Sayings Emmanuel Kant ~ three formulations of the Categorical Imperative (Ethics and others as a means to something else)

 

1. “Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.” (Ibid., 422)
2. “Act as though the maxim of your action were by your will to become a universal law of nature.” (Ibid)
3. Act so that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in that of another, always as an end and never as a means only.” (Ibid., 429)

Kant’s Criticisms of Utilitarianism

Kant’s criticisms of utilitarianism have become famous enough to warrant some separate discussion. Utilitarian moral theories evaluate the moral worth of action on the basis of happiness that is produced by an action. Whatever produces the most happiness in the most people is the moral course of action. Kant has an insightful objection to moral evaluations of this sort. The essence of the objection is that utilitarian theories actually devalue the individuals it is supposed to benefit. If we allow utilitarian calculations to motivate our actions, we are allowing the valuation of one person’s welfare and interests in terms of what good they can be used for. It would be possible, for instance, to justify sacrificing one individual for the benefits of others if the utilitarian calculations promise more benefit. Doing so would be the worst example of treating someone utterly as a means and not as an end in themselves.

Another way to consider his objection is to note that utilitarian theories are driven by the merely contingent inclination in humans for pleasure and happiness, not by the universal moral law dictated by reason. To act in pursuit of happiness is arbitrary and subjective, and is no more moral than acting on the basis of greed, or selfishness. All three emanate from subjective, non-rational grounds. The danger of utilitarianism lies in its embracing of baser instincts, while rejecting the indispensable role of reason and freedom in our actions.

thanks to:

https://iep.utm.edu/kantmeta/#H8

Sayings Hippocrates ~ "To help, or at least do no harm"

 

   As to diseases, make a habit of two things—to help, or at least to do no harm. I swear by Apollo the physician, by Asclepius, by Health, by Panacea and by all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will carry out, according to my ability and judgement, this oath and this indenture.

thanks to:

https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191826719.001.0001/q-oro-ed4-00005454

Hippocratic Oath

 

The Hippocratic Oath divides into two parts—the oath and the covenant. In the oath, the physician swears (to a list of pagan gods) his allegiance to his teacher, who is equal to his parents, and pledges to share his knowledge with others who have also signed the covenant. The covenant part of the oath establishes the professional obligation to practice medicine to a standard far greater than just “doing what the patient asks.” In summary, the obligations are:

1. To give optimal care to the sick and to never injure or wrong them—a concept often summarized by the term “do no harm” (“I will use those dietary regimens which will benefit my patients according to my greatest ability and judgment, and I will do no harm or injustice to them”);

2. To never assist in suicide or practice euthanasia, nor suggest it (“I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan”);

3. To never perform an abortion (“and similarly [to giving a lethal drug], I will not give a woman a pessary to cause an abortion”);

4. When one does not have sufficient expertise (there was a clear demarcation between physicians and surgeons in ancient medicine), to refer to a practitioner who does (“I will not use the knife, even upon those suffering from stones, but I will leave this to those who are trained in this craft”);

5. To treat all patients as equals (“avoiding any voluntary act of impropriety or corruption, including the seduction of women or men, whether they are free men or slaves”);

6. To never have sex with patients (“avoiding any voluntary act of impropriety or corruption, including the seduction of women or men, whether they are free men or slaves”);

7. To maintain patient confidentiality (“Whatever I see or hear in the lives of my patients, whether in connection with my professional practice or not, which ought not to be spoken of outside, I will keep secret, as considering all such things to be private”) (1).

thanks to:

http://www.cbc-network.org/2012/08/thank-god-hippocrates-was-pagan/

Commemorated on December 17 ~ Venerable Dionysius of Aegina "Forgiveness"

 

Venerable Dionysius of Aegina

Commemorated on December 17

Troparion & Kontakion

Saint Dionysius of Zakynthos, the Bishop of Aegina was born in 1547 on the island of Zakynthos. Though born into a noble family, he was determined to flee the world and set his mind upon heavenly things. He entered the monastery of Strophada, and after the prescribed time, he was clothed in the angelic schema by the abbot. Though young in years, he surpassed many of his elders in virtue, and was found worthy of ordination to the holy priesthood.

Although he protested his unworthiness, Saint Dionysius was consecrated Bishop of Aegina. In that office he never ceased to teach and admonish his flock, and many were drawn to him in order to profit from his wisdom. He feared the praise of men, lest he should fall into the sin of vainglory, so he resigned his See and returned to Zakynthos.

In 1579 the diocese of Zakynthos was widowed (when a bishop dies, his diocese is described as “widowed”), and Dionysius agreed to care for it until a new bishop could be elected. Then he fled from the worldly life which gave him no peace, and went to the Monastery of the Most Holy Theotokos Anaphonitria, twenty miles from the main village.

A certain stranger murdered the saint’s brother Constantine, an illustrious nobleman. Fearing his victim’s relatives, the stranger, by chance or by God’s will, sought refuge in the monastery where Saint Dionysius was the abbot. When the saint asked the fugitive why he was so frightened, he confessed his sin and revealed the name of the man he had murdered, asking to be protected from the family’s vengeance. Saint Dionysius wept for his only brother, as was natural. Then he comforted the murderer and hid him, showing him great compassion and love.

Soon the saint’s relatives came to the monastery with a group of armed men and told him what had happened. He pretended to know nothing about it. After weeping with them and trying to console them, he sent them off in the wrong direction. Then he told the murderer that he was the brother of the man he had killed. He admonished him as a father, and brought him to repentance. After forgiving him, Saint Dionysius brought him down to the shore and helped him to escape to another place in order to save his life. Because of the saint’s Christ-like virtue, he was granted the gift of working miracles.

Having passed his life in holiness, Saint Dionysius reached a great age, then departed to the Lord on December 17, 1624. Not only are the saint’s relics incorrupt, but he is also one of Greece’s “walking saints” (Saint Gerasimus and Saint Spyridon are the others). He is said to leave his reliquary and walk about performing miracles for those who seek his aid. In fact, the soles of his slippers wear out and must be replaced with a new pair from time to time. The old slippers are cut up, and the pieces are distributed to pilgims. On August 24, we celebrate the Transfer of his Holy Relics. Through the prayers of Saint Dionysius, may Christ our God have mercy upon us and save us.

Thanks to:

https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2011/12/17/103564-venerable-dionysius-of-aegina

Sayings on quarrelsome influences ~ Saint Isaac the Syrian

 

   Do not pass through the streets of the hot-tempered and quarrelsome, lest your heart be filled with anger, and the darkness of delusion dominate your soul.

~ St. Isaac the Syrian, The Ascetical Homilies, Homily 17

Source online:

http://www.orthodoxchurchquotes.com/category/sayings-from-saints-elders-and-fathers/st-isaac-the-syrian/page/2/

Genesis means what it says ~ Saint Basil The Great

 

Genesis means what it says: Basil (AD 329–379)

Some accuse creationists of taking an excessively literal view of Scripture, particularly Genesis, and that this view is something of recent origin, that Christians in the early Church took a more allegorical view of things. The writings of Basil show this not to be true.1

Basil was bishop of Caesarea Mazaca, Cappadocia, from AD 370–379. He argued strongly against various heresies of that day. In particular, he defended the vital biblical doctrine of the Trinity against the Arian Heresy which denied the deity of Christ, and later against the Sabellian (modalist) Heresy which denied the distinctness of the three Persons. Basil’s classic Trinitarian formula, that God is three Persons (hypostases) in one substance (ousia), is still one of the best summaries of the Biblical doctrine, and is accepted by all branches of orthodox Christianity. [See also the Q&A: God and Q&A: Jesus Christ for biblical defences of the Trinity and deity of Christ.]

Basil was also a monk, pastor, and church leader. He established charitable institutions, hospitals and schools, and organised famine relief in 368. He greatly improved the lot of lepers in Cappadocia. Basil was greatly admired and respected, and was called ‘Basil the Great’. Soon after his death he was declared a Saint by the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Some of his sermon collections have been preserved, including the Hexaëmeron (= ‘Six Days’), nine Lenten sermons on the days of creation in Genesis 1. Some quotations from this show that Basil believed:

In an instantaneous and recent creation.

‘Thus then, if it is said, “In the beginning God created”, it is to teach us that at the will of God the world arose in less than an instant, and it is to convey this meaning more clearly that other interpreters have said: “God made summarily” that is to say all at once and in a moment.’ (Homily I:6)

Speaking of Day 3: ‘“Let the earth”, the Creator adds, “bring forth the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself.” At this command every copse was thickly planted; all the trees, fir, cedar, cypress, pine, rose to their greatest height, the shrubs were straightway clothed with thick foliage.’ (Homily V:6)

‘“Let the earth bring forth.” This short command was in a moment a vast nature, an elaborate system. Swifter than thought it produced the countless qualities of plants.’ (Homily V:10)

Speaking of Day 5: ‘“And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life” after their kind, “and fowl that may fly above the earth” after their kind. The command was given, and immediately the rivers and lakes becoming fruitful brought forth their natural broods; the sea travailed with all kinds of swimming creatures; not even in mud and marshes did the water remain idle; it took its part in creation. Everywhere from its ebullition frogs, gnats and flies came forth. For that which we see to-day is the sign of the past. Thus everywhere the water hastened to obey the Creator’s command.’ (Homily VII:1)

The days of Genesis Chapter 1 were 24-hour days.

‘“And there was evening and there was morning: one day.” Why does Scripture say “one day the first day”? Before speaking to us of the second, the third, and the fourth days, would it not have been more natural to call that one the first which began the series? If it therefore says “one day”, it is from a wish to determine the measure of day and night, and to combine the time that they contain. Now twenty-four hours fill up the space of one day—we mean of a day and of a night; and if, at the time of the solstices, they have not both an equal length, the time marked by Scripture does not the less circumscribe their duration. It is as though it said: twenty-four hours measure the space of a day, or that, in reality a day is the time that the heavens starting from one point take to return there. Thus, every time that, in the revolution of the sun, evening and morning occupy the world, their periodical succession never exceeds the space of one day.’ (Homily II:8)

The order of events in Genesis Chapter 1, days one to six are as it happened. For example, plants were created before the sun.

‘“And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and to divide the day from the night”. Heaven and earth were the first; after them was created light; the day had been distinguished from the night, then had appeared the firmament and the dry element. The water had been gathered into the reservoir assigned to it, the earth displayed its productions, it had caused many kinds of herbs to germinate and it was adorned with all kinds of plants. However, the sun and the moon did not yet exist, in order that those who live in ignorance of God may not consider the sun as the origin and the father of light, or as the maker of all that grows out of the earth. That is why there was a fourth day, and then God said: “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven.”’ (Homily VI:2)

Evolutionary ideas are contrary to Scripture.

‘Avoid the nonsense of those arrogant philosophers who do not blush to liken their soul to that of a dog; who say that they have been formerly themselves women, shrubs, fish. Have they ever been fish? I do not know; but I do not fear to affirm that in their writings they show less sense than fish.’ (Homily VIII:2)

The Creation was originally ‘very good’ and completely lacking in evil.

‘“And God saw that it was good.” God does not judge of the beauty of His work by the charm of the eyes, and He does not form the same idea of beauty that we do. What He esteems beautiful is that which presents in its perfection all the fitness of art, and that which tends to the usefulness of its end. He, then, who proposed to Himself a manifest design in His works, approved each one of them, as fulfilling its end in accordance with His creative purpose.’ (Homily III:10)

‘“In the beginning God created”. He did not make the thing itself the cause of its existence. Being good, He made it an useful work. Being wise, He made it everything that was most beautiful. Being powerful He made it very great. Moses almost shows us the finger of the supreme artisan taking possession of the substance of the universe, forming the different parts in one perfect accord, and making a harmonious symphony result from the whole.’ (Homily I:7)

Speaking of Day 3: ‘But then the rose was without thorns; since then the thorn has been added to its beauty, to make us feel that sorrow is very near to pleasure, and to remind us of our sin, which condemned the earth to produce thorns and caltrops.’ (Homily III:6)

Animals and humans were created vegetarian

In another work,2 Basil affirmed that animals were not eaten in the original creation:

‘Let the Church neglect nothing; everything is a law. God did not say: “I have given you the fishes for food, I have given you the cattle, the reptiles, the quadrupeds.” It is not for this that He created, says the Scripture. In fact, the first legislation allowed the use of fruits, for we were still judged worthy of Paradise.

‘What is the mystery which is concealed for you under this?

‘To you, to the wild animals and the birds, says the Scripture, fruits, vegetation and herbs (are given) … We see, however, many wild animals which do not eat fruits. what fruit does the panther accept to nourish itself? What fruit can the lion satisfy himself with?

‘Nevertheless, these beings, submitting to the law of natures, were nourished by fruits. But when man changed his way of life and departed from the limit which had been assigned him, the Lord, after the Flood, knowing that men were wasteful, allowed them the use of all foods; “eat all that in the same was as edible plants” (Gen. 9:3). By this allowance, the other animals also received the liberty to eat them [CMI would say the animals began to eat meat after the Fall, which is the big discontinuity, as Basil himself says].

‘Since then the lion is a carnivore, since then also vultures watch for carrion. For the vultures were not yet looking over the earth at the very moment when the animals were born; in fact, nothing of what had received designation or existence had yet died so that the vultures might eat them. Nature had not yet divided, for it was all in its freshness: hunters did not capture, for such was not yet the practice of men; the beasts, for their part, did not yet tear their prey, for they were not carnivores … But all followed the way of the swans, and all grazed on the grass of the meadow …

‘Such was the first creation, and such will be the restoration after this. Man will return to his ancient constitution in rejecting malice, a life weighed down with cares, the slavery of the soul with regard to daily worries. When he has renounced all this, he will return to that paradisal life which was not enslaved to the passions of the flesh, which is free, the life of closeness to God, a partaker of the life of the angels.’ (On the origin of Man 2:6–7)

The words are to be understood by their plain meaning, not allegorized.

‘I know the laws of allegory, though less by myself than from the works of others. There are those truly, who do not admit the common sense of the Scriptures, for whom water is not water, but some other nature, who see in a plant, in a fish, what their fancy wishes, who change the nature of reptiles and of wild beasts to suit their allegories, like the interpreters of dreams who explain visions in sleep to make them serve their own ends. For me grass is grass; plant, fish, wild beast, domestic animal, I take all in the literal sense. “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel” [Rom. 1:16].’ (Homily IX:1)

To interpret Scripture otherwise is to put ourselves above God, the Holy Spirit, who inspired its writing.

‘It is this which those seem to me not to have understood, who, giving themselves up to the distorted meaning of allegory, have undertaken to give a majesty of their own invention to Scripture. It is to believe themselves wiser than the Holy Spirit, and to bring forth their own ideas under a pretext of exegesis. Let us hear Scripture as it has been written.’ (Homily IX:1)

Basil countered various heresies in his writings and it is clear that, as today, there was a strong link between allegorizing Genesis and all manner of strange interpretations of the rest of Scripture.

Thanks to:

https://creation.com/genesis-means-what-it-says-basil-ad-329-379

Sexuality and Gender: Response to “Orthodoxy in Dialogue” Open Letter ~ Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick

 

On September 24, 2018, the “Orthodoxy in Dialogue” website published an open letter to the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America, calling upon them to make a radical revision of the sexual ethical teachings of the Orthodox Church. The following is a point-for-point response, arranged roughly according to topic, with relevant quotes from the OiD piece.

Abortion

1). Cease issuing condemnations of abortion, participating in the March for Life, and advocating for the elimination of legal, accessible abortion.

Instead, create a committee of clergy, laypersons, and especially women to explore options for a pan-Orthodox initiative to offer financial, material, emotional, spiritual, and social support to pregnant women in need and to their children after birth.

Abortion is the murder of the most innocent and vulnerable among us. Orthodox Christians must unequivocally condemn such an act in the strongest possible terms. It is among the most heinous acts of mankind in our day. To cease condemnation of murder is to become complicit in murder. We encourage our hierarchs to continue to lead us in public opposition to legalized abortion and thank them for their heroic and loving witness in this regard.

That said, there is absolutely nothing inconsistent with that condemnation and also offering “financial, material, emotional, spiritual, and social support to pregnant women in need and to their children after birth.” Indeed, numerous Orthodox parishes all over America do this by supporting local crisis pregnancy centers and/or the Orthodox ministry Zoe for Life.

There is no contradiction between opposing the killing of the unborn and also providing as much support as possible for those who may find themselves drawn to that horrifying “solution” to whatever pressures or crises they may face. They are often driven in that direction by situations most of us hope we never find ourselves in. So we do not condemn, but rather give love and authentic support, while seeking to rescue that most precious gift of life from God.

Same-Sex Attraction

2). Cease issuing condemnations of same-sex orientation.

These condemnations inflict lasting emotional and spiritual harm on Orthodox children, teens, and adults who regard their orientation as a good and natural part of their personal identity. They seek from their Church, not a cover for sexual permissiveness, but a profound and affirmative theological articulation of how their orientation reflects the divine image and participates in the acquisition of the divine likeness through the collaboration of human ascesis with uncreated grace.

The teaching of the Orthodox Church is not about condemning an “orientation,” however one defines that (feelings, very deep feelings, psychological tendencies, attraction, etc.). So this is disingenuous on its face. The sin is not an “orientation” toward homosexuality but rather in acting upon it. The exact same thing is true for any sexual sins, whether homosexual, heterosexual, adulterous, or whatever else.

It is also not ascetical to give in to sin, so listening to the thoughts and feelings that are oriented toward sin is not an ascetical act.

It is true that individual Orthodox Christians or even clergy may treat someone badly because they express having same-sex attraction (SSA), but it is not the teaching of the Church to condemn an “orientation.” It is also wrong to treat people badly. And even then, condemnation is not the Church’s approach when it comes to sin, but rather an invitation to be healed of it. What is worthy of condemnation is teaching against the path of healing. The anathema is reserved for those who lead others astray, not for those so led.

Even if someone cannot remember a time feeling anything other than SSA, it is not the way God made anyone. Rather, such feelings are a result of the Fall as are every other inclination toward sin. An inclination toward sin is not sin, but it is also not what we were created to be.

Instead, create a committee of clergy, theologians, psychologists, therapists, laypersons, and especially Orthodox individuals who identify as same-sex oriented to study questions of sexual orientation in all their complexity.

Would such a committee include those who identify themselves as experiencing SSA and yet remain chaste according to the teaching of Christ? Would that study include scientific studies which don’t support the asked-for revision of the Church’s sexual ethics? Would that study include the Biblical and patristic teaching on sexuality?

I’m guessing probably not.

The committee should be open to examining possibilities for blessing Orthodox same-sex couples who wish to make a monogamous, lifelong commitment to each other.

The committee definitely should not. Marriage is between one man and one woman, not any other combination. To bless such a union would be to bless a plan to sin. The Church does not bless plans to sin. The Church calls for us to repent of our sins. It does not matter how many times we sin. We repent as many times. We can’t say, in effect, “It is okay to sin in this way so long as you commit to sin with only this one other person.”

The blanket excommunication of Orthodox Christians who present as same-sex oriented must cease.

Citation, please. Where is there a “blanket excommunication of Orthodox Christians who present as same-sex oriented”? Again, the problem here is not how one “presents” or is “oriented” but rather what one does with one’s body. Those who sin in certain ways sexually are excommunicated of their own accord. But they are also invited to repentance and restoration. There is always a path for wholeness.

This is not to say that someone who experiences SSA can be “cured” of that attraction. There are of course some who say that that has happened for them (and if we are to believe those who say that it cannot happen for them, we also have to believe those who say it can — both are their lived experience), but I can’t claim to know whether it can happen for everyone. But we do know that we do not have to obey our attractions. We are not our thoughts and feelings.

3). Remove from the websites of the Assembly, its member jurisdictions, and each jurisdiction’s individual dioceses all past condemnations of same-sex orientation.

In other words, simply capitulate to this radical revision of the Church’s sexual teachings. But, again, there are no “condemnations of same-sex orientation.” Rather, there is the teaching that homosexual acts are sin. All sexual acts outside of God’s design for marriage are sin.

And what is the Church’s approach to sin? It is to “open the doors of repentance,” which is a positive, vivifying, healing, loving way of return to the Father, to become like our Lord Jesus Christ and stand with Him as sons of the Most High.

Transgenderism

4). Instruct the clergy to cease issuing condemnations of transgender identities.

Arguably these condemnations inflict even greater emotional and spiritual harm on those targeted than condemnations of same-sex orientation. It has been demonstrated statistically that transgender persons comprise one of society’s most vulnerable demographics.

We as Church have not even begun to examine—let alone understand—the complex interplay of emotional, spiritual, psychological, social, and even biological factors that lead a person to identify as transgender and then to commence his or her transition to the gender opposite the one assigned at birth. Indeed some persons experience themselves as having both genders or neither gender.

One’s sex is not “assigned at birth.” Rather, it is written into the very fabric of one’s DNA, which is a creation of God and a normal function of human life.

What is condemnable is the teaching that people can change their sex just by thinking it so. Those who think this way ought to be loved and shepherded to accepting the reality of who they are, not into denying the plain evidence that stares at them nakedly in the mirror. To reject the reality of one’s body is essentially a gnostic sensibility. Human beings are not putty that may be remade into whatever we feel — even if we feel it very deeply.

Human beings are both body and soul. Neither is plastic in the sense that their very nature can be rewritten. Both body and soul need to be reoriented toward God because of the Fall, and so we cannot merely trust in our thoughts and feelings to guide us correctly. Our thoughts and feelings are broken. That does not make us worthless, but it does mean that we need to be healed, and that we are indeed worthy of being healed because we are created according to the image of God.

Because our thoughts and feelings are so untrustworthy (Jer. 17:9), we trust in Christ, in His apostles and prophets, in the Holy Fathers, in the successors to the apostles and our own father-confessors. We do not have to make this spiritual life up for ourselves, and we actually should not — because Christianity is a revealed faith, not one that has to be discovered through committees.

Others are born intersex, which means that their biological bodies possess some configuration of both male and female organs, whether externally, internally, or both.

This is extremely rare and actually has almost no bearing on the current movement toward transgenderism. In such difficult cases, one must do the best one can, but these cases do not set the rule for anyone else.

The blanket excommunication of Orthodox Christians who present as transgender or intersex must cease.

Again: Citation, please.

Ministry to Orthodox Christians related to the above

5). Authorize, endorse, and sponsor—as an official, permanent ministry of the Assembly—an international support organization for Orthodox Christians who identify anywhere along the LGBTQI spectrum.

This is actually not a bad idea, but it ought to be an organization about the healing of all who find that their internal inclinations are toward sexual sin, not toward one that encourages obeying those inclinations. There is no shame in this, by the way. We are all inclined toward sin.

Final Thoughts

To be quite frank, I don’t think that the website in question is generally worth responding to or even reading, not just because their articles so often contradict the teachings of Christ and His Church but because they make a pretense at academic integrity which they rarely have. But this seemed like an opportune moment to reiterate a few of these things.

I know that reiterating the Church’s teachings on these things will be received by some as hateful, insensitive, etc. But it is not. It is love to speak reality and to embrace someone however he presents himself.

And let me state unequivocally that I absolutely reject mistreating anyone on account of their personal identification with any of the issues mentioned above — no one should be condemned, bullied, harmed, ridiculed, rejected, etc. Every person who comes to the Church must be treated with love, care, understanding, an orientation toward listening, support and blessing. All this is toward the goal given by Christ Himself, in the words of the apostle:

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:1-2)

This is the true ascetical struggle — not to believe our thoughts and feelings on their face, but to present ourselves as living sacrifices to the Lord and to be healed of our addictions and sinful inclinations, aware that while they may never fully disappear in this life, there is nevertheless the possibility to be conformed to Christ, to be transformed in the renewing of our minds and to be made holy by His love.

About Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick

The Very Rev. Archpriest Andrew Stephen Damick is Chief Content Officer of Ancient Faith Ministries, former pastor (2009-2020) of St. Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church of Emmaus, Pennsylvania, and author of Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy, Bearing God and An Introduction to God. He is also host of the Amon Sûl, Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy and Roads from Emmaus podcasts on Ancient Faith Radio, co-host with Fr. Stephen De Young of The Lord of Spirits podcast, co-host with Michael Landsman of The Areopagus podcast, and he is a frequent speaker at lectures and retreats both in parishes and in other settings. You can follow him on Facebook and Twitter.Thanks to:

https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/orthodoxyandheterodoxy/2018/09/25/sexuality-and-gender-response-to-orthodoxy-in-dialogue-open-letter/

Sayings St. Seraphim of Sarov ~ Words of Wisdom

 

Drink water from the spring where horses drink. The horse will never drink bad water.

Lay your bed where the cat sleeps.

Eat the fruit that has been touched by a worm.

Boldly pick the mushroom on which the insects sit.

Plant the tree where the mole digs.

Build your house where the snake sits to warm itself.

Dig your fountain where the birds hide from heat.

Go to sleep and wake up at the same time with the birds – you will reap all of the day's golden grains.

Eat more green – you will have strong legs and a resistant heart, like the beings of the forest.

Swim often and you will feel on earth like the fish in the water.

Look at the sky as often as possible and your thoughts will become light and clear.

Be quiet a lot, speak little – and silence will come into your heart, and your spirit will be calm and filled with peace.

~ Saint Seraphim of Sarov

thanks to:

.

https://sites.google.com/site/thevoiceofthechristians/home/saint-seraphim-of-sarov-words-of-wisdom

C.S. Lewis ~ Goodness is, so to speak, itself: badness is only spoiled goodness

 

Lewis explains the Augustinian claim that goodness is original, but badness only spoiled goodness.  

   “In reality we have no experience of anyone liking badness just because it is bad.  The nearest we get to it is in cruelty.    But in real life people are cruel for one of two reasons—either because they are sadists, that is because they have a sexual perversion which makes cruelty a cause of sensual pleasure to them, or else for the sake of something they are going to get out of it—money, or power, or safety.  But pleasure, money, power, and safety are all, so far as they go, good things.  The badness consists in pursuing them by the wrong method, or in the wrong way, or too much.  I do not mean, of course, that the people who do this are not desperately wicked.  I do mean that wickedness, when you examine it, turns out to be the pursuit of goodness in the wrong way.  You can be good for the mere sake of goodness: you cannot be bad for the mere sake of badness. . . . Goodness is, so to speak, itself: badness is only spoiled goodness. . . . Evil is a parasite, not an original thing.”

 

https://cep.calvinseminary.edu/reading-for-preaching/mere-christianity-in-the-complete-c-s-lewis-signature-classics-3/

Troublesome passages of the Old Testament ~ Abbot Tryphon

 

Bashing Heads
Troublesome passages of the Old Testament

It is important when reading the Old Testament, to remember that it was written as an account of a people's journey to God. As the Israelites' journey continued, they came to know God, little by little, through God's self-revelation to their prophets, and their understanding of God expanded. Christ, as the Logos (the Word of God), was from the very beginning, and identified Himself as the Alpha and the Omega. Thus, the Old Testament can only be properly understood in reference to Christ's resurrection.

The God of the Old Testament can only be understood in light of the New Testament, so we should not take too seriously the troublesome accounts of God telling His people to kill their neighbors, and bash their enemies' children against the rocks. Alleged historical accounts of the wrath of the Old Testament God should not be an issue with us, for it is only in light of Christ's revelation that we can truly comprehend Truth.

Various Church Fathers saw the dashing of infants in these Old Testament accounts as representing the passions, and the rock representing Christ. As believers we dash our thoughts on the Rock, as the way of making sure our passions do not return to overwhelm us. Many of the psalms have similar allegories as an invitation to guard the walled city of our hearts and preserve the spiritual treasures we have received from Our King and Our God.

Historical literalism is not important when confronting the revealed true nature of God, and our turning from a literalism in our interpretation of Scripture, is not a capitulation to modernism. The Church has always known how we should read the Scriptures, for the Truth of the biblical account can only be known in light of Christ, as revealed by His Church.

The Fathers of the Church recognized the human component in the Scriptures, since the Holy Spirit enlightened the human authors without them ever losing themselves, as a sort of trans-medium. These writers of the Scriptures were not some sort of conduit of the Holy Spirit, for they wrote within the context of their human experience of God, within the context of their cultural and tribal experience.

There was a certain synergy happening, as they attempted to cooperate with God. The Old Testament writers were speaking to the people of their times, and their tribal culture, all within their own identity as people of their age. Accounts of a brutal and angry God, as perceived by these writers, must be taken into account as reflective only of the age in which they lived.

"God did not invent death, and when living creatures die, it gives Him no pleasure. He created everything so that it might continue to exist, and everything He created is wholesome and good. There is no deadly poison in them. No, death does not rule this world (Wisdom I:12-14)." This God of the Old Testament did not command governments and armies to kill, otherwise He would be contradicting the Ten Commandments, wherein He told His people they should not kill.

References to capital punishment say nothing of His people killing anyone, but only that consequences of sin was death. The accounts of stoning sinners, bashing the heads of children against rocks, and slaughtering their neighbors, originated in the sin and darkness of a people who were only beginning to receive the revelation of God's love. This love had its crescendo in the Resurrection of Christ from the dead, and the banishing of the power of death, once and for all.

With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

source:

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HOW I WOUND UP IN THE ARIZONA DESERT WITH ELDER EPHRAIM ~ Olga Rozhneva

 

HOW I WOUND UP IN THE ARIZONA DESERT WITH ELDER EPHRAIM

Olga Rozhneva

Elder Ephraim with monastery brethren

    

People of God

My journey began long before I walked down the ramp of the oldest airline company, “Royal Dutch Airlines,” founded in 1919, onto American soil.

Since November 2014 we have been working, with the blessing of Vladyka, then still an archimandrite, Tikhon (Shevukonv), on the small-format booklet series “People of God,” on modern saints and ascetics of piety. Vladyka thought of the project himself and of formatting this supply of fascinating material in the shape of a modern paterikon. Vladyka Tikhon himself edited the first two books in the series, on the great elders Paisios the Athonite and Archimandrite John (Krestiankin). Some of the ascetics, about whom it was proposed to publish, were already glorified as saints, while the canonization of others remained only a question of time and the determination of God. When we worked on the first paterikon on Paisios the Athonite the elder was not yet glorified, but when the book was released from the publishing house, Venerable Paisios was already canonized and as if blessed our subsequent work on the series “People of God.”

I think many are familiar with the spiritual experience of when reading or hearing stories of the saints or ascetics of piety, feeling their invisible presence, their prayerful help. Gathering material for the books, I felt the saints are near. Temptations, internal and external, were intensified: people were angry with me for no special reason; my own passions, which I thought had abated, raised their heads.

Books on the elders Gabriel (Urgebadze), Zosima (Sokur), Nikolai Guryanov, Paul (Gruzdev), and other elders and saints have been published—more than twenty books.

We also prepared a book on the great Elder Joseph the Hesychast for publication in this “People of God” series. Having great love for this elder, with fervent zeal I gathered material on a few of his spiritual children who themselves became elders: Hieroschemamonk Ephraim of Katounakia, Elder Arsenios the Hesychast and Cave-dweller and the still living and thriving Archimandrite Ephraim (Moraitis) of Philotheou.

Elder Ephraim was chosen as the abbot of Philotheou on Mt. Athos in 1973 and in short order revived the ascetic monastic life in the monastery, after which the Kinot of the Holy Mountain blessed him to expand and fill three other Athonite monasteries with those seeking the monastic life: Xeropotamou, Konstamonitou, and Karakallou. These monasteries are still under Archimandrite Ephraim’s spiritual guidance, as are also a number of men’s and women’s monasteries in Greece and North America.

In 1960 the Greek Orthodox priest and theologian Archpriest John Romanides wrote: “The Holy Mountain should immediately send their representatives to America and found there monastic habitations, otherwise Orthodoxy on the American continent awaits its inevitable destruction.”

A few years later these prophetic words were embodied in life by the efforts of just one person. Monasteries of Elder Ephraim appeared in many regions of America and Canada: New York, Texas, Florida, Washington, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Illinois, California, Michigan, Montreal, and Toronto. Chief among them is the Monastery of St. Anthony the Great in Arizona, and therefore now the elder is often known as Ephraim of Arizona.

The saints are near

While working on the books about great Athonite elders the feeling of their nearness, their presence, and of spiritual connection with them, the feeling of heartfelt affection became so strong, so real, that I began to doubt: maybe it was womanly exaltation, my gender’s prelest? So many turn to the elders for prayerful help, so many spiritual children they have…

Is it possible that they knew even about me, sitting here at my old computer, in a small house on the outskirts of some provincial town? The autumn air smelled strongly of rotting leaves, early twilight was quickly creeping up, icy wet wind knocked on the door, but the artificial yellow light in the room couldn’t drive away the thick impenetrable fog outside the window. Thoughts of doubt and disbelief tempted, crowded, and crept into my soul.

And then the following thought visited my feebly-believing head: if such a spiritual connection truly exists, it can be verified in practice! I can mentally turn to Archimandrite Ephraim with any request. Never mind that the elder doesn’t know Russian or English and I don’t know Greek—as is known, there’s no obstacles to spiritual communion. If he answers me, it means this spiritual connection is real. I hastily swept aside all requests which could have been fulfilled by simple coincidence. I had to ask the elder about something I couldn’t do myself without his prayerful intercession. I thought of something! I said to the elder:

“Dear elder! I so want to see you and receive your blessing! I so want to see St. Anthony’s Monastery, where you are now laboring with your spiritual children! For me to travel to America would be like flying into space… But I believe, if you pray, I will wind up at your monastery. And it would mean the spiritual connection is real.

The next morning, in the daylight, yesterday’s thoughts, doubts, and requests already seemed stupid, childish, and fantastic.

You won’t believe it, but within a month I was standing at the gates of St. Anthony’s Monastery in Arizona, mouth agape with surprise, looking around at the Sonora desert, right across from me the native inhabitants of these places—a twenty-three-foot-wide cactus. It was like a fairy tale. I probably looked quite ridiculous.

Flying across the ocean

My miraculous trip across the ocean happened in the following way. A day after my fervent requests, an American named Richard came to Optina Pustyn, being baptized there with the name Ambrose. We met at the monastery and became friends. I recorded a conversation with the newly-baptized, published on pravoslavie.ru, and now Richard-Ambrose, having come to visit me, behind a cup of tea laughed, saying:

“I’m a famous person in Russia now! I go to Moscow, visit Novodevichy Monastery, and they call me by name. I ask: “How do you know my name?!” They answer: “We read pravoslavie.ru, and saw your photo there!”

Ambrose is now my spiritual brother—we have the same Optina archimandrite for a spiritual father. My brother began to share with me his regrets, that he didn’t fulfill his spiritual father’s blessing—how to go to confession now? “Well, I’ll ask forgiveness and explain that I wasn’t able, that I’ll fulfill it next time…”

“Was it a difficult blessing?”

“Not very: they blessed me to visit St. Anthony’s Monastery, the one in Arizona in the Sonora desert. It’s not so far from my home state of South Carolina, but I wasn’t able to arrange it all, I had a lot of things to do, and didn’t go…”

I think you will understand why my heart began to pound at these words.

Ambrose didn’t come alone this time, but with a friend Michael. Michael is Russian and lives in America. Besides his legal degree from Russia he received a legal education from George Washington University in the US capital, is licensed and works successfully as a lawyer. He’s a very smart, faithful young man. He serves in the altar in an Orthodox church, regularly confessing and communing. We went to Shamordino together and swam in the holy springs. He read one of my books and liked it. He asked me:

“Olga, would you like to see Orthodox America?” “I want to want to, but what’s the use? For me, getting to America is like getting to the moon…”

My American friends laughed. And here, by the prayers of Elder Ephraim, with the help of Misha[1] and Ambrose I found out that the path to America is much closer and easier than to the moon.

    

Sonora Desert, Arizona

Ambrose and I landed in Arizona at the same time, him coming from South Carolina, a subtropic state of sabal palm trees and white-toothed smiles, and me from the capital Washington, one of the few pre-planned cities of America, where there is a great concentration of historical attractions, free museums, and gorgeous parks.

We met at the airport. Ambrose was holding a garment bag in one hand and with the other clutching a book to his chest he had taken with him on the plane. “Do you have this book? I really, really like it! I never read anything like it! Never! You have to read it if you haven’t!”

I know my spiritual brother does a lot of reading, has a PhD, and easily quotes various authors, beginning with the ancient Greek fathers of tragedy and drama. At Shamordino there is an elderly academic nun who, realizing Ambrose was an American, advised him to learn at least a little about Russia for his spiritual salvation. The tactful Richard-Ambrose just politely smiled in response, not telling the nun that one of his papers dealt with the role of Peter Arkadievich Stolypin in Russian history. So, Ambrose is quite bright, an intellectual. Therefore, for me, his enthusiastic review of the book is the best recommendation.

“Which book?”

He turned the book around and I saw depicted on the cover Archimandrite Nathaniel (Pospelov) of the Pskov Caves Monastery. He was reading “Everyday Saints.” I smiled at Ambrose.

Ready for a trip into the desert

    

My American brother rented a car and we drove through the desert with gigantic many-armed saguaro cacti reaching up to fifty feet high and 150 years of age. I think we could say this huge, fat cactus probably remembers the nineteenth century… Its roots spread 100 feet out from its body. Saguaro flowers, delicate and beautiful, blossoming at night, are a state symbol of Arizona. Besides the saguaro, another fifty types of cacti grow in the Sonora.

Posters at a roadside café tout their usefulness. Apparently cactus stems are wholly edible; they can be baked and fried, a paste is made from the pulp, wine from the juice, jams and compotes from the fruits, and its tough wood is used for fuel and building material.

The Sonora is the hottest of the four American deserts, but now, in December, at night it’s only 77° F. I read a book on animals in the Sonora. I didn’t know if I would see any of them, but they sound very interesting: antelope squirrels, antelope rabbits, and prong-horned antelope, grasshopper mice, deer mice, ground squirrels, and also bat-eared foxes, coyotes, desert badgers… The dangerous desert predator, the puma, has become very rare and is disappearing from hunting. The Sonora lizards are the only poisonous lizards in the world. There are seven types of rattlesnakes, black tarantulas, yellow scorpions, and black widows—a female with a bite lethal for humans.

“Olga, do you want to go for a walk in the desert, see some more, maybe take a picture with a cactus?” “Later… Next time…”

Many of the inhabitants of the Sonora are used to leading a nocturnal lifestyle—it’s always cooler at night. During the day they hide out in burrows. But there are those of the day: animals often crossed our path, but whether they were coyotes or bat-eared foxes I don’t know. I was just glad they weren’t pumas. Unknown birds of this foreign continent flew in the sky.

St. Anthony's Monastery

    

The Monastery of St. Anthony the Great

We arrived at the monastery at six at night, in time only to look around. It got dark pretty quickly and I couldn’t see anything clearly. I only met a Russian hierodeacon, Seraphim, who’s been living in America since 1995 and in the monastery since 2002 with the obedience of working in the bookstore and meeting guests.

Stone paths, framed by multi-colored bricks, lead to the monastic cells and pilgrims’ guest houses. Men are forbidden to enter the women’s guest house. In my room of six bunks there were only two people, one American, the other Greek. The Greek woman didn’t speak English very well, but the three of us understood one another beautifully, got quickly acquainted, and spoke a bit about ourselves.

Quiet time began at 7 PM for rest before the night service, during which you cannot make noise, take a shower, or talk. Each bed has a nightstand with a lamp, and you can read during quiet time if you don’t want to sleep. There are a few chairs, some cabinets for clothes, and a bathroom with a shower. The cells are very cozy, with icons above the beds, and blinds always drawn on the windows. There’s an air conditioner and a fan. In the kitchen there’s a supply of potable water, you can brew tea and coffee, and there’s large containers of apple and orange juice in the fridge.

    

Monastery services

At midnight my roommates and I went to the service together. We went early to get a blessing from Archimandrite Ephraim and Abbot Paisios—the elder’s spiritual child who followed him from Mt. Athos.

We went up to the elders in order. Elder Ephraim used to give his blessing first, but now he stands behind Abbot Paisios and blesses second. The elder, eighty-seven years old, is gradually moving towards a more private, reclusive life. He already doesn’t go to the common meals with the brothers. The elder looks much younger than his years: short, of ascetic composition, gray beard, very kind eyes. Extraordinary feelings envelop you in his presence, but I won’t enlarge upon this, keeping in mind the words of the holy fathers: “To praise an ascetic monk is the same as to trip him.”

There’s no electricity in the church except for two small lights for the chanters. After the All-Night Vigil, at Liturgy, two monks from opposite sides light the candles on the chandelier. Then one of them, with a special stick with a hook on the end, with considerable effort pulls the large chandelier with burning three-foot candles, as far as the chains allow. Then the chandelier swings back and the chandelier begins to move in a pendulum motion. Then the monk takes the smaller chandelier hanging in the center of the larger one and swings it in the opposite direction of the larger one. It’s a little hard to describe, but when it begins to spin in the darkness of the church in all its radiant splendor—it leaves a remarkable impression. And it rotates on its own for a surprisingly long time—until the end of the service!

Inside the church of St. Anthony the Great

    

Women stand strictly on the left side of the church, men on the right. No one tries to break this routine. During the singing of “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal…” in Liturgy, two monk-ecclesiarchs cense the church and believers according to Athonite tradition with hand censers—no chains, but a long handle with chiming bells. Choral singing is not used, except for the “Cherubic Hymn” and “It is Truly Meet.” One of the chanters on the kliros sings the melody in a particular voice while two others follow along with the root notes as an ison. It turns out quite beautifully. The Creed is not sung, but read by the abbot. Communicants don’t say their name as we do in the Russian Church, and having communed, wipe their own mouths with the cloth. They don’t kiss the chalice. There’s no zapivka,[2] just the handing out of antidoron. There are a few other differences, but they don’t strike the eye, and are noticeable only to the clergy and kliros.

I was standing in these amazing night services and thinking that women can’t go to Mt. Athos, so visiting the Monastery of St. Anthony the Great and the others founded by Elder Ephraim is a unique opportunity for women to feel the spirit of Athos. You’re touched by the prayers of the holy Athonite elder Joseph the Hesychast, through the prayers of his spiritual children who have themselves become great elders. This prayer and love can be felt anywhere on earth, even at a distance of a thousand miles. You pray in your mother tongue, and in some miraculous manner, by the grace of the Holy Spirit Who gave the apostles the gift of speaking in other tongues, the elder, having acquired this grace, understands you.

    

In a Greek church you can go up to the solea, which is not elevated, and venerate the icons. On the icons are several metal plates—on one, a hand, on another, a leg, an eye, a baby, another hand, a whole person. It’s a Greek tradition—having prayed for healing or the gift of children, and having received your request, you order these plates in gratitude.

Trapeza

After the service is trapeza. On weekdays the brethren have breakfast in their cells, the pilgrims in the trapeza, and they have lunch together. On feast days there’s a common breakfast. About forty-five brothers sit across from the abbot’s table, then the table for male pilgrims, and then further, the table for female pilgrims. Trapeza begins with the ringing of a bell. About ten minutes later there’s another bell, and you can pour yourself some cold water from a jug. The meal ends with the third ringing of the bell.

Today was a feast and we had festal dishes: mashed potatoes, fried fish, salad, olives from the monastery garden, and an apple on each plate, and bottles of apple cider vinegar and fresh olive oil. It was a festal trapeza. There was none of the typical Russian feast day fare: fish for the ascetics was already a big slackening from their daily menu. At the end of the meal they eat a piece of the Theotokion bread with a festal service, in order of seniority, pinching off a piece from the common loaf.

The next weekday at breakfast the brothers were gone. The pilgrims themselves pass by large plates and pots of food, serving themselves each what they want: nuts, halva, Turkish Delight, olives, salad, bread smeared with peanut butter, cups full of tea and caffeine-free coffee—you have to sleep after the night services!

The church of the Prophet Elijah

    

Monastery and church surroundings

After sleeping a few hours after the service I quietly got up—my neighbors were still sleeping—and went to look around the monastery. Everything around was filled with the freshness and sunlight of the early morning. There are palms of several types, larches, pines, various cacti, multi-colored shrubbery—more than 2,000 types of plants providing shade and coolness, the sound of water in fountains decorated with stone lions and eagles. Flowers in flowerbeds, in stone vases, and usual ceramic pots gladden the eye. A bit farther, in the monastery garden are oranges, lemons, grapefruits, pistachio trees, and date palms. There’s a small vineyard and olive grove. A worker, gathering the citruses, gave me a couple of lemons.

I was struck by the beautiful churches, varying in size and style. The main church is named for St. Anthony the Great—the father of ancient monasticism—and St. Nektarios of Aegina—a highly venerated Greek saint having the grace to heal cancer. The icon of the Mother of God “of Arizona” was painted and sent from Greece for the cathedral. It is venerated as wonderworking. Its style is reminiscent of the well-known “Queen of All” icon.

Some distance from the monastery, on a hill is seen the snow white church of the Prophet Elijah, with blue cupolas. Fr. Seraphim gave me the key and a blessing to enter this remote church all alone. He suggested that I return to the guest house for a bottle of water. I didn’t want to return, which I ended up regretting, because we had to walk not far but in the heat, without any shade along the road, then up the steps to climb the mountain to the church.

Inside the church of St. Elijah

    

I walked tentatively through the desert, timidly looking around, searching for rattlesnakes and scorpions. Having climbed the steps up the mountain, from which opened up a miraculous view of the surroundings, I calmed down and easily opened the massive door with the key. The church was cool, and a prayerful silence reigned. I prayed. I returned without any fear, admiring the unusual views of the vast desert. The only thing—I made a mistake and went the opposite direction of the monastery at the fork. How I managed to get lost in broad daylight I don’t know. Apparently I was affected by a few nights practically without sleep from the long flight and night service.

The view from St. Elijah's

    

On Elders Ephraim, Paisios, and Paul (Gruzdev) and oranges

After my short trip on my own into the desert Hierodeacon Seraphim introduced me to one of the few Russian families living not far from the monastery. Michael and Olga invited Ambrose and I over, and we drove down the deserted highway in search of their home. There were no cars, it was a complete wilderness—only a cactus—the silent guards of the surrounding area. Turning onto a country road, coyotes passed by our car. Finally into the desert, leaving the pavement behind, a sign appeared: “Dead end.”

The houses of those who moved near the monastery and exchanged the noisy attractions and benefits of city life for the desert are located at a considerable distance from one another, with only the Sonora between them in all its glory.

The owners greeted us joyfully.

—Hello, allow us to thank you for the invitation!

Olga: You know, we Russian families, living here, all read the site pravoslavie.ru. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the creator and spiritual guide Vladyka Tikhon (Shevkunov). We know this site won’t let us down, that we won’t read anything confusing there, that would lead into temptation… You can feel the sobriety, spiritual discernment… And by the way, I know you by correspondence—I have your book Paths of Our Lives. You even signed it yourself for me!

—Me?!

Olga: Do you remember? After an excursion at Optina you signed my friend’s book and she asked you: “Sign another for my friends in Arizona, Olga and Michael.” We are those very same friends!

(“It’s truly a small world!” I thought.)

—How did you come to America?

Olga: I came as a programmer and wanted to get to know some advanced technology and to see how things were here in the West… I had no plans to stay here permanently. But the Lord was in control, and now I can work from home as a programmer—it’s a miracle, and not a small one.

Michael: And I’m a doctor. I worked here in a medical corporation which manufactures medical equipment. I met Olga in California almost as soon as I arrived. We got married here in America. We went to a Russian church in San Diego where we lived, and constantly prayed that the Lord would send us where we could be saved.

With Michael and Olga

    

—How did you end up here, in the Sonora desert?

Olga: You might be surprised, but I think I should start with my grandmother’s spiritual father, Fr. Paul (Gruzdev). My grandmother’s name was Vera, and she was from one of the places where Fr. Paul served. She was his spiritual child. The women that helped him were all my grandmother’s friends. He called them “My grandmas”… My mom confessed to him, and probably it was his prayers that impacted our lives. Look, we have a portrait of him there—they’re all Greeks, various elders, and Fr. Paul with them, for company’s sake (smiling).

He was supposed to baptize me in childhood, but it didn’t work out. My grandmother died early, in Bright Week, and I grew up unbaptized. But I really feel Fr. Paul’s care for me in my life. Grandma’s prayers and care are also present.

(As I was listening to Olga I felt my heart stop: a spiritual connection with holy people—is this not what called me across the ocean?)

Olga: Before her death my grandmother was lying in the hospital and my mom was in the bed next to her, to take care of her. Not long before she died Fr. Paul sent two oranges to her as a gift. Grandma couldn’t eat by this point, and mom didn’t want them, so they sat on the shelf for a long time. Mama would reminisce about how strange it was to see these bright orange oranges in a white hospital room. For a village hospital at that time fruit was unusual, an overseas thing.

When we moved here and began to plant orange trees, I remembered those very oranges. I want to believe that it was Fr. Paul’s prediction about the future… You know: “Events are the language by which the Lord God speaks to us”…

Sonora Desert

    

—You plant orange trees?

Michael: Yes, we have a big garden here… We planted them, they grew… This year was the first harvest. There are so many oranges! Arizona is like the orange state. You know, the most delicious and sweetest citrus grows in the desert.

Olga: There was a second sign that Fr. Paul gave us, that we wouldn’t be here without his prayers. A few pilgrims from Russia came to the monastery. One of them came to our house, saw the portraits of the elders and asked: “How did a portrait of Fr. Paul wind up here in Arizona?” It turns out she had been to see him, and considers him her spiritual father who greatly helped her to find the right way in life. “I,” she said, “asked his blessing to continue studying after institute, but he answered: ‘No. It’s not necessary. You will have a house, with cows walking and mooing around you.’ And, you know, his prophecy came completely true! She lives in her own house with cows all around! Although, they’re not her cows…”

Michael: There’s a few details to add: these cows walk through Swiss meadows—her husband is very rich and they live in Switzerland. And when Fr. Paul said this to her, she thought: “What cows?!” Such, you know, an educated woman…

Olga: We asked Fr. Paul to direct us in life, and he guides us, tells us the news… We lived in California for twelve years. At one point we really wanted to return to Russia, to the city of Rybinsk, where my parents live now. We started looking for a house there and were about to buy one. We had just enough money for a house. At the same time we started coming here, to St. Anthony’s. We liked the monastery but also wanted our homeland. On the day we were supposed to pay for our house in Rybinsk either the crisis happened in Russia, or our stock crashed… I already forgot…

Michael: The developers there stopped building and didn’t even want to return the money we’d already sent…

Olga: It was clearly the intervention of God’s providence. But when we were planning to come here, by the monastery, everything with buying the house went smoothly.

—In such a deserted place, where almost no one lives?

Michael: People live here—they just have big tracts of land… We have ten acres, and our neighbor has a hundred acres. Land here is sold in such chunks—it’s cheap. It’s desert here.

—But why so much land?

Michael (smiling): All the Russians ask this. If you pour the water from the well, everything will grow here: citruses, dates, figs, apples.

    

—And you like living here?

Michael: Of course! You know, it’s like living near Optina. It’s not for nothing that you live by Optina, right? Apparently something pulled you there? Maybe you felt some special grace? We’re the same. We’re nurtured here by the abbot Fr. Paisios.

—Maybe you can say something about your spiritual father and some of his teachings?

Olga: Fr. Paisios guides us by example. In the lives of the saints there’s a story of one elder-abbot. They asked him: “Father, why do you stand the whole time in church? You never even sit in your abbot’s chair?” The elder answered: “If I sit, my monks will lie down.” That’s how Fr. Paisios is: he shows us everything by his example. He labors alongside not just the older brethren, but even with the novices, not shunning any work. He speaks little but does much. He is very humble and tries to remain in the shadow of Elder Ephraim. He also helps the elder hear the pilgrims’ confessions. Usually Fr. Paisios receives Americans and Russians.

Michael: He is an ascetic. He doesn’t give particular instructions, but prays for his children, and we feel his prayer.

—Could you say a little about Elder Ephraim?

Michael: We haven’t been able to speak with Elder Ephraim very much—Elder Paisios is our spiritual father.

Olga: We have a Greek teacher now, who is a spiritual child of Elder Ephraim.

Michael: You know, when you go to Optina, you feel the spirit of the Optina elders there, even though the elders were there a century ago… and the Optina new martyrs—you feel their protection. St. Anthony’s Monastery is young, founded in 1995, but the continuity of eldership is here. Elder Joseph the Hesychast protects this monastery. The spirit of Elder Joseph the Hesychast and the Greek ascetics is here. And the rule here totally coincides with that of the Athonite monasteries where spiritual children of Elder Joseph became the abbots. So this rule has been verified by the experience of Athonite monasteries.

Elder Ephraim with his brotherhood

    

Olga: A priest from Greece, Fr. Stephen Anagnostopulous, came to the monastery not too long ago. He’s been a spiritual child of Elder Ephraim for many years and has written many books, one of which, Revelations During the Divine Liturgy, I strongly recommend you to read, although it’s only been published in Greek and English. He’s a Spirit-bearing father. The elder blessed him to have a conversation with the laypeople, and during this conversation he told us a little about the elder: “Once, many years ago, when the Elder was visiting me in Greece, many people gathered to listen to him, take his blessing, and ask him some questions. My wife set the table, but it so happened that we only had one loaf of bread, and we worried that it wouldn’t be enough for all our guests. Then the elder took the bread in his hands and began to break pieces off and give them to the guests. He kept doing it, and the loaf never ran out, until he had given everyone a piece. It was clearly a miracle that my family and I witnessed.”

Fr. Stephen then told us: “There are among you those who very much would like to see the living Christ, even with one eye to see Him as He walked with His Most Pure Feet on earth. I tell such people: go and look at Elder Ephraim, because to see the elder is the same as to see Christ, because Elder Ephraim has Christ in his heart.”

On Sundays after the service I go to talks for women led by one woman, Alexandra, who is also the elder’s spiritual child, with his blessing. Once, when the end of the conversation turned to the current lamentable state of the world, she said: “The elders (having in mind our elder, and also St. Paisios the Athonite who she had gone to see a few times) say that in our modern times it’s easy for the educated to be saved. The explanation is that the Lord always send His grace into the world. There used to be many ascetics who labored much to acquire grace. Now the number of those being saved has become quite small, and the quantity of grace, if I can say so, has remained the same. People willingly refuse the gifts of God, but grace doesn’t return back to the Lord. It’s like a bee looking for a flower in the meadow, and this excess of grace seeks a soul which prays and asks the Lord for some spiritual gifts. So, the elders say, today’s Christians, laboring a bit, can receive so much grace, and such gifts, for the sake of which the ancient ascetics had to labor for years.”

Elder Ephraim with his nuns

    

—Thank you very much for the conversation!

Olga: In parting, I will tell you a parable of Elder Ephraim, which one Greek, Maria, his spiritual child, told us after the Saturday service. Elder Ephraim has a very vivid tongue. This is the story.

Elder Ephraim's story

Once there lived an ascetic monk (the elder did not say this story was about himself, but monks often speak about themselves in the third person). And once this ascetic, having many spiritual children, knocked for the Lord. The Lord opened to door for him, and the monk said:

“My Christ, I labor here with all my strength, I pray—can I ask of You one thing?”

“Ask,” answered the Lord.

“I have spiritual children, people with whom I’m connected. In the past, to enter the Heavenly Kingdom you had to score ten points. Ten out of ten. You had to labor quite hard. But times are so hard now that there’s no one around who can labor this way, to get ten out of ten… Can You make it so that those who get eight points would also be able to enter the Heavenly Kingdom?”

“Very well, for your sake, for the sake of your love for Me, so be it.”

The ascetic continued to pray and again knocked at the Lord:

“My Christ, can I ask you another favor?”

“Ask,” the Lord answered again.

“You know, My Christ, even eight points is very hard to get. But people try. They try to obey, to pray. And what if only a few of them can score eight points? Make it, please, that those who get six points would also be able to enter the Heavenly Kingdom. After all, it would be a shame if a man tried all his life… But they’re so weak now… There are so many temptations in this world now and spiritual life is so low… Those who score six points—take them to Yourself as well!”

“Very well,” the Lord answered. “For the sake of your podvigs and love for Me, so be it.”

After a while the ascetic knocked a third time:

“Lord, and if they only score a four? Please, My Christ, I will labor for them, will keep vigil and labor even to the point of blood! Please, allow them also to see the Heavenly Kingdom!

“So be it,” uttered the Lord.

The monk looked around at the people, looked at all his spiritual children, thought, and again meekly approached the door. But when he was about to knock again, the Lord Himself opened the door and said to the ascetic:

“You know, all the same, they themselves have to try and make some effort!

Olga Rozhneva
Translated by Jesse Dominick

Pravoslavie.ru

12/14/2016

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[1] An affectionate form of the name “Michael.”

[2] The wine and antidoron given to communicants after receiving. 

Thanks to:

https://orthochristian.com/99449.html