The Sacred Gift of Life

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 SACRED GIFT OF LIFE: ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY AND BIOETHICS
By Father John Breck (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1998)

Introduction

"The glory of God is a living person and the life of the person is the vision of God" (Saint Irenaeus).

"Abba Lot went to see Abba (Father) Joseph and said to him, 'Abba, as far as I can I say my little office, I fast a little, I pray and meditate, I live in peace and as far as I can, I purify my thoughts. What else can I do?' Then the old man (geronda) stood up and stretched his hands towards heaven. His fingers became like ten lamps of fire and he said to him, 'If you will, you can become all flame!" - Joseph of Panephysis

"Ascend, brothers, ascend eagerly, and be resolved in your hearts to ascend and bear Him who says: 'Come and let us up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of our God, who makes our feet like hinds' feet and sets us on high places, that we may be victorious with His song." -- Saint John Climacus

The Sacredness and Sanctity of Human Life

Orthodox Christianity affirms that life is a gift freely bestowed by the God of love. Human life, therefore, is to be received and welcomed with an attitude of joy and thanksgiving. It is to be cherished, preserved and protected as the most sublime expression of God's creative activity. God has brought us "from non-being into being" for more than mere biological existence. He has chosen us for life, of which the ultimate end is participation in the eternal glory of the risen Christ, "in the inheritance of the saints in light" (Col. 1:123; Ephesians 1:18).

In the language of the Eastern Church Holy Fathers, this transcendent destiny of telos of human existence is expressed as theosis or "deification." To the Patristic mind, God in His innermost Being remains forever transcendent, beyond all we can know or experience. An unbridgeable gulf separates the creature from the Creator, human nature from divine nature. The Orthodox teaching on theosis nevertheless affirms that our primal vocation or calling is to participate in divine life itself, to "ascend to the house of our God," where we shall enjoy eternal communion with the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity. How does Orthodox teaching resolve this tension between the absolute transcendence of God and his accessibility in the life of faith? We can answer the question, briefly and schematically, in the following way.

From the inner mystery of his absolute "otherness," the total inaccessibility of His Divine nature or being, God reaches out to the created world and to his human creatures, to save, restore and heal all that is sinful and corrupt. By means of what Saint Irenaeus called his "two hands" - the Son and the Spirit-God the Father assumes and embraces human life, filling it with his attributes or energies" of love, power, justice, goodness and beauty. Thereby he opens the way for our ascension into the realm of holiness, where those who live and die in Christ join with the Saints of all ages, to offer their worship of praise and thanksgiving before the Divine glory and majesty. Human life, therefore, finds its ultimate fulfillment beyond death, in the boundless communion of "righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" that constitutes the Kingdom of God (Romans 14:17)...

"...It is as personal beings that we bear the ineradicable image of God; in fact, that image determines our personhood. Yet we are fulfilled as persons, and thus actualize within ourselves authentic sanctity, through the arduous work of ongoing repentance and ascetic struggle that leads to personal growth in the Divine likeness. The "sacredness" of life, in other words, is intrinsic to our very nature; yet it is "actualized," made concrete and effective in daily existence, through our ceaseless effort to affirm and preserve an authentic "sanctity" or holiness of life. Acquisition of sanctity therefore, requires our active participation , a "synergy" or cooperation in these terms: "Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God (ton kata theon) in true righteousness and holiness" (Ephesians 4:22-24, RSV).

"Sacredness" and "sanctity" are often used synonymously to speak of the Divine origin and purpose of human existence. In light of what we have just stressed, however, it might be preferable to speak of our life as "sacred" by virtue of its created nature that embodies and gives expression to the Divine "image." The life of every person is "sacred", insofar as it is created by God with the purpose of participating in his own holiness, and possesses the capacity to reflect the presence and glory of God from its depths. (However much that capacity may be diminished by sin and willful rejection of God, Orthodox anthropology affirms that the Divine image can be obscured but never eradicated; there is no "total depravity," however morally depraved a given individual may in fact be.) "Sanctity," on the other hand, would refer to the personal or "hypostatic" qualities that one attains through ascetic struggle against temptation and sin, as well as through the acquisition of virtue. Sacredness would thus be considered as a function of "nature" and sanctity, as a function of "person."

"...Endowed with "sacredness" from its conception, human life thus finds its ultimate sense, its deeply "spiritual" meaning, in the quest for "sanctity" or holiness. This distinction between sacredness and sanctity is useful, and it conforms to Orthodox anthropology. Modern ethical discourse nevertheless tends to confuse the terms. This is especially evident in the impassioned discussions between those who represent either a "sanctity of life" or a "quality of life" perspective in assessing moral issues.

"...Today's world is one that poses radically new and extraordinarily difficult ethical dilemmas for all of us. This is particularly true in those areas where modern technology has created problems and possibilities that were never envisioned or addressed life-support and euthanasia, together with the burning issue of physician-assisted suicide.

Introduction into this country of the French manufactured RU-486 pill is opening the okay to do-it-yourself abortions, and other combinations of available chemicals will soon permit a woman to abort an embryo or fetus in the privacy of her own bathroom. Extra-uterine conception has become routine, and its consequences in the realm of sexuality are dramatic. If the pill separated sex from procreation, in vitro fertilization (IVF) has separated procreation from sex. As a result, the covenantal, unitive value of conjugal relations, as a means of participating in God's own creative activity, has been largely obscured. Marriage is no longer perceived as an eternal bond of mutual faithfulness, responsibility and devotion. Prenuptial contracts, live-in experimentation and quickie divorce are becoming increasingly the norm. We should hardly be surprised, then, at the exponential growth in ersatz homosexual "marriage," teen-pregnancies with single-parenting, and prime-time sexual exploitation.

"...Orthodox ethics, and particularly medical ethics or bioethics that deals specifically with issues of life and death, is based on at least the following presumptions:

1) God is absolutely sovereign over every aspect of human existence, from conception to the grave and beyond. This conviction is well expressed in a popular morning prayer, attributed variously to Saint Philaret of Moscow (+1867) or to spiritual father of the Optino Monastery: "Teach me to treat all that comes to me throughout the day with peace of soul and with firm conviction that Thy will governs all...in unforeseen events, let me not forget that all am sent by Thee." The Divine imperative to "Choose life!" is fulfilled by loving the Lord, obeying His voice and cleaving to Him (Dt 30:19); that is, by offering ourselves in total surrender to His Sovereign Authority and purpose. That authority is precisely what requires Orthodox Christians to reject "abortion on demand," active euthanasia, and any procedure that means taking life (and death) into our own hands.

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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

"Prayer Without Ceasing"

St. Raphael the Bishop of Brooklyn

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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"PRAYER WITHOUT CEASING" IS NECESSARY FOR ALL CHRISTIANS
By Saint Gregory Palamas

Let no one think, my brethren Christians, that it is the duty only of priests and monks to pray without ceasing, and not of laymen. No, no; it is the duty of all of us Christians to remain always in prayer.

Saint Gregory the Theologian teaches all Christians to say God's name in prayer more often than to breathe. So, my Christian brethren. I too implore you, together also with Saint John Chrysostom, for the sake of saving your souls, do not neglect the practice of this prayer. Imitate those I have mentioned and follow in their footsteps as far as you can.

At first, it may appear very difficult to you, but be assured, as it were from Almighty God, that this very Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, constantly invoked by you, will help you to overcome all difficulties, and the course of time you will become used to this practice and will taste how sweet is the name of the Lord. Then you will learn by experience that this practice is not impossible and not difficult, but both possible and easy. This is why Saint Paul, who knew better than we the great good which such prayer would bring, commanded us to pray without ceasing. He would not have imposed this obligation upon us if it were extremely difficult and impossible, for he knew beforehand that in such case, having no possibility of fulfilling it, we would inevitably prove to be disobedient and would transgress his commandment, thus incurring blame and condemnation. The holy Apostle could have had no such intention.

Moreover, bear in mind the method of prayer--how it is possible to pray without ceasing, namely by praying in the mind. And this we can always do if we so wish.  For when we sit down to work with our hands, when we walk, when we eat, when we drink we can always pray mentally and practice this mental prayer--the true prayer pleasing to God. Let us work with the body and pray with our soul. Let our outer man perform his bodily tasks, and let the inner man be entirely dedicated to the service of God, never abandoning this spiritual prayer, as Jesus, God, and Man, commanded us, saying" "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to Thy Father which is in secret" (St. Matthew 6:6).

The closet of the soul is the body; our doors are the five bodily senses. The soul enters its closet when the mind does not wander here and there, roaming among things and affairs of the world, but stays within, in our heart. Our senses become closed and remain closed when we do not let them be attached to external sensory things and in this way, our mind remains free from every worldly attachment, and by secret mental prayer unites with God its Father. "And thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly," adds the Lord. God Who knows all secret things sees mental prayer and rewards it openly with great gifts. For that prayer is true and perfect which fills the soul with Divine Grace and spiritual gifts. As chrism perfumes the jar the more strongly the tighter it is closed, so prayer, the more fast it is imprisoned in the heart, abounds the more in Divine Grace.  

Blessed are those who acquire the habit of this heavenly practice, for by it they overcome every temptation of the evil demons, as David overcame the proud Goliath. It extinguished the unruly lusts of the flesh, as the three men extinguished the flames of the furnace. This practice of inner prayer tames passions as Daniel tamed the wild beasts. By it the dew of the Holy Spirit is brought down upon the heart, as Elijah brought down rain on Mount Carmel. This mental prayer reaches to the very Throne of God and is preserved in golden vials, sending forth their odors before the Lord, as Saint John the Divine saw in the Revelation, "Four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of the Saints" (Revelation 5:8).

This mental prayer is the light which illumines man's soul and inflames his heart with the fire of love of God. It is the chain linking God with man and man with God. Oh, the incomparable blessing of mental prayer! It allows a man constantly to converse with God. Oh truly wonderful and more than wonderful--to be with one's body among men while in one's mind conversing with God. Angels have no physical voice, but mentally never cease to sing glory to God. This is their sole occupation and all their life is dedicated to this.

Finally, my brother and sister, whoever you may be, when you take up this book and, having read it, wish to test in practice the profit which mental prayer brings to the soul, I beg you, when you begin to pray thus, pray God with one invocation, Lord have mercy (Kyrie Eleison), for the soul of him who has worked on compiling this book and of him who helped to give it to the public. For they have great need of your prayer to receive God's mercy for their soul, as you for yours. May it be so! (Amen)! May it be so! (Amen).(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

The Importance of Spiritual Discernment

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 IMPORTANCE OF SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT
By Archbishop Averky (TAUSHEV)

The Importance of Spiritual Discernment

"But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness to him: nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Corinthians 2:14).

Why is the above quote true? Why does the "natural" man not accept that which is from the Spirit of God? And more so, how can he consider it "foolishness"? What does it mean to discern spiritually?

Generally speaking, that person who exhibits best personality traits--a person who is good and warm-hearted--is usually called an "affable, soulful man." Why then cannot such a person understand that which is from the "Spirit of God," even consider it "foolishness"? Were we not taught even in childhood that a person consists of soul and body? That even though the body was made of the earth, the soul is a higher principle, of divine origin, and strives towards God. How then can this soul not know the Spirit of God and not accept that which comes from the Spirit? Here, the holy Apostle Jude the Brother of the Lord, in his General Epistle (Letter) writes that "There are sensual persons, who cause division, not having the Spirit" (St. Jude 1:19).

The concept that a person consists of body and soul is too elementary, primitive in fact, a person's makeup is more complex. When one says that we consist of body and soul, one wants to express the fact that a person is made up not only of inert material but also of a higher principle, which enlivens the material, makes it come alive. "Man became a living being" (Genesis 2:7), and after God made man from the earth, He "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life" (Genesis 2:7). In this manner, every living thing has a soul, every animal:

"Then God said, 'Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures"...So God created every living thing" [animal soul] that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to its kind. And God saw that it was good...Then God said, 'Let the earth bring forth the living creature [living soul] according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind: and it was so" (Genesis 1:20-24).

Thus, in essence, the soul is to be known only as the life source in every living thing, and nothing more.

In this respect, the Lord's statement, "For whoever desires to save his life [soul] will lose it, but whoever loses his life [soul] for My sake and the gospel's will save it" (St. Mark 8:35), becomes entirely clear.

Without an explanation, the Lord's words may seem to many people incomprehensible, even scandalous. The "soul" in the above excerpt is to be understood as the life force, as that which gives life to an otherwise dead body, and nothing more. Thus, the text above takes on an entirely different meaning. The person who wants to save his life [soul]--that is, he who holds on too dearly to his earthly life--will lose it, but the person who gives up his life [soul] for Christ and the Gospel will be the only one who gains true life, not this temporary life but the future, eternal one. Therefore, the understanding that a person consists of body and soul is a primitive one, far from the deep concept of the complexity of human nature. In Saint Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews, we find a more detailed understanding of the makeup of a human. Saint Paul says, "For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12).

Here, we can see how "soul" is differentiated from 'spirit." This differentiation between "spiritual" and "worldly" is found in many places in Sacred Scripture...

Saint Augustine wrote, "Thou O Lord, has created us with a striving for Thee, and our heart is not at rest until it rests in Thee."

1. How does the spirit reveal itself in a person? Saint Theophan indicates three manifestations of the Spirit: (a) the fear of God, (b) the conscience, and (c) the thirst for God: "All people, no matter what degree of development they have reached, know that there is a Supreme Being, God, Who created everything, maintains everything and rules everything, and that they depend on Him in everything, that they must please Him, that He is the Judge and Requiter, Who gives to everyone according to his deeds. Such is the natural credo which is inscribed in the spirit.  By confessing it the spirit venerates God and is filled with the fear of God."

2.Acknowledging itself to be obliged to please God, the soul would not know how to satisfy this obligation if the conscience did not rule it in this area. "[The conscience] indicates what is right and wrong, what is pleasing to God and what is displeasing, what should be done and what should not be done." However, the conscience does not only dictate but compels the person to do what he should as well as "rewarding compliance with comfort punishing noncompliance with remorse. The conscience is the legislator." It is no coincidence that the people call the conscience "the voice of God.

3. It is the property of the spirit to seek God, to strive towards Him, to thirst for Him. Nothing created, earthly, worldly can ever satisfy it. No matter how many good things a person has, it will never seem enough, he will always want more and more. This eternal lack of fulfillment, this constant dissatisfaction proves that our spirit strives towards something Higher, the Ideal, as they say. Therefore, nothing earthly can replace this Higher Being, this Ideal. The soul is restless,  finding no peace. Only in God, in living communion with Him, can a person find total satisfaction and rest, having obtained grace-filled peace of soul and calmness.

These are the manifestations of the spirit in a person. Now it should be clear what the spiritual life consists of, in contrast to the life of the soul and body. The spiritual life consists of satisfying the needs of the spirit, and the needs of the spirit consist of a person's striving  towards God, seeking for living communion with Him, and the desire to live according to God's will. (Source: The Struggle for Virtue. Ascetism in a Modern Secular Society)

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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

The Saturday Before Meatfare Sunday is the First Saturday of Souls

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 SATURDAY BEFORE MEAT-FARE SUNDAY - THE FIRST SATURDAY OF SOULS  

Through the Apostolic Constitutions (Book VIII, ch. 42), the Church of Christ has received the tradition to make commemorations for the departed on the third, ninth, and fortieth days after their repose. Since many throughout the ages, because of untimely death in a faraway place, or other adverse circumstances, have died without being deemed worthy of the appointed memorial services, the divine Fathers, being so moved in their love for man, have decreed that a common memorial be made this day for all pious Orthodox Christians who have reposed from all ages past, so that those who did not have particular memorial services may be included in this common one for all. Also, the Church of Christ teaches us that alms (charity) should be given to the poor by the departed one's kinsmen as a memorial for him.

Besides this, since we make commemoration the following say of the Second Coming of Christ, and since the reposed have neither been judged, nor have received their complete recompense (Acts 17:31; II Peter 2:9; Hebrews 11:39-40), the Church rightly commemorates the souls today, and trusting in the boundless mercy of God, she prays Him to have mercy on sinners. Furthermore, since the commemoration is for all the reposed together, it reminds each of us of his own death and arouses us to repentance. (Source: The Great Horologion)

In addition to the Divine Liturgy, kollyva (boiled wheat) is blessed in church on these Saturdays. The kollyva reminds us of the Lord's words, "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit" (St. John 12:24). The kollyva symbolizes the future resurrection of all the dead. As Saint Simeon of Thessaloniki (+ September 15th) says, man is also a seed which is planted in the ground after death and will be raised up again by God's power. Saint Paul also speaks of this (1 Corinthians 15:35-49).

The Holy Fathers also testify to the benefit of offering prayers, memorial services, liturgies, and alms for the dead (Saint John Chrysostom, Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, Saint John of Damascus, etc.). Although both the righteous and those who have not repented and corrected themselves may receive benefit and consolation from the Church's prayer, it has not been revealed to what extent the unrighteous can receive this solace. It is not possible, however, for the Church's prayer to transfer a soul from a state of evil and condemnation to a state of holiness and blessedness. Saint Basil the Great points out that the time for repentance and forgiveness of sins is during the present life, while the future life is a time for righteous judgment and retribution" (Moralia 1). Saint John Chrysostom, Saint Gregory the Theologian, and other Patristic writers concur with Saint Basil's statement.

By praying for others, we bring benefit to them, and also to ourselves, because "God is not so unjust as to forget your work and the love which you showed for His sake in serving the saints...." (Hebrews 6:10).

History

The origins of kollyva predate Christianity. The word kollyva itself stems from the Ancient Greek word κόλλυβος, which originally meant "a small coin" and later in the neuter plural form "small pies made of boiled wheat". In the ancient Greek panspermia, a mixture of cooked seeds and nuts were offered during the pagan festival of the Anthesteria. For this reason, in Greece kollyva is also called sperma, i.e., seed (s).

In the 5th century, Kollyva in sense of boiled wheat constituted along with raw vegetable the diet of monks who refused to eat bread. The 12th-century canonist Theodore Balsamon maintained that kollyva as a ritual food practice was originated by Athanasius of Alexandria during the reign of the Emperor Julian the Apostate.

Saint Theodore Saturday

The tradition states that the Emperor Julian the Apostate knew that the Christians would be hungry after the first week of strict fasting, and would go to the market places of Constantinople on Saturday to buy food. So he ordered that blood from pagan sacrifices be sprinkled over all the food that was sold there. This made the food unsuitable as Lenten fare (since Christian could not eat meat products during Lent), and in general as food for Christians, who are forbidden to eat food from pagan sacrifices to idols. However, Saint Theodore Tyro appeared in the dream to Archbishop Evdoxius and advised him that the Christians should not eat food bought at the marketplace that day, but only boiled wheat mixed with honey. As a result, this first Saturday of Great Lent has come to be known as Theodore Saturday.

Submitting Names of Your Loved Ones

It is very important for all Orthodox Christians to attend the Divine Liturgy on Saturday of Souls and to give the names of their loved ones to your priest to include them in the memorial service. Please make sure that the names given are the Baptismal names of Orthodox Christians. Last names are not given. The names do not have to be in Greek but you must not give his/her secular names.

The names will be kept for the first three Saturdays of Soul and for the final Fourth, the Saturday before Pentecost. This does not mean, however, that you ignore to attend the Divine Liturgy and memorial service unless you are unable because of health reasons or incapacitated. 

In Christ's service,

+Father George 

The Struggle for Virtue

St. Tarasius the Archbishop of Constantinople

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 STRUGGLE FOR VIRTUE
By Archbishop Averky (Tausheve)

Self-Asserting Pride and Christian Humility

"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this, you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming; and is now already in the world" (1 John 4:1-3).

If such a warning by the beloved disciple of Christ, the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian, was necessary in apostolic times, then it is all the more timely now. For it is unlikely that at any time in human history have so many false prophets captivated people with the specter of good as now, in our times. If we approach this spirit with the standard indicated by the holy Apostle, then it can be shown that they "Do not confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh," even if certain of them do not display open hostility to our Lord and Savior.

So what was the essence of the sin of Adam and Eve?

It was that they questioned the All-Good God the Creator and put more faith in the devil, the enemy of God, than in God, thereby breaking God's Commandment and wishing to become gods themselves knowing good and evil. (See Genesis 3:17)

Therefore, the essence of our primogenitor's sin was that they did not want to obey God, but rather desired to become gods themselves. The devil, in seducing them, communicated to them the cause of his own fall. The spirit of self-asserting human pride, and with it protest against the All-Good will of God, has ever since become rooted in people's souls and has become The cause of mankind's infection with sin and sinful corruption. We can find its footprints throughout the entire history of mankind.

It was precisely this spirit of self-asserting human pride that was the cause of the first war: The fratricide performed by Cain, who was envious of his brother Abel. This awful sin of fratricide led mankind to such a hopeless situation of complete depravity that the Lord had to as radical a means of suppressing the spread of sin as the universal flood. Yet sinful corruption made itself known again in Noah's descendants who survived the flood. His son Ham, whose name became a byword, became a striking example of disrespect to parents and of rejection of parental authority--the source of which was rooted, of course, in that same condescendingly, contemptuously, scornfully, and sarcastically towards other people, even if they are older and worthy of the respect due to their position.

It was this same human pride that induced people, for the sake of "making a name for themselves," to begin construction of the Tower of Babel, which prompted God to counteract against human pride by confusing the tongues, after which people dispersed over all the earth and formed various nations, among whom there has been constant warfare ever since. As such, pride has engendered division among people, making them alien and hostile towards one another.

Dispersed all over the world, people became divided into different tribes and nations; all the while, at the foundation of this division lay that very same self-asserting human pride in the form of so-called national pride. This has given birth to embittered enmity between different nations and the countless wars with which human history is filled, giving the impression, if one opens any modern textbook of history, that the entire history of the human race is essentially a history of war: one war succeeds another--and that is all there is to it. It makes perfect sense that mankind, having lost its unity and having been divided into many nations warring against one another, would have therewith lost faith in the one God, and knowledge of the oneness of the Divinity. Every nation came to have its own national gods that corresponded to its spirit and tastes. Every nation reflected its own national character in its religion, creating gods "in its own image." Such is the origin of paganism, that perverted religion created as the result of that same spirit of self-asserting human pride. This oblivion to the One True God and worship of false gods created by man's imagination "in his own image," this idolization of his passions and vices, became the occasion for a profound moral fall, into vices, became the occasion for a profound fall, into the abyss of which the ancient world descended ever more deeply before the coming of Christ.

The holy Apostle Paul speaks eloquently of this in his Epistle (Letter) to the Romans: "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do these things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evilmindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful"  (Romans 1:28-31).

When evil had reached its highest strain on earth, when mankind through its limitless fall had reached a complete moral impasse, then the "great mystery of Godliness" was accomplished: God sent His Only-Begotten Son to earth to save the perishing human world. How did the Son of God, having come to earth, heal fallen mankind? Naturally, with the very medicine that was capable of healing man's primary disease. Mankind, as we have seen, was sick with pride--so the Lord healed it with humility. His preaching, but above all through His own example--the example of His earthly life, beginning with His very birth. (Source: The Struggle for Virtue By Archbishop Averky (Taushev)

(To be continued)

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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

On Happiness

Hieromartyr Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna

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

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ON HAPPINESS
By Father Pavel Gumerov, from And They Shall Be One Flesh

There are conflicting ideas about happiness; some think it is a sum of earthly good things, a kind of social welfare package that makes a person's life comfortable and carefree. Each to his own, but nevertheless, in this case, you either got lucky and are happy, or you are left to drag out the pitiful existence of the luckless. This idea of happiness is primitive and over-simplified.

Happiness is immaterial--it is a state of the soul. Of course, people understand happiness in various ways. Some find it in their family, others go to a monastery to dedicate their whole lives to God; for a monk, that is happiness. Some have no family but find happiness in laboring for the good of people, because this labor brings joy to himself and others. Another may have nothing at all, but he is still happy. He is happy because the weather outside is good and he has no sickness at the moment. There are all different kinds of people. And to the contrary, a person may have everything: health, material wealth, a good family, etc. He has only to live and rejoice, but he is still unhappy, does not appreciate it all, and is always discontented with one thing or another. 

Thus, happiness does not depend on material conditions of life--it is within a person, in his own soul: "The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation...behold, the kingdom of God is within you" (St. Luke 17:20-21). This, as we have said, is a state of the soul: the ability to appreciate everything given to us, and to thank God for it.

Every day can give us happiness; we must only be able to see it.

One priest used to counsel his spiritual children to end every day by writing down no fewer than fifty things, that you should thank God for. Without the ability to see something joyful and bright in every day, not only can we not be happy, we cannot even live a normal life. Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote a story called "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich." In it is described an ordinary day of a prisoner in a strict-regime concentration camp. However, this story is not about the horrors of camp life, but about how one man, in what would seem to be utter darkness, manages to see something good and positive.

He receives an extra piece of bread and he can almost taste it, he thinks about how he is going to eat it; suddenly he unexpectedly finds a piece of a saw and is able to make from it a cobbler's knife and earn a little money. He is able to avoid solitary confinement--that is a great joy. Ivan Denisovich even finds pleasure in work. First of all, he can warm himself by work and the frost doesn't get to him so badly, and secondly, as a former peasant he loves labor, he likes doing what he knows how to do well. The hero of the story always tries to see good human qualities in everyone around him. He greatly appreciates the help and support of his comrade prisoners. Even in prison, in solitary confinement, this person does not fall out of life, and every day brings him joy.

Once a certain priest went to visit the now reposed elder Archpriest Nicholai Guryanov and told him about the sorrows and problems he was having. Father Nicholai heart him out and said:

--Rejoice!

--What is there to rejoice about?

The priest thought to himself. But the elder went on:

--Rejoice that you were born, rejoice that you are baptized, rejoice that you are in the Orthodox faith, rejoice that you are still alive!

And perhaps the words of the holy Apostle Paul: "Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. in everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you" (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18) is the formula of happiness. It is the ability to be joyful about life, to always be with God and to thank Him for all that he sends us.

Saint John Chrysostom says, "If something good happens, bless God, and it will remain good. If something bad happens, bless God, and the bad will cease. Glory be to God for all things!"  

We not only have to know how to see happiness in our lives, but we also have to be careful with regard to it, and not spill it. There is an oriental fable on this theme.

A certain youth asked his father, "What is happiness?" And his father sent him to a well-known wise man. So, the young man went to the famous teacher expecting to see an ascetic, but the man turned out to be rather wealthy, possessing a fine palace filled with works of art. The youth came to the palace and asked the wise man, "Teacher, tell me what happiness is." The teacher gave him a small spoon filled it with olive oil, and said, "Walk around my palace, look at all the treasures and beautiful works of art inside it, and when you return tell me what you saw. But in doing so, make sure that you do not spill the oil from the spoon." In a little while, the youth returned and told the man all about that he had seen, adding that as he looked around at the treasures, all the oil spilled out of his spoon. Then the wise man filled the spoon again with oil and repeated the request. When the youth returned and the teacher asked him what he had seen, the boy said, "I couldn't see anything in your palace because I was making sure not to spill any oil." And truly, he brought the spoon back without spilling a drop. "Happiness is in this," said the wise man. "In being able to preserve the gift that you have, and not waste it."

This parable tells us that by looking at all the wealth and beauty that does not belong to us, that was not given to us, we are not only unable to see them clearly, but we also lose what we do have.

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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