Sunday of the Dread Judgment

Vesperal Stichera for the Sunday of the Last Judgment

Righteous Judge of all mankind!
Every man will stand in fear before Thee,
Trembling at the river of fire flowing past Thy throne,
As each one waits to hear the sentence he deserves.
On that awesome day have mercy on us as well, O Christ;
Count us worthy of salvation,
For, worthless as we are, we turn to Thee in faith,
Compassionate and merciful Lord!

The books will be opened and the works of all men laid bare:
The vale of tears will echo with gnashing of teeth;
The sinners will mourn in vain, as they depart to eternal damnation.
Thy judgements are just, O Lord Almighty!
We beg Thee, Master, full of goodness and compassion:
Take pity on us who sing to Thee, most merciful One!

The trumpet shall sound and the graves shall be opened:
All mankind will arise in trembling;
The righteous will rejoice, as they receive their reward,
But the wicked will depart to eternal fire with wailing and horror.
Lord of Glory, have mercy on us!
Number us with those who love Thee, Master,
For Thou alone art good!

I shudder in terror when I think of that dreadful day;
I weep as I consider the darkness that will never see light:
There the worm shall not cease, or the fire be quenched;
The pain of those who reject Thee will never end.
Save me, Thy most worthless servant, Righteous Judge,
For Thy mercy and compassion are my only hope!

When the thrones are set in place and the books are opened,
Then God will take His place on the judgment-seat.
What a fearful sight,
As the angels stand in awe and the river of fire flows by:
What shall we do, who are already condemned by our many sins,
As we hear Christ call the righteous to His Father’s Kingdom,
And send the wicked to eternal damnation?
Who among us can bear that terrible verdict?
Hasten to us, Lover of mankind and King of the universe:
Grant us the grace of repentance before the end and have mercy on us!

Apostikha

Woe to thee, my darkened soul!
Thy life is stained by depravity and laziness;
Thy folly makes thee shun all thought of death.
How complacent thou dost remain!
How canst thou flee the awesome thought of judgement day?
When wilt thou change thy way of life?
On that day all thy sins will rise against thee:
What wilt thine answer be then?
Thine acts will condemn thee; thy deeds will expose thee.
The time is at hand, O my soul.
Turn to the good and loving Saviour!
Beg Him to forgive thy malice and weakness, and cry in faith:
I have sinned, Lord; I have sinned against Thee!
But I know Thee as the Lover of mankind.
Good Shepherd, call me to enjoy Thy lasting presence on Thy right hand!

Unwedded Virgin,
Thou hast ineffably conceived God in the flesh!
Mother of God Most High!
Accept the cries of thy servants, blameless one!
Grant cleansing of transgressions to all!
Receive our prayers and pray to save our souls!

 

 St Theodore the Studite, Catechesis 50:

On the great and manifest day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

It was spoken on Meat Sunday. 

Brethren and fathers, it is a universal law on this day for those who live in the world to stop eating meat and one may see among them great competition in meat-eating and wine-bibbing, and even spectacles of outrageous pastimes which it is shameful to speak about. It is necessary to participate with moderation and to give thanks to the Lord for what we have and to make worthy preparation for the banquet before us; while they possessed by the wiles of the devil do the opposite, demonstrating that they have accepted one rather than the other. Why have I mentioned these things? So that we humble monks may not direct our thoughts in that direction, nor desire their desire, which is not worthy of desire, but rather of misery; let us rather turn to consider the Gospel we are going to listen to, thinking, while the canon is being chanted, about the great and manifest day of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, when the judge will stand the sheep on his right but the goats on his left. And to those on the right he will utter that blessed and most longed for invitation, Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; while to those on the left he will utter that most unwelcome and piteous sentence, Depart from me, accursed, into the everlasting fire that was prepared for the devil and his angels. These words are full of dread, fear and alarm; they should make us, and them, as we reflect fall down and weep and make God merciful to us, before he has come to test those who listen. But although they are thus, let us, I beg, hear and heed the message of the Gospel, striving keenly to serve the Lord with fear and trembling, removing all wickedness from the soul, introducing instead all knowledge of good works, compassionate pity, goodness, humility, meekness, longsuffering, and whatever else is good and estimable, that when we have led lives worthy of the Gospel of Christ we may become heirs of the kingdom of heaven, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom belong glory and might with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and for ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.

Sermon On The Last Judgment by St. John Maximovitch

The day of the Last Judgement! That day no one knows — only God the Father knows — but its signs are given in the Gospel and in the Apocalypse of the holy Apostle John the Theologian. Revelation speaks of the events at the end of the world and of the Last Judgement primarily in images and in a veiled manner.

However, the Holy Fathers have explained these images, and there is an authentic Church tradition that speaks clearly concerning the signs of the approach of the end, and concerning the Last Judgement. Before the end of life on earth there will be agitation, wars, civil war, hunger, earthquakes… Men will suffer from fear, will die from expectation of calamity. There will be no life, no joy of life but a tormented state of falling away from life. Nevertheless there will be a falling away not only from life, but from faith also, and  

“when the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” St. Luke 18:8

Men will become proud, ungrateful, rejecting Divine law. Together with the falling away from life will be a weakening of moral life. There will be an exhaustion of good and an increase of evil.

Of these times, the holy Apostle John the Theologian speaks in his God-inspired work, the Apocalypse. He says that he:

“was in the Spirit”

when he wrote it; this means that the Holy Spirit Himself was in him, when under the form of various images, the fate of the Church and the world was opened to him, and so this is a Divine Revelation.

The Apocalypse represents the fate of the Church in the image of a woman who hides herself in the wilderness: she does not show herself in public life, as today in Russia. In public life, forces that prepare the possibility for the appearance of Antichrist will play the leading role.

Antichrist will be a man, and not the devil incarnate. “Anti” means “old,” and it also signifies “in place of” or “against.” Antichrist is a man who desires to be in place of Christ, to occupy His place and possess what Christ should possess. He desires to possess the attraction of Christ and authority over the whole world. Moreover, Antichrist will receive that authority before his destruction and the destruction of the world.

What is known of this man — Antichrist? His precise ancestry is unknown: his father is completely unknown, and his mother a foul pretended virgin. He will be a Jew of the tribe of Dan. He will be very intelligent and endowed with skill in handling people. He will be fascinating and kind. The philosopher Vladimir Soloviev worked a long time at presenting the advent and person of Antichrist. He carefully made use of all material on this question, not only Patristic, but also Moslem, and he worked out a brilliant picture.

Before the advent of Antichrist, there was a preparation in the world, the possibility of his appearance. The mystery of iniquity doth already work (II Thes. 2:7). The forces preparing for his appearance fight above all against the lawful Imperial authority.

The holy Apostle Paul says that Antichrist cannot be manifested until what withholdest is taken away (II Thes. 2:6-7). St. John Chrysostom explains that the “withholding one” is the lawful pious authority: such an authority fights with evil. For this reason the “mystery,” already at work in the world, fights with this authority; it desires a lawless authority. When the “mystery” decisively achieves that authority, nothing will hinder the appearance of Antichrist any longer.

Fascinating, intelligent, kind, he will be merciful — he will act with mercy and goodness; but not for the sake of mercy and goodness, but for the strengthening of his own authority. When he will have strengthened it to the point where the whole world acknowledges him, then he will reveal his face.

For his capital, he will choose Jerusalem, because it was here that the Savior revealed His Divine teaching and His person. It was here that the entire world was called to the blessedness of goodness and salvation. The world did not acknowledge Christ and crucified Him in Jerusalem; whereas, the whole world will acknowledge the Antichrist’s authority and Jerusalem will become the capital of the world.

Having attained the pinnacle of authority, Antichrist will demand the acknowledgement that he has attained what no earthly power had ever attained or could attain and then demand the worship of himself as a higher being, as a god.

V. Soloviev describes the character of his activity well, as “Supreme Ruler.” He will do what is pleasing to all — on the condition of being recognized as Supreme Authority. He will allow the Church to exist, permit her Divine services, promise to build magnificent churches…. on the condition, that all recognize him as “Supreme Being” and worship him. Antichrist will have a personal hatred for Christ; he will see Him as a rival and look upon Him as a personal enemy. He will live by this hatred and rejoice in men’s apostasy from Christ.

Under Antichrist, there will be an immense falling away from the faith. Many bishops will change in faith and in justification will point to the brilliant situation of the Church. The search for compromise will be the characteristic disposition of men. Straight-forwardness of confession will disappear. Men will cleverly justify their fall, and gracious evil will support such a general disposition. There will be the habit of apostasy from truth and the sweetness of compromise and sin in men.

Antichrist will allow men everything, as long as they:

“fall down and worship him”

and the whole world will submit to him. Then there will appear the two righteous men, who will fearlessly preach the faith and accuse Antichrist.

According to Church tradition, they are the two Prophets of the Old Testament, Elijah and Enoch, who did not taste of death, but will taste it now for three days, and in three days they must rise. Their death will call forth the great rejoicing of Antichrist and his servants. Their resurrection will plunge them into great confusion and terror. Then, the end of the world will come.

The Apostle Peter said that the first world was made out of water — an image of the primordial chaos, and perished by water — in the Flood. Now the world is reserved unto fire. The earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up (II Peter 3:5-7, 10). All the elements will ignite. This present world will perish in a single instant. In an instant all will be changed.

Moreover, the Sign of the Son of God, the Sign of the Cross, will appear. The whole world, having willingly submitted to Antichrist, will weep. Everything is finished forever: Antichrist killed, the end of his kingdom of warfare with Christ, the end, and one is held accountable; one must answer to the true God.

“The end of the world” signifies not the annihilation of the world, but its transformation. Everything will be transformed suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye. The dead will rise in new bodies: their own, but renewed, just as the Savior rose in His own body and traces of wounds from the nails and spear were on it, yet it possessed new faculties, and in this sense it was a new body. It is not clear whether this new body will be the same as Adam was made, or whether it will be an entirely new body.

Afterward, the Lord will appear in glory on the clouds. Trumpets will sound, loud, with power! They will sound in the soul and conscience! All will become clear to the human conscience.

The Prophet Daniel, speaking of the Last Judgement, relates how the Ancient of Days, the Judge sits on His throne, and before Him is a fiery stream (Daniel 7:9-10). Fire is a purifying element; it burns sin. Woe to a man if sin has become a part of his nature: then the fire will burn the man, himself.

This fire will be kindled within man: seeing the Cross, some will rejoice, but others will fall into confusion, terror and despair. Thus, men will be divided instantly. The very state of a man’s soul casts him to one side or the other, to right or to left.

The more consciously and persistently man strives toward God in his life, the greater will be his joy when he hears:

“Come unto Me, ye blessed.”

Conversely: the same words will call the fire of horror and torture to those who did not desire Him, who fled and fought or blasphemed Him during their lifetime!

The Last Judgement knows of no witnesses or written protocols! Everything is inscribed in the souls of men and these records, these “books,” are opened at the Judgement. Everything becomes clear to all and to oneself.

Moreover, some will go to joy, while others — to horror.

When “the books are opened,” it will become clear that the roots of all vices lie in the human soul. Here is a drunkard or a lecher: when the body has died, some may think that sin is dead too. No! There was an inclination to sin in the soul, and that sin was sweet to the soul, and if the soul has not repented and has not freed itself of the sin, it will come to the Last Judgement with the same desire for sin. It will never satisfy that desire and in that soul there will be the suffering of hatred. It will accuse everyone and everything in its tortured condition; it will hate everyone and everything. “There will be gnashing of teeth” of powerless malice and the unquenchable fire of hatred.

A “fiery gehenna” — such is the inner fire.

“There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”

Such is the state of hell.

(Last Sermon of St John is  taken from Preachers Institute)

 

Please also see:

WHY STUDY THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES?  By Blessed Hieromonk Seraphim Rose

The Prophetic Gift by Schema-Archimandrite Lavrenty of Chernigov on the Antichrist

A Guide to Confession (III)

Written by Valeriu Gafencu - While in the Communist Gulag  

(Continued from the previous post)

The Seven Deadly Sins

Pride: is the source of all spiritual evil. It is a spiritual greed through which the demons fell from the grace of God.

1) Are you proud, haughty, conceited?

2) Do you put too much faith in your own beauty or your wealth, have you grown proud because of them?

3) How do you behave with those who are rich or important?

4) Do you despise anyone?

5) Are you willing to talk to anyone?

6) Are you hypocritical (you say one thing, and do another)?

7) Have you bragged through deeds, words, or clothing?

8. Have you said something in order to be praised?

9) Have you slandered your neighbor in order to lower his honor and in order to raise up your own?

10) Have you born the offenses of him who offended you?

11) Have you forgiven those who upset you?

12) Have you prided yourself on your learning and knowledge? 

Greed: Starting out as something abstract, egotism is put into effect through greed. 

The Holy Apostle Paul is looking from this point of view when he says that greed is the root of all evil.

1) Are you greedy for food and drink [gluttony]?

2) Do you want to collect wealth or other things?

3) Are you greedy in accumulating money, have you deceived your neighbor for this reason?

4) Have you eaten or drunk secretly?

5) Have you eaten on fast days or before the Holy Liturgy?

6) Have you eaten carrion? 

Laziness: is the failure to make use of the physical and spiritual powers that God has granted us to use in our lives.

1) Are you lazy?

2) Do you waste time without working?

3) Do you occupy yourself with things that are vain or pointless?

4) Do you pray regularly?

5) Do you look after your soul?

6) Do you do your duty as a clerk, worker, servant?

7) Do you force those smaller than you to do your work?

8. Have you sought a spiritual father who is more lenient?

9) Have you fulfilled your penance?

 

Anger: is also based upon the pivot or axis of greed.

When a man cannot fulfill his desires, he becomes angry because he is prevented from achieving his evil goal. Man is allowed to be angry only against sin.

1) Have you done evil through anger, cursing, beatings, etc.?

2) Do you get angry often? How long do you stay angry? You should know that St. Paul said, “Do not let the sun set on your anger.” (Eph 4:26)

3) Are you presently angry with anyone?

4) Have you beaten or struck anyone with a stick, a club, or your palm?

5) Have you angered or scolded anyone without good reason, spitefully?

6) Have you wished evil to someone who did you evil? Or to someone who did you good?

7) Have you gotten angry with a neighbor because he is somehow better than you? Have you envied him?

8. Have you shed anyone’s blood (in drunkenness)?

9) Have you engaged in a duel?

10) Have you prayed, in anger, that evil come upon your enemies? 

Avarice (Greed): is material and spiritual.

Material when someone does not want to provide physical comfort to the poor, while spiritual when one does not want to steer someone away from evil.

1) Are you stingy?

2) Have you ever deprived a neighbor of necessary things out of stinginess?

3) Have you helped the poor?

4) Have you called both the rich and the poor to eat at your table? You should know that the Savior urges us to call to our table those who cannot repay us.

5) Do you sell items at too high a price?

6) Do you cheat people?

7) Do you regret any good deed that you have done?

8. Do you eat little and clothe yourself or your family poorly in order to grow rich?

9) Do you neglect the health of your children, wife, parents, brothers, in order to avoid spending money?

Envy (Quarreling or Jealousy): When an angry man cannot prevail over the obstacles that are in his way by anger, unable to do anything else, he sweetens his heart with the passion of envy, so that he might conceal his neighbor’s spiritual and physical honor and exalt himself. 

1) Have you argued with anyone?

2) Do you like to argue?

3) Do you hate anyone?

4) Do you deride or disdain anyone?

5) Do you give advice maliciously?

6) Are you presently jealous of anyone?

7) Are you on speaking terms with everyone?

8. Have you given anyone a bad nickname?

9) Have you sown dissension between brothers?

10) Have you been jealous of anyone because he is somehow better than you and enjoys more honor, wealth, social standing, etc.? 

Lust: is also a form of greed, but not of a material or spiritual order, but of a sentimental order. The sin of dissoluteness, unlike all other sins, is committed with the body.

The body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. (You can commit the sin of dissoluteness by looking at or hearing things that cause you to sin. Even eating, sleeping too much, speaking, etc.)

1) Have you fallen into fornication?

2) Or adultery?

3) Do you like to see or read books that cause you to sin in your thoughts, do you like to hear or to speak vulgar or shameful words? You should know that St.

Paul tells us that there should not be heard from our mouth any foul or filthy words, nor silly jokes that are improper, nor words that are imprudent.

4) Do you like to speak sensibly or senselessly?

5) Are you mastered by any passion?

6) Do you eat or sleep too much? You should know that St. Paul also said “All things are permitted to me, but not all things are useful.” (1 Cor. 6:12)

7) Do you have in your home paintings with naked bodies? Do you look at them passionately?

8. Have you committed sexual sins with blood relatives or spiritual relatives (godchildren, godparents)?

9) Have you touched someone’s body, overcome by the passion of lust?

10) Have you wanted to see the shameful parts of the body?

 

Sins That Cry Out to Heaven

A. Voluntary Killing

1) Have you killed anyone?

2) Have you sought to kill?

3) Do you want to kill anyone?

4) Have you sought to gain revenge by killing someone?

5) Have you beaten anyone?

6) Have you quarreled with or threatened anyone?

B. Sodomy (coupling against nature)

1) A man with a man or any kind of animal?

2) A man with a woman against nature?

3) Masturbation. Have you masturbated?

C. Withholding the pension or the wages of orphans, widows, workers, employees, or servants.

1) Have you withheld pensions or salaries?

For what reason, as reimbursement for something broken, or other reasons?

2) Have you withheld pay partially or unjustly?

3) Have you always compensated others for the work they have done?

D. Oppressing widows, orphans, invalids, or the helpless.

1) Have you beaten children, old people, or orphans?

2) Have you derided or made fun of them?

3) Have you oppressed anyone weaker or smaller than you?

4) Have you laughed at the crippled or the helpless?

5) Have you angered or irritated them?

6) Have you somehow been obligated to help them and failed to do so?

7) Have you helped those whom you were not required to help, or did you pass them by like the priest and the Levite in the Gospel in the story of the good Samaritan?

8. Have you deliberately caused a blind man to fall by guiding him wrong?

9) Have you made fun of anyone who is helpless, deaf, a stutterer, lame, crippled, one-eyed?

Obligations Regarding the Spiritual Life of our Neighbor 

1) To protect our neighbor from sin

2) To teach the uneducated (ignorant)

3) To give good advice to those who have need of it

4) To pray to God for others

5) To comfort the sad/grieving

6) To suffer patiently when we are treated unjustly

7) To forgive the sins of others

Commandments Regarding the Physical Life of Our Neighbor

1) To give food to the hungry. Have you given or not?

2) To quench the thirst of the thirsty

3) To clothe the naked

4) To care for the sick

5) To take in and show hospitality to strangers

6) To inquire after those in prison

7) To bury the dead

Strange Sins

1) When you advise someone to sin

2) When you order someone to sin

3) When you permit someone to sin

4) When you help someone to sin

5) When you praise someone who sins

6) When you were able to but didn’t want to prevent someone from sinning

7) When you know that someone is sinning but you don’t tell him

Sins against the Holy Spirit 

1) Disregarding the grace of God and having excessive trust in one’s own self

2) To believe that God does not have the power to forgive you is a very great sin.

3) To believe that you are everything and that

God has no power in the world

4) Lack of trust in God

5) Opposition to the Truth established by the

Holy Church

6) Leaving the Orthodox Church. Guard yourself from this sin, for Christ says, “He who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit has no forgiveness, but is guilty of eternal condemnation.” (Mk 3:29)

 

The Nine Church Commandments 

1) Church attendance every Sunday and every feast day

2) Keeping the four fasting periods of the year

3) Respect toward the Church’s representatives (priests, monks, nuns)

4) Confession of sin during the four fasts

5) Guarding ourselves from heretics

6) To pray for our country’s leaders and the officials of the church

7) To abstain from weddings and parties during the fast periods

8. To protect those things belonging to the church from inappropriate use

9) To keep the fasts and to say the prayers that the bishop ordains in times of trouble

Various Sins

1) Failure to carry out one’s obligations:

a) Have you carried out all your obligations to God, to your own self, to your neighbor?

b) Have you carried out the penance given to you in confession?

2) Theft of holy things

a) Have you lied at confession?

b) Have you avoided telling everything and for what reason have you done so?

Counsels

a) Go to confession at least four times a year, during the fasts.

b) Fast before confession.

c) Maintain the same spiritual father.

d) Make a serious examination of conscience before going to confession.

e) Write down all your sins, otherwise you might forget them. After confession, burn the paper

at once.

f) Confess not only sins you have committed, but also those of your heart.

g) Do not conceal any sin.

h) Be reconciled with those who have offended you.

i) Avoid occasions of sin.

j) Give up your sins – make a promise that you will no longer sin.

k) Feel contrition for your sinfulness.

l) Guard yourself from sins.

m) Receive Communion only if you feel clean.

Otherwise, it will be for condemnation.

n) Fulfill in a holy manner the penance given to you by your spiritual father.

o) Judge only yourself for the sins you have committed.

Each one of us has his or her own mission to fulfill, but we must heed the advice of our spiritual father, who puts aside our own ill-informed will, making room for the will of God in each one of us. Our spiritual father reveals the will of God in us. If we don’t heed him, we can wander astray and make mistakes that are even worse than the passions. I consider a friend anyone who sends me even one thought of love. And I wish and request that every one of my friends copy down this guide to confession. I have written this as best as I could, in great haste, out of a genuine wish to send you this guide to confession.

With all my love, Valeriu.

The end and glory be to God!

(Taken from the book “The Saint of the Prison”, Translated by Monk Sava – an American convert to Orthodoxy from Oasa Monastery)

 

A Guide to Confession (II)

Written by Valeriu Gafencu - while in the Communist Gulag  

(continued from the previous post)

The Ten Commandments

The First Commandment: 

I am the Lord thy God, thou shall not have any gods before me.

1) Do you believe in God?

2) Do you believe in the Holy Trinity?

3) Do you worship God?

4) Do you love Him?

5) Do you know Him? Have you compelled yourself to learn something about God from the books of Holy Scripture, church books, or from somewhere else?

6) Do you somehow believe in charms and magic spells?

7) Have you visited fortune tellers and astrologers?

8. Do you practice occultism?

9) Do you believe in dreams? Believe only in God.

10) Do you somehow bestow more honor upon some creature or things than to God?

11) Do you value money, food or wine, a woman or a man, more than God?

12) Have you ever grumbled against God?

13) Have you despaired because of any trouble, misfortune, or any other evil that has befallen you?

14) Have you opposed the truths of Christian teaching?

15) Have you read books that are against religion?

16) Have you given such books to someone else to read

17) Have you attended gatherings of nonbelievers?

18) Have you read their books and magazines with the intention of discovering another truth other than that of the Church?

19) Have you defended lack of faith or sects or Islam?

20) Have you brought gifts to sectarians?

21) Do you believe in superstition or paganism?

22) Is God your main concern?

23) Have you always put hope in God?

24) Do you believe that heaven and hell exist?

25) Do you believe that there will be a judgment?

26) Do you put too much trust in the goodness of God and in this way not fear judgment?

27) Do you believe that God can no longer forgive you because of the multitude and gravity of your sins?

28) Have you always sought the help of God?

29) Have you prayed regularly? Evening, morning, and at noon?

30) Do you go to church regularly?

31) At prayers and at church do you think only of God?

32) At the end of the day, do you remember God?

33) Have you brought thanks to God through all your deeds?

34) Have you sought His help before doing something?

35) Do you sometimes say prayers only from habit?

36) Do you think of other things during the time of prayer?

37) Does the thought ever come to you that you cannot be saved?

38) Have you put off repentance until old age?

39) Do you deliberately go late to church?

40) Do you pay attention to the service?

41) Do you laugh or talk or look at other people when in church?

The Second Commandment:

Thou shall make no graven image or the likeness of any thing of what is in heaven or on earth, in the sea or on the earth, nor shall you worship them or serve them. 

1) Do you believe that some men are great and have the same value that Christ had? For example, philosophers or religious leaders.

2) Do you believe in the holy icons?

3) What kind of worship do you accord them?

4) Do you believe that an icon is in fact the very saint that it depicts?

5) Do you believe in people – your wife, your husband, your child – instead of believing in God?

6) Do you worship things such as money, food, drink, or other pleasures?

7) Is your own mind your only law and do you do only that which it tells you?

 

The Third Commandment:

Do not take the name of the Lord Thy God in vain. 

1) Have you ever sworn by God the Father or by the Savior Jesus Christ?

2) Have you sworn by the angels, archangels?

3) Have you sworn by the Holy Virgin?

4) Have you sworn by the saints, the church, Pascha, the oil lamps, the icons, the cross, or other things?

5) Have you brought false witness to the Name of God?

6) Have you sworn other kinds of oaths, for example on your eyes, your life, the salvation of your soul? For the Savior said, „Let your speech be yes and no; for anything more than that is of the devil.”

7) Have you cursed anyone? Have you sent others to the devil or yourself?

8. Do you have the habit of cursing those who do you wrong? The Savior taught us to pray for them.

9) Have you sworn a false oath?

10) Have you sworn a true oath?

11) Do you use as an oath the word “zău,” which is an abbreviation for “pe Dumnezeul meu” [upon my God]?

The Fourth Commandment:

Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day.

Sunday is the Lord’s day. And all the feast days instituted by the church throughout the year have the same value.

1) Have you kept all Sundays and feast days?

2) Were you in church on each of those days?

3) Did the other members of your household keep them, did they attend church, did you prevent them for any reason?

4) Have you given others work on those days? Do you go to church late?

5) Did you keep the Lord’s day in a worthy manner? Or is it for you an ordinary day or a day for parties and amusements? Do you go to church in the morning? In the afternoon do you read books that are useful and constructive for the soul?

6) Do you look after your soul more on those days than on others?

7) Have you done or participated in a clacă (see 199)?

8. Do you behave improperly in church?

9) Have you cursed the church or the servants of the Holy Altar?

10) Do you honor priests as the servants of God?

Do you make fun of them or disdain them? Do you gossip about them and speak of their sins?

11) Do you pray for them? Do you obey them?

_____________________________________________________________

(199 Clacă: An informal gathering around a campfire for conversation,

music, and dancing. – Translator’s note)

 

The Fifth Commandment:

Honor thy father and thy mother.

1) Have you beaten your parents or in-laws?

2) Have you abused them or persecuted them?

3) Have you heeded their advice?

4) Have you deceived them in any way?

5) Have you taken advantage of their good faith?

6) Have you helped them when they are in difficulty?

7) Have you done church services for them after their deaths?

8. Have you helped your brothers and sisters?

9) Have you taken care of your wife and children?

For St. Paul says, If anyone does not look after his own, and especially those of his own household, such a one has abandoned the faith and is worse than a non-believer. (1 Tim 5:8) 

10) Have you beaten your wife? Have you held anything against her? Have you abused her? 

11) Have you honored your husband? Have you loved your husband or wife as your own self?

12) Have you deceived your husband or wife?

13) Have you made his/her life more difficult? Do you nag or criticize?

14) Have you sufficiently looked after the spiritual well-being of those in your household?

15) How have you behaved with your spiritual fathers? Godparents, teachers, priests? Have you respected them and helped them?

16) Have you been insolent or stubborn with your parents?

17) Have you upset them? Angered them?

18) Have you spoken ill of them or derided them?

19) Have you made fun of their weaknesses?

20) Have you been mindful of your religious obligations?

21) Have you been ashamed of them?

22) Have you spent money on useless things (tobacco or other pleasures), causing your family to be lacking in necessary things?

If you are a parent:

23) Have you steered your children on the path of the Church, in word and in deed?

24) Have you set a bad example with arguments, drunkenness, filthy language, lying, stealing, dishonor, gossiping, laziness?

25) Do you live with a concubine and the children see it?

26) Have you punished them for bad deeds: such as arguing, lying, fighting, stealing? Have you spared them out of mercy?

27) Have you prayed for your children, wife, husband, brothers, sisters, parents?

28) Were you too harsh or too easy on your children?

29) Have you had bad servants who taught your children things harmful for the soul? If you are a guardian:

30) Have you fulfilled all your material and moral obligations toward the children?

31) How have you behaved with your servants or apprentices?

32) Have you paid them honest wages, have you held anything back for any reason?

33) Have you encouraged them to fulfill their religious duties?

34) Have you encouraged them to commit any sin?

If you are a servant:

35) Have you obeyed your master or boss?

36) Have you diligently fulfilled all your duties?

37) Have you done your work in a careless, slipshod manner?

38) Have you stolen anything?

39) Have you told bad stories about the house to others?

The Sixth Commandment: Thou shall not kill.

1) Have you ever killed anyone, voluntarily or involuntarily?

2) Do you want to kill anyone, or have thoughts of revenge? Have you ever praised anyone who killed?

3) Do you want anyone to die, in order to gain their wealth, wife, husband, etc.?

4) Have you beaten anyone?

5) Have you threatened anyone?

6) Do you hate anyone, are you reconciled with all those you know?

7) Do you wish anyone evil, death, or harm?

8. Do you rejoice when evil befalls your fellow man?

9) How do you behave with those around you?

10) If you are a man, have you abandoned your children?

11) If you are a woman, have you voluntarily abandoned your baby?

12) Have you sought to kill yourself, directly or indirectly?

13) Have you gone hunting?

The Seventh Commandment:

Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Those unmarried commit fornication, those married adultery.

1) Have you committed fornication, or if you are married, adultery?

2) Do you live as a concubine?

3) Do you sin against nature – masturbation or homosexuality?

4) Do you desire to sin with the husband or wife of another?

5) Do you seek opportunities to commit sexual sins?

6) Do you think about shameful things too much?

7) Do you seek to recall such scenes?

8. Do you want to see the shameful parts of the body?

9) Do you speak about shameful things?

10) Have you read books that give you sexual pleasure?

11) Have you urged anyone to commit such sins?

12) Have you caused someone else to sin through clothing or dressing up?

 

The Eighth Commandment:

Thou shalt not steal.

A priest cannot forgive the theft of something that has not been returned. Therefore, give back what you stole and then go to confession.

1) Have you stolen money or other objects from the state, society, or any man?

2) Have you done harm to others?

3) Have you helped those you have harmed to recover?

4) Have you taken adequate care of the wealth of another man that has been entrusted to you?

5) Have you given back money or other objects that you borrowed?

6) Have you received stolen things (things that were stolen)?

7) Have you given back things that you found?

8. Have you secretly changed the property line between you and your neighbor?

9) Have you urged someone else to do this?

10) Have you charged too much interest for borrowed monies?

11) Have you altered merchandise and then sold

it as if it were good?

12) Have you deceived anyone by weighing or counting goods wrongly?

13) Have you taken things by force from someone smaller than you?

14) Have you accepted bribes?

15) Have you taught children to steal?

16) Do you have thoughts about making money by dishonorable means?

The Ninth Commandment:

Thou shall not bear false witness. 

1) Have you sworn a false oath?

2) Have you lied?

3) Have you born false witness?

4) Have you behaved correctly with your neighbor?

5) Have you lied to him?

6) Have you told lies about others?

7) Have you purposefully spread false account about others?

The Tenth Commandment:

Thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s wife.

Thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s goods.

1) Have you desired the wife, daughter, husband, or son of your neighbors?

2) Have you desired the wealth of your neighbor?

3) Have you desired the social status of someone higher than you?

4) Have you hated your neighbor for any reason?

5) Have you desired the house, the land, the vineyard, or the work of your brother?

(Taken from the book “The Saint of the Prison”

Translated by Monk Sava – an American convert to Orthodoxy from Oasa Monastery) to be continued…

Preparing for the Great Lent, a Guide to Confession

“A man, as well as people, has value to the degree

to which he has understood the Gospel and can

follow the teaching of Christ”

(scholar: Simion Mehedinti)

 

A Guide to Confession – Written while in the Communist Gulag by Valeriu Gafencu

 

 

 

Introductory Notes: In general, too little is known about the spiritual life of confessors in Communist prisons and the various types of such confessors. It is true that until the collapse of Communism it was impossible to uncover anything, while after the collapse in 1990 testimonies of the survivors were not always available to those who were interested. Nevertheless, it would be of no small benefit to anyone to devote oneself to reading testimonies of those who passed through these prisons. In them, one would find such valuables which can rightly be compared to those found in a Paterikon or in the lives of the saints. Among the many portraits of the confessors, one will be found in particular that is recalled with reverence by all and is considered a saint: Valeriu Gafencu. Nicknamed “the saint of the prisons”3 by Father Nicolae Steinhardt) a Jew converted to Orthodoxy) in a truly inspired moment, Valeriu Gafencu was one of the more impressive figures who lived an admirable spiritual life amidst prison conditions. Through his sacrificial love springing from a perfect dedication of his life to Christ, he remains painted in the most luminous of colors in the hearts of those who knew him. Father Gheorghe Calciu wrote, “I have no doubt that he is a saint. He lived the word of God to such a level that it was incomprehensible for us”.

The spiritual atmosphere of Aiud played an important role in Valeriu’s spiritual formation. It was here that he experienced a moment of Illumination and succeeded, through the grace of God, to see his own sins. The work of repentance that began at that time gave rise to a state of spiritual joy that would accompany him through all of his trials. After Aiud came the prison at Pitesti (1948 – 1949), then a few months at Văcăresti, and finally the convalescent prison at Targu-Ocna (1950 – 1952). Confined to bed rest at Targu-Ocna in an advanced stage of tuberculosis, Valeriu was the haven where his prison mates found comfort and drew their strength. Through his faith and influence many things were made possible. Several atheistic prisoners returned to God, so-called re-education-through-torture attempts were thwarted, bonds of special brotherly love among prisoners were forged, a spirit of sacrifice for the sake of the more seriously ill was promulgated. His grace-filled presence created a spiritual atmosphere unique in the history of the Communist gulag. Knowing beforehand the day of his passing to the Lord, Valeriu was found at the moment of death in such a state of grace, that his friend Ioan Ianolide, who was beside him at the time of his passing, later testified,

“In eternity I could not wish to be in a more exalted state, for then [at the moment of Valeriu’s passing] I was totally, completely happy.”

 

Men like Valeriu Gafencu and other confessors of the prisons through whom the Holy Spirit worked with power, men worthy of high regard, await their place in the calendar, being the surest models of Christianity for us in these times dominated by confusion. Their lives deserve to be made known not for earthly glory, but “so that people living in these times, darkened by so much stray wandering, a result of estrangement from God, will know that such chosen ones existed in the twentieth century, men who raised themselves to the same level of faith and sacrifice as that of the early Christian martyrs.

 

 

 

 

Let him who is without sin be the first to cast a stone at her.

(John 8:7).

Most assuredly I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. (John 16:20)

He arose from supper and laid aside his garments, took a towel and girded Himself. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded. (John 13: 4-5)

Now there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved. (John 13:23) “A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” (John 13: 34)

“By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13: 35)

 

 

What sin is!

 Sin is treading upon the law of God, a voluntary or involuntary treading, in knowledge or in ignorance, in deed, in word, in thought. Sin is dishonor toward God, insult, disdain, defamation, ingratitude and wounding toward the Divine being, in an egocentric spirit.

Sin is a lack of faith and a lack of confidence in God and in His law, and too much faith and confidence in oneself, such that a man becomes a law unto himself, because whenever you break the law of God, you obey another law, your own, or the devil’s.

Sin is a second crucifixion of Christ, for through sin all the insults, mockery, and beatings are renewed. The nails, the spear, the thorns, through sin, Christ feels them all again. Today, however, the blows no longer come from those who defamed Him and shouted, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” Now they are administered by those who say they believe in Him, who say that they follow His commandments, that they love Him. Now it is those who are baptized who spit in His face, it is those who call themselves Christians who put the crown of thorns on His head, now it is they who slap Him, who nail Him to the cross, who goad Him with the spear, those for whom Christ suffered mockery and beating and for whom He shed His blood on Golgotha in order to make them sons of God, in order to open the gates of heaven for them, to destroy death and demolish hell.

Sin is estrangement from God and drawing near to the devil. It is estrangement from the house of the Father and life in a faraway country with the devil’s pigs.

Because we are the servants of him whom we serve (John 8:34), sin means slavery to the devil. When you sin, you no longer consider what God has done for you, you are no longer His son, and you do not think about His justice, by which He will punish those who sin against His will. Through sin, all the creatures of God act contrary to the purpose for which they were created. The mouth was not created by God that we might curse and swear with it or slander and curse our neighbor, but that we might use it to speak things useful to the soul. God did not give you a mind so that you can find arguments to distance yourself from Him, but that you might find arguments to draw near Him. The eyes were not made so that we might look at things that damage the soul, but that we might look upon God’s creation and give Him thanks. Just so, the ears, hands, and feet were not made in order that we might distance ourselves from God. Don’t you want to acknowledge the goodness and long-suffering of God? For you should know that time was given to you in order to gain paradise, and you waste it believing that God will no longer judge, that He will forgive us, that there are others much worse than you.

 The Consequences of Sin

The evil brought about by sin:

1) Through sin, we lose the most precious gift that we have received from God. Without this gift, the soul remains deformed.

2) Through sin, the Holy Spirit is taken from us and we are no longer recognized as sons.

3) Through sin, we lose the eternal blessedness of heaven. We lose the possibility of union with God and life together with the saints. We lose eternal light and rest.

4) We attain unto hell with its unquenchable fire and its eternal darkness.

5) Through sin, we lose all the good deeds that we may have done previously, for God will judge you according to the state in which He finds you.

6) Through sin, we lose the help of God (to the extent that you are found in sin). 

Confession

Do you not weep at the thought that you have lost heaven? Does the sorrow you have caused God not make you tremble?

Does the thought of hell not frighten you? Do you not seek to acquire the state that you have lost? Is it still possible? Yes! But you must want it….

From the very beginning, God has known our powerlessness and has given us the possibility of being purified from sins. He knew that man will sin as long as he lives and that no one is without sin, and therefore He said to His disciples: Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven, words through which He instituted the sacrament of Confession. 

Confession or repentance is a bath from which the soul emerges relieved from the weight of sin and cleansed from the filth of sin, a bath in which we are cleansed of all our defilements and errors.

Confession is a medicine that heals the soul of the wounds inflicted by demons, a medicine that renders ineffective the poison of sin.

Confession turns a sinner away from the devil and back to God and restores His connection with his Creator.

Confession leads the soul to deeds and things that are for the sake of and according to the soul. Confession restores a man clean before God. Confession prepares the soul and body to receive the body and blood of our Savior Jesus Christ. Confess in the Church four times a year to the same spiritual father.

When you examine your conscience, consider yourself guilty, don’t justify yourself; think about the following things:

1) The motive or aim with which or for which you sinned. The following day, try to avoid the same situation.

2) The intention with which you sinned.

3) The surroundings, avoid them the following day.

4) The place where you sinned.

5) Whether your sin influenced others by encouraging them to sin also.

6) The number [of times you’ve performed this particular sin] …. Confession must be done with contrition of heart and a sense of regret. Contrition of heart is the grief and pain that the memory of the sin causes you. This pain consists not only in feeling the sin, to sigh and weep for it, but consists primarily in hating the sin. Regret is the pain that the repentant feels because he now lacks the grace of God and has earned torment. The church has established the rule that one should fast for seven days before confession, or possibly less. The sick are excused. Write down your sins on paper and read them alone before your spiritual father. Make a promise before God to not repeat your sins.

The Ten Commandments (to be continued)….

(Taken From the book “The Saint of the Prison” Translated by Monk Sava – an American convert to Orthodoxy,  from Oasa Monastery)  

 

THE MEETING OF OUR LORD, GOD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST

Troparion

Rejoice, thou who art full of grace, O Virgin Theotokos, for from thee hath risen the Sun of Righteousness, Christ our God, enlightening those in darkness.   Rejoice, thou also, O righteous Elder, as thou receivest in thine arms the Redeemer of our souls, Who also granteth unto us the Resurrection.

 

Byzantion Choir: on the meeting of the Lord (Mp3)

 

A Sermon by St. Sophronius of Jerusalem

(Our father among the saints, Sophronius, was the Patriarch of Jerusalem. An Arab by birth, he was a monk and theologian who was the chief protagonist for Orthodox teaching in the doctrinal controversy on the essential nature of Jesus and his volitional acts).

Our lighted candles are a sign of the divine splendor of the one who comes to expel the dark shadows of evil and to make the whole universe radiant with the brilliance of his eternal light. Our candles also show how bright our souls should be when we go to meet Christ.

The Mother of God, the most pure Virgin, carried the true light in her arms and brought him to those who lay in darkness. We too should carry a light for all to see and reflect the radiance of the true light as we hasten to meet him.

The light has come and has shone upon a world enveloped in shadows; the Dayspring from on high has visited us and given light to those who lived in darkness. This, then, is our feast, and we join in procession with lighted candles to reveal the light that has shone upon us and the glory that is yet to come to us through him. So let us hasten all together to meet our God.

The true light has come, the light that enlightens every man who is born into this world. Let all of us, my brethren, be enlightened and made radiant by this light. Let all of us share in its splendor, and be so filled with it that no one remains in the darkness. Let us be shining ourselves as we go together to meet and to receive with the aged Simeon the light whose brilliance is eternal.

Rejoicing with Simeon, let us sing a hymn of thanksgiving to God, the Father of the light, who sent the true light to dispel the darkness and to give us all a share in his splendor.

Through Simeon’s eyes we too have seen the salvation of God which he prepared for all the nations and revealed as the glory of the new Israel, which is ourselves. As Simeon was released from the bonds of this life when he had seen Christ, so we too were at once freed from our old state of sinfulness.

By faith we, too embraced, Christ, the salvation of God the Father, as he came to us from Bethlehem. Gentiles before, we have now become the people of God. Our eyes have seen God incarnate, and because we have seen him present among us and have mentally received him into our arms, we are called the new Israel.

Never shall we forget this presence; every year we keep a feast in his honor.

(Taken from Preachers Institute at: http://preachersinstitute.com)

Why Orthodoxy?

Fr. Peter Gilquist at St. Elijah

“Why Protestant Clergy are coming to the Orthodox Church.”

Journey home: from Islam to Orthodox Christianity

Fr. Daniel Byantoro was a Muslim boy who lived with his grandfather and began attending the Mosque at 5 years of age. As the boy grew older, he searched for a deeper certainty of God. In High School he met a former schoolteacher’s husband who had converted to Christianity. The young man debated the convert regarding the Trinity, the Divinity of Jesus Christ, His Incarnation and His being the Son of God. The young Muslim man won the debate, and remained unconvinced of the gospel’s truth. One night after reciting prayers and reading the Qur’an, the young man saw a “vision” that frightened him. He encountered Christ for the first time in the form of light. Confused and trembling but with unspeakable joy, the young man began to ask such questions as “Who is Jesus Christ? What is he about?” Looking to the Qur’an, he stumbled in verse 45, chapter 3 the story of the annunciation which states, Remember when the angels said: O Maryam, surely Allah glad tidings with a Word from Himself, His Name will be the Messiah, Isa, the Son of Maryam. He is great in this world and hereafter, and he is among those who are near to Allah. He had read this passage many times before but this time he felt it was illumined in a manner that could only have been accomplished by Christ. He began to see Christianity differently through the Qur’an itself, which, although denying that Christ is God, treats many points of Biblical history with reverence.

This video (fragment) lecture given by father Daniel was filmed at St Mary Orthodox Church in Falls Church, VA (01/2010), on the feast of St. Maximus the Great Confessor of Orthodoxy

(Fr. Daniel Byantoro was the first Indonesian Orthodox Christian in the current era. He has converted over 2,000 to Christianity. Gordon Walker has said of him: ”He is truly gifted by God to be an Apostle to Indonesia). 

Other audio talks, pl. see St Timoty website:  http://sttimothy-toccoa.org/

The phrase a Word from Himself, His Name will be the Messiah made the biggest impression. So the Messiah, Isa (Jesus) is the the Word from God, he said to himself. God seemed a mystery in the mind of this young man. He began to ponder the meaning of the “Word” through an inner dialogue of questions and answers, beginning with, “What is a word?” and finally arriving at the conclusion, God, His Word who is called His Son, and His Spirit are not three different Gods, but the reality within the One God. Without Spirit God is dead, without Word or Mind God is an idiot. So, a One -Personed-God, without a Spirit and a Word is no God at all, rather wood and stone. These discoveries were astonishing and he thought to himself:

“If among human beings, communication is accomplished with words and impossible without them. How much more with God. God has Only One Word, Jesus Christ. In order to know God and have a relationship with Him, one has to know His Word Jesus Christ. Now I know why I did not know who God is, because I did not know His Word. Jesus Christ. I have to believe in Him!” The young man cried and said to God: “Oh Allah, yes I believe in Your Word Jesus Christ, and I will become a Christian.”

The young man invited Christ into his heart at that very moment. The young man was baptized into Dutch Reformed Protestant Christianity – the only Church he knew at this time – where his former debating opponent was an elder. He took the baptismal name of Daniel.

In 1974 while at a house prayer meeting, Daniel received the so-called “baptism of the Holy Spirit” complete with “speaking in tongues” and “prophesying” and became active in Charismatic Movement. Before this time he knew nothing on the existence of hundreds of denominations in Protestant Christianity or the difference between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism, and nothing at all of the Orthodox Church.

Witnessing Activities 

The young man Daniel was very active in witnessing for Christ among the young people, even while continuing his schooling. Many were converted several prayer meeting groups were founded. After high school, Daniel wanted to be an evangelist or missionary. Further, her desired to make the Gospel known to his own people, within the context of their culture, not as a “western-religion,” but the truth of God that originated in the Middle East/Israel, the land of all the prophets. Later as he was invited to preach among many different protestant churches, the young Daniel was bewildered by the plethora of groups and denominations with differing and opposing theological thoughts, traditions and practices. He also began to miss liturgical rhythm of life which he was used to in Islam and set his heart searching towards the ancient Christianity of the East. He knew nothing of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, rather his intuition told him that Christianity was born in the same Middle Eastern milieu as Islam.

(Taken from the website: http://friendsofindonesia.org/about/fr_daniel/)

Also please Listen to Fr. Daniel’s podcast “Christ the Eternal Kalimat” at: http://friendsofindonesia.org/news/podcast/

VENERABLE EPHREM THE SYRIAN

VENERABLE EPHREM THE SYRIAN

Ephrem was born in Syria of poor parents during the reign of Emperor Constantine the Great. He spent his young life rather tempestuously; but all at once a change took place in his soul and he began to burn with love for the Lord Jesus. Ephrem was a disciple of St. James Nisibis (January 13). From the enormous Grace of God, wisdom flowed from his tongue as a brook of honey and ceaseless tears flowed from his eyes. Industrious as a bee, Ephrem continually either wrote books or orally taught the monks in the monastery and the people in the town of Edessa or he dedicated himself to prayer and contemplation. Numerous are his books and beautiful are his prayers. The most famous is his prayer recited during the Honorable Fast Season which reads:

 

Lenten Prayer of St. Ephrem The Syrian

O Lord and Master of my life!

Take from me the spirit of sloth, faint-heartedness, lust of power, and idle talk.

But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to Thy servant.

Yea, Lord and King! Grant me to see my own errors and not to judge my brother,

For Thou art blessed unto ages of ages. Amen.

(from the Prologue from Ohrid by Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich)

 

 SAINT EPHREM THE SYRIAN ASCETICAL AND OTHER WRITINGS (from Greek): http://www.anastasis.org.uk/ephrem.htm

 Selected prophecies of St. Ephraim the Syrian on the Last Days at: http://full-of-grace-and-truth.blogspot.com/2010/01/selected-prophecies-of-st-ephraim.html

 

 

Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone

With the rivers of your tears, you have made the barren desert fertile. Through sighs of sorrow from deep within you, your labors have borne fruit a hundred-fold. By your miracles you have become a light, shining upon the world. O Ephraim, our Holy Father, pray to Christ our God, to save our souls.

Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen! 

 

The Monastery of St Ehraim the Syrian in Greece

 Monastery of St Ephraim from Greece

St Maximus the Confessor – great defender of Orthodoxy

„Every bit of Church dogma was imposed through the blood of those who were ready to give their life to defend it; being  a matter of life – not merely a theoretical speculation” (Theologian Fr Dumitru Staniloae)

“Even if all the world shall enter into communion with the (heretical) Patriarch, I will not!>>(St. Maximus the Confessor)

 

 St Maximus the Confessor, the greatest of Byzantine theologians, lived through the most catastrophic period the Byzantine Empire was to experience before the Crusades.

 “By birth a citizen of Constantinople and at first a high-ranking courtier at the court of the Emperor Heraclius, he then became a monk and the abbot of a monastery not far from the capital. He was the greatest defender of Orthodoxy against the so-called Monothelite heresy, which developed from the heresy of Eutyches. That is to say: as Eutyches asserted that there is in Christ only one nature, so the Monothelites asserted that there is in Him only one will. Maximus resisted this assertion and found himself in opposition to both the Emperor and the Patriarch. But he was unafraid, and persevered to the end in proving that there are in the Lord two natures and therefore also two wills. By his efforts, one Council in Carthage and one in Rome stood firm, and both these Councils anathematized the Monothelite teaching. Maximus’s sufferings for Orthodoxy cannot be fully described: tortured by hierarchs, spat upon by the mass of the people, beaten by soldiers, persecuted, imprisoned; until finally, with his tongue cut out and one hand cut off, he was condemned to exile for life in Skhimaris, where he gave his soul into God’s hands in the year 662.”

Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich

The Prologue from Ochrid

Life at: http://9stmaryrd.com/shared/st_maximus_bibliography.pdf

 

Troparion of St Maximos Tone 3
By an outpouring of the Holy Spirit/ thou didst pour forth Christ’s sacred teachings./ Thou didst expound with divine authority the self-emptying of God the Word/ and wast radiant in thy confession of the True Faith./ Glorious Father Maximos, pray to Christ our God to grant us His great mercy.

Kontakion of St Maximos Tone 2
O Maximos divinely inspired champion of the Church,/ sure and illumined exponent of Orthodoxy,/ thou harp and trumpet of godliness,/ divine and holy adornment of monks:/ cease not to intercede for us all.
 

TEACHERS OF THE CLEAN MIND

from the Speech On Love

3.93 & 27

HE clean mind sometimes God himself comes into and teaches, sometimes the holy  angelic powers suggest the right things, sometimes the vision of the nature of things. … But to participate or not in His goodness and wisdom, depends to the will of the creatures who have reason.

3.79: Do not dishonor your conscience, perfectly instructing you always. Because she suggests you the divine and angelic opinion, she sets you free from the hidden infections of the heart and she gives you uprightness before God when you depart.

3.80: If you’ve known yourself, you will understand many, great and wonderful things. Because, thinking that you know doesn’t let you progress in knowing.

1.95: The sun of justice, rising into the clean mind, reveals himself and the reasons of all that He created and will create.

4.61: Love defeats those three, self-deception, because she is not proud. Interior envy, because she is not jealous. Exterior envy, because she is generous and serene.

.70: All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are inside our hearts hidden.

1.31: Faith without love does not act in the soul the illumination of the divine knowledge.

3.97: When the mind receives the ideas of things, by its nature is transformed according to each and every idea. If it sees the things spiritually, is transfigured in many ways according to each vision. But if the mind becomes in God, then it becomes totally shapeless and formless, because seeing Him who has one face it comes to have one face and then the whole mind becomes a face of light.

Translated by Elpenor (The Greek Word): http://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/default.asp

Other Quotes from St. Maximus on Love

Letter 2: On Love (c. 626)

Louth: At one pole is self-love at the other is deifying love

Divine love…in its power is beyond circumspection or definition (L 2:85)

Nothing is more truly Godlike than divine love, nothing more mysterious, nothing more apt to raise up human beings to deification (85)

The mystery of love which out of human beings makes us gods (85)

Everything is circumscribed by love according to God‟s good pleasure…for what form of good things does love not possess?—faith, hope humility, meekness, gentleness, mercy, self-control, patience, long-suffering, kindness, peace and joy (86)

Love is the goal of every good, being the highest of goods with God, and source of every good (86)

Love alone…proves that the human person is in the image of the Creator…persuading the inclination to follow nature (86-7)

The divine and blessed love…will embrace God and manifest the one who loves God to be God himself (87)

The power of love [is] the adversary of self-love (88)

Self-love is…the first sin, the first progeny of the devil, and the mother of the passions…the beginning and mother of all evils (88)

Love gathers together what has been separated (88)

God takes form in each through his great love for mankind out of the virtue that is present in each through the ascetic struggle (90)

Love is therefore a great good, and of goods the first and most excellent good since through it God and man are drawn together in a single embrace (90)

Love is…in a definition: the inward universal relationship to the first good connected with the universal purpose of our natural kind…there is nothing that can make the human being who loves God ascend any higher (90)

[We do] not divisively [assign] one form of love to God and another to human beings, for it is one and the same and universal: owed to God and attaching human beings to each other (90)

For the activity and clear proof of perfect love towards God is a genuine disposition of voluntary goodwill toward one‟s neighbor (90)

The all glorious way of love…is truly divine and deifying and leads to God (91)

Love is said to be God Himself which from the beginning the thorns of self love have covered up (91)

For the sake of love the saints all resist sin continually finding no meaning in this present life (91)

Love…binds human beings to God and one another (91)

The grace of love…leads one to God who deifies the human being that He himself has fashioned (92)

Love “never fails” since it possesses God who is alone unfailing and unalterable (92)

 

(Other texts taken from the book “Maximus the Confessor” by Andrew Louth) 

Contemplation of the end of the world (Diff. 32)

Those who look carefully at the present world, making the most of their learning, and wisely tease out with their mind the logos that folds together the bodies that harmoniously constitute it in various ways—they discover what is perceived through the senses, and what is understood and what is universal, everything contained in everything and turning by the exchange of the individual qualities of each. For by nature the senses are contained by what is perceived through the senses, and what is perceived through the senses is contained by the senses through sensation, as being understood. And again the universal is corrupted by change into the particular, and the particular, turned into the universal by reduction, also suffers corruption. And there comes about the corruption of everything that owes its coming to be to others. For the union of universals with one another, which causes the coming to be of particulars, is the corruption of one another by change, and the reduction of particulars to universals by the dissolution of their being bound together, leading to corruption, is the continuance and coming to be of the universals. And learning that this is the constitution of the world of the senses—the change and corruption of the bodies through which and in which it consists, one into another—we come to understand that it follows from the natural property of the bodies in which it consists—their instability and changeability and their chameleon-like alteration of universal qualities—that it is not possible for the world to have a necessary consummation. Nor can it be rightly thought that what does not possess eternity should appear to any rational understanding as eternal, separate from change and alteration, and not rather scattered and changing in a myriad of ways.

Contemplation of the virtues (Diff.34)

Consequently a human being is blessed who has virtues, whether or not he has any other blessings besides. If he has virtues and other advantages too, he is blessed in a general sense, as one said who was wise in divine matters. If he has virtues alone and for their own sake, he is blessed in a more circumscribed sense. For some things are thought of in a more circumscribed way, as when we think of two cubits, others in a

more general way, as when we think of a heap. For you can take away two measures from a heap, and will be left with a heap. If you take away all bodily and external advantages from the condition of general blessedness, and leave nothing whatever but the virtues, it remains a state of blessedness.

For virtue, by itself, is sufficient for happiness. Therefore every bad person is wretched, even if he has all the so-called blessings of the earth, if he is deprived of the virtues. And every good person is blessed, even if he is deprived of all earthly blessings, since he has the radiance of virtue. It is because of this that Lazarus rejoiced, at rest in the bosom of Abraham.

Contemplation of how God is understood from Creation (Diff.35)

So therefore when the Saints behold the creation, and its fine order and proportion and the need that each part has of the whole, and how all the perfect parts have been fashioned wisely and with providence in accordance with reason that fashioned them, and how what has come to be is found to be not otherwise than good beside what now is, and is in need of no addition or subtraction in order to be otherwise good, they

are taught from the things he has made that there is One who fashioned them. So,95 too, when they see the permanence, the order and position of what has come to be, and its manner of being, in accordance with which each being, according to its proper form, is preserved unconfused and without any disorder; and the course of the stars proceeding in the same way, with no alteration of any kind, and the circle of the year

proceeding in an orderly manner according to the periodic return of the [heavenly bodies] from and to their own place, and the equal yearly proportion of the nights and days, with their mutual increase and decrease, taking place according to a measure that is neither too small nor too great, they understand that behind everything there is providence, an this they acknowledge as God, the fashioner of all.

Contemplation of divine providence

Anyone who is convinced that God exercises providence over the things that are, from which he has learnt that he exists, will judge it right and reasonable that he is none other than the guardian of the things that are and cares for them and that he alone is the fashioner of what is. For the permanence of what is, and its order and position and movement,111 and the consonance of the extremities with the middle, the agreement of the parts with the wholes, and the union throughout of the wholes with the parts, and the unblurred distinction of the parts one from another in accordance with the individuating difference of each, and the unconfused union in accordance  with the indistinguishable sameness in the wholes, and the combination and distinction of everything with everything else (not to limit myself to particulars), and the eternally preserved succession of everything and each one according to form, so that the logos of each nature is not corrupted by confusion or blurring—all this shows clearly that everything is held together by the providence of the Creator God. For it is not the case that God is good but not beneficent, or beneficent but without providence, and therefore he cares wisely for the things that are and in a way befitting God, so that they are favoured with existence and care. Providence is, then, according to the God- bearing Fathers,112 the care that comes from God to the things that are. They also define it thus: providence is the will of God through which everything that is receives suitable direction. If this will is God’s, if I may use the very words of my teachers, then it necessarily follows that what happens happens in accordance with right reason, and so no better disposition could be looked for. One who has chosen to take truth as his guide is therefore led to say that providence is either the one who is truly known to be the Creator or is a power exercised by the Creator of all things. And with animals, if we approach them in a rational way we shall find a trace of the intelligible in them which is a not unworthy imitation of what is above reason. For if we look at those beings that naturally care for their offspring, we are encouraged to define for ourselves reverently and with godly boldness that God exercises providence in his sovereign uniqueness over all beings, and not over some beings but not others, as some of the adepts of the ‘outer learning’113 have it, but of absolutely everything, in accordance with the one and indistinguishable will of goodness, and indeed of both universals and particulars, for we know that if particulars can perish because they are not within the remit of providence and fitting protection, then universals will perish with them (for universals consist of particulars), in this way propounding a rational demonstration that rightly leads by a reasonable retort to the truth. For if universals consist of particulars, then if the particular examples of any logos in accordance with which things exist and consist should perish, then it is quite clear that the corresponding universals will not continue to be. For the parts exist and subsist in the wholes, and the wholes in the parts. No reason can gainsay it. But there are those who are, as it were, unwillingly bound by the truth and betray the power of providence, arguing that it only pervades what is important to them. For they say that only universals are governed by providence,114 and that particulars are hidden from providence, being led by necessity towards the truth that they are anxious to flee. For if they say that it is because of permanence that universals are worthy of providence, they admit even more strongly that those particulars are worthy, in which the permanence and stability of the universals consist. These are admitted together through the indissoluble natural relationship that they have with each other, and both conserve permanence, nor can one be said to be foreign to the protection of the other, and again if they admit the protection of the one with respect of permanence, they have to grant the other too. Apart from that there are three ways in which the providence of God is denied.115 Some say that God does not understand the method of providence, others that he cannot will it, others that he has not the power. But it follows from the common notions that God is good and beyond goodness and eternally wills what is good for everything, and that he is wise and beyond wisdom, or rather the source of all wisdom, and certainly knows everything that is going to happen, and that he is powerful, or rather infinitely powerful, and certainly brings about in a divinely fitting way in everything what is known to him and what he wills for the good and what is fitting. For God is good and wise and powerful, and pervades everything visible and invisible, both universals and particulars, both small and great, indeed everything that possesses existence in any way whatever. He is not diminished by the boundlessness of his goodness and wisdom and power, and conserves everything in accordance with the logos of its being, both in relation to themselves and to others, and in accordance with the indissoluble harmony and permanence that relates everything one to another. Why then can we not understand that natureitself teaches us clearly about the existence of God’s providence over everything? For nature itself gives us no small proof that the knowledge of providence is naturally implanted within us, whenever it prepares us to seek salvation through prayers in sudden emergencies, as if pushing us towards God in an untaught way.117 For seized by necessity, all unawares, without choice, before we have had a chance to think of anything, as if providence itself led us to itself without any thought, faster than any mental power within ourselves, placing before us the divine help as stronger than anything else. Not that nature leads us to the possession of something unnatural. Whatever happens naturally, even if it is obscure to all, possesses the strong and unconquerable power of the demonstration of the truth. If it is the case that the reason for providence as it affects particulars is incomprehensible to us, as in accordance with the verse, his judgments are unsearchable and his ways past finding out (Rom. 11:33), then in my view they are not right who say that it shows that there is no such providence.118 For if the difference and variation between different human beings is great and incomprehensible, in ways of life and customs and opinions and choices and desires, in what they know, and their needs and pursuits, and the almost countless thoughts in their minds, and in everything that happens to them in each day and hour (for this animal, man, is changeable, sharp on occasions and changing with need), it is absolutely necessary that providence, comprehending everything with foresight in the circumscription of its individuality, should be manifest as different and manifold and complex, and should achieve harmony as it extends into the incomprehensibility of the multitudinous, in a way suitable to each individual, whether thing or thought, reaching as far as the least movement of mind or body. If therefore the difference of particulars is incomprehensible, then likewise is the infinite meaning of providence that draws them into harmony, but it should not follow that, since themeaning of particular providence happens to be infinite and unknowable to us, we should make our ignorance a ground for denying the all-wise care for the things that are, but we should receive and hymn all the works of  providence simply and without examination, as divinely fitting and suitable, and believe that what happens happens well, even if the reason is beyond our grasp. And I mean all the works of providence, not what happens by our agency in accordance with our reason, for these are quite different from the logos of providence. For the manner indicated by the great teacher of the power and grace of the Saints, according to reason and contemplation, is conjectural rather than categorical (for our mind is very far from truth itself), but trying to get hold of what has been said with the reason, and as it were tracking it down, I have done nothing more than make suggestions.

St. Mark of Ephesus: A True Ecumenist and Confessor of Orthodoxy

The great teacher and invincible defender of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic I. Church, Saint Mark, was the offspring and scion of the imperial city, Constantinople. Reared by most pious parents, and instructed in secular and spiritual wisdom, he became pre-eminent in both. Saint Mark lived as an ascetic on the Princes’ Islands and later in the monastery of Saint George Magana in Constantinople. He passed through all the degrees of the priesthood, and was finally advanced to the dignity of Archbishop and the lofty throne of the Metropoly of Ephesus. At the insistence of Emperor John Paleologus, the Saint was sent to the council of the Latins in Florence, to unite the churches that had been divided for so many years. He astounded the papal teachers with the divine wisdom of his words, and was the only one who did not sign the blasphemous decree of that false council. Because of this, the holy Church of Christ has ever honored this great man as a benefactor, teacher, sole defender, and invincible champion of the Apostolic Confession. He reposed in 1443.  His Feast day is celebrated on January 19/ February 1.

Life of St Mark at: http://www.troparia.com/Mark_of_Ephesus.htm

http://www.ephesus.com/Orthodox/St.Mark-of-Ephesus.txt

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 Ecumenical means “belonging to or accepted by the Christian Church throughout the word; as such, this term reflects the rule of faith given by St. Vincent of Lerins: Christian truth is that “which has been believed everywhere, always, and by all .” Thus is the correct dictionary definition of the word and the only patristic definition of it. Unfortunately, ‘ecumenical” has come to mean something quite different in the latter part of the 20th century. Under the influence of the World Council of Churches and the policy of aggioramento in the Church of Rome. “ecumenical” has come to mean the following: the unity of Christ’s Church has been shattered through the centuries; all Christian Churches are pretty much equal, and each has a “share” of the truth; therefore, all denominations must be united in order to recapture the “whole- ness” that once existed. This is modern-day ecumenism.

A superb example of the first and original kind of ecumenist is St. Mark of Ephesus, a 15th century champion of orthodoxy, sometimes called “The conscience of Orthodoxy.” The following information is condensed from a series of three articles in “The Orthodox Word” (1967), written by Archimandrite Amvrossy Pogodin:

When the foundations of Byzantium were crumbling, diplomats redoubled their efforts to find a possibility of union with Western powers for a battle against the common adversary of Christianity, Islam. Attempts were made to conclude treaties with the Turks, but these were unsuccessful. The only hope lay in the West. For this it was necessary above all to make peace with the Vatican.

A Council was convened in 1437, which established a committee of Latin and Greek theologians with the Pope and the Byzantine Emperor acting as heads. The Pope, Eugenius IV, had a very exalted idea of the papacy and aimed at subjecting the Orthodox Church to himself. Prompted by the straitened circumstances of Byzantium, the Emperor pursued his aim: to conclude an agreement profitable for his country. Few gave thought to the spiritual consequences of such a union. Only one delegate, the Metropolitan of Ephesus, St. Mark, stood in firm opposition.

In his address to the Pope at the opening of the Council, St. Mark explained how ardently he desired this union with the Latins- but a genuine union, he explained, based upon unity of faith and ancient Liturgical practice. He also informed the Pope that he and the other Orthodox bishops had come to the Council not to sign a capitulation, and not to sell Orthodoxy for the benefit of their government, but in order to confirm true and pure doctrine.

Many of the Greek delegates, however, thought that the salvation of Byzantium could be attained only through union with Rome. More and more became willing to compromise the eternal Truth for the sake of preserving a temporal kingdom. Furthermore, the negotiations were of such unexpectedly long duration that the Greek delegates no longer had means to support themselves; they began to suffer from hunger and were anxious to return home. The Pope, however, refused to give them any support until a “Union” had been concluded. Taking advantage of the Situation and realizing the futility of further debates, the Latins used their economic and political advantage to bring pressure on the Orthodox delegation, demanding that they capitulate to the Roman Church and accept all her doctrines and administrative control.

St. Mark stood alone against the rising tide which threatened to overturn the ark of the true Church. He was pressured on all sides, not only by the Latins, but by his fellow Greeks and the Patriarch of Constantinople himself. Seeing his persistent and stouthearted refusal to sign any kind of accord with Rome under the given conditions, the Emperor dismissed him from all further debates with the Latins and placed him under house arrest. By this time St. Mark had fallen very ill (apparently suffering from cancer of the intestine). But this exhausted, fatally ill man, who found himself persecuted and in disgrace, represented in his per son the Orthodox Church; he was a spiritual giant with whom there is none to compare.

Events followed in rapid succession. The aged Patriarch Joseph of Constantinople died; a forged document of submission to Rome was produced; Emperor John Paleologos took the direction of the Church into his own hands, and the Orthodox were obliged. to renounce their Orthodoxy and to accept all of the Latin errors, novelties, and innovations on all counts, including complete acceptance of the Pope as having “a primacy over the whole earth.” During a triumphant service following the signing of the Union on July 5, 1439, the Greek delegates solemnly kissed the Pope’s knee. Orthodoxy had been sold, and not merely betrayed, for in return for submission, the Pope agreed to provide money and soldiers for the defense of Constantinople against the Turks. But one bishop still had not signed. When Pope Eugenius saw that St. Mark’s signature was not on the Act of Union, he exclaimed, “And so, we have accomplished nothing!”

The delegates returned home ashamed of their submission to Rome. They admitted to the people: “We sold our faith; we bartered piety for impiety!” As St. Mark wrote: “The night of Union encompassed the Church.” He alone was accorded respect by the people who greeted him with universal enthusiasm when he was finally allowed to return to Constantinople in 1440. But even then the authorities continued to persecute him. At length he was arrested and imprisoned. But whatever his condition a n d circum stances, he continued to burn in spirit and to battle for the Church.

Finally he was liberated and, following his example, the Eastern Patriarchs condemned the False Union and refused to recognize it. The triumph of the Church was accomplished-through a man exhausted bydisease and harassed by the wiles of men, but strong in the knowledge of our Saviour’s promise: “…I will Build My Church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matt. 16:18)

St. Mark died on June 23, 1444, at the age of 52. This great pillar of the Church was a true ecumenist, for he did not fear to journey to Italy to talk with the Roman Catholics, but more importantly, neither did he fear to confess the fullness of the truth when the time came

The following is the concluding section of the Saint’s encyclical letter on the subject of the false union. It is as meaningful and vital today as it was 500 years ago: “Therefore,” St. Mark writes, “in so far as this is what has been commanded you by the Holy Apostles,-stand aright, hold firmly to the traditions which you have received, both written and by word of mouth, that you be not deprived of your firmness if you become led away by the delusions of the lawless. May God, Who is All-powerful, make them also to know their delusion; and having delivered us from them as from evil tares, may He gather us into His granaries like pure and useful wheat, in Jesus Christ our Lord, to Whom belongs all glory, honor, and worship, with His Father Who is without beginning, and His All-holy and Good and Life- giving Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.”

By the prayers of St. Mark, O Christ our God, and all Thy Holy Fathers, Teachers and Theologians, preserve Thy Church in Orthodox confession and lead many into a knowledge of the Truth, unto the ages!

(An excerpt from the [forthcoming] book, Winds of Change in Roman Catholicism, by Fr. Alexey Young)

  

Troparian, tone 3

Holy Mark, in thee the Church has found a zealot by thy confession of the sacred Faith;/ for thou didst champion the Fathers’ doctrine/ and cast down the pride of boastful darkness./ Pray to Christ our God for those who honour thee, that we may be granted the forgiveness of sins.

Kontakion, tone 3

As one clad in invincible armour,/ thou didst cast down the pride of the Western rebellion;/ thou didst become an instrument of, the Comforter/ and shine Forth as Orthodoxy’s defender./ Therefore we cry to thee: Rejoice, O Mark, boast of the Orthodox.

Quotes by St Mark

“It is impossible to recall peace without dissolving the cause of the schism— the primacy of the Pope exalting himself equal to God.”

“The Latins are not only schismatics but heretics… we did not separate from them for any other reason other than the fact that they are heretics. This is precisely why we must not unite with them unless they dismiss the addition from the Creed filioque and confess the Creed as we do.”

“Our Head, Christ our God… does not tolerate that the bond of love be taken from us entirely.”

“We seek and we pray for our return to that time when, being united, we spoke the same things and there was no schism between us.”

St. Mark of Ephesus and the False Union of Florence at: http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/stmark.aspx

On Middle Doctrine

‘Many were tempted by the idea,’ [St.] Mark [of Ephesus] continued, ‘that one can find a medium between two doctrines. True: one can find such expressions which, having a double meaning, could at the same time express something between the two doctrines. But a doctrine midway between two contrary doctrines on the same subject is impossible; for in this case it must be something between truth and falsehood, between an affirmation and a negation. Thus, if the Latin doctrine of the Spirit’s procession from the Son is just, then ours is false. What middle doctrine can there be here?’

We see from all this that we teach conformably with Holy Scripture, and the holy Fathers, and Teachers, nothing changing or misrepresenting in the dogmas handed down to us, nothing adding to them, or taking from them, and adding nothing new.

From the interview of St. Mark with Pope Eugenius:

The Councils of the Church have condemned as rebels those who have transgressed against some dogma and have preached thus and fought for this, for which reason also they are called ‘heretics’; and from the beginning the Church has condemned the heresy itself, and only then has it condemned the leaders of the heresy and its defenders. But I have by no means preached my own teaching, nor have I introduced anything new in the Church, nor defended any foreign and false doctrine; but I have held only that teaching which the Church received in perfect form from our Saviour, and in which it has steadfastly remained to this day: the teaching which the Holy Church of Rome, before the schism that occurred between us, possessed no less than our Eastern Church; the teaching which, as holy, you formerly were wont to praise, and often at this very Council you mentioned with respect and honor, and which no one could reproach or dispute. And if I hold it and do not allow myself to depart from it, what Council will subject me to the interdiction to which heretics are subject? What sound and pious mind will act thus with me? For first of all one must condemn the teaching which I hold; but if you acknowledge it as pious and Orthodox, then why am I deserving of punishment?