UNION WITH CHRIST IS GOOD OTHER UNIONS ARE WICKED

UNION WITH CHRIST IS GOOD 

OTHER UNIONS ARE WICKED

    Orthodox Christians worldwide, who faithfully attend church,  constitute the  one Church of Jesus Christ, and are united in perfect union with Christ, as a rock, on the rock which is Christ,  the main cornerstone of the Church, and against which the “gates of Hades will not prevail.”  Orthodox  are in union with Christ in the mystery of  triune Baptism wherein we joyfully  sing: “As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” They are in union with Christ’s death when immersed in baptism, and into His Resurrection when they arise from the water. Orthodox are in union with the Holy Spirit by being sealed and anointed with holy chrism with the words: “the seal of the gift of Holy Spirit.” We are in union with Christ in the  mystery of Holy Communion, through His Body and Blood which we approach “with the fear of God, faith and love.”  We are in union with Christ as a pupil to his Teacher, as a disciple to his master, and as bride to her Bridegroom. We are in union with the Father, having become through Christ, His own adopted sons and daughters, and though we are  unworthy, we delight in  union with such a gracious and merciful Father!  We lack nothing and have more than everything, we are wealthy beyond all wealth, and our joy is beyond all possible joys!

ATTENDING CHURCH CAN PLACE US IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

 ATTENDING  CHURCH CAN PLACE US IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN 

     “Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and forever and unto ages of ages.”

     The Divine Liturgy in Orthodox Churches wherein God reigns, and is petitioned as our King  and is worshiped and glorified by the Priest and people.  This is the Kingdom of  heaven! The Church is in the world but not part of the world, for it brings us before Almighty God to confess, pray, and to develop loving intimacy with Him.

   Attending Church means entering to the temple and worshiping with the Church which is the gathered people. Attending Church is good and beneficial if it results in the joining of the people of God in the house of God, to serve the living God, for just being there does not mean that we went to Church. If our minds and hearts are  on our homes, our children or our business, while in Church then only our bodies are present, but we are not attending Church. If our mind and heart is on Jesus Christ, having a humble spirit of repentance, fear and love  of God,  and if we have left outside all the cares of this life, then we are attending Church in truth.

   The rules of Church behavior are simple, do not talk, dress neatly and simply, be attentive. The  command that women should have their heads covered in Church, is scoffed at today due to ignorance. But nothing God says is vain, for He is Truth and He is the Author and Inspirer of the Divine Scriptures. God says through St. Paul: “Every woman that prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head as if it were shaven. For if the woman is not covered, let her be shorn; but if it is a shame for a woman to be shaven, then let her be covered” (1 Cor. 11:5-6).The greatest human being that ever lived or ever will live is the Holy Theotokos, who always appears with her head covered!  If a women covers her head the Lord with give her understanding as to why she is required to do so.

The wonderful Saint John of Kronstadt, declares the glory of the Church as follows:

   “Truly the Church is heaven upon earth, for where the throne of God is, where the terrible Mysteries are celebrated, where angels serve together with men, where the Almighty is unceasingly glorified, there is truly heaven, and the heaven of heavens.  And thus let us enter the Church of God with the fear of God, with a pure heart, laying aside all passions and worldly care, and let us stand in it with faith and reverence, with understanding and attention, with love and peace in our hearts, so that we may come away renewed, as though made heavenly, so that we may live in holiness natural to heaven, not binding ourselves by worldly desires and pleasures”.

ORTHODOX TIDBITS 3

ORTHODOX TIDBITS 3

THE LITTLE CHILD SELECTED BY CHRIST

     On a day when the Lord was teaching His disciples, he taught them by example the need for humility. He took a child and set it among them, saying: “Whoever shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the Kingdom of heaven” 

   The beauty of our holy tradition is that preserved in her vault is the life and beauty of this child, touched by Jesus. He became St. Ignatios the Godbearer, Bishop of Antioch. He was named such because he always had the name of Christ on his lips and kept God deep in his heart as his greatest treasure, serving Him with joy and love.

    The end of Ignatios' time on earth, is filled with beauty, the beauty that only love can express. He was thrown to lions as food, and he urged them to eat well. They devoured him completely. Leaving only a few larger bones and his heart! When the faithless pagans cut open his heart, they found the words in gold: JESUS CHRIST!

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HOW THE TURKS PRAISED OUR FAITH

 There was a young man named James who was the guest of a Turkish ruler (Bey). The Turks were eating meat but James was keeping the Fast.The Bey said to him:Your Christian Faith is indeed great! He related that his wife had been mentally sick, and after trying all doctors and medicines, he took her to the Patriarch for prayers to be read over her. As soon as the Patriarch started the prayers to be read a heavenly light filled the Church.When the prayer was ended, his wife was made whole. 

James, hearing how the Turkish Bey was praising his faith, gave away all his possessions and went to the Holy Mountain, where he became a monk in the monastery of Iveron. He lived an ascetic life and suffered for the Faith at the hands of the Turks in Jedrene on November 1, 1520. A martyr for our holy Faith, his wonder working relics are in St. Anastasia Church near Salonika.;

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GREGORY WONDERWORKER BISHOP  OF NEOCAESAREA 

BEGAN WITH 17,  ENDED WITH 17 

     Gregory was a man of God and a glorious Wonderworker, and many called him a second Moses! He consecrated himself totally to Christ, whom he loved and served during his entire life. He spent  many years living in the desert. He fled when an attempt was made to make him a Bishop, but they found devious means to consecrate him as Bishop.  He commanded evil spirits, controlled mountains and waters and healed every sort of pain and illness and lived to a great old age. When he arrived in Caesarea there were only 17 Christians, but when he left there were only 17 pagans.

ANGER EVIL AND DEADLY

ANGER

EVIL AND DEADLY

     Anger, for the wrong reason, can be extremely damaging and lead to disaster. When wrongly angered we become our brother’s accuser and, we damage him as well as our own souls. If we could see the hideous look of anger on our face, we would shrink from the ugliness of anger. The virtue of meekness stands in opposition to the vice of anger, and a meek person is always welcome anywhere. Unreasonable anger , as is well known, appears under the form of  “road rage”. Often it proves to be deadly and inflicting damage those who are  involved.  Truthfully there is nothing in this world worth being angry about, nor does unreasonable anger or rage solve a single problem, but creates a bad atmosphere which is fouled by its presence.

     Christ, who is risen, expressed the beauty of following Him: “Come all you that are heavily laden (with sins) and I will give you rest Take my yoke upon you and learn of me; for I am meek and humble in my heart. And you shall find rest in your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Mat. 11:28-30)

 St. Nicolai Velimirovic

“Be angry but do not sin” (Psalm 4:4).

   Be angry with yourselves, brethren, and sin no more.  Be angry at your sins of thought and deed, and sin no more. Be angry with Satan, the father of lies, and no longer do his will. Be angry at the sin in the world and at the fouling of God’s holy Church by godless men, but beware of healing sin by sin.  Be angry with your friends when they sin, but let your anger be directed toward turning them back and not driving them into further evil. 

   The anger of a friend towards his friend, of a parent towards his child – and dare I say it?  Of God towards men, is not a storm that uproots trees, but a wind that makes a tree stronger, making the rotten fruit fall so that the good fruit may be even better and finer.  Control your anger, that it might heal and not poison.  To have this control, keep God before you in your anger.  Anger can have no stronger damn or lock than God.  All anger that is not in the name of God and His justice is sin. Do not be angry for nothing, but be angry at that at which God is angered. If your will is set firmly in God’s law, you will always be able to be angry when anger is needed, and to the measure to which it is needed. This cannot all be spelled out with words and explained to the ignorant. Anger in its place acts as mercy does.

     O my brethren, do you see how various powers are put into our souls, that man can use freely for life or death?  Anger with oneself can never be recommended strongly enough.  It is a marvelous fact that the more man learns to be angry with himself, the less he is angry with other, for, knowing his own weaknesses, he either does not look at others or, if he sees them, judges them gently.

     O Lord God, the only Just One, sow in us the remembrance of the day of your just anger, that we may keep ourselves from sin in our souls. To you be glory and praise forever. Amen.

                                                                   (Prologue Vol.4  P20)

PASCHA IS NEVER OVER!

 PASCHA IS NEVER OVER!

    Someone recently remarked: “Well, Pascha is over until next year.”  Indeed, Pascha will certainly come next year, but Pascha can  never be over for those who are living in the unending Pascha of  Orthodoxy.  For every baptized Orthodox Christian becomes a temple of God, who dwells in them through baptism and chrismation. In baptism we all died to sin and put on Christ as a garment.  Hence we sing  with St. Paul: “As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Alleluia.” In baptism, the old man of sin is drowned in the baptismal waters, and when we came up out of the waters, we died as the old Adam and arose with the resurrected  Christ.  

  Having Christ dwelling in us, we become the temple of God, and  having been washed and made clean, we were then sealed with the gift of Holy Spirit, who abides within us forever if we remain faithful. 

     Many of us were baptized as infants and so were unaware of the wonderful events which surrounded us when we were baptized into Christ and anointed with holy chrism. The great responsibility concerning the valuable gifts we received, St. Paul mentions in his first epistle to the Corinthians:  “Do you not know that you are the temple of God; and that the Spirit of God dwells within you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple you are” (1 Cor. 3:16-17).  

PASCHA HAS NOT ENDED NOR WILL IT EVER END

PASCHA HAS NOT ENDED

NOR WILL IT EVER END

      Pascha is the continuous celebration by Orthodox Christians being the Feast of feasts, and the time of great joy and exultation. The Feast Day itself is considered and lived as a single day of celebration, not with parties eating and drinking  but in the holy churches, or at home, having  the triumphant hymns of Pascha on our lips. It is also the continuous enjoyment of the divine mysteries. the immortal food which descends from heaven. The Paschal season continues for forty days during which we joyously sing: “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down on death by death and to those in the tomb, He has granted life.”  Even then, the celebration does not end, for in every Sunday Orthos (Matins) we continue to rejoice in the resurrection with the Gospel accounts of the Resurrection of Christ. Pascha is continuous; Pascha raises our souls; Pascha is heaven on earth!

     The objective of all this celebration is to arouse the Orthodox Christian souls to take part in  a new and resurrected life, for the true Orthodox Christian is the resurrected man. In the second Ode of the Paschal Canon we sing in the first tone:

    “Yesterday I was buried with you, today I rise with your arising. Yesterday I was crucified with you, glorify me O Savior with you in your kingdom.” The resurrected man is the man who arises in the resurrection, the man whom God conceived from the beginning, and who gradually becomes more and more His image and likeness. Christ speaks of such men:  “Be holy for I am holy. Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

     “Today I rise with your arising,” means that we rise above and out of reach of the demonic powers of this world, above the blasphemies, the cursing, the fornications, the love of money, and the love of this world. As John the disciple whom Christ loves, says: “Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world; And the world passes away, with its desires, but he who does the will of God abides forever.” (1John 2:15-17).

  Rising above the world and its desires, does not mean that we stop eating, drinking, marrying, having children and exercising, but it means that we walk in the brilliancy of the  resurrection, in the newness of life!  We hear in every Divine Liturgy: “Let us commend ourselves and one another, and all our lives unto Christ our God.” Also: “That we may have a good apology at the fearful judgment seat of Christ, let us ask of the Lord.”  Each day of our lives are granted to us by God, to do whatever we choose, but we need to watch and act properly for none of us know when we will be called to give an account for our choices in this life.

   

     The resurrected Orthodox Christian, will certainly arise in the general resurrection after leaving this present world. It is clear that God does not desire that we hate the world which He created and is filled with beauty, but the moral world which the Evil one controls, through sins and transgressions of men. For if everyone disobeyed the Devil, we would have peace on earth and good will among men. There would ne no crime, no tyranny, no fornication, no adulteries, no jealousy no wars or revolutions.

     Pascha is not of this world, but is a continuous state of being for the resurrected man, who is raised above this world having chosen to live in the kingdom now, and his closest friends are the Theotokos and the many saints and martyrs.

   This resurrected life is a life of frequent prayer, reading of uplifting  books primarily the Bible every day. It is attending Church services and receiving with fear, faith and love, the Holy Mysteries, the medicine which eradicates sin within us and is the source of spiritual power and immortality. Where does this resurrected life lead to? Happiness and uninterrupted joy every day of our lives regardless of circumstances. Hope that warms our hearts and causes us to always render thanks to God for everything! May we all become children of the Resurrection and find ourselves welcomed by Christ into the future eternal Pascha!  Christ is risen!

ON THIS HOLY PASCHA A WARNING TO ALL ORTHODOX

ON THIS HOLY PASCHA

A WARNING TO ALL ORTHODOX

     Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life!

    The brilliant sun of this great and holy day of  Pascha is a day of great joy but mixed with some dark clouds of danger, for  a papal representative,  invited into a holy Orthodox Church, therein boldly proclaimed that Orthodoxy broke away from the Papacy and he denied that Orthodoxy is the true Catholic  Church! According to an article in the Worcester Telegram Gazette,  the papist Bishop, Robert J. McManus of Worcester, MA boldy and proclaimed the papacy’s self aggrandizement. At St. Spyridon Orthodox Church when he made this statement:  “As you know the Orthodox Church is the Roman Catholic Church.”

     What is couched in these words, is that the holy  Orthodox Church was  once a part of the Papacy, that has broken away, which is nefarious papal propaganda, for they are aware that we have preserved the truth, and for this reason they seek to silence us. Contrary to prevailing opinion, the fact is that there was never a schism by Orthodoxy or the papacy. 

PASCHA IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

PASCHA

IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN

Holy Pascha! 

Glorious Pascha! 

Delightful Pascha 

Pascha of the Faithful!

    Pascha with its beauty and divine majesty is not clearly visible to those who neglected to accompany Christ as He suffered in His voluntary passion and crucifixion during the days of Holy Week. However, both those who fasted and followed His passion, and those who ignored His Passion are invited to share and celebrate this day, entering into the joy of His Resurrection!  In the Resurrection  everyone is forgiven everything, and Pascha is a new beginning to avoid being shut out of the kingdom of heaven. The celebration of Pascha surpasses every other celebration, for by it every  man can return to Paradise, which was  lost by our foreparents and our own sins.

Concerning the Paschal Canon

   In the service books used in the Greek Archdiocese for Holy Week most of the Paschal Canon is missing, and so is not used in the churches,  resulting in a loss for believers who kept the fast and looked forward to the glorious celebration of Holy Pascha. The Canon of Pascha, begins with: “It is the day of Resurrection, let us be radiant O people.” This service is complete and is derived from the official Church book: the Pentecostarion.  Divided into nine odes, only the first one of each Ode is in the Holy Week books, which is a great loss of beautiful hymns for the faithful. We are publishing them here in their entirety as in the Pentecostarion. It is uplifting to the soul to use this entire Resurrection Canon during the forty days after Pascha! Each Ode is followed by:  “Christ is risen . . .”  and  “Jesus having risen . . .” 

THE RESURRECTION CANON:

ODE 1

     It is the day of Resurrection; let us be radiant O people! It is the Pascha, Pascha of the Lord. From death to life, from earth to heaven, Christ our God has brought us over, who sing the song of victory!

REFLECTIONS ON HOLY WEEK AND PASCHA

REFLECTIONS ON

HOLY WEEK AND PASCHA

LIVE HIS PASSION AND ARISE WITH HIS RESURRECTION

Having reached the age of ninety, I am grateful for every day the Lord gives me, but my single  though undeserved hope, is that I may inherit everlasting life.  I have urged many to pursue this course for over sixty years, both in person and by this present blog.  May none of us lose this precious crown, on the day of judgment!  In this present treatise I will reflect on this most sacred season of Holy Week and Pascha, with a few memories, as how I began Church life. 

   In 1931, at the age of 8, I was excited as I would go to Church, for the first time at night.  Church was part of our life as we went to Church and Holy Communion since infancy.  At that young  age, we never went out at night. This  was a big event, going to Church in the dark, for the evening service of the Epitaphios or tomb with its beautiful hymns. However, my desire remained  unfulfilled  that Friday due to an incident, for a 22 cal. bullet exploded near me causing the loss of sight in my left eye. Instead of the beautiful services I ended up in Memorial Hospital in Worcester MA., and though I was not sick, I was there four weeks. My regret was not losing half my sight, but missing Church that night. I sadly sang hymns to  myself which I had learned from my father, and which I hoped to hear that night in Church. Like, ‘E-yen-e e pa a a se, hym non ti ta fee Sou . . .” (Every generation sings praises at your tomb). I realized in later years, this was a small arousal in my soul of  faith, hope and love. I always bless my father who taught us not only the hymns, but the perfect truths of our Orthodox Faith, and the errors and heresies which fight against it. My father lived that faith, showing us by both teaching and  example that there is nothing in the entire world of greater value than Holy Orthodoxy. 

THE GENERAL RESURRECTION

THE GENERAL RESURRECTION

 “The general resurrection, you confirmed before your Passion, by raising Lazarus from the dead, O Christ God.  Therefore as did the children, carrying symbols of victory, we cry out to you, the Conqueror of death: Hosanna in the highest, blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord.”

Apolytikion of Lazarus Saturday and Sunday of the Palms

LAZARUS SATURDAY

   The day of the general resurrection, confirmed before His Passion, is the day anticipated by the faithful with great hope for the object of their faith and love– Jesus Christ the Savior, who will come in glory to judge the living and the dead, and fulfill His promise of  everlasting life in the  joy of His Kingdom. “Come blessed of my Father, enter into the Kingdom prepared for you.”  On the day of the general resurrection the faithful will be rewarded according to  their deeds accomplished through faith in Christ and their love for Him expressed by keeping His commandments. 

     For unrepentant sinners will be filled with fear on this dreaded day, not because God is going to punish them and send them into eternal fire.  The fear that will arise in their miserable souls when their sin filled life is displayed before them, and the punishment sure to come, for they never believed and repented to wash away those sins. God is good and the lover of  mankind, nor does His love change into hatred and bitterness, causing Him to exact revenge.  No one is excluded from God’s love which extends to the just and unjust, saints and sinners, for God is love and rejoices in His created works. He loves the unrepentant sinner and He loves the holy martyrs who surrendered their lives out of love for Him, for God cannot change. 

OUR GREATEST GOAL IN LIFE ETERNAL LIFE

OUR GREATEST GOAL IN LIFE

ETERNAL LIFE

       We all enter this world through the door of birth, opened to us by our fathers and mothers, and we begin as helpless infants needing constant loving care which our fathers and mothers provide. In a short time we begin to talk and walk, are taken to Church, and eventually go to school, graduate and go to work. We may marry and bring our own children through the door of birth into this world, repeating the process or we may become a monastic if we so choose.

   However, as Orthodox Christians, we are the most blessed of all people on earth, for we have obtained the greatest gift which many do not receive, usually when we are infants. Shortly after our physical birth from our mother, we were taken to our mother the Church, where we were born from above (Christ told Nicodemus:“Unless a man is born from above,  he cannot see the kingdom of God.”). This birth takes place in the sanctified waters of the font in Baptism. We are taken to the Church and baptized by three complete immersions in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Being immersed under water typifies His death, and rising up out of the water typifies His Resurrection. After Baptism, we are anointed with holy chrism all over our bodies, and the Priest repeats:  “The seal of the gift of Holy Spirit.”  With this we are spiritually enlivened with the divine gift of Holy Spirit ,as promised by our Lord Jesus Christ, who said that“the Father will give you another Comforter, even the Spirit of  truth whom the world cannot receive, because it sees him not. Neither knows Him, for He dwells with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you”  (John 14:16-17). 

ORTHODOXY THE PAPACY PROTESTANTS

ORTHODOXY   THE PAPACY

PROTESTANTS

Fundamental Differences

    The period of the Great Fast, is a ideal time to review what we Orthodox Christians have historically believed, and to put into  practice a permanent a form of fasting that does not involve food. It is more important to fast in our thoughts and speech from falsehood in any form, especially concerning our dogmas and divine canons,  avoiding detractors as we would poison. We must strive to understand and acquire the ability to distinguish between what is true and what is false concerning our Faith, for falsehoods about Christ and the Christian Faith are all around us. Christ is the Truth from heaven, and the Head of the one true Church. All sciences or philosophies that contradict or deny Christ and His Church are necessarily false. 

    The Church is the bulwark of truth on earth and the living storehouse of the unique treasures of divine truth, perpetually preserved in her – this treasure is the presence of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter and Spirit of truth. We all confess the following truths in our services. “We have seen the true Light; we have received the heavenly Spirit; we have found the true Faith, worshiping the undivided Trinity who has saved us.” (in the Divine Liturgy). We also testify in our Creed, our belief:  “In the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who spoke through the Prophets. I believe in one, holy Catholic and Apostolic  Church,; and in one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins . . . ” There is no other God than our God, no other Church than our Church, no other baptism than our Baptism.

 Certainly we must live an upright moral life but we also must accept and defend the true dogmas, for without truth our fasting and moral life has no value, as  St. John Chrysostom says: “If we have the true dogmas and not the correct moral life it will do us no good. And if we have the correct moral life but not the true dogmas it will do us no good. We are in need of both, because they are inseparable. That is why, as members of the true Church,” each of us must  believe and accept the same truths and strive to live a pure upright moral life. 

THE BEAUTIFUL POETRY OF THE GLORIOUS CROSS OF CHRIST

THE  BEAUTIFUL POETRY OF THE GLORIOUS CROSS OF CHRIST

FROM THE TRIODION 

 (The Triodion is used in the Orthodox  Church –from 3 weeks before the Fast until Holy Saturday)

 The following hymns from the Triodion, are sung in churches at vespers and orthos, Sunday of the Cross. They are of rare beauty and poetic mastery so we decided to publish them as they are edifying. They stand out among hymns in exalting and glorifying the Cross and Jesus Christ. Many of our Orthodox hymns are divinely inspired and many have been written by saints who have been glorified by the Church. We can see in their rare composition that they are inspired by the Spirit.

     “Shine Cross of the Lord, shine with the light of your grace upon the hearts of those who honor you. With love inspired by God, we embrace you, O desire of all the world . Through you our tears of sorrow have been wiped away; we have been delivered from the snares of death and have passed over to unending joy. Show us the glory of your beauty and grant to us your servants the reward of our abstinence, for we entreat with faith your rich protection and the great mercy.”   1

      “Rejoice Life-giving Cross, the fair Paradise of the Church, Tree of incorruption that brings us the joy of eternal glory; through you the hosts of demons have been driven back; and the hierarchies of angels rejoice with one accord, as the congregations of the faithful keep the Feast. You are an invincible weapon, an unbroken stronghold; you are the victory of kings and the glory of Priests. Grant us now to draw near to the Passion of Christ and to His Resurrection.”     2

    “Rejoice life-giving Cross, unconquerable trophy of the true Faith, door to Paradise, succor of the faithful, rampart set about the Church. Through you the curse is utterly destroyed, the power of death is swallowed up, and we are raised from earth to heaven; invincible weapon, adversary of demons, glory of martyrs, true ornament of holy monastics, haven of salvation, bestowing on the world the great mercy.”     3

“O mighty Cross of the Lord, manifest yourself;  show me the divine vision of your beauty, and grant me to worthily venerate you. For I speak to you and embrace you as though you were alive.”    4

    “No sooner had the wood of your Cross been set up, O Christ our Lord, than the foundations of death were shaken.  Hades swallowed you eagerly, but let you go with trembling. You have shown us your salvation, O Holy One, and we glorify you. O Son of God, have mercy upon us.”    5

“There is joy today in heaven and on earth, for the sign of the Cross is made manifest to the world.  The thrice-blessed Cross is set before us, and to all who show it veneration it is a fount of ever flowing grace.     6

    “Pilate set up three crosses in the place of the skull, two for the robbers and one for the Giver of Life. Seeing Him, Hades cried out to those below: O my ministers and powers!  Who is this who has plunged a nail into my heart? A wooden spear has suddenly pierced me and I am torn apart.  Inwardly I suffer; anguish has seized my belly and my senses.  My spirit trembles, and I am constrained to cast out Adam and his posterity. A tree brought them to my realm, but now the Tree of the Cross brings them back again to Paradise.”                                                                                             7

    “Let all the trees of the forests dance and sing, as they behold their fellow tree, the Cross, today receiving veneration, for Christ, as holy David prophesied, has exalted it on high.”     8

    “O honored Cross, you are the firm foundation of the Church, the strength of kings, the glory and defense of monks. Venerating you today, we are filled with light in heart and soul, through the divine grace of the Lord who was nailed upon you and overthrew the authority of our deceitful enemy, nullifying the curse.”      9

    “Come O you faithful, let us venerate the life-giving Wood, on which Christ, the King of glory, stretched out His hands of His own will. To the ancient blessedness He raised us up, whom the enemy despoiled of old through pleasure, making us exiles far from God. Come O you faithful, let us venerate the Wood whereby we have been counted worthy to crush the heads of our invisible enemies.  Come all you kindred of the nations, and let us honor in hymns the Cross of the Lord.  Rejoice O Cross, perfect redemption of fallen Adam. Glorying in you, our faithful kings laid low by your power the people of Ishmael.We Christians kiss you now with awe, and glorifying God who was nailed upon you, we cry aloud: O Lord. Who was crucified upon the Cross, have mercy upon us, for you are good and the lover of man.”    10

TRIODION 

Great Vespers on Saturday Evening of the Cross                              

1.  p 334

2.  p 334 

3.  p 335

4.  p 338

5.  p 339 

6.  p 340

7.  p 343

8.  p 345

9.  p 347 

10.p 348                          

THE POWER OF THE CROSS

THE POWER OF THE CROSS

Let us deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow our Savior

   During this week, Orthodox Christians celebrate Holy Cross Week, for the Cross is raised on high at the midpoint pf the great Fast. The Cross, formerly an instrument of weakness and death, is gloriously transformed. Christ changed  the cross by His willing  death, into a fountain of life and a most formidable weapon for Christians. With it we sign ourselves, and are protected, we bless our loved ones, and they rejoice, we bless our homes and automobiles, thereby securing our family’s happiness and safety. Our food becomes more nourishing and tastes better when blessed with the sign of the Cross.  It is of great importance, that this week we heed the commandment of our Lord, that we “take up our cross daily and follow Him.”

   The beginning of everything good, the path that leads to life begins when we heed God’s command, is to begin  to deny ourselves and turn inwards to our inner man. We are efficient in caring for the outer man, our mortal bodies. We wash, brush our teeth, comb our hair, cover our bodies with clothing, so as to look nice. But, are we washing the outside of the cup leaving the inside unclean as Christ says?  Out of love, He seeks to cure and cleanse our souls, the inner man, as being most important. Sadly few are interested in the welfare and good state of their immortal souls. Why is it that we care for the lesser and ignore the greater, especially when the Lord says: “For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”

THE CROSS ONCE A SOURCE OF DEATH IS NOW THE ONLY SOURCE OF ETERNAL LIFE

THE CROSS ONCE A SOURCE OF DEATH 

IS NOW THE ONLY 

SOURCE OF ETERNAL LIFE

The Holy Cross is Honored During 

the Entire Third Week of the Great Fast 

   In ancient times the cross was looked upon as an instrument of tortuous death.  Among those who used the cross were the Persians, Greeks and Romans. The Romans used it as punishment for slaves and non-citizens guilty of treason. Crucifixion was dreaded being a slow and tortuous form of execution. 

   The Jews, misled by the Scribes and Pharisees, who cried out for the crucifixion of our Lord, were familiar with the violence and torture of the cross.  In their hatred, they never hesitated in their demands of Pontius Pilate that he crucify the sinless Lord, for when he asked them what he should do with Christ, they cried out:  “Away with Him! Away with Him! Crucify Him!” Blinded by envy and hatred, the leaders successfully transformed the mob into God-slayers, with their boisterous accusations that Christ was a criminal deserving the cross.  These unfortunates even cursed themselves with these words to Pilate, who appeared to show some reluctance: “Let His blood be upon us and upon our children.” 

PATH TO SANITY Lessons From Ancient Holy Counselors on How to have a Sound Mind.

PATH TO SANITY

Lessons From Ancient Holy Counselors on 

How to have a Sound Mind.

  Path to Sanity is a book written by Dee Pennock, a blessed woman. The  subtitle is: Lessons From Ancient Holy Counselors on How to have a Sound Mind. It is paperback with 214 pages, being a valuable treasury of knowledge concerning the most important subject of mental and spiritual health and illness, based on the teaching of the Church Fathers and Saints. It is about sanity and insanity not as the world teaches, but as taught by the holy Fathers. There are many different theories concerning man but she, in her book, by faithful research, understanding and lucid presentation has opened the oyster showing us  the pearl of great value,

   What is man?  He is a creature, so important to God as the reason for all creation. There can be no greater plan than God’s eternal plan to form a man and then mankind in His own image and likeness. Adam, was not that man, as he was created in the image, and by his disobedience and sin he failed to ascend to the likeness of God. The Godman, our Lord Jesus Christ is the man, sinless and the perfect image and likeness of God. All me are called to struggle to become like Christ in this present life, that they may  reign in glory with Him for ever.  The struggle for holiness and perfection  cannot take place in the future life, for this life is the arena of the struggle but in the next life is the awarding of crowns.

  What is man? Man is body and soul which comes from clay ( Greek “houn” clay not dust). And the spirit breathed into him from God, which caused man to become a living soul. St.  Paul refers to man as being body, soul, and spirit, asking God to bless all three, which, he says, constitutes the whole man.   

Dee Pennock writes: 

     “Scripture teaches that we have a body, soul, and spirit (1Thes. 5:23), that we are composed of three parts; that is, body, soul, and spirit (Isaac of Syria) Our spirit makes us alive, makes us living creatures.  It is the breath of life that God put into us when He breathed into Adam the breath of life and Adam became a living soul (Gen. 2:7).  Saint Anthony writes: Life is union and junction of spirit, soul, and body. Death is not the destruction of these parts, but disruption of their union. God preserves it all even after this disruption.”  (P 18)

  ‘So we are three things, body, soul, and spirit.  Or we can say we are two things, with one of them having two parts.  We can say we are body and soul if we take the soul to mean our soul plus the spirit of God added, the soul being different from the life of which it partakes.  (Justin Martyr ). The soul itself is not life, but partakes in that life bestowed upon it by God, as the prophetic word declares [of Adam] he became a living soul, teaching us that by participation of life the soul becomes alive; so the soul and the life it possesses must be understood as two separate existences” (Irenaeus) P19)

GOD AND SCIENCE Without God nothing would exist

GOD AND SCIENCE

Without God nothing would exist

  As there is false science and the true science, so there are many false gods and one true God, Creator of heaven and earth.  True science will always agree that there is a God who created and formed everything. True scientific investigation always starts with the declaration of what is known about a subject, and  proceed to the unknown gradually, step by step. False science, however cannot answer any question correctly, especially, is there a God and Creator?

   Using the scientific method, the first thing that is known about man and the world at the outset, is declared by consciousness. I know that I am one metaphysically and mathematically, and that I  always keep my identity.  I also know that I live in the world around me and  through this world  I live and preserve my being. I know these things through consciousness.  What is not known by consciousness is the existence of God, for this knowledge requires one small step of reason.

 I observe the sun during the day when we work, then the lesser light of the moon, and the stars at nighttime, perfect for sleeping. I know that they are all perfectly distanced, supplying us with light, warmth, vitamins,  tides, and navigation aids. I observe the rain, snow, and winds, supplying us with water. I see the many forests and trees, supplying wood for building and for heating; I see the busy bees, industrious ants and worms, and hear the songbirds. Then I turn and in wonder, look at and inhale the sweet smelling flowers of brilliant colors, and 

LIVING UNDER TYRANNY A MISERABLE LIFE

LIVING UNDER TYRANNY 

 A MISERABLE LIFE

      A revolution takes place and the legitimate government under which the people were living contentedly is overthrown as a brutal tyrant seizes  power. How did it happen, and where were the soldiers to prevent this? It does not matter. No one is quite sure, but they were well-armed and succeeded in helping the tyrant to seize the reigns of power.  As time passes, the tyrant rule over them became unbearable, as he  heaped upon them greater injustices and increased imprisonments.  The populace begins to groan under the heavy  weight of his iron rule, but he kept increasing their taxes and  cutting services, wreaking havoc everywhere. As the tyrant becomes more and more overbearing, people groaned and grumbled under his heavy hand.  In the minds of most of them, the idea  grew stronger, we must rid ourselves of this tyrant or life will not be worth living.

   There is a tyrant much more fierce than the aforementioned, whom few people know or even care to know.

MARRIAGE GOD BLESSES – BUT HE CONDEMNS FORNICATION

MARRIAGE GOD BLESSES – BUT HE CONDEMNS FORNICATION

     Our Creator’s ultimate plan for creation, is to form  a man and men in His own perfect image and likeness. However this did not take place with Adam and Eve who were only in His image. Falling into sin, they did not attain the likeness of God. The Lord created Adam first and later from one of his ribs,  he created Eve as a wife to Adam. Here is the account of the creation of Adam: “And God formed man out of the clay of the earth, and breathed into Him the breath of life, and the man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7).  Body and soul came from the earth, but life came from the breath or spirit breathed into him by God.

GOD MARRIED ADAM THE MAN AND THE WOMAN

     “And God made man, according to the image of God He made him, He made them male and female.  And God blessed them, saying, Increase and multiply and fill the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and flying creatures of heaven, and all the cattle and all the earth, and all the reptiles that creep on the earth” (Gen. 1:26-28). 

* Only in the  Orthodox Church does God continue the same marriage blessing of one man and one woman which He instituted when He first married Adam and Eve. For in Orthodoxy the Priest calls on God to unite in sacred marriage the man and woman into one mutually loving couple, who with His blessing,  are able to bear children and produce a family and thus help to replenish the earth. He established that the main purposes of marriage is to:“Be fruitful and multiply” that is to know each other and bear children together, raising them in the fear and love of God.  God issued laws which true believers need to follow, not out of fear alone, but because His laws are good and lead to piety and happiness in this life and everlasting joy in the world to come.  Pious and God-loving parents produce like children and the mutual happiness that ensues makes a happy family. On such a family God bestows many blessings.

THE FOOLISH SKEPTICS WHO QUESTION OR DENY THAT GOD EXISTS

THE FOOLISH SKEPTICS   

WHO QUESTION OR DENY 

THAT GOD EXISTS

The age of skepticism

Philosophy of Immanuel Kant

     Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher was born in 1724 and died in 1804. Rene Descartes, a Frenchman was born in 1596 and died in 1650. By birth they are separated by 128 years. During that period  most knowledge was derived from books. Kant the critic, learned about Rene Descartes, long after he was dead, by reading about him in a book, and examining his  incomplete syllogism: “I think, therefore I exist.” No one else ever came up with this statement other than Descartes.*  Kant not only did not doubt but readily accepted that Descartes certainly did exist and that those were certainly his words.

   However,  Kant says that “any argument for the existence of God is bound to fail since it is a product of reason which must use experience to create validity. We must concede this world to empirical science since this is the way human reason actually works, but we may reserve our capacity for hope by not putting forward reasoning about God's existence which are bound to come into conflict with science.”   Why?

    Why does the argument for the existence of God fail because we acquired it through reason? Why should reasoning about God, conflict with science?  The truth is that false religion and true science will always disagree; just as false science and true religion will always be in conflict. However, it is common to hear in the western world, that Faith and reason are opposed to one another, and this has been established by the firm entrenchment of false religion. Right reason is from the Lord and Logos and Reason of God himself (One of the meanings in Logos is Right  Reason).

The skeptics of philosophy that sprang up in western culture helped to make the western world fall into the blackness of deadly skepticism, and finding no room for discussion of truth, they advise not to even discuss religion.  Truth instead of having Christ, the Living Truth,  each one can have their own truth, which divides men rather than uniting them, heaping many evils upon mankind.   They assert that any reasoning about God’s existence is necessarily will come into conflict with science.  For Kant denies that God can be understood by science and human reasoning.  Kant’s  reasoning is upside down, for he accepts the certain existence of Descartes, whom he read about, and  believes that what he believed was expressed in a book. But God also declares himself in a book, telling  about himself and all His created works in great detail such as: