Archbishop Hilarion Alfeyev

A Christian living in the world is called, not to be saved from the world, but to learn, while living in the world, to use what the world offers for spiritual benefit.

“The Epistle to Diognetus,” an ancient Christian text dated to about the 2nd century, has this to say:

“The Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity. The course of conduct which they follow has not been devised by any speculation or deliberation of inquisitive men; nor do they, like some, proclaim themselves the advocates of any merely human doctrines. But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined, and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method of life.
They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven.
They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men, and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death, and restored to life. They are poor, yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all; they are dishonoured, and yet in their very dishonour are glorified. They are evil spoken of, and yet are justified; they are reviled, and bless; they are insulted, and repay the insult with honour; they do good, yet are punished as evil-doers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life.”

Such are the words of the author of the “Epistle to Diognetus.” And so, what the soul is in the body, the Christian is in the world. Each of us Christians has been placed by God in a certain historical and geographical context. We live in a specific city, in a specific epoch, are surrounded by specific people, and our lives are influenced by specific circumstances, but the words of Christ – “You are the salt of the world; you are the light of the world,” – apply to our life. We are not called to renounce the world, oppose the world, and abhor the world. While living in the midst of the world, we are called to be the salt of the world and the light of the world, that is, like the soul in the body, we are called to give life to the world, to transfigure the world. However, in order to be able to have a good influence on the world, we need to learn to use all that this world offers us correctly; we need to learn to approach the world creatively.

In the Russian émigré community in Paris, there lived one of the most remarkable pastors of the 20th century, the priest Alexander Elchaninov. The whole conscious life of this man was connected with the Orthodox Church. He spent his youth in Georgia and in Russia and became a priest when he was already an émigré. He never wrote any great theological works. All that he left behind were isolated diary entries, which were collected into a book after his death. Fr. Alexander lived his whole life in the world, around people, and he reached great spiritual heights. This is one of his thoughts about how a Christian ought to perceive the world around him:

“The circumstances with which our Lord has surrounded us are the first stage leading to the Kingdom of Heaven; and this is the only way of salvation possible for us. These circumstances will change as soon as we have profited by them, converting the bitterness of offenses, insults, sickness, and labours into the gold of patience, forbearance, and meekness.. Constantly, each day, each hour, God is sending us people, circumstances, tasks, which should mark the beginning of our renewal; yet we pay them no attention, and thus continually we resist God’s will for us. Indeed, how can God help us? Only by sending us in our daily life certain people, and certain coincidences of circumstances. If we accepted every hour of our life as the hour of God’s will for us, as the decisive, most important, unique hour of our life – what sources of joy, love, strength, as yet hidden from us, would spring from the depths of our soul!”

Here, then, is the key to the Christian way of perceiving the reality – always to see in everything that happens to us and that takes place with us the providential finger of God. Nothing in our lives happens by chance. If we are placed in certain conditions, if we end up in difficult circumstances, then that means that this is pleasing to God. When God sends us a blessing or a temptation, each time, He is placing a task before us for us to solve. Joy or grief, health or sickness, friends or enemies – all of this God sends us to train and perfect us and we must learn to drive the spiritual benefit from all of it and use it for spiritual growth.

Another key to spiritual life is constantly abiding in the depths – where the mysterious encounter between our soul and God takes place. If we do not come to know this depth, we will never be able to become real, full-fledged Christians. The external circumstances of life can change. Many different things can happen on the external level, but the important thing is what is happening inside a person. If we do not learn what the Fathers of the Church call “dwelling internally,” we risk staying on the surface of Christian life, without understanding the essence of the path that we are called to walk.

In life there is always a lot that frightens us or causes us anxiety, annoyance, and resentment. If a man is unable to renounce all of this, if he lets circumstances “suck him up,” swallow him, he will never succeed in achieving the deep internal stillness where the mystery of Christian life and the mystery of the encounter between man and God is hidden. When the external circumstances obscure what is going on in the depths, then a man no longer has the strength to work on himself, to cultivate the ground of his heart.

“The effort expended in securing control over ourselves and over our anarchic and autonomous nervous systems is greatly facilitated,” writes Fr. Alexander Elchaninov, “and made quite easy, by the correct balance of our attention and imagination. We shall inevitably continue to stumble over every trifling obstacle until what is not a trifle has become sharply defined, vivid and convincing in our soul; until we strive with all our soul, heart, and mind towards what is essential, relegating to their proper place the trifles that poison our everyday life.”

Many people are so focused on external, and sometimes in fact “trifling,” circumstances, that their whole lives turn into a ceaseless pursuit of something that they know they cannot obtain. They are always waiting for “better times,” instead of enjoying the present day and the present hour, the hour in which God is near, for He is always near to us. These people live on illusory hopes for a better future. But life passes by and the future barely comes before it already begins to disappear into the past. And man slides along the surface of life, not taking time to go down into the depths where alone life is worth living, where it regains its original value.

How is it possible in our age – when the tempo of life has been sped up to the limit, when time is extremely compressed and it seems like it flies by a lot faster than in earlier times – how is it possible to keep spiritual balance and internal peace? The only way is to descend into the depths, into the very depths of the internal life, where the soul comes into contact with God.

“The passing of time is terrifying,” writes Elchaninov, “as long as one remains motionless. We must plunge into the depths, where time is a matter of indifference.”

There is one more key to the spiritual life – having your priorities straight. It is very important that everything in a man’s life be in the proper place, corresponding to the hierarchy of his values. Often we are nervous, irritated, and displeased simply because we give the first place in our priorities to something that should be, perhaps, in tenth place, and forget about what is most important – standing in the presence of God. If your soul is in the presence of God, you have no reason to be nervous, anxious, irritated, or worried, because your soul has already found “the one thing needful” and has been quieted by being in God’s presence.

“Standing in God’s presence” and our communion with Him should be constant – not just the background of the Christian life, but actually its core. When someone has a strong inner core then he is not afraid of any adversities that may come his way.

“Our life on earth,” says Fr. Alexander Elchaninov, “is a likeness of the eternal and higher life.”

Following this thought of his, I would like to add that our task, then, here on earth, is to draw closer and closer to the image and likeness in which we were created by God Himself. Every day, we need, as it were, to clean the image of God within us, which has been defiled by sins and all the vanity that surrounds us.

When we put what is most important first, what is secondary second, we can, while living in the middle of this world’s vanity, derive spiritual benefit from everything. There aren’t many things in this world that are in and of themselves either completely negative or completely positive. As a rule, everything that surrounds us can either benefit or harm us. If we learn to derive benefit from everything that surrounds us, the whole world around us will be transfigured. We will see that, without having to go into the desert like Mary of Egypt, without living in a monastery, without any special ascetical efforts, but simply by living in this world, we can attain the spiritual heights.

The majority of us live in the city and we’re rarely able to get away to spend time in nature. All the same, we do have some opportunities – weekends, time off, vacations – when we can leave behind everything and forget about it all and go somewhere if only for a day or two, or maybe even a few days or a week, and be alone with nature. This is a very important experience which should not be neglected. Living in a city with millions of people, we unwillingly become involved in its artificial rhythm, the rhythm of chasing after material things. When we’re able to tear ourselves away from this circle even for a few days, we feel the breath of eternity, we come into contact with nature, where God Himself is present and breathing. In a forest, in the mountains, on the shore of a river or a lake, we can overhear the breathing of the Holy Spirit, Who was “moving over the face of the waters” when the earth was created and Who even now permeates and gives life to everything.

Each of us has a particular “expertise,” a certain area in which we know something. Every science and every sort of expertise can have a useful and practical value and in this sense, they are all neutral with respect to the spiritual life. But science, as long as it reveals the depths of the universe, the laws that are in force among people, in nature, in the cosmos, can acquire a religious significance and can open God to us. The deeper we go into any science, the more it can enable us to know God. As one thinker said, “A little knowledge leads a man away from God; great knowledge leads a man back to Him.” A narrow-minded and ignorant man often has primitive conceptions of religion as well.

Many of the Church Fathers, such as Gregory the Theologian, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, John Chrysostom, and Blessed Augustine, spent years and decades mastering the sciences and the knowledge contained in various fields – philosophy, rhetoric, medicine, astronomy, mathematics, geometry, etc. They were some of the most educated people of their times. Afterwards, when they were ordained, they used all their knowledge for the service of God, the Church, and people. As St. Gregory the Theologian once said, “I have worked hard to acquire all the riches accumulated in the East and the West, but I have laid all of these riches at the feet of Christ.”

In the opinion of some, faith and science are incompatible, as if education and science were completely foreign to the Christian Church, where everything depends on simplicity and humility. In school, children are taught that religion contradicts science and that science denies the tenants of religion.

On the other hand, among religious people there is fear in the face of dialogue, exchanging views, and reason as such. Some people are even distrustful of the science of theology. There is much that I could say on this subject, but I think that it is enough to mention here the words of Fr. Alexander Elchaninov, one of the most remarkable pastors of the 20th century: “The fear of thinking, philosophy, and theology, which has become common in our time, cannot be justified either by the Gospel or the Holy Fathers, who themselves did a lot of reasoning and analyzing. I cannot recall a single one of the Holy Fathers who would have been afraid of the human mind, of reasoning, of a difference of opinion…”

(Translation © John Hogg, 2009)

Elder Zosima is a character from the book “The Brothers Karamazov” By: Fyodor Dostoevsky.

Young man, do not forget to pray. Each time you pray, if you do so sincerely, there will be the flash of a new feeling in it, and a new thought as well, one you did not know before, which will give you fresh courage; and you will understand that prayer is education. Remember also: every day and whenever you can, repeat within yourself: “Lord, have mercy upon all who come before you today.” For every hour and every moment thousands of people leave their life on this earth, and their souls come before the Lord- and so many of them part with the earth in isolation, unknown to anyone, in sadness and sorrow that no one will mourn for them, or even know whether they had lived or not. And so, perhaps from the other end of the earth, your prayer for his repose will rise up to the Lord, though you did not know him at all, nor he you. How moving it is for his soul, coming in fear before the Lord, to feel at that moment that someone is praying for him, too, that there is still a human being on earth who loves him. And God, too, will look upon you both with more mercy, for if even you so pitied him, how much more will he who is infinitely more merciful and loving than you are. And he will forgive him for your sake.

]]> http://theinnerkingdom.wordpress.com/2009/12/11/from-talks-homilies-of-the-elder-zosima/feed/ 2 Mary monki http://theinnerkingdom.wordpress.com/2009/12/08/the-martyrdom-of-st-peter-the-aleut/ http://theinnerkingdom.wordpress.com/2009/12/08/the-martyrdom-of-st-peter-the-aleut/#comments Wed, 09 Dec 2009 04:20:10 +0000 Mary http://theinnerkingdom.wordpress.com/?p=882 ]]>

St. Peter the Aleut (Icon written by Paul Drozdowski)

Saint Peter the Aleut is mentioned in the Life of St Herman of Alaska (December 13). Simeon Yanovsky (who ended his life as the schemamonk Sergius in the St. Tikhon of Kaluga Monastery), has left the following account:

“On another occasion I was relating to him how the Spanish in California had imprisoned fourteen Aleuts, and how the Jesuits (actually Franciscans) were forcing all of them to accept the Catholic Faith. But the Aleuts would not agree under any circumstances, saying, ‘We are Christians.’ The Jesuits argued, ‘That’s not true, you are heretics and schismatics. If you do not agree to accept our faith then we will torture all of you to death.’ Then the Aleuts were placed in prisons two to a cell. That evening, the Jesuits came to the prison with lanterns and lighted candles. Again they tried to persuade two Aleuts in the cell to accept the Catholic Faith. ‘We are Christians,’ the Aleuts replied, ‘and we will not change our Faith.’ Then the Jesuits began to torture them, at first the one while his companion was a witness. They cut off one of the joints of his feet, and then the other joint. Then they cut the first joint on the fingers of his hands, and then the other joint. Then they cut off his feet, and his hands. The blood flowed, but the martyr endured all and firmly repeated one thing: “I am a Christian.’ He died in such suffering, due to a loss of blood. The Jesuit also promised to torture his comrade to death the next day.

But that night an order was received from Monterey stating that the imprisoned Aleuts were to be released immediately, and sent there under escort. Therefore, in the morning all were sent to Monterey with the exception of the dead Aleut. This was related to me by a witness, the same Aleut who had escaped torture, and who was the friend of the martyred Aleut. I reported this incident to the authorities in St. Petersburg. When I finished my story, Father Herman asked, ‘What was the name of the martyred Aleut?’ I answered, ‘Peter. I do not remember his family name.’ The Elder stood reverently before an icon, made the Sign of the Cross and said, “Holy New Martyr Peter, pray to God for us.”

We know very little about St Peter, except that he was from Kodiak, and was arrested and put to death by the Spaniards in California because he refused to convert to Catholicism. The circumstances of his martyrdom recall the torture of St James the Persian (November 27).

Both in his sufferings and in his steadfast confession of the Faith, St Peter is the equal of the martyrs of old, and also of the New Martyrs who have shone forth in more recent times. Now he rejoices with them in the heavenly Kingdom, glorifying God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, throughout all ages.

Troparion – Tone 4

Today Alaska rejoices and America celebrates
for the New World has been sanctified by martyrdom.
Kodiak echoes with songs of thanksgiving,
Iliámna and Kenái observe the Festival of Faith.
The apostle and martyr Juvenaly is glorified
and Peter the Aleut is exalted by his voluntary sacrifice.
In their devotion and love for the Lord
they willingly endured persecution and death for the Truth.
Now in the Kingdom of Heaven they intercede for our souls.

Kontakion – Tone 4

Today Valaam joins Alaska in celebrating this joyous feast,
as her spiritual son Juvenaly embraces the New Martyr Peter with love.
Together they suffered for the Lord in America
and united the Old World with the New by their voluntary sacrifice.
Now forever they stand before the King of Glory and intercede for our souls.

Source

Elder Paisius of Mount Athos

Once I was on a bus and the conductor turned the music on really loud. Some religious men pointed out to him that there was a monk on the bus and they repeatedly made signs to him to turn it off. They tried once or twice without result. He turned the music even louder. “Let him be.” I told the young men, “it does not matter. It keeps the drone tone to my chanting.”

Our goal should be to take all that comes our way and make the best out of it for the sake of the spiritual struggle in which we are engaged. We must strive to acquire inner tranquility and to this end even noise can become a good thing if it is met with the right thought. … When in the midst of noise, you manage to reach inner tranquility, you have achieved something of great value. If you cannot find tranquility in the midst of disturbance, you will not be tranquil even in the midst of tranquility. When inner tranquility comes to a man, everything inside him will be tranquil, and he will not be disturbed by anything. But if he requires external tranquility in order to find inner tranquility, then when he does find himself in such a place, he will want a cane to chase away the cicadas by day and the jackal by night, so that they will not bother him!

Source

Elder Arsenius the Cave-Dweller

Elder Arsenius considered reading imperative and would say, “Reading is a type of prayer. Every day, we used to read one or two chapters from the Holy Bible and then patristic books. As for St. Isaac the Syrian, we always held his book under our arms. If you don’t have any other book but only Isaac the Syrian, it is enough. It says everything… When we read the lives of saints we gain two things. Firstly, the example of their struggles wakes us from the numbness of negligence and, secondly, when we read the lives of saints with reverence, the saints intercede to Christ for us.

Before beginning to read, we must always pray. When we read the life of a saint it can affect us so deeply that we can’t control the tears. This happens because prayer enlightens the mind. “

-Elder, what should we concentrate on when reading the Holy Bible?
“All of the Holy Bible is God-inspired and we have to read it, but especially the Psalter from the Old Testament, which is very powerful prayer.”

Excerpt taken from the book: Elder Arsenios the Cave-Dweller (1886-1983), By: Monk Joseph Dionysiatis

Apostle John the Theologian

God’s commandments ‘are not grievous’ but a light burden. But they are light only where there is love- if love is not present, everything is difficult. Therefore, preserve love, do not lose it, for though it is possible to recover love, this can only be at the cost of much weeping and praying, and without love, life on earth is hard. To continue in malice means death to the soul, from which may the Lord preserve us.

1 John v:3

New Hieromartyr Daniel Sysoyev of Moscow

This is a letter written by the wife of the newly martyred priest, gunned down by a Muslim in his own church, in Moscow, Russia. Let us contemplate the great sacrifice made by this priest, for the Christ he so loved, and the Muslim people, he so dearly cared about, and whom he wanted to personally know this very Christ.

Holy New Martyr Daniel, pray to God for us.

Love and blessings,
Abbot Tryphon

Dear brothers and sisters, thank you for your support and prayers. This is the pain which cannot be expressed in words. This is the pain experienced by those who stood at the Cross of the Saviour. This is the joy which cannot be expressed in words, this is the joy experienced by those who came to the empty Tomb.

O death, where is thy sting?

Fr Daniel had already foreseen his death several years before it happened. He had always wanted to be worthy of a martyr’s crown. Those who shot him wanted, as usual, to spit in the face of the Church, as once before they spat in the face of Christ. They have not achieved their goal, because it is impossible to spit in the face of the Church. Fr Daniel went up to his Golgotha in the very church which he had built, the church to which he gave up all his time and all his strength. They killed him like the prophet of old – between the temple and the altar and he was indeed found worthy of a martyr’s calling. He died for Christ, Whom he served with all his strength.

Very often he would say to me that he was frightened of not having enough time, time to do everything. He was in a hurry. Sometimes, as a human-being he exaggerated, he got things wrong, he tripped up and made mistakes, but he made no mistake about the main thing, his life was entirely dedicated to HIM.

I did not understand why he was in a hurry. The last three years he was busy serving, never taking days off or taking holidays. I moaned, just now and again I wanted simple happiness, that my husband and my children’s father would be with my children and me. But another path had been prepared for him.

He used to say that they would kill him. I would ask him who would look after us. Me and the three children. He would answer that he would put us in safe hands. ‘I’ll give you to the Mother of God. She’ll take care of you’.

These words were forgotten too soon. He told us which vestments to bury him in. Then I joked that there was no need to speak about that, we still did not know who would bury who. He said that I would bury him. Once our conversation turned to funerals, I don’t remember the details but I did say that I had never been to a priest’s funeral. And he answered that it did not matter because I would be at his funeral.

Now I remember many words which have gained a meaning. Now my doubts have dissolved, the misunderstandings have gone.

We did not say goodbye in this life, we did not ask each other forgiveness, we did not embrace one another. It was just another day: in the morning he went to the liturgy and I did not see him again. Why didn’t I go to the church that day to meet him? I had thought of it, but I decided I had better get the evening meal ready and put the children to bed. It was because of the children that I did not go there. There was a hand that did not let me go. But the evening before I had gone to the church and met him. I had felt as if dark clouds were gathering over us. And in the last few days I had tried to spend more time with him. Over the last week I had thought only about death and about life after death. I couldn’t get my head around either the first or the second. That day my head was spinning with the words: ‘Death is standing right behind you’. The last week everything was so hard, as if a huge load had been emptied out on top of me. I am not broken. He is supporting me, I feel as if he is standing by me. Then we said so many affectionate words, which we had never said to each other in our whole life before. Only now do I understand how much we loved each other.

The memorial service for the forty days of Fr Daniel takes place on the eve of his namesday and the patronal feast of the future church, 29 December, and 30 December is the feast of the holy prophet Daniel. According to the prophecy of an elder, the church would be built but Fr Daniel would not serve in it. The second part of the prophecy has already been fulfilled.

Matushka Julia Sysoieva

Post taken from the blog: The  Morning Offering

St. Silvanus the Athonite

No man of himself can know what God’s love is unless he be taught of the Holy Spirit; but God’s love is known in our Church through the Holy Spirit, and so we speak of this love.

The sinful soul which does not know the Lord fears death, thinking that the Lord will not forgive her sins. But this is because the soul does not know the Lord and how greatly He loves us. But if people knew this, then no man would despair, for the Lord not only forgives but rejoices exceedingly at the return of a sinner. Though you be at death’s door, believe firmly that the moment you ask, you will receive forgiveness.

The Lord is not like us. He is passing meek, and merciful, and good; and when the soul knows Him she marvels greatly, and exclaims: ‘O what a Lord is ours!’

The Holy Spirit gave our Church to know how great is God’s mercy.

Excerpt taken from the book: St. Silouan the Athonite, By: Archimandrite Sophrony

Saint Luke the Surgeon of Simferopol

Translated from Greek by Christos Karamitsos

Every time before Christ healed someone, He asked that person if he believed. And only if he believed, He performed the miracle.

Every time a miracle occurs, the Holy Spirit acts, and for someone to receive the Holy Spirit an open heart is necessary, and it is made open by faith. Just as the reception of radio waves necessarily requires an antenna, similarly for the reception of divine grace a pure heart full of faith is needed.

Our Lord does not impose His grace on anyone. One asks for faith, hope and love and only then does the Lord give His grace: when by faith one’s heart is opened before Him. This happening is a great mystery, and this mystery happened every time Christ performed miracles.

The Holy Apostle Paul says that all the essence of the gospel message is found in hope, faith and love. Consequently, it is necessary that we have a strong and steadfast faith for us to be Christians and inheritors of divine grace.

If you believe that the electron exists without seeing it, then by what right do you say that our faith in God, Who also has not been seen by anyone, is unreasonable?

I will say that we too know God by His energies; by the manifestations of His power; by how He acts in our hearts; by the grace that we feel. Not anyone can prove faith. Many have tried to prove that God exists and many that He does not exist. ‘But never has anyone been able to prove one or the other. Only with a pure heart can one see God…

Faith is the most valuable treasure on Earth and we must guard it more than anything else.

Source

Just as the Lord is solicitous about our salvation, so too the murderers of me, the devil, strives to lead a man into despair.

A lofty and sound soul does not despair over misfortunes, of whatever sort they may be. Our life is as it were a house of temptations and trails; but we will not renounce the Lord for as long as He allows the tempter to remain with us and for as long as we must wait to be revived through patience and secure passionlessness!

Judas the betrayer was fainthearted and unskilled in battle, and so the enemy, seeing his despair, attacked him and forced him to hang himself; but Peter, a firm rock, when he fell into great sin, like one skilled in the battle did not despair nor lose heart, but shed bitter tears from a burning heart, and the enemy, seeing these tears, his eyes scorched as by fire, fled far from him wailing in pain.

And so, brothers, St. Antioch teaches, when despair attacks  us let us not yield to it, but being strengthened and protected by the light of faith, with great courage let us say to the evil spirit: “What are you to us, estranged  from God, a fugitive from heaven and evil servant? You dare do nothing to us. Christ, the Son of God, has authority both over us and over everything. It is against Him that we have sinned, and before Him that we will be justified. And you, destroyer, leaves us. Strengthened by His venerable Cross, we trample under foot your serpent’s head” (St. Antioch, Discourse 27).

Excerpt taken from the book: Little Russian Philokalia, Vol. I: St. Seraphim