On Holy Communion & Prayers Before Holy Communion

By: Archimandrite Ephraim of Vatopedi

There are some monks that confess every day. Monks receive the Communion four times a week – on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. On other days, there is a strict fast – food is prepared without oil; and on Saturdays food is prepared with oil. In our monastery, sometimes even ten liturgies are served every day and every monk knows when he can receive the Holy Communion. In Greece, the Holy Communion has nothing to do with the Holy Confession. If a man did not commit death sins that can not be absolved, then he can receive the Holy Communion. The Holy Communion comes from love of the heart; it is straining of one’s heart. A prayer before the Holy Communion is a CANON before the Holy Communion. Indeed, canons do exist, but their fulfillment must not be taken as a law. As for the preparation before the Holy Communion, there must be no constraint. The same can be said for the fast. A man is obliged to fast according to the fasting period prescribed by the Church; there is no special fasting rule for the receiving the Holy Communion.

Taken from the blog: Again & Again

Funeral Excerpt from St. John Damascene

St. John of Damascus

I weep and lament when I think of death and see lying in the grave our beauty, created in the image of God, disfigured and bereft of glory.

On Communicating In The Holy Spirit

By: Archimandrite Sophronius (Sakarov)

He who is made in the ‘image’ of God is made for life ‘after His likeness’, also. The man who has found salvation in God receives life in the likeness of God’s own life. God is omnipresent and omniscient, and the saints in the Holy Spirit receive a likeness of that omnipresence and omniscience. God is Light, and the saints in the Holy Spirit become light. God is Love encompassing all that exists, and the saints in the Holy Spirit embrace the universe in their love. God is All-Holy, and the saints in the Holy Spirit are holy. Holiness is not an ethical but an ontological concept. A man is not holy because his morals or conduct are good, or even because he leads a righteous life in the sense of devoting himself to spiritual endeavor and prayers- indeed, the Pharisees kept the fasts and made ‘long’ prayers. But that man is holy who bears within himself the Holy Spirit. The One God is Truth and Life, and those who communicate in the Holy Spirit become true and have life; whereas those who fall away from God suffer spiritual death and depart into ‘outer darkness’.

To say that man who was called into life out of nothingness by a creative act of God does not possess eternal life within himself does not mean that in dying he returns to nothingness, to non-existence. Gifted with freedom, when he turns away from God he leaves Light and Life for perpetual death and outer darkness; but this darkness and death do not correspond to that nothingness, that non-existence, out of which the creature was called into being. It is the ’state’ of the ‘reasonable being’ indestructible in his nature Turning away from God, the creature, however, cannot find any realm inaccessible to Him. Even in hell Divine love will embrace all men, but, while this love is joy and life for them that love God, it is torment for those that hate Him.

Excerpt taken from the book: St. Silouan the Athonite

The True Adornment Of Woman

By: St. John Chrysostom

Do you wish to adorn your face? Do not do so with gems but with piety and modesty; thus adorned, a man will find your appearance  more pleasing to behold. For that other kind of adornment generally arouses suspicions which give rise to jealousy, enmity, strife, and quarrels. For there is nothing more disgusting than a suspiciously beautiful face. But the adornment which comes from almsgiving and modesty drives out all wicked suspicion and draws your husband to you with greater strength than any chain. For natural beauty does not make a face become beautiful as much as does the disposition of him who beholds it, and nothing is more likely to produce this disposition  than modesty and piety. Hence, even if a woman be beautiful but her husband hates her, she will appear to him as the ugliest of women; if a woman does not happen to be comely but she pleases her husband, he will find her the fairest of women. Judgments are made not in the light of the nature of what is seen but in the light of the disposition of those who see it.

Adorn your face, therefore, with modesty, piety, almsgiving, benevolence, love, kindliness towards your husband, reasonableness, mildness, and forbearance. These are the pigments of virtue; by these you draw not men but angels to you as your lovers; for these you have God Himself to praise you. When God shall approve of you, He will win over your husband to you in every way; for if wisdom illumines the face of man, much more does virtue make the face of a woman shine forth.

Excerpt taken from the book: Daily Readings from the Writings of St. John Chyrsostom

St. John the Dwarf On Man’s Virtues

St. John the Dwarf

I think it is best that a man should have a little bit of all the virtues. Therefore, get up early every day and acquire the beginning of every virtue and every commandment of God. Use great patience, with fear and long-suffering, in the love of God, with all the fervor of your soul and body. Exercise great humility, bear with interior distress; be vigilant and pray often with reverence, with purity of speech and control of your eyes. When you are despised do not get angry; be at peace, and do not render evil for evil. Do not pray attention to the faults of others, and do not try to compare yourself with others, knowing you are less than every created thing. Renounce everything material and that which is of the flesh. Live by the cross, in warfare, in poverty of spirit, in voluntary spiritual asceticism, in fasting, penitence and tears, in discernment, in purity of soul, taking hold of that which is good. Do your work in peace. Persevere in keeping vigil, in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness, and in sufferings. Shut yourself in a tomb as though you were already dead, so that at all times you will think death is near.

Excerpt taking from the book: The Sayings of the Desert Fathers

On Leading Others to Christ: By St John Chrysostom

St. John Chrysostom

Nothing is more frigid than a Christian who does not care about the salvation of others. You cannot plead the excuse of poverty here; the widow who gave her two mites will stand to accuse you. Peter said, “Silver or gold I have none.” Paul was so poor he often went hungry, lacking the necessary food. You cannot allege lack of education or preparation. They were unlearned men. You cannot plead infirmity. Timothy was often laid low by sickness and the Apostle had to counsel him to take a little wine for his stomach. Every one can profit his neighbor if he will do what he can.

Do not say, It is impossible for me to lead others to the faith. If you are a Christian, it is impossible for it not to be so. The natural properties of things cannot be denied. This witnessing to others is part of the very nature of being a Christian. It would be easier for the sun to cease to shine and give forth heat than for a Christian not to send forth light; easier for the light to be darkness than for this to be so.

Taken from the book: Daily Readings From The Writings of St. John Chrysostom

New-Martyr Eugene Rodionov & Warrior for Christ

Martyr Eugene Rodionov

Eugene Rodionov,19 years old, did not lose his faith despite horrible tortures “The Chechen captivity is the most horrid, the most inhuman and barbaric thing that can ever happen,” says Eugene’s mother. She had to survive hell to find her son, the body of her son, to be more precise. Eugene’s death coincided with his 19th birthday. Eugene’s mother, Lubov, was a little late: she was just seven kilometers far from the place of her son’s execution.

“Eugene was born 30 minutes after midnight on May 23, 1977. His delivery was not hard. He was a good and healthy child, his weight was 3900 grams. I was so relieved, when I heard his first cry. As if he was trying to say: “I came into this world, love me!” I incidentally looked at the window. It was dark outside, and I suddenly saw a falling star. I went pale, my heart turned to a cold small piece. Doctors tried to convince me that it was a good sign. They told me
that a falling star was a sign of good life for my baby. However, I had to live with a sense of something dangerous coming over us. Time made me forget about it, but I had to remember the sign in 19 years.”

The Russian patriotic press has already reported about the deed of a 19-year-old Russian soldier, Eugene Rodionov. This young man found himself in the Chechen captivity in 1996. He did not betray either his fatherland or his faith. He did not take off his cross even at the hardest moment of beastly tortures. The state decorated Eugene with the Order of Courage. People’s donations made it possible to put a two-meter high Orthodox cross on his grave. People come to visit his grave from most distant parts of Russia. His mother, Lubov Rodionova, says that people’s attitude changed her entire awareness of life. A WWII veteran once came to visit Eugene’s grave. He took off his military decoration – the Bravery Medal – and put in on the tombstone. Eugene Rodionov’s biography was published in a book that came out in 2002. The book was called “The New Martyr of Christ, Warrior Eugene.” This is not really a book, but a booklet, which was written by priest Alexander Shargunov. However, we know little about Eugene’s inmost thoughts, feelings, emotions, or what he had to go through during three months of the Chechen hell. A lot of things remain a mystery.
Lubov Rodionova shared her thoughts with the priest about her son’s childhood, his interests at school, his attitude to the military service. She also shared her most horrible thoughts – about the news of his alleged desertion from the army, and what followed that news afterwards.

Eighteen-year-old Eugene Rodionov was taken captive with three other soldiers at night of February 14th, not far from the Chechen settlement of Galashki. The guys arrived from the Kaliningrad region. They patrolled the border between the republics of Chechnya and Ingushetia. Their control and registration post was located some 200 meters far from the security detachment. The post was just a small cabin, without any light or wire communication. The cabin did not even have a military support, in spite of the fact that it was a single cabin on the mountainous road, which was used for carrying weapons, ammunition, captives, drugs and so on. The border guards stopped an ambulance vehicle to check it. More than ten armed Chechens got out of the vehicle. Needless to mention that it was very easy for them to cope with young inexperienced soldiers. The guys showed as much resistance as they could, but the outcome of the fight was evident before it even started. Lubov Rodionova believes that this incident happened over officers’ negligence, basically.

“The captivity has always been considered to be the most horrible thing that can ever happen to a person. It implies no freedom, but only tortures and humiliation. Experience showed that the Chechen captivity is the most horrid, the most inhuman and barbaric thing that can ever happen,” Lubov Rodionova believes.

On How to Benefit Non-Orthodox Christians

St. Silvanus the Athonite

Elder Sophronius Sakharov relates the following story:

I remember a conversation [Staretz Silvanus] had with a certain Archimandrite who was engaged in missionary work. This Archimandrite thought highly of the Staretz [Silvanus] and many a time went to see him during his visits to the Holy Mountain. The Staretz [Silvanus] asked him what sort of sermons he preached to people. The Archimandrite, who was still young and inexperienced gesticulated with his hands and swayed his whole body, and replied excitedly, I tell them, Your faith is all wrong, perverted. There is nothing right, and if you dont repent, there will be no salvation for you.

The Staretz [Silvanus] heard him out, then asked, “‘Tell me, Father Archimandrite, do they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that He is the true God?’