What is an ”Anathema”?

 

By St. Theophan the Recluse (┼1894)

Rarely does the Rite of Orthodoxy, which is now being performed, take place without censures and reproaches on somebody’s part. And no matter how many sermons are given explaining that the Church here acts wisely for the salvation of her children — still the malcontents just keep repeating their line. Either they do not listen to the sermons, or these sermons do not strike home as regards the latters’ perplexities, or perhaps they have formed their own conception of this rite and do not want to abandon it, no matter what you tell them.

To some people our anathemas seem inhumane, to others constricting. Such charges might be valid in other situations, but there is no way they can apply to our Rite of Orthodoxy. I will clarify for you briefly why the Church acts thus, and I think you yourselves will agree with me that in so doing, the Church acts wisely.

Our aim must be to become holy…Saint Porphyrios (Bairaktaris) the Kapsokalyvite

Saint Porphyrios (Bairaktaris) the Kapsokalyvite

Commemorated on  2 December

There is one thing we must do, and that is turn to Him and love Him with our soul. Love for Christ: this is the best and sole remedy for the passions. 

“The flood of divine love fills the soul with joy and exultation.”

Prayer should not be seen as a chore or an obligation but rather an act of love.

The object is not to sit and afflict and constrict yourself in order to improve. The object is to live, study, to pray and to advance in love––in love for Christ and for the Church.

The Elder tells us,

Simplicity and gentleness are a very saintly mode of spiritual life, but you cannot learn this in an external way. It must suffuse itself mystically within you so that your soul embraces this mode of life through the grace of God.

THE FOLLOWING IS ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE ON THE UNCREATED ENERGIES OF GOD

THE FOLLOWING IS ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE ON THE UNCREATED ENERGIES OF GOD

by Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos

            A contemporary monastic of the Orthodox Christian Church in Greece, Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos, is a prolific writer and an expert on Saint Gregory Palamas and his teachings of the Essence of God and the Uncreated Energies of God.  He was born in 1945 and graduated from the Theological School of the University of Thessaloniki.   He taught Greek for several semesters and gave lectures on Orthodox ethics to the students of the St. John of Damascus Theological School at the University of the Patriarchate of Antioch in Balamand, Lebanon.  Already in his youth he was particularly interested in the Fathers of the Church, working for a time in the monastery libraries of Mount Athos, on the recording of the codices.  He was especially interested in the teaching of St. Gregory Palamas.

            The study of Patristic texts and particularly those of the Hesychast Fathers of the Philokalia, many years of studying St. Gregory Palamas, association with the monks of the Holy Mountain, many years of pastoral experience, all brought him to the realization that Orthodox theology is a science of the healing of man and that the Neptic Fathers can help the modern restless man who is disturbed by many internal and external problems.  Within this framework he has written a multitude of books, the fruit of his pastoral work, among which is “Orthodox Psychotherapy.”  Some of these books have been translated into various languages.  With these books he is conveying the Orthodox spirit of the Philokalia to the restless and disturbed man of our time.  This is why they have aroused such interest.

MANY MUSLIMS WERE BAPTIZED AFTER THE DEATH OF FR. DANIEL SISOYEV

The reason for the murder of the priest Daniel Sysoev was the success of his mission among the Muslims, says his friend the famous missionary Father Oleg Stenyaev, according to the news agency Interfax-Religion.

"A man gets killed when he is feared, when his spiritual superiority is feared. Father Daniel was threatened 14 times. And even on the day of his murder, he received athreatening call demanding that he must stop preaching among the Muslims. After his assassination many Muslims were baptized, as priests of other Churches have told me. The murder produced the opposite effect," says Father Oleg in an article published by the Orthodox newspaper Krestovsky bridge.

THE VOICE OF ORTHODOXY: METROPOLITAN SERAPHIM OF PIRAEUS

THE VOICE OF ORTHODOXY: METROPOLITAN SERAPHIM OF PIRAEUS

By Protopresbyter Theodoros Zisis, professor of the Theological School of the Aristotelian University of Hjessaloniki, From the Greek Orthodox magazine “Theodromia” (©eoSgonCa), June 13,h, 2014 (the article was initially composed in 2007). Translated by the Holy Monastery of Pantokratoros (Melissochori, Tljessaloniki, Greece) and edited for clarification by the Greek Orthodox Brotherhood of St. Poimen.

For decades now the pan-heresy of Ecumenism infects the Orthodox faith and life. The shepherds, the guardians of the flock who should be alert and chase away the wolves of the papist and protestant heresies, many of them keep silent and hide, either out of fear and cowardice or so that they may not fall in disfavor of the powerful, while others have succumbed to the heresies and like wolves in sheepskins spiritually maul the flock. Many presbyters and monks have assumed the protection of the faith but so has the flock itself as well, all of them with spectacular candor.

A CASE OF OBEDIENCE

A CASE OF OBEDIENCE

A selection from the book “The Life and Instructions of Saint Ambrose of Optina. ”

Not long before the repose of Elder Ambrose, about two years, I had to go to Optina to collect some money. We had made an iconostasis there, and I went to get the payment for our work, a rather substantial sum of money, from the superior. I received the money, and before leaving went to get a blessing from Elder Ambrose for the trip home. I was in a hurry to get back because the following day some people were coming to place a large order, amounting to several tens of thousands.

That day there was as usual a packed crowd of people waiting to see the Elder. He was told that I was waiting, and through his cell-attendant gave instructions that I was to come to him that evening for tea. Although I was anxious to get on my way, the joy and honor of being invited to have tea with the Elder overweighed all other considerations, and I decided to postpone my return trip until the evening, certain that if I travelled all night I would make it home in time.

A RUSSIAN ORTHODOX SAINT OF THE 16TH CENTURY The miraculous appearance of the Trinitarian God to Saint Alexander of Svir

A RUSSIAN ORTHODOX SAINT OF THE 16^TH CENTURY

The miraculous appearance of the Trinitarian God to

Saint Alexander of Svir  

          This miracle happened in the following way.  In 1508, when Alexander was sixty years old, he began his ascetic struggles.  These struggles went beyond human endurance with hunger, thirst and enduring the extreme cold.  He hoped that by encountering the fierce cold weather he would avoid eternal damnation.  But the demons seeing that Alexander was attacking them and realizing that they would be obliterated by his prayers, proceeded to terrorize him.  They would appear to him at times as wild animals and other times as snakes.  These entities would tread upon him while screaming like wild animals.  They would also attack him with many unclean temptations. One night as Saint Alexander was walking towards his monastic cell, there appeared before him an army of demons who were attacking him with great ferocity.  He would pray for hours in his monastic cell.

The oldest hymn to the Theotokos

So far, the earliest known prayer to the Virgin Mary is known as “Beneath thy compassion” (Greek: Ὑπὸ τὴν σὴν εὐσπλαγχνίαν). The earliest text of this hymn was found in a Christmas liturgy of the third century. It is written in Greek and dates to approximately 250 A.D.
In 1917, the John Rylands Library in Manchester acquired a large panel of Egyptian papyrus including the 18 cm by 9.4 cm fragment shown at left, containing the text of this prayer in Greek.
C.H. Roberts published this document in 1938. His colleague E. Lobel, with whom he collaborated in editing the Oxyrhynchus papyri, basing his arguments on paleographic analysis, argued that the text could not possibly be older than the third century, and most probably was written between 250 and 300. This hymn thus precedes the “Hail Mary“ in Christian prayer by several centuries.

The Significance of the Lives of the Saints

 
St. Justin Popovic

In order to begin to understand the importance of the Lives of the Saints for our spiritual lives, I believe we can turn to no better or more thorough source than St. Justin Popovich's Introduction to his own compilation of the Lives of the Saints. A theologian, St. Justin saw no dichotomy between the Lives of the Saints and the theological writings of the Church. For him, as for the Church, theology and the Lives of the Saints form one whole. He called the Lives of the Saints "experiential theology" or "applied dogmatic theology," and he viewed them and wrote about them in a theological manner. Likewise, he viewed theological writings as an expression of the experience of the life of Grace in the Church, and not just an intellectual, abstract or polemical exercise.
How does St. Justin view the Lives of the Saints theologically? At the center of all of St. Justin's thought is the Theanthropic vision: the fact that God became man in Jesus Christ, uniting human nature with Divine Nature. The fact of the God-man, the Theanthropos, is the axis of the universe: it is the reality according to which everything else must be viewed, whether it be the nature of the Church or the problems and issues of everyday life.

"I Loved Martyrdom..."

"I Loved Martyrdom, Which so Strangely Cleanses the Soul"*

ST. LUKE THE DOCTOR AND ARCHBISHOP OF CRIMEA

1877-1961

*This is a talk given by Archimandrite Father Nektarios Antonopoulos regarding the wondrous and martyric life of St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and Crimea – a doctor, miraculous person and confessor of the faith. It is a strong and touching text, rich with photographs. The talk was presented along with a slideshow of photographs in our monastery's reception area on Tuesday, November 23, after the having received the relics St. Luke.

The life of this great saint has a lot to teach us about the life in Christ. Also, it is of great importance that through his life's vivid martyrdom, a resonant answer is given to two controversial views. First, his two positions – renown doctor and bishop – rejects the premise that science is in conflict with religion. Second, the unjust, cruel torture he suffered and the shameless disdain for this great scientist, his discoveries, his studies and progressive practices – to a point that he had been considered a "second category citizen" – unveil the atrocity of atheistic totalitarian regimes. St. Luke's life ought to be studied not only from a religious and medical point of view – as is already the case – but also socially, politically and historically. It can provide multiple answers to ignorance and propaganda.

Searching for the Truth

ORTHODOX CATECHISM TOPICS

Searching for the Truth

By: Fr. Anthony Alevizopoulos
PhD. of Theology, PhD. of Philosophy

http://www.egolpion.com/searching_truth.en.aspx

 The problem of where the truth lies has occupied mankind down through the ages; it is a problem that is always contemporary and of its very nature leads man to seek an answer. The Philosophers, especially the ancient Greeks, posed the question: "What is the truth?" and most men have searched for it rationally. Some said that truth is an Idea, a "principle of all things", the "prime mover unmoved" and called it God.

But this "God", the God of the philosophers, cannot redeem. He touches only man's rational faculty, and not man as a whole; no one can come into personal commu­nion with him since he is not a person, but something impersonal; an universal Mind that acts blindly, or is so distant and so transcendental that he has no interest in man or in the world.

What is Divine Revelation?

ORTHODOX CATECHISM TOPICS

What is Divine Revelation?
By Fr. Anthony Alevizopoulos.

According to the Orthodox faith, the Church is not founded on written texts but on the confession that Christ is God-Man (Theanthropos), namely that in the person of Christ, God was joined with man, “indivisibly, immovably, unmistakably, inseparably,” and man has come into actual communion with God, and in the person of Christ God and man were hypostatically united, in one unique hypostasis.

The Son and Word of God continues to be hypostatically united with His body and as the Head of the Church, He is always united with us (Matt. 18:20; 28:20). The presence of Christ is acti-vated by the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church (1 Cor. 12: 3). This is why the Church is also “….the pillar and ground of the truth” (1Tim. 3:15; 1Cor. 2:7-11).

Orthodox catechism topics.The Church

ORTHODOX CATECHISM TOPICS

The Church

By: Fr. Anthony Alevizopoulos
PhD. of Theology, PhD. of Philosophy

http://www.egolpion.com/

 The Church as the Body of Christ is a Divine-human (theanthropic) organism, i.e. an invisible and visible reality. The invisible dimension of the Church refers to the communion between God and man having as its model the communion between the three Persons of the Holy Trinity. With the creation of the angels the heaven­ly Church was constituted; to this Church man was added: " but ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and Church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the just men made perfect" (Heb. 12, 22-23).

St. Nikolai Velimirovic - How God can be inside man

St. Nikolai Velimirovic

Letter # - How God can be inside man
To a soldier of a student's brigade who asks how God can be inside man

You asked somebody, "where is God?" And you got an answer that God is inside you. And you marvel at this answer. How can that be?

Kind of like light in a room, or like fire in a stove. When you are able to feel God within you, you will feel and know that He is inside you, but you will not be able to explain it to someone else. But you will look for images in nature and then you will speak to the other person as I speak to you:

The one who is and who was…Grace and peace from the Holy Triune God.

Father Athanasios Mitilinaios

Apocalypse

Chapter 3
Revelation 1: 4-6.

The one who is and who was…Grace and peace from the Holy Triune God.

John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is coming, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the first-born of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, every one who pierced him; and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.

Orthodox Christianity In Czech and Slovakia Is Growing

By Aimilios Polygenis
September 24, 2011
Romfea.gr

"The number of Orthodox in the Czech Republic is increasing every day," said the Metropolitan Christopher of the Czech Republic and All Slovakia in an interview.

His Beatitude the Metropolitan of Czech spoke of increased faith compared to other denominations in the country, saying that "many people from the former Soviet Union come to live here. Many Czechs come to be baptized Orthodox; the Orthodox Church is a refuge for all."

The vision of Daniel and Zachariah — I am the Alpha and the Omega...

Father Athanasios Mitilinaios

Apocalypse

Chapter 5
Revelation 1: 7-9

The vision of Daniel and Zachariah— I am the Alpha and the Omega —Sharing in the suffering and gospel of the cross.

 

Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, every one who pierced him; and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen. ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. I John, your brother, who share with you in Jesus the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

As we were saying last time, these two verses serve as the conclusion of the initial introduction of the book but they also include the central theme of this book which is the Second Coming of Christ.

The three offices of Christ and the faithful: prophetic, priestly and royal.

Father Athanasios Mitilinaios

Apocalypse

Chapter 4
Revelation 1: 4-7

The three offices of Christ and the faithful: prophetic, priestly and royal.

John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the first-born of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Therefore, glory belongs to the One who incarnated, who became a faithful witness, who shed His blood to wash us from our sins because He loves us. So to Him, Jesus Christ, be glory and power forever and ever, as we read at the end of John’s introduction to the book of the Revelation. Again, the Word of God took on flesh.

A Word From Saint Nektarios to Future Priests

The following is taken from an address given by St. Nektarios when he was first assigned dean of Rizarios Ecclesiastical School.

“My children, in each of you there exists a future priest, an important element of the history and future life of our suffering country. You should be proud to wear your cassocks (anteri). Pray to the Almighty that He grants you the ability to serve His Church, for this vocation is not merely a job but is a mission which begins on earth and continues in heaven. Please heed these humble words and may your souls continuously shine with the eternal truths of our Holy Gospel…

“My children, I also want you to be proud of our Orthodox faith.

St. Nikolai Velimirovic - About the World Crisis

St. Nikolai Velimirovic

Letter # 38 - World Crisis

Answer to a Priest about the World Crisis

You ask me, O man of God, where did today's crisis come from and what does it mean? Who am I to be asked about such a great thing? "You should only speak when what you have to say is better than silence," says St. Gregory the Theologian. And even though I believe that silence would be better right now, I will give you my opinion on it for the sake of my love for you.

Crisis is a Greek word, and it means judgment. In the Holy Scripture this word is used many times. The Psalmist says, "therefore, the godless will not stand up in judgment" (Ps. 1: 5). In another place, it says, "I sing of mercy and judgment" (Ps. 101: 1).