Regrettably, I’ve
seen that none of the unionists that I have met possess neither
spiritual crumb nor crust. However, they know how to speak of love
and unity, while they themselves are not united with God, for they
have not loved Him.
Mount Athos , January 23,
1969.
Revered Father
Charalambos,
Seeing the great confusion
in our Church, caused by various pro unity movements and contacts of
the Patriarch with the Pope, I hurt, being Her child, and it seemed
good to me, except for my prayers, to send a small piece of thread
(that I have as a poor monk), to be used as well, even one stitch,
for the much torn dress of our Mother. I trust that you shall handle
it as an act of love and use it through your religious sheet. Thank
you.
First of all, I would like
to apologise to all for daring to write something while I am neither
saintly, nor a theologian.
I imagine that everyone will understand
that my writings are nothing more than my profound pain,
unfortunately on account of the line and mundane love of our father,
Mr. Athenagoras. Apparently, he loved another woman, a modern one,
called Papal Church , for the Orthodox Mother, being very modest,
does not impress him at all. This love, which was heard from
Constantinople, echoed in many children who live in the cities.
Besides, this is the spirit of our time: the family shall lose the
sacred meaning of such affections, which have as their aim the
disintegration and not the unity.
With such a mundane love,
more or less, our Patriarch arrives in Rome. While he should have
shown his love firstly to us, his children and to our Mother Church,
unfortunately, he sent his love far away. The result was, on the one
hand to repose all the mundane children who love the world and have
this mundane love, on the other hand, to overly scandalize all of us,
the children of Orthodoxy, young and old, who have fear of God.
Regrettably, I’ve seen
that none of the unionists that I have met possess neither spiritual
crumb nor crust. However, they know how to speak of love and unity,
while they themselves are not united with God, for they have not
loved Him.
I would like to strongly
urge all our unionist brothers : Since the issue of the union of the
Churches is something spiritual and we are in need of spiritual love,
let's leave it to those who truly loved God and who are theologians,
such as the Fathers of the Church, and not interpreters of the law,
who offered and offer their whole self in the service of the Church
(instead of a large candle), who were lit by the fire of the love of
God and not by the lighter of the caretaker of the church. We ought
to know that there are not only natural laws, but also spiritual.
Therefore, the future wrath of God cannot be addressed by cooperative
sinners (for we might receive double the amount of wrath), but with
repentance and observance of the commands of the Lord.
.
Also, we ought to know
well that our Orthodox Church has no shortage. The only apparent
shortage is the lack of major Hierarchs and Shepherds with patristic
values. Few are chosen. However, it is not alarming. The Church is
the Church of Christ and He governs. It is not a temple, built of
stone, sand and lime by the pious, and destroyed by the fire of
barbarians, but it is Christ Himself. "And whoever falls on this
stone will be broken to pieces and the one on whom it falls will be
crushed " (Matt. 44-45). The Lord, when he sees fit, will
present persons such as Mark the Courteous and Gregory Palamas to
bring together all the overly scandalised brothers of ours to
confess the Orthodox Faith, to solidify the Tradition and to give
great joy to our Mother.
In our times we see that
many faithful children of the Church, both monks and laymen, have
unfortunately been torn away from it because of the pro unionists. In
my opinion, it is not good to be separated from the Church every time
the Patriarch makes a mistake. But from the inside, near the Mother
Church, each one of us has a duty and an obligation to struggle in
his own way. Ceasing the commemoration of the Patriarch, being torn
away and creating one΄s
own Church, and continuing to speak, insulting the Patriarch, in my
opinion, is absurd.
If, on account of this or
that deviation of the various Patriarchs, we get separated and create
our own Churches - God forbid! – we will surpass even the
Protestants. It is easy to separate but difficult to return.
Unfortunately, we have many "churches" in our time.They
were created either by large groups or even by one person. Since it
happened that their hut (I’m referring to what’s happening in
Mount Athos) had a chapel, they thought that they could found their
own independent church. If unionists give the first blow to the
Church, the abovementioned give the second. Let us pray to God to
give His light to all of us and to the Patriarch Athenagoras, firstly
in order that these "churches"unify, so that serenity
prevails amongst the scandalized orthodox crew, peace and love
amongst the Eastern Orthodox Churches, and then let’s think about
unifying with the other "Confessions", if and as long as
they sincerely wish to convert to the Orthodox doctrine.
I would also like to add
that there is a third party in our Church. I’m referring to those
brothers who remain faithful children of Hers, but do not comply to
spiritual accordance among them. They are engaged in criticizing each
other and not for the mutual good of the struggle. Each one observes
the other (more than they observe themselves) in what the other will
probably say or write, so that later they will beat them mercilessly.
Whereas if he himself said or wrote the same thing, he would support
it using indeed many testimonies from the Scripture and the Fathers.
The evil that’s being done is great, for on the one hand he’s
being unjust to his neighbor, on the other hand, he destroys him in
front of other believers. Sometimes he sows distrust in the souls of
the weak,for he scandalizes them. Unfortunately, some of us have
unreasonable demands of others. We expect them to have the same
spiritual character with us. When someone does not agree with our
character, being either a little lenient or a little strict,
immediately, we come to the conclusion that he is not a spiritual
man. Everyone is needed in the Church. All Fathers offered their
services to Her. Both gentle characters and austere. Just as both
sweet and sour, and even bitter chicory, are essential for the human
body (each has its own substances and vitamins), the same applies
to the body of the Church. Everyone is needed. One complements the
spiritual character of the other and we are all obliged to tolerate
not only one’s spiritual nature, but also his weaknesses, which he
has as a human being.
Once again I sincerely
wish to ask forgiveness from everyone, for I dared to write. I am a
simple monk, and my work is to try as much as I can to unrobe off me
the old man, and to help others and the Church through God by prayer.
But since sad news concerning the Holy Orthodoxy reached me at my
hermitage , I hurt a great deal , and it seemed good to me to write
what I felt.
Let's all pray that God
give His grace, and let each one of us help in his own way for the
glory of our Church.
With a lot of respect to
all , Paisios monk.
* The above wise and
discreet letter of Elder Paisios of Mount Athos was sent Fr.
Charalambos Vassilopoulos in1969.
PILGRIMS ‘ TESTIMONIALS
ELDER PAISIOS OF MOUNT ATHOS, vol. I, Edition III, pp. 508 Mr.
Nicholaos A. Zournatzoglou).
Know the Greatness of
Orthodoxy - scriptural and patristic testimonies
«Οrthodoxos
Kypsele» Editions,Thessaloniki
Δεῖτε τό ἑλληνικό κείμενο:ἐδῶ
http://www.impantokratoros.gr/geronpaisios-athinagoras.el.aspx
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