On Patristic Theology

9 Martyred Brothers of Kola

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 PATRISTIC THEOLOGY
By Father John S. Romanides (+ 2001)

Human beings can have two kinds of faith. The first kind of faith, which has its seat in the mind, is the reasonable faith of acceptance. In this case, a person rationally accepts something and believes in what he has accepted, but this faith does not justify him. When Holy Scripture says, "Man is saved by faith alone" (Ephesians 2:8), it does not mean that he is saved merely by the faith of acceptance. There is, however, another kind of faith, the faith of the heart. It is referred to in this way because this kind of faith is not found in the human reason or intellect, but in the region of the heart. This faith of the heart is a gift of God that you will not receive unless God decides to grant it. It is also called inner faith, which is the kind of faith that father of young lunatic in the Gospel asked Christ to given him when he said, "Lord, help my unbelief" (St. Matthew 9:24). Naturally, the father already believed with his reason, but he did not have that deep inner faith that is a gift of God.

Inner faith is rooted in an (empirical) experience of grace. And since it is an experience of grace, what would this make inner faith as far as an Orthodox Christian is concerned? Inner faith is noetic prayer. When someone has noetic prayer in his heart, which means the prayer of the Holy Spirit in his heart, then he has inner faith. Through this kind of faith and by means of prayer, he beholds things that are invisible. When someone has this kind of vision, it is called theoria. Theoria, in fact, means vision.

As a rule, there are two ways for vision to take place.

When a person has not yet attained to theosis (deification), it is still possible for him to see by means of the prayer that the Holy Spirit is speaking within his heart. After attaining to theosis, however, he can see my means of theosis, in which both this inner faith (i.e., prayer of the heart) and hope are set aside, and only love for God remains (as a gift of God). This is what Saint Paul means when he says: "But when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away" (1 Corinthians 13:10 and 13:13). Note that since faith and hope have fulfilled their purpose and man has reached the point of seeing God, the source of his faith and hope, he now simply knows and loves the One Who is Agape (Love).

When the perfect is come, faith and hope are thus done away, and only love (agape) remains.  And this love is theosis. In theosis, knowledge comes to an end; prophecy is set aside; tongues, which are in noetic prayer, cease; and only agape (love) remains. The Church Holy Fathers in turn offer interpretations of these subjects that are indisputably correct. These interpretations are found throughout the entire philokalia.

What is the core of orthodox tradition?

We happen to be entrusted with a treasure--the theology of Orthodox Christian Tradition. Orthodox Christian theology is the culmination and product of centuries of experience that have been repeated renewed and recorded by those who have experienced theosis (deification) at different times. We have the experience of the Patriarchs and Prophets as well as the later experience of the Holy Apostles. We call all of these experiences glorification. To say the Prophet was glorified means that the prophet saw the glory of God. To say the Holy Apostle was glorified means that the Apostle saw the glory of Christ. Seeing the glory of Christ, the Apostle ascertained by his own experience that the glory of Christ in the New Testament is the glory of God in the Old Testament. Hence, Christ is the Yahweh and the Elohim of the Old Testament.

Although it is not clear in the Old Testament Who the Holy Spirit is, the Holy Apostles discovered Who He is by experience. Their experience repeats the experience of the Prophets, but there is a difference because the Apostles were glorified after the Incarnation: Yahweh of the Old Testament now has the human nature of Christ. Although three of the Holy Apostles were partially glorified during the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor, all of the Apostles were glorified at Pentecost, during which they reached the highest state of glorification that any human being can ever reach in this life.

After the experience of the Holy Apostles come the experiences of the glorified who include the Church Holy Fathers and those Saints who reached theosis (deification). And so the experience of theosis continues to appear in each generation up to the present. This experience of theosis is the core of the Orthodox Holy Tradition, the foundation of the Local and Ecumenical Synods (Councils) and the basis for the Church's canon law and liturgical life today.

If the contemporary Orthodox theologian is to acquire objectivity, he must rely on the experience of theosis (deification). In other words, we can positively state that a student of Patristic tradition has acquired objectivity in this theological method only when he has personally undergone purification and illumination, and reached theosis. Only in this way will the researcher not only understand the Patristic tradition but also verify for himself the Truth of this tradition through the Holy Spirit. (Source: Orthodox Heritage)

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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 (Ministry)
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George

"Action Speaks Louder Than Words"

My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ God,
Christ is in our midst! He was, is, and ever shall be.

"Action speaks louder than words" is an age old proverb.

Oftentimes, people will say one thing and do another. A person should never boast about anything not only before but also after one has achieved it. You won't be able to work harder to achieve your next goal if you do not come out of the pride of your first achievement.

Something similar is written in the Holy Scripture. Saint James the Holy Apostles speaking about faith and works writes, "What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,' but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, 'You have faith, and I have works.' Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works" (St. James 14:1-18).

The faith that saves is a complete faith (faith and works): not just the mind believing and the tongue confessing, but the whole man trusting in the Living God. Static faith does not save. We must nurture our faith in God and love for Him through our works (our actions).

We, Orthodox clergy and faithful together, are the living Church. We are the body of Christ and He is the Head of the Church. Saint Paul writes: "For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another" (Romans 12:4-5). Our mission is one and the same, the salvation of mankind. Also Saint Paul in his first epistle to the Corinthians writes, "For in fact the body is not one member but many. If the foot should say, 'Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body,' is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, 'because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,' is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? It the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you'; not again the head to the feet, 'I have no need of you.' ... "that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored all the members rejoice with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually" (1 Cor. 12:12-27).

I pray that you will meditate on what Saint Paul wrote for us and all those fellow Christians in the future. As members of the body of Christ we have been given divine gifts, gifts that should be used for the good of all. All the members of the Church should be active and energized to do God's work here on earth. Complacency is not acceptable. Lack of interest is not acceptable. Negativism is not acceptable. Lack of love for Christ and the Church is not acceptable. Hypocrisy is not acceptable. Laziness is not acceptable. Pride and ego are not acceptable. Selfishness is not acceptable. What is acceptable is unconditional love for Christ and our Holy Orthodox Christian Church.

We are all asked to put our shoulder to the wheel and move our parish forward. We should not allow our parish to be stuck in one place indefinitely. We all need to share in the work of our local church and to support it by becoming engaged and by volunteering our services. Thus far the total responsibility of operating the church has fallen on the few volunteer members of the Parish Council and it is just not acceptable.

The parish needs volunteers for everything. Volunteers are needed for the parish ministries, for the annual Greek Festival, for fund-raising events, for visiting the sick in the hospitals and nursing facilities, for local charities, etc. We, as a parish, need to expend our horizons and have an outreach program to extend our services beyond the borders of our parish. This includes our Metropolis of Chicago and Archdiocese.

We, as a parish, cannot afford to remain inept and inert. If this happens the parish will die from within. Of course, this is not all. The Orthodox Christian members of Saint Andrew need to do their very best to learn as much as possible about what they believe, to have a prayer life, to have a sacramental life, to have philanthropic life, and to be willing to strengthen their spiritual life altogether. Only then can we, by the grace of God, become a vibrant, dynamic, strong, useful, and productive Christian community.

Thank you for listening and for your prayers.

In Christ's service,

+Father George

A Guide to the Triodion and Lent

My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ God,
Christ is in our midst! He was, is, and ever shall be.

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A GUIDE TO THE TRIODION AND HOLY LENT

General Rules

For our Holy Father, the purpose of the entire Triodion was to remind us in brief of God's benefaction to us from the beginning and to instill in the memory of all how we were fashioned by Him, and how we violated the commandment which He gave us for the sake of our nakedness; how we were banished from the delight of Paradise and expelled through the envy of our enemy the serpent, the Author of evil, who was brought down on account of his pride, and how we remained outcasts from the good things of Paradise and were led around by the Devil; how the Son of the Logos/Word of God, moved by compassion, bowed the Heavens and came down, dwelt in the Virgin and became man for our sake, and through His own way of life showed us how to ascend back to Heaven through humility, fasting, and refraining from evil deeds, and through His actions; how He suffered, arose, and ascended to the Heavens, and sent forth the Holy Spirit upon His Holy Disciples and Apostles; and how He was proclaimed Son of God and perfect God by them throughout the world; what the Divine Apostles accomplished through the Grace of the All-Holy Spirit; and that they gathered together all the Saints from the ends of the earth through their preaching, replenishing the world above, which was the goal of the Creator from the very beginning.

This, then, is the purpose of the Triodion.

RULES OF FAST DURING THE FIRST THREE WEEKS OF THE TRIODION

1. No fasting during the week after the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee (there is no fasting this week).

2. Wednesday and Friday during the week after the Sunday of the Prodigal Son are fast days.

3. The weekdays after the Sunday of the Last Judgment all foods are eaten except meat.

4. On Clean Monday (Kathara Theftera), the day after the Forgiveness Sunday begins the Fast of Holy and Great Lent.

GENERAL RULES OF THE LENTEN FAST

The Lenten Fast rules that we observe today were established within the Monasteries of the Orthodox Church during the 6th through 11th centuries. These rules are intended for all Orthodox Christians, not just monks and nuns.

The First week of Holy Lent is especially strict. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, a total fast is kept. In practice, very few people are able to do this. Some find it necessary to eat a little each day after sunset. Many Faithful do fast completely on Monday and then eat only uncooked food (bread, fruit, nuts) on Tuesday evening. On Wednesday, the fast is kept until after the Presanctified Liturgy.

From the second through the sixth weeks of Holy Lent, the general rules for fasting are practiced. Meat, animal products (cheese, milk, butter; eggs, lard), fish (meaning fish with backbones), olive oil and wine (all alcoholic drinks) are not consumed during the weekdays of Great Lent. Octopus and shell-fish are allowed, as is vegetable oil. On weekends, olive oil and wine are permitted.

According to what was done in the monasteries, one meal a day is eaten on weekdays and two meals on weekends of Great Lent. No restriction is placed on the amount of food during the meal, though moderation is always encouraged in all areas of one's life at all times.

Fish, oil and wine are allowed on the Feast of the Annunciation (Evaggelismos) on March 25th and on Palm Sunday (one week before Pascha). 

Holy and Great week is strict fasting for all!

In Christ,

+Father George

Adhering to Church Protocol

My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ God,
Christ is in our midst! He was, is, and ever shall be.

GOVERNANCE OF THE PARISH

The Parish church is governed and administered in accordance with the Faith, Tradition and Holy Canons of the Church together with the provisions of the Charter, and the Uniform Parish Regulations of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.

PART THREE
UNIFORM PARISH REGULATION
CHAPTER ONE
PARISH AND PARISH ORGANIZATION

Section 1: The Parish is the local Eucharistic community of the Church in a given locality; organized under the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese whose ecclesiastical authority is its canonically consecrated Hierarch. Locally, the Parish is headed by a canonically ordained and duly appointed Priest...

Section 2: The aims and purposes of the Parish are to keep, practice and proclaim the Orthodox Christian Faith pure and undefiled.

Section 4: The diakonia (ministry) of the Parish will include proclaiming and teaching the Gospel in accordance with the Orthodox Faith: sanctifying the faithful through God's grace in worship, the Divine Liturgy and the other sacraments; enhancing its parishioners spiritual life; and adding to the numbers of the faithful by receiving persons into the Church through instruction, baptism and/or chrismation...

ARTICLE 17

Section 1. The Priest by virtue of his canonical ordination and assignment heads and administers the parish and exercises on its behalf the priestly duties, which consist in shepherding the parish entrusted to his care, directing its orderly life, preserving its unity and keeping it faithful to its divine purpose...

ARTICLE 18: PARISHIONERS

Section 1. Every person who is baptized and chrismated according to the rites of the Orthodox Church is a parishioner. The religious, moral and social duties of a parishioner are to apply the tenets of the Orthodox Christian Faith to his/her life and to: adhere to and live according to the tenets of the orthodox faith; faithfully attend the Divine Liturgy and other worship services; participate regularly in the holy sacraments; respect all ecclesiastical authority and all governing bodies of the Church; be obedient in matters of the Faith, practice and ecclesiastical order; contribute towards the progress of the Church's sacred mission; and be an effective witness and example of the Orthodox Faith and Traditions to all people.

CHAPTER TWO
PARISH COUNCIL
ARTICLE 24

Section 1: To serve on a Parish Council is a ministry and all those who serve are called to represent Christ and the Orthodox Faith to all whom they meet in all aspects of life. The Parish Council shall consist of the priest, as the head of the parish and a number of elected lay members fixed by the Parish Bylaws or by local statue according to the needs of the Parish...

As brothers and sisters in Christ, we need to understand that whatever we do within our church is done for His glory. We are all servants (diakonoi) of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and we adhere to His commandments to "love one another." "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (St. John 13:34-35).

The members of the Parish Council and I love all of you and we are committed to serving our church with total sincerity and devotion. We only ask that all of you continue to pray for us as we keep all of you in our prayers. By the grace of God, our parish will continue to grow in Christ and to progress both spiritually and materially.

None of us are perfect and mistakes are made by all of us no matter how careful we are and for that, we ask for your understanding and indulgence. However, it is important for all of our fellow parishioners to be as supportive, forgiving, understanding and kind towards all. If anyone of you has a constructive proposal or criticism it is one's duty to bring it to your priest's attention. Our relationship is one of friendship and not adversarial! There is an ecclesiastical protocol that all must follow out of respect for your priest and for his sacred office. He is the only overseer of the parish and the only one who represents His Eminence the Metropolitan. Your parish priest is also accountable to his Metropolitan for everything that occurs within his parish. Your priest, as you very well know, is always accessible to all and at all times of the day or night.

Be kind, respectful, supportive, generous, positive, cooperative, appreciative, as well as pray that our Almighty God will continue to bless and protect all of your brothers and sisters in Christ.

With agape in God and Savior Jesus Christ,

+Father George

Daily Cycles of Divine Services and Prayer

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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DAILY CYCLES OF DIVINE SERVICES AND OF PRAYER

Our Great and Divine Benefactor Jesus Christ commands His followers and says, "Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with 'carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the fact of the whole earth. 'Watch, therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man'. And in the daytime He was teaching in the temple, but at night He went out and stayed on the mountain called Olivet. Then early in the morning, all the people came to Him in the temple to hear Him" (St. Luke 21:34-38).

"Coming out, He went to the Mount of Olives, as He was accustomed, and His disciples also followed Him. When He came to the place, He said to them, 'Pray that you may not enter into temptation.' And He was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and prayed...When He rose up from prayer and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow. Then He said to them, 'Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation' (St. Luke 22:39-46).

Our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ prayed constantly and taught His disciples also to pray "lest they enter into temptation." The life of the Orthodox Christian is a life of prayer and worship. Just as we cannot live without oxygen so we cannot live without daily prayer. Saint John Chrysostom writes, "When we converse with God at the time of prayer we become similar to the Angels and dissimilar to the irrational beings. For the work par excellence of the Angels is prayer and worship. By praying with much awe and presenting themselves to us as an example, the angels teach us to learn and to know that we must pray to God with joy and with fear."

Saint John Chrysostom again reminds us that "Divine Providence has made us capable of enjoying constant communion with God, through which we appear not to be mortal and transient. Even though by nature we are mortal, it is through our conversation with God that we are transferred into immortal life. For the one who holds conversation with God must be by necessity above death and every moral and spiritual corruption. And by the same token, as it is most essential for one who enjoys the rays of the sun to be free of darkness, so also the one who enjoys conversation with God must no longer be mortal, precisely because the magnitude of this honor transfer us into the realm of spiritual immortality. It is impossible for those who pray and speak to God to have mortal souls. The death of the soul is precisely impiety and a sinful life, while the life of the soul is the worship of God."

It is this precisely why our Holy Orthodox Church and Tradition affords us the opportunity to pray more often, to worship more often, to receive the Mysteria (Sacraments) more often and to be in communion with Our God and Creator constantly. In First Thessalonians 5: 16-17, Saint Paul writes, "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing."

Esperinos (Vespers)

In our Holy Orthodox Tradition, the day begins in the evening with the setting of the sun. This practice adheres to the account in the Holy Scripture of creation: "And there was evening and there was morning, one day" (Genesis 1:5).

Great Vespers divine service always begins with the chanting of the evening psalm: "...the sun knows it's time for setting, Thou makest darkness and it is night...." (Psalm 104:19-20). This specific psalm, which glorifies God's creation of the world, is man's very first act of worship, for man, first of all, meets God as Creator.

Following the psalm, the Great Litany, the opening petition of all liturgical services of the Church is intoned. In it, we pray to the Lord for everyone and everything.

Following this litany a number of psalms are chanted, a different group each evening. These psalms normally are omitted in parish churches though they are conducted in Orthodox monasteries. On the eve of Sunday, however, sections of the first psalm and the other psalms which are chanted to begin the week are usually chanted even in the parish church.

Psalm 141 is always chanted at Vespers. During this psalm the evening incense is offered:

Lord, I call upon Thee, (Kyrie Ekekracsa...), hear me, Hear me, O Lord. Let my prayer arise in Thy sight as incense. And let the lifting up of my hands be an evening sacrifice.  Hear me, O Lord (Psalm 141:1-2)

Another inspiring hymn chanted at Vespers is Phos Ilaron or O joyful Light...

Priest: O Joyful Light of the holy glory of the Immortal Father, the Heavenly, Holy, Blessed Jesus Christ. Now that we have reached the setting of the sun and behold the evening light, we sing to God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is fitting at all times to praise You with cheerful voices, O Son of God, the Giver of life. Behold, the world sings Your glory."

Of course, there is more to the Vespers service.

Orthros (Matins)

The morning service of the Church is called Orthros (Matins). It begins with the reading of Six Psalms and the intoning of the Great Litany.  Following this, verses of Psalm 118 are chanted. The Troparion is then chanted. Once again there are hymns on the theme of the particular day. On major feast days, special praises and psalms are chanted, which on the Lord's Day (Sunday) praise Christ's Resurrection. On major feasts and on Sundays, the Gospel is also read.

Following the Gospel lesson, there is a long intercessory prayer followed by a set of hymns and readings called the Canon. These hymns are based on the Old Testament canticles and conclude with the so-called Magnificat (St. Luke 1:46-55) "Let us honor and magnify in song the Theotokos and the Mother of Light...Verse: My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. Greater in honor than the Cherubim, and in glory greater beyond compare than the Seraphim; you without corruption gave birth to God the Logos/Word, and are truly Theotokos, You do we magnify.

The divine service of Orthros (Matins) unites the elements of Morning psalmody and prayer with meditation on the Biblical canticles, the Gospel reading, and the particular theme of the day in the given verses and hymns. The themes of God's revelation and light are also always central to the morning service of the Church.

The above are just a glimpse of the divine services of the Church.  

At our beloved church of Saint Andrew, we offer and make available to all our faithful the above services and much more throughout the week. Make every possible effort to attend at least of the divine services a week  It will bring you God's grace and blessing.

With agape in Christ,

+Father George

The Beginning of the Triodion

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 BEGINNING OF THE TRIODION (THE SUNDAY OF THE PUBLICAN AND THE PHARISEE) - February 17th.

[Gospel reading: St. Luke 18:10-14)

On this and the following two Sundays, the theme is repentance. Repentance is the door through which we enter Lent, the starting-point of our journey to Pascha. And to repent signifies far more than self-pity or futile regret over things done in the past. The Greek word metanoia means 'change of mind': to repent is to be renewed, to be transformed in our inward viewpoint, to attain a fresh way of looking at our relationship to God and to others. The fault of the Pharisee is that he has no desire to change his outlook; he is complacent, self-satisfied, and so he allows no place for God to act with him. The Publican, on the other hand, truly longs for a 'change of mind': he is self-dissatisfied, 'poor in spirit', and where there is self-dissatisfaction there is room for God to act. Unless we learn the secret of the Publican's inward poverty, we shall not share in the Lenten springtime. The theme of the day can be summed up in a saying of the Holy Desert Fathers: Better a man who has sinned, if he knows that he has sinned and repents than a man who has not sinned and thinks of himself as righteous.

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Before the Festival of Pascha there has developed a long preparatory season of repentance and fasting, extending in present Orthodox usage over ten weeks. First, come twenty-two days (four successive Sundays) of preliminary observance; then six weeks or forty days of the Great Fast of Lent; and finally Holy and Great Week. Balancing the seven weeks of Lent and Holy and Great Week, there follows after Pascha a corresponding season of fifty (50) days of thanksgiving, concluding with Pentecost.

Each of these seasons has its own liturgical book. For the time of preparation, there is the Lenten Triodion or 'Book of Three Odes'. For the time of thanksgiving, there is the Pentekostarion also known in Slav usage as the Festal Triodion. The point of division between the two books is midnight on the evening of Holy and Great Saturday, with Matins (Orthros) for Pascha Sunday as the first service in the Pentekostarion. This division into the distinct volumes, made for reasons of practical convenience, should not cause us to overlook the essential unity between the Lord's Crucifixion and His Resurrection, which together form a single, indivisible action. And just as the Crucifixion and the Resurrection are one action, so also the 'three holy days' - Great Friday, Holy Saturday and Pascha - constitute a single liturgical observance. Indeed, the division of the Lenten Triodion and the Pentekostarion into two books did not become standard until after the 11th century; in early manuscripts, they are both contained in the same codex.

What do we find, then, in this book of preparation that we term the Lenten Triodion? It can most briefly be described as the book of the fast. Just as the children of Israel ate the 'bread of affliction' (Deuteronomy 16:3) in preparation for the Passover, so Christians prepare themselves for the celebration of the New Passover by observing a fast. But what is meant by this word 'fast' (nisteia)? Here the utmost care is needed, so as to preserve a proper balance between the outward and the inward. On the outward level fasting involves physical abstinence from food and drink, and without such exterior abstinence a full and true fast cannot be kept, yet the rules about eating and drinking must never be treated as an end in themselves, for ascetic fasting has always an inward and unseen purpose. Man is a unity of body and soul, 'a living creature fashioned from natures visible and invisible', in the words of the Triodion; and our ascetic fasting should, therefore, involve both these natures at once. The tendency to over-emphasize external rules about food in a legalistic way, and the opposite tendency to scorn these rules as outdated and unnecessary, are both alike to be deplored as a betrayal of true Orthodoxy. In both cases, the proper balance the outward and the inward has been impaired. (Source: The Lenten Triodion translated from the original Greek by Mother Mary and Metropolitan Kallistos Ware)

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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 (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George