12 Questions and Answers on Orthodox Confession and Worship

From here.
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12 Questions and Answers on Orthodox Confession and Worship.
 

Transcribed by A.D Kondogianakopoulou

On Monday 5 September, following an invitation from a Protestant theological school (postgraduate level) located outside Seoul, the Most Reverent Metropolitan of Korea, Fr. Ambrose, gave two lectures to 35 postgraduate students, all pastors. The lessons, within which the lectures were given, were on missions and the Liturgy. We have recorded the discussions for the most part that followed after each lecture and provide it below since we believe that the topics raised as well as the manner of their delivery of the Orthodox confession in Korea is of particular interest.  

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1st Question: What is your understanding of missionary activities in the Orthodox Church? 

Answer: To start with, the term “mission” does not express the spirit of the Orthodox Church. We use it compromisingly because it has universal prevalence. Instead we prefer the term “witness.” The term mission, which derives from Western theology, does not exist in Holy Scripture, while the corresponding term, witness, is found many times. The teaching of the Gospel does not mean to say beautiful words about Christ but to give a daily witness of Christ with one’s words and with one’s silence, with works and by example. And if need be, if necessary, to martyr for Christ, namely, to spill one’s blood for Christ, as was done by millions of martyrs and confessors of the faith.
  

2nd Question: What is your opinion on proselytism? 

Answer: In the Orthodox Church we consider proselytism a great sin because it does not honour man. It tramples upon the precious divine gift of freedom and debases man’s personality. Proselytism means to impose on someone else your beliefs by lawful and unlawful means, while confessing Christ means to struggle, to live according to Christ and to repeat by one’s words and life, the perennial “come and see” of the Apostle Philip to any well-intentioned “Nathanael” – your neighbour. The disastrous results of proselytism of the so-called missionary countries by Western Christianity, which we face to this day, I believe, does not leave any margin for the indefinite condemnation of the proselytising process.
 

3rd Question: What process is followed in the Orthodox Church for someone to work as a missionary? 

Answer: In the Orthodox Church, the deacons of the Bible are not self-called but other-called. In other words, someone does not decide by himself to work as a missionary but is sent by the Church. Obedience to the Church is the only soul-saving route. If we remember, for example, the case of Barnabas and Paul, we see that the Holy Spirit chose them and the Church through prayer and fasting sent them to preach. (Acts 13:3) And when they returned to Jerusalem they informed the Church which sent them of “everything that God did through them.” (Acts 15:4)

This subject has great theological significance for the spreading of the true faith and for the unity of the Church. If everyone acts according to his opinion and desire, then the faith and unity of the Church is in danger. 

At this point permit me to mention the following event: Once I flew from America to Greece with an American woman, a self-appointed missionary. When I asked her why she chose Greece for her missionary work, she told me that she admired the Greeks a lot because she knew a lot about their glorious ancient history, and that is why she had great zeal to Christianize them.

“Do you know what modern-day Greeks believe in?” I asked her. 

“Of course, the twelve gods of Olympus!” she answered. 

“Do you know,” I told her, “that 2000 years before you some other apostle, the Great Apostle of the Nations Paul went to Greece and preached Christianity? And that Greeks have had an uninterrupted Christian Orthodox tradition ever since?” 

Such waggishness and much worse happens when behind every self-called missionary it is not the Church doing the sending. 

4th Question: You accused the woman from America who went to Greece as a missionary. Why did you come to Korea? Are you not doing the same? 

Answer: No, I did not do the same, nor did I accuse the lady. I simply mentioned the event to show what can happen if the missionary work of someone does not have proper ecclesiological foundations. You know better than me that in Korea there are millions of people who are not only non-Christians but are also pagans. However, Greece is a country with two thousand years of Christian history with a population of over 90% Christian. If Korea was a Christian country, the Ecumenical Patriarchate wouldn’t have sent me here. 

To be more clear allow me to add the following: At the University where I teach, the parents of one of our female students are in Greece as self-appointed missionaries. And, in fact, the place they chose for their missionary activities, was the holy island of Patmos! The island of the Revelation, where the traces of the Evangelist of love, Saint John the theologian, are still fully obvious. On this island, where many Christian saints lived and acted, there are an innumerable number of churches and monasteries where the Orthodox faith of its inhabitants has its roots in the apostolic period. One could ask what could they teach the Orthodox inhabitants of the island, two Koreans who became Christians a few years earlier? Don’t you think that it is not honest to try to change the faith of people who carry in their DNA a tradition of twenty centuries? 

In the same way, it was not honorable what the Roman Catholic Church did during the 90’s, after the fall of communism in Russia. Immediately after, the Uniates ran to underhandedly convert the Russians with their centuries-old tradition into Roman Catholics. If one wishes to do missionary work, let him turn to other non-Christian countries. 

5th Question: Would you like to tell us about the personality of a missionary (hierapostle)? 

Answer: In answering your very substantial question, I will try to explain very briefly what the theoretically ideal missionary is like. Of course, I am not maintaining that what should be done is always what is done. The one doing the missionary work of the Church must first have Christ as their prototype and all those who followed the steps of Christ, namely the saints. The missionary must without doubt be a person of many virtues, the main one being that of a person struggling against his passions. The cleansing for the acquisition of the Holy Spirit is the first step. From cleansing one then progresses to enlightenment and theosis (deification). You cannot transfer to somebody something that you do not have. To give a witness of Christ you yourself must necessarily have tasted the presence of Christ in your life.  

Question 6: What is the method for missionary work in the Orthodox Church? 

Answer: In the Orthodox Church we follow the practice of the early Church as we find it in the Book of Acts. When the Apostles saw that their numerous cares for the service of the tables would “steal” time away from their main work, they proposed to elect seven deacons. For themselves they announced to all the following decision: “But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4). In other words, the Orthodox Church following the apostolic tradition places worship before preaching. One can easily see this, if they visit a worship service at an Orthodox Church and then does the same at a protestant assembly. The emphasis in a congregation of the Orthodox is dedicated to the worship of God, while for the Protestants it is preaching. That is why we often hear from the Protestants who have come to know Orthodoxy that “in our congregations we hear many words, but in the Orthodox Church we pray a lot and hear few.” 

 

We Orthodox are taught the Holy Gospel, which we always have at the centre of the Holy Altar to remind us that the word of God must be at the centre of our daily life, during our Divine Worship in three ways. Firstly, we read it. At every holy service, holy readings are read. Specifically, at every Divine Liturgy we hear the word of God from the Apostole and Gospel readings and from the divine preaching that follows. Secondly, we sing it. The wonderful, most theological hymns of Orthodox worship are for the most part full of direct and indirect scriptural references. In fact, in many cases if one compares the texts they can see that certain hymns are word-for-word quotes from the scriptural texts. In other words, we have “melodised” the text of Holy Scripture. And thirdly, we see it. We see the Gospel in Orthodox icons. That is, icons are an “illustrated” Gospel. If, for example, we pay attention to the icon of the Transfiguration of the Lord, we shall note that the iconographer through the designs and colours repeats iconographically the words of the evangelists who described the miracle of the Transfiguration. In conclusion we say that in the worship of the Orthodox Church we have a perfect audiovisual system of the Gospel teaching.

7th Question: You said that in the Orthodox Church worship takes precedence over preaching. However, the Apostle Paul only preached when at the Areopagus. 

Answer: The Apostle Paul was speaking to the Athenian idolaters for the first time. It was logical to start the preaching about the “unknown God.” To which God could he pray with the idolaters? During any other situations though as we learn from Acts, the Apostles followed the hierapostolic method of worship and then preaching. Their gatherings had as their main purpose the “Breaking of bread” and teaching. 

8th Question: You have spoken in great length on worship and its centre point, which is, as you said, the Holy Eucharist? How do you believe that the bread and wine is the body and blood of Christ? 

Answer: In the Orthodox Church we believe that the greatest work that is performed on earth is the Divine Liturgy. And this is because during the Divine Eucharist we relive the occasion of the Last Supper for the redemption of the human race. Just as then when in the upper room in Jerusalem Christ surrendered His Body and His Blood to His disciples, so it is that at every Divine Liturgy Christ Himself is invisibly present hypostatically and essentially as victim and sacrificer and imparts His Body and His Blood to the baptized faithful, who occupy the place of the Apostles. And, of course, we who receive Holy Communion believe that we commune the same holy Body and Blood of Christ “for the redemption of sins and unto life eternal.” Not symbolically, because Christ did not say during the Last Supper to His disciples, “Receive, eat, this is like My Body” or “Drink from this all of you, this is like my blood” but “this is My Body” and “this is My Blood.” 

9th Question: In other words, what we do in our worship is nothing? 

Answer: The great difference between Orthodox worship and yours is the fact that in your worship an imaginary representation is made of the sacrifice of Christ, namely a fictitious act of the Last Supper. In contrast, in the Orthodox Divine Liturgy the Last Supper, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection of Christ are present, and Christ is given “again and many times” to “be eaten and be drunk” by the faithful – “Always consumed but never spent”. The Apostles received the tradition of the celebration of the “Last Supper” from the Lord. They passed it on to their disciples and the Orthodox Church continues this tradition to this day without interruption. In the ecclesiastical history of the Early Church there are great number of references to the time of the persecutions and the catacombs that testify to the zeal of the first Christians and the dangers they ignored by participating in the Eucharistic gatherings to commune the Body and Blood of Christ. 

For us Orthodox, it is incomprehensible how Protestant theology interprets passages of Holy Scripture that speak most clearly about the heavenly Bread, such as those found in the sixth chapter of the Gospel of St. John: “He who eats of my Body and drinks of my Blood has eternal life and I shall raise him in the last day” (John 6:54) and “he who eats of my Body and drinks of my Blood dwells in Me and I in him.” (John 6:56) Just as our body has absolute need of actual, and not symbolic, food and drink to be sustained in life, likewise our soul has absolute need of the Body and Blood of Christ that it may not die spiritually. We cannot live either in this or the next life if we do not eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ. Perhaps this sounds harsh. However, let us remember that many of the disciples ceased to follow Christ after everything He told them about His flesh and His blood. And addressing the twelve He asked them “Don’t you too wish to leave?” (John 6:67) He repeats the same even today to all who wish to be Christians but do not wish to believe and accept the whole teaching of Christ. 

10th Question: Is man not saved only by preaching? Why do you insist so much on the topic of worship? 

Answer: The salvific work of the Church is not accomplished only through preaching. Someone listening to the word of God and saying, “I am saved” does not mean that he has already been saved. The Orthodox Church apart from the word of God also offers man the sacramental life. Man, by participating in the Mysteries (Sacraments) of the Church, is sanctified and achieves theosis. The offering, for example, of Holy Communion to the faithful is done “for the remission of sins and life eternal.” The faithful through the Holy Eucharist are mystically unified with Christ and become “partakers of the divine nature…” (2 Pet. 1:4) What else is the salvation of man beyond this? 

11th Question: How can you explain to us what a Mystery (Sacrament) is?

Answer: It is hard for one to believe in the sacramental life of the Church if he does not first understand what the word “Mystery” means. A Mystery is something we see being performed but is impossible for man’s mind to comprehend how it is performed. If we could understand the manner in which the Mystery is taking place then it would not be a Mystery, but a common daily human activity.

We say, for example, that God is Triune. I ask you: Who of us understands the Mystery of the Holy Trinity? Three Persons, one Essence! This Mystery when considered with human logic is absurd. However, if a person sees it through the dimension of Faith then he will understand that it is not illogical but beyond logic. Who could understand what God is? What is, for example, the essence of God? NO ONE! Nevertheless, we believe in God. Not because we understand it, but because we feel His presence mystically and we heartily feel His love. In other words, we can understand the uncreated energies of God, as the great fathers of the Orthodox Church have so beautifully theologized about, but not His Essence. Let us see what God said to Moses when he asked God to show him His glory: “I will make my glory pass before you…but you cannot see my face: for there shall be no man see me and live…” (Ex 33:18-20) The same happens in all matters of faith that surpass natural laws. We “see them without seeing them,” we “know them without knowing them” for they are all wrapped up in the “divine darkness” (Gregory of Nyssa). We experience and participate in them only through the power of Faith. If we insist on believing only in what we understand with our finite logic then we narrow extremely our spiritual horizon and in the end cannot be Christians. For ultimately “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Heb 11:1) And, of course, faith is conditional to true humility, with which we attract the grace of God. For “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6) The humble man who trusts God more than his logic, with the grace of God, can understand the Mysteries of the Church.  

12th Question: How can one study Orthodox theology in Korea? 

Answer: Because Orthodox theology is almost unknown in Korea, the Orthodox Metropolis of Korea is trying to build an Orthodox School of Theology, which will be the first not only in Korea but in the whole of East Asia, to provide the possibility to anyone wishing to approach this precious treasure. Pray that our wish soon becomes a reality for the glory of God.
 

[The lectures with question sessions lasted more than three hours (with a 10 minute interim break) were concluded with the following epilogue.]

My dear, before I leave the rostrum, I would first like to thank you for your polite invitation and for your particularly concise questions. Secondly, I apologize, for it is possible that some of you may have been disturbed by my answers. My intention was not to annoy anybody. Because I believe that for a dialogue to be meaningful and fruitful (for I believe that no one came here to hear empty idle talk and waist one’s time), without doubt, frankness and love must govern, that is why I told you what I believe with the language of truth and love. “Speaking the truth in love…” (Eph. 4:15) and “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32) was the scriptural foundation of my thoughts. Finally, I wish to add, to avoid any misunderstanding, that I did not tell you that we, the Orthodox are all holy. Our goal, of course, is our sanctification for which we struggle. However, what everyone does in his personal life is what will be judged by God. What I tried to tell you is that we Orthodox believe steadfastly that we have the correct Faith. We continue in the Faith of the one undivided Church of the first millennium, keeping in mind the apostolic admonition: “Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold fast the traditions you have been taught, whether by word or by epistle of ours.” (2 Thess. 2:15).
I warmly thank you.

Source (in greek): All the Nations (Panta Ta Ethni)
               Trimonthly Hierapostolic Journal
               Issue 116
               Oct-Dec 2010

Icon of the Mother of God "Kiev-Bratsk"

Commemorated on May 10
The Kiev-Bratsk Icon of the Mother of God is celebrated also on September 6, June 2, and on Saturday of the Fifth Week of Great Lent.

SOURCE:

SAINT OR FEAST POSTED THIS DATE 2010(with 2009's link here also and further, 2008's):

Translation of the relics of St Nicholas the Wonderworker from Myra to Bari

Commemorated on May 9

St Nicholas the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Myra in Lycia. The Transfer of the Relics from Myra of Lycia to Bari in Italy.  His Life is found under December 6.

In the eleventh century the Byzantine Empire was going through some terrible times. The Turks put an end to its influence in Asia Minor, they destroyed cities and villages, they murdered the inhabitants, and they accompanied their cruel outrage with the desecration of churches, holy relics, icons and books. The Mussulmen also attempted to destroy the relics of St Nicholas, deeply venerated by the whole Christian world.

In the year 792 the caliph Aaron Al'-Rashid sent Khumeid at the head of a fleet to pillage the island of Rhodes. Having lain waste this island, Khumeid set off to Myra in Lycia with the intent to rob the tomb of St Nicholas. But instead he robbed another tomb standing alongside the crypt of the saint. Just as they succeeded in committing this sacrilege, a terrible storm lifted upon the sea and almost all the ships were shattered into pieces.

The desecration of holy things shocked not only Eastern, but also Western Christians. Christians in Italy were particularly apprehensive for the relics of St Nicholas, and among them were many Greeks. The inhabitants of the city of Bari, located on the shores of the Adriatic Sea, decided to save the relics of St Nicholas.

In the year 1087 merchants from Bari and Venice went to Antioch to trade. Both these and others also proposed to take up the relics of St Nicholas and transport them to Italy on the return trip. In this plan the men of Bari commissioned the Venetians to land them at Myra. At first two men were sent in, who in returning reported that in the city all was quiet. In the church where the glorified relics rested, they encountered only four monks. Immediately forty-seven men, having armed themselves, set out for the church of St Nicholas. The guards, suspecting nothing, showed them the raised platform, beneath which the tomb of the saint was concealed, and where they anointed foreigners with myrrh from the relics of the saint.

At this time the monks told them about an appearance of St Nicholas that evening to a certain Elder. In this vision St Nicholas ordered the careful preservation of his relics. This account encouraged the barons, they saw an avowal for them in this vision and, as it were, a decree from the saint. In order to facilitate their activity, they revealed their intent to the monks and offered them money, 300 gold coins. The guards refused the money and wanted to warn the inhabitants about the misfortune threatening them. But the newcomers bound them and put their own guards at the doorway.

They took apart the church platform above the tomb with the relics. In this effort the youth Matthew was excessive in his zeal, wanting to find the relics of St Nicholas as quickly as possible. In his impatience he broke the cover and the barons saw that the sarcophagus was filled with fragrant holy myrrh. The compatriots of the barons, the priests Luppus and Drogus, offered a litany, after which the break made by Matthew began to flow with myrrh from the saint's sarcophagus. This occurred on April 20, 1087.

Seeing the absence of a container chest, the priest Drogus wrapped the relics in the cloth, and in the company of the barons he carried them to the ship. The monks, having been set free, alerted the city with the sad news about the abduction of the relics of the Wonderworker Nicholas by foreigners. A crowd of people gathered at the shore, but it was too late.

On May 8 the ships arrived in Bari, and soon the joyous news made the rounds of all the city. On the following day, May 9, 1087, they solemnly transported the relics of St Nicholas into the church of St Stephen, not far from the sea. The solemn bearing of the relics was accompanied by numerous healings of the sick, which inspired still greater reverence for God's saint. A year afterwards, a church was built in the name of St Nicholas and consecrated by Pope Urban II.

This event, connected with the transfer of the relics of St Nicholas, evoked a particular veneration for the Wonderworker Nicholas and was marked by the establishment of a special Feast day on May 9. At first the Feast day of the Transfer of the Relics of St Nicholas was observed only by the people of the city of Bari. It was not adopted in the other lands of the Christian East and West, despite the fact that the transfer of the relics was widely known. This circumstance is explained by the custom in the Middle Ages of venerating primarily the relics of local saints. Moreover, the Greek Church did not establish the celebration of this remembrance, since they regarded the loss of the relics of St Nicholas as a sad event.

The Russian Orthodox Church celebration of the memory of the Transfer of the Relics of St Nicholas from Myra in Lycia to Bari in Italy on May 9 was established soon after the year 1087, on the basis of an already established veneration by the Russian people of the great saint of God, brought from Greece simultaneously with the acceptance of Christianity. The glorious accounts of the miracles performed by the saint on both land and sea, were widely known to the Russian people. Their inexhaustible strength and abundance testify to the help of the great saint of God for suffering mankind. The image of St Nicholas, a mighty wonder worker and benefactor, became especially dear to the heart of the Russian people, since it inspired deep faith and hope for his intercession. The faith of the Russian people in the abundant aid of God's saint was marked by numerous miracles.

A significant body of literature was compiled about him very early in Russian writings. Accounts of the miracles of St Nicholas done in the Russian land were recorded at an early date. Soon after the Transfer of the Relics of St Nicholas from Myra to Bari, a Russian version of his Life and an account of the Transfer of his holy relics were written by a contemporary to this event. Earlier still, an encomium to the Wonderworker was written. Each week on Thursday, the Russian Orthodox Church honors his memory in particular.

Numerous churches and monasteries were built in honor of St Nicholas, and Russian people are wont to name their children after him at Baptism. In Russia are preserved numerous wonderworking icons of the saint. Most renowned among them are the icons of Mozhaisk, Zaraisk, Volokolamsk, Ugreshsk and Ratny. There was no house or temple in the Russian land in which there was not an icon of St Nicholas the Wonderworker.

The significance of the intercession of the great saint of God is expressed by the ancient compiler of the Life, in the words of whom St Nicholas "did work many glorious miracles both on land and on sea, aiding those downtrodden in misfortune and rescuing the drowning, carried to dry land from the depths of the sea, raising up others from corruption and bringing them home, liberating from chains and imprisonment, averting felling by the sword and freeing from death, and granting healing to many; sight to the blind, walking to the lame, hearing to the deaf, and speech to the mute. He brought riches to many suffering in abject poverty and want, he provided the hungry food, and for each in their need he appeared a ready helper, an avid defender and speedy intercessor and protector, and such as appeal to him he doth help and deliver from adversity. Both the East and the West know of this great Wonderworker, and all the ends of the earth know his miracle-working."
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SAINT OR FEAST POSTED THIS DATE 2010(with 2009's link here also and further, 2008's):

Venerable Pimen the Ascetic of the Kiev Far Caves

Commemorated on May 8

Saint Pimen, Faster of the Caves, won fame by his exploit of fasting. The relics of the saint rest in the Far Caves. He is also commemorated on August 28.

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SAINT OR FEAST POSTED THIS DATE 2010(with 2009's link here also and further, 2008's):

Venerable Nilus the Myrrhgusher of Lavra of Mt Athos

Commemorated on May 7

Today we commemorate the uncovering of the relics of St Nilus in 1815.

On his deathbed, St Nilus told his disciples to bury his body in a small cave beneath the cave where he lived, sternly forbidding anyone to disturb his body. Although the saint did not seek human glory during his life or after his death, the Lord glorified him in the following way. From his grave, a fragrant myrrh began to flow through a small opening in the cave and down the side of the cliff into the sea. Soon this miracle became widely known, and ships would come to collect the myrrh. The myrrh had curative properties, and many people were healed of their illnesses.

Once, two monks came to the cave and tried to find the relics of St Nilus. While they were digging, a large rock fell from above, crushing the foot of one monk. Unable to help his companion, the other monk went to get a mule and someone to help him carry the injured brother from that place.

As he lay there in agony, the monk saw St Nilus before him. He asked the monk what was the matter. The monk explained what they intended to do and how he had been injured. The saint said, "How dare you, poor man, attempt something so dangerous without the saint's express wish? Take care in the future that you do not attempt a task beyond your ability, and without the will of God."

St Nilus touched the monk's leg, and he was made well. With great joy he started back to his cell. On the way, he met his companion who was leading a mule. The monk who was healed told the other how he had been healed by St Nilus. Then they both glorified God and St Nilus. After this, no one dared to disturb the saint's relics.

In 1815, a certain monk called "Prisoner" was troubled by a demon, and he also had a hernia. St Nilus appeared to him several times and healed him. The saint predicted the Greek Revolution (1821), and many dangers which the Holy Mountain would face from the Turks. Then St Nilus told him he wanted a path made to his cave so that monks could go there to pray. He also wanted the Liturgy to be served in the cave church he himself had built.

When the Fathers heard this, they wished to build a new church in honor of St Nilus. As they were digging the foundation, they found the saint's grave. From his relics an ineffable fragrance came forth. This took place on May 7, 1815.

Then the monks informed the Fathers of the Great Lavra of their discovery. They came and transferred the relics to the Lavra, leaving only a portion of the saint's jaw at the cave to be venerated by those who came there.

See November 12 for the Life of St Nilus.
SOURCE:

SAINT OR FEAST POSTED THIS DATE 2010(with 2009's link here also and further, 2008's):

The Martyrdom of twenty-three Turks at Thyatira

From here.
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The Martyrdom of twenty-three Turks at Thyatira

Unknown Neomartyrs*

This is about the glorious martyrdom of twenty-three Turks in Thyatira, a renown city that is also mentioned by John the Apostle in his Revelation, since there were more than 200,000 inhabitants, despite the fact that the plague killed more than 50,000 during the year 1656. It is still among the most populous cities of Asia Minor. In our times, God chose this city to become the arena of twenty-three athletes of Jesus Christ, that He willfully crowned with immortal glory, after much more struggling than naturally expected from such people.

There was in that city a sheikh or teacher of Islamic law. Seeing as he knew the law perfectly, he spoke with authority, people trusted him, and many considered it an honor to be one of his students. As a result, he created a school with more than 150 young men (students) aged 25-30 years old, who were studying in order to become judges and some day become qadis. This sheikh, that had grown old reading the Koran, noticed that his prophet did not reject the New Testament, but on the contrary, that God spoke through Jesus Christ and Moses. He was curious to see the contents of the Holy Gospels and through Divine Providence, it so happened that he found a New Testament translated into Arabic.  

He didn't have this Holy Bible for long before he received heavenly enlightenment and discovered the Christian truths, which acted so strongly upon his spirit that they caused him to condemn whatever was contrary and embrace whatever they instructed him to do. This person is noteworthy as, being touched by Divine Providence, he did not stop one minute to accustom himself more thoroughly with the beauty of our faith, and he had no communication with Christians in order to learn about our Mysteries (Sacraments), at least from what is known. He transmitted the light he received from heaven to many of his students, in particular to the ones he knew were more able to accept the truth and he could trust to keep the secret. And with his words and the help of the Holy Spirit he persuaded the young men that they could not attain salvation outside the law of Jesus Christ, Who, being the Son of God became man, died for man’s salvation, defeated death and Hades through His Resurrection and was destined to rule forever in heaven. Those young men kept this secret for a long time and often gathered to discuss the matter of their salvation with their teacher. But as it is difficult to hide a fire for long without it being exposed on its own, so those young students were unable to hide their faith, which they kept in their hearts and was often evident on their lips, in their words, in their company. Their parents also seeing such a noteworthy change in their children wished to know the cause.

The matter took such dimensions, that the magistrates, who were extremely cautious in such matters, heard about it and, so as to squelch this passion at its roots, approached the sheikh. At the beginning they tried to win him over in a gentle manner, not wanting to lose a man of such value. They exemplified their appreciation that they had for him, since they had entrusted to him the country's blossoming youth. They promised to increase his revenue and to raise him to the top ranks if he would retrieve from error the ones he had deceived. He was a man that was well aware of the importance of the matter and the punishment in such situations.

They thought that he was taking heed of what they told him, so as to bring him back to his duty and make him renounce his faith. However, they were startled when he replied most seriously, without losing his composure that he was not at an age where he could betray his conscience in such a serious affair that concerned his salvation, and that all he had taught about the truths of Jesus Christ's law were true, so he could not denounce them. The qadi, startled by his answer and judging that the sheikh had to be frightened by physical torture, told him sadly that he had to choose between the following two: either to renounce his faith or to die a merciless death. This venerable elder, spurred by divine zeal to confess before all the faith that he had received from heaven, replied to the qadi: “What do you think? That wheels, gallows, fire and Gehenna frighten me and that I will hesitate to die for my God's eternal glory and for the truth of the faith in Jesus Christ? Know that I am ready to die a thousand times, if I could do so, for the love of the One who died once for me. I consider it an honour to mark with my blood the truth I taught and if you will listen, I will make you see, that I am not deceived in my feelings and that the ones who leave Mohammed to live with Jesus Christ are fortunate. At these words, they forbade him to speak further and beat him so brutally that he was not able to continue his words, but even though he was silent, his countenance and perseverance that he exemplified in succumbing to all the beatings over his whole body shook even the judges, who feared that if they continued torturing him in public, the people who greatly respected this elder would not accept it, and that his example would inspire others to imitate him. Therefore, they decided after multiple meetings to strangle him in prison and publicly burn his body. And so it was carried out; his beautiful soul ascended to heaven to accept the crown from the hand of the One he had so bravely confessed.

In the meantime they tried to gain information from his students if they persevered in  their teacher's faith. Some of the students were far from the city and hid for fear of torture. Others, as it is said were dispersed in various places so that they would publicly preach the truths they were taught from their teacher. They arrested twenty-two of them and decided to make them renounce their faith or be punished with such severity that nobody would dare speak about or be taught such a dogma. What brought the judges to make such a decision was the strong sentiments that prevailed all over the country after the sheikh's death. Everybody was speaking about the sheikh and most in support of him.

The qadi commanding that the the twenty-two young men be brought before him said that they must definitively renounce their teacher's false faith or else lose their life without the hope of being treated as their teacher, but would have to succumb to the cruelest tortures. The young men rejoiced when they heard of torture and showed that they were more ready to succumb to much more than anything the qadi could scare them with. The qadi, after having given them reasons and seeing they were utterly determined to remain in their faith to Jesus Christ, just like their sheikh, left them in the justice  of the executioner's hands so that they could die mercilessly.     

Some were penetrated with arrows, others impaled, yet others burned alive, and still others finished in a horrible and painful death, hung for hours on iron hooks. In this way, all of Jesus Christ's brave athletes finished their glorious life triumphing against death and tyrants.

It is said that their holy remains – through their death – have worked many miracles and some confirm that a blind man received his vision after touching one of the martyrs on his way to martyrdom. Whatever the case, their death astounded all the Muslims and comforted the Christians very much, who thought it to be a sign of their happiness. They believed that it was the fulfilment of Markos Kyriakopoulos' prophesy – that many were to follow him and that the time had come when God would have decided to wash in blood the country's reproach.

It is certainly reasonable that heaven would not allow for such a good seed to fall on this earth without it bearing such good fruits and buds, which all holy souls have desire to see for years now. Just as a field that is watered with such sweet water may soon regain it's ancient fertility, may God grant that we may see His holy Name glorified everywhere.

*Excerpt from Auguste Carayon's work, Unpublished relations of the missions of the Company of Jesus Christ in Constantinople and the Middle East in the XII century, Poitiers – Paris 1864

(From the French by Georgios H. Hrysostomou)

Synaxarion of Neomartyrs
Publications “Orthodoxos Kypseli”, Thessalonika

St Seraphim of Lebadeia

Commemorated on May 6









SOURCE:

SAINT OR FEAST POSTED THIS DATE 2010(with 2009's link here also and further, 2008's):

New Martyr Ephraim

Commemorated on May 5

The holy New Martyr and wonderworker Ephraim was born in Greece on September 14, 1384. His father died when the saint was young, and his pious mother was left to care for seven children by herself.

When Ephraim reached the age of fourteen, the all-good God directed his steps to a monastery on the mountain of Amoman near Nea Makri in Attica. The monastery was dedicated to the Annunciation and also to St Paraskeva. Here he took on his shoulders the Cross of Christ, which all His followers must bear (Matt. 16:24). Being enflamed with love for God, St Ephraim eagerly placed himself under the monastic discipline. For nearly twenty-seven years he imitated the life of the great Fathers and ascetics of the desert. With divine zeal, he followed Christ and turned away from the attractions of this world. By the grace of God, he purified himself from soul-destroying passions and became an abode of the All-Holy Spirit. He was also found worthy to receive the grace of the priesthood, and served at the altar with great reverence and compunction.

On September 14, 1425, the barbarous Turks launched an invasion by sea, destroying the monastery and looting the surrounding area. St Ephraim was one of the victims of their frenzied hatred. Many of the monks had been tortured and beheaded, but St Ephraim remained calm. This infuriated the Turks, so they imprisoned him in order to torture him and force him to deny Christ.

They locked him in a small cell without food or water, and they beat him every day, hoping to convince him to become a Moslem. For several months, he endured horrible torments. When the Turks realized that the saint remained faithful to Christ, they decided to put him to death. On Tuesday May 5, 1426, they led him from his cell. They turned him upside down and tied him to a mulberry tree, then they beat him and mocked him. "Where is your God," they asked, "and why doesn't he help you?" The saint did not lose courage, but prayed, "O God, do not listen to the words of these men, but may Thy will be done as Thou hast ordained."

The barbarians pulled the saint's beard and tortured him until his strength ebbed. His blood flowed, and his clothes were in tatters. His body was almost naked and covered with many wounds. Still the Hagarenes were not satisfied, but wished to torture him even more. One of them took a flaming stick and plunged it violently into the saint's navel. His screams were heart-rending, so great was his pain. The blood flowed from his stomach, but the Turks did not stop. They repeated the same painful torments many times. His body writhed, and all his limbs were convulsed. Soon, the saint grew too weak to speak, so he prayed silently asking God to forgive his sins. Blood and saliva ran from his mouth, and the ground was soaked with his blood. Then he lapsed into unconsciousness.

Thinking that he had died, the Turks cut the ropes which bound him to the tree, and the saint's body fell to the ground. Their rage was still not diminished, so they continued to kick and beat him. After a while, the saint opened his eyes and prayed, "Lord, I give up my spirit to Thee." About nine o'clock in the morning, the martyr's soul was separated from his body.

These things remained forgotten for nearly 500 years, hidden in the depths of silence and oblivion until January 3, 1950. By then a women's monastery had sprung up on the site of the old monastery. Abbess Makaria (+ April 23, 1999) was wandering through the ruins of the monastery, thinking of the martyrs whose bones had been scattered over that ground, and whose blood had watered the tree of Orthodoxy. She realized that this was a holy place, and she prayed that God would permit her to behold one of the Fathers who had lived there.

After some time, she seemed to sense an inner voice telling her to dig in a certain spot. She indicated the place to a workman whom she had hired to make repairs at the old monastery. The man was unwilling to dig there, for he wanted to dig somewhere else. Because the man was so insistent, Mother Makaria let him go where he wished. She prayed that the man would not be able to dig there, and so he struck rock. Although he tried to dig in three or four places, he met with the same results. Finally, he agreed to dig where the abbess had first indicated.

In the ruins of an old cell, he cleared away the rubble and began to dig in an angry manner. The abbess told him to slow down, for she did not want him to damage the body that she expected to find there. He mocked her because she expected to find the relics of a saint. When he reached the depth of six feet, however, he unearthed the head of the man of God. At that moment an ineffable fragrance filled the air. The workman turned pale and was unable to speak. Mother Makaria told him to go and leave her there by herself. She knelt and reverently kissed the body. As she cleared away more earth, she saw the sleeves of the saint's rasson. The cloth was thick and appeared to have been woven on the loom of an earlier time. She uncovered the rest of the body and began to remove the bones, which appeared to be those of a martyr.

Mother Makaria was still in that holy place when evening fell, so she read the service of Vespers. Suddenly she heard footsteps coming from the grave, moving across the courtyard toward the door of the church. The footsteps were strong and steady, like those of a man of strong character. The nun was afraid to turn around and look, but then she heard a voice say, "How long are you going to leave me here?"

She saw a tall monk with small, round eyes, whose beard reached his chest. In his left hand was a bright light, and he gave a blessing with his right hand. Mother Makaria was filled with joy and her fear disappeared. "Forgive me," she said, "I will take care of you tomorrow as soon as God makes the day dawn." The saint disappeared, and the abbess continued to read Vespers.

In the morning after Matins, Mother Makaria cleaned the bones and placed them in a niche in the altar area of the church, lighting a candle before them. That night St Ephraim appeared to her in a dream. He thanked her for caring for his relics, then he said, "My name is St Ephraim." From his own lips, she heard the story of his life and martyrdom.

Since St Ephraim glorified God in his life and by his death, the Lord granted him the grace of working miracles. Those who venerate his holy relics with faith and love have been healed of all kinds of illnesses and infirmities, and he is quick to answer the prayers of those who call upon him.


Troparion - Tone 1

You shone forth like the sun on the mountain of Amomon, O God-bearer.
Through martyrdom you departed unto God.
You endured the invasion of the barbarians,
O Ephraim, Great Martyr of Christ.
Therefore, you pour forth grace forever upon those who devoutly call upon you.
Glory to Him Who gave you strength.
Glory to Him Who magnified you.
Glory to Him Who, through you, grants healing to all.
SOURCE:

SAINT OR FEAST POSTED THIS DATE 2010(with 2009's link here also and further, 2008's):

Icon of the Mother of God "Staro Rus" Old Russian

Commemorated on May 4

The Staro Rus (Old Russian) Icon of the Mother of God was so named because for a long time it was in Staro Rus, where it had been brought by the Greeks from Olviopolis during the very first period of Christianity in Russia. The icon was in Staro Rus until the seventeenth century. In 1655 during a plague it was revealed to a certain inhabitant of the city of Tikhvin that the pestilence would cease if the wonderworking Staro Rus Icon were transferred there, and the Tikhvin Icon sent to Staro Rus.

After the transfer of the icons the plague ceased, but the people of Tikhvin did not return the icon and only in the eighteenth century did they give permission to make a copy of the Staro Rus Icon, which on May 4, 1768 was sent to Stara Russa. A feast was established in honor of this event. On September 17, 1888 the original was also returned to Staro Rus and a second Feast day established.
SOURCE:

SAINT OR FEAST POSTED THIS DATE 2010(with 2009's link here also and further, 2008's):

Melancholy, sadness, anxiety

From here.
-------------------------
Sometimes, and perhaps more often, I have found it is so beneficial to read something like the following by Elder Porphyrios, rather than theological and philosophical treatises.  A bit long but well worth the read.

Melancholy, sadness, anxiety

by Elder Porphyrios

The crucial thing is to enter the Church – to unite with our fellow beings, with everyone's joys and sorrows, to feel them as our own, to pray for all, to ache for their salvation, to forget about ourselves, to do everything for others, like Christ did for us. In the Church we become one with every sorrowful, aching and sinful person. Nobody should want to be saved alone, without the salvation of others. It is wrong for one to pray for himself to be saved. We must love others and pray that no one be lost; that everyone enters the Church. This is what matters. And it’s with this desire that one should leave the world to go to the monastery or the desert.


In the Church, which has the mysteries that save, there is no desperation. We may be extremely sinful. However, we confess, the priest reads the prayer over us and so we are forgiven and we move towards immortality, without any anxiety, without any fear.


Whoever lives in Christ, becomes one with Him, with His Church. He lives something crazy! This life is different to human life. It's joy, light, gladness, an uplift. This is the Church's life, the Gospel's life, God's Kingdom. “The Kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). Christ comes in us and we are in Him. And just like a piece of iron placed in fire becomes fire and light; outside the fire, again it turns to dark iron, darkness.

The ones blaming the Church for its representatives' mistakes, aiming supposedly at helping in its correction, are greatly mistaken. They don't love the Church. Nor, Christ to be sure. We love the Church; when in prayer we embrace every part of it and we do as Christ does. We sacrifice ourselves, remain alert, do everything, just like Him, the One “who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten” (1 Peter 2:23).


We need to pay attention to the basic part too. We need to live the mysteries, especially the mystery of Holy Communion. It’s in these that Orthodoxy is found. Christ is offered to the Church through the mysteries and primarily through Holy Communion.


For many, however, our religion is a struggle, agony and anxiety. For this reason many “religious” people are considered unhappy, because others see their bad state. Indeed, if one is unable to see the depth of the religion and does not live it, the religion ends up a sickness and a terrible one. So terrible, that one loses control over his actions, becomes weak-willed and powerless, is in agony and under stress and behaves under the influence of an evil spirit (meaning demonic energy). He does prostrations, cries, shouts, is supposedly humble, and all this humility is a satanic act. For some of these people the religion is like a type of hell. In church they do prostrations, make the sign of the cross, they say “we are sinners, unworthy,” and as soon as they get out, start blaspheming all things holy when someone annoys them just a little. It is obvious that there is a demon in the middle.


In reality, Christianity transforms a person and heals him. The most important prerequisite, however, for someone to perceive and distinguish truth is humility. Egoism darkens one's mind, confuses him, leads him into deception, into heresy. It is very important for one to comprehend the truth.


All the confused are going to the heretical groups – confused children of confused parents.


Often, neither toil, nor repentance, nor the sign of the cross attract grace. There are secrets. The most important one is to avoid forms and go to the substance. Everything that happens must happen with love.


When you don't live with Christ, you live in melancholy, in sadness, in stress, in grief. You don't live correctly. So then many anomalies appear also in the body. The body gets affected, the endocrinous glands, the liver, the spleen, the pancreas, the stomach. You are told: “In order to be healthy, you must have some milk in the morning, an egg, butter and a couple of rusks.” And yet, if you live correctly, if you love Christ, you are just fine with an apple and an orange. The greatest of all medicine is to offer oneself in devotion to Christ. Everything gets healed. Everything functions properly. God's love transforms all; it alters, it sanctifies, it corrects, it changes, it modifies everything.


Love for Christ is unlike anything else. It doesn't end, you can't have enough of it. It transmits life, gives strength, grants health, it keeps giving...and the more it gives, the more one wishes to fall in love. Whilst human love may wear one out, drive him crazy. When we love Christ, all other loves recede. Other loves have a saturation point...Love for Christ doesn't have one. Carnal love has a saturation point. Jealousy, complaining or even murder may follow. It may convert to hate. Love in Christ does not deteriorate. Worldly love can be maintained for a little while and then it slowly fades, whereas divine love keeps growing and deepening. Any other love may bring a person to despair. Yet divine love, raises us to God's domain, gives us serenity, joy, completion. Other pleasures tire while this one you can't have enough of. It's an insatiable pleasure, that no one ever gets tired of. It's the utmost of goods.


When you love Christ, despite all your weaknesses and their conscious acknowledgment, you still have the certainty that you have overcome death, because you reside in the communion Christ's love.


We need to feel Christ as our friend. He is our friend. He confirms this Himself when He says: “You are my friends...” (John 15:14). We need to look at Him and approach Him as a friend. Do we fall? Do we sin? We should run to Him with feelings of familiarity, in love and trust; not in fear of punishment but in courage granted by the sense of friendship. And say to Him: “Lord, I did it, I fell, forgive me”. But at the same time we need to feel He loves us, and tenderly accepts us with love and forgives us. We need not be separated by sin from Christ. When we believe that He loves us and we love Him, we will not feel estranged and divided, even when we sin. We have secured His love and no matter how we may behave, He loves us.


The Gospel surely states symbolically that the unjust will be found where there is “crying and gnashing of teeth”; this is what it’s like away from God. And from the neptic Fathers of our Church many speak of fear of death and hell. They say: “always bear death in mind”. If we examine those words deeply, they create a fear of hell. As man tries to avoid sin, he brings those thoughts to mind so that his soul gets overrun by the fear of death, hell and the devil.


They all have their meaning, time and occasion. Fear, as a concept, is good during the first stages. It is for beginners, for the those in whom their old self still lives. The beginner, not having been refined yet is retained from evil by fear. And fear is necessary while we are still material and succumbed. But this is a stage, a low degree of relationship with the divine. We take it in as a transaction so that we can win Paradise or escape hell. If we cross examine it, it indicates self-interest, benefit. I don't like this way. When man advances and enters into God's love, what need is there for fear? Whatever he does, he does so from love, and this is of so much more value. Becoming good due to fearing God and not out of love is of little value.


Whoever wants to become a Christian must first become a poet. If the soul gets crushed and becomes unworthy of Christ's love, Christ ceases relations, because Christ doesn't want 'unrefined' souls next to Him.


Let nobody see you, nobody understand your gestures of devotion towards the divine. Do everything in private, in secrecy, like the ascetics. Remember what I told you about the nightingale? It chirps in the woods. In silence. As if someone is listening, praising? What beautiful chirping in the wilderness! Have you seen the way their larynx puffs up? That's what happens to him who falls in love with Christ. If they love, “their throat puffs up, they are taken up, their tongue can't stop”. They go into a cave, a dale and live God in secret, “silent sighing”.


Scorn passions, do not preoccupy yourselves with the devil. Turn to Christ.


Divine grace teaches us our duty. To attract it, we need love, yearning. God's grace needs divine love. Love is enough, to get us into the right 'shape' for prayer. Christ will by himself pore over our heart, as long as He can find some things that please Him: good intention, humility and love. Without these we cannot say, “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me”.


Even the smallest grumbling against your neighbor negatively affects your soul and you are unable to pray. When the Holy Spirit finds the soul in this state, it does not dare approach.


We need to ask that God's will is done; this is the most beneficial, the safest for us and for those we pray for. Christ will grant us everything abundantly. When there is even just a little egoism, nothing happens.


When God won't give us what we persistently ask for, He has His reason. God has His secrets too.


If you aren’t obedient (to a spiritual father) and have no humility, the prayer (that is, Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me) won't take effect and there is even the fear of delusion.


Let not the prayer (Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me) become tedious work. Pressure may bring about a reaction internally, may do harm. Many people have gotten sick through the prayer because they pressed themselves. Certainly, you can do it, when it becomes tedious work, but it's not healthy.


It's not necessary to particularly focus to say the prayer. You don't need to put effort into it when you have divine love. Wherever you are, on a stool, on a chair, in a car, anywhere, in the street, at school, in the office, at work you can say the prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me”, softly, without pressure, without strain.


What’s important in prayer is not the duration but the intensity. Pray even just for five minutes, but given to God with love and yearning. Someone may pray all night, yet this 5 minutes of prayer be superior. It's a mystery, but that's the way it is.


A person of Christ makes prayer out of everything. He turns difficulty and sorrow into a prayer. Whatever happens to him, he immediately says: “Lord Jesus Christ...”. Prayer benefits in all, even the simplest things. For example, do you suffer insomnia; do not think of sleep. Get up, go outside, come back into the room, fall back into your bed as if for the first time, without thinking if you will sleep or not. Concentrate, say the doxology and then three times “Lord Jesus Christ...” and in this way you will fall asleep.


Everything is inside us, instincts and all, and are asking for fulfillment. If we don't fulfill them they will take their revenge, unless we redirect them elsewhere, towards the higher, towards God.


You don’t become holy hunting down evil. Forget about evil. Look towards Christ and He will save you. Instead of standing outside the door to drive away the enemy, ignore him. Is evil coming this way? Gently let yourself go the other way. Meaning, is evil coming to attack you, give your internal strength to the good, to Christ. Plead: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me”. He knows how to have mercy on you, in what way. And when you are filled with good, you won't turn to evil anymore. You will become good by yourself, with God's grace. How can evil find any ground anymore? It disappears!


Does a phobia or disappointment get a hold of you? Turn to Christ. Love him in simplicity, with humility, without demands and He will free you.


Do not choose negative ways to correct yourselves. You don't need to be afraid of the devil, or hell, or anything. They create a reaction. I too have a little experience in those things. The point is not to sit, to beat or strain yourselves to improve. The point is to live, to study, to pray, to advance in love, in Christ's love, in the Church's love.

Leave all your weaknesses so that the opposing spirit (the devil) won't become aware of it and immerse you and hold you down in grief. Do not make any effort to free yourselves from them. Strive in gentleness and simplicity, without strain and anxiety. Do not say to yourselves: “Now I will strain myself, I will pray to obtain love, to become good, etc”. It's not good to strain and beat yourself in order to become good. In this way you will only react more. Everything must happen in a soft way, freely and with no rush. Neither should you say: “God free me from it,” for example, from anger, or sadness. It's not good to think and/or pray about a particular passion. Something takes place in our soul and we get more tangled up. Dash yourself to overcome the passion and you will see that it will entwine you, grasp you and you won't be able to do anything.

Freedom cannot be won, if we do not free ourselves internally from confusion and the passions.

This is what our Church is, this is our joy, this is everything for us. And this is what man today is looking for. And he takes poison and drugs so that he can enter joyous worlds, but fake joy. He feels something at that particular moment but the next day he feels torn. One thing scrapes him, eats him up, smashes him, burns him. While the other, that is being given to Christ, enlivens him, gives him joy, makes him enjoy life, feel strong, magnificence.


The ability to sanctify your soul is a great art. One can become holy anywhere. Even in Omonia (the main square in Athens) one can be sanctified, if he wants. You can become saints at work, no matter what it is – in calmness, patience and love. Each day make a new beginning, a new mood, enthusiastically and with love, prayer and silence – not with stress and a heavy heart.


Work vigilantly, simply, gently, without anxiety, joyfully and gladly, in a good mood. Then divine grace comes.


All unpleasant things, that remain in your soul and make you stressed, can become a reason for worshipping God and so stop hurting you. Trust in God.


There is no need in trying hard and strain yourselves. All your effort should be focused on gazing at the light, attaining the light. In this way, instead of turning to grief which is not of God's Spirit, you should turn yourselves to praising God.


Grief shows that we don't entrust our life to Christ.


When communication with Christ takes place simply, softly, under no pressure, it causes the devil to flee. Satan won't flee from pressure, strain. He distances himself from calmness and prayer. He retreats when he sees the soul ignore him and turn to Christ with love. He cannot take disregard because he is arrogant. But the evil spirit understands it when you push yourselves, and it fights you. Don't bother with the devil, don't even ask that he flee. The more you ask that he flee, the more he will entangle you. Ignore the devil. Do not fight him directly. When you stubbornly fight against the devil, he attacks you back like a tiger, a wildcat. When you shoot bullets at him, he throws back a grenade. When you throw a bomb at him he shoots back a missile. Don't look at evil. Look into God's arms, fall into His arms and move on.


A humble person is conscious of his inner state, and no matter how ugly it is, he does not lose his personality. He does not lose his balance. The opposite happens with the egoist, the one who has feelings of inferiority. In the beginning he resembles a humble person. But if one tempts him just a little, he loses his peace, gets irritated, gets upset.


When a person lives without God, without peace, without trust, in anxiety, depression, hopelessness, he develops physical and psychological illnesses. Psychological illness, neurological illness, discord are demonic states. It is also demonic to speak as though humble. It is called a feeling of inferiority. Real humility does not speak out, does not pretend to be humble, that is to say: “I'm a sinner, unworthy, the least of all...”. A humble person is afraid that they may fall into vainglory. God's grace does not draw near that. In contrast, God's grace can be found where there is real humility, divine humility, perfect trust in God, dependence on Him.


The vainglorious person alienates his soul from eternal life. Ultimately, egoism is complete foolishness! Vainglory makes us hollow. When we engage in showing off, we end up completely empty. We must do whatever we do to please God; selflessly, without vainglory, without pride, without ego, without, without...


Our soul must not rebel and say: “why did God do this thing, why did He do the other thing that way, couldn't He have done it differently?” All this indicates internal small-heartedness and reaction. It shows the big opinion we have of ourselves, our pride and our great ego. Those “whys” greatly torture a person, create what people call “complexes”. For example, “why should I be so tall?” or – the opposite – “very short?”. It remains inside. And one may pray and stay awake (to do so), but get the opposite result. And he may suffer and exasperate himself pointlessly. Whilst with Christ, with grace, it all disappears. There remains this “something” deep down, meaning “why,” but God's grace overshadows man and while the root may be a complex, a rosebush grows over it with beautiful roses, and the more one waters it through faith, love, patience and humility, the more evil loses its power and ceases to exist; that is, it doesn't disappear, but it withers. The more the rosebush isn't watered, the more it withers, dries up, disappears and thorns grow out of it instead.


We tempt God when we ask something of Him, but our life is far from God. We tempt Him when we ask for something but our life is not in accordance with His will – that is, (we ask for) things against God: stress and anxiety on one hand, but on the other we entreat Him.


Your spiritual father may tell you: “How I would have liked to be in a quiet place, free from all other affairs and to hear about your life right from the beginning, from when you felt yourself; all the things you can remember and the way you dealt with them, not only the unpleasant but also the pleasant, not only your sins but also the good. Successes and failures. Everything, everything that is part of your life”.


I've applied this type of general confession many times and have seen miracles happen. During the time you speak to the confessor, divine grace comes to relieve you from all your ordeals and wounds and psychological traumas and guilt; because, as you are speaking your confessor sincerely prays for your deliverance.


Let us not go back to the sins that we have confessed. The remembrance of sins wounds. Did we ask for forgiveness? It's over. God forgives everything through confession. I also believe that I sin. I'm not in the right path. But whatever bothers me I pray about; I don't keep it inside me. I go to my spiritual father. I confess it, it's over! Let us not turn back and talk about what we did not do. The important thing is what we will do now, from this moment on.


Desperation and disappointment is the most terrible thing. It's Satan's trap, to make a person lose his eagerness for spiritual things and bring him to desperation.


Almost all disease is due to the lack of trust in God and this causes stress. Stress is caused by the abolishment of religious feelings. If you don't feel love for Christ, if you don't occupy yourselves with holy matters, you will surely fill up with melancholy and evil.


Something that can also help the depressed is an occupation, interest for life. The garden, plants, flowers, trees, the country, a walk outdoors, a hike, all this can bring a person out of idleness and create other interests for him. They act like medicine. Occupying oneself with art, music, etc is very beneficial. But I attach the greatest value to the Church, to studying the Holy Scripture, to the services. By studying God's word, one is healed without being aware of it.


Let us not lose hope, or be in a rush, nor judge according to superficial or external things. If, for example, you see a nude or lewdly dressed woman, don't remain on the external image, but enter deep, into her soul. She may be a very good soul that has existential questions, that she may be manifesting through her extreme appearance. She has internal strength, the strength of projection, she wants people to look at her. However, in ignorance, she has twisted things. Imagine if she were to meet Christ. She would believe, and turn all this ardour to Christ. She would do everything to attract God's grace. She would become a saint.


Often, through our anxiety and fears and poor spiritual state, without knowing or wanting, we can hurt other people, even if we love them very much, like a mother her child for example. A mother can transmit to a child all her stress regarding his life, his health, his progress, even without talking to him directly or showing what she feels. This love, this natural love may hurt him at some point. This does not happen, however, with Christ's love, which is connected to prayer and the holiness of someone’s life. This love sanctifies a person, pacifies him, because God is love.

Source (greek):

Life and Words, pub. Holy Monastery of Chrisopigi of Chania

2003

Elder Porphyrios

Translate by: Holy Monastery of Pantokrator

Saint Ahmed

Commemorated on May 3

On May 3, 1682 Ahmed, the secretary to the Deutardare, the one called Patsourounis, was martyred in Constantinople. His martyrdom was written by an anonymous person.

From the New Martyrologion of Saint Nicodemos

He (Ahmed) had a Russian slave woman with whom he had relations. However, he would allow her to go to the church of the Christians on feast days. Seeing as he sensed a pleasant fragrance emanating from her mouth every time she returned from Church, he asked her what she ate to smell this way. She told him that she ate prosphora and drank holy water. Having heard this, he summoned a priest of the Great Church and told him to prepare a space for him to go there when the Patriarch officiated. And when this had been done – oh what a miracle! When the Patriarch blessed the people, rays would emanate from the trikerion and from his fingers and fall on the heads of all the Christians, but not his. As soon as he saw this wonder, he called for the priest and was baptized a Christian, and for a long time he was a secret Christian. However, at a meeting where the nobles were discussing who was the most powerful, they asked him, and he shouted as loud as he could, “The faith of the Christians has the greatest power of all.” He then confessed himself to be a Christian and having preached with courage the testimony of the mystery of the incarnate Christ, he received the blessed end of martyrdom.

Source: Synaxarion Neomartyron (Book of the New Martyrs)
Publication: Orthodox Kypseli

SOURCE:

SAINT OR FEAST POSTED THIS DATE 2010(with 2009's link here also and further, 2008's):

Translation of the relics of the Holy Passionbearer Boris, in Holy Baptism Roman

Commemorated on May 2
The Transfer of the Relics of the Holy Passion-Bearers Boris and Gleb. St Boris (July 24) was a brother of the Great Prince of Kiev Yaroslav the Wise (1019-1054), and was baptized with the name Roman. The murdered Prince Boris was buried at the church of St Basil the Great at Vyshgorod near Kiev.

Metropolitan John I of Kiev (1008-1035) and his clergy solemnly met the incorrupt relics of the holy passion-bearer Gleb and placed them in the church where the relics of St Boris rested. Soon the burial place was glorified by miracles. Then the relics of the holy brothers Boris and Gleb were removed from the ground and placed in a specially constructed chapel. On July 24, 1026 a church of five cupolas built by Yaroslav the Wise was consecrated in honor of the holy martyrs.

In later years, the Vyshgorod Sts Boris and Gleb church containing the relics of the holy Passion-Bearers became the family church of the Yaroslavichi, their sanctuary of brotherly love and service to the nation. The symbol of their unity was the celebration of the Transfer of the Relics of Boris and Gleb, observed on May 2. The history of the establishing of this Feast is bound up with the preceding events of Russian history. On May 2, 1069 the Great Prince Izyaslav, who had been expelled from the princedom for seven months (i.e. from September 1068) because of an uprising of the Kievan people, entered into Kiev. In gratitude for God's help in establishing peace in the Russian land, the prince built a new church to replace an older structure. Two Metropolitans, George of Kiev and Neophytus of Chernigov, participated in its consecration with other bishops, igumens, and clergy. The transfer of the relics, in which all three of the Yaroslavichi (Izyaslav, Svyatoslav, Vsevolod) participated, was set for May 2, and it was designated as an annual celebration.

Svyatoslav Yaroslavich, Prince of Kiev during 1073-1076, made an effort to transform the Sts Boris and Gleb temple into a stone church, but he was able to build the walls only eight cubits high. Later Vsevolod (+ 1093) finished the church construction, but it collapsed by night.

The veneration of Sts Boris and Gleb developed during the time of Yaroslav's grandsons, often producing a peculiar pious competition among them. Izyaslav's son Svyatopolk (+ 1113), built silver reliquaries for the saints. In 1102 Vsevolod's son Vladimir Monomakh (+ 1125), sent master craftsmen by night and secretly adorned the silver reliquaries with gold leaf. Svyatoslav's son Oleg (+ 1115) outdid them. He was called "Gorislavich", and was mentioned in the "Tale of Igor's Campaign." He "intended to raise up the collapsed stone (church) and hired some builders." He provided everything that was necessary.
< The church was ready in the year 1111, and Oleg "pressured and besought Svyatopolk to transfer the holy relics into it." Svyatopolk did not want to do this, "because he did not build this church."

The death of Svyatopolk Izyaslavich (+ 1113) brought a new insurrection to Kiev, which nearly killed Vladimir Monomakh, who had become Great Prince of that city. He decided to cultivate friendship with the Svyatoslavichi through the solemn transfer of the relics into the Oleg church. "Vladimir gathered his sons, and David and Oleg with their sons. They all arrived at Vyshgorod. All the hierarchs, igumens, monks and priests came, filling all the town and there was no space left for the citizenry along the walls."

On the morning of May 2, 1115, the Sunday of the Myrhhbearing Women, they began to sing Matins at both churches, old and new, and the transfer of relics began. The three were separated. "First they brought St Boris in a cart, and with him went Metropolitan Vladimir and his clergy." On other carts went St Gleb "and David with bishops and clergy." (Oleg waited for them in the church).

This separation was adhered to in future generations. St Boris was considered a heavenly protector of the Monomashichi; St Gleb, of the Ol'govichi and the Davidovichi. When Vladimir Monomakh speaks about Boris in his "Testament", he does not mention Gleb. In the Ol'govichi line, none of the princes received the name Boris.

In general the names Boris and Gleb, and so also Roman and David, were esteemed by many generations of Russian princes. The brothers of Oleg Gorislavich were named Roman (+ 1079), Gleb (+ 1078), David (+ 1123), and one of his sons was named Gleb (+ 1138).

From Monomakh were the sons Roman and Gleb; from Yuri Dolgoruky, Boris and Gleb; of St Rostislav of Smolensk, Boris and Gleb; of St Andrew Bogoliubsky, St Gleb (+ 1174); of Vsevolod Big Nest, Boris and Gleb. Among the sons of Vseslav of Polotsk (+ 1101) was the full range of "Sts Boris and Gleb" names: Roman, Gleb, David, Boris.

The Vyshgorod sanctuaries were not the only centers for the liturgical veneration of Sts Boris and Gleb. It was spread throughout the Russian land. First of all, there were churches and monasteries in specific places connected with the martyrdom of the saints, and their miraculous help for people; the temple of Boris and Gleb at Dorogozhich on the road to Vyshgorod, where St Boris died; the Sts Boris and Gleb monastery at Tmo near Tver where Gleb's horse injured its leg; a monastery of the same name at Smyadyno at the place of Gleb's murder; and at the River Tvertsa near Torzhok (founded in 1030), where the head of St George the Hungarian was preserved [trans. note: the beloved servant of St Boris was beheaded in order to steal the gold medallion given him by St Boris]. Churches dedicated to Sts Boris and Gleb were built at the Alta in memory of the victory of Yaroslav the Wise over Svyatopolk the Accursed on July 24, 1019; and also at Gzena near Novgorod where Gleb Svyatoslavich defeated a sorcerer.

The Ol'govichi and the Monomashichi vied with each other in building churches dedicated to the holy martyrs. Oleg himself, in addition to the Vyshgorod church, built the Sts Boris and Gleb cathedral in Old Ryazan in 1115 (therefore, the diocese was later called Sts Boris and Gleb). His brother David also built at Chernigov (in 1120). In the year 1132 Yuri Dolgoruky built a church of Boris and Gleb at Kideksh at the River Nerla, "where the encampment of St Boris had been." In 1145, St Rostislav of Smolensk "put a stone church at Smyadyno," at Smolensk. In the following year the first (wooden) Sts Boris and Gleb church was built in Novgorod. In 1167 a stone foundation replaced the wood, and it was completed and consecrated in the year 1173. The Novgorod Chronicles name the legendary Sotko Sytinich as the builder of the church.

The holy Passion-Bearers Boris and Gleb were the first Russian saints glorified by the Russian and Byzantine Churches. A service to them was composed soon after their death, and its author was St John I, Metropolitan of Kiev (1008-1035), which a MENAION of the twelfth century corroborates. The innumerable copies of their Life, the accounts of the relics, the miracles and eulogies in the manuscripts and printed books of the twelfth-fourteenth centuries bear witness to the special veneration of the holy Martyrs Boris and Gleb in Russia.

[trans. note: Neither this account nor those of the individual feastdays give the details of their martyrdom. Perhaps it is assumed that the reader is familiar with the story, or perhaps it is too painful to recount. The saints chose not to take up arms to defend themselves, or flee to safety. In their final prayers, they refer to the Lord's voluntary suffering and death, as recorded by the chroniclers. Since they meekly accepted an unjust death for the sake of Christ, they are known as "Passion-Bearers."]
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SAINT OR FEAST POSTED THIS DATE 2010(with 2009's link here also and further, 2008's):

St Panaretus of Cyprus

Commemorated on May 1



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SAINT OR FEAST POSTED THIS DATE 2010(with 2009's link here also and further, 2008's):