are ready to place upon people the "heavy burdens and grievous to be borne", but at the same time enjoy all the "goods of civilization".

     Let us not be excited by various missionaries who come to Russia from other Orthodox countries and who sternly warn against getting passports, but who themselves have them and easily cross the borders of all the countries in the world. Their leaven is the same - hypocrisy, as the Lord has told us (Mt. 23:3-4).

     Beloved! It is necessary to remember that we live in a post-Christian world. The old "Christian world" has passed away and will not return. The frenzied desire by some for the revival in any country of an "Orthodox monarchy", in which there would be the rule of the true faith, should be considered a senseless utopia. One should soberly and bravely look forward and not be confused by the spirit.

     The Holy Apostle Paul teaches us not to be "conformed to this world" (Rom. 12:2) but to stand for the Truth by renouncing any, even the slightest, communion with heretics. This, above all, concerns the prevailing heresy of ecumenism and her disciple, the Moscow Patriarchate - and the other false churches of "global" Orthodoxy. Because, according to the Apostle's teaching, someone who defiles himself by communing with heresy is an antichrist.

     Christ demands His little flock uphold and manifest to others the Orthodox Faith. In this desert of the contemporary world the oases are few and we have, according to the word of the Prophet, to prepare the way for the Lord, by imitating the ancient Desert-fathers. In addition we, as disciples of Christ must be ready to confront the fact that they will laugh in our faces, mock, slander, judge and persecute us because we do not live the way the children of this world live and do not follow their insane ways.

     If we are not ready for this, we are not worthy to be called Christens. The Church has had the vivid experience of living under the Soviet terror, when everything was taken away except the faith. At that time, as during the second century persecutions, the principles of the Christian way of life remained the same. "Neither world, nor language, nor customs separate Christians from other people", says one of the epistles of the Apostolic period. "They fulfilled their duties together with all the other citizens, however, they were exposed to persecutions equally with the others. Each foreign land is a homeland and each homeland is a foreign land" ("Epistle to Diognet")

     Let us remember, beloved, who has sealed himself with the seal of antichrist: he who lives outside of repentance in slavery to sin, the one who stains his conscience by accepting a PIN Number, who keeps relations with the heretic-ecumenists, by participating in their prayers and false mysteries, those who lie against the Truth and abuse the Church. One should be afraid of this, turn away and run from it. But let us remember that the door of repentance is open to any one. As we know from the life of St. Basil, even the sale of his soul to the devil cannot deprive a person of the Lord's mercy. Let us watch over ourselves, and not to fall into laxness or the sin of judgment.

May the merciful Lord preserve us for His Heavenly Kingdom!

President of the Synod of Bishops, + Valentin,
Metropolitan of Suzdal and Vladimir July 15, 2003    
Suzdal
Members of the Synod of Bishops:
Theodore, Archbishop of Borisovo and Sanino Seraphim, Archbishop of Suchumi and Abhasia Irinarch, Bishop of Tula and Briansk Bishop Ambrose
 
BISHOP SEBASTIAN CONSECRATED IN SUZDAL
     According to information received from Suzdal on July 19"', 2003, by a decision of the Synod of Bishops of the ROAC, the consecration of the 13'' Bishop of the ROAC, Archimandrite Sebastian (Zhitkov) was performed.

     In the evening, the day before the feast of St. Evfimy of Suzdal, in the St. Tsar Konstantine Cathedral there was the right of nomination of Archimandrite Sebastian to be Bishop of Cheliabinsk, the vicar of the Suzdal diocese. On the next day the consecration was performed, headed by Metropolitan Valentin with Archbishops Theodore, Seraphim and Bishops Ambrose and Irinarch concelebrating.

     His Grace Sebastian was born in 1941, graduated from the St. Petersburg Ecclesiastical Academy and then became a clergyman of the MP in Cheliabinsk. There he demonstrated great activity by opening new churches, gathering communities and straightening out the local church life. However, as is customary for the Moscow Patriarchate, which does not tolerate for long clergymen who are too active, he was slandered and persecuted by his diocesan authorities and even was incarcerated for a time. In 2000 he was received through repentance by the Primate of the ROAC Metropolitan Valentin and a year later was promoted to the rank of archimandrite.
At present, Bishop Sebastian has three parishes: In Cheliabinsk, Zlatoust and the village of Sargyzy. In his flock are many doctors, teachers and in general those with higher education. He is known and respected by many in Cheliabins, Perm and Moscow.

     The day of the feast of St. Evfimy of Suzdal, according to local tradition, was marked by a solemn hierarchical service of a moleben with an akathist to the Imperial New Martyrs, presided over by the Primate Metropolitan Valentin in the church of St. Lazarus. After the Liturgy, performed in St. Constantine Cathedral, there was a procession with the relics of St. Evfimy, which rest in the cathedral. The service was concluded with wishes for many years to the "persecuted hierarchy of the Russian Church, the suffering Russian land and the Orthodox people living in the homeland and the Diaspora" as well as to the Synod of Bishops and the newly ordained Bishop Sebastian.

     On the next day, commemorating the discovery of the relics of St. Sergius, Bishop Sebastian served a vigil service and Liturgy on the side altar of St. Sergius in the Suzdal Dormition church at which he ordained Hierodeacon Mitrophan (Koshevoy), who was tonsured and ordained in Suzdal, although he is a clergyman of Bishop Sebastian.
 
Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us and save us.  Amen.
 
In Christ,
 
+Bishop Gregory, and those with me.