The Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church on Abortion

My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.  

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THE HOLY FATHERS OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH ON ABORTION

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[The following represent the teaching of the Orthodox Church from the (early) 2nd Century through the 5th Century...]

From the Letter to Diognetus:

(speaking of what distinguishes Christians from pagans) "They marry, as do all others; they beget children but they do not destroy their offspring" (literally, "cast away fetuses").

From the Didache:

"You shall not slay the child by abortions."

From the Letter of Barnabus:

"You shall not destroy your conceptions before they are brought forth, nor kill them after they born."

From Saint Clement:

"Those who use abortifacients commit homicide."

From Saint Basil the Great:

"The woman who purposely destroys her unborn child is guilty of murder. The hair-splitting difference between formed and unformed makes no difference to us."

The Holy Canons of the Church forbid abortion i.e., Canon XCI, Canon II, Canon XXI.

(All quotes are from "The Church Fathers on Social issues," Department of Youth Ministry of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America)

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Given the divisiveness of this issue in contemporary America, it is not surprising that teens would be unsure of what they should believe in regards to abortion. Further compounding this problem is the seeming silence of the Church on this issue. While the Church has a clear and strong position on the issue of abortion, in recent years the Church has not taken an active part in the public debate and discussion of this issue...The Church has not been silent because she does not care, but because many in the church feel the Church's position is well known. It is apparent from the survey that whether it is or is not well known, many teens are unsure what they should believe concerning abortion.

We know from the survey that one of the most effective ways of teens understanding and accepting the Church's teaching on abortion is for both parents and clergy to dialogue with them on this issue.

The Church's View on Abortion

The Church teaches that God is the source and sustainer of life and that He created us as male and female with a purpose in mind. The Church views sexual relations between a husband and wife as something very sacred and good and, in fact, when it bears life, the Church views this action as participating in the very action of God's creation. The Holy Scripture says that God became man so that we might become one with Him. Here in this very act of sexual intercourse, when it bears fruit and a child is conceived we already have a foretaste of becoming one with God, by sharing in the creative life giving action of generating life. "For in sexual intercourse, it is not only the seeds of physical being that are united but also the soul. A father and mother not only transmit their physical characteristics to the child but they also transmit its soul. This Sacred Power man possesses of continuing God's creation with Him is indeed a great wonder (miracle)". Hence, to generate life is participation in the Divine Life. The Church opposes abortion because abortion consciously stops the process of life already begun. Since God is the source of life, and once the woman's egg is fertilized and if allowed to grow and develop in the woman's womb, it will result in the birth of a child. Therefore, any intervention at any point once that process has begun (conception) results in the ending of life and a rejection of the wonderful gift of life and the ability to generate life given to us by God. Hence, it not only a rejection of the gift of a new life but rebellion against God's creative energy and love.

Abortion is not a new controversy brought about by new technologies and understandings of our body. Abortion is an ageless controversy struggled with and recorded at least from the time of Hippocrates, the ancient Greek "father of medicine." Until recently, doctors who took the Oath of Hippocrates swore not to give poisonous drinks that would abort a fetus. In Roman law, abortion was considered a major crime and in the New Testament, a fetus was considered a life already begun. The New Testament Gospel written by the physician Luke the Evangelist, has at its beginning, the conception of two children. The first, Saint John the Baptist, the one called to prepare the way of the Lord and the second, the Christ Child, the Messiah, God Incarnate.

The Church in Her liturgical life recognizes these two conceptions by setting aside feast days nine months before the Church celebrates each of these births. For example, in the case of Jesus Christ, while the Church celebrates His Birth on December 25th, she also celebrates His conception on March 25th; In the case of Saint John the Baptist his birth on June 24th and his conception on September 23rd. Both the Scriptural accounts and the liturgical calendar make a statement concerning the Church's belief that life begins at conception. In the case of our Lord, March 25th is one of the major Feast Days of the year. The Church believes it is the moment of conception life has been given and begins; She marks these days with great celebration and sacredness. In the great feast of the Nativity of Mary (September 8th) celebrated as the first feast of the Church New Year (which begins on September 1st) one reads concerning Mary, that she was chosen by God before she was even conceived" "Come, all ye believers, let us hasten to the Virgin; for behold she was forechosen a Mother to our God before she was conceived in the womb..." It appears that even before conception God has plans for our life.

In keeping with the Scriptural teachings the holy Apostles spoke out against abortion, "Do not murder, do not commit adultery; do not corrupt boys, do not go in for sorcery; do not murder a child by abortion or kill a newborn infant." Saint Barnabas, one of the early Church writers, said, "You shall love your neighbor more than your own life. You shall not slay the child by abortion. You shall not kill that which has already been generated." Saint Basil the Great writes, "Those who give potions for the destruction of the child conceived in the womb are murderers, as are those who take potions which kill the child." Saint John Chrysostom considered the abortionist as "even worse than a murderer." ("The Orthodox Church" [Newspaper] October 1972.) Again, "...Human life begins at the moment of conception and all who hold life as sacred and worthy of preservation whenever possible are obliged at all costs to defend the lives of unborn children regardless of the stage of their embryonic development." ("Seminar in Medical Ethics," St. Vladimir's Theological Quarterly, Vol. 17, no 3, 1973, p. 246.) (Reference: Moral and Ethical Issues: Confronting Orthodox Youth Across North America by Archpriest Joseph F. Purpura)

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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" -- Saint John Chrysostom

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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George

The Feast of the Holy Apostle Timotheos (Timothy) and St. Anastasios the Holy Martyr

My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

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ON JANUARY 22ND OUR HOLY ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHURCH COMMEMORATES THE FEAST OF THE HOLY APOSTLE TIMOTHEOS (TIMOTHY)

Apolytikion (Dismissal) Hymn of the Holy Apostle and the Righteous Martyr. Fourth Tone

Since thou hadst been instructed in uprightness thoroughly and was vigilant in all things, thou wast clothed with a good conscience as befitteth one holy. Thou didst draw from the Chosen Vessel ineffable mysteries and having kept the Faith, thou didst finish a like course, O Hieromartyr and Apostle Timothy. Intercede with Christ God that our souls be saved.

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Kontakion Hymn of the Holy Apostle and Righteous Martyr. First Tone

With hymns let us, the faithful, sing Timothy's praises as Paul's divine disciple and faithful companion; with him let us also laud Anastasius the godly-wise, who shone forth with splendor like a star out of Persia and doth drive away from us our bodily sickness and spiritual maladies.

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Holy Apostle Timotheos (Timothy) was one of the Seventy (70 secret Apostles), he was born in Lystra of Lycaonia of a Greek father and a Jewish mother. His mother and grandmother were praised by the Holy Apostle Paul for their sincere faith (2 Timothy 1:4-5). He met the great Apostle Paul for the first time in Lystra and was the only witness of Saint Paul's healing of the man lame from birth. Later, Saint Timothy was an almost constant traveling-companion of Saint Paul's, visiting Achaia, Macedonia, Italy, and Spain with him. A great zealot for the Faith, a superb preacher and of a gentle spirit, Timothy contributed greatly to the spreading and establishment of the Christian faith. Saint Paul called him his own son in the faith (I Timothy 1:2). After Saint Paul's martyrdom, Saint Timothy had Saint John the Evangelist as his teacher. But when Emperor Domitian exiled Saint John from Ephesus to the island of Patmos in Greece, Saint Timothy remained in Ephesus as bishop. At the time of an idolatrous feast called Katagogium, the pagans, resentful of the Christians, made a merciless, masked attack on Saint Timothy the Apostle and killed him, in about the year 93 A.D. His holy relics were later taken to Constantinople and buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles by the graves of Saint Luke the Evangelist and Saint Andrew the First-Called.

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OUR HOLY FATHER, THE HOLY ANASTASIUS

He was a Persian by birth, with the pagan name of Magundat. When the Emperor Heraclius waged war against the Persians, Magundat deserted to the Christians and went to Jerusalem, where he was baptized and given the name Anastasios. It was not enough for him to be baptized; he also became a monk in order to give himself entirely to the service of God. Among other ascetic practices, he very early read the lives of the Most Holy Martyrs and, reading this, wetted the book with his tears, greatly yearning for martyrdom himself. The Lord finally crowned him with the wreath of martyrdom. He lay long in prison and was horribly tortured until king Chozroes condemned him to death. After this condemnation, Saint Anastasius was drowned, then taken out of the water and beheaded by the executioner, who sent his head to the king. Saint Anastasios suffered on January 22nd, 628 A.D., in the town of Bethsaloe near Nineveh. (Source: The Prologue from Ochrid)

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The First Epistle (Letter) of Paul the Apostle to Timothy

[The Guide for Faithfulness: An Early Creed - 1 Timothy 3:14-16]

"These things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly; but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the Church of the Living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:

God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by Angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory."

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1 Timothy 6:11-16

[Pursue Spirituality Instead]

"But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ's appearing, which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen."

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2 Timothy 3:1-7

"But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanders, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."

2 Timothy 4:1-5

"I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His Kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry."

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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" -- Saint John Chrysostomos

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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George

Our Fathers Among the Saints Athanasius and Cyril, Archbishops of Aelxandria-January 18 (Part II)

My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

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ON JANUARY 18TH OUR HOLY ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHURCH COMMEMORATES THE FEAST OF SAINT CYRIL, ARCHBISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA.

Saint Cyril was also from Alexandria, born about the year 376 A.D., the nephew of Theophilus, Patriarch of Alexandria, who also instructed the Saint in his youth. Having first spent much time with the monks in Nitria, he later became the successor to his uncle's throne in 412 A.D. In 429 A.D., when Cyril heard tidings of the teachings of the new Patriarch of Constantinople, Nestorius, he began attempting through private letters to bring Nestorius to renounce his heretical teachings about the Incarnation; and when the heresiarch did not repent, Saint Cyril, together with Pope Celestine of Rome, led the Orthodox opposition to his error (heresy). Saint Cyril presided over the Third Ecumenical Council of the 200 Holy Fathers in the year 431 A.D., who gathered in Ephesus under Saint Theodosius the Younger. At this Council, by his most wise words he put to shame and convicted the impious doctrine of Nestorius, who, although he was in town, refused to appear before Cyril. Saint Cyril, besides overthrowing the heresy of Nestorius, has left to the Church full commentaries on the Gospel of Saint Luke and Saint John. Having shepherded the Church of Christ for 32 years, he reposed in 444 A.D. (Source: The Great Horologion)

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NESTORIANISM (HERESY)

This heresy takes its name from Nestorius, who had been Archbishop (Patriarch) of Constantinople. Predecessors of Nestorius in this false teaching were Diodore, teacher of the theological school of Antioch, and Theodore, Bishop of Mopsuestia (died in 429 A.D.), whose disciple was Nestorius. Thus, this heresy came from the school of Antioch. Theodore of Mopsuestia taught the "contiguity" of the two natures of Christ, but not their union from the time of the conception of the Logos/Word. These heretics called the Most Holy Virgin Mary "Christotokos," but not "Theotokos" (as having given birth to Christ but not to God). The heresy was condemned at the Third Ecumenical Council. (Source: Orthodox Dogmatic Theology by Protopresbyter Michael Pamazansky)

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APOLYTIKION (DISMISSAL) HYMN. THIRD TONE

Having shone with deeds of Orthodoxy and extinguished all impious doctrines, you have rightly won the trophies and victory. Since you enriched all the world with correct belief, greatly adorning the Church with your words and deeds, you therefore have worthily found Christ God, Who be your prayers grants to all the great mercy.

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KONTAKION HYMN. FOURTH TONE

Great high priests of piety and noble champions of the holy Church of Christ, keep and preserve all those who chant: O most compassionate Lord, do Thou graciously save those who faithfully honor Thee.

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HYMNS FROM THE HOLY SERVICE OF GREAT VESPERS

(APOSTICHA)

Rejoice, O duo of hierarchs, the great towers of the Church, the pillars of Orthodoxy, the foundation of believers, and the downfall of heretics. You shepherded the people of Christ by your divine dogmas, and you fed them with your various virtues. You are fiery preachers of grace. You established laws for the complement of Christ. You guide us to things on high, and you are the entryways to Paradise. Pray to Christ that He send down great mercy to our souls.

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Rejoice, O duo of hierarchs, earthly Angels who walk in heaven, salvation of the world, joy of humanity, teachers of the whole world; champions of the Logos/Word, physicians specializing in diseases of both soul and body; ever-flowing rivers of the Spirit, watering the entire face of the earth with your words; theologians, foundations, God-inspired orators. Pray to Christ that He send down great mercy to our souls.

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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" -- Saint John Chrysostomos

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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George

Our Fathers Among the Saints Athanasius and Cyril, Archbishops of Alexandria-January 18 (Part I)

My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

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ON JANUARY 18TH OUR HOLY ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHURCH COMMEMORATES THE FEAST OF OUR FATHERS AMONG THE SAINTS ATHANASIUS AND CYRIL, ARCHBISHOPS OF ALEXANDRIA.

In the half-century after the First Ecumenical Council held in Nicaea in 325 A.D., if there was one man whom the Arians (heretics) feared and hated more intensely than any other, as being able to lay bare the whole error (heresy) of their teaching, and to marshal, even from exile or hiding, the beleaguered forces of the Orthodox, it was Saint Athanasius the Great. This blazing lamp of Orthodox Christianity, which imperial power and heretics' plots could not quench when he shone upon the lampstand, nor find when he was hidden by the people and monks of Egypt, was born in Alexandria about the year 296 A.D. He received an excellent training in Greek letters and especially in the Sacred Scripture, of which he shows an exceptional knowledge in his writings. Even as a young man he had a remarkable depth of theological understanding; he was only about twenty years old when he wrote his treatise On the Incarnation. Saint Alexander, the Archbishop of Alexandria, brought him up in piety, ordained him his deacon, and, after deposing Arius for his blasphemy against the Divinity of the Son of God, took Athanasius to the First Council in Nicaea in 325 A.D; Saint Athanasius was to spend the remainder of his life laboring in defense of this holy Council. In 326 A.D., before his death, Alexander appointed Athanasius his successor.

In 325 A.D., Arius the heretic had been condemned by the Council of Nicaea; yet through Arius' hypocritical confession of Orthodox belief, Saint Constantine the Great was persuaded by Arius' supporters that he should be received back into the communion of the Church. But Athanasius, knowing well the perverseness of his mind, and the disease of heresy lurking in his heart, refused communion with Arius. The heresiarch's followers then began framing false charges against Athanasius; finally Saint Constantine the Great, misled by grave charges of the Saint's misconduct--which were completely false--had him exiled to Triberis (Treves) in Gaul in 336 A.D. When Saint Constantine was succeeded by his three sons Constantine II, Constans, and Constantius, 1n 337 A.D., Saint Athanasius returned to Alexandria in triumph. But his enemies found an ally in Constantius, Emperor of the East; Saint Athanasius' second exile was spent in Rome. It was ended when Constans prevailed with threats upon his brother Constantius to restore Athanasius. For ten years Saint Athanasius strengthened Orthodoxy throughout Egypt, visiting the whole country and encouraging all, clergy, monastics, and lay folk, being loved by all as a father. But after Constans' death in 350 A.D., Constantius became sole Emperor, and Saint Athanasius was again in danger. In the evening of February 8, 356 A.D., General Syrianus with more than five thousand soldiers surrounded the church in which Saint Athanasius was serving, and broke open the doors. Saint Athanasius' clergy begged him to leave, but the good shepherd commanded that all the flock should withdraw first; and only when he was assured of their safety, he also, protected by Divine grace, passed through the midst of the soldiers and disappeared into the desert of Egypt, where for some six years he eluded the soldiers and spies sent after him.

When Julian the Apostate succeeded Constantius in 361 A.D., Saint Athanasius returned again, but only for a few months. Because Saint Athanasius had converted many pagans, the priests of the heathen in Egypt wrote to Julian that if Athanasius remained, idolatry would perish in Egypt. The heathen emperor ordered not Athanasius' exile, but his death. Saint Athanasius took a ship up the Nile. When he learned that his imperial pursuers were following him, he had his men turn back, and as his boat passed that of his pursuers, they asked him if he had seen Athanasius, "He is not far," he answered. After returning to Alexandria for a while, he fled again to the Thebaid until Julian's death in 363 A.D. Saint Athanasius suffered his fifth and last exile under Valens in 365 A.D., which only lasted four months because Valens, fearing a sedition among the Egyptians for their beloved Archbishop, revoked his edict in February, 366 A.D.

The Great Athanasius passed the remaining seven years of his life in peace. Of his 47 years as Patriarch, he had spent some 17 years in exiles. Shining from the height of his throne like a radiant evening star, and enlightening the Orthodox Christians with the brilliance of his words for yet a little while, this much-suffering champion inclined toward the sunset of his life, and, in the year 373 A.D., took his rest from his lengthy sufferings, but not before another luminary of the Truth, Saint Basil the Great, had risen in the East, being consecrated Archbishop of Caesarea in 370 A.D. Besides all his other achievements, Saint Athanasius wrote the Life of Saint Anthony the Great, and in his Paschal Encyclical for the year 367 set for the books of the Old and New Testaments accepted by the Church as Canonical. Saint Gregory the Theologian, in his Oration On the Great Athanasius, said he was "Angelic in appearance, more Angelic in mind; rebuking with the tenderness of a father, praising with the dignity of a ruler...Everything was harmonious, as an air upon a single lyre, and in the same key; his life, his teaching, his struggles, his danger, his return, and his conduct after his return...he treated so mildly and gently those who had injured him, that even they themselves, if I may say so, did not find his restoration distasteful." (Source: Great Horologion)

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DIVINE SERVICES FOR THE FEAST OF SAINT ATHANASIUS THE GREAT:

Great Vespers: 4:30 p.m.

Orthros (Matins) at 9:00 a.m.
Divine Liturgy at 10:00 a.m.

Place of worship: Chapel of Saint Nektarios

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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" -- Saint John Chrysostomos

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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George

January 17-The Feast of St. Anthony the Great

My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

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ON JANUARY 17TH OUR HOLY ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHURCH COMMEMORATES OUR HOLY FATHER SAINT ANTHONY THE GREAT, THE ANCHORITE OF EGYPT, AND THE FATHER OF ALL MONKS.

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Life of Saint Anthony the Great

Most of what we know about the life of Saint Anthony the Great is from the Greek Life of Antonios by Saint Athanasios.

Saint Anthony was born near Herakleopolis Magna in Upper Egypt in 251 A.D. to wealthy parents. When he was eighteen years old, his parents died and left him with the care of his unmarried sister. In 285 A.D., he decided to follow the words of Jesus who has said: "If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasures in heaven; and come, follow Me" (St. Matthew 19:21). Anthony gave his wealth to the poor and needy, and placed his sister with a group of Christian virgins.

At the age of twenty, consecrated himself to the life of asceticism that he had desired from childhood. At first he lived near his own village but then, in order to escape the disturbance of men, went off into the desert, on the shores of the Red Sea, where he spent twenty years as a hermit in company with no-one but God, in unceasing prayer, pondering and contemplation, patiently undergoing inexpressible demonic temptations.  

According to Saint Athanasius, the devil fought Saint Anthony by afflicting him with boredom, laziness (akedia), and the phantoms of women, which he overcame by the power of prayer, providing a them for Christian art. After that, he moved to a tomb, where he resided and closed the door on himself, depending on some local villagers who brought him food. When the devil perceived his ascetic life and his intense worship, he was envious and beat him mercilessly, leaving him unconscious. When his friends from the local village came to visit him and found him in this condition, they carried him to a church.

After he recovered, he made a second effort and went back to the desert, further out, to a mountain by the Nile, called Pispir, now Der El Memun, opposite Arsinoe in the Fayyum. There he lived strictly enclosed in an old abandoned Roman fort for some twenty years. According to Saint Athanasius, the devil again resumed his war against Saint Anthony, only this time the phantoms were in the form of wild beasts, wolves, lions, snakes and scorpions. They appeared as if they were about to attack him or cut him into pieces. But the Saint would laugh at them scornfully and say, "If any of you have any authority over me, only one would have been sufficient to fight me." At his saying this, they disappeared as though smoke, and God gave him the victory over the devil. While in the fort he only communicated with the outside world by a crevice through which food would be passed and he would say a few words. Saint Anthony would prepare a quantity of bread that would sustain him for six months. He did not allow anyone to enter his cell: whoever came to him, stood outside and listened to his advice.

Then one day he emerged from the fort with the help of villagers to break down the door. By this time most had expected him to have wasted away, or gone insane in his solitary confinement, but he emerged healthy, serene, and enlightened. Everyone was amazed he had been through these trials and emerged spiritually rejuvenated. He was hailed as a hero and from this time forth the legend of Saint Anthony began to spread and grow. Around him gathered many disciples whom he, by word and example, placed on the path of salvation.

In 85 years of ascetic life, he went only twice to Alexandria: the first time to seek martyrdom during a time of persecution of the Church, and the second at the invitation of Saint Athanasius, to refute Arian heresy. 

The back-story of one of the surviving epistles, directed to Constantine I recounts how the fame of Saint Anthony spread abroad and reached Emperor Constantine. The Emperor wrote to him, offering him praise and asked him to pray for him. The brethren were pleased with the Emperor's letter, but Saint Anthony did not pay any attention to it, and he said to them, "The books of God, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, commands us every day, but we do not heed what they tell us, and we turn our backs to them." Under the persistence of the brethren who told him, "Emperor Constantine loves the Church," he accepted to write him a letter blessing him, and praying for the peace and safety of the empire and the Church.

When Saint Anthony felt that the day of his departure from this life had approached, he commanded his disciples to give his staff to Saint Macarius, and to give one sheepskin cloak to Saint Athanasius and the other sheepskin cloak to Saint Serapion, his disciple. He further instructed his disciples to bury his body in an unmarked, secret grave, lest his body become an object of veneration.  He stretched himself to the ground and gave up his spirit. Saint Anthony the Great lived for 105 years and departed on the year 356 A.D.  

His biography was written by Saint Athanasius and titled Life of Saint Anthony the Great.  Many stories are also told about him in various collections of sayings of the Desert Holy Fathers.

Saint Anthony (Antonios) and Saint Paul the Hermit are seen as the founders of Christian Monasticism. Saint Paul the Hermit is lauded by Saint Anthony as the first hermit. The Monastery of Saint Paul the Hermit exists to this day in Egypt. Saint Anthony himself provided the example that others would follow (i.e., Saint Pachomius). And, although Saint Anthony the Great was illiterate he was, as a counselor and teacher, one of the most educated men of his age, as also was Saint Athanasius the Great.

SAYINGS (APOPHTHEGMATA) OF FATHER ANTHONY

1. When the same Abba (Father) Anthony thought about the depth of the judgments of God, he asked, 'Lord, how is it that some die when they are young, while others drag on to extreme old age?  Why are there those who are poor and those who are rich? Why do wicked men prosper and why are the just in need?' He heard a voice answering him, 'Anthony, keep your attention on yourself; these things are according to the judgment of God, and it is not to your advantage to know anything about them.'

2. Someone asked Saint Anthony, 'What must one do in order to please God?' The Geronda (Elder) replied, 'Pay attention to what I tell you: whoever you may be, always have God before your eyes; whatever you do, do it according to the testimony of the Holy Scripture; in whatever place your live, do not easily leave it. Keep these three precepts and you will be saved.'

3. Saint Anthony said to Abba (Father) Poemen, 'this is the great work of a man: always to take the blame for his own sins before God and to expect temptation to his last breath.'

4. Abba (Father) Anthony said, 'I saw the snares that the enemy (devil) spreads out over the world and I said groaning, "What can get through from such snares?" Then I heard a voice to me, "humility."

5. Saint Anthony said "if we make every effort to avoid death of the body, still more should it be our endeavor to avoid death of the soul. There is no obstacle for a man who wants to be saved other than negligence and laziness of soul.

6.  Saint Anthony taught: "The truly intelligent man pursues one sole objective: to obey and to conform to the god of all. With this single aim in view, he disciplines his soul, and whatever he may encounter in the course of his life, he gives thanks to God for the compass and depth of His Providential ordering of all things. For it is absurd to be grateful to doctors who give us bitter and unpleasant medicines to cure our bodies, and yet to be ungrateful to God for what appears to us to be harsh, not grasping that all we encounter is for our benefit and in accordance with His Providence. For knowledge of God and faith in Him is the salvation and perfection of the soul."

7. Furthermore he taught "Whoever has not experienced temptation cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Without temptation no-one can be saved."

8. Saint Anthony said: "What is slander? It is every sort of wicked word we would dare not speak in front of the person whom we are complaining about."

9. Saint Anthony also said: "Do not have a single thing to do with schismatics and absolutely nothing with heretics...As you know I myself have avoided them due to their Christ hating and heterodox heresy."

10. He also said, "Our life and our death is with our neighbor. If we gain our brother, we have gained God, but if we scandalize our brother, we have sinned against Christ." (Source: Synaxaristes)

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DIVINE SERVICES FOR THE FEAST-DAY OF SAINT ANTHONY:

Vespers Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. (Chapel of Saint Nektarios).

Orthros at 9:00 a.m. and Divine Liturgy at 10:00 a.m. at the Chapel of Saint Nektarios.

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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" -- Saint John Chrysostomos

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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George

How to the Read Holy Bible (Part V)

My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

HOW TO READ THE HOLY BIBLE (Part V)
By Metropolitan KALLISTOS (Ware) of Diokleia

The Bible as Personal

According to Saint Mark the Monk ("Mark the Ascetic"," fifth/sixth century), "He who is humble in his thoughts and engaged in spiritual work, when he reads the Holy Scripture, will apply everything to himself and not his neighbor." We are to look throughout Scripture for a personal application. Our question is not simply, "What does it mean?" but "What does it mean for me?" As Saint Tlikhon insists, "Christ Himself is speaking to you." Scripture is a direct, intimate dialogue between the Savior and myself--Christ addressing me, and my heart responding. That is the fourth criterion in our Bible reading.

I am to see the narratives in Holy Scripture as part of my own personal story. The description of Adam's fall is equally an account of something to my own experience. Who is Adam? His name means simply "man," "human": it is I who am Adam. It is to me that God says, "Adam, Where are You?" (Genesis 3:9). We often ask, "Where is God?" But the real question is the one that God puts to Adam in each of us: "Where are you?"

Who is Cain, the murderer of his brother? It is myself. God's challenge, "Where is Abel your brother? (Genesis 4:9), is addressed to the Cain in each of us. The way to God lies through love for other people, and there is no other way. Disowning my sister or brother, I replace the image of God with the mark of Cain, and deny my essential humanity.

There are three steps to be taken when reading the Holy Scripture: (1) First, we reflect that wheat we have in Holy Scripture is sacred history, the history of the world from the Creation, the history of God's chosen people, the history of God Himself incarnate in Palestine, the history of the "mighty works" (Acts 2:11) after Pentecost. We are never to forget that what we find in the Holy Bible is not an ideology, not a philosophical theory, but a historical faith.

(2) Next, we observe the particularity, the specificity, of this Sacred History. In the Holy Bible we find God intervening at specific times and in particular places, entering into dialogue with individual humans. We see before us the distinctive calls issued by God to each different person, to Abraham, Moses and David, to Rebekah and Ruth, to Isaiah and the Prophets. We see God becoming Incarnate once only, in a particular corner of the earth, at a particular moment and from a particular Mother. This particularity we are to regard not as a scandal but as a blessing. Divine Love is universal in its scope, but always personal in it expression.

This sense of the specificity of the Holy Bible is a vital element in the Orthodox Christian "Scriptural mind." If you really love the Bible, you will love genealogies and details of dating and geography. One of the best ways is to walk where Christ walked. Go down near the Dead Sea, climb the mountain of the Temptation, scan the desolation, feel how Christ must have felt during His forty days alone in the wilderness. Drink from the well where Jesus spoke with the Samaritan woman. Take a boat out on the Sea of Galilee, have the sailors stop the engine, gaze in silence across the water. Go at night to the Garden of Gethsemane, sit in the dark under the ancient olives, and look across the valley to the historical setting, and take that experience back with you to your daily Scripture reading.

(3) Then we are to take a third step. After reliving Bible History in all its particularity, we are to apply it directly to ourselves. We are to say to ourselves, "These are not just distant places, events in the remote past. They belong to my own encounter with the Lord. The stories include me."

A personal approach of this kind means that in reading the Holy Bible we are not simply detached and objective observers, absorbing information, taking note of facts. The Holy Bible is not merely a work of literature or a collection of historical documents, although certainly it can be approached on that level. It is, much more fundamentally, a sacred book, addressed to believers, to be read with faith and love (agape). We shall not profit fully from reading the Gospels unless we are in love with Christ. "Heart speaks to heart": I enter into the living truth of Holy Scripture only when my heart responds with love to the heart of God.

Reading Holy Scripture in this way--in obedience, as a member of the Church, finding Christ everywhere, seeing everything as part of my own personal story--we shall sense something of the power and healing to be found in the Holy Bible. Yet always in our biblical voyage of exploration we are only at the very beginning. We are like someone launching out in a tiny boat across a limitless ocean. But, however great the journey, we can embark on it today, at this very hour, in this very moment.

At the high point of his spiritual crisis, wrestling with himself alone in the garden, Saint Augustine heard a child's voice crying out, "Take up and read, take up and read." He took up his Bible and read; and what he read altered his entire life. Let us do the same: take up and read.

"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my paths" (Psalm 118:105). (Source: Orthodox Bible Study)

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Please note: There may be some of you that have never read the Holy Bible, however, there is no time to lose. Begin today! Open your own personal dialogue with our Heavenly Father and invite Him into your life. Open your heart "that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height--to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:17-19).

If you do not have the Orthodox Study Bible you may purchase it through our Saint Andrew Bookstore. Our bookstore has holy icons, Orthodox prayer books, incense, candles, Divine Liturgy books, etc. 

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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" -- Saint John Chrysostomos

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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George