1. DAILY LIFE   OF AN ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN       Every morning when we get up and start a new day, we make plans in our mind to do some things. We mention here an incident from the life of St. German of Alaska. Some people asked him what was the most important thing he had in mind every morning starting the new day. He gave this answer: “I say to myself, try above everything else to do this: from this day forward, from this hour, from this minute, start to love God above all.”   A very important answer! It puts stress on: “Now”, “this hour” in other words on immediate action. We have to love God, not starting tomorrow, in the future, not at some other time, but at this moment, this hour and now, today, from this day forward, from this hour, from this minute. The devil says to us “do that later,” “tomorrow” but God says to us to do it “now”, “today”.   This is what we find again and again in Holy Scripture. In the Psalm 94, for example, it is said, “Today, if you hear His voice, harden not your heart”. God speaks to us today with many occasions. We have to think of how Christ begins His public preaching in the synagogue at Nazareth. He reads from the book of Isaiah which says: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, He has anointed me to preaching good news to the poor”. And then our Lord closes the book and He says to the people: “Today this text has come true”.   The first word of Christ’s public preaching in St. Luke’s Gospel is: “Today”. And St. Paul says the same: “Behold, now is the day of salvation”. The accepted time, the decisive moment is this moment, NOW. So the most important moment is the present moment through which we are now living. The most important person is he whom we are meeting here and now. And the most important task is the particular thing that we are doing at present.   The questions now come: How are we to have a kind of watchfulness? What is the meaning of “now” in our life? What actually disturbs us from doing good things now? Why do we postpone our duties for another time? Generally we are quick to take decisions and very slow to put them into action. We are always ready to postpone our work for tomorrow, to put into action our decision later and not now.   Christian life must have a starting point Now, not tomorrow, not later. Each moment opens out for us eternity, heavenly life. We must be attentive all the time; attentive but not anxious. Our slogan must be: “Do it now”!       Practical ways in everyday life   Let us suggest a few practical ways that may be obvious, but it can help us to live our daily life properly as Orthodox Christians.   1) First of all ask the question: “How do I start the day? What is the first thing I should do when I wake up? Surely, as Christians, the first thing we should do is to make the sign of the cross. We should begin the day by saying, “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”. We should begin the new day, with a sense that this is the day of the Lord, a new day that God gives us; as the Psalms say: “This is the day which the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it”.   We should not begin the new day with a sense of fear, anxiety or a sense of boredom: another day, ah, the same thing over again. We should begin the new day with a sense of hope and thankfulness, a sense that we have a new opportunity: this new day is a gift of grace from God. We should live each day as if it were the first day in our life, even to think that this day may be our last day on this life. And by making the sign of cross we are affirming that we accept with joy and hope this new day as a gift from God.   2) What is the last thing that we should do when we lie down to rest? Surely once more we should make the sign of the cross. The Fathers of the Church also tell us that when we lie down to rest we should think about death. That is often misunderstood. For many people to think about death sounds like something morbid and unhealthy. But what is meant in our Orthodox tradition by the remembrance of death is something quite different.   We are to be aware how close to us the world of the eternal happy life, and how quickly our life on earth passes. The only think that is so certain in our life is the fact of our death. Soon or later we are going to pass away, to enter into the other life; the eternal life where we meet God and live with Him forever. Each day we stand on the frontier between the present life and the life to come. That is what is meant by the memory of death, and that is the spirit in which we commend ourselves into the hands of God.   3) Prayer must be our everyday occupation. The days that we have not prayed are wasted days. If we do not find a little time each morning to pray, there will be absent in that day a dimension to God’s likeness. A day without prayer is a day that does not have a spiritual direction and purpose. Each task then is not done in Christ and with Him. Every Christian in his daily life should find time to pray morning and evening, however short, we should not leave that out. Only in that way our life, little by little becomes a prayerful life.   4) Concentration. We all have a problem with prayer. It is how to concentrate. What are we to do about the numerous thoughts that we have? As soon as we try to be quiet we find that there is an inward television set that we are unable to turn off by an effort of will. Irrelevant images and thoughts are coming in our mind and they disturb us. Bishop Theophan says that our thoughts, when we try to pray, are like the mosquitoes and flies buzzing on a hot evening. What are we to do about that?   The best way to start is to recall the need to live in the present moment. If, when you are praying, you realize that your attention has wandered, ask yourself: “What am I saying at this moment?” or if you are in church for a Church service, ask yourself: “What is being read, what is being sung now, at this moment?” If you didn’t attend to the Epistle, for example, and you suddenly realize that you don’t even know what was read, instead of worrying about that say, “Now it is the Gospel, I will listen to that”.   We should not start by worrying about losing our attention, because these worries create many other problems, but let us try to have little moments of attentiveness and build on them. And slowly, slowly the different thought will disappear and the mind will be concentrated on prayer.   5) Reading the Holy Bible. We should not forget to read Scripture daily, and as we read let us have the sense that this is a word being spoken by Jesus Christ to us personally. Feel that each part of Holy Bible is addressed to yourself. Bishop Tikhon of Zadonsk says: “If the king wrote you a letter, would you not open it with excitement and read it with attention? But the King of Heaven, the great King, has Himself written you a letter, and this letter, the Holy Bible, you treat with contempt”. When you open the Bible Christ is speaking to you, you are speaking to Him. As you read it have the sense of a personal dialogue with our Savior Himself.   6) Going to daily work. Having said our morning prayer, as we go to our daily work, we try to have the sense that we are all the time in God’s presence. Father A. Schmemann says: “A Christian is the one who, wherever he looks, finds everywhere Christ and rejoices in Him”.   We are to treat the whole world as a means of communion with God. We are to see God in all things, and all things in God. We are to find God in all things. We are also to find God in all persons. Let us ask these questions: Did we feed the hungry? Did we give drink to the thirsty? Did we take the stranger into our home? Did we visit the sick? That is what we shall be asked at the Last Judgment: How did we treat our immediate neighbor?  What we answer to these questions that Christ asks every one?   Love for our neighbor means love for everyone who is near to us, these people whom I meet in my home, in my work, in my parish. And we are to think that we see Christ at each person whom we meet each day and hour. We are to think what Christ says in the parable. “Inasmuch as you have done it to one of the least of my brethren, you have done it to Me.” Every relation with another human being is also a relation with Christ, it is a meeting with Him.   7) Jesus Prayer. What will help us in our everyday life to find Jesus Christ wherever we go? Bishop Ballistics Ware answers this question:   “For myself the greatest practical help I have found is the frequent use of Jesus Prayer, the invocation: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner. Speaking of that, I am particularly thinking of the use of the Jesus Prayer in all the odd moments of the day. If we frequently say the Jesus Prayer, which is such a simple prayer, it is always there, ready when you wish to say it. If we do it often that will help, in a remarkable way, to feel God’s presence and to feel all the people as our brothers in Christ”.   We can use the Jesus Prayer every moment in our daily life. When we are working, while we are waiting for the bus to come, when we are traveling, when we are walking, going to our work or when we work at home or outside. We use this prayer when we are happy or when we are in a difficult situation facing obstacles in our everyday life and in our spiritual life. The Jesus prayer is an easy and simple prayer that can be said at any moment day and night.   8) Fear of God. “Fear of God” is an expression that does not imply that the believer is under a situation of terror and anxiety, but it is reverence and deep respect for God. It is an orientation towards God, full of trust and humble acceptance of the Gospel of Christ. Abba Dorotheos says: “There are two kinds of fear – one is introductory and the other one is perfect. For example, somebody does the will of God through fear of Hell. He is only in the beginning, he is not struggling for good itself but through fear of pain and infliction. Another person follows God because he loves God Himself and he wants to please Him and to live always with Him. This person has true love and he knows what it means to be together with God.   The second person fears and keeps God’s will not because he fears being hurt or because of Hell, but because he has tasted the sweetness of being with God and he is afraid of falling away and being deprived of this sweetness.   In our every day live we have to try to reach perfect fear starting with the first fear but we must not stay on this level but try to achieve the perfect fear; the deep respect of God, and being with Him. That is the result of perfect love to God and sends away the initial fear. We can reach perfect fear starting from the initial fear. That is why is written: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Ps 111:10).   The Fathers of the Church say that human beings obtain fear of God when they have remembrance of death and Hell and when they search themselves continuously how they spend the whole day and night. This is a way to improve love and dedication to God and to get the perfect fear.   When we neglect ourselves in every day life, think all the time about material things, avoid mentioning death or Hell and living indifferently and keep company with those who are indifferent we expel fear and love of God. When we postpone for later to do God’s will and neglect concentration and prayer we stop to try to improve our love to God and we remain in the level of negative fearing and never reach the positive fear of God which is love.

2. LOVE THE TRUTH

  The Fathers of the Church say: “Take care to guard your tongue, not say lies but speak all the time the truth, not be irritated, not answer back when you are irritated, not to criticize others, not to complain all the time. All these send away the positive fear of God and call devil to guide your life”.   Abba Dorotheos says: “Hold your tongue and through that, you find the way to God. You need great vigilance so that you are not cheated by lies. No one who lies becomes united with God. Lying is alien to God.”   The devil is a great liar and the “father of lies” (John. 8:44), while God is the Truth. He Himself said: “I am the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6). If we want to be saved, we have to see clearly what separates ourselves from God, the Truth, and what makes us be attached to the “father of lies, the devil”.   In our life we use very frequently the lies. We used to hide with a clever way the truth and naturally we say lies without any difficulty and hesitation. Many times we think that it is impossible, living in our community, to say always the truth. It is difficult for us, who say that we are Orthodox Christians, to follow Jesus Christ Who is the Truth and easier we become followers of “father of lies, the devil”. He used so many lies to deceive Adam and Eve and to draw them to fall. And we today are always ready to follow him using easily the lies.   If we want to be God’s children, rejecting evil, we are obliged to love the truth, with all our strength and concern, going away from all falsehood, so that we will not be separated from truth and from life.   Here we are going to say in some details the deep meaning of the lies in our life. It is necessary to understand what the lie is and how it exists in our every day life, because knowing it deeply we will be ready to work hard in order to be able to avoid it and to start loving the truth.   There are three kinds of lie: Lying in thinking, lying verbally and lying through one’s own way of life.   (a) Lying in thinking. The person who lies in his thinking is the one who has many suspicions. While he sees someone talking with another, he is suspicious and says, “A! They are talking about me!” Generally he is suspicious of his neighbor in everything the other is doing and he says: “He did that because of me”, “he does not love me and keeps me away”. This is the person who lies in his mind, his thoughts and understandings. From what he says nothing is true, but all is based on his own suspicions. From these suspicions come curiosity, slander, quarreling and condemnation.   This person suspects everything and even what he does not know and suffers living with these lies. Therefore we must never trust our suspicions because they make us to live a life full of lies. Because a suspicious person can destroy his life and reject any good thought even a straight rule. Persons troubled by this passion never have good relationships with others, because they are so easily persuaded by their own suspicions and they are not open to others and they are unable to be accepted by them.   “There is nothing more harmful than suspicion” the Church Father say and call us to try with all our strength not to trust our own suspicions and do immediately whatever we can to transform them into good thoughts. So we will not harm ourselves and our soul shall have peace.   (b) Lying verbally.  The liar in words is he who tries to hide his real inner thoughts and fide many excuses for his actions. For example when he is too lazy to get up and go to the Church services he says: “I was too tired or I had a headache and I couldn’t come to Church”. He also tells many lies to avoid accepting his real situation and asking forgiveness without any self-justification.   If someone blames him for something, he tries to change his words and to blame the other saying that and he says that he did not understand him, and that he himself did not have such an intention and so on. So this person tells many lies to justify himself. That is why self-justification leads to destruction.   Lying has its roots in three vices (wickedness): first one cannot blame and humiliate himself, second he feels some pleasure and third he wants to gain something.  So the person who says lies does not stop from turning this way always and saying anything in order to achieve his purpose. This person is never trusted, for even if he says a true word no one believes him. Even when he speaks the truth others doubt him.   (c) Lying through one’s own way of life. A liar is also the person who lies in his whole life. He lies when in reality he is greedy, sinful, selfish, and he speaks about charity and praises sympathy. He is a very proud person but he admires humility. Even after confessing his weaknesses, he starts to admire and praise himself for his good actions. Speaking like that about himself he does not think of others who may be scandalized with what he says even when the others know his behavior and understand better who really he is and what is the truth..   A person who lies in his life always wants to cover his own shame by giving the impression that he has virtues when he really has not any of them or he has something very little; he basically wants to mislead others. That is why he cheats others by talking about his successes, his virtues, praising and admiring them as if they were his own and he had experience of them.   This person believes that everything that God gave to him is his own success and he is very proud of them. This is the person whose very life is a lie. This is not at all a simple person but a two-faced person. He has an internal and an external face, and he is very troubled and creates troubles in his environment being ready any time to hide the truth and to say great lies. He has nothing to do with truth and avoids so speak the reality because he is afraid of it.   We know that “God is truth”. If we want to go near Him to become “like Him”, and to reach deification, which is God’s likeness, we must avoid any kind of falsehood, lie and to live always in truth, speaking the truth even when we meet difficulties and it is very hard for us.   Self-knowledge is the best help to find and follow the way of truth. To that direction the first thing we have to do is to search ourselves to find why we say lies and which kind of lie we have. We have to accept it and sincerely to do our best to get rid of it. This is not very easy work but must make any attempt to that direction if we want to have a progress in our spiritual life and to be real Orthodox Christians.   Let us struggle to obtain the truth so that we may be united with Him, Jesus Christ Who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Let God make us worthy of His own truth. Only that way we shall be real Christ’s followers.

 3. SPIRITUAL LIFE IN A COMMUNITY

          How life in a community can help us in spirituality   “People need people”. “One man is not a full man”. “We exist in our togetherness”, these are thoughts saying by the Church Fathers and they want to put stress on the value of the community life. Living in a community among others is a special blessing from God because we have many opportunities thought the others to know our self and to try to correct it.   Through the other people we can get a better knowledge of our behavior and our inner situation. We use to say that the “other people are a clear mirror to see our self into it”. Living in a community we have perfect opportunities to be improved spiritually because the others can help us to be improved.   We can gain benefits from a common life if we concentrate on this: abandon our life entirely to God’s hands. That means: we have to learn to leave everything to God alone and be ready to accept His guidance without any anxiety and agony. We must believe that shall have many problems even we live in the best community; and the inner and spiritual problems are more serious than the material ones. Living in a community we can realize these problems.   Even when we have food to eat, house to stay, work to do, people around us, but we have inner serious problems, we have difficulties in our common life. The life in the community makes us able to see these situations clearly and to realize that many times we become victims of these problems; or rather we become real slaves, and so our life in the community is not happy.       We mention here some reasons or motives behind our behaviors, which create problems in our spiritual life:   a) Jealousy. This feeling becomes a passion and the motivation for many problems with other people. It is a strong and entirely negative feeling. Jealousy motivates every bad and sinful action in us. Jealousy in the common life is whatever bad you can imagine. It is really a bomb in the foundation of a community and it does so great damage because it is coming from Satan. It is a clear satanic characteristic. We remember that Satan, out of his jealousy for the happy human beings in Paradise, went near to them in order to destroy their divine happiness. Jealousy brings separation between people and destroys every good attempt. It destroys the spiritual relationships and brings confusion and separation and both of them are real catastrophe.   The way to face jealousy is first to understand that it is necessary to pay proper attention to this weakness and to find it in our self, to see that this is hidden under many expressions and behaviors. Secondly we have to accept it and to face it properly. We must not wait to find the solution to our problems with others in trying to correct the others’ behavior. But the correction starts from us. We have to do everything to change our selves, our reactions and not trying to correct the others. Leave the others to do their own work in themselves.   b) Blaming the others. This is a very bad habit that we have living in a community. We are ready to accuse the others for our failure, our bad behavior, even for our sins. Easily we justify ourselves and believe that somebody else or a situation caused our bad behavior. We have to pay attention not to blame the others for something that annoys us and not try to correct them and not ourselves. This is the bad way to have spiritual progress.   c) Difficulty to communicate with others. Many times living with other people we find very difficult to have a good communication with them. This is a real problem, but the only solution is to look to ourselves sincerely and to find the reason why there is this difficulty.   Some other reasons which create problems are:   (1) Inferiority. We feel inferior and think that we are not able to do what the others expect from us to do. So this feeling, which is in our deep self, prohibits us to speak freely and to express our thoughts. ‘I am not like the others’, ‘I cannot do this or the other like them’ are thoughts we do frequently. All these show that we have not humility and spiritual life, but make evident that we do not know our real self and we are very far from a real Orthodox Christian life. So the felling of inferiority prohibits us from a harmonious life in community.   (3) Selfishness. Many times we are so enclosed in ourselves that we cannot see the others’ point of view. We have not ears to listen to others patiently because we are closed and concentrate only to ourselves.   (4) Superiority. The Pharisaic behavior: “I am not like the others…” is exactly the behavior of a superior person. He thinks that he knows everything and usually is too much “teacher”. He speaks and advises the others more than listen to them. He thinks that he has nothing to accept from the others. The superior person is very selfish and he does not see any other except himself.   (5) Criticism (gossiping). This is a habit that brings only distraction and separation. Looking around to see the actions of others, to criticize them and correct the others behavior we loose entirely our way to God. We become good judges and saviors of the people and never humble members of the community. So we keep ourselves very far from the others.   A person, who is criticizing all the time, thinks that the others are unjust to him, and he tries always to justify himself. He is waiting from the others to behave well to him, while he is not behaving like that to them. Usually his eyes are turning not up to God, either inside himself, but around him looking carefully what the others are saying or doing, and that only for the purpose of criticizing them and their actions. He becomes a strict judge ready to contemn others. A behavior like that creates great problems in common life and never helps to a good communication between the group members; and of course these persons have not any spirituality.   Overcoming the problems   If we want to overcome these problems, to get a spiritual life and to live peacefully in a community we have to follow this way: We have to remember all the time that in our baptism we “put on Christ”. What does it mean for us? Did we really have put on us Christ? Is that obvious in our every day life? Let us try to give some sincere answers to these questions.   Every day in the morning we must start with this question: “What I have to do today in order to put on me Christ?” At the end of the day, at night we have to ask ourselves: “Did I try today to put Christ on me or I neglected Him?” Doing that every day Jesus Christ, little by little, becomes our ‘precious dress!’ We continue the questions: “Did I put on this ‘dress’ or have I torn it with my actions, my thoughts, my jealousy or criticism? Tearing after tearing at last I have a rag on me!” Nothing is more important than to go every day nearer to Christ and to be dressed this divine garment!   As far as we deal with the others – what did they say, what did they do, why did they react like that – we lose the opportunity to “put on Christ” and at the end we are naked. And this happens especially when we pay much attention to the others’ behavior and criticize them. When we want the others to be so and so, because we believe that the way we think is the best, shows that we want what is more convenient to us and we do not care about them. We expect from them to do whatever makes us to feel “well”. In that case the problems are not overcome.   Harmonious life   In order to live harmoniously in a community we have to avoid to create cliques and to abolish them by any means. These cliques start first with people from the same tribe, with persons who are most widely accepted members of the group, or with persons who for different reasons are rejected in the group. There are also age-group relations and classmates groups. All these cliques separate people who develop aggressiveness, hate and destroy the unity of the community creating many problems to its members.   Also quarrels destroy the communication of the persons belonging to a group. The existence of quarrels shows that there is not love but indifference. Indifference is exactly the opposite of love, not hate but indifference. So quarrels are expression of frustration, or aggressiveness and rejection. All of them are very strong negative feelings that create quarrel and destroy the unity.   We cannot find ever an ideal community. Everywhere there are problems of communication and difficulties to face each other. The only thing is to struggle each one of the members for the spiritual life, and have close contact with God through Sacraments and continuous prayer.   In a community the life is going smooth and progressing only when everyone (from the first to the last) attempts hard to be humble, to pray deeply and to have a constant repentance. So as members of a group life we do not wait the others to change, to pay attention to us and to correct ourselves. Our first and main work must be the spiritual improving of ourselves.   The grace of God is given only to the humble person, to him who accepts peacefully humiliations, rejections and does not complain when the others ignore him. There is only one solution to our problems: prayer;  prayer through which we leave everything to God. When we believe that we are the one who will solve all the problems we fail 100%. The only thing we succeed is to put aside God and ignore Him, and take into consideration only our selves.

4. A WAY TO SPIRITUAL LIFE           If somebody would tell us, the orthodox Christians, that we do not love God that we hate our neighbor and we do not believe in God’s Word we would be much surprised to hear this. We would be ready to support ourselves saying: “How is it possible not to love God our Creator and Protector? What is there to believe in if not the Word of God, in which everything is true and holy? I wish well to my neighbors, and why should I hate him?”   But if we stay quiet and think carefully about these questions and search about our spiritual life, our inner beliefs and motivations we shall find which our real inner situation is and how far we are from the reality of the Orthodox spiritual life. We shall find in fact how many sins we commit and how long way we have to cover to the spiritual life and to get our salvation.   Salvation is given to us by God through His incarnation, suffering and resurrection. But it depends on us to get this great gift that is given freely and demands our sincere will to accept it. Jesus Christ stands at the door of our soul and knocks. He knocks but He does not open the door. He waits us to do that if we want to. So the first step to that journey to salvation and to Orthodox spirituality is our intention to follow Jesus Christ and secondly to try, to struggle to put into continuous practice His teaching.   In the wonderful spiritual book “The way of a Pilgrim” we find a wise advice for spiritual attempts. In this book a father confessor says that we have lost the way to the spiritual growth because we ignore the precious gift of God, His great love for us. We can find this way if we pay a sincere attention to the following points: a) Love to God, b) Love to our neighbors, c) Strong faith and d) Pride and sensuality. Turning our eyes carefully on our self and searching it we see that, in fact, we are missing in these four points:   1) Love to God. In fact we do not love God Who loves us so much, and because of this love He became human being in order we to become gods. If we loved God we should be continually thinking about Him with great joy. Every thought of God would give us gladness and delight. On the contrary we much more often and much more eagerly think about ourselves and earthly things. Thinking about God is hard work for us after the sinful life we live.   If we love God, then talking with Him in prayer would be our nourishment and delight and would draw us to unbroken communion with Him. But, on the contrary, we not only find no delight in prayer, but even find it a hard effort. We struggle with reluctance and are ready to occupy ourselves with any unimportant job and make a very short prayer just to say to ourselves that we pray!   Our time slips away unnoticed in vain occupations, but when we are occupied with God, when we put ourselves into His presence every hour seems like a year. If a person loves another, he thinks of him all the time without ceasing, he cares for him, and in all cases the beloved person is in his thoughts. But we, throughout the day, seldom set aside even a single hour for meditation upon God, to fill up our heart with love of Him.   We are busy in talk about every day matters and things that degrade our spirit; and all these give us pleasure. But in the consideration of God we are dry, bored and lazy. Sometimes when we are drawing by others into a spiritual conversation, we try to shift the subject quickly to one that pleases our desires.   We are tirelessly curious about novelties, about civic affairs and political events; we eagerly seek the satisfaction of love of knowledge in science and art, and in ways of getting things we want to possess. But the study of the knowledge of God and of faith, make little impression on us, and so we do not satisfy the hunger of our soul, and not improve our love to God.   Love for God is recognized by the keeping of His commandments, “If you love Me, keep My commandments”, says Jesus Christ. If we do not make attempts to do so, then the conclusion follows that we do not love God, and our spiritual life does not exist. Saint Basil says: “The proof that a man does not love God lies in the fact that he does not keep His commandments”.   So let us ask ourselves: Do we believe in God the Father? We must answer this question not with words but by our life. When we are despaired it is because we forget that we have a Father Who cares for us, to Whom we can always turn and Who knows all our needs and is ever ready to give us all blessings. Earthly friendship, love or security in which we put our trust may fail us. There is only One Power that does not fail; One Father Who never leaves us, however imperfect and sorrowful we are: He is God Who loves deeply.   2) Love our neighbor. Do we love our neighbors? In fact we are not ready to love our neighbors as we love our self, according to Christ’s commandment. We are unable to lay down our life for their sake; we do not even sacrifice our happiness, well being and peace for the good of our neighbors.   If we did love our neighbor as our self his misfortunes would distress us also, his happiness would bring delight to us too. But on contrary, we listen to curious, unhappy stories about our neighbor, and we are not distressed; we remain quite undisturbed or, what is still worse, we find a sort of pleasure in them.   Many times bad behavior of our brother we are not ready to cover with love, but we criticize him publicly. His well being, honor and happiness do not delight us as our own, and we behave if they were something quite alien to us, give us no feeling of gladness. On the contrary we feel envy and contempt him.   We have no love for our neighbors when we criticize them, judge them and spent time for endless gossiping. Frequently we make hard criticism and we have the great tension to correct them, to teach them, to change their behavior according to our understanding. There is not love in us for them when we are ready to blame them for everything and to accuse them for things that in fact we ourselves are responsible. Can we say that we love our neighbor when we are not even thinking to sacrifice our desires or our will for their sake? Or when we find pleasure in the unhappiness of our enemies?   We are locked in the prison of our self (that is egoism, selfishness), and we have not clear eyes to look at our neighbors, neither ears to listen to them. Only we are ready to “sift” them out with a “thin sieve”…   3) We have not strong faith. We can say that we are very wick in spiritual life when we have not strong faith to God. We must not be surprised when we say that we have no faith to God and to His teaching. It is enough to have a searching look to our life and every day behavior in order to see how weak our faith and our trust to God are.   If we firmly believed in the eternal life and we were continuously concentrated on it, we would live in this transit life as foreigners who have always in their mind their leaving which is going to happen when we do not know. On the contrary we live this life without thinking the eternal life and the sudden departure from it and we behave as we are not going to reach the end or all the centuries. Our care is to satisfy this transitory life of sensations. If we were firmly persuaded and believed without doubt that beyond the grave lays eternal life, we should be continuously thinking of this.   Our prayer and our devotion to God did not find residence in our soul because our faith to the God’s love and eternity is very weak or naught. Weak faith leads us to a worldly life and we lose any kind of spiritual life; we live as unbelievers far from Jesus Christ’s teaching.   If we believe that the Holy Gospel is the Word of God, we should be continuously occupied with it, we should study it, find delight in it and with deep devotion fix our attention upon it. Wisdom, mercy, love, are hidden in God’s Word. That would lead us to happiness and we should find gladness in the study of the Law of God day and night.   In God’s Law we should find nourishment like our daily bread, our heart would be drawn to the keeping of its laws and our spiritual life will be improved. Nothing on earth would be strong to feed us like that. If we have a deep faith of Christ’s teaching and try to put it into practice we will be able to get real humility and to find the way to orthodox spirituality.   4) We are full of pride and sensuality. All our actions do not show our spiritual life, but confirm that we are proud and full of sensual self-love. Seeing something good in ourselves, we want to bring it into view, or to pride ourselves upon it before people or inwardly to admire our self upon it. Whatever we do successfully we want to ascribe it all to our own strength and regard our self as superior to others, or at least no worse than they.   If we notice a fault in us, we try to excuse it and we cover it up by saying: ‘we made like that because…’ we blame other persons or situations and avoid blaming our self. We get angry with those who do not treat us with respect and consider them unable to appreciate the value of people. We boast about our gifts, and we regard our failures as something human. If we strive after anything good it is for the purpose of winning praise, or earthly consolation. In other words, we continuously make an idol of our self and seek in all things the pleasure of the senses, and nourishment for our sensual passions.       Going over all these four points we see our self as proud, unbelieving, without love to God and hating our neighbor. So we do not have any spiritual life and every thing is based on our selfishness. This is the real sinful state, and if we wand to grow up in Holy Spirit we have to realize the sins they are hidden within us and up to now we have never noticed them! In order to be cleansed from all these and to start living a spiritual life we must try to know first the causes of all these evils and secondly to find the way to cure them.   The cause of not loving God is the weak faith we have. The Church Fathers say: “If you do not believe, you cannot love”. Love usually grows with knowledge and continuous attempts. And the greater the depth and extent of the knowledge the more love there will be, the more easily the heart will soften and lay itself open to the love of God. So we can see that the cause of those sins is sloth in thinking about spiritual things. Sloth destroys in us the feeling of the need of going nearer God.   If we want to know how to overcome this evil, we have to strive after enlightenment of our spirit by every means attain it by attentive study of the Word of God and of the writings of the Holy Fathers. In that struggle we can also find help in prayer, meditation, spiritual counsel and by the conversation of those who are good and wise in Christ.   We can understand how much disaster we meet because we are lazy about seeking light for our souls through the word of truth; because we do not study God’s law day and night, and we do not pray about it diligently and unceasingly. And because of this our inner man is hungry and cold, starved, so that it has no strength to take a step forward on the road of spirituality and salvation!   Let us decide to make use of these methods and be humble, and as often as possible fill our minds with thoughts of heavenly things and God’s will. Love must be poured in our hearts, and pray as often as we can, for prayer is the chief and strongest means for our spiritual renewal.   “For unless we forgive those who have injured us, God will not forgive our sins” (Matt.7:7-12). Here we can find how to succeed in prayer and see that forgiveness is the condition in order prayer may be effective. Jesus Christ told us to pray always, at all times and in every place, and not grow discouraged, that is to say not get lazy. Continuous, unceasing prayer is the best way to salvation.

5. SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT HUMILITY

      Humility is not simply a Christian virtue, but rather is a condition of life, the foundation of all virtues. Jesus Christ says: “Whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:4). Christ is the greatest example of humility. “He became human that we might become divine” (St. Athanasios). So, humility is the way of Christ. It is the fundamental element for a real Christian life. Every Christian is humble before God and before others in the community.   Humility is a free recognition of one’s limits and abandonment to the love and grace of God. The Saints say that any virtue can be achieved only by humility. “We need humility more than anything else. Without it we cannot say, ‘forgive me’. All the temptations of the enemy are destroyed by humility”.   The fundamental obstacle in our spiritual life is the selfishness, the terrible self-centeredness. This is not natural to a person but the pride and selfishness appear as a result of bad training and of bad development of the natural trait of ambition that is implanted in every human being. The natural situation is the humility that characterizes especially the little children. That is why Jesus Christ gave as an example of genuine humility by taking a little child and said: “Whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matt. 18:4). So all of us we are called to humble ourselves to get the great virtue of humility in order to have a place in the Kingdom of God.   In the Holy Bible we have many examples of people who were real humble persons and found their way to Jesus Christ. Virgin Mary, the Mother of God and all the Saints in our Church are for us great models of a genuine humility. We have to see, in some details, what exactly humility is and how can we get it and to mention some practical points concerning this great and fundamental virtue.   Humility, according to Orthodox understanding, is to be ready to listen to others and not to object immediately after the other’s expression. It is the quality of being modest or having a lowly opinion of oneself. Humility is to have an honest recognition of our own shortcomings and weaknesses together with the deep belief on the mercy of God. That is to accept our weaknesses and think that when we have that or the other success it is the result of our free will and the God’s grace, and not only our own success.   St. John Climacus says: “Humility is to forget constantly our own achievements, and if we possess something worthy of pride we must not be proud but we consider ourselves as dust, as nothing”. So humility is to believe that our brothers are better and wiser than ourselves, and to have them higher than ourselves, and to put us below everyone. St. Dorotheos writes: “Humility is to attribute to God all virtuous actions and abilities and not to feel proud of them, and rely of them.”   A person who, even he has plenty of good characteristics and spiritual progress, never speaks of them, and avoids showing off, but he gives thanks to God of everything, is a real humble person. The nearer he approaches God, the more he sees himself as sinner, and put himself below everyone else and prays continuously to God for the others.   Humility has a person who never criticizes the others and always he has a good word to say for them. His aggress is directed only to himself and never to other people. He does not complain about the difficult situations, the problems he has with other persons or with his health, etc. He does not quarrel and tries to justify himself and usually he keeps quite in such discussions. Humble person is he who can easily forgive the others and immediately forgets everything. He never judges anyone, even if with his eyes sees someone sinning and violating the commandments of God. We have to pay special attention to this expression: ‘forgive me’, to use it with a deep understanding of the meaning of these words.   Revenge also has nothing to do with humility. A humble person never takes revenge whatever will happen, even if his heart itself may try to resist him. Real humility is not humble in words and outwards appearance, but is deeply planted in the very heart. Evagrius says: “Humility does not allow you to be angry or provocative. Humility is the only way to draw God’s grace to our soul. This means that we are ready to accept God, open our heart and the grace of God comes and protects us from anger and any arrogant behavior, which separates us from God”.   The humble person accepts his weaknesses, recognizes his faults and blames mainly himself for whatever happened to him. He will not tolerate somebody else to take the blame. He asks forgiveness and tries to correct himself.   Humility is the best foundation of obedience. A proud and selfish person is unable to obey even to God, while the humble person can easily obey God and people. The arrogant person is always unable to bend his head and say: “Your will be done.” But humility is to be under everyone and to attribute all your achievements to God. This is perfect humility and grows naturally in the person through the keeping of God’s commandments. The humble person is not arrogant, selfish and egocentric. He brings deep spiritual fruit. For example when a tree has much fruit the branches are bent down and sometimes break. A tree without fruit is raised up and grows upwards. It is similar with the person without humility.   When somebody humbles himself, it bears fruit and the more fruit it bears, the humbler the soul becomes. The more the humble person approaches God the more he sees himself as sinner. Those who seek glory are like a naked man trying to find a small rag or anything else to cover his nakedness. The person, who is naked of virtues, seeks the glory of people. In this person there is not humility.   No one can learn humility from words alone, and theories but through practice and experience. Humility is to consider yourself under all and to pray unceasingly to God. This is the way to humility. Humility itself is divine and cannot be comprehended. Through prayer you humble yourself. As much as you humble yourself, you receive the help of God and progress in humility.   To acquire humility is not an easy thing to get; it is a continuous and life-long struggle. The truly humble person feels that he must continue his efforts all the more up to the end of his life. Even when he lays on his deathbed he feels that he has not yet learnt humility. St. Silouan the Athonite at the end of his life said: “I humble myself day and night, and yet I am not humble as I should be.”   The way to humility is not an easy one but it is the safest way to live the real spirituality in Orthodox Church. In the spiritual book “The way of a Pilgrim” we find a wise advice for spiritual attempts. A father confessor says that we have lost the way to the spiritual growth because we have not humility.

6. WE ADDRESS GOD THROUGH PRAYER

  Prayer is our addressing to God. It proves that we were made in the image and likeness of God. We were made out of nothing and we possess nothing of our own. But in God’s mercy, He made us personalities endowed with heart, reason and free will. So we can address Him from the bottom of our heart through the prayers. With our free will, with a soul full of humility and gratitude to God, we can increase the spiritual gifts and achieve the likeness to God. Prayer is the best way to that achievement.   At the same time, prayer reminds us of our smallness and helplessness, since we made of nothing and has nothing of our own; this is why we speak to God and ask Him about everything. Getting His blessing we can become His friends or rather His children, if we obey Him and do things of love and charity.   Whenever we pray, we must keep our mind and heart turning to our Lord. Otherwise our prayer is useless (see Matt. 15:8). In our prayer, we have to be as a child, humble and innocent and to leave the prayer to penetrate us and not be lost in vain words and dreams.   Our heart does not feel the truth of our words during prayer if we lack faith and we are blind to our sins and judge and condemn the others. When we say: “Forgive our trespasses as we forgive the … others”, but we do exactly the opposite, we say lies and become hypocrites going far away from God. So except of liars we are proud and not humble at the time of prayer. In order our prayer to be a burning one it is necessary to have humility; if our prayer is mechanical means that we have great pride and God does not accept us.   Those who have not learned the art of heart’s prayer must say their prayers slowly, and wait for the heart to respond to every word. This does not come soon to us who cannot concentrate in prayer. In such situation we must articulate every word in prayer very slowly. We have to wait for every word to be reflected deeply in our heart. This is a good way to address God through prayer.   If we pray with our lips or read from a book, many words do not reach our heart. This is a hypocritical prayer. Our lips say one thing, and our heart feels another. Our lips say the word of the truth, while our heart stays deaf to it. When, on the other hand, we pray silently, with our heart, we do not care to pronounce the words but concentrate on the content and the powerful message, and our heart gets used to the truth.   So we enter the meaning in which the prayer was written, and step by step we learn to pray in the Holy Spirit (“in the Spirit and truth”). We have to remember that we do not say a single word in vain if our prayer goes straight from the heart. God responds to every heart’s desire, whether we put it into words or not.   Some people say that they soon grow tired when they pray. This means that they do not see God with their mind’s eyes, though He is close to them, on their right hand. They have to open their heart to Him and be concentrated on Him. So they will feel refreshed after some time spent in prayer.   Let us look the Saints to learn their zeal, their spiritual life and their devotion to God Who strengthened their faith. They reached to this level because they used to pray unceasingly. Their conduct with God was vivid and continuous.   Let us look at preachers and martyrs, to learn the firmness of their faith and piety in the face of sinner and non-believers. Let us look at the ascetics, to learn prayer, pious meditation that lead them to deification. All of them can be powerful examples for strengthen our struggle to prayer properly.   St. John of Kronstadt says: “Pray zealously for others, alone or together with them, whether they ask you or not. Then God will bestow His grace on your heart to make the prayer blessing for you to love of God and your neighbor”.     Truthful are these words that based on experience. We are often reluctant to pray for others; and do it mostly out of habit or in the hour of need. Our heart is deaf to this prayer. So we must learn to say our heartfelt prayers with great faith, and they will bring us many benefits from God, because He wants to share our faith and love with our brothers.   It is very hard to say: “Lord, Your will be done” when we face affliction, mourning, especially when we suffer from our neighbors. It is not easier to pray when we are causing troubles and pain to our neighbors. We have inside ourselves the conviction that these actions are not accepting by God. So we have first of all to repent and ask forgiveness in order to pray really.   When the sorrow and pain are coming to us by others we must try, even hard, to pray for them repeating: “Your will be done”. We should bow to God’s will in all humility, and make the offering of our heart to the Lord not in peace and happiness alone but in pain, mourning and any affliction.   If we want to help our neighbor overcome his difficulties, do not hope to do it with our power alone. Without God’s help we do nothing. We pray to Him with our heart to enlighten our neighbor’s heart and mind. If He sees that our prayer comes from our heart and is full of love, He will grant our desire and soon we will see a change in that person we were praying for.   We pray to Our Lady, Mother of God, the Theotokos, when the temptation of wickedness and enmity is coming in our heart. She is always ready to listen to us the humans and through her Son sends us peace and love. She is our beloved Mother who prays unceasingly (continually) for peace on earth and in all Christian hearts. We ask the intercessions of the Saints who also do not forget us and God fulfils the prayers of the Saints for us. So we can call to a Saint with deep faith knowing that he is near us in the Holy Spirit and ready to help us.   Saint John of Krostadt was a person who used to pray constantly. Let us try to imitate him as far as we can and pray all the time. We can use his prayer:   “O Holy Trinity, save me from pride and teach me the wisdom of humility. Cover me with Your wing and protect me from all sins. Open my heart to repent continually. By Your commandments strengthen my weak heart for good works.  I know, my Lord, that I am nothing without You and that I can work no good without You. Teach me, my Lord, to love You with all my heart and love my neighbor as myself. O Lord, open my eyes to my sins and give me repentance, for I am the worst sinner”.

7. PRAYER, THE HEART

OF ORTHODOX LIFE

          Prayer is the mother of Christian Orthodox life. It produces virtues from the union of the human being with the Holy Spirit. Actually prayer is the fulfillment of the first and chief commandment of God; “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your mind and your strength…” (Matt. 22:37). It is impossible for a person to turn with all his strength and with all his being towards God, except by the action of prayer, and by the power of the Holy Spirit.   Prayer is the mirror of a believer’s spiritual progress. It should be his chief task in his every day life and the center of all his activities. Being an alive member of Church it is essential to learn to pray properly, so that in prayer the believer may work out his deification, his salvation. Prayer by its nature is communion and union of man with God. A Church Father says: Prayer is the ‘mother and the daughter of tears which bring humility and spiritual life’.   Abba Agathon speaks about prayer: “Prayer is something very great. It is a bridge for crossing temptations, a wall of protection from afflictions, a solution to conflicts, a spring of virtues, a source of spiritual gifts, invisible progress, food of soul, enlightening of mind, an ax for despair, release from sorrow, the wealth of the believer”.       Preparation for prayer   The first thing we have to do is to reject resentment and condemnation of our neighbors. Christ Himself commands this preparation: “When you stand praying, if you have something against anyone, forgive him.” (Mk.11:25). Then we have to reject any earthly care and free our thought that occupies our mind, and to realize our sinfulness, and in humility to try to speak to God. St. Isaac the Syrian says: “If one does not recognize himself as a sinner, his prayer is not acceptable to God”, it is rather the prayer of the Pharisee.   We stand at prayer before the invisible God as if we see Him, and with the conviction that He sees us and is looking at us attentively. Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov says: “Stand before God just as a guilty person with sins, but think that He is full of love for you and does not condemn you because of His love for human beings. Feel the presence of God when you pray, and you will realize that the prayer leads you to peace”.   Apostle Paul says that we pray with thanksgiving: “Pray without ceasing; give thanks for everything.” It means praising God for His countless blessing poured out on everyone. By such thanksgiving the soul is filled with a wonderful peace. It is filled with joy in spite of the fact that sorrow covers it on all sides.   By thanksgiving, a man acquires a living faith so that he forgets all his worries and totally surrenders himself to the will of God. “Be anxious about nothing, but in all circumstances by prayer with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God” (Phil.4:4-6). Such a disposition of soul is an excellent preparation for prayer.       Attention at prayer   Prayer requires attention in order to be a firm property of the person praying, and bear abundant fruits. The fruits are illumination of mind, peace of heart, and quickness of soul for the life of the Spirit. The absolute attention that keeps prayer completely free from distraction and from irrelevant thoughts and images is a gift of God’s grace.   We show our sincere desire to get the gift of grace by forcing ourselves to pray with attention whenever we pray. St.   John the Ladder says: “If the mind, in prayer, gets out of its attention in the words, it must be let back into them again. The human mind in its fallen state is naturally unstable and inclined to wander everywhere. But God can give it stability in return for patience of prayer”.   Especially helpful in keeping the attention during prayer is an unhurried pronunciation of the words of prayer. We must pronounce the words without hurrying so that the mind may quite easily stay enclosed in the words of the prayer, and not slip away from them. We can also say the words loudly when we pray alone, which helps to hold the attention. It is an exercise, which leads us to the perfect prayer. The only thing we need is to accustom ourselves to the practice of prayer while we have the opportunity.   At first we must force ourselves to pray. Soon prayer begins to afford consolation, and this enlightens our attempts and encourages us to force ourselves more. We need to force ourselves to pray every moment throughout our life. Really few are they who do not need to force themselves to pray, they have this special gift from the Holy Spirit.   The unceasing prayer   Jesus Christ said: “Ask and you will be given, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be open to you” (Mat.7:7). St. Paul repeats the Lord’s teaching and says: “Pray without ceasing” (1Tim.2:8). The message here is to try to pray continuously. People who have love to God in their hearts can pray at all times and in all places, lifting up to God their hands and their mind, and purifying their heart by the Holy Spirit.   It is obvious that unceasing prayer cannot be easily possessed by a faithful. In order to become eventually capable of this kind of prayer he must practice frequent prayer. As the easiest way of practicing unceasing prayer is to pray with the “Jesus Prayer”: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner”, is the prayer which we use to call “Jesus Prayer”.   Bishop Ignatius says: “Try to pray with Jesus prayer as often as you can. Do you happen to have a moment free? Do not waste it in idleness, or doing some vain and trivial work, use it for practice of the Jesus prayer. He who does not train himself to frequent prayer will never receive unceasing prayer, which is a gift of God and a sign of His mercy towards a faithful person”. ‘Have mercy on me, O Lord, for all day long I cry to You’ (Ps.85:3).       Corporate prayer   In the Acts of the Apostles we read that the first Christians “continued steadfastly in the Apostles’ fellowship and in the breaking of the Bread, and in the prayers” (Acts 2:42). From the beginning, prayer – both corporate and private – was essential to the life of the Church. Every Orthodox Christian, therefore, is expected to participate fully in the Church’s liturgical prayer and to have a personal rule of prayer.   It is through prayer that we communicate with God. We praise Him for His great love and ask His mercy for our sins. We bring before Him our troubles and concerns. We also pray for one another, as St. James says (5:16). Prayer is, therefore, an expression of the very nature of Church. In prayer we do not only sped time with our Lord, but we share our love for God with others as we make intercession for their needs. Prayer is the very language of the Church, the beginning and the end of our life in Christ.   The Apostles observed the practice of specific prayers at specific times of the day (Acts 20:16). The Orthodox Christians do the same today. The daily cycle of prayer begins in the evening with the service of Vespers, and continues with Compline, which is read after supper; the Midnight Office, Matins and the Canonical Hours: First (6 a.m.), Third (9 a.m.), Sixth (noon), and Ninth (3 p.m.).   Through this cycle of prayer, each day is sanctified, set apart, for God. The sanctification of the day is clearly stressed at the “Prayer of the Hours”, which is read at every service except Matins and Vespers. In this prayer we are reminded of God’s mercy and ask for His guidance throughout the day. We ask him to direct our lives according to His commandments. Among others we say:   “…O Lord, set aright our minds; cleanse our thoughts; and deliver us from all calamity, wrath, and distress. Compass us with Your holy angels, that we may have the unity of the faith, and glorify You…Amen”.   The Daily Office consists also of the Psalms. The Psalter was the hymnal of Israel, and it remains the primary hymnal of the Church. Every service has specific psalms assigned to it. For example, the Liturgical day begins with Psalm 103(104), which glorifies God for the wonders of the creation. During the great Lent, the reading from the Psalter is double. We have to say that the Divine Liturgy is not counted among the daily services, which are tied to specific times of the day; through it we sanctify the time. The Liturgy reaches beyond time into eternity.   Unfortunately, the Daily Office is served only in monasteries and in a few parishes. The fact that most laymen do not have access to these services does not mean that we have not the need to sanctify our day through prayer. The first Christians had a daily rule of prayer. The Church teaching instructed them to pray the Lord’s Prayer three times a day. To this may be added prayers in special times of need and prayers in preparation for Confession and Communion.   Orthodox Christians are never forbidden from praying in private, but we are strongly encouraged to use the prayers of the Church that have been sanctified by their use through the centuries. By using the these prayers we are sure that they are according to the will of God, so we avoid the problem mentioned by St. James: “You ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss” (James 4:3).   All spiritual guides in the Church agree that it is better to pray a short rule of prayer with attention and devotion than to try to rush through a long rule. The point is to have a practical rule of prayer and stick to it.   In edition to the daily cycle of prayer, there are also the weekly, yearly, and the Easter cycles that determine the theme of a particular day. The weekly cycle begins with Sunday, on which we commemorate Christ’s resurrection. Each Sunday is a remembrance of Easter. On Monday we commemorate the holy Angels, on Tuesday St. John the Forerunner, on Wednesday and Friday the holy Cross, on Thursday the Apostles and St. Nicholas, and on Saturday the martyrs and the departed faithful. Because of the commemoration of the Holy Cross, Wednesday and Friday are set apart as fast days.   The yearly cycle refers to those feasts and fasts that occur on fixed dates of the year. Various saints are commemorated each day of the year. There are twelve “Great Feasts” of the Church, nine of which are assigned specific dates. The Church year begins on September 1st. It is significant that the first Great Feast of the year commemorates the Nativity of Theotokos (September 8), and the last commemorates her Falling Asleep (August 15).   The Great and Holy Easter is the “Feast of feasts”. The Easter cycle, the date of which varies from year to year, begins with Great Lent, includes the Entrance of the Lord into Jerusalem, Holy Week, Easter itself, the Ascension, and the Feast of Pentecost. This period is perhaps the richest source of spiritual nourishment the Church has to offer.   There is another form of prayer that is not related to any of the liturgical cycles. It is the “Jesus Prayer”. This prayer consists of the constant repetition of a short prayer centered on the name of Jesus Christ. In this prayer we affirm our belief in the divinity of Jesus Christ and confess our own sinfulness. Through this constant invocation of the name of Jesus, the heart is purified and receives divine grace. When we are in Church, we pray the prayers of the Church, and in some cases we use the Jesus Prayer.   In times of great joy or trouble, we cry out to God from the depths of our heart with thanksgiving and supplication. At the times when we perform difficult tasks, we have the Prayer of Jesus to occupy our mind and spirit and direct our attention toward our Lord. In this way, prayer becomes the very substance of our life, the very air that we breathe.

8. SPEAKING ABOUT LOVE

          Some people asked the following questions: (1)“What does it mean to love?” (2)“Does love come to an end?” (3)“How can one love his friend if he does not love himself?” (4)“What should I do in order to love everybody around me?”   We know that the subject of love is a crucial one and many people want to know what exactly the deep meaning of love is. St. Paul in his 1st Epistle to Corinthians (13:1-8) gives a very clear answer to any question concerning love. He says: “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal… Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude… Love bears all things, believes always, hopes always, endures all things. Love never ends…”   God created human beings out of love and created them free, because only a free person is able to love sincerely and only through love unity comes. And this kind of love is not an emotion or a mere feeling but it is the dynamic gift of our life to another person. Love is to give yourself to the other. Jesus Christ says: “Great love has a man when he lays down his life for his friends (John15:13). This is the very love that God has show to us (John 4:10-12).   It is very popular in our days to talk about “love”. But mainly the idea of love we have is that of self-satisfaction not of self-sacrifice. Often, “I love you” means “I love myself and I want you”. This is not a real love but a false of love. Those who think that have love for the others but they are never ready to sacrifice or to deny something they like, they say lies and mock themselves.   Love that does not demand the total gift of oneself is not love at all says St James in his epistle (2:15-16). The way to God is only through the sacrifice of selfish love. So when I say to somebody else “I love you” we must have in mind that love the other means to forget myself and to offer to the other whatever I have, whatever I can, without expecting anything from the other, not even a word of recognition and thankfulness.   In fact it is not easy to get such love, to forget ourselves for the benefit of others. But we have to insist in that love, for it is not enough to love and experience a general meaning of love. It is necessary to insist in it and to “add fuel to the fire of love” so that this should remain permanently in us.   To the first question, “What does it mean to love?” St. Anthony the Great speaking about love gives a very clear answer and if we reflect upon this truth we grasp the very depth of the real love.   He says: “You are my brother” If you (every body around me) are my brother, I cannot condemn you. Whatever my brother is doing I am ready to accept him and not to reject him because I am as great a sinner as he. If the other is my brother, I cannot let him go about in need, I cannot hate him because at the same time I hate myself. If I feel him as my brother I will not rest until I share with him the salvation which is critical as it is my own. I cannot bear his condemnation because he is myself. If the other is my brother, I must forgive him and I will pray for him more than for me. If he is my brother I will love him as I love myself.”   This really, is the genuine love! Can we imagine how the world would be if we were able to call all who hate us, who are opposite to us, “brother”? This is the only way to get the real and genuine love, to love everybody around us. If we refuse to find the other as a brother in ourselves, we become blind also to our own faults. If we condemn ourselves first we do not condemn the others and forgive them. And when we have forgiven the others, we will love them.   Who is my neighbor?   “What should I do in order to love everybody around me?” is another question people asked on the subject concerning love. In answering this we are going to see the question that another young man asked Christ when He said the commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself”, “who is my neighbor”? (Luk.10:29), the young man asked. We can notice that this is not an abstract question but a concrete one that concerns each one of us personally; he is not saying who is our neighbor but he says my neighbor.   This question is answered by the Lord in the parable of the Good Samaritan, at the end of which Christ turns the question in the same way and He shows the young man, who asked the question, how he can be a neighbor. Then Christ says, “Go and do you likewise.” The question can be for any one from us: “How can I be a good neighbor?” If I become a good neighbor to others, everyone becomes a neighbor to me. We are asked not to find a neighbor but to become a neighbor. This is a perfect answer to the above question. It shows the way “to love everybody around us.”   Reflecting on the parable of Good Samaritan, we recognize that Christ Himself is the Good Samaritan, who pours on us, who are sick and wounded by the sins and bad life far from God, the oil and wine of the healing Sacraments. The inn He brings us to, is the Church. The “money” He gives is the gift of the Holy Spirit. In other words, the parable concerns not some exterior services and typical care but the real love and care of them who suffer and need help.   As St. John the Evangelists says, “Whoever does not love a neighbor whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen” (I John 4:20). The criterion for our faith in God is participation in God’s love. Christ prays that the love of the Father and the Holy Spirit “may be in us.”   Love is the criterion of real followers of Christ. “By this shall all know that you are my disciples, that you have love one for another.” (John 3:35). Jesus Christ gave us two basic commandments: to love God with our whole being and to love our neighbor as ourselves. To love like that it is “a new commandment” (John 13:34). It is new because it is a progress from Old Testament love, which had to work out tribal unity and differences between tribes and nations.   We say that in the Old Testament enemies were destroyed with the blessing of God! With this expression we must understand the pedagogy of God. Christ came to complete the Old Testament laws and taught universal love of all our fellow men, even our enemies. In fact these two are connected –because through love we recognize enemies as neighbors. Some love, we can say, comes by nature, as it is the love of the parents for their children. Christ commanded love which does not, in our fallen state, come “naturally.”   The meaning of phrase “to love your neighbor as yourself” is sometimes misinterpreted. “First I must love myself, that is I must have self-esteem, only then I can love my neighbor”. The Christian way is to deny ourselves, to deny our selfishness, to die to ourselves, so that we can love our neighbor. My neighbor’s life is my life, or as St. Silouan the Athonite says: “My brother is my life”. Christ, as man, lived all our suffering. He said that the greatest act of friendship or love is to give up your life for another. Such love can only come from God. It is a gift of the Holy Spirit. Indeed His prime gift is love. All the other gifts are manifestations of love.   How do we begin to love really? St. Dorotheus of Gaza says, “You cannot climb a ladder in one step. You have to start from the ground and to go on step by step”. There is also the proverb, “Charity begins at home”. So we must begin with persons who are near to us and after that to love everybody around us. We begin with those whom the providence of God has put in our path. While our faith is weak, our Christian life is narrow and centered in ourselves and we live in the details of everyday life. The way of love we see in St. Silouan is far ahead of us, but we can begin by taking small steps. For example, when we feel offended or angry, the first step is to avoid revenge, in other words to avoid to pay back even we have feelings of inner resentment and good impatient. From there we go on to learn compassion and love.   “What does it mean to love?” This is another question asked by a person. The great test is the love of enemies. Love is not just a nice feeling when I am with certain people whom I find it easy to be with. It is very hard to love those who are unjust to us, or are unjust to those whom we care about, or are unjust to the Church. Yet, as St. Silouan said, “the criterion of the true Christian is love of enemies.” This is the heart of the Gospel. Real love is not just a nice feeling we have when we are with other beloved persons, or with some good friends, who are accepting us, agree with us and everything is OK. But love is when we are ready to offer whatever we have to other, even to sacrifice ourselves for the benefit of the other. Offering whatever we can without waiting to take back or to receive any kind of thanks from them is real love.   One of the most loving things we can do for others is to pray for them. Behind all exterior ways of serving them there should be prayer. Prayer is our greatest service. St. Silouan tells us: “Prayer for our fellow man is truly a shedding of our blood”. Prayer for the other people is not the easy way out. It is a difficult work, but everyone can do.   In Matthew 25 we see Christ identifying Himself with each of us and calls us to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, give hospitality to the homeless, care for the sick and visit the prisoners. This is the practice of love, the self-denial, the offering with the whole heart to the others. We must not neglect these forms of visible help, each person according to his possibilities. St. Simeon the New Theologian tells that we can also do these things in prayer, we can care for the sick by prayer and be present to prisoners in prayer.   Learning to love those who behave badly and find very difficult to love, we must first pray for them. Pray continuously and with all our heart. We can also express love when we do not yet feel it, but we try and insist on that. A man confessed he had no love for God or for man, but he decided to act as if he loved. Then after 35 years he was given the grace to love. His actions during those 35 years were not hypocrisy. It was training, a real struggle with patience.   When we have taken Holy Communion, we pray for the grace to love. “May this Holy Communion be for me unto sincere love”, we ask “to live not for our self but for God”, a prayer which describes love. Similarly we can pray for those who we feel we cannot love. “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on your servant (name) and by his/her prayers have mercy on me”. God, although divine, can live in us to such an extent that His love can act in us, can transform our human love with His divine love. Love is the path to eternity.   Learning love is not simple, it is painful. It is like the pain we feel when we try to use a limb after an injury. The pain can pass after many efforts and patiently attempts. In fact there is a great joy in love even there is, sometimes, sadness. St. Paul says to rejoice with these who rejoice and weep with these who weep. That we have to pay attention in our everyday life is to stop repaying evil with evil and anger with rage.   Whenever we are confronted with irritations, we should regard them as a kind of test. All these test our spiritual situation and especially our love to others. Also we have to regard of others, even evil and actions, as the providence of God; He allows happening to us in order to understand our position to others and to find our feeling to them. Only our own evil actions are not to be considered God’s providence for us and we have to take the blame for our actions.   Always we have to remember the different responses of Christ. Sometimes He was silent. Sometimes He ran away. Sometimes He spoke with some anger. But He never stopped to love the others. He always loves all of us.   So in conclusion we can say again that the Christian way is to deny ourselves, to die to ourselves, so that we can love our neighbor. We have to remember that “my neighbor’s life is mine” or “my brother is my life” as St. Silouan says.

9. LOVE AS A MAIN FACTOR OF

SPIRITUAL LIFE

      Love for God   The Church Fathers put a very great emphasis on love, which is of central significance for the Orthodox spiritual life. Of course the Gospel itself is ultimately a message of love, and the fundamental Orthodox teaching could be summed up in three words: “God is love” (1John 4:16 & 4:8). Love is the basic characteristic of the Holy Trinity.   Man as created in the image and likeness of God is created to share and live in love. The more man loves, the more he participates in divine life. It is through love that man truly becomes a human being and a divine creature. Without love, man distorts the divine image in which he was created. The less one loves, the more he alienates himself from spiritual life.   The importance of love for the life of man is revealed in Christ’s commandment of love: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matt.22: 36-40).   Without love for God it is impossible to love one’s neighbor. And without love for neighbor it is impossible to truly love God. If someone says he loves God and hates his neighbor, he is ‘a liar’. Love for our neighbor is a criterion of our true love for God. So love for God is the main motivating factor of spiritual life.   Love for God is not something passive, nor can it be reduced to abstract theories. For the believers love for God is realized in prayer, since through prayer man speak with God. Those who truly love God cannot help but to pray to Him, since He is known in this way through grace. Love for God is the source of unceasing prayer. The thought of those who truly love God remain centered on Him ‘day and night’ and they do not allow anything else to hinder their love for God.   “All people, regardless of where they live or whatever their place or position in society is, are called to love God and to ‘please Him’. In reality this is the only important thing in life. Without love for God, life is monotonous, empty and miserable. When the believer reaches the point to love God above all else, he then begins to feel an indescribable joy” (St. Silouan the Athonite).   Love for neighbor   The love of the Holy Trinity forms the foundation on which man’s love for his fellow man is based. Man feels an inner ‘need’ to live for and to love others. Love is essential to human personality and attracts the love of God. “A new com-mandment I give to you, that you love one another.” (John13:34-35). “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt.22:39). This commandment reveals the truth that our neighbor is linked to our own being and forms an alive part of our life.  Through love for neighbor we fulfill the true purpose of our life and we experience the reality of the unity of the whole human race.   Love for our neighbor leads to likeness with Christ. St. Silouan teaches that if one hates his neighbor, this reveals that he has made his heart ‘a dwelling for the evil spirit.’ Without love for the fellow man, life loses its proper orientation and becomes oppressive and difficult to tolerate. He says, “Our brother is our life”.   The true brotherly love has much pain, suffering and compassion. It is indeed impossible to love without suffering. Love has been described as the most painful and difficult spiritual attempt the believer will ever undertake. The more man suffers on account of brotherly love, the more he becomes Christ-like by participating in all-compassionate love for man. Jesus Christ commands the believer to follow His own example, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I loved you” (John 15:12).   True Christ-like love identifies with the suffering of one’s neighbor to the point where he who loves makes the pain of the beloved his own. This compassionate love leads to the constant fervent prayer on behalf of one’s neighbor. When one suffers out of love for his neighbor, it leads to participation in the suffering of all mankind. This is exactly Christ-like love for all creatures, for the fallen human nature as a whole.   Our neighbor is in fact every member of the mankind. We are all united and share in the same human nature, which has been united to God in the Person of the Incarnate Son of God, Jesus Christ.  Our neighbor is indeed every man.  This is the ‘neighbor’ that Christ commands us to love ‘as our self’. Such love is not restricted to our own family, friends, fellow-parishioners or even other Christians. Christ commands the believers to love every human being. This is the Christian way, which leads to the Orthodox spiritual life.   St. Silouan emphasizes how the Christ-like love and compassion for all mankind is not limited to the living; it also encompasses even the dead. He writes, “The Holy Spirit taught me to love. And knowing how the Lord loves His people, and the dead, I would shed tears for them every evening. I pitied men for having deprived themselves of such a Merciful Lord; I do shed many tears for the dead.”   Brotherly love includes both the living and the dead. This teaching is expressed in the prayers of the Church for the departed. As members of the Body of Christ, the faithful cannot but hope and pray for the salvation of their beloved. The more the believer grows in love toward Christ, the more he attains love and compassion for all mankind including the departed.   The Lord’s great love for the departed is portrayed in the Orthodox icon of His resurrection where it is depicting His descent into Hades to free Adam and Eve from the bonds of death. The love of Christ does not leave the dead behind. So love for neighbor includes every single human person who ever were lived and who lives now.   Love for enemies   This aspect of love is a fundamental one in the Gospel’s teaching. Christ’s commandment to ‘love your enemy’ is unique to Christianity alone. This commandment appears revolutionary and opposite to the prescription of the Mosaic Law of the Old Testament, and fulfills it. Jesus Christ proclaims: “You have heard that it was said, ‘you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy’. But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you” (Matt.5: 38-39).   What really is this love for enemies? What we mean by this word? The word ‘love’ is so freely and frequently used that it may take on a variety of diverse meanings. For the Fathers of the Church love is not a simple tolerance of another person; neither is it a show of non-violence and a not returning evil for evil, nor it is an attitude of neutrality. Love is not the mere absence of hatred. St. Maximos the Confessor says, “The one who does not love someone does not necessarily hate him, nor again the one who does not hate necessarily loves; rather, he can be in a neutral position to him that is, neither loving nor hating.”   Love for enemies is an effort to do good to someone who hates us. (Matt. 5:44,48). To do well to those who hate us is a mark of perfect spiritual love. Love for enemies is not the outward showing or proving of love that matters most, it is true when it brings peace in the heart of the human person. Who exactly is this enemy whom Christ commands us to love?  The Lord Himself refers to an enemy as anyone who strikes us, forces us against our will, or persecutes us (Matt.5:39, 40,41,44). An enemy strikes and persecutes us not only physically but also, and perhaps more often, he wounds us with words.   St. Silouan refers to the broader and more spiritual definition of ‘enemy’.  He includes as an enemy anyone who ‘offends against us’, anyone with whom we are angry, as well as with whom we are not reconciled and we are looking upon with an ‘unkind eye’. So the person who makes us suffer, despised, humiliated, sorrowful and grieved is exactly the enemy whom we have to love and pray for.   The Saints, usually, have no personal enemies. That is to say, they do not divide people into friends and enemies. They differentiate people only between those who know God and those who do not know Him, and they pray for all of them equally. They pray unceasingly for their salvation.   Love for enemies is not a question of whether or not someone should be punished. The point is that a person is suffering; and love naturally feels compassion and pity for those who suffer. “If someone does not pity those destined for eternal torment – even though they may be enemies – it shows that the grace of the Holy Spirit does not dwell within him” (St. Silouan).   Love has nothing to do with judging and criticizing the other even the enemy. The only thing we have to do is to pray for them and for us. This is a certain way to live our life in Church, participating in the joy of salvation and sanctification in Christ. Love for enemies is not an emotion; it is an action. Jesus Christ urges the believers into action, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you… to him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also. And for him, who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who asks of you” (Matt.5: 38 & Luke 6:27-30). Christ here presents love as an action; as ‘doing good’, as ‘blessing’, as ‘praying’, as ‘offering’, as ‘giving’, generally as positive reactions.   St. Maximos gives some practical methods and techniques that may be used in trying actively to love an enemy. He recommends the believer to never speak ill of an enemy to anyone. He elsewhere advises that by dwelling on the good things of the past, one can more easily cast out the hatred that may be present today. One should always think positively, remain calm and try to control one’s anger.   Another very important element in loving our enemies is the ability to forgive them. The sign of sincere love is to forgive any wrong the other has done to us. “If you forgive your brother the insults he puts upon you, and love your enemy, then you will receive forgiveness for your sins, and the Lord will give you to know the love of the Holy Spirit” (St. Silouan).   True love occurs when one not only forgives, but also no longer remembers or dwells on the past offences of an enemy, where in word or action. To be willing to forget completely, and actually cover-over what one may have suffered in the past, is the mark of true Christ-like love for enemies. (St. Maximos).   To love your enemy is to pray for him, that he may find salvation. Jesus Christ teaches that love for enemies is prayer and shows it with His own life and especially through His prayer on the Cross: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23: 34).   Church Fathers see prayer for enemies as helping us to be away from hatred, as well as helping to separate us from the memory of the hurt that an enemy may have done. Among the spiritual fruits we obtain through love for enemies the gift of true inner peace is included. Even though we may pray and fast, if we fail to love our enemies, we will never have peace within our soul. He who carries the peace of the Holy Spirit in him will automatically spread peace to those around him. Furthermore, he who gives to others will also be given peace and indeed much more than he originally gave.   In order to acquire the inner peace of soul the believer must first learn to renounce his own will. If we refuse to do so and insist on always having our own way, we will never come to know true inner peace of soul. There will be no peace in the world, neither in society nor within the family, if we do not first acquire the peace of the Lord in our own souls. Love for others and for enemies is the way toward true inner peace and indeed of the whole world.   An enemy and generally any human being must be seen in a positive and spiritual light. In the reality any person, even an enemy, is a unique opportunity for us to attain by the grace of God to our salvation and sanctification in Christ.  In other words the others are our way toward participation in divine love.               10. LEARNING TO LOVE OUR SELF           Jesus Christ said: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark12:31). People ask many questions concerning this commandment. “Who is the real myself?” “How can I discover myself?” “How can I learn to love myself?”   a) Importance of self-love   In order to learn to like or love ourselves, we must first find out who we are, and how we became the person we are. Our name is not our identity, nor is our role in life (as parents, students, employees etc.). In order to discover ourselves we have to start the act of self-searching. It is not very easy work to search our depths, but it is necessary to do that in order to get the real self-love.   In this work of self-searching we can be helped by a convenient person who will listen to us, and will be ready to provide honestly a help. We can share of inner self when this true sharing can take place with openness and honesty and when there is no possibility of being judged or criticized. A dialogue like that helps us very much. Most of us are somewhat lazy, or tend to postpone for another time, to work with ourselves and to find our depth. We have not discipline to do what we ought, when we should; we do not find it easy.   The art of learning to love ourselves properly is a difficult work to do but it is very necessary for our spiritual life. But when we will achieve that, our relationships with others and with God will begin to improve. Loving ourselves better, we discover a new and wonderful self-acceptance, and become capable of giving and receiving love. The Psychologist Erick From says: “We learn to love by been loved”. Very often an individual is limited in self-love because as child there was little or no love shown. We dislike ourselves to the amount of rejection and criticism we experienced in childhood. We like and accept ourselves to the degree that our parents loved and accepted us in a way we could accept.   A proper self-love is fundamentally important for a normal development of our personality and for creative relationships with other people. Knowing ourselves we avoid problems and quarrels with others and we become able to know the others and to go near to them living in a harmony. The opposite of self-love is the selfishness, the arrogance the ego is in the center of any reaction. All these are obvious in the excessive use of the words I, my, mine; that so frequently we use.   b) Driving forces of self-love   We cannot like ourselves, nor love ourselves properly, nor relate creatively to others, unless we understand what it is that motivates our behavior. Basically the driving forces are the need for acceptance, approval and affection (love).   1) To be accepted means to be welcomed into the family, the tribe and the social groups. The opposite of this is rejection, which is one of the most painful of all experiences. If someone feels rejected or outcast believes that he is not good and there is something wrong with him. This feeling creates loneliness.   2) To experience approval is to win the affirmation of other persons. To a child this means approval by the family and close friends. Performance in school showed by grades is a way children gain approval. The child usually seeks approval in terms of his actions rather than for what he is as a person. Something like that happens also with adults. We tend to demonstrate our worthiness rather with acts in something we are able to do than to wait for people to recognize our worth as individuals. We try to present our action in order the others to pay attention on it.   3) Affection (love) refers to the need we have people to express warmth and affection for us, not because of what we are or do, but because they care about us as persons. Deep within every human there is the need to be loved. Some time we, even we are adults, act in a very bad way in order to be noticed by the others. So the need for love and affection leads some persons (especially the immature ones) to do extreme and unusual actions in order to draw attention, to be admired or at least noticed, if not loved.   From infancy on, the individual does things to win approval, acceptance or affection. Failing in this, some persons become depressed or others become aggressive, or ill in an unconscious effort to gain sympathy or to be taken care of. The individual who talks endlessly about himself and his last illness is of course, seeking attention and approval. “Notice me!” is the universal cry that goes up from everyone, “because I suffer, I have so many difficulties, or because I did that or the other, I am obedient, or lovable, or because I am something”. But when somebody has been adequately loved there is no need for him to behave like that in order to prove anything and to win love. He feels beloved and secure.   The important thing in our struggle is to recognize our motivation and to be honest with ourselves. Only this way we know ourselves and love this self. On the other side there is a negative force that stops the proper self-love, which is not arrogance. Sometimes arrogant people give the superficial impression that they have a total self-acceptance. Actually they do not like themselves; their weak self-image is hidden beneath an aggressive mask, and they have learned how to hide the real self. They do everything, pretending that they are self-assured, self-confident and without any self-doubt.   But underneath their cover of pretense there are usually insecure persons who have learned to cover up their inadequacy and self-rejection with a false or superficial behavior. Beneath their appearance they are very insecure persons with a great feeling of inferiority and with this behavior they cover their weakness and do not dare to accept it even to themselves. An inferior person interprets every negative event as a result of his own weakness and inability, so he loses his self-worth and it is impossible to get a real self-love. We can say clearly that inferiority create a weak self-image.   c) What stops self-love improvement   We have here a checklist to enable us to discover whether, or to what degree, we lack self-love. These positions show an excessive and extreme situation of a person who has not good relationships with himself. So we can check on our degree of self-love.   1. Are you argumentative?  Some people feel an overwhelming urge to argue. They have an excessive need to prove their point. Individuals with a weak self-acceptance do not resist the temptation to debate any issue. They want to criticize everything the others do and point out all the negative elements and they get involved in arguments about politics, morals, games, athletics and so on. These persons have not good relations with themselves.   2. Are you a critical person? An excessively critical attitude reveals an individual who has a very poor opinion of himself. The worst critical person is usually the one who is – without understanding – most critical of himself. He dislikes himself very deeply and when he gets fed up with his own self-hate, he projects it to others in form of criticism. People usually do not like a critical person and that makes him to hate more and more himself.   3. Are you intolerant of others? When we meet people who think as we think, agree with us, and like what we like easily we accept them and we are tolerant of them. But so many people feel and think so differently, and their actions are entirely opposite to ours. Why should it bother us very much? Why we are not ready to tolerate of others and want all the time to criticize them and to want them to change? The only answer to these questions is that we are very arrogant persons and we do not know ourselves at all.   4. Are you an angry person? Do we “blow up” easily? Do we have an uncontrollable anger? If yes, we have a great obstacle to proper self-love. Anger is not evil. It is a feeling given by God. All human emotions are divine in origin, given to us for our protection and improvement. God wants us to survive, and gives us the feeling of anger in order to be angry only with evil and to tensions we have to commit sin. St. Paul’s says: “Be angry but do not sin” (Eph. 4:26). So what is evil it is the uncontrollable and the misuse of anger; for example when we express our anger and hostility on other people and crush them this shows how egocentric persons we are and want all the time to express our feelings without taken into consideration the other person.   5. Are you forgiving? Are you ready to forgive the other for something he has done against you? Persons who do not love themselves have a weak self-image, and it is often very difficult for them to forgive. Many times they say: “I cannot forgive myself; so I cannot forgive anyone else”. The unforgiving person destroys his own personality because he has not the sense of “being in peace” but feel insecure. Generally we cannot pray or worship effectively, nor meet the receiving God’s peace if we are spiritually and emotionally out of harmony, filled with stress and conflicts. We cannot love ourselves properly when we are unforgiving.   6. Are you excessively jealous? The word excessive is used here, since jealousy is a feeling that can be normal and has relationship with possessiveness; but easily can be a negative power that leads to distraction. This jealousy interferes seriously with relationships with us and with others. This pathological jealousy and possessiveness placing a burden on relationships becomes also a great prohibition for a person to find himself and to accept it. A psychologist says: “If you find yourself excessively jealous or possessive, you can be sure that you lack self-love”. One with such deep insecurities finds it very difficult to develop a proper self-esteem.   7. Are you a poor listener? Some people are good speakers, but very poor listeners. They are occupied with their own feelings and their own self-importance that they cannot listen to anyone else. They are self-centered and not self-loving persons. One who is at peace with himself can forget himself part of the time. If you accept and like yourself you can come out of it and have a sincere conversation with others, listening with real interest on them. Listening can be an act of love and we have to put it into practice, because this love leads us to prepare self-love and vice versa.   8. What do you expect from others? People with a good self-love do not expect others to make them happy, and meet all their needs. They are doing their best without complains. The solution to our problems or difficulties comes from our attempts and struggle and mainly from the Grace of God. This is coming after our free will and acceptance. No others can make us happy. Other people may contribute to our happiness, but it is childish and unrealistic to expect someone else to make us happy. The struggle inside ourselves for our own personal happiness and spirituality can bring peaceful relationships with others and that is a result of the work that people with self-love are doing.   d) Steps in learning proper self-love   Learning to love properly ourselves is not an easy work; we have in front of us a long way. Here we can mention some of the means by which one can achieve a proper self-love.   1. Accept the idea that a proper self-love is all right, and that God expects it. Jesus Christ commanded it when he taught that the supreme law is to love God with all of your heart, mind, soul and strength and to love your fellow as you love yourself. Loving ourselves properly is not selfishness. Selfish persons actually dislike themselves deeply. Only those who accept and love themselves are capable of true humility. They are not looking for approval or praise. Since they accept themselves, they do not need the recognition of others to support their sense of identity.   2. Give up self-condemnation. Criticizing or condemning ourselves brings more self-hate. It is just as wrong to keep up a constant self-condemnation, as it is to be critical of others; it is terribly destructive. That is why one must learn to abandon self-condemnation that brings self-hate than self-love. When we condemn ourselves we reject to try to improve our good elements that, sometimes, we do not recognize in ourselves. Proper self-love means that we recognize our weaknesses without any tension for complaining or misery.   3. Pay attention to the compliments. Usually after any kind of success we hear different kind of compliments by others who were pleased by our actions. We have to pay attention these moments to our inner feelings. Usually a compliment brings the feeling of proud. He who has a real self-love does not accept any good action as his own success but as the work of God’s grace in him. He says: “Thanks to God Who gave me strength to do that which is not mine achievement”, so he feels peaceful inside and has a good relationship with himself.   4. Check your motives. For our spiritual improvement it is very helpful when we try to check our motives and goals we have in our everyday life. It is not so easy to examine every time our motives which are behind every action and behavior or even to check our thoughts and expressions. But it is the only safe way to discover ourselves, to get a good self-knowledge and self-love.   5. Do not postpone. “The road to hell is covered with good intentions and long postponed” say the people. Frequently we delay, postpone, rationalize and offer ourselves a hundred excuses without thinking that the only way to reach any good goal is to start now. If we take a decision and continuously we postpone practicing it that is a clear sign that we have not good relations with ourselves.   6. Learn to listen. Listening is an art, and few people have this art. A good listener is rare indeed. Hearing without interest and with glazed eyes is too common. There are people who listen for a time and then they say: Yes, that reminds me of something that happened to me…” This person is occupied by himself so much that it is difficult to come out of himself and to have open ears and not only mouth for the fellow man. Cr. Osborne says: “Since listening is an art of love and of caring it is surprising that so few people express loving concern in this way. Being a good listener is far more important than being a good talker”.   7. Learn to give love and to accept it. Our main attempt must be to come out of ourselves to meet people in love and friendship. Instead of waiting all the time for the others to greet or welcome us, we have first to come out and meet them. We first open ourselves to others, accept them, create good atmosphere and break barriers. So we “give in order to receive”.       With such an open heart we can go near to other when first we have accepted ourselves and improved good relationships with ourselves. These relationships are very important to open our heart and bring love to us; so we can give others love that we have. With growing self-acceptance and self-love we begin to feel not only fulfillment but also the impulse to reach out and love others.

11. IMPORTANCE OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE

      How much do I know myself?   It is a question we must ask ourselves frequently. It helps us to get a real knowledge of ourselves. Primarily our impressions about ourselves come from our parents, relatives, friends, teachers or any other adult who have lived with us. The way they treat us when we are children makes us form strong opinions about what we are and what we can expect from ourselves. These opinions are strongest in our subconscious mind, down inside ourselves where we cannot see them very clearly most of the time.   If parents and other adults treat us properly we believe that we are OK. If they are over protective and treat us as though we cannot live without them, we become absolutely sure that we cannot live alone, and that we need always the adults’ protection. People who have uncontrollable habits, like smoking, alcoholism, and any kind of drug additions, subconsciously think that they are unable to control themselves because they did not learn to put stress on themselves and to suffer. So their will is too wicking and they are unable to take any decision.   Usually we discover that, even with good parents who have given us the self-knowledge they possibly can, it just is not enough to get through life, we have to try ourselves to know who really are, what is hidden in ourselves. We have to discover the real self and to get the true knowledge of it. The life can give us a lot of other knowledge, but not self-knowledge. We can say that the only people who can help to know ourselves are persons who are in the way to know really their own self and are full of God’s wisdom about mankind. Usually such persons are the spiritually mature persons. Spirituality is the way to a real self-knowledge.   So if we do not accept membership in God’s family and learn about ourselves from God, we will never have much more self-knowledge than we have right now. We will learn to adult-looking things, but we will not become mature. We will be grown up physically, but we will never be a real mature person. We become spiritually mature by knowing ourselves well, and the only way we can do is by living a real Christian life. St. Paul in his Epistles mentions that self-examination is very important for our spiritual life (ICor.11:28, 2Cor.13:5).   Another thing we need to realize is that down in our subconscious mind we have some wrong convictions about ourselves, and what we are like. These subconscious ideas about ourselves are extremely powerful, and they force us to act on them whether we want to or not. Most of them are much powerful than our mind is, and we cannot think or understand the way we act. For example, a person with a subconscious idea that he is not lovable has many difficulties to create friendships and get people to like him. He is suspicious, even jealous, and usually he remains alone, having no idea, consciously, why he cannot succeed to have friends. This person does not know himself and he is unhappy.   We can say that ‘self’ is a mystery. We are playing different roles and we cover ourselves. There are thoughts and expressions coming in us that seem not to be our own and these excessive feelings are going beyond what is reasonable. The Fathers of the Church call them “Passions”. Saint Clement of Alexandria says that: “Passions are a disturbance of our soul contrary to our nature. Passion becomes unnatural and it ruins our nature instead of fulfilling it”.   If we want to know ourselves the first thing that is necessary is to find out what our self is. And the way to do that is to know what passions we have because they keep us from seeing our real self. We must not think that the passions are parts of our own self. This thought discourages us to become a good person. St. Cyprian said: “I used to be held down by the errors of my previous life, from which I did not believe that I could possibly be delivered. I used to think that my passions were parts of me, and belonged to me! But this is not the reality”.       Passions are natural feelings that are getting out of our control.   a) Passion of self-love.  Loving yourself is a normal and important feeling to have; it is giving to us by God to try to improve our self and most of all to make us to go to God, because that is the greatest benefit we can give ourselves. But when that normal self-love becomes excessive, it becomes completely unreasonable and uncontrollable.   Such an excessive self-love makes people want to eat until they are sick and too fat. Drink until they are drunk; lie down until they get weak. They hate work and want everyone else to do their work for them. They collect money to live in luxury and not to have only for their life. They become willing to kill anyone who threatens to take something from them, or who keeps them from getting whatever they want. That is not healthy self-love God gave us. It is what we call passion of self-love, selfishness, and a huge emotional force that destroys a person.   b) Hate is another example of a natural feeling which can become a passion. Normal hate is a reasonable desire to avoid what hurts us, to turn away from things that are not helpful to us. The Church Fathers say that God has given the feeling of hate in order to turn us away from sin, which damages us. To hate the sins means to have strong dislike of them and to turn away from anything or anyone that could stop us from God. When the natural hate goes further than that, it makes us to be excited, out of our mind, become furious and we are ready to attack our fellow men like enraged animals, then it is no longer normal hate. It is the passion of hate.   c) Pride is a normal feeling that we have when something we have done well either alone or as a group. That feeling of pride is a very deep satisfaction with what we have done. This satisfaction is what pride is like when it is healthy. When we have self-knowledge we use ourselves in good way, and do our best in life and we feel satisfied and proud of what we have done.   But when we have the feeling of pride without the right reason for it, without having done something that could actually make us proud, this pride is passion. St. Maximus the Confessor says: “The passion of pride consists of two kinds of ignorance: ignorance of God’s help, and of our need for God. So pride is lack about knowledge of God and about ourselves.”   Passion of pride makes us show off, that is called passion of vanity, or vainglory, which means empty glory. It pushes us to show off and look glorious, to do something good without love. Vanity pushes us to do things that make people admire us. But it leaves us empty, because in the end human admiration does not help us spiritually. Vanity makes us to think only ourselves and to ignore that God is inside and around, and makes us to think that we can be God ourselves. So we feel glorious and important, we do not understand that: “Light is coming into the world, but men loved darkness rather than light” (John 3:19).   Pride makes us to think that we ought to be important and to be able to do great things by ourselves only. And vanity fills us with a desire to look important, whether we are or not. People with vanity do not usually like the work, but they want to be respected and praised by the others and pretend that they work hard.   It is the characteristic of vanity to make us look attractive, fascinating, and in possession of all the good characteristics, so we will have a kind of glory of our own. So when we fall into the disease of vanity and man-pleasing we become slaves. We do whatever people say, and we lose the power to stand up for ourselves, we want to please all the others so they will approve of us and flatter us. We lose our freedom and prove that we do not know ourselves at all.   Vanity is the main cause of all inability to love, including the inability to love ourselves. When we begin to love the real ourselves we become very open and honest with nothing to hide. But self-love is not to have a thirst for self-importance. We try to get our sense of importance from other people. We very much want to be praised by others and when they are not treating us as if we are important we do think that we are but the others did not understand us.   When we want to get importance from other people and not from God, we become egocentric and deeply selfish persons. To God, each of us is indefinitely important. He closely watches and cares about everything we say and do and every single breath we take. It is absolutely impossible to make ourselves either more or less important than God has already made us. No other human being can add to our importance or take from it, no matter how he treats us   God gives our importance to us, whether we are accepted by others or rejected by them. If we realize this and become able to stand up with the importance we already have from God, we will never feel that we need any other importance. If we try to add it to us beyond what God has given us we are full of vanity with disastrous results.   Something else that shows how little we know ourselves is blaming others for everything that goes wrong. For everything that is wrong with us, for every failure we are ready to accuse somebody else and never ourselves. “It is not my fault; he told me to do that way, or you did not give me a chance to do it the right way!” When we blame others, we do this only for one reason: in order to proclaim that we are innocent and have no guilt in us.   Blaming any other in order to make ourselves to look innocent is called “self-justification”, because we blame them to justify ourselves. The original Fall started with this justification. Adam blamed Eve and she blamed serpent (Gen. 3:12). Both of them did not take any blame themselves at all. After this they relaxed and felt perfectly innocent!!   Saint Barsanuphius says: “Self-justification is when a human being denies his sin, as we see in the case of Adam, Eve, Cain and others who have sinned but, wishing to justify themselves, denied their sin” and they did not say “forgive me”.   We see that if we blame others for everything, it makes us conclude that we are innocent of any bad action and sin ourselves. In that case we tell a terrific lie saying that we have no sin when we are actually full of passions. So self-know-ledge is the safe way to spirituality and to our salvation. So let us not lose time looking for other ways to improve our personality and to get God in us. Don’t try to find other paths to persuade ourselves and satisfy our ambitions because we lose our time and soon we shall be lost forever. Let us attempt to find our real self and love it for it is the pure creation of God.       Conscience. Let us see briefly what conscience means and which the role that it plays to our self-knowledge is. The word conscience means “knowledge of what happens within ourselves”, in other words when a person has the capacity to acquire knowledge and to judge the rightness of his actions. Conscience also means that the person is aware of his own thoughts, feelings, actions and intentions. In the Christian tradition conscience is accepting as a unique gift given to the human person by God, Who created us in His image (Rom. 2:14-15).   So conscience is a kind of natural inner law, enabling us to have moral judgment and to know what happens in us. The conscience through obedience to the word of God, personal ascetic life and experience of the Church life, is sanctified and illuminated and pure, and the pure conscience, for a believer, becomes a voice of God, a living testimony of His presence in the world.   Abba Dorotheos says, “The Christian must be careful not to neglect small things, to take care not to despise them as something insignificant, because they can be ‘cancer’ for the soul and a bad habit”.   Both holiness and sinful life start from little things and lead to great ones, either good or bad. Our conscience examines us for the good and the bad and shows us what we should do or should not do and will accuse us again in our future life. It helps us very much if we try in our every day life to have opened our ears to this voice of God, our conscience.

12. WE SHOULD NOT JUDGE OUR NEIGHBOR

      The Fathers of the Church said that there is not anything worse than judging others. We have to take care of our own sins and “cry for our own deeds” in other words to feel deeply sorry for our own sins. Only that way can we correct ourselves. Nothing makes us more naked than condemnation of our neighbor.   The judgment of others is much greater sin than any other as Christ Himself said: “Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your eye…” (Luke.6:42). The Pharisee who prayed and thanked God for his achievements was not lying, but speaking the truth. He was not judged because he said: “I am not like the other men”; but when he turned towards the tax collector and said: “even as this tax-collector”, then he judged a person, the situation of his soul and in fact his entire life. For this exactly reason the Pharisee was not justified by God (Luke 18:11-14).   Nothing is more serious and more harmful than to judge and disregard our neighbor. Why do we not judge ourselves and our own faults that we know precisely? Mainly it is why we do not know ourselves and not pay attention to our own faults; we see and judge the behavior of the others. Only God Who knows the situation of each one of us can justify or condemn.   Indeed, it happens that a brother may do something out of ignorance while we do things that we know that are against God’s will. And we sit there judging him while we are punishing our own soul. Even if the other acted improperly, how do we know how much he struggled and how much blood he shed before he acted? His offence may almost be found justified before God.   God sees the other person labor and sorrow before he acts and shows mercy on him and forgives him. So God shows mercy on him but we judge him and lose our own soul. On the other hand do we know how many tears he shed before God about his action? We know about his sin but not about his repentance.  Really if we desire to be saved we must not pay attention to the faults of others but always to our own faults and bad deeds. When somebody saw a man sinning he said: “He has sinned today, for sure it will be me tomorrow”. This person certainly found salvation, because he not only escaped judging the other, but put himself under him as well.   We criticize people, we judge thoughtlessly and wrongly others, with whatever we see, hear or merely suspect! The worst thing is that we do not stop harming ourselves, but when we meet someone else we immediately say to him: “This or that happened”! So we injure him too by putting sins in his heart.   We behave like this because we don’t have love in us. If we had love with sympathy and compassion we wouldn’t see our neighbor’s faults, because love covers the defects of men. The Saints hate the sin but not the sinner. They do not judge or dislike the person who sinned but suffer with him, offer him consolation and heal him like a sick member. The Saints say: “As far as you desire to approach God go near and nearer to the others”.   Imagine God is in the center of a circle and people are outside this circle on its perimeter. The more they desire to become close to God the closer they are also to their neighbor. The opposite is also true. The further we are away from the center, where God is, the further we are away from each other.   In the same way, with the circle and the moving of people, we understand separation. When we move away from God and follow external things, we become distant from each other and even from ourselves. This is the very nature of love. If we do not love others we go far from God also.

We should not trust our own understanding

  The devil tries to harm us by mixing evil with the idea of justice, the bad with good; in other words he stresses our own justification and so he becomes more harmful, powerful and active. Because when we hold on our own will and trust our own justifications, we think that we are doing well when in fact we are working against ourselves and we cannot see that we are completely lost.   How can we know the will of God or seek it when we believe only in ourselves and keep our own will? Abba Dorotheos says: “Have you seen somebody fall? Know that he trusted himself very much and believed that anything that came in to his mind was correct. There is nothing more serious than to trust entirely in yourself.” In other words this is self-destructive.   A person can improve in the spiritual life and have great comfort and freedom from anxiety if he does not trust in himself, but leaves everything concerning him and his life upon God. If we try to guide ourselves without God’s grace we lose humility, comfort and joy. There is no other way to salvation. If a person truly desires the will of God with all his heart, God will not abandon him and certainly will guide him. God opens his eyes. That is why we should, with all our strength, guide ourselves towards God’s will and not trust in our own heart and our understanding. There is a prayer that we must use in our every day life: “May God keep us far from the danger of guiding ourselves, and make us worthy to follow the way of God and of His Saints.”

We should blame our self and not judge the others

  Many times when others upset us we are disturbed, and feel very badly. This happens because we are not in a good condition at that time, or we reject these people. There are many other reasons that push us to this behavior. But the root is always in ourselves, and the problems start from us. That is why we are always crushed with others and never find inner peace.   A person has great comfort when something happens and he looks inside himself first and blames himself rather than the others. When a person is ready to criticize himself and not the others, a solution is found quickly and there are no quarrels. So this person does not find trouble in living with others and has always peace in himself. Some people say: “If somebody upsets me and examine myself, I find I have given him no cause how I can blame myself?” But truly if a person is humble and searches himself with the fear of God he will find that he has always given cause either through deeds, through words or even through gestures.   However, if he sees that in this particular case he has not given cause, then perhaps he has offended his brother at some other time in the same way or another way. If he now searches himself sincerely with the love of God, he will certainly find that he is guilty and he must blame himself and the quarrel stops.   A spiritual Father asks: “If somebody makes you upset by one word or another did this person who spoke to you give you the passion of anger? He simply said a word and showed you the passion that existed within you, and you were not aware of it. This person said one single word and revealed the weakness you had hidden inside you. So if you want to receive mercy, you must repent and not blame the other. In the end you must thank this person for being the cause of that great spiritual benefit!”   So this does us good and brings much spiritual progress and comfort, when we blame no one else but ourselves for what happens to us. More than that, it helps us to understand that nothing happens to us that is not under the providence of God. God permits things to happen to us for our benefit.   Someone asked: “How can I not be upset if I need something and I do not get it?” Even then, Abba Dorotheos says, it is not beneficial for you to accuse somebody or be agitated with him. Indeed, if you truly need something you should say this: ‘Christ knows better than I do, if I should have this need. He Himself takes the place of that object or food for me’.   For example, the Manna (the food that the sons of Israel ate in desert) was of only one kind, but it became what each one in the desert needed. So if a person needs something and not receives he must not start quarreling with others but tell himself, “If it was for my good, God certainly would have given it to me”. Certainly this person rests entirely in God and he will find salvation.   In every case we must turn our attention towards God for if anything good happens it is God’s providence and if anything bad happens, it is because of our sins. So each one of us follows the wrong path, when he tries on every occasion to put the case against the other and throw the burden of responsibility upon him.   The most tragic is when both the persons blame each other and neither of them accuses himself. It is much better to find the way and condemn ourselves and not blame our neighbor. This is the way to make progress and to get benefit even from the simplest things. We spend our whole life destroying ourselves by these suspicious thought and to justify ourselves.   St. Antony said: “This is the great work of a person to blame himself before God and to be ready to face temptation up to his last breath”. We usually consider our neighbor responsible for everything accusing him for creating problems for us. When we hear something we immediately react like a dog which when somebody throws a stone at it, it forgets the person who threw it and runs after the stone to bite it. That is how we react also.   We abandon God who gives us opportunities to cleanse ourselves from our sins and we run to our neighbor saying: “Why did you speak to me like that? Why did you do this to me? We could get great benefit from all this that happened to us. We must be aware that everything that happens to us can be for our good through the providence of God.           13. HOW DO WE UNDERSTAND   THE MEANING OF SIN       What is sin?   The word “sin” literally means “missing the mark”. It means the failure to be what one should be and to do what one should do. We are created to live in union with God, to be image of Him. But we failed in this task, we missed this mark, we missed our aim of life. We read in the Holy Bible (Ex:1,2) how the first human beings -Adam and Eve- turned away from God, from His love and tried to live according to their own wishes.   The first men accepted the temptation by devil and they believed him, who suggested that they would be “like God” by their own will and efforts. The eating of the “fruit of the tree” is men’s actual taste of evil. So they had the experience of the evil. The fist men attempted to go beyond what was possible for them. They wanted to become gods without God. This exactly was their sin. Through this pride action and the acceptance of Satan’s suggestion, the first men, Adam and Eve, missed their aim of life, and they felt away from God.   By their sin men brought themselves and all the creation under the rule of evil and death. Sin and devil bring suffering and death. Never is one without the other and all of them are results of men’s rebellion and loss of communication with God. So suffering and death are not God’s punishment but the results of men’s decision to obey devil and not God.   Men, after their sin and failure in their vocation, remained the created image of God. This cannot be changed. But they failed to keep this image pure and to get the divine likeness. People, after their failure, cannot be pure reflection of God, as they were going to be in their life. The image of God in us cannot be changed. It is obscured but not lost. This reality gives us great hope. That means that we have the possibilities, which were given to us by God, to restore our image that we had before the fall. It is in our hands to say no to the evil temptation, to the sin or to say yes to it, to do the sin and to go away from God.   In our baptism we were given the grace of Holy Spirit, the grace to live a Christian life. But with many ways in everyday life we betray and reject that grace, and we follow the evil suggestions.   The first people, Adam and Eve were staying and talking with devil. They did what he said to them, and decided to follow what Satan suggested them to do, forgetting God’s words. They wanted to become “like God” with their own efforts. They believed in Satan’s evil words that they could have the power to do things without God. All these are sins. They show the disobedience and the selfishness of the first human beings. We also today turn away from God trying to do things as we understand them and not accepting what God says to us. We sin against God and against other men because we separate ourselves from God and from other people.   We have to understand clearly that we have a mark, an aim in our life as Orthodox Christians. Our aim is: to know God, to love Him, to go near the other people and to love them. Every time when we fail to go nearer to our aim we make a sin. Every action, every behavior that takes us far from God’s life which leads us to perfection and which is our aim, is a sin.       Why does God let us sin?   Usually we find people of all ages raising this point and ask such questions though which they blame God for all sinful situations. We can begin to face this question by asking another: Do we want to be a puppet or a person? Are we interested in being an individual human being or a robot? In the Holy Bible, where God reveals Himself and His purpose for man, we read very clearly that we were created to be not His slaves but His sons and daughters. “Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son… then an heir of God through Christ” (Gal. 4:7)   God created us free persons. With this gift of freedom God gave us the power of choice. If we wish, we may say “No” to Him. He wants our acts of obedience and love to be spontaneous, out of our freedom. He does not make us love or obey Him without our will.   Many times people try to make a person to love them. It is possible to do that in several ways. We sometimes attempt to buy affection or obedience with gifts or with kindness or with flattery. Sometimes we try to make people admire us. We can be cling to them or manipulate them into thinking that they are dependent upon us. But all these are human ways of behavior.   God has nothing to do with them. He made us free to choose to live with Him, or to go independently far from Him. In our rebellion we often choose to separate ourselves from God and we try to be gods by ourselves. This exactly is the sin, a great sin with many expressions in our life.   If we are clever enough to understand that the best for us is to get along with God we reach our destiny, which is the God’s likeness, the perfection. God gives us freely the great power, His grace. It helps us to resist evil and obey Him. But He made us able to love Him or reject Him, because of the glorious fact that we are not His slaves, but His own sons and daughters.

We commit everyday sins

  Many times the word “sin” is a strange word for some of us. When we say: “My God forgive my sins” it is an expression without a clear meaning for us. We say so but in fact we do not recognize which actions are sinful.   When we speak of the fall of the first people we have in mind only the disobedience as a sin. It is so, but it is not the only one which is sin. It is sin whatever we do which shows that we love ourselves rather than God and the others. When we do not feel sorry for what bad we have done, it is sin. Stealing, saying lies, killing, hurting our brothers, taking away their things, bothering the others, criticizing them and many other behaviors are sins which separate us from God.   Here are some concrete examples of actions which make us to reject God and to turn away from Him; to commit a sin. Asking some questions help us to find what exactly sin we commit.   a) Behavior towards God. We can ask ourselves questions like these:        – Do I pray every day? – Do I thank God as soon as I get up in the morning, at meals and every time for what He has given to me? – Do I really love God and try to live as He wants? – Do I keep my promise I gave when I was baptized to reject Satan and to accept God? – Is my faith to God firm and constant or I changing it according to the cases and the environment where I am finding myself? – Do I have my hope based on God or I feel disappointed in front of any difficulty?   b) Behavior towards the others. – Do I love the other people like myself? – Do I pray for all of them? Have I been honest with others? – Do I speak always the truth or I say lies? – Have I become easily angry? – Am I obedient and kind to others? – Do I share my things with others, or I am selfish and take everything for myself? – Am I ready to forget myself in order to help the others? – Have I spoken badly about someone else? – Do I take part in gossiping and criticisms?   c) Behavior towards myself. – Am I a responsible person? – Have I done things that other people asked me to do? – Do I accept the consequences of my actions, or blame the others? – Have I boosted about being better than the others? – Am I proud of myself? – Am I often angry? – Do I want everything for myself? – Am I jealous? – Do I treat well my body? – Do I forgive others for hurting me? And finally: Am I truly sorry for my sins and for hurting the others?

Self-knowledge uncovers the sins

  “Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your abundant mercy” (Ps. 51:1) we pray every day. The Psalm goes on to say: “…therefore teach me wisdom to know my secret heart”. We ask God for this wisdom so that we may recognize our sins, especially those that are hidden inside us. God shows mercy to the person who appears before Him and humbly asks help to go deeper inside himself, to know the hidden and secret sins.   We need to expose the most sensitive areas of our lives to the loving attention of our Father and open our heart to Him. This is the self-knowledge. This is a long life struggle; it will remain a goal as long as we live because we commit sins throughout our life. The basic thing we need is to have awareness of our own sinfulness, to know our secret motivations of our actions and to discover the way in which we sinned, to repent and confess.   We have also to pray to be shown as much of our sinfulness as we can bear to know, remembering that the Lord, because of His love, “has not dealt with us according to our sins. Nor punished us according to our iniquities” (Ps. 103:10). But He accepts us as we are when we repent sincerely. Our effort is to recognize our sins and to repent. Jesus Christ tells us that our sins will be forgiven insofar as we forgive others. In Lord’s Prayer we say: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”.   So the forgiveness must penetrate all our life. We can struggle to forgive our brothers, everyone who ever offends us, quickly and from our hearts, knowing that we may need, their forgiveness for offenses we do not know. We can ask God, Who sees our hearts, to forgive us for all our own sins, the known and the unknown ones.

14. ON LIES AS A SIN

      One of the great sins is the lies we usually say and we do not want to pay attention. Some times we find good excuses for this custom and we do not characterize ourselves as liars saying that in today’s society you cannot do other wise and it is necessary to say same lies. So we are not ready pay attention to our mouth and say many lies.   Abba Dorotheos says: “Hold your tongue and through that, you find the way to God. You need great vigilance so that you are not cheated by lies. No one who lies becomes united with God. Lying is alien to God.”   The Evangelist St. John says that devil is a great liar and the “father of lies” (8:44), while God is the Truth. He Himself said: “I am the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6). If we want to be saved, we have to see clearly what separates ourselves from God, the Truth, and what makes us be attached to the “father of lies, the devil”. We are obliged to love the truth, with all our strength and concern, going away from all falsehood, if we want to be called children of God. This is a saved way to get the spiritual life and so we will not be separated from Truth and from Life, Who is the Christ.   We can say that here are three kinds of lie: Lying in thinking, lying verbally and lying through one’s own way of life.   (a) The person who lies in his thinking is open to many suspicions. While he sees someone talking with another, his suspicions are starting immediately and he says, “They are talking about me!” “They are thinking something bad for me”. Generally he is suspicious of his neighbor in everything the other is doing and he says: “He did that because of me.” This is the person who lies in his thinking and his understanding. Nothing he says is true, but all is based on his suspicions. From this come curiosity, slander, quarreling and condemnation. This person suspects everything and especially when he does not know the events and he imagines many negative things.   Therefore we never trust our suspicions, because a suspicious person can destroy every thing even a straight rule. Persons troubled by this passion never have good relationships with others, because they are so easily persuaded by their own suspicions and they are not open to others and they are unable to be accepted by them.   “There is nothing more harmful than suspicion”, the Church Father say and call us to try with all our strength not to trust our own suspicions and do immediately whatever we can to transform them into good thoughts. So we will stop lying in our thinking and we will not harm ourselves and our soul shall have peace.   (b) The liar in words is he who tells many lies to avoid accepting his real situation and asking forgiveness without any self-justification, for example he who is too lazy to get up and go to the Church services and says: “I was too tired or I had a fever and I couldn’t come to Church”. If someone blames him for something he tries to change his words and to blame the other saying that he did not understand him, and that he himself did not have such an intention. So he tells many lies to justify himself. That is why self-justification leads to destruction.   Lying has its roots in three vices: first we are not ready for blaming and humiliating our self, secondly we lie for some pleasure, and thirdly we want to gain something. The person who says lies does not stop from turning this way and says anything to achieve his purpose. This person is never trusted, for even if he says a true word no one believes him. Even when he speaks the truth others doubt him.   (c) A liar is also the person who lies through his whole life. He lies when in reality he is greedy, sinful, selfish, and he speaks about charity and praises sympathy. He is a very proud person but he admires humility. Even after confessing his weaknesses, he starts to admire and praise himself for his good actions. Speaking like that about himself he does not think of others who may be scandalized with what he says when others know his behavior and understand better who really he is.   A person who lies in his life always wants to cover his own shame by giving the impression that he has virtues when he really has not them and he wants to mislead others. That is why he cheats others by talking about his virtues, praising and admiring them as these are his own virtues and he has a long experience of them.   This person believes that everything that God gave to him is his own success and he is very proud of them. This is the person whose very life is a lie. This is not at all a simple person but a two-faced one. He has an internal and an external face, and he is very troubled and creates troubles in his environment.   We know that “God is truth”. If we want to go near Him to become “like Him”, and to reach deification – God’s likeness – we must avoid any kind of falsehood; to live always in truth, speaking the truth even when we meet difficulties.   Self-knowledge is the best help to find and follow the way of truth. To that direction the first thing we have to do is to search ourselves to find which kind of lie we have, to accept it and sincerely to do our best to get rid of it. Let us struggle to obtain the truth so that we may be united with Him Who is the Truth. Let God make us worthy of His own truth.

15. REPENTANCE

AS A BASIS FOR SPIRITUAL LIFE

      When we are speaking about Orthodox Christian Spirituality, it is extremely important for Christians to know that repentance is the basis of spiritual life. We truly cannot speak about spiritual life, life in Christ and in the Holy Spirit, if we have not, first of all, clarified in ourselves what we mean by repentance.   We shall start with the words of St. Isaac the Syrian who is addressing himself to us individually: “This life has been given to you for repentance. Do not waste it on other things”. These words have a deep meaning. They remind us of the goal of our life, which is to acquire the Holy Spirit, to live in It, to get deification (likeness of God), which is the way back to Our Father the God.       What is repentance?   Repentance is a life long process and the only way to fulfil the goal of our life. Usually we think that repentance is only to feel sorrow for sins, a feeling of guilt, a sense of grief for the wounds we have caused to others and to ourselves. Such a view is good but not complete. Grief is indeed an essential element in repentance, but that is not the most important part.   Bishop Kallistos Ware says: “Repentance is not just regret for the past, but a fundamental transformation of our outlook, a new way of looking at ourselves, at others and at God”. Repentance, in other words, means: “change of mind”. Rather, it means a change of one’s whole being, a change of understanding, of feelings and, of course, a change of acting.   Repentance is positive situation, not negative. It is a hopeful and healing dimension since this takes us beyond sorrow and grief. St John Climacus says: “Repentance is the daughter of hope and the denial of despair. It is a new way of looking at ourselves, others and God. It is the beginning of a new life”.   Repentance is not to have self-hatred but affirmation of my true self as made in God’s image. To repent is not only to look downward at my own weaknesses, but mostly upward at God’s love for me. Repentance is to see, not what I have failed to be, but what by the grace of Christ I can still become.   Taking positively repentance is not seen just as a single act but as a continuing attitude and a deep personal experience. In this present life the work of repenting always remains incomplete. The sense of repentance must constantly be renewed, up to the moment of our death; we have to repent all the time, never stop this saved attempt.

Repentance and awareness of God

  In order to start repenting we have first to know Jesus Christ. We need His light in order to see clearly what really happens in ourselves. Bishop Theophan the Recluse says: “As long as a room is in darkness, you do not notice the dirt, the dust; but when you bring a powerful light into the room, you can distinguish every piece of dust. So it is with the room of our soul. We truly begin to understand our sinfulness only when the light of Christ has already entered our life”.   St. John of Kronstadt says: “Repentance means to feel the lie in your heart; to realize that you live in sin». But we cannot know our sins unless we have already some sense of the truth, of the commandments of Christ. That is to have the light of Christ, which brings us to know God.   Church Fathers say, “The closer a man comes to God, the more he sees that he is a sinner” so he is ready to repent. Isaiah first sees the Lord on His throne and hears the Seraphim crying “Holy, holy, holy“; and only after this vision he exclaims, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips” (Isa.6:1-5) The beginning then of repentance is to go near to God, to know Him and his commandments and after that we can see our ugly situation and sins.   There are people who feel sorrow for their past acts, but who say in their despair: “I cannot forgive myself for what I have done”. Unable to forgive themselves, they are also incapable of believing that God Who loves them so much forgives them. Such people have not yet begun to repent. They have not really changed their mind and cannot say: “I am accepted by God, even I do not accept myself; what I have to do now is to accept the fact that I am accepted”. That is humility and the essence of repentance.

Repentance, the starting-point for spiritual life

  Jesus Christ begins His preaching with the words: “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt.4:17). Exactly the same words are also used by St. John the Baptist in the beginning of his preaching (Matt.3:2). Repentance then is the starting-point for a new life. Without repentance there can be no any spiritual life, no salvation and no entry into God’s Kingdom.   In the Church Fathers’ teachings we find exactly the same truth. Repentance is the way to God’s Kingdom and it is a very long process. When Abba Sisoes was on his death–bed he said to his disciples: “The angels have come to take me and I am asking for a little more time to repent”. So we can understand that true repentance is a continuous work.   The Monk Mark says: “We are not condemned for the multitude of our transgressions, but for our refusal to repent. Repentance remains incomplete until the moment of death. And if there was no repentance, nobody would be saved”. The Jesus Prayer that we use in our every day life is a special prayer of repentance: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner”. We are called to repent, to realize our sinfulness and to change our mind.

What is sin?

  We have speaking about the meaning of sin, but now we add some more because there are so many questions about this. What is this sin for which there is so much talk? St John in his 1st Epistle says: “Every one who commits sin is guilty of transgression” (3:4). We often think of sin as different ways of breaking the Ten Commandments and making actions that are not permitted by the law. But this approach leads us to some confusion.   People frequently say: “I haven’t robbed or murdered anyone, I am faithful to my spouse, and so far I have resisted temptation to sacrifice to idols in any way. Why then does the Church insist that I am a sinner since I haven’t done anything bad? So I have nothing to repent for”. We usually hear people speaking like that, and see that they feel justified and good Christians.   But just here is the heart of the matter. It is possible to keep all the Commandments and yet still be in sin. We have to bring in mind the Pharisee in the Gospel (Luke18:9-14). He keeps all the Commandments and more. He tells God: “I am not like all other men –robbers, evildoers, adulterers– or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get”. He advertises his actions and feels satisfied. But Jesus Christ has another idea about him. He says that “Pharisee was not justified because he exalted himself” and so he was not excused.   Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Mount said: “Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the Kingdom of my Father, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matt.8:21-23).   St Paul writes that “no human being will be declared righteous in God’s sight by observing the law; rather through the law we become conscious of sin” (Rom.3:20-21). Knowing the law we understand that sin exists in the world and in our lives. So it is not just the breaking of the law that is sin but it is the way we feel for others and for ourselves and the faith we have in Christ.   The word sin means, “Missing the mark“. Sin is whatever is moving in the wrong direction, going towards the wrong goal. And our goal is to attain perfection, “the fullness of Christ” (Eph.4:13). So any action, thought or feeling which leads us away from our goal is sin.   Sometimes when we do something foolish or make a mistake we say: “Well, I am only human”. But being human is not an excuse for weakness, stupidity and sins. On the contrary humanity is a call to greatness, because man is created in the “image and likeness of God”, for the greatest achievement: the deification.   When we are sinful we fail to be truly human as God wishes us to be. This means that sin is abnormal for human beings. It is an illness that distorts the image of God in us. That is why we have to get rid off the sin, to repent.   Repentance finds its full expression in the Sacrament of Confession. In the parable of the Prodigal son we see that clearly. The son first “came to himself”, that is he get a self-knowledge and after that he repented and he ran back to his Father and confessed to Him (Luke15:17-18).

16. REPENTANCE AS A SACRAMENT

  (CONFESSION)

          As we know in our Orthodox Church there are seven Sacraments among which there is the Sacrament of Repentance or Confession. We have a strong experience of repentance in the Sacrament of Confession which is the fulfilment of repentance. This Sacrament must be seen as a Sacrament of healing. Jesus Christ is the Physician, Who restores what is broken and renews life. He heals any illness.   We ask for the healing of our deep spiritual wounds and we find in confession something more than an external, legalistic absolution, we find the forgiveness.  Here is a short advice addressed by a confessor-priest to the penitent, Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk says:   “When giving instruction on the Sacrament of repentance, a priest should speak to the penitent like this: My child, you are confessing to God, Who is displeased at any sin. And I, His servant, am the unworthy witness of your repentance. Do not hide anything; do not be ashamed nor afraid, for there are only three of us here, you and I and God, before Whom you have sinned and Who knows all your sins and how they were committed.   God is everywhere, and whether you said, thought or did anything evil He was there and knows all about you. And He is here with us now, and is waiting for your words of repentance and confession. Do not be ashamed to speak of all that you have committed. And so you will have pardon from our Lord Jesus Christ. And I who am here, I am a sinner just like you. So then, do not be ashamed to confess your sins in my presence”. (Read the text from this paper aloud and clearly for your listeners).    

Confession as a divine and human action

  “There are only three of us here,” says the priest. There are: the penitent, the priest and Christ the Physician. What does each of these three do? And whose action is the most important? Many people tend to put the emphasis on what the priest does during the Sacrament of Confession, on his words of advice and so on. And if the priest fails people tend to believe that little or nothing has been achieved. Others overstress what the penitent is doing. They put the main emphasis on his efforts. But in reality the most important action is not that of the penitent or the priest, but that of God.   While the penitent is required to prepare himself for the Sacrament through the self-examination and searching of his conscience, he does not become able to heal himself. After even a good self-examination he in the end is helpless, not able to forgive himself, but he is asking for healing from somebody else. And this other is not the priest but God, the only Healer.   The priest simply gives himself to help the penitent. He is “only the receptionist in the waiting room!”, as he says. It is to Christ, not to the priest, that the confession is made, for “Christ stands here invisibly and receives our confession”, as we said above. And the forgiveness comes from Christ not from the priest, “so we will have been forgiven from our Lord Jesus Christ”.   In repentance and confession we have an experience that is coming from God’s healing love and forgiveness of our own sins and weaknesses.   In the parable we see the Prodigal son who slowly and painfully takes the way back, and the father is waiting him and when he is still a long way off the father was catching sight of him and “running out to meet him” (Luke15:20). The father (who is God Himself) “goes out” to meet His son. Tito Colliander, in his book “The way of the ascetics”, says: “If we take one step toward God, He takes ten toward us”. That is what we experience in confession.   Like all Sacraments, confession is a joint divine-human action, where there is co-operation between God’s grace and our free will. Both are necessary but what God does is incomparably the most important. What is also very important is that, God’s action comes after our free will. It is necessary to show first our free choice and our will to try and then God gives His help and His grace.   Repentance and confession then are not just something that we do by ourselves or just with the help of the priest, but also it is something that God is doing in us. St John Chrysostom says: “Let us apply to ourselves the saving medicine of repentance. Let us accept from God the help for repentance that heals us. For, it is not we who offer it to Him, but He who bestows it upon us”.    

The priest’s part in Confession

  For some people there is an obstacle to confessing well, if at all. This obstacle is that they have to confess “to” a priest, to speak openly to him. They find it very difficult to speak about themselves, their actions and thoughts to the priest. We have to say here a few words about the priest and his function, as a confessor.   The first thing we have to remember is that we do not confess to the priest. The confession is made to God, not to the priest, and it is God who grants forgiveness. In the Orthodox Service books the priest is instructed to say to the penitent: “Christ stands here invisibly and receives your confession. I am only a witness”, as St. Tikhon as: “I am a sinner just like you”.   In confession, the priest gives witness to two things: the repentance of the sinner who confesses and the forgiveness of God given to the sinner. That is, the priest witnesses the repentance at the penitent’s side (while he himself is a sinner, who also needs divine forgiveness), and when he lays his hand on the penitent’s head, he stands, to a certain degree, in God’s place.   The priest serves not as a judge but as a witness to the sincerity of one’s repentance. That is why in the Orthodox practice of confession the priest and the penitent both face an icon of Christ or the Book of the Gospel, symbolizing the invisible presence of Christ, Who alone has power to forgive sins. The prayer of absolution makes it clear beyond all doubts. The priest does not say: “I forgive you”, but he says: “May God forgive you”.   There are cases that the priest may delay absolution, in order to help the person to achieve a real deep repentance. During this time may be prescribed by  the priest extra fasting, silence, special prayers, reading and further discussions with the priest. This is done to help the penitent to realize the true and serious nature of his sins and to deepen his repentance.   The priest who hears confession does not seek punishment for the person but some new conditions in which the sick penitent will be stronger and no longer be under sin. The prayer before confession says for the penitent so: “You have come to the Physician; do not then leave Him without being healed”.   A penance should not be regarded as a punishment, because salvation is a free gift of grace, but as means of healing. It is medicine. By our own efforts we can never wipe out our guilt. That is Christ’s work. We only repent and try to fulfill any penance. We only think in therapeutic rather than juridical terms. A penance is not a punishment. If the confession is like an operation, the penance is the tonic that restores the patient to health, so the penance is an expression not of divine severity but of divine love.   The priest is also expected to give a word of advice. This can include a kind of discussion in which the priest helps the person who repents to understand better himself and uncover the causes of his actions and the passions underlying the sins he has confessed. A priest, out of his spiritual knowledge and experience, can also help the penitent to understand some practical things in order to avoid the sin in the future. In this process the priest usually suggests prayers and readings which are included to help the penitent in his struggle with sin.   St. John Chrysostom says: “No sin is so great that it cannot be forgiven by God. The love of God our Lord is great enough to make all the sins disappear and to make the sinner shine more brightly than the rays of the sun”; the only thing which is necessary is the sincere repentance. Christ Himself, addressing to us says: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest”.   This invitation is one of His love expressions and is beyond description. And why does He call us? He calls not to judge us, but to relieve us of our pain, to take away our heavy burden. That is why confession is so important Sacrament and becomes a basic matter for our soul, our spiritual life and for our salvation.

17. SEARCHING OURSELVES BEFORE GOING

TO CONFESSION

      Confession can be real and bring good spiritual results if we are properly prepared for this Sacrament. The best preparation is to search ourselves sincerely and examine carefully our feelings and our actions. Doing that it is basic not to call to our mind other people who have been connected with our sins and blame them. We must judge ourselves only and feel deeply repented. Only like that can we find the chief roots out of which comes every sin into which we have fallen.   Here there are some thoughts that a spiritual person used to read carefully examining himself every time before going to confession. These thoughts lead a person to real humility. He writes: “Turning my eyes carefully upon myself and examining attentively the situation of my inward self I can find that:  1) I do not love God,  2) I have not love for my neighbors,  3) I have no strong faith and  4) I am filled with pride and sensuality. All these I actually find in myself after a detailed examination of my feelings and my actions.”   Let us see each one of these four points in some details and let us think deeply and seriously examining ourselves also.       1. I do not love God. Because if I loved God I should be continually thinking about Him and my heart would be full of joy. Every thought of God would give me gladness and delight. But on the contrary I much more often think about earthly things every day and I am anxious for the solution of even the smallest problems I face in every day life. If I loved God, then talking with Him in prayer would be my spiritual nourishment and delight and I would have an unbroken communion with Him. But, on the contrary, I do not pray continuously and many times I forget to say my prayers or I do a hard effort to do the formal prayers. I struggle with unwillingness, I am full of sloth, and I am ready to occupy myself with any unimportant thing and I have no time for prayer.   The time everyday goes away unnoticed in useless occupations, and when I am occupied in prayer and put myself into God’s presence every single hour seems like a year. If a person loves another, he thinks of him throughout the day without stopping, he cares for him, and in all circumstances his beloved friend is never out of his thoughts. But I, all day, I do not sit aside one hour for meditation on God to fulfill my heart with love of Him. On the other hand I give up twenty-three hours to serve myself and my passions.   I spend my time to matters and things that weaken my spirit and the worst is that all these give me pleasure! In the consideration of God I am dry, bored and lazy. I am even unwilling to start spiritual conversation and try to shift the subject quickly to one which pleases my desires.   I am tirelessly curious about everyday matters, civic affairs and political events. I eagerly seek the satisfaction of my knowledge about others’ behavior, my love of many social activities and in ways of getting material things I want to possess. But the knowledge of God makes little impression on me and does not satisfy the hunger of my soul. So I give very little time to communicate with God.   To put it clearly, if love for God is recognized by the keeping of His commandments, I not only do not keep them, but I do not care about them. So I spent my time without making even little attempt to keep them and I do not pay attention to this carelessness. The real conclusion then is that I do not love God. St. Basil the Great says: “The proof that a man does not love God lies in the fact that he does not keep His commandments”.       2. I do not love my neighbor. Not only I am unable to change my opinion I have for my neighbor and to lay down my life for his sake (as the Gospel says), but I am not ready even to sacrifice my happiness and peace for the good of my neighbor and usually I ignore him.   If I love the other as myself, according to the Holy Gospel, then his misfortunes and distresses will distress me also his happiness will bring to me joy. But, on the contrary, I pay special attention to gossiping against the others, I am curious in the unhappy stories about my neighbor and after all these I am not at all distressed. I remain quite undisturbed or, what is still worse, I find a sort of pleasure in them.   When my brother does something bad, I do not cover up with love, but I proclaim abroad and criticize him. Many times my criticism is strict and severe. On the other side his well-being, his honor and happiness do not make me as happy as mine do. But I look at all of them as if they are something quite alien to me and give me no feeling of gladness. What is worse, all these arouse in me feelings of envy or contempt. I try to justify myself and find negative points to blame my brother and to reduce his happiness.       3. I have no a strong faith.   I have very weak faith in God and in the Gospel’s teaching. If I firmly believed in immortality, and without doubt accepted that beyond the grave lies eternal life in the presence of God, I should be continually thinking of this. The very idea of life beyond death should lead me to life here on earth as a foreigner who has to be all the time ready to enter his native land.   On the contrary I do not even think about the death, the end of this life and about the eternity. More than that I regard the end of this earthly life as the limited end of my whole existence and many times negative thoughts come to my mind: “Who knows what happens at death?” “Who can be certain how the life is after death?” When I say that I believe in eternity I am speaking about the life of the soul, my mind only, and not of my body and my whole being. But this is not the real faith of the Orthodox Church.   If I believe deeply in what the Holy Gospel says and I accept that will happen to me as Christ Himself was resurrected, I should be continually occupied with it, I should find delight in it and with deep devotion fix my attention upon it. If I had that firmly in my mind, it I would be happy in the study of the Law and teaching of God day and night and in thinking about the end of this life.   In this study and concentration I should find nourishment like my daily food and my heart would be occupied in the keeping of God’s laws. Nothing on earth would be strong enough to turn me away from this spiritual food. But now if I read or hear the Word of God, I do that only from necessity, because I am obliged to do so… or I do that from a general interest in knowledge.   So I do that without any very close attention, and I do not care about the deep meaning of these messages. Some times I read with total disinterest and indifferent. It does not speak to my heart; I do not even listen or face in the words. So I usually come to the end of the reading without any benefit; and I am ready to change over to secular reading (newspapers, magazines etc.) in which I take more pleasure and find new and interesting subjects.   By studying God’s word and by making it our own experience we know His will more closely and more fully and go deeper into real faith. If we do not believe we cannot love. A spiritual writer says: “Love usually grows with knowledge, and the greater and extent of knowledge the more love you have and more easily your heart opens to the love of God”.       4. I am full of pride and bad self-love.   All my actions show that I am a proud person who is interested only in himself. Seeing something good in myself, I want others to know about it. I try to find a way to present it and show off. I do everything to speak about my success and to admire myself for it.   Although I know all about humility, yet I regard myself as superior to others, or at least I am no worse than they. If I notice a fault in myself, I try to excuse it and I cover it up by saying, “I am just a human being…” “This is my character…” or “I am not to be blamed”.   Frequently I get angry or nervous with those who do not treat me with respect or when they did not realize what I have done for them. So I consider them unable to appreciate the value of people. I boast about my gifts and any failure I regard it just as an accident… nothing else.   I am so much concentrated on myself that I cannot pay attention to the struggle of others, I have not time to listen to them; simply I have not ears for the others; I only have a voice to speak about myself – presenting my attempts and my successes(!). If I strive after anything good it is for the purpose of winning praise from the others, or earthly consolation. In a word, I continually make an idol of myself and offer an service to my “beloved self”. I am seeking in all things the pleasure of the senses, and nourish always my passions, paying no attention to others.   Going over all these I can see myself as proud, adulterous, unbelieving, without love for God and hating my neighbor. What state could be more sinful? Even the spirits of darkness are better than me, because even though they do not love God and hate men and they are proud, they at least believe and tremble! But I?. I am full of careless and foolish actions. So many sins there are hidden within me and up to now I have never noticed them!   The only thing I do now is to pray continuously to God to have the strength to see all these in my depths and to give me the strong desire to be cleansed from all of these weaknesses and to enlighten my mind to know the causes of all these evils and how to cure them.   One of the causes of those sins is laziness in thinking about spiritual things, the laziness blots out any desire for spiritual things. If we want to overcome this evil, we have to struggle by every means in our prayer and ask for spiritual counseling from those who are wise in Christ.   We meet much disaster because we are lazy about seeking light for our souls through the word of truth. We do not study God’s laws day and night, and we do not pray about it unceasingly. And because of this our inner self is hungry and cold so that it has no strength to take a step forward upon the road of salvation!

18. PRACTICAL PARTS OF CONFESSION

          When practicing the Sacrament of Confession many faithful do not know how true confession should occur. Here we will try to look at the three parts of confession: (a) What we should do before we go for confession, (b) what we should do during the confession and (c) what we should do when we come out of confession.       Before going to confession   The first step to the Sacrament of confession is repentance. We must be aware of our sinful condition, that is, we must realize within ourselves that we have sinned against God or against people. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (I John.1:8). We must feel deeply sorry not because of fear for the consequences of our sins but because we have done all this ignoring how God loves us.   Peter who denied Christ three times, realized his sin and humbled himself and went out (he left the bad experience behind) and began to shed bitter tears, tears of sincere and deep repentance. And according to tradition, throughout his whole life, whenever he heard a cock crow Peter remembered his heavy sin, and his eyes turned into springs of repentant tears. Peter truly repented and did not despair, that is why he was saved and got his position among the disciples.   St. Peter has left us a living lesson: to return again to God after our fall into sin, and not despair. Having faith in God’s mercy it drives any despair away. God is love only. However grave our sins may be, God will forgive them when we bring them to Him with deep repentance from our heart. If a man despairs, he is lost. Despair is the triumph of the devil. Let us protect ourselves from despair, because if we despair no one can save us.   After realizing his sin, St. Peter, immediately “went out”. He went out of the high priest’s yard, where he had denied Christ. So if we want to come back to God through confession we must come out of the “yard of sin” where we have denied Christ with our bad life, not three times, but thirty three times. Peter went away from the servants of the high priest. We, too, must abandon people who influence us and lead us to sin or who serve as a temptation to us.   When St. Peter was left alone, he came to himself, relived his sin, felt the horror of it and “cried bitterly“. He cried because he was deeply and sincerely sorry for his sin. Grieving over our sins is absolutely necessary, if we want to receive God’s forgiveness. Indeed, this is what repentance consists of: to shed tears, to feel deep sorrow because of our fall. The Church Fathers have said and written much on this subject about the tears of repentance. This is what we need to do before we go for confession.   Before we approach confession we have to prepare ourselves properly. First we go away from the noise of daily life, leave every other care for a while, gather our thoughts and make a short but heartfelt prayer. We remember all our sins and even write them down on a piece of paper, so that we will not forget them due to embarrassment when we go to confession.

During the confession

  Being with the father confessor is the second step of our repentance. Now we are in the position to express our entire inner world, to confess whatever we have done and repent for. At that stage we have to do the following:   1. Remember that we have come to Jesus Christ Who is there the invisible Priest-Physician. He only can heal our spiritual infirmities and give life to our souls. The priest is only a witness and a visible sign of God’s presence. The priest hears our confession but God accepts it. The priest examines our soul, but God will heal it. The priest will prescribe the remedy, but God will provide the miracle of spiritual renewal and healing.   2. Our confession must be done without Pharisaic hypocrisy. That means that when we are confessing we do not show clearly ourselves outwardly as we are inwardly. We wish people, and here the priest would have a better opinion of us, and we hide, as much as we can, the bad self and show the good one. If we do not have good actions, we boast of imagined virtues.   3. It is true that we feel ashamed to reveal our weaknesses and it is not easy to show this self before the priest. Yet, how are we going to be cured if we hide our illness? Shame is an obstacle to our salvation. We should be ashamed when we sin, not when we confess our sins. In this case we can see clearly the work of devil who inspires shame for confession and not for our sinful actions. He has turned everything upside down in order to destroy us.   If we are ashamed to confess our sins and try to hide them we are not going to be cured from our spiritual illness. St. Basil the Great said: “the hidden sin is an incurable sickness of the soul”. The moment we tell our sins before the servant of God, the priest, they stop being sins. When David confessed his sins before Nathan, he immediately heard the comforting words: “The Lord has put away your sin”. (2King 12:13). The un-confessed sin leaves an incurable, deadly wound on the soul. So let us confess courageously, openly, sincerely.   4. When we are confessing we must not seek excuses for our sins. If we begin to excuse ourselves, to justify ourselves we will loose the saving power of confession. The truly repentant person tells his sins without any attempt to justify himself, but cries and asks for mercy. If he begins to use reasons and excuses for his actions, all of his repentant mood will vanish.   We emphasize this case because there are many Christians, who, while they confess, try to excuse themselves in some way. They confess their sins and at the same time try to make them less important and heavy, looking for some excuses so they will look more innocent. But confession is not a kind of earthly court where the defendant tries to make himself appear innocent so that he will be released. Before God it is the opposite: the more one excuses himself, the less he will be released.   5. When we confess we must put the blame not on others, but on ourselves. In Paradise our ancestors Adam and Eve sinned, and God called them to confess ready to forgive them. But they -each one separately- refused their guilt and accused the other. Both of them refused their guilt and asked for excuses. That is why they were driven out of Paradise out of the presence of God. When we justify ourselves, and hide our sins ready to blame others, it is not confession.   6. We must hide absolutely nothing in our confession. If we unwittingly forget a sin, we must confess it the next time. To hide something for which our conscience is clearly bothering us is twice a sin. One, when we have committed it, and the other, now we have hidden it. Hiding our sins we are doing the greatest favor to the devil, which tries to persuade us to keep them as a treasure, which will serve him as accusatory material against us. St. Ignatius Brianchaninov says: “Through the sincere confession of sins the friendship with the demons is broken up… Confess your sins with sincerity and more often and soon you will free yourself from the captivity of any evil”.   7. In confession we do not use general terms which mean nothing, but we tell briefly and accurately the nature of each of our sins. “Father, I am guilty of everything”. This is a very general expression, which at the end does not mean anything and does not benefit the confessing person. We must recount separately each of our sins without telling long and detailed stories. Accuracy and briefness are necessary in our confession. In order to achieve that, we have to prepare ourselves beforehand and not wait for the priest to ask us questions.   8. We must not tell of other people’s sins when we are confessing, but only of ours. In some cases, if it is possible, we must avoid to mention even the names of the persons who have caused us to sin or whom we have tempted to sin with us. Some Christians during the confession speak only about other people: “My daughter did this and that; my wife is not obeying me; my husband is always quarreling with me and my family; a friend of mine has insulted me greatly”, and so on. In such a case we accuse others instead of ourselves. Confession is not a judgment of others. If we do this, we come to the priest sinful and leave even more so!   Also sometimes in confession, instead of exposing ourselves, we start to boast. We boast of never having committed sins: never murdered or stolen, neither are we drunkards. We live a respectable life. Our conscience is clear… and so on. This reviles  the greatest sin, pride. Remember the Pharisee in the Gospel. He is a perfect picture of a man who boasted before God and at the end he stayed away from God’s grace.

After confession

  What should we do when we leave confession?   1. After we have confessed well, we have to carry out the repentance, which means the firm intention not to sin any more in the future. This is a decision in our hearts to begin a new life. Of course it is very difficult not to sin any more. But the whole thing is, not to create sinful habits in ourselves because we will find ourselves unable to correct our actions.   St. Basil the Great says: “It is not enough to say, ‘I have sinned’ and I continue to sin, but you must see your sins and hate them. So you will not continue to commit them. God wants us, who have lived in sins, to put an end to our past and lay a beginning of a new life through repentance and struggle against the sins”. True repentance is precisely not repeating the sin any more; at least to make any possible effort for that. If we have this saving desire and try hard, let us be confident that God will help us by all means.   2. If we have an enmity against someone, we must forgive him with all our heart, so that God will also forgive us (Matt.6:14-15). Otherwise, our confession will be in vain. Some times it happens with Christians, who are on hostile terms, to confess the hostility but when they come out of confession they renew the enmity again. Is this confession? In fact they do not want to give up hatred towards their enemies. So they stay in the sinful life.   3. After the confession we have to decide to give up the bad road of sin. It is not possible to love both sin and God. There is no place in our heart for these two loves. Real repentance and sincere confession means to avoid any cause for sin; not going back to that road anymore; not looking toward this direction anymore. We have to close our eyes so that the temptation will not enter our heart.   4. If we confess that we have taken something from others, it is necessary to return it back that does not belong to us. Otherwise there is no forgiveness for us. If we blaspheme God’s name, if we deny Orthodoxy, if we are angry, if we are proud, if we envy, or commit other sins, when we repent everything will be forgiven. Because, with all of these sins we offend God, and He through the priest (the confessor) forgives our sins against Him, if we repent.   But if we take something that belongs to somebody else, or keep somebody else’s property, and confess it but do not return it, the priest does not have the right to forgive us. We must return whatever does not belong to us in order to gain forgiveness. We do not have the right to keep even small things that belong to other. It is an action of humility if we go and return whatever is not our property but belongs to others.   So after our confession we have to work hard in order to correct our behavior. Only then is our confession a true saving confession and not just idle talk (St. Basil the Great). And the true confession brings forgiveness of our sins, reconciliation with God, with people and with our own conscience.   Abba Isaiah speaking about confession says: “If there were no repentance, nobody would be saved. Just as Baptism cleanses us from the original sin and from all sins committed before Baptism, so repentance, involving confession of our sins, cleanses us from all sins committed after Baptism”.

19. QUESTIONS CONCERNING CONFESSION

          Some people do not confess because they have objections about this Sacrament. Here we will examine some of the more frequent objections and questions people usually have.       1. “I am so sinful! Can God forgive my sins?”   Everybody is a sinner without exception. God however calls sinners to repentance and to confession. There is no sin too great that sincere repentance and confession will not wipe out. Bishop Ignatius says: “The power of repentance is based on the powerful love of God. The Doctor is all-powerful, and the medicine given by Him is all-powerful too”.   Some people say: “I have sinned much, how I can save myself?” You cannot save yourself, but God can do it so that all your sins will be destroyed in such a way that there will be neither spot nor trace left of them. God makes the one who has sinned equal to the one who has not sinned, because He destroys sin and makes it disappear as if it had never been.   For our salvation we are not relying only on our repentance but on the mercy of God, which is following the repentance. And the mercy of God has no limits. Our wickedness has an end, but the medicine for it is boundless! Our wickedness is human wickedness, but God’s mercy is ineffable. His love for man is limitless, and no sin or anything else can stop it.       2. “Why should I go to confession? I have no special sins”.   This objection to confession is the complete opposite of the first one. Here there is somebody who does not realize his own sinfulness. “I have no special sins”. But is it really so? When a man stays in a closed room for a long time, he gets used to the bad air in it and does not feel how heavy and bad the atmosphere is. But if someone comes in from outside, he will not be able to stand the stench in the room and will run away. It is something like that with him who does not realize his sinfulness, with which his inner self is full.   In the Holy Bible we read: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). If we say, “I have no special sins” we definitely deceive ourselves. Actually we are blind. The Church Fathers teach us that it is very hard for a man to see his sins. This blindness is caused by the devil. “He who has communion with the demons and follows their suggestions, he will not see God’s way. This man cannot see his sins until he separates himself from the devil through labor and struggle” (St. Isaiah).   In St Ephraim the Syrian’s prayer we say: “Lord and King, grant me to see my own faults and not to judge my brother”. St John of Kronstadt also says: “This is truly a gift of God, to be able to see our own sins in their multitude and in all their disgustingness”. So we have to pray to God to enable us to see our sins and to rid off the extremely fatal spiritual delusion that we do not have any special sins. Even if our sins are as small as specks of dust, if they are not cleaned with constant confession, they make the room of our heart dirty so that the high heavenly Guest cannot enter there.   The small sins are often more dangerous than the great crimes; because they weigh heavily on the conscience and insist on being confessed, settled, while the small sins do not weigh too much on the soul, but they do bring destruction. Few people have died from big wild beasts; the most have died from small microbes, invisible to the naked eye.   By being considered insignificant the small sins are usually passed by without any attention. They are easily forgotten, but they create in man the most terrible habit, that of sinning, of softening his moral consciousness. So the wretched sinner comes to deceive himself that he is not sinful, that everything is all right in him, when in fact he is a slave to sin.       3. “Why should I confess when I know that I will sin again?”   In this question we can see a desire not to sin any more after Confession. But we are weak humans and we cannot avoid falling into sins. It is much better to pick ourselves up after each fall and go on with God’s grace, than to remain in the mud of sins. We fall again, and then get up again, every day we begin all over again! A young monk asked Abba Sisoes “for how long should I get up when I fall?” And he answered: “Until your death”. This wise advice should be remembered by all of us who want to change but deceived by the devil, constantly return to our previous sins. Every time we fall into a sin, we must get up. For this “getting up” the only help is the confession.   This “falling” and “getting up” is the struggle, a continuous attempt for a life in Christ. And when death comes, it will find us in that attempt. Then we are saved. St John Chrysostom says: “Repentance (which is a continuous attempt) opens the heavens for man, takes him to paradise, and overcomes the devil. Have you sinned? Do not despair. If you sin every day, then offer repentance every day! Do not stop caring for yourself: If today you have defiled yourself with sin, immediately clean yourself with repentance”.   Every one of us when he dirties his hands he washes them. No one says: “I will not wash my hands any more, because I will get them dirty again”! But why do we say: “I will not go to confession, because I will sin again tomorrow”? It is clear that the enemy of our salvation is telling us not to wash our souls, so that he can gain power over us. We must not pay attention to such suggestions, because frequent washing produces a clean soul.        4. “I am confessing to God. What need is there to go to the priest?”   Icons cannot serve the purpose of a father confessor, just as a picture of a doctor cannot write a prescription for a sick person. God has ordained priests to administer the holy Sacraments so that we can receive through them His grace.   Christ Himself has given the power to His disciples and through them to priests to give forgiveness. “Christ breathed on them, and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins they are retained” (John 20:22-23).   So if we confess before God, our conscience is touched by remembering our sins and may be even crying with tears of repentance. Yet we do not receive God’s grace of forgiveness through all these. That happens only when we go to the priest for confession, according to God’s commandment.   Except of all these, the Sacrament of confession before a priest has an enormous spiritual and instructive meaning. First it humbles us. Then it cures our pride. It gives us a feeling of shame, which can protect us from future sins. So the benefits of this Sacrament are very great.   Usually we are not ashamed before God because we do not see Him. But we are ashamed before the priest whom we see when we are confessing. This shyness, many times, keeps us away from sins when we think of having to reveal them again during confession.   5.”Is the priest not a sinful man? Why I should confess to him?”   If the priest is sinful, what do we lose from that? He is sinful for himself and will answer before God for his sins. The Holy Sacrament administered by him, does not stop being active for us because of the priest’s sinfulness, but if that happens it will be because we ourselves have no faith and humility, and try to find excuses for our sins. The sunray does not get dirty when it falls on mud!   In the same way, God’s grace does not lessen by being transmitted by a priest who is full with sins. The priest himself may be denying divine grace for himself because of his sinfulness, but we accept through him God’s grace and do not deprive ourselves of it if we have faith and humility.   On the other hand, we go to a doctor even he is sick too, he can understand better our sickness. At the end it should be easier for us to confess to another sinner. He can understand us better. It is written for Christ: “Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted” (Hb.2:18).   We can also say that a priest can use his own experience in struggling with sin to help those who come to him. In turn, the penitent’s struggle can strengthen and instruct the priest who must also repent. We must not put off confession waiting for one whom we think as the perfect spiritual father for us.       6.”Will the priest not give away the secret of my confession?  No! No priest has the right to say what he has heard during confession. He has to take the secret of the confession to his grave. So do not worry that the shame of your sins may be announced to society.   Related to this is the feeling that some people have when they say: “The priest used my confession in his sermon”. This is a feeling that all of us who confess have from time to time. It is because the sins are more or less the same for all human beings and every one confesses them. When the priest in his preaching is dealing with specific sins he is referring to them generally. Besides, we must have in mind that the priest himself may have been struggling with that sin, too.       7. If I tell my sins to a priest, what will he think of me?   In that case we try to avoid confession because of our love of honor, and reputation. We are not ready for a real repentance and to humiliate ourselves. But here is the heart of the matter. If we are ashamed to admit our weaknesses before only one man, we do not correct ourselves. Such is the spiritual law.   Many times we do not understand that people see our weaknesses no matter how carefully we hide them. So our reputation is in danger. If we confess our sins before one man, God for our humility before this single witness, will cover us with His grace. However, if we are protecting our name before the confessor, our authority will collapse before all men. So it is much better to repent and confess before only one man. Our confession will teach us to struggle with our passions and, through humility we will be healed by God.   We can say that the two great obstacles to confessing well are laziness and fear. Laziness prevents us from taking the time and making the effort to prepare well. Fear prevents us from being open and honest with God, the priest and ourselves. We should confess these sins, as well, laziness and fear.       8.”Can I ask the priest to read only the forgiving prayer for me?” The person who asks this question wants to go to the priest and, without confessing his sins, ask him to say the prayer of absolution (or forgiveness). The priest puts the stole on the head of the repenting man and forgives him his sins, which he has not confessed and has hidden. But this is not the Sacrament of confession; it is rather a delusion and a lie. Reading the prayer of forgiveness without the actual confession is a great misuse of the Sacrament. The priest cannot give forgiveness for sins he has not heard during the confession.   The prayer of forgiveness cannot calm our conscience and help us. We have either confessed our sins and have received forgiveness for them, or we have not confessed them and they have stayed in our soul. We cannot wash ourselves without touching the water. So we are not able to clean ourselves from our sins without confessing them. Reading the prayer of forgiveness to calm someone’s conscience is a sin both for the priest and the layman. This practice does not lead to spiritual healing, but to even greater sinfulness.       9.”I will confess later. I have time until the end of my life”.   Many times we have the tendency to put off actions that are difficult for us. We find so many obstacles that prevent us from going to confession and frequently we say: “I have time to do that later”. But if we postpone or delay the confession it is always dangerous; there is no time like the present, the “now”. We never know if there will be “tomorrow”.   It is best not to postpone confession with which we can clean ourselves and open the door of forgiveness for us. God has promised to forgive us if we repent today, but He has not promised that we will live until tomorrow. He tells us “you do not know either the day or the hour of your death”. There are people who say: “I will repent in my old age”. But do they realize how unreliable is the support that they are leaning on?   Some times we also accept the suggestion of friends who tell us: “Wait to confess when you get ill, then the priest will come to confess you and give you Holy Communion”. In many cases this is too late, because the sick man cannot confess even if he wants to. Then none of the friends can help… So we can answer to the above question: “Yes it is necessary to go for confession now, not later; now, while we are strong in body and mind and we can remember everything and can repent. Now is the best, the only time that belongs to us”.       These are many other questions concerning the Sacrament of confession. The whole problem is not to leave all these difficulties to stop us from this Sacrament which brings salvation. We must not let these obstacles stop us from receiving the free gift of forgiveness. But we must have vividly in mind that when we try hard and move beyond all these obstacles and difficulties and go for confession we will discover that the Fathers of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has become our Father too, is very much ready to accept us like the father of the Prodigal Son.   Our Father stands on the high place watching for us. When He sees that we have taken the smallest step to return to Him, He runs to meet us. He opens His arms with much love to embrace us, and takes us with Him to the place where the Holy Trinity is dwelling.                               20. FASTING

IN THE ORTHODOXCHURCH

      Fasting is another way to improve ourselves in the spiritual life. The person who wants to purify himself from his sins must pay special attention to the fasting that we have in the Orthodox Church. It helps us greatly to spiritual improvement. Fasting is the beginning of repentance. If one desires to return to God, he must abandon drunkenness, forget about every evil, be free from anger, and rid himself of desires, from false accusations and oaths. This fast is true and leads us to God. The person who keeps this fast takes care of himself, through repentance and humility; he goes straight to God’s bosom       What exactly is fasting?   The Holy Bible and our Church teach us that the way to God is through prayer and fasting. With these our soul and our body are cleansed. Fasting is not only the means for preparation to receive Holy Communion, but it has a wider meaning. Fasting in its widest sense is the self-restriction in all desires and especially in all sinful manifestations and habits. In a narrow sense, fasting is considered as self-restriction in eating and drinking.   Father John of Kronstadt used to keep all the fasts prescribed by the Church and he said:  “He who denies fasting deprives himself and others of the weapon against passions and the devil. As we abandon our desire for food, drink, clothing, money and other worldly pleasures for God’s sake, the fire of divine love and many virtues will blossom in our souls”.   Fasting from food is one kind of fasting. All the things we eat are needed for the body but are the result of the passion of gluttony. Gluttony is the desire for tasty food and more than that to fill the stomach with a lot of food. So a faithful Christian must be careful not to break the fast without great need and not to satisfy himself with a lot of food and drink. To eat according to need is when somebody limits the amount of food and eats what he needs and not what he desires every moment. So he receives exactly what is necessary, not for mere pleasure, but for the strengthening of his body.   A person must receive what he receives with prayer and thanksgiving to God Who provides whatever he needs. He must use food and not to be used by it. This is the real fasting of food. Also he must pay no attention or criticize another person who, out of some need or other reason, eats something special. Because in this case we have a second sin: criticism.   Abstaining from food and drink is only one side of fasting. This helps us to reach to the most important fast, which is the abstaining from evil, from our passions and the fleshy life. There is very little value in abstaining from food without abstention from the insult and the illusion of earthly riches.   Fasting helps us to gain humility and repentance. This is in the Christian sense true fasting. The Orthodox Church has never taught the narrow view of fasting, the abstention from certain foods only. Fasting is more than simply ‘not eating’. The primary aim of fasting is to make us conscious of our dependence on God, to have always the humble feeling that without God we can do nothing (John 15:5).   Also we must fast with our eyes so that we do not see idly watch anything which may put us into temptation. We must prevent our hands and feet from performing any evil action and try to go against our desires if we wish to be real followers of Christ. This fasting is an acceptable fast as we abstain from every evil manifested through all the senses.   St. Basil says: “The value of fasting is not only in the abstention from food, but in the departure from sin. If we fast only food we devalue fasting. Are you fasting? Show me by those works: give alms to the poor, try to go near to your enemy and forgive him, do not be envious of anybody else, if you see a most beautiful woman let her pass.”   A Church hymn, we sing it during the Great Lent, clearly gives us the real dimensions of fasting. It says:   “Let us observe a fast acceptable and pleasing to the Lord.   True fasting is to put away all evil, to control our tongue,   to abstain from anger, to separate ourselves from bad   desires, from gossiping, from saying lies, from swearing.   If we reject all these things,   then our fasting is true and acceptable to God”.   Really we do not need a clearer and more understandable answer to our question: What is fasting? In this hymn we find the answer.       Why do we fast?   Fasting is part of our spiritual life. Without it flesh and the fleshy pleasures will destroy our soul. Men find great help in fasting. This effort enlightens the mind, strengthens the spirit, controls the emotions and calms down the passions. By fasting, “we do not want to kill our bodies, but to kill our passions”, the Church Fathers say that by fasting man’s body becomes light and vigorous, and his spirit bright and clear. Fasting makes us strong, decisive and courageous. By fasting we become generous, meek, merciful and obedient. We can see this through many examples from the Holy Bible:   By fasting, Moses was made worthy to receive the Commandments from God’s hands. By fasting, Elijah closed the heavens so that there was no rain for three years; by fasting he called down fire from heaven on the idol-worshippers, and by fasting made himself so pure that he was able, on mount Horeb, to talk with God. By fasting, Daniel was saved from lions and the three children from the burning fiery furnace. By fasting, the city of Nineveh was saved from the destruction that the prophet Jonah had prophesied. By fasting, John the Baptist became the greatest of those born of woman.   Armed with fasting, St. Anthony overcame all the demons and drove them away. And of course all the saints, both men and women, purified themselves by fasting, strengthened themselves and became the greatest heroes in human history. By fasting they conquered themselves and the world; and in conquering themselves they also conquered Satan.   Jesus Christ Himself began His divine ministry of the salvation of mankind with a forty-day fast. In this way, He clearly showed that we, as faithful, must make a serious beginning to our life with fasting.   By His own example, the Lord showed us how great a weapon fasting is.  With this weapon, He defeated Satan in the wilderness and He was victorious over the three chief satanic passions with which Satan tempted Him: love of easiness, love of praise and love of money. These are the three greatest traps into which the evil enemy of the human race tempts Christ’s soldiers. Through the real fasting they can face any temptation.   It is true that evil spirits are conquered by prayer and fasting. Not by prayer alone, but by prayer and fasting. When Christ’s disciples could not heal a child possessed by a “dumb spirit” the Lord said: “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you?” And after He healed the child, the disciples asked Him why they were powerless to perform this. He said: “This kind cannot be driven out by anything else but by prayer and fasting” (Mk 9:14-29).  In Acts (13:1-3,14:4-23) we read: “After fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off”.   Bishop Nicolai Velimirovich says: “God’s work is done by prayer and fasting. If we deny this, there is no other way to our salvation. Let us open our eyes while there is still time. Let us firmly understand what the fast is and why we fast. Let us take up the victorious weapon that Christ Himself has offered us for the battle, the precious fast. Let us abstain from excessive eating, drinking, and choosing earthly treasures. Let us keep fasting for our soul’s salvation and for acquiring the Holy Spirit which is our life’s goal”.

How to fast

    a) Jesus Christ, our Lord taught us how to fast. He said: “When you fast, do not look sad as the hypocrites do. They neglect their appearance so that everyone will see they are fasting” (Matt. 6:16). He does not say “if” you fast, but “when” you fast. He leaves it to be understood that in the life of a Christian there must be a place for fasting. We see here in Christ’s words that the hypocrites are they who fast not for their own souls, but because of men, that men should see their fasting and praise them for it. They strive to make their faces show their fasting making them appear sad and pale. So the other people look at them, marvel and praise them and reward them by their wonder.   But today, how many of us are the hypocrites who fast only for praise by others? In that case we have nothing more to expect from God. We have been fasting for man’s sake and men praised us for this.   b)  “But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by men, but by your Father who is in secret” (Matt. 6:17-18). The meaning here is clear: We have to fast for the salvation of our souls and not for men. It is important that God sees and knows what we are and what we do. So let us not display our fasting by any sort of external sign.    c) The words of Jesus Christ: “Anoint your head and wash your face” have no any external meaning. By these words He means that we must fast secretly, not showing what we do, not speaking about our fasting in order to gain admiration from people. “Anoint your head” means: anoint your mind with the Holy Spirit, because “the head” signifies the mind and the whole soul, and the “oil” with which the head is anointed signifies the Holy Spirit.   And this means: we have to fast from all evil thoughts and keep ourselves from all dirty words and insults. We have to fill our mind with thoughts of God, of purity, of love and faith and all that is worthy of the Holy Spirit. We do the same with our tongue. We abstain from speech in vain. We do the same with our heart: fast from all evil, envy, pride, from blasphemy, and sinful actions. We keep ourselves from all these and leave the Holy Spirit free to fill our heart.   d) What is the meaning of the words: “wash your face?”  The face signifies the outer, physical body. It is through the body that the soul reveals itself to this world. Through the bodily senses and organs we show what we are thinking, feeling and what we want. “Wash your faces” means: cleanse your body from committing of every sin, every impurity and every evil. We keep our senses from everything that is dangerous. Restrain our mouth from eating much food and drink and from demanding more than we need for survival.       This is the fast that Jesus Christ recommends, a fast free of hypocrisy, and a fast that brings many fruits of the Holy Spirit. This fast, the inner and the external, is a strong weapon in the battle against evil.   St. John Chrysostom says about fasting: “Do you fast?  Give proof of it by your works. If you see a poor man, take pity on him. If you see a friend being honored, do not envy him. Do not let only your mouth fast, but also the eye, the ear, the feet, the hands and all the members of the body, for what good is it if we abstain from meat and fish, but bite and swallow our brothers?”   The Church hymns concerning fasting warn us not to boast when we fast, not to show it in public, not to compare ourselves with others who do not fast and condemning them. If we abstain only from food while we do not abstain from sins, we are fasting in vain.   Fasting from food also is when we try not to eat too much to be satisfied, but we must rise from the table feeling that we could have taken more, but we stop for fasting reasons without speaking about that to the others.

Special periods of fasting

  The Orthodox Church has appointed some periods of the year for abstinence from food. These periods are for us an opportunity to intensify our spiritual struggle by prayer and fasting. These periods are:   1) Great Lent (Seven weeks before Easter)   2) The fast of the Apostles. It starts on the Monday after All Saints                       Sunday and ends on 28 June, the eve of feast of Saints Peterand Paul on 29June.   3) The Assumption of Virgin Mary. It lasts 2 weeks from 1^st-14^th August.   4) The Christmas Fast. It lasts 40 days and starts on 15^th Novem-                      ber and lasts until 24^th December.   5) There are also some special days during which we fast: -29^th                                   August, the beheading of St. John the Baptist, – 14^th September, the elevation of the Holy Cross, – 5^th January, the eve of Epiphany.   6) On Wednesday and Friday every week we fast through the whole                        year, except the week between Christmas and Epiphany, the week after the Sunday of Christ’s Resurrection and until the Sunday of St. Thomas, and during the week immediately after Pentecost.                                                   .

21. SUFFERING AND SICKNESS

          The origin and cause of pain   Many times we face the questions: Why do we suffer in our life? Why are there so many diseases? Who sends all this to us? Why do we have to suffer? In fact, there is no life in this world without suffering of any kind. Suffering stops only after death, in the Heavenly Kingdom of God.   “The way of salvation which leads to eternal life is narrow and hard” (Matt.7:14) says Jesus Christ. He also foretold to His disciples that in the world, they would have tribulation (John 16:33, 15:38, 16:2-3). From this it is clear that sorrow and suffering are appointed by Christ for all His true followers during their life on earth. But why is this? The Church Fathers say that suffering is to be understood in the context of men’s first-created state and their fall into sin.   In the beginning, there was no pain, no suffering, no illness, and no death. Human beings were created not to have all these sufferings but to live in a continuous joy and happiness not tasting pain and death. Adam and Eve were free to decide what way they wanted to follow. They had in front of them a choice: to decide to obey God or not. They had to choose among two: to become like God (to achieve His likeness) through God or by themselves. And they made their decision and they fell from their first position given to them by God. So death, suffering, pain, illness came in their life as the result of their free choice.   All human beings share in this tragic situation because of the unity which binds the whole of humanity. Even those born this very minute into this world are accepted automatically all these conditions of sickness and suffering. There are generally three sources of suffering in this world: Suffering from any kind of persecution, suffering from sickness and diseases and suffering in spirit because of the personal sins and the sins of the whole world.   In St. Paul’s Epistle to Timothy we read: “All who desire to live a Godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted by other people or by the devil himself. And these persecutions bring much suffering and pain. In a very real sense the strongest suffering of all is not when the flesh is suffering but the spirit. This suffering deforms the person because sin destroys in him the image of God.   Human beings accepted the temptation to be like God without Him but by themselves. They decided by themselves to follow the way of death and suffering and not the way of life and joy. So sickness and generally suffering exist in the world only because of sin. There would be no sickness at all, neither mental nor physical, if man had not sinned. So it is not fair to blame God for the suffering and sickness we have in our life.   According to Jesus Christ sickness is a bond of the devil (Matt.8:16, 12:22, Luke 4:40-41, 13:10-17). Christ has come to “destroy the devil” (Heb. 2:14). For Christ, the forgiveness of sins, the healing of the body, the destruction of the devil and the raising of the dead, are all one and the same act of salvation.   The teaching of the Holy Bible helps us to understand that sickness is not a punishment; but it is a consequence of original sin. God did not say to man, “Sin and I will kill you”. He said if you sin, “you will die” (Gen. 2:17, 3:3). So when man sins and ruins himself by evil, he brings sickness and suffering to the world for himself and his children; and his life becomes painful until he returns to the dust out of which he is made (Gen. 3:17-19).   The Church teaches that those who are innocently victimized by sickness, such as small children and people who are mentally or physically handicapped, will be saved in the Kingdom of God (Rom. 8:19-23). God Himself uses sickness and death for His own providential purposes as the means for man’s salvation.       Facing our Suffering   There are only two possible ways to deal with sufferings. Either we humbly accept them and transform them into a way of salvation for ourselves and for others; or we are defeated by them with rebellion and rejection, and so we “blame God and die” physically and spiritually (Job. 2:9-10).   God is not the source of sickness. God does not cause suffering and death. These exist because of the devil’s deceit and man’s wickedness and sin. We never say that “God sends sickness to man”, but He permits suffering and sickness for His beloved humans’ salvation. Pain and suffering bring us nearer to God and help us to live in His presence.   Two disciples asked the Lord for thrones of glory and He gave them His Cup (Matt. 20:23). The Cup of Christ is suffering. To those who drink from that Cup of Christ it is granted the participation in Christ’s Kingdom of grace, and the glory in heaven. When suffering is coming we stand in silence, we do not complain about it or reject this Cup of Christ (the suffering), because He Who commanded us to taste it, first drank of it Himself.   Our Ancestors in Paradise were deceived by the delusions of sensual pleasure. Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of fallen people brought His Cup of salvation into this world, to the fallen and exiled from Paradise. The bitterness of any suffering, cleanses the heart from destruction and sinful pleasure. To him who suffers with faith and patience, the eternal life that was and still is lost for us who do not repent, will be restored.   Suffering and any pain are accepted when a person bears these earthly tribulations in humility and patience. We read in St. John18:11 what Jesus Christ said to St. Peter when he wanted to defend Him: “Put your sword into the sheath. The Cup which My Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?” When suffering and disaster surround us, we have to say to ourselves: “What our Father permits to visit us we shall accept”.   Suffering is heavy and painful. But the great consolation is the strong faith that is our Father the God, Who loves us so much and permits it to come to us. When He finds it necessary and profitable to withdraw suffering from us, He will certainly do that. As the Scriptures and Church history testify, the Lord has often allowed afflictions to come to His believers, and often warded off afflictions from them, in accordance with His Providence.   Many times our suffering seems to come from other people’s actions. In those cases we must remember the greatest innocent, Jesus Christ, Who suffered so much because of people. We have to think how blessed we are for we suffer a bit like our Savior.   When people cause our suffering we have to pray for them and on behalf of them who have insulted us; that what they have done for us should be repaid by a blessing and eternal salvation.   If our heart does not wish to act in this way, compel it to do so, because if we put violence in our heart in fulfilling the commandments of the Gospel we can inherit Heaven. If we do not want to do this then we cannot be followers of Jesus Christ. Let us look deep within us and consider the motives of our actions.           A real Christian in Suffering   When a Christian is sick he recognizes that his illness is caused by sin,  by his own sin and by the sins of the world. He does not blame God for it, for he knows that God has not caused it and does not wish it for His servants. He knows as well, through the providential plan of God, that his sickness may be allowed as a push to live a heavenly life here on earth.   The real Christian knows also that if God so wills, he can be healed of his sickness in order to have more time to repent and to serve God and man, and to accomplish what he must do according to God’s plan. He also knows that sickness itself can be the means for serving God, and he accepts it in this way, offering it in faith and love for his own salvation and for the salvation of others.   There is no greater witness to the love of God and faith in Him than when we suffer sickness with faith and love. The one, who bears his infirmities with courage and patience, with faith and hope, with gladness and joy, is the greatest witness to divine salvation that can possibly be.   Faith in Christ teaches us to accept faithfully any suffering, because this inspires hope in our heart, and gives strength and consolation. Complaining, impatience, and especially despair are sins; they are the results of sinful disbelief. It is sinful to complain of neighbors when they are the instruments of our suffering, and worse still is when we cry out against what comes from God.   He who suffers with thanksgiving to God achieves the grace and peace of God and feels no pain. If on the other hand the suffering or sickness appears to us to be unbearable it reveals that although we have the name of a Christian we do not belong to Christ, because for real Christians suffering is joy.   After having been beaten before the gathering of the elders of the Jews the Holy Apostles, went out from the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer for the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 5:40-41).   The righteous Job heard bitter news about his family. The worst had happened: his sons and daughters all died. In his great sorrow, the righteous Job ripped his clothes and sprinkled his head with ashes, and then he felt down upon the ground and worshiped God saying “I myself came naked from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return, the Lord has given and the Lord has taken away… Blessed be the Name of the Lord” (Job 1:21).   The real Christian in the time of misfortune does not seek the help of men, he does not lose precious time, and he does not waste the strength of his soul in seeking a powerless help. He awaits help from God and if He wants in His time will send people to help.   Jesus Christ remained silent before Pilate; He did not attempt to justify Himself. A good Christian tries to imitate His wise silence when he suffers from accusations and criticisms by others. And when the sickness and suffering come he says to God: “Your will be done”.       Jesus Christ is the greatest example in suffering   We are disciples and followers of Christ Who said: “If any man follows Me… where I am, there he shall be also”. But Jesus spent His life on earth in sufferings; He was persecuted from His birth to the grave. In following Him, all of us who have decided to do so have to pass by the way of temporary suffering to blessed eternity.   Jesus Christ is He who suffered more than anyone else in the world. ‘He was despised and rejected by men. He was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; as one from whom men hide their faces…” He “poured out His soul to death” (Is. 53:12). So He gave us a very great example.   We have been taught that those who suffer through sickness and disease with faith and love for God will receive “sufficient grace” from God. So they will be strong in their bodily weakness and in that way will direct their sufferings “not into death” but to the “glory of God” (2 Cor12:7-10, John 11:4).   St. Peter says: “Since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same thought, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of time in the flesh no longer by human passions, but by the will of God” (1 Peter 4:1-2). Also in St. Paul’s Epistle to Colossians we read: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh. I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of His body” (1:24).   Faithful Christians follow the example of Christ, of St. Paul and of all the saints in their appreciation of sickness. They say to the Father: “Your will be done”, and transform their weakness, by the grace of God, into the means of salvation for themselves and others.       Suffering and Prayer   In St. Matthew’s Gospel we read: “Ask and it shall be given you; seek and you shall find…” (Matt.7:7-8). Therefore, when we are in pain we must pray for understanding the deep meaning of suffering, for having patience to bear it, and for riding off it if such is God’s will. We also ask for the prayers of others and especially of the Church, because “the effective fervent and alive prayer of a righteous man is a very great help” (James 5:16). God always hears the prayers and gives what is beneficial to us.   The prayer that we must use is the prayer that our Lord offered to His Father in the garden of Gethsemane before His passion and death on the Cross: “O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will” (Matt 26:39). With a prayer like this we can meet and conquer every sorrow.   Praying to God to pass from us every misfortune but basically we entrust ourselves, our soul and body, our life of today and the future to the all-holy and all-wise will of God. “Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation…” (Matt. 26:41). When we are surrounded by afflictions, we have to pray often, that we may draw the special grace of God towards us. Only with the help of His grace we are able to overcome misfortunes.   When we receive from Heaven the gift of patience, we must be attentive and vigilant with ourselves, in order to keep within us the grace of God. Without the vivid prayer we won’t be able to be patient and we soon drive ourselves away from God’s grace. So instead of salvation and perfection the sorrow and disappointment will come to us and sadness and despair will be the bitter result. In that case we have to do everything to bring back our heart to purity in true repentance.   The holy martyrs sang a song of joy in the midst of the fiery furnace, when they were in boiling water or oil. So also our heart will rejoice when by prayer we have drawn to us the comfort of grace. Then our heart will pray among the misfortunes and terrible misery thanking God.

  22. ACCEPTING THE CUP OF CHRIST

(SUFFERING)

          Two disciples asked the lord for thrones of glory and He gave them His Cup (Matt. 20:23). The Cup of Christ is suffering. To those who drink from that Cup of Christ it is granted the participation in Christ’s Kingdom of grace, and the glory in heaven. When the suffering is coming we stand in silence, we do not complain about it or reject this Cup of Christ (the suffering), because He who commanded us to taste it, first drank of it Himself.   Our ancestors in Paradise were deceived by the delusions of sensual pleasure. Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the fallen people, brought His Cup of salvation into this world, to the fallen and exiled from Paradise. The bitterness of this Cup (any suffering) cleanses the heart from destructive and sinful pleasure. To him who drinks from this Cup with faith and patience, the eternal life which was and still is lost for us who do not repent, will be restored.   The Cup of Christ is accepted when a Christian bears earthly tribulation with prayer and in the spirit of humility learned from the Holy Gospel. We read in St. John18:11 what Christ said to St. Peter when he wanted to defend Him: “Put your sword into the sheath. The Cup which My Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?” So we too, when disaster surrounds us, should strengthen our soul saying: The Cup, which my Father has given me, shall I not drink it?   The Cup is bitter; the suffering is heavy and painful. But the great consolation is the strong faith that it is the Father who gives it to me, He who is only love; He is all good and all wise. The heavenly Father is almighty and all-seeing. He sees our affliction, and if He had found it necessary and profitable to withdraw the Cup from us, He would certainly have done so.   As the Scriptures and Church history testify, the Lord has often allowed afflictions to come to His believers, and often warded off afflictions from them, in accordance with the unfathomable ways of His Providence. When we are facing with the Cup of suffering, we must turn our look from people and lift our eyes to Heaven and say: The Cup that my Father has given me, shall I not drink it? I cannot reject the Cup, the promise of heavenly and eternal good. The Apostles teach us patience, saying: “We must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God” (Acts14:22).   Many times our sufferings seem to come from the hands of men. At those cases when we receive the Cup from the hand of men we must remember the Cup that He Who is not only innocent but also all-holy. Thinking on this, remind our self and other suffering sinners of the words that the thief spoke on the cross: “We receive the due reward of our deeds…Lord remember me in Your Kingdom” (Luke 23: 41-42). Then we have to think how blessed we are for we became the instruments of the mercy of God, we are blessed now and forever!   When people are causing the suffering we bear we have to pray for them and on behalf of them who have insulted us, that what they have done for us should be repaid by a temporal blessing and eternal salvation, it should be counted to them as if it had been an act of virtue. If our heart does not wish to act in this way, compel it to do so, because if we put violence to our heart in fulfilling the commandments of the Gospel we can inherit Heaven. If we have not the will to act in this way, then we have not the will to be followers of Jesus Christ. Let us look deep within us and consider the motives of our actions.   A living faith in Christ teaches us to receive the Cup of Christ, to accept faithfully any suffering, because this inspires hope in our heart, and gives strength and consolation. Murmuring, impatience, fait-heartedness and especially despair are sins; they are the ugly children of sinful disbelief. It is sinful to complain of neighbors when they are the instruments of our suffering, and more worse it is when we cry out against what is coming from the right Hand of God.   He, who drinks the Cup with thanksgiving to God and blessings on his neighbor, achieves the grace of the peace of God. It is as if already he enjoys God’s spiritual Paradise. If the Cup appears to us to be unbearable, deadly, then it reveals that although we dear the Christ’s Name, we do not belong to Christ, because for the true followers of Christ, the suffering is joy.   The Holy Apostles, after having been beaten before the gathering of the elders of the Jews, went out from the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer for the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 5: 40-41).   The righteous Job heard bitter news for his family. But he was saying: “I myself came naked from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return, the Lord gave, the Lord has taken away… Blessed be the Name of the Lord” (Job I:21).   We have to entrust our heard to God Who knows us very well and by Whom all the hairs of our head are numbered. He knows the measure of suffering that we should be given. Do not take our eyes from Him and our suffering will be transformed into heavenly spiritual sweetness; the wounds of our heart are healed with the wounds of Jesus Christ.   In the time of misfortune we must not lose precious time to seek the help of men, and not waste the strength of our soul in seeking there powerless help. We must turn our self only to God waiting help from Him. And if He wants by His command and in His time He will send people to come to our help.   The Lord remained silent before Pilate. He made no attempt to justify Himself. We must imitate His holy and wise silence when we see that our enemies accuse us. And when the suffering comes to us as a gradual gathering of clouds, or as suddenly as a furious wind, we must say to God, “Your will be done”.   We are disciples and followers of Christ Who said: “If any man follows Me… where I am, there he shall also be”. But Jesus spent His life on earth in sufferings; He was persecuted from His birth to the grave. In following Him, all of us who decided to do so we have to pass by the road of temporary suffering to blessed eternity.   While the bodily pleasures dominate us, it is impossible to reach this blessing. St. Isaac the Syrian said: “The man who is sent unceasing sorrow is going to be especially under God’s care”. But we do not cast our self into the depths of sorrow; because that is proud self-confidence. We have to pray to God not to be afraid on pains and sorrows that are coming, and do not think that they come by chance or by force of circumstances. No, they are allowed by the Providence of lovable God. If we leave our selves like that to God the unseen hand of Jesus Himself will guide us.   The prayer that we must frequently use especially during the sufferings is the prayer that our Lord offered to His Father in the Garden of Gethsemane before His passion and death on the Cross. “O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will” (Matt. 26:39). With this prayer “Your will be done” we can meet and conquer every sorrow.   Praying to God to pass from us every misfortune, we show our sinful and blind will, and that we entrust ourselves, our soul and body, our life of today and the future not to the all-holy and all-wise will of God. “Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation…” (Matt.26:41). When we are surrounded by afflictions, we have to pray more often, that we may draw the special grace of God towards us. Only with the help of the grace we are able to overcome misfortunes.   When we receive from Heaven the gift of patience, we must be attentive and vigilant over ourselves, so as to keep within us the grace of God; otherwise the sin should be unnoticed into our soul or body and drive away this grace.   If with carelessness and inattention we let sin enter within us, and particularly the one sin to which our weak flesh is specially addicted, and which stains the body and the soul, then the grace will depart leaving us entirely alone. Then the sorrow, coming to us instead of salvation and perfection, will come heavily, and sadness, depression, despair will be the biter result. In that case we have to do everything to bring back our heart to purity in true repentance.   The holy martyrs sang a song of joy when they cruelty tortured. So our heart will rejoice when by prayer we have drawn to us the comfort of grace, and keep it within by constant watch over us. Then our heart will pray when we will be among the misfortunes and terrible misery thanking God.   The man, who is purified by the Cup of Christ, is given the spiritual strength and can see clearly the Providence of God. This of course is invisible to the sinful mind which is not able to see beyond earthly events the eternity; to see God in His great works. This man can see this life like a quickly ending pilgrimage that leads to the eternal life for which we have been created.

    (This text is based on a speech by Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov)

23. WHAT THE ORTHODOXCHURCH

BELIEVES ABOUT DEATH

          One of the vital truths that we are confronted with is death that is a reality in our life. Usually we do everything to forget this reality. But there is no person who will not die. If we have that in mind first we shall prepare ourselves better by living a spiritual life and secondly we will stop being afraid of death. In Psalm 39:4-6 we read “Lord, let me know my end, what is the measure of my days; let me know how frail I am, my lifetime is as nothing before You…”   Many people ask the questions: Who created death? Where does it come from? We, Christians, have the answer clearly from the Holy Bible. In Wisdom of Solomon (1:13) we read: “God did not make death, and takes no pleasure in the destruction of any living thing: He created all things that they might have being alive forever”. Ezekiel also says: “For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, says the Lord God; so turn and live” (18:32).   Human beings were created by God the Holy Trinity according to His image and they had the destination to become “like God”. But they chose out of their free will to go in the opposite direction and instead of deciding to live forever they decided to die, they chose death instead of life, evil instead of righteousness, disobedience instead of obedience, and they destroyed their life. This exactly is the sin that brought death to human beings.   Death then is the result of human beings’ sin. They turned away from God, Who is the source of life. Death is the victory of the devil, the result of his destructive activity. If men had not sinned, they would not have died and their body would not have been separated from their soul to return to the dust. And the soul would not have been corrupted, losing power over its body.   So the sinful one brought death to all the generations, because the entire human race is united and we inherit the mortal nature from our ancestors. They, through the destruction of their nature, brought corruption and death to the whole world. We can read this in Genesis (ch.3) and in Paul’s Epistle (Rom.5:12-21). “Sin spread to all men because all men sinned”.   In Psalm 51:5 we read: “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me”. This means that all of us have inherited the sinfulness from our ancestors. Even the all-pure Virgin Mary, who gave birth to Christ in the flesh, could not escape the trap of death. In spite of all her innocence and spiritual perfection, she too needed salvation from death by her Son, and her spirit rejoiced in God her Savior (Luke 1:47).       Christ talks about death   While we, as human beings, try to forget about death, Jesus Christ talks about it repeatedly, because He has the greatest good news to share with us about how He defeated death by His own death in order to grant us the promise of everlasting life. His death liberates all mankind which is captive by death’s power (John 10:17-18, 12:27-35, Matt.16:21-23, 17:9-13). Jesus Christ came “from heaven, and was incarnate for us men and for our salvation” (as we recite in the Creed). He came to the world so that through His death and resurrection all men might be raised from the dead and live eternally in the Kingdom of God. This exactly is the Orthodox Christian faith.   In St. John’s Gospel (5:25-29) we read: “The hour is coming when all who are in the graves will hear the voice of the Son of God, and come forth, for those, who have done good, to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of damnation”. So it depends on us only if we will be resurrected to live in happiness. We can see all this in 1Corinthians ch.15:20-26, 52-57.   Jesus Christ says to each one of us: “Truly, truly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in Him Who sent me has eternal life; he does not come to judgment, but has passed from death to life” (John 5:24, 6:29-58). “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever believes in me shall never die” (John 11: 25-26).   Do we accept these words? Do we sincerely, believe what Jesus Christ says to us? If “yes”, then the whole essence of our Orthodox Christian life is to die with Christ to the sins and to pass through the bodily death with Him in order to be raised up “on the last day” in the Kingdom of God. By the power of Jesus Christ and the grace of the Holy Spirit, Christians can transform their death into an act of life. They can face the tragedy of death with faith in the Lord, and defeat the “last enemy”, death, by the power of their faith to the living God.   St. Paul says: “None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord, if we die, we die to the Lord, so whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living” (Rom. 14: 8-9).   If we are filled with faith in Christ, the tragedy of death can be transformed into victory. It is said that for a Christian, death is a movement. We move from one temporary room -which St. Paul calls a tent- to a permanent room, which shall be our life in Heaven, where it is our true home; it is a place where we belong. As the door closes on this life, God opens a new door to a heavenly life, a life with Him forever.   St. John Chrysostom summarizing the Christian’s attitude toward death writes: “When a dear one dies, the unbeliever sees a corpse, but the Christian sees a body asleep. The unbeliever says that the dead person has “gone”. We agree, but we remember where he has gone. He has gone where the Apostle Paul is, where Peter is, where the whole company of the Saints are. We remember that he will rise, not with tears of terror, but with splendor and glory”. Physical death, the separation of soul and body, which occurred as a result of sin, loses its fearful aspect for those who have been redeemed in Christ. “God made me. God loves me. God wants me to come home with Him”!

The burial of the fallen asleep

  In the Orthodox Church, we always bury the body of the person who has passed away. There is no doubt about it because we are taught since Christ’s crucifixion that the proper way to treat the dead is a reverent burial of the body in the context of Church funeral service. We never bury the body without this service, which as we know contains many prayers for those who have fallen asleep.   The prayers of the funeral service are full of deep theological meanings that mainly concern us who are living, and our preparation for this movement from this life. Usually we call this person who passed away not “dead” but “fallen asleep”, because his body is going to awaken in the last resurrection and will be united with the soul and live eternally.   We sing hymns and psalms to escort the dead on their way and to express gratitude to God. We wrap the body in a new cloth (the shroud), which symbolizes the new dress of incorruption.  We pour myrrh and oil on the body as we do at baptism. We accompany this with incense and candles, showing our belief that the person has been liberated from darkness and is going to the true light. We place the body in the grave towards the east, declaring the resurrection to come. We weep but not without hope, as we know what happiness is to come.

The Church prays for her departed children

  The Orthodox Church has special prayers offered for her departed children. The Church calendar provides many occasions when we are asked to face up to the fact of death and resurrection. Easter is such an occasion. Sunday is another, because every Sunday is a “little Easter” celebrating Christ’s victory over death. Every year, there are special Memorial services on Saturdays, the “Saturdays of the Souls”, which provide another opportunity for us to face up to death. These are the two Saturdays proceeding Great Lent and the Saturday before Pentecost. On these Saturdays the Divine Liturgy is celebrated and special prayers are offered for the departed ones.   We pray for the fallen asleep especially every Saturday since it was on the Sabbath day (the Saturday) that Christ lay dead in the tomb, “resting from all His work and trampling down death by death”.   At every Divine Liturgy the Church prays for the departed. They are commemorated in the (Proskomede) Preparation of the Divine Liturgy, in the Litany following the Gospel, and immediately after the consecration of the Holy Gifts. Also special prayer are read at Compline (night service), Midnight service, Vespers and Matins where the departed are always remembered.

Personal services for the departed persons

  In the Orthodox Church we have some special prayerful occasions for the persons who have departed.   1. The third day after the death of a faithful our Church has a special prayer service for the repose of his soul. The “Apostolic Constitutions” point out: “Let the third day of the departed be celebrated with psalms and readings and prayers, on account of Him Who arose in three days”. That is in honor of the Third-day Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.   2.  The ninth day.  On the ninth day after the death we offer prayers for the departed soul to be counted worthy to be numbered among the choir of the saints, through the prayers and intercessions of the nine ranks of angels. St. Simeon of Thessalonica says: “The ninth day is celebrated that the soul dwells together with the holy angels. These holy angels are the nine ranks and we pray for the soul to be among them who praise God the Trinity…”   3. The fortieth day. From earliest times the Church had commanded that the departed person be commemorated on the fortieth day. This is done in remembrance of the victory of Christ over Satan after He had spent forty days in fasting and prayer. St. Simeon also says: “The fortieth day is celebrated for the departed one because of the Savior’s Ascension, in the sense that the soul being caught away in the clouds, shall meet the judge and so being united with Him, should be with the Lord for ever” (1Thess.4:17).   4. The third, sixth and ninth months after the death we commemorate the departed person in order to pray to the Holy Trinity on behalf of the departed. The Holy Trinity creates a man and when he loses the body he returns to Him and he hopes to receive resurrection. We pray for him to find the way to resurrection.   5.  The anniversary. We pray to the Holy Trinity, Who is the Life of all and the Cause of being, that the soul of the departed one will rest in God Who is the Restoration of all and the Renewal of human nature. Generally with these services at those times we have the opportunity to pray for the departed persons and to show our love for them.  And God always accepts our love.

Why do we pray for the dead?

  Christianity is the expression of love. Praying for the dead it is an expression of our love for them. We ask God to remember our departed ones because they are beloved to us. Love relationships survive death and even transcend it. There is an inner need for a relationship with a beloved one to continue to be expressed even after he has died. Now there is even more need for a relationship, since physical communication is no longer possible. The Church encourages us to express our love for our departed brethren through memorial services and prayers.   The memory of the death of a loved one is very painful. That is why the Church helps us to cope with this pain by encouraging us to pray for them. This prayer is an opportunity for us to do something very positive for our loved persons and it helps to express our grief. Death may take our brethren out of sight but it certainly does not take them out of our mind, or out of our heart.   We continue to love them and think of them, as we believe they continue to love us and think of us. How can a mother forget a child who has passed over to the life beyond? The same love which led her to pray for that child when he lived will guide her to pray for him now.   As we pray for the departed we believe they continue to love us, remember us, and pray for us now that they are closer to God. We cannot forget the example of the rich man in Hades asking Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his brothers not to go to that place of torment. Though he had left this life, he did not cease to be concerned of his brothers who were still on earth.   Whether on earth or in heaven, the Church is a single family, one Body in Christ. Death changes the location but it cannot cut the bond of love. The Fathers of the Church say that our departed brothers experience a kind of spiritual relief as a result of the prayers of their loved people on earth.   We are certain that prayers do benefit also us who pray for the departed. The prayers remind us that we too are going to die; they strengthen faith in the life beyond; they nourish reverence toward those who have died; they help to build hope in divine mercy; they develop brotherly love among those who survive. They make us more diligent in getting ready for that ultimate journey which will unite us with our departed loved ones and lead us into the presence of God.   A very good habit is for parishioners to give to the priest a piece of paper with the names of the departed persons to be mentioned during the Divine Liturgy. Names may be given to the priest not only of the dead but also of the living.   The list of names should be submitted in two columns: one list marked LIVING IN THE LORD and one marked ASLEEP IN THE LORD. The list may be given to the priest before the Divine Liturgy because he commemorates them during the (Proskomide) Preparation of the Holy Gifts. So there is a special litany which is included to pray personally for departed beloved ones whose names are submitted to the priest by parishioners.

 24. LIFE BEYOND THE GRAVE

          What happens after our death? Does our life stop forever? Is there another life beyond the grave? People usually ask questions like these and are very eager to have the answers and to know what really happens after the moment we close our eyes in this world.  Many books are written on what happens after we die and they bring the subject of life after death to the attention of people. For Orthodox Christians the real evidence for life beyond the grave is to be found in God’s word only and no where else. The promise of life after death is assured safely by the resurrection of Jesus Christ who said. “Because I live, you shall live also”.   The Orthodox Church refers to the events of death, the end and the judgment of the world, the second coming of Jesus, the resurrection of the dead, the heaven and hell. Christian teachings tell us that the life we now live will not come to an end. Our years on earth, however many or few, are not the whole story. There is more ahead. There is an eternal life with God.   The decision we make about Christ, i.e., whether we receive Him or reject Him, determines whether we spend eternity with God in heaven or without Him in hell. For the unbeliever the end of the world may mean annihilation, destruction, and catastrophe. But for the Christian the end of the world means the beginning of eternity, the inauguration of a new and better life, the coming of the Kingdom of God for each of us personally.   Jesus Christ through His death and His resurrection has overcome sin and death. He shows us the way to a continuous eternal life. Death is not the end of our life on earth; it is the passing from earthly life to the eternal life. This faith is expressed so effectively in the Creed we recite frequently. There it is underlined exactly what we are waiting for in the future. We are waiting for the resurrection of the dead and eternal life.   This is the end. This is the purpose. This is the great goal toward which we are marching. If you drop the end of the Creed which talks about the coming of Jesus and the life of the world to come, you might as well stop reciting the rest of it, because it has no meaning left in it.   Fr. Basil of Stavronikita in his book “Isodikon” writes: “Christ for us men and our salvation came down from heaven. He came to conquer death and to bring us eternal life. And this eternal life is not a promise of happiness beyond space and time; it is not a mere survival after death or a prolongation of our present life. Eternal life is the grace of God which here and now illumines and gives sense to things present and to things to come, both to body and soul. It the life with God, it is what He desires for each one of us as the end point of our life”.   This is our Orthodox Church teaching that Jesus expressed so beautifully in His priestly prayer to the Father. “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given me, may be with me where I am, to behold my glory which You have given me in Your love for me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24).       The judgment   We hear many questions like these: What happens after a person dies? Is there an immediate judgment? Do we just sleep until the second coming of Jesus? The Orthodox Church teaches that after death a person experiences only a foretaste of the situation that will be received at the second coming of Jesus.   The Synod of Constantinople (672 AD) expressed our belief regarding the particular judgment as follows: “We believe that the souls of the departed are either in bliss (great happiness) or in suffering and sorrow as each one worked. After the general resurrection, when the soul is united to the body, each one will receive the full measure of joy due to him for the way in which he lived. So, after death we begin to experience a real foretaste of heaven or hell, but we shall have to wait for the second coming before we can receive the fullness of our reward.”   The judgment that takes place after death is called the “particular” or “intermediate” judgment. It is clear that the soul does not sleep during this time. The word “asleep” applies only to the body. This is why the place where the body is placed is called “cemetery”, a place where one sleeps. The soul, however, does not sleep after death. It is fully conscious, experiencing the presence of God.   When the time for the last judgment will come the bodies of all the dead people will be resurrected and the soul will be united to its body, the same body that it had while on earth. Then each one, in the presence of Jesus Christ, will receive the full joy, if he lived on earth according to God’s will and teaching, or the full condemnation as a consequence of his actions living on earth. In other words our judge will be our own actions, the way we spent our life on earth. So, after death we begin to experience a foretaste of heavenly life, which is paradise for the righteous and hell for the un-repented. And we have to wait for the last judgment in order to receive the fullness of heavenly happiness, to face the results of our actions and of our faith.   Many people ask: “Can there be anything like repentance after we die?”  The Orthodox Church teaches that the state of the soul, immediately after death, is unchangeable, that is, there can be no improvement or repentance beyond the grave. The place for such improvement is in this life. “I must work the works of him who sent me, while it is day,” said Jesus, “night comes, when no man can work” (John 9:4). In His mercy God gives us many chances to repent and return to Him during this life.   In the story of the rich man and Lazarus as told by Jesus Christ we see much of what we believe about life after death. When Lazarus died “he was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom”. This parable tells us that we are not alone at the moment of death. God sends His angels to carry us, to escort us, into His presence. In this life, Lazarus and the rich man are not asleep. They are very much alive. They remember their life on earth.   Abraham said: “Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish”.   The rich man in his great riches living on earth had ignored poor Lazarus dying of starvation on his doorstep. Now he was paying the price for his lack of love. “Being in torment… he called out, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue”. To show that there can be no repentance, no salvation beyond the grave, Abraham tells him “Between us and you a great gap has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.”   One cannot pass from hell to heaven beyond the grave that means there is no repentance. The time and place for that is only in this life. Jesus Christ calls us to faith and repentance today. For today, now is the day of salvation. We say that Christ is the judge, but it is we who pronounce judgment upon ourselves.   Anyone who is in hell, it is not because God has imprisoned him there, but because he himself has chosen to be. The lost in hell are self-condemned, self-enslaved. It has been rightly said that ‘the doors of hell are locked from the inside’.       The resurrection of the body   One of the events that will occur at the second coming of Jesus Christ is the resurrection of the dead. By resurrection of the dead we mean the raising of the bodies of all those who have died and the reunion of the body with the soul by the power of the Almighty God.   The resurrection of the body is essential because the body and the soul do not have a separated existence, the one apart from the other, but they exist together in the exercise in virtue or vice. So, quite rightly both are to live in eternity.   St. Paul says that our bodies, when they rise, will be incorruptible bodies like the body of the risen Christ. As a spiritual body it will no longer need the earthly necessities, and will not be sensitive to death. We must have in mind that the passages of the New Testament that deal with the resurrection of the dead and the general judgment do not give all the details about what will happen.   When trying to describe the resurrection of the dead, St. Paul uses an analogy from nature. He reminds us that when we sow grain, the seed must first “die” before it can produce new life. The same is true with the resurrection of body after death. St. Paul says: “It is sown a physical body, but it is raised a spiritual body (1Cor.15:42-44).   In the resurrection we shall not have our weak earthly body but a new body, yet there shall be continuity between them. It will be our present body but without weaknesses, transformed and renewed as St. Paul describes: “Lord Jesus Christ will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power which enables him even to subject all things to himself” (Phil.3:20).   Finally the questions: “How are the dead raised”?  “With what kind of body do they come?”, remain beyond human understanding, St. Paul says that it is “a mystery” (I Cor.15:51). The main truth is that God, in His own way, will transform us so that we may continue to live in constant fellowship with Him, glorifying Him through all eternity.   Both the Old and New Testaments agree that body and soul cannot be split apart. We are both soul and body. We are not just one or the other; we are both, and God will keep body and soul together for all eternity.  When God came to earth He did not take on only the human soul but also the human flesh. He came to save the whole man, the body and soul. This is the faith of the early Christians. This continues to be the faith of the Orthodox, Catholic and ApostolicChurch: that through His resurrection the Lord Jesus Christ has completely conquered death. As a result of His victory the dead will rise again “in Christ” to enjoy eternal life in spiritualized and transfigured bodies.       Paradise (Heaven)   In Holy Scripture we find the meaning of paradise expressed with the words: “heaven”, “kingdom of God”, “everlasting life”, “bosom of Abraham”. Paradise or heaven is not a place somewhere in the universe; it is a situation, a living experience.   St. Paul speaks of a contact he had with the glorious heavenly reality. He writes: “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up in the third heaven – whether in the body or out of the body I do not know – God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise – whether in the body or out of the body I do not know -God knows – and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter” (I Cor.2:9).   St. Paul is speaking here about himself. He speaks so carefully because he continued to be so astonished by the memory of the event that he could not believe that it actually happened, and he did not wish to be boasting to others about it. St. Paul had been given a vision of paradise, and he knew something special about the future beyond the grave.   That is why St. Paul tells us that the future of believers is glorious beyond imagination. “Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it ever entered into man’s imagination what things God has prepared for those who love Him”. So paradise is not a certain place, it is a kind of life, it is a situation. Paradise is to be with God “face to face”.   One of the great characteristics of life in Paradise will be joy. Jesus Christ Himself compared the kingdom of God to a marriage feast. The joy of the final stage of the kingdom of God overflows in the Gospels. For example at the birth of Christ, the angels proclaim: “I bring you good news of great joy” (Luke 2:10).   In His final discourse with the Apostles at the Last Supper, Jesus says, “These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full” (John15:11). In the early Church, “the disciples continued to be filled with joy, with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 13:52). Christians’ joy results from God’s constant presence in their midst.   This joy is not something that will pass. It will continue eternally in heaven. “Blessed are the pure of heart,” said Jesus, “for they shall see God.” Heaven is where this promise will be fulfilled. We shall enjoy the open vision of God. “We shall see Him as He is” (1John 3:2). The vision begins on earth.   At the Transfiguration the disciples were able to see the divine light that shone from the Person of Christ. St. Paul says that we are like spiritual mirrors that receive and reflect the glory of God. The Church Fathers tell us that man’s purpose in life is to be able to see the divine light as much as we are able.  We too become transfigured and progress slowly from glory to glory until we attain to the likeness of Christ (2Con.2:18).   The believer who walks with Jesus Christ on the road of life already has eternal life. “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life,” said Christ (John 6:54). Not “will have” but “has”! Heaven is a continuation of our communion with Christ that begins on earth.   We read in the Gospel (Luk.16:19-31) about the rich man and Lazarus. Reading about these two men we see that their identity remains after leaving this life. So our faith is that the personality will survive after our death, we have not any kind of changing – you will be you and I will be I.   When we leave this earth we take with us only ourselves, nothing else. Also the story about the rich man and Lazarus tells us that after death memory remains. The rich man was able to look back and see the life he had lived and to think about his brothers. Also after death recognition remains. This is an answer to the question whether we shall know our loved ones after death.       Hell, as the situation creating by humans   As paradise begins on earth so does hell, which is not something located in a certain place. It is a situation created by humans themselves. We are the ones who create hell when we say “no” to God and our life is far from our Creator the Holy Trinity. To exclude God from our lives and to live with selfishness ignoring the others is to be in hell. God did not create us for hell.   God created us for the Kingdom of heaven (paradise). We are the ones who create hell for ourselves through our prideful rebellion and disobedience. God became Human Being to set us free from hell. We see the Risen Christ in the Orthodox iconography of Easter icon smashing the gates of hell to pieces.   Having been created free, man cannot be forced into a union with God. God does not forgive those who do not want to be forgiven. Man is free to face the eternal consequence of either his “yes” or his “no” to God.   God does not want men to be far from Him. How can the God of love accept that even a single one of the creatures that He has made, should remain forever in hell far from Him? He wants everybody to be saved and if there are any who remain eternally in hell, God is also there with them.   In Psalm (139:7) we read: “If I go down to hell, You are there also”. So God is really everywhere. St. Isaac the Syrian says: “It is wrong to imagine that sinners in hell are cut off from the love of God. Divine love is everywhere, and rejects no one even the greatest sinner. But we on our side are free to reject divine love; we cannot, however, do so without inflicting pain on ourselves. And the more final our rejection is the more bitter our suffering is”.   Many times we love not God but ourselves only. Self-love is the negative of love, it is hell. Self-love signifies the end of all joy and happiness. Hell is not a place in space; it is not something outside but it is in ourselves, ourselves who are cut off from others and from God, it is selfishness. Hell is a situation and not a place, where God is not accepted. So we are the ones who create hell when we use the gift of free will that God gave us to say “no” to Him.

25. ANGELS IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH

          The guardian angel   Pointing to a child, Christ said: “Take heed that you despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven” (Matt. 18:10). This has given rise to the thought that children are angelic in nature and that when they die young they automatically become angels. This heresy has gone so far as to give birth to the idea that human beings generally, if very good, can become angels. There is no Scriptural authority for this strange belief, neither is this notion to be found in the New Testament Apocrypha, nor in the writings of the Fathers.   Jesus Christ quite clearly stated, when was speaking of man’s life after death that, “they are equal unto angels: and are the children of God, being the children of the Resurrection” (Luke 20:36). Equal to angels, yes, but not transformed into angels. The angels are of different race from men. They are spirits and were created angels, as we were created men, and not any other kind of animal or plant.   There is a powerful and profound order in God’s creation that cannot be upset. Therefore we need to return to the God-made Law and Order, and not to change it. Human beings may become the equal of angels, by virtue of the resurrection and through Christ Who ascended even above them, but human beins never become an angel.   The quotation about the children’s angel, taken in itself, would lead to the assumption that only the children have a guardian angel. But if we read it in Matthew 18, we shall see that Jesus was defining the qualifications demanded of us for heaven. To be humble-hearted, or humble-minded, is the best passport to God’s Kingdom. Christ called a little child unto Him and set him in the midst of men, and said: “Verily I say unto you, except you become as little children, you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matt. 18:2-4).   This was an answer to the question: “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”  Christ pointing out childlike qualities was not speaking of childishness, but of child-likeness. An inquiring mind, innocence and trust are the characteristics of children, who do not know false pride, nor false humility but they have really these virtues. Christ again and again reassures us of being God’s children. It is just under this qualification of His children that a guardian angel is given to us.   Christ’s words actually pinpoint the old belief in a guardian angel. In the Old Testament we have many events of the presence of angels to people. According to Daniel (10:13), the guardian angel is given especially to the nations, as the angel promised to Moses: “My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest” (Ex. 33:14). Isaiah, too, speaks of this angel: “In all their afflictions he was afflicted and the angel of His presence saved them” (Is. 63:9). David saw the angel protecting all the truly faithful. “The angel of the Lord encamps round about them that fear Him” (Psalm 33:8).   Jesus Christ makes it clear that each one from us has his own angel. The Jews saw salvation through the community of Israel and therefore they saw a collective or communal angel. But Christ taught that the community was redeemed through each individual, and in that meaning each of us, as God’s particular child, has a personal angel to raise up our human dignity and lead us to God’s way.  We have a special prayer to guardian angel: “O Holy Angel, attendant of my wretched soul and of mine afflicted life, leave me not a sinner nor depart from me …”       The angels during our death and after it   In the hour of death the angels are with us and accompanying us. Christ tells us this in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus the beggar at his gate: “The beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s boson…”(Luke 16:19-31). From these words we understand that our guardian angel is continuously with us, until our last breath. He has accompanied us a long way, during the first steps of babyhood, through the childhood and got us out of many difficulties.   The angel who has watched us through the years of our earthly life with all its ups and downs, now, at the time of death, is carrying us to the very threshold of the new beginning, he passes us over angelic hands. In any case, we do not go on that last journey alone. An angel is with us. This should be a true consolation to us when watching the repose of those we love, or when we ourselves get prepared to leave this world. The Church has prayers for the dying, in which she invokes the presence of an angel of light to accompany the departing soul.   Christ also spoke of the angels in the parable of the tares among the wheat (Matt. 13:24-41) and He points out that, evil thoughts and impulses are planted by the enemyin the midst of the good seeds. The tares will be gathered together at harvest time, and they will be burned. Christ says, “The reapers are the angels”.   Jesus Christ said: “At the end of the world the angels shall come forth and separate the wicked from among the just” (Matt. 13:49) He is speaking of His Second Coming. In the Gospel (Matt.24:3; Mark.13:27) we read: «And He (the Son of Man) shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds».   The angels of themselves have no foreknowledge of events; they are only trying to do God’s will. When describing the events of those last days, Christ promises us His witness if we are true to His word. “Also I say to you, whoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of Man also confess before the angels of God” (Luke12:8).  So the angels wait to see our attitude towards Christ. If we are true to our Lord they will show friendship to us. Jesus Christ says, “He that denies me before men shall be denied before the angels of God” (Luke12:9). St. Mark uses the word “ashamed” (Mark 8:38), in place of “deny”.       The devil and his angels   Any discussion of angels would be incomplete unless we speak also of the devil and his angels, the fallen angels. The belief in demonic presence was a general one in Christ’s day, a presence which many today consider obscure, and superstitious.  Christ said: “For which is easier, to say, Your sins be forgiven you; or to say, arise and walk?” (Matt. 9:5).  He spoke of the woman who had an infirmity for eighteen years, as being bound by Satan (Luke 13:16). He claimed she had as much right to be freed from him, as any ox or ass had to be loosened from the stall and led to watering. So Christ considered His healing a freeing from evil, and only God’s forgiveness could accomplish this.   Jesus Christ freed people not by denying the existence of evil, but by recognizing the validity of the existence of sin and the identity of its author, the devil, whom he called “a liar, and the father of it” (John 8:44). When the Pharisees accused Christ of casting out devils by Beeszebul, He said: «If Satan is cast out by Satan he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?» That is why we need Jesus Christ Who says: “He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathers not with me scatters abroad” (Matt.12:24-30). It would be good if we would recall these words often.   There are other habits of devils we often have experienced, but not always recognized. Some times we feel very self-assured and self-satisfied because we have some spiritual experience and the devil is there to take advance of this and to fight us. We have always to be on guard against our spiritual enemy and not rest upon our success. St. Peter calls Satan: “A roaring lion seeking whom he may eat” (I Pt.5:8). That is why we must keep our soul filled with the Spirit of God.   There is no danger as great as spiritual satisfaction. In the parable of the tares and the wheat Jesus plainly says that the bad seed is planted by Satan and in the parable of the sower gathers the good seed from our hearts. And if we follow Satan we shall hear Christ saying: «Depart form me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:41).   One of the characteristics of a believer, which sets him apart, is that he needs not fear Satan: «And these signs shall follow them that believe in my name shall they cast out devils»  (Mark 16:17). The devils are well aware of the power of Christ, and they are crying for His mercy, for permission to go somewhere else. Christ allows them to enter the herd of pigs nearby. It promptly rushed down to the sea to death, not because Christ willed it, but because evil is self-destructive. Evil destroys whatever it touches and, finally, destroys itself. Those to whom the devil enters he finally drives into the sea of despair.       The Joy of the Angels   After telling the two stories of the lost sheep and that of the mislaid silver-piece (Luke15:1-10), Christ says: “Likewise I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repents”. The angels rejoice and receive each one of us who repents. Another interpretation to these two parables is that the ninety-nine sheep or nine pieces of silver are the angels who did not fall and are in no need of redemption. But the lost sheep is our world for which Christ left all the others to come in search of.   To believe in the holy angels and to trust our guardian is unquestionably part of Christ’s teaching. His words authorize our confidence in them and justify our humble prayer: «Angel of the Lord, my holy guardian, who are given me of God to protect me, I earnestly pray to you enlighten me this day, and from all harm protect me, in all good things advise me, and guide me»  Amen. (Prayer to guardian Angel).

26. SALVATION,

FROM THE ORTHODOX POINT OF VIEW

           Our salvation   After creation God looked at what He had done and “saw that it was good” (Gen.1: 25). God is Love and out of His great love He wanted to share it with the human beings, man and woman. So He made them “in His own image and likeness”, with the potentiality to become “like Him”, and gave them the opportunity to grow into full fellowship with Him. He gave them dominion over the earth and every living thing. So creating them He did not want slaves or robot-type creatures that would love Him only because they ought to do so. That is not the expression of free love.  God gave people free will, the ability to make a choice, and a special way to prove their love.   God told Adam and Eve not to eat from the “tree of knowledge good and evil” (Gen.2:17). This commandment was a test, rather an opportunity for men to exercise their freedom. They had the freedom to choose obedience to God or not. And they decided to disobey. The first men refused to try to become like God through Him, obeying Him, and instead they attempted to become gods without God, and lost their way to Him through disobedience.   As descendants of Adam and Eve, we are in the same situation of fall, and we need to be saved. Our purpose in life is to get back to God, to return to the blessed state Adam and Eve lost through their disobedience. This is what salvation is, the return to the life with God, to become gods by the divine grace.       Salvation in Jesus Christ   In the Creed we say, “I believe in One Lord Jesus Christ…. Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate…” We confess our faith to Jesus Christ who was incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary “for us men and for our salvation”.   The salvation of the world, its redemption and deliverance from the bond of sin and death, is only through Jesus Christ, Who is our Savior. “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).   The purpose of Christ’s incarnation is clearly expressed in the words of Saint Athanasios: “God became man that we might become gods”. St. Basil the Great described man as a creature “who has received the order to become a god”. In fact only God can save the whole world and us. Jesus Christ came among us to fulfill this purpose.  He became man in order to enable us to share His divine glory: “Our Lord Jesus Christ, though He was rich, yet for your sake became poor, that through His poverty you might become rich” (2 Cor.8: 9).   Our faith says that God has acted in history to permit us to participate in His love and His goodness, to be citizens of His Kingdom. This is expressed beautifully in the prayer of the Divine Liturgy which says: “You have not ceased to do all things until You brought us to heaven and granted us Your Kingdom”.   The whole purpose of the incarnation of the Son of God was to restore humanity to fellowship with God. And the fundamental vocation and goal of every person is to share in the life of God.  We have been created by God to live in fellowship with Him. The descent of Jesus Christ has made possible the human ascent to the Father through the work of the Holy Spirit. Orthodoxy believes that each Christian is involved in a process toward God, which is known as theosis or deification (God’s likeness) through Jesus Christ.   Jesus Christ provides the way for us to return to God’s life. He bridges the “gap” between God and humanity because He is fully God and is born fully human. As God, He brings us back into a living relationship with God our Father by filling us with Holy Spirit. As human, Christ lays down His life for us so that He might raise us up to new life in His heavenly Kingdom. So in our Church, the final goal of every Christian is to become gods in terms of attaining deification or union with God, to become “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4).   Salvation is a life-long process and we Christians are in the continuous process to salvation. In the Holy Bible we find many verses related to the concept of salvation as a life-long process instead of a momentary decision: Rom.11:21-22; Col.1:21-23; 2 Pet.2:4,20-22; 3:20-21; 1 Cor.i5:2; 1Tim.1:19; Jams 5:19-20; 2 Jn.8; Phil. 2:12,16; 3:12,16; Mt.24:12-13; 25:1-30; 10:22; Heb.2:1; 3:6,14; 4:1,11   .

How do we follow Jesus Christ?

Jesus Christ came to save us from sin and death and to lead us to deification. He asks us to believe in Him and to put our faith into action. He offers Himself as a living example of life as this life ought to be lived. He asks us to repent, to change our mind and our life by turning away from our sinful past and to go straight forward to that which lies ahead, “I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead. I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:13-14).

  Consequently, we are called to live like He lived, with real love and concern for one another, to submit like He submitted, to give ourselves totally to God so that He might work His miracles within us. To think like He thought, doing and saying nothing without first seeking God’s guidance. Salvation is found in the union of: faith – our acceptance of Jesus Christ as the Lord, the Master, and the Savior of our life – and action the application of our faith in our daily life.       Salvation is more than forgiveness of sins   Salvation does not only mean justification or forgiveness of sins, but it means the renewing and restoration of God’s image in man, the lifting up of humanity through Christ into the very life of God.   According to our Orthodox belief, the sins of a man are forgiven in the Sacrament of Confession because of Christ’s sacrifice, and the offering of His life upon the cross. In the Scriptures we read that Christ “paid the price” for the world to be cleansed of all iniquities and sins (1Cor.6:20,7:23). In Orthodox theology the word of “payment” is rather understood as a metaphorical and symbolical way of saying that Christ has done all necessary things to save mankind enslaved to the sin and death. He “paid the price” have not a legalistic meaning, but creat the conditions through which man might receive the forgiveness of sins and eternal life by dying and rising again in Him to newness of life (Rom.5-8; Gal.2-4).   Jesus Christ revealed to men the way of their salvation through His life as Man among the human beings. He is our Savior but we ourselves have to follow a certain way to enter God’s Kingdom, and to be saved. We must be “born again”, as Christ, says in St. John’s Gospel (3:3). In His conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus Christ says: “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God” (John 3:5). It is a birth brought by water and the Holy Spirit.  From the beginning the Church has recognized “water” to be the Baptism and “the Spirit” to be the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the new birth is being joined to Christ in Baptism and receiving the Holy Spirit through anointing in Chrismation.   Salvation, then, is more than forgiveness of sins, more than a mental acceptance of Jesus Christ as a Savior.  Christ forgives our sins, but He also opens us the gates of His eternal Kingdom. In salvation we are given union with God through Christ, a full relationship with the Holy Trinity, and the restoration of our full humanity. So salvation means liberation from sin, death and the union with God. That leads to a rich vision of Christian life which can be expressed well by St. Peter who says in his second Epistle: “We are becoming partakers of the divine nature”. Saint Basil the Great also affirmed it saying: “The creature who has received the order to become a god”.   Through “partaking of the Divine nature” we reach deification. Deification is a spiritual pilgrimage in which each person becomes even more perfect, more holy, more united with God. Deification is not a static relation, nor does it take place only after death. On the contrary it is a process of love toward God that begins for each Christian with the Sacraments of Baptism and Chrismation, and all the other Sacraments and continues throughout the life, which is to come.       The understanding of salvation   In many Western Christians (since the sixteen century) there is an understanding that salvation depended on human works and not upon the grace and mercy of God. The Reformers also had as a slogan: “salvation is by faith alone”. In Orthodox Church thought there was not this discussion of faith versus works.   Since the Apostolic time it was settled that salvation was granted by the mercy of God to those baptized in Christ and were called to believe in Him and do good works. So the Orthodox understanding of salvation is something more than simply making a decision or saying a prayer of forgiveness. It cannot come only from the efforts of a believer, but from God, from His loving grace.   a) Salvation – from the Orthodox point of view – comes through faith in Christ, through receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit and needs the continuous attempts by the human beings. The Holy Spirit leads us to the knowledge of God the Father and to the union with Him. The Orthodox believer sees the salvation as a kind of cooperation between human beings and God.   b) Orthodoxy emphasizes the fact that it is God’s mercy, and not only our faith, which saves us. “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God’ (Rom.5:1-2). It is God who makes the New Covenant with us, and we freely decide to accept it or not.   c) Salvation by faith is dynamic and not static. For Orthodox Christians, faith is living, dynamic, continuous and never static or occasional. Faith is not something a Christian exercises only at one critical moment, expecting it to cover all the rest of his life. True faith is continuously present in an active life. It is not just a theoretical decision, but it is a way of life.   If we understand salvation as a road toward deification, it becomes clear that for an Orthodox Christian salvation does not only come with a decision, it does not occur in an instant. Salvation is a life-long journey. St. Paul tells us that we must “work out” our salvation, and he describes the Christian life as a continuous struggling to salvation. Salvation is a constant moving towards deification, toward becoming like Christ, towards receiving the fullness of God’s life.       Some points on salvation from the Holy Bible   The Holy Scripture speaking about man’s salvation in Jesus Christ gives some dimensions of the meaning of salvation.       1. Salvation is a hope.     In the first Epistle to Thessalonians we read: “Let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation” (5:8).  We, the Christians, are called to make ourselves ready to meet the Lord. We have to be watchful all the time; to have faith and love and always the hope of salvation. We have to hope that at the end the mercy of God shall give us salvation.   Also in the Epistle to Hebrews St. Paul says: “We share in Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end” (3:14). So union with Christ our Savior belongs to those who stay firmly in their faith to the end. Salvation is not given to those who stop with an one-time profession of faith, but to those who continue through all their life to struggle for it.   “The Orthodox Christian on the road to salvation, the road which leads to personal unity with God, must constantly find himself between fear and hope. Fear restrains us, yet at the same time it pushes us towards God. Hope fills us with power and draws us towards the love of the Father” (Archimandrite Chrysostom in his book: “Partakers of divine Nature”).   2. Salvation through faith.   In St. Paul’s Epistle to Romans we read: “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that He rose from the dead, you shall be saved” (10:9). And in the same chapter (verse 13) we also read: “For every one who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved”.   Here we have the salvation as a future event (“shall be saved”) with some presuppositions. St. Paul says that: (a) With our mouth we must confess and (b) with our heart we must believe. The mouth confesses the Lord Jesus, (the Savior and the heart believes that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead and through His incarnation and His death saved us. Here we have: believing and confessing, which lead us to salvation.       3. Salvation through faith and actions.   In the Gospel according to St. Matthew we read: “Not every one who says to me, Lord, Lord shall enter the Kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven” (7:21). Here is clearly emphasized the necessity of actions. Not only faith to God, but doing also the will of God is needed for our salvation.   Faith and actions are the “two legs to walk properly”; the “two oars (rows) to row (pull) the boat”. So salvation comes after having these two: faith and deeds, and out of God’s mercy and grace.       4. Salvation is not easy.   In St. Matthew’s Gospel we read: “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is difficult which leads to life, and there are few those who find it” (7:13-14).  This description of the two ways and the two gates is referring to the end of the age; to our salvation. We during our life, struggle against sins and weaknesses, as well as against the forces of evil. So the way to salvation is not easy. Entering the Kingdom of God involves difficult labor and continuous struggle.   For our salvation we always have to watch, to be careful to see the temptations and to be ready to fight. St Paul says: “Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (I Cor.10: 12). That is why in our worship we so frequently call Jesus Christ to save us, to help us in our struggle. We repeat many times: “Lord save us” (“Kyrie eleison”).       5. Salvation is a process   The fullness of the truth, as preserved by the Orthodox Church, presents a complete and balanced picture of cooperation between man and God, for salvation through Christ, “which is simultaneously past, present and future”. Bishop Gerasimos says: “In order for Christ to save His people He ought to be divine and human being. He ought to be God in order to save, and man in order salvation can be real on behalf of mankind and not a salvation coming merely from God, from above only, as a sort of magical salvation.” So for our salvation we have to co-operate with God.   Those who say: “I am saved,” and do nothing for their salvation, understand salvation as an one-step event. They define salvation as something that happens at a precise moment in one’s life. The Scriptures, however, point out that salvation is a life-long process: while we place our faith in Jesus Christ and show that faith through our life. We will be saved at the end of our earthly life if we want to be, and if we want, we have to start working out our salvation now.   There are some people who say: “I have believed I shall be saved.” It is true if the faith joins the actions, the good deeds. That is indeed true faith, which does not deny in action what is professes in word.  For this St. Paul says of certain false faithful: “They profess that they know God; but in their works they deny Him.” (Tit.1: 16). St.   John also says: “He, who says that he knows God, and keeps not His commandments, is a liar and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:4).   There are those who confess the so-called instant salvation theory, and base this theory on what St Paul says in his epistle to Romans: Bishop Kallistos in his book “The Orthodox way” says: “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved”. The erroneous belief in this theory is that it proclaims only the oral faith which gives the right to say, “I am saved!” This theory is also commonly called “justification by faith alone”.   If we accept the instant salvation, the necessity for personal growth towards the image of God, following Jesus’ example, can be lost. Believing in our given salvation we do not make any attempt to accomplish our faith with our deeds. After the proclamation of faith, good works will naturally follow, and the Holy Spirit will effect a change in one’s life that freely decides to work for growing in Christ’s image. Here we seriously take into consideration the human free will and the person’s constant attempt.   When Jesus Christ healed the blind man said to him: “go and wash in the pool of Siloam” (John 9:1-7). He obeyed Christ’s command and his sight was restored. So God’s plan for man’s salvation is through belief in Christ, but requires proof of man’s free acceptance of it and his actions to be based on this belief.   The Orthodox faithful does not just say he believes; he proves it by his actions (works). Man’s positive action, or attempt at action, confirms his belief, and he accepts the Holy Spirit Who helps him to grow in Christ’s image. His grace fills the one who believes and works accordingly, justifies him and sanctifies him (Rom.3:23-24).   The way to prove our faith is through love; feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, visit the imprisoned (Matt.25:31-46). Doing God’s work must become a way of life, the life in Christ, and must touch all aspects of our daily activity. In our mind must always be the question, “In this situation, what Christ wants me to do?” Then we have to try to act accordingly. Real love, constant prayer and Sacramental life in Church are the certain way which leads us to the “likeness of God”, the goal of our life.   Eternal salvation is closely connected with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ which is still to come. We have to remember that and to work toward our salvation without any delay, because none of us knows how much time we have left in this life. So we should live every day of our life, as it is the Second Coming of Jesus Christ was to take place tomorrow. St. Paul says: “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Cor.6: 2).

27. IMPORTANCE OF ΤΗΕ DIVINE

WORSHIP AND OUR ΡARTICIPΑΤΙΟΝ ΙΝ ΙΤ

          When we are referring to the Divine Worship, we are talking about the supreme expression of the link of the faithful with the One God the Holy Trinity. Divine Worship is the public prayer of the people of God.  Those who adore together the Living God are in the unbreakable bond of His love. People with the same faith, gathering in the church building, and with the grace of the Holy Spirit, worship the Trinitarian God. The church building is especially consecrated for this purpose of worshiping God.   This purpose of gathering of the participants is one and unique: to worship the One True God. That is why there is need for a special building, a temple, which will be the revelation of God’s great love Who offered Himself for the salvation of the human beings. The church building is a place where the Holy Spirit will be descended “upon us and upon our gifts”, as the priest calls the Holy Spirit to come down to us during the consecration of the Holy Gifts.   After the Pentecost, the multitude who believed in Jesus Christ, were united with “one heart and one soul” and they had all things common (Acts 4:32). Besides, it is not by chance that the event of Pentecost occurred when the disciples who “were all in one accord in one place” (Acts 2:1). This phrase expresses perfectly the agreement of those gathered and united worshiped One God.   Frequently different people express the idea, that faith is an individual matter and so one can pray by oneself somewhere else than in the church building. They say: “Church attendance and participation in worship should be leaving to the freedom of the individual to decide”. This is not correct; it is against the faith of the Church. The non-participation of the faithful in Divine worship is totally unknown in the Church since the early times of Pentecost.   Any faithful, after his baptism, becomes a part of the Body of Christ, the Church. And as a part he must be in unity with the Body, he cannot stay apart because alone he will die spiritually. So any real faithful person must stay united with the others in the common Worship. A faithful being in unity with the Body of the Church is fulfilled with the grace of God when ful1y participates in the Divine Worship and particularly when Divine Liturgy is celebrated, the bloodless sacrifice of the Lamb of God, for the life and salvation of the whole World.   Worshipping God particularly means a conscious participation in the Divine Liturgy as well as in the other Sacraments of the Church and any sacred service and prayer. The central act of the Orthodox Church worship is in the whole Divine Liturgy which penetrates our whole life. From our participation in the Divine Worship we get strength and inner help for our daily life. Our life, every day actions, thoughts, and the reactions to every day problems, are obviously changed from our participation in Divine Worship and from our personal preparation for receiving Holy Communion as frequently as possible.

Celebrating the Divine Liturgy

  We are going to speak about this great event we have in our life: the celebration of the Divine Liturgy, which is the heart of our Orthodox Worship.   The Divine Liturgy is the expression of God’s love for human beings, because in the Divine Liturgy we are invited to the Last Supper of our Lord Jesus Christ here on earth. Christ Himself is the HOST. He invites us to eat and drink His Body and Blood.. He, calling us to this Supper, uses the same words: “Take, eat; this is my body”,“Drink from it all of you, for this is my blood…” (Mat 26-28).   The priest, holding the Holy Chalice, comes out of the Altar and calls us: “With fear, faith and love draw near”. But in reality it is Jesus Christ Who comes to us (each one of us) and invites us to this Great Supper. It depends on our desire to go near and to be united with Him. If we accept His invitation we are going forward. In His love God came to us. We freely respond by going to Him. Liturgy is not complete unless we take part in the Holy Communion. “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and Ι in him”, said Christ.   Do we listen to Him always? Why do we prefer, sometimes, to stay apart and not going forward to receive Him in order to live? This is something we have to ask sincerely ourselves. Do we know exactly why we disobey to that invitation of God Himself? And let us ask also ourselves: Do we are properly prepared to accept this invitation? Of course we are never worthy to come to Christ, to take Him in our heart. We come only because He can make us worthy. We come forward in obedience to Christ Who invites us, and at the same time we believe inside ourselves that we are unworthy.   We are nothing before God. We are praying: “Ι am not worthy Master and Lord, to receive you in me… But do You make me worthy to be filled with the joy of You”.  God in His great love for us feeds us with His own Body and Blood, just as a mother feeds her child, not with other food, but with her very own milk, which is her own blood. God gives Himself to us through the bread and wine, which have changed during the moment of consecration into His Body and Blood. They are real Body and Blood of Christ even we, out of our weakness, we taste bread and wine. It is because we could not bear to taste Flesh and Blood.   The priest is praying together with the congregation to the Holy Spirit to come and “make this bread, the precious Body of Christ”(Amen) and “that which is in this Chalice precious Blood of Christ”(Amen). “Changing them by Your Holy Spirit” Amen, Amen, Amen. All the people in the congregation must say: Amen, all these five Amen. Because they are actively participated in what takes place. They are not passive witnesses, but active participants.   From the other side He Who performs the mystery is not the priest neither the people in the congregation, but is Christ Himself, “Who offers and He is offered”. The active participation in the Divine Liturgy, the receiving of Holy Communion, is essential, because by it we can be kept alive spiritually.

Preparation for receiving Holy Communion

  We need a special preparation to participate to the most special Supper we are invited, to receive Holy Communion. Bishop Paul of Finland writes: “At the Divine Liturgy, when you see others going to Holy Communion, do not join the group just because you do not want to look different from others. Going to Holy Communion always implies that you wish to do so and that you have already made the decision before going to church. Also, you have to prepare yourself before going that day to the church to participate to the Divine Liturgy”.   Prayer is a way for preparation. We have to pray for the grace of repentance; to have this repentance in ourselves and to feel really unworthy to receive Holy Communion. There are many and very nice prayers for receiving the Holy Communion. The Divine Liturgy contains such prayers. St. Paul says that Holy Communion is indeed true communion of Christ. He says: “Let each man examine himself and so eat of this Bread and drink from this Cup” (1Cor.11:28).   Self-examination is the inside searching of ourselves, finding our motivations of our actions and checking the direction of our spiritual life. Am Ι moving towards God or away from Him? What is my attitude towards others? Is there Christian love in me? Do Ι love the others? Do Ι repent sincerely? etc. When we find sins in us we go first to confession and on1y then, with father confessor’s blessing, we go for Holy Communion.   If you simply feel unworthy in every aspect, do not hesitate. Holy Communion is precisely for us the unworthy people. It is not for those who feel worthy and approach the Holy Cup with self-satisfaction and some kind of arrogance. Holy Communion is given “for the remission of sins and for life everlasting”. The only thing we must have in mind is to feel humbly and not be selfish persons.   Fasting is the preparation not on1y for the soul, but for the body also. Before Holy Communion is a way to be prepared for taking Jesus Christ in us. Complete fasting on the morning before going to the Divine Liturgy – not eating or drinking anything. (It is necessary to sacrifice… the cup of tea…). It is also good, if you are able to do without the evening meal the night before, or it must be very light. We avoid eating meat at the previous day. “So we may transform our hunger to spiritual hunger and thirst, and wait to be satisfied at the Eucharistic Table with Holy Communion”, as St. Basil says.   If there are some special problems we have in our life, for example, the marriage as a Sacrament in the Church or other similar problems, we have to consult the parish priest about that in confession or in counseling, and he, according to the Bishop’s orders, can advice us.

Practical points for receiving Holy Communion

  * The first thing we can mention is that we have to arrive early to the church for the Divine Liturgy. There is a Church Canon that forbids us to arrive late at the service or to leave before the dismissal. It also says that people arriving late to the Divine Liturgy should not receive Holy Communion.   * If we are going to receive Holy Communion, we have to leave our seats and come in front immediately when the priest comes out with the Holy Chalice.   * We come one by one with jointed palms, as a sign of submission, and waiting to receive the Holy Communion. Approaching the priest we make the sign of the cross properly, open well our mouth and wait for priest to commune us.   * When the priest gives the Holy Communion to each person he must call him by his Christian name. “The servant of God (name) partakes of the precious Body and Blood of Christ”. We say loudly our name and open our mouth well. St. Chrysostom says: “When the priest is giving you the Holy Mystery, do not think that it is the priest who does so. It is Christ’s Hand which is stretched out to you”.   * Receiving the Holy Communion we have to clean carefully our mouth with the red cloth that the priest holds, make the sign of the cross and a bow and go back to our seat.   * Return to seat is the returning back from heaven to earth, to our home, to our everyday life. But as we return we are different from what we were when we came from our homes. Now we have received Holy Communion that is “we have seen the true light. We have received the Holy Spirit and we have found the true faith”, as the choir is sings. We have in us the New Life we are strong.   St. Chrysostom says: “We come in sadness, and we leave in joy. We come hungry, and we leave filled with the Bread of Life. Now Christ sends us back as witnesses of what we have seen and heard. Now we are really His people. He is in us and we are in Him”.

How frequently should we go to Holy Communion?

  Daily; this exactly was the practice of the Christians in the EarlyChurch. The believers used to gather in the church to receive Holy Communion in accordance with the Lord’s commandment. St. Basil writes: “We receive Holy Communion four times each week (Sunday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday), but it would be most useful to do it everyday and receive Christ’s Body and Blood”. At this period, we have the information from the Church history that the Divine Liturgy was celebrated every day and the faithful received Holy Communion daily.   Later on 5th century, when the Great fast of Lent was established, the celebration of the Divine Liturgy was restricted to Saturdays and Sundays. But the need of the faithful to receive Holy Communion frequently led to the development of the Liturgy of the Pre-sanctified Gifts so that Holy Communion would be possible. Unfortunately this correct understanding of the need of Holy Communion is lost, and the faithful today hesitate to receive the Gifts of Life. Some people think that it is enough to go for Holy Communion only once a year! It is necessary to go back to the Church original roots. Fasting and confession are very good means for our preparation for Holy Communion, and more than that we have to believe that Holy Communion is our life. And it is the surest way for us to achieve the union with our Lord Jesus Christ (John 6:31-50, 1Cor.11:23-29).

Why we use bread and wine?

  Jesus said: “I am the living bread… if one eats of this bread he will live forever and the bread which Ι shall give for the life of the world is my flesh” (John6:51). “The Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread… He broke it and said: Take it this is my body…” (John 6:53-54). Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood you have no life in you…”   We use bread because it symbolizes Christ “Who is the living bread“. The bread we use is round (circular) because it symbolizes the eternity or infinity. Christ is infinite and eternal in duration. Wine comes from grapes and must be red. Because Christ said: “I am the real vine”. The red color signifies the blood. We use also water mixed with wine in the Holy Cup, because it reminds us of the blood and water which ran from Christ’s side on the Cross.

How do bread and wine change into Christ’s Body and Blood?

  The Orthodox tradition has not attempted to explain in a scholastic way how the bread and wine change into Christ’s Body and Blood. In the Divine Liturgy it is described that the bread and wine become the true Body and Blood of Christ through the operation of the Holy Spirit. In that case we have not any change in the appearance of the bread and wine.   The bread and the wine are Body and Blood of Christ regardless of what we see taste with our bodily senses. At that moment of communion we receive the real Body and the real Blood of Jesus Christ. So the person who believes receives Christ Himself and not simply the elements he sees. To anyone who receives Holy Communion without faith apply the following words said by St. Paul: “He who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner, he eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s Body” (1Cor.11: 29).

28. EXTERNAL SIGNS OF WORSHIP

IN THE ORTHODOX CHURCH       

Basic Liturgical rites

  Orthodox worship has its own special practices that are good for us to know. The Divine Liturgy is a sacred action, i.e. an order of movements or practices, and not only readings and prayers. The community, just as an individual, prays and worships God not in words only, but in certain bodily representations and movements. So there are several basic rites, which we find in all liturgical services and which are direct and natural expressions of human piety.   Whole man, i.e. the soul and the body, takes part in worship, because the whole man has been assumed by the Son of God in His Incarnation and must be redeemed for God and for His Kingdom.  Therefore the various positions of the body in worship have a liturgical significance and they are expressions of worship.

1) Standing, sitting, kneeling, prostration.

  Standing is the basic liturgical position (“let us stand aright”) because we have been redeemed in Christ, given back our true human stature, raised from the death of sin and from the submission to the sinful part of our nature. So the most appropriate posture of worship for Orthodox Christians is standing. In the Gospel we read: “When you shall stand to pray, forgive if you have anything against anyone” (Matt.11:25). Standing is the expression of our reverence towards the Resurrected God. By the 20th Canon only the aged and the unable were allowed to sit at certain parts of the services. The seats in the church were only for those in need.   Archbishop Paul in his book “The Faith we hold” says: “When we enter an Orthodox church we notice that the people stand and usually there are just a few seats for those who are unable to stand. Standing in church is the most natural position for prayer. It is something like a symbol, to show our reverence for God”.   During the Church services, no other position is recommended except standing. No kneeling or prostrations are permitted on the Lord’s Day (Sunday), when we commemorate Christ’s Resurrection. So the worshippers generally stand. And this is not only out of respect for the Lord, but also because standing is the most natural position for man in his smallness as he prays to God in His holiness.   Sitting for those who cannot stand during the services because of illness or disability is also limited to the teaching parts of the service (reading Apostle, Psalms, Sermon, etc.). We always stand when we are listening to the Gospel. We stand definitely during the Small and Great Entrances, the reading of the Creed, the Sanctification of the Holy Gifts, the Lord’s Prayer, the distribution of the Holy Communion, whenever the priest gives a blessing and from the exclamation: “With fear of God and faith…” to the end of the Liturgy. Standing and not sitting, during the services, is never wrong, it is rather preferable.   Kneeling is one of the external sings of devotion. It is the bending upon the knees with the body erect and the head bowed. By kneeling down we acknowledge our own insignificance and smallness in God’s sight. St. Basil says: “Every bending of the knees and rising again is an outward act by which we express that through sin we were cast down to earth and through Christ’s death and resurrection, were again recalled into Heaven”.   We kneel, falling down to the ground, during the Liturgy of the Pre-sanctified Gifts when the Great Entrance takes place. This is because the Holy Gifts are already consecrated and the priest, who passes in front of us with a covered head, holds the Body and the Blood of Jesus Christ. We kneel during the consecration of the Holy Gifts, during ordinations and other services when the priest instructs us.   Prostrations. There are two forms of prostration, the “great” prostration, (falling down on one’s face), and the “small” one. The great prostration is made so: First we sign ourselves with the cross, and then we drop to our knees and touch our forehead to the ground supporting ourselves with our hands and then immediately stand upright.   Usually we make great prostrations, because of their penitential character, during great Lent, and especially in connection with the prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian. We do not use kneeling and prostrations from Easter Sunday to Pentecost. In the little prostration we bend towards the ground from the waist at the same time reaching towards the floor with the fingers of the right hand and immediately we return to our upright position.   Bowing.  We also have the bowing of our heads.  During the Divine Liturgy there are some specific moments when one ought to make a bow and the sign of the cross: Upon entering the church building and leaving it; at the mentions of the All‑holy Trinity; at the words: “Come let us worship and fall down…”, when the priest blesses us with the Holy Gospel, the Chalice, the Holy Cross or an icon. We bow at many prayerful invocations of the Name of God, during the Great Entrance (when we do not kneel because the Holy Gifts that the priest is holding are not yet consecrated).   At certain times in the service, the worshippers should only bow their heads without the sign of the cross: When the priest exclaims: “Peace be to all”. At the exclamation: “Bow your heads unto the Lord”, when the priest blesses the faithful with his hand, when he censes the people with the censer, when the priest bows towards the people during services, when the Holy Gospel is read.

2) Sign of the Cross.

  This simple act is the essential rite of Orthodox Christian blessing, expressing the faith of the Church in the saving power of the cross of Christ. The sign of the cross is made with the right hand. The thumb and two fingers are placed together. These three fingers held together signify faith in the One Trinitarian God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The last two fingers are bent against the palm to represent the two natures of Jesus: His divinity and His humanity. (We shall say more about the sign of the Cross lately in our special subject).   The sign of the Cross is an unspoken confession of faith and the expression of inner prayer. In making the sign of the Cross a person prays with his whole being. When a prayer in the service is spoken or sung three times, as for example “Holy God”, the sign of the Cross is also made three times in the Name of the Holy Trinity. The sign of the Cross is always associated with a bow to the present God. First we peacefully make the sign of the Cross and then we bow.

3) Lighting of candles

  Lighting candles is an Orthodox custom common and forms part of the Orthodox worship. As the faithful enter the church, they buy a candle, light it and place it in the candle stand in front of the icons. The candle reminds us that our prayer must be burning and coming from a pure heart. After placing our candle in the candle stand we kiss the icon having physical contact with holiness.   Besides lighting candles in the church, there are also liturgical rites of light. The newly‑baptized is given a candle, as also is the newly‑wed. The priests have candles in their hands during certain solemn moments of the services. The light always stands for Christ Who said: “I am the light of the world”.

4) Blessing of a priest.

  The priest blesses the people with his right hand. His fingers form the initials for Jesus Christ, I C  X C. So the bishop or the priest blesses in the name of Jesus Christ, from Whom all blessing flows. Since the power of Christ’s blessing springs from His Cross (ICor.1:18‑24), the blessing is always given by making the sign of the Cross over the person or objects to whom it is conveyed. When the priest blesses the people, they all bow in acknowledgement of the blessing. For this reason Orthodox Christians through the centuries customarily kiss the hand of their priest when he distributes the blessed bread at the end of the Div. Liturgy.   Also, when a believer meets a priest outside the church and asks for a blessing, he kisses the priest’s hand after the blessing as a sign that the blessing comes from Christ Himself through this bearer of Christ’s priesthood. Kissing the hand of bishops or priests is not for the person, but for the grace of Christ’s priesthood given to those who have received the Apostolic priesthood.

5) Censing.

  Censing is the burning of incense. It came into the Christian Church from the Old Testament worship. Its meaning is expressed in the words of the Psalm (141:2): “Let my prayers arise in Your sight as incense”. As the priest blesses the censor he prays: “We offer you incense, O Christ our God, for a smell of spiritual fragrance. Receive it upon Your Heavenly altar and send down upon us the grace of Your all‑holy Spirit”.   When the priest is censing in the church turns toward both the icons and the people in the church. Human beings are living icons created in the image of God, although sin has obscured this image. The censing is directed to this image of God in both icons and in the people.   People being incensed respond humbly with a bow showing that they accept the grace of the Holy Spirit. They only bow in front of the clergy who censes them, and they do not make the sign of the cross. As the priest or deacon, they bow in front of the icon and the people.

Going to the church building – Some practical points

  We gather in the church for worship because we know how powerful common prayer is. For “where two or three are gathered together in Christ’s name, there is He in the midst of them” (Matt 18:20). The church is the place especially set apart for prayer; (Matt.21:13) where we can pray easier and put aside our daily cares. This prayer is common prayer and it shows unity.   ** When we are preparing to go to church to participate to the Divine Liturgy we have first to make peace with those who have something against us. We have to ask the pardon of all whom we have harmed or angered. If it is impossible to see such people personally we have to do so in spirit. Jesus Christ told us: “If you are offering your gifts, and remember that your brother has something against you, go, first be reconciled to him and then come and offer them”(Matt. 5:23‑24).   ** It helps us to partake in the Divine Liturgy without having eaten before.  Especially those who are to receive Holy Communion practice this. But it is good for our body and soul, for our prayer, if we fast whether we are to be communicants or not. At the end of the Divine Liturgy all of us have to take the antidoron (blessed Altar bread), which is a special blessing given to us by the priest.   ** There is the 9th Apostolic Canon, which forbids us to arrive late at the services or to leave before the end, the dismissal. Also we must be present inside the church during the services and not to sit or stand outside, unless the building is too small for all people to stay inside.   St. John the Almsgiver, Patriarch of Alexandria, in order to stop his flock from the bad habit of remaining outside the church during the Liturgy, did this: One Sunday, instead of vesting for the Liturgy, he went out and sat with the people outside, to their great astonishment. “Where the sheep are, there the Shepherd must be”, he said.  “While you stay here, I shall do the same; if you go in, I will go too”. After this no one was seen outside the church during the Divine Liturgy!   ** The time to arrive at church is before the service starts, but unfortunately it has become a bad habit for some people to come to church late. If they arrive after the Divine Liturgy has begun, they have to try to enter the church quietly. If the Epistle or the Gospel is being read, or the Small or Great Entrance is taking place, they must wait until it is finished and quickly find a place, trying not to interrupt the Liturgy with their entrance.  We have to note that people arriving late to the Divine Liturgy, should not receive Holy Communion.   ** We enter the church quietly and reverently, with the fear of God. We enter carefully and with respect, because we are entering into a sanctuary where everything is blessed and sanctified, and the Lord is with us invisibly present. In the Old Testament we read: “The Lord is in His Holy Temple; let all the earth keep silence before Him” (Heb.2:20). At the Liturgy we pray: “For this HolyTemple, and for those who with faith, reverence and the fear of God enter therein”.   ** Keep silence during the services. It is great to come to church and see friends and family members! But we have to wait until the service finishes to speak to them. It is not at all appropriate to greet people and have a conversation with them during the services. Besides being disrespectful towards God, it is rude towards the other people who are trying to pray. Talk only to God through your prayer, hymns and thanksgiving while you are in the church, and to your friends afterwards outside the church.   ** Having entered into the Temple of the Lord, we make on ourselves the sign of the cross and we bow at the same time, saying the prayer of the publican: “O God, be merciful to me a sinner” (Luke18:13). This prayer reminds us that our behavior in the church should resemble that of the publican. We must leave the proud attitude of the Pharisee, and in humility we come before the Lord to seek forgiveness for our sins and we seek power to do God’s will.   ** After taking Holy Communion and at the end of the Liturgy, it is traditional to eat a piece of holy bread or antidoron – the bread that was left after taking the proper piece, for Holy Communion. This bread is not Holy Communion, but it is blessed and as such, it should be eaten carefully so that crumbs don’t fall all over the place. We also have to teach children to eat antidoron respectfully.   ** Leaving before dismissal –besides being rude– deprives us of the blessing. The Divine Liturgy begins: “Blessed is the Kingdom…” and ends: “Let us depart in peace…” To leave immediately after Holy Communion is to treat Church like any place where we come and go as we please. It is proper to stay until the end of the Liturgy and not to deprive ourselves of the blessings.   ** A person who is not a member of the Orthodox Church may attend the Divine Liturgy. He may stand in the church like the others without being noticed. If he wishes he may also pray. The one thing he cannot participate in is Holy Communion because he is not baptized Orthodox Christian.   ** In Orthodox services there are symbolic actions, for example the smoke of the incense, according to the psalm, symbolizes prayer rising before the face of God. We mentioned the sign of the cross, the bows, the prostration and the blessing by the priest (with his hand or with the Cross). The candles which worshippers place in front of the icons express fervent faith and prayer.   ** Instrumental music is not used in Orthodox worship. Church hymns with their texts and melodies are regarded as an organic part of the service. For this reason a genuine liturgical music based on tradition is of the greatest value. The choral and congregational singing is fundamental in the Divine Liturgy.   ** In the Orthodox Church we have many kinds of services. We mention here the daily cycle of services. There is Vespers in the evening, with which the Church day begins, Compline before going to bed, the Midnight Office, Matins in the morning, and the Hours, throughout the day. The most central service is the Divine Liturgy in which the Sacrament of Holy Communion is celebrated.

The bringing of holy Gifts

  Essential elements for the performance of the Holy Eucharist are bread and wine. The faithful used to bring these gifts of bread and wine to the priest who uses them for the Divine Liturgy. In many cases the priest himself prepares the bread. But it is a special blessing for the people from the parish to prepare it and to bring to the church as their own gift. This special bread is called Altar Bread or Prosphoro (which means offering). It is a circular loaf, stamped with the seal   which is bearing the letters IC XC  NIKA, which means “Jesus Christ Conquers”. This bread is made of wheat flour, a little salt and yeast, because Christ in His Last Supper used leavened bread.   The Christians prepare the Prosphoro and offer it as a gift for the Sacrament of the Sacrament of Holy Communion. They must offer thanks to God for being privileged to prepare this Holy bread out of which is cut the “Lamb”, which will be changed into the Body of Christ. With the Prosphoro the Christians bring two pieces of paper. On one they write the names of living persons of the family and on the other one the names of the departed persons. The priest reads the names during the preparation of the gifts for the Liturgy and prays for them.   After cutting out from the Prosphoro the “Lamb”, (the central portion of the stamp on Prosphoro), the portions for the Virgin Mary and for the Saints, as well as the portions in memory of the living and the departed persons, the rest of the bread is cut into small pieces and distributed to the worshippers at the end of the Divine Liturgy. These pieces are called “antidoron” which means “instead of the Gift” and are given as a special blessing.   The Prosphoro (Altar bread) must be of circular form because the circle symbolizes eternity or infinity. So it presents Christ Himself who is infinite in duration and in love. The wine, which is used for the Holy Eucharist, must be grape wine and red in color, because Christ said, “I am the real vine” (John15: 1‑6.) The red color signifies the blood. The wine when poured into the Chalice is mixed with water. The mixing of the wine with water reminds us of the wound in Crucified Christ’s side from which blood and water ran (John19:34).   Jesus Christ spoke of Himself as “the Bread of Life” (John 6:48) and “the True Vine” (John15:16). That is why our Lord took bread and wine for the elements of his Bloodless Sacrifice. These two remind us of Him and are appropriate symbols of His Person.

Preparation of Altar Bread

  It is easy to prepare a Prosphoro (the Altar bread) and we must feel a sense of obligation for making such an offering for the Divine Liturgy. We must not forget that we have an important share in the Eucharistic worship of the Church, and not become totally passive in the Liturgy.   Here is a recipe for baking Altar bread:  5 cups flour (sifted), 1 teaspoon salt, 1 spoon yeast, 2 cups warm water, a seal for stamping.   Dissolve the yeast in warm water. Add salt and flour and knead until smooth. Place in bowl, cover and let rise. When it doubles in size you knead it again, roll gently and place it in a floured baking pan. Stamp very hard. Cover and let it rise in a warm place about one hour. Bake it for approximately one hour.

29. MAKING THE SIGN OF THE CROSS

          The sign of the cross, as we make it on our bodies, is a very meaningful symbol for Orthodox Christians. The cross has always been the symbol of the Christian faith, because it is the sign of our redemption by Christ Who was crucified on the cross. Christians have used the sign of the cross since the time of the Apostles. It is a pious act, which Christians make at certain times when they want to rededicate themselves to God.   When we are baptized the sign of the cross is making on our body for the first time. The priest first makes the sign of the cross on many parts of our body. He does this to show that we belong to Christ. He is our Lord and God. He is the One we are to follow and obey in life.

How do we make the sign of the cross on our body?

  In order to make the sign of the cross, we join three fingers of our right hand together, the thumb, the index and the middle finger. We bend the other two fingers down to the palm. We then trace the cross by touching the three joined fingers to the forehead, the breast, the right shoulder and the left shoulder. After that, we slightly bow our heads to express to God our reverence and humility.   What is the symbolism of all these movements?   The three fingers are the symbol of the Holy Trinity. The three Persons (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) are equal and united. The other two fingers symbolize Jesus Christ with His two natures, the divine and the human. The two fingers bent down on our palm symbolize the birth of Christ on earth, His incarnation.   When we join our three fingers together we want to say: “I believe in God, One in the Trinity; in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Not in one person, but in three Persons; not in three gods, but in one God”. When we bend the other two fingers we are saying: “I believe that our Savior Jesus Christ, Who is at the same time real God and real Man, the God-man, came down to earth for our salvation”.   When making the sign of the cross on our body we must pay attention to have our fingers in the proper position and not in a lax position. The three united fingers represent the equality there is among the three Persons of the Holy Trinity and the union of love among Them. For that reason we must pay special attention to the movements of our hand and never make the sign of the cross in a hurry and without thinking what we are doing.   We touch our forehead to ask God to sanctify our thoughts, because He is our Head. We touch our breast to sanctify our senses and our feelings, for He is our Heart. We touch our shoulders, to strengthen our will for doing and keeping God’s commandments. In the movement from the right shoulder to the left, there is also a meaning. We ask help from the Angels to our struggle against Satan who with all means tries to tempt us.   By the sign of the cross we dedicate to the service of God all the power of our mind, heart and soul. We know that thoughts, feelings and actions constitute the whole life of every human being. As we make the sign of the cross we say the prayer: “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen”. We say these words to make it clear that we want to belong to God and serve Him alone. Usually when we pray, we pray to God with our mind. But when we cross ourselves we are praying to God also with our body. So the whole person, body and mind, prays to God.   The sign of the cross on our bodies is also a prayer for God’s blessing upon others and ourselves. When we make the sign of cross in true faith, it protects us against evil, because Satan and all demons fear the Cross. By the cross of Christ Satan was defeated and we were redeemed. In this way the sign of the cross is a means of protection for any real believer God.   When do we make the sign of the cross?   Every moment of our life we can make the sign of the cross. When we start and close our prayers, when we enter a church, when we kiss the icons, when the names of the Persons of the Holy Trinity, the Virgin Mary and the Saints are pronounced during the services, when we start and finish our meals, at all the important moments of our life, in times of danger, sorrow or joy, before any action to ask God’s blessing or to give Him thanks.   The frequent repetition of the sign of the cross, when we are mindful of its significance, can become to us a source and fountain of every blessing.   St. Cyril of Jerusalem writes: “Let us not be ashamed to confess the crucified Christ; let us courageously make the sign of the cross on the forehead, and on everything, on the bread which we eat, on the cups from which we drink, let us make it at our going out and coming in, when we lie down to sleep and when we rise, when we journey, and when we rest. It is a great protection given to the poor without price, to the weak without labor. For this is the Grace of God, a token for the faithful and a terror for evil spirits”.   For the Orthodox Christians, the sign of the cross is a safeguard against temptations and dangers that threaten the life of the soul. Whenever we are depressed by temptations we may find help in the sign of the cross.  It is also a source of knowledge revealing to us the chief mysteries of our faith. The words “In the Name” (not “In the names”) express the fundamental truth of the unity of God; while the mention of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit declares that in this One God there are Three Persons: The Trinity.   Christians through all ages assure us, from their experience, that we have at our command a powerful weapon in the sign of the cross.  So we must not neglect to make better use of it in our daily life. Let us then follow the pious custom of our Fathers in the faith and make the sign of the cross more frequently.   Most of us make the sign of the cross carelessly. It is a tendency to do mechanically what we do often, but for that very reason particular attention should be given in making the sign of the cross.  Of those who make it hurriedly and without thinking, simply waving their hand in the air, St. John Chrysostom says: “The demons rejoice in this frantic waving”.   On the other hand, when the cross is made correctly with faith and reverence, it dispels demons, calms sinful passions, attracts divine Grace and gives us the strength to do what is good and expel that what is evil. We must never be ashamed to make the sign of the cross; Christ is not ashamed of us. The devil rejoices when he sees anyone neglect to make this sacred sign for he knows that the cross is his destruction and the sign of victory over his temptations.   The cross sanctifies our limbs. It stamps the unity of God on our forehead. It seals our heart and breast with the remembrance of the love of the Father. It strengthens our shoulders to bear the Cross of the Son. It maintains an unbroken union of love with the Three Divine Persons by means of the Holy Spirit.    

Blessing of the clergy

  The blessing is offered in the name of the Lord, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Holy Trinity. This is why the bishops and the priests when they are blessing us put the fingers of their right hand in such a way as to form the initials of the name “Jesus Christ”  (IC = Jesus XC = Christ).   The index finger is stretched out straight and the middle finger slightly bent so they form the letters IC, the first and last letters of the Greek word for Jesus.  The thumb is stretched out and the ring finger is bent. These two fingers form the letter X. The little finger is slightly bent to form the letter C. The two letters, XC, are the first and last letters of the Greek word for Christ.   So the priests bless us in the name of Jesus Christ and with their hand they make the sign of the cross over the person or object that they bless. The hand of the priest is, therefore, an instrument of communicating Divine Grace. For this reason Orthodox Christians customarily kiss the hand of the priest, when he gives the blessed bread (Antidoron), when he blesses us and on other occasions.

30. ICONS

IN THE ORTHODOX CHURCH

Icons in the first centuries

  The veneration of icons is as old as Christianity itself. During the first century of Christianity in the catacombs there were representations of Christ, of Virgin Mary (Theotokos) with the Divine Child and of biblical scenes from the Old and New Testament. These were intended to strengthen the Christians in times of persecution by reminding them of God’s power and of future resurrection.   With the spreading of Christianity the veneration paid to icons increased. Icons and crosses were seen not only in Church buildings but also in houses and in many other places. Orthodox Christians, do not worship icons, they worship only God.

Purpose of iconography

  The purpose of iconography (painting icons) is to help Christians to improve their spiritual life in the Church. Iconography is an art not for its own sake, but for the Church, for her spiritual purposes. Through icons the Church tries to inspire, to guide and to encourage the faithful.   The following question is often asked: “You have not seen the form of God, how can you create an image of the invisible?” St. John of Damascus, who wrote about the deep doctrinal meaning of icons, provides the answer: “If we have understood that the One Who is without a body has become man for us, then it is clear that we can represent His image, because the Invisible One has become visible when He took our flesh. We can create the image of what has been seen.”   Through the birth of Christ in the flesh, God, Who is invisible, took on a visible form and came to earth as one of us and lived among us. That is why we can paint Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Son of God, but we do not paint icons of God the Father neither of God the Holy Spirit.   When we paint an icon of Jesus Christ we give the inner vision of Him rather than the external characteristics. We attempt to portray the spiritual body and not the physical one. So iconography is quite different from the usual art that we find elsewhere. Its goal is to carry us beyond the material of which it is made, and to put us in the presence of the depicted event or person and in its spirituality. The icons become the “windows into heaven” through which we can see the spiritual life that we are created for.   We do not worship or pray to icons, even if we may stand before them when we are praying. We do not believe that there is any divinity in them to be worshipped. The veneration, which we show to holy icons, is referred to that which they represent. So when we kiss them, uncover our heads before them and prostrate ourselves before them, we worship Christ and venerate the saints depicted in them. It is not from the icons that we ask help, it is from God through the intercessions of the saints depicted in the icons.   Worship is not an intellectual activity only, but an act involving mind body and soul. We worship with words, with silence, with actions (like making the sign of the cross, bowing down, prostrating, kissing an icon, lighting a candle), with smell (incense symbolizing our prayer), with taste (Holy Communion). So icons are not at all decorations, but first and foremost they are tools in our worship and aids in helping us to come closer to God, and live continuously in His presence.

Icons are not portraits

  The Orthodox icons are not photographs or portraits. The photograph records the features as they are. The portrait reproduces a person’s features but at the same time it brings out his character and gives expression to his inner nature.   An icon is more than a portrait. It attempts to bring out what the person has become through the power and grace of the Holy Spirit. It depicts what happens to people after God touches them. They become new persons, and in the icon the nature is not represented as it is. For example, the mountains are sharp and rocky, the trees and rivers are very strange and without perspective.   Orthodox iconography goes beyond space and time. We can see many things, many events that have happened at different periods represented in one icon. For the eyes of the simple people any Orthodox icon is something out of logical conception. It is something illogical. Icons have been called prayer, hymns, sermons, visual Gospel in form and color.

The iconographer and his work

  The painter of icons is called an iconographer, and he/she is not an ordinary painter, but a person who has a Church vocation. Before starting work on an icon he prepares himself spiritually through prayer, fasting and in general, by being a living member of the Church. The work of an iconographer is a constant prayer, and he has the feeling of being an instrument through which the Holy Spirit expresses Himself.   The iconographer with shadows and light in the faces he represents another life, not the natural one. The details of a face in the icon serve “the other life”.   We shall explain some of the more particular elements in Orthodox iconography in order to understand its deeper meaning. For example, the eyes, the nose, the ears (the sensory organs) are not painted according to nature, to the anatomical truth, because each of them, having sensed and received the divine Revelation, has become now an organ of the Holy Spirit and “has been changed”.   The eyes are painted large, open and full of life, because they have been opened to study the divine Law and see the vision of the wonderful works of the Creator (Psalm 24:15). “For my eyes have seen Your salvation” (Luke 2:30).      The ears are depicted large to show that they hear the commandments of the Lord. The saint’s natural ears have been shut to the noise of this world, and the ears of his soul have being attentive to God’s Word.   The nose also is often larger than its natural length and thin, because it “smells of the spiritual fragrance, the fragrance of the Holy Trinity”, as the Church Fathers say. The mouth is shaped small because, it shows that a person obeys the commandment “take no thought for your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink. Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Mat. 6: 25,38). The small mouth indicates a body which “no longer has need of foods for sustaining life, for it becomes a spiritual wonder of which we cannot speak worthily”, says St. Cyril of Jerusalem. The head of the saints in the icon is encircled with a halo (a crown of light). This light is the uncreated light of God that surrounds the saint and it is the sign of his holiness.   The other parts of the body are also non-realistic. The fingers of the hands are large, and express the spiritual intensity. With them the saints are blessing. The blessing of Christ is not a mere gesture, but it is an expression of His grace. Sometimes the saints in the icons have their hands in such a position to show their obedience to God and their adoration to Him. We have similar observations for the feet of the Saints. The feet are usually naked but standing firmly on the ground and that symbolizes their deep and unmoved faith to God.   The garments are also fashioned in agreement with the general principles of Orthodox iconography. The garments signify the spiritual bodies of the saints covered by them. They are not intended to cover the human body, but to emphasize the radiance of the spiritual world. Even the colors of the garments have a special symbolism. We see Jesus Christ in the icons wearing garments always with red and blue. Red is underneath and symbolizes His Divinity and blue His Humanity. He is God Who put on the human nature. While in the icons the Mother of God is wearing the same color garments but in the opposite way. She was a human being and become like God after that.   The purpose of iconography is to express the belief and the teaching of the Church. There are various schools each one reproduces the content that is approved by the Church. The iconographer’s duty is to paint the spiritual qualities of Christ, the Mother of God, and the Saints. In the icon of Christ he attempts to lead us to divinity through humanity. In the icons we see the quality of holiness rather than the bodily beauty.

Icons in the church building

  Icons give us hope. When we look at an icon we not only see the image but we go beyond the person represented. For us the icon is a visible image of God’s presence. It leads us to a deeper communion with our God.  In the church building we have icons as a visible sign of the relationship between God and man. The icons in the icon screen (iconostasis) remind us that we are created new in the image of Christ. And they are also an invitation to come into His presence.   Among Orthodox Christians there is a custom for every family to place an icon in a prominent place in the house. So God’s presence through the icon is continually at home. The icon also invites us to prayer. We stand in silence before the icon and pray. We do not pray to the icon itself but only to God. As the icon is a spiritual form of art it carries us into the presence of the person depicted and it brings us into the Kingdom of God.   We are called to venerate holy icons. We bow before them and with veneration we kiss them. The Church teaches us that the veneration and honor we show to an icon passes to the person who is represented. The icons are only the symbol of our relationship with God, and the reverence we show is passed over to Him.

31. THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM

IN THE ORTHODOX CHURCH

          Baptism is the first Sacrament in the Orthodox Church that marks the beginning of the Christian life and makes the individual a member of the mystical body of Christ, the Church. The Fathers of the Church talking about Holy Baptism say that it is the gateway into the Church; the saving action of God Who through water and the Holy Spirit recreates His creation.   The Sacrament of Baptism is the initial Sacrament through which he who is immersed in the water three times in the Name of the Holy Trinity is cleansed from all sins and reborn spiritually. Jesus Christ said: “No one can enter the Kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit” (John 3:5). By His Baptism in the water of Jordan, Jesus purified the water for those who by the water and the Holy Spirit were to be baptized in the ages to come.   The early Church used a great deal of water in baptism. Into the water the baptized person was completely immerged. In the West the Baptismal river slowly became a bowl, just for sprinkling the person. Jesus Christ sand: “He who believes in me…out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water” (John7:38). He did not say a drop or a bowl of water but a river of water constantly sanctifying the believer. On the other side the word baptism means to immerse someone totally in water. So the normal way of baptism in our Church is by total immersion   The institution of the Sacrament of Baptism came after Jesus Christ’s Resurrection. Before His Ascension to Heaven speaking to the disciples He said: “Go and make all the nations my disciples by baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all the commandments” …(Matt. 28:19-20).   Baptizing infants is an expression of God’s great love for us and shows that He loves us and accepts us before we can ever know Him. It shows that we are wanted and loved by God from the very moment of our birth. We bring infants to baptism not because they believe but in order they might believe. Baptism is like the planting of the seed of faith in the human soul. Fed by Christian training in the family and in the Church, the seed will grow to produce a mature Christian.   In cases of emergency, a baptized Christian may baptize a dying infant by sprinkling water three times on the child and saying: “The child (name) is baptized in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen”. We must be completely aware of the meaning of the mystery of Holy Baptism. That is why we shall concentrate in this brief explanation, on what we witness on the Baptism.

Explanation of the Ceremony

1. The service of Catechism.

  a) The Renunciation and the Acceptance. The first act of the baptismal service begins in the Narthex (place in front of the church building). This shows that the one being received is not yet a member of the Church and the purpose of baptism is to bring him into the Church and become a member of Christ’ Body.   The person to be baptized (child or adult) escorted by the godparent stand in the Narthex facing east (toward the altar). The priest standing in front of them blows in the face of the person who is going to be baptized three times in the form of a cross to drive away any evil spirit and adverse power and blesses the person. Each time the priest says: “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen”.   The priest then places his hand on the candidate’s head, which symbolizes the taking of possession of the candidate in the name of the Holy Trinity, and reads a prayer addressed to Trinitarian God: “In your name, O God of truth… I lay my hand on Your servant (name) who has found worthy to seek salvation in Your Holy Name and Protection under the shelter of Your Wings… Banish from him/her the old error, fill him/her with faith and hope in You… so that he/she might know that you are the only true God… Grant him the ability to live in accordance with Your commandments”.   b) The Exorcism. This is a prayer to send away Satan and another one is the prayer of acceptance. At the end of them the priest asks God to drive out and banish the candidate of every evil and impure spirit which may be hiding in the heart of candidate, in order to become a sheep of the Holy Flock of Christ, an honorable member of the Church, child and heir of the Kingdom of God.   The candidate and the godparent then are asked to face west (away from the Altar) and renounce Satan and all his works, and all his angels and all his pride; they are asked three times and breathe down upon Satan. The renouncing of Satan is done facing the west, which is the place of natural darkness and signifies the place of the devil that is darkness himself. The priest then calls candidate to renounce the devil by asking: “Do you renounce Satan and all his angels and all his works and all his service and all his pride?” to which the answer is “Yes, I do…”   “The first act of the Christian life is a renunciation, a challenge. No one can be Christ’s until he has first faced Evil, and then become ready to fight it. The exorcisms mean first to face Evil, to acknowledge its reality, and to proclaim the power of God to destroy it” (Fr. A. Schmemann).   c) The Confession of Faith. The candidate faces east where, according to Old Testament (Gen. 2:8) the Garden of Edem was planted and now God opens the gates to all those who renounce the devil and accept Christ. The candidate is asked three times: “Do you unite yourself with Christ”… and the answer is: “Yes, I do…” “Have you united yourself with Christ” “Yes, I have”. The priest then makes the sign of the cross on the candidate’s body. This is repeated often during the service. Especially the cross is the sing of victory which puts the devil away.   While these questions take place, the candidate or the sponsor recite the Creed and bow down in worship to Christ; and they all walk slowly toward the baptismal font. Then the priest reads the prayer of acceptance: “O Lord and Master, our God, call your servant (name) to your holy illumination. Take away from him/her the old ways and renew unto eternal life so to be a Your child”   The naming. From the moment the candidate is received into the Church, emphasis is placed on his individuality. He is given his own particular name by which he shall be distinguished from every other child of God. The new name expresses also the new life received through baptism where God gives our identity.

2. The service of Baptism

  a) The blessing of the water. After the service of catechism the candidate is accepted and ready for baptism. The priest with the Holy Gospel blesses the water and prays for the sanctification of this water by the coming of the Holy Spirit and through His power. The Holy Spirit is invoked to come down and consecrate the water in the baptismal font and make it an instrument of salvation.   That is because plain water alone would only physically wash the body externally if the Holy Spirit did not come upon it and make it a gift of sanctification, to remove sins and to illuminate the soul. That is why the priest says: “You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of Jesus Christ and in the Holy Spirit” (2Cor.6:11)   b) The blessing of the Oil and Anointing. When the blessing of the water is completed the godparent offers a small bottle of pure oil. It has been blessed and a prayer for the banishment of evil is read to make it “an anointing of incorruption, a weapon of justice, a renewal of soul and body, and a release from evil to all those who are anointed with it. Some of this oil is then poured crosswise three times in the baptismal font in order the consecration of the water to be complete.   Now everything is ready and the candidate is accompanied by the godparent (if it is a child it is holding up) comes up to the font. He/she is nearly naked, in imitation of the naked Christ in the Jordan Rover or on the Cross and the naked men in Paradise. In the case of an adult, he is vested with a white sheet.   The priest proceeds to anoint the candidate with the blessed oil on the forehead, nose, ears, mouth, chest, legs, feet, hands and back, in order to dedicate them to the service of Christ. Then the godparent symbolically anoints his entire body to prepare him just as an athlete of Christ prepares himself to enter the spiritual arena. The newly baptized shall battle the demon that he has just renounced, to slip away from any sin.   c) The Baptism. The candidate is now brought to the baptismal font “as Jesus Christ was brought from the Cross to the grave” (St. Cyril of Jerusalem). The candidate is immersed from the water three times by the priest who says at each time: “The servant of God (name) is baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”.   St. Paul compares the thrice immersion to the burial and resurrection of the Lord says: “All who were baptized in Christ were baptized unto His death”. By our baptism, then, we were buried with Him and shared his death in order that, just as Christ was raised so also we might live a new life…” (Rom. 6:3-6). The baptized infant after coming out of the water is covered in a white sheet in the arms of the godparent. The adult is covered with a similar sheet or a big towel.

3. The Sacrament of Chrism

  Immediately after the Sacrament of Baptism we have the Sacrament of Chrism (Confirmation). The newly baptized person receives the Sacrament of Chrism which is inseparably linked with the Pentecostal gift of the Holy Spirit. So participation in Christ’s death and Resurrection is inseparably linked with the receiving of the Holy Spirit.   The newly baptized person receives the gifts of the Holy Spirit by being Chrismated with Holy Myrrh on all the parts of the body as it was earlier anointed with oil. Holy Chrism is exactly the “seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit” which stamps all baptized persons with a seal and sets them apart as “possessions” of Jesus Christ. It gives also strength and enables them to live the faith into which they have been baptized. According to Orthodox Church every lay person is into the priesthood of the laity (royal priesthood) by this Sacrament. He receives the gift of the Holy Spirit to become an apostle of Christ in this world.    

4. The tonsure

  Following Baptism and Chrism, the priest tonsures the newly baptized person by cutting some hair crosswise saying: “In the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”. He does so in order to signify that Christ will be the head of the baptized person from now on, and that he will reject any other selfish thing and thoughts. Also the tonsure has the meaning that the baptized offers the first sacrifice from his body to God. Giving a part of himself, his hair symbolizes a complete surrender to God. “The cutting of the hair is a sign that the life which now begins is a life of offering and sacrifice” (A. Schmemann).

5. The vesting

  After the tonsure the priest blesses a (usually) white garment and places it upon the newly baptized saying: “The servant of God (name) is vested with a garment of righteousness in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”. While the baptized person is dressing the priest reads several prayers for the well being of the baptized and the other members of the family. Then he puts his hand on the head of the baptized giving the blessing of Christ.   Lighted candles are then handed to baptized person and the godparent and are lead by the priest around the baptismal font three times with the priest censing and chanting: “As many as have been baptized in Christ, put on Christ, Alleluia”. This shows rejoicing with the angels in heaven at the return of a lost sheep, and with the other Christians when another member is joint to the flock of Christ.

6. The readings

  The readings that follow are from St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans (6:3-11) where the Apostle makes the comparison between the immersion and emersion with the burial and resurrection of Christ. In the Gospel (Matt. 28:16-20) we see that the Divine Institution of Baptism was established by our Lord, Jesus Christ.

7. Holy Communion

  The whole ceremony of Holy Baptism ends with the receiving of Holy Communion by the newly baptized for first time for spiritual life and food. After that the priest says to newly baptized person: you have been baptized, illuminated, Chrismated and sanctified in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Try to live from now on accordingly.

DUTIES OF GODPARENTS

      Being a godparent is not a typical or social event but it is an honor, a joyous privilege and a special responsibility which lasts a lifetime. It is an honor because God is using you to lead a soul into Church life and into salvation. Through Baptism we receive a full forgiveness of all sins and we “put on Christ” becoming members of His Body, the Church.   A person who undertakes the office of godparent must realize that he promises to help the newly-baptized person (child or adult) to be brought up as a true child of God, with knowledge of the faith and with the awareness of the love of God. Every godparent must have vividly in mind that he becomes responsible with his duties to the person that he has baptized. His responsibilities are not only for this time during the ceremony Holy Baptism but it is for all his life.   The main duty of a godparent is to instruct the newly baptized person in the Church faith. In the early years the Church faced the problem that the majority of those who wanted to become her members came from pagan families and therefore lacked Christian education and knowledge of the new faith. For that reason the Church had the task to educate them before their baptism. So the “catechism” (teaching of faith) started in order each candidate for Baptism would be prepared properly to accept the Sacrament.   The catechetical work is exactly the duty of a godparent today. It is to instruct the candidate to the Orthodox faith of Church; to teach him/her all the elements of the Christian life and the way of Orthodox worship. This teaching is not only for preparation of a person for Baptism but it continues after that. The  godparent must continue teaching the newly baptized person (child or adult) after the Baptism and protect the spiritual child helping him/her to become a good real Christ’s follower.   When the candidate for Baptism is an infant or young child the godparent is the representative of it in its entrance into the Church of Christ. He speaks for the infant and vows that he will do all he can to assure that the child will be a true follower of Christ and a devoted member of His Church. He accepts the responsibility of guiding the child into the understanding and practice of the teachings of the Orthodox Church.   The godparent on behalf of the child makes a public confession of the Creed during the Baptism. His renunciation of the devil is made on behalf of the candidate. He promises to aid the Godchild in whatever necessities that may arise, but mostly in the giving of a good Orthodox Christian example to the Godchild.   Because of all these serious duties a godparent has, he must be a faithful Orthodox Christian and not an atheist or against the Church. A faithful godparent is in a position to lead safely the newly baptized to the real life in Christ. If he himself lives a life of unbelief and disobedience it is impossible to guide the new Christian to the true way of salvation and provide the proper example and inspiration to his Godchild.

Some suggestions for godparents

  We hope that the following short suggestions will help godparents to appreciate and to understand more fully the obligations and the opportunities that they have when they participate actively to somebody else’s Baptism.   1) You, the godparent, have to be example of a devout Orthodox Christian to your Godchild. Have the good habit to go regularly to Church services and participate in the Holy Eucharist and the common prayers. Prepare yourself and your Godchild to receive Holy Communion together. Take special care for the Christian education of your Godchild at any age he is. Your good example will teach him/her directly the importance of Christian life, Churchgoing and of keeping Sunday, the Lord’s Day, Holy.   2) Be a friend to your Godchild (whatever his age is) as well as a spiritual parent. Keep in contact with him/her and give spiritual support at any difficult situation he/she faces. Do not forget that you belong to the sa-me spiritual family and this relationship is very strong. Encourage your Godchild to pray frequently and to have a good relation with God through prayer.   3) Remember that the first promise you made at the Sacrament of Baptism was the denouncing of “Satan and all his angels and all his work”. This means that for the sake of the baptizing person you have rejected all that is evil with the purpose of protecting him/her against evil influences and wrong actions. Have that always in mind and try to avoid yourself any bad behavior.   When, during the service of the Sacrament, you with your Godchild (adult or child) promised, “I accept Christ … and I believe in Him as my King and my God,” you undertook to direct the life of your Godchild toward Christ. When reciting “The Creed” you accepted at the same time the duty to teach your Godchild the main truths about Christ and His Church.   So it is necessary to spend time with your Godchild after the Sacrament for the teaching of the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, the external signs of worship, what we do going inside a church building for services, and especially how to make the sign of the Cross in a proper Orthodox way.   This is a good time for you, the godparent, to reaffirm your own beliefs and a very good opportunity to practice them. The godparents have a chance to study thoroughly the Creed and to be aware of its content. The Creed is the outline of our beliefs and an extra effort should be made by every Orthodox Christian to learn it by heart. It is the summing up of our faith by which we can protect ourselves against heresies. By knowing the Creed very well we are able to defend our Orthodox beliefs.

32. THE SACRAMENT OF MARRIAGE           In the Orthodox Church Marriage is not just a service, it is a Sacrament. The Sacrament is the channel of the grace of God upon men and in this case of marriage Holy grace is coming upon a man and a woman who have freely decided to become through the Divine grace “the two of them in one flesh”. Marriage was regarded in the Church from the very beginning as a sacred union of body and soul for the Kingdom of God.   Marriage in the Orthodox Church is not simply an agreement of a man and a woman to share their lives together; nor is it a mere legal action. It is not “performed” by the couple themselves with the clergyman and the congregation as witnesses to their decision. Their union, based on their free will, becomes Sacrament because they are joined together as Orthodox Christians who are sharing together the Body and Blood of Christ and receive Divine grace for their union.   Marriage is a bond in which one enters freely and publicly. It is a union between two persons, man and woman, which at first, was instituted by God when He created human beings in His own image, male and female, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.” (Gen. 1:28).   Later this union was elevated by Jesus Christ Himself when he performed His first miracle at the wedding ceremony in Canal (John 2:1). St.   Paul calls marriage “a great mystery” (Eph. 5:32) by comparing it with the most holy and perfect union between Christ, as the Groom, and the Church as the Bride.   iHHiHHiHHThe marriage service in the Orthodox Church begins with the words: “Blessed is the Kingdom, of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” This exclamation is the same with it that we use in the Divine Liturgy and emphasizes the seriousness and the goal of marriage. And just as the Lord’s Prayer is recited in the Divine Liturgy before the partaking of the cup of Holy Communion, so in the wedding ceremony it is recited before the drinking of the Wedding cup.   Here we can see remarkable parallels between the Divine Liturgy and the service of Marriage. And this shows clearly that Marriage is a Sacrament which sanctifies the couple. “Life is a journey, a difficult and complex journey. And marriage is one way of traveling through sharing. Yet the goal of the journey lies ahead; the significance of the Sacrament lies in the Kingdom of God which we truly hope and which is our true home”. (Fr. John Chryssavgis)   St. Athanasius speaking about marriage says that God brought into existence human beings after His image and likeness (Gen.1:26). They were created in two sexes, male and female (Matt.19:4) and they kept the grace and remained good in paradise without sorrow or pain or any care. They were intended to enjoy, in freedom and purity of soul, the divine things God gave them. Marriage is God’ design from the beginning when He created human beings as two different persons with different in sexes.   Marriage is also blessed and sanctified by God. The significance of this blessing becomes more obvious in what the Lord says (Gen.2): “He Who created them male and female said: For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be attached to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” Then referring to the Creator says: “What God has joined together let not man separate them”. So God Who created male and female, established the marriage. The institution of marriage, then, is a direct creation of God.   St. Athanasius says also that “marriage is a seed of Grace and a fruit of the Holy Spirit. This seed is sown by Christ Himself, and the purpose is to rescue all men to salvation. So marriage, like virginity, is a way to sanctification”.   Jesus Christ and His Mother attended the marriage feast at Cana. The Lord did not teach at Cana, but His visible presence proclaimed that He is in the midst of them and blessed them. The Lord, the Creator of marriage, is Himself Who blessed marriage and transferred the substance of water into wine.   The matrimonial prayers offer a brief but very deep theological history of human beings. They begin with the creation of the world, of man and woman, the fall, they mention the patriarchs, prophets, tribes of Israel and, finally, the Virgin Mary and the Incarnation of the Son of God. It is a genealogical presentation that emphasizes the purpose of human life, which is the crowning in the Kingdom of God and the realization of God’s presence among us.   There is a prayer that mentions Noah and the Ark, Jonah in the belly of the fish, and the holy three Children in the fire. These three events from the Old Testament are symbolic of the three fundamental truths of our faith: The Church, the Resurrection and the Holy Trinity. We see that everything we do, or read, during the service of Marriage has a very deep meaning and a spiritual purpose. We are going to understand this better if we study in some details what is going on during the Betrothal and Crowning Services in the Sacrament of Marriage.    

BETROTHAL AND CROWNING SERVICES

  The Sacrament of Marriage in fact includes two services; that of Betrothal and that of Crowning.

A. The Betrothal service

  For this service a table is placed in front of the Royal Door in the church building. On the table two candlesticks are placed and also the crowns, a cup of red wine and the Holy Gospel. As the bride and groom arrive in front of the table they face the altar and stand the groom to the right and the bride to his left. They stand “side” by “side” (Gen.2:21-3). This reminds us that only together with our partner we can come “face to face” with God (1Corth.13:12).   This reminds us also the Liturgical prayer: “Let us commit ourselves, and one another, and all our life to Christ God”. The priest puts on him the stole and the phelonion and gives them lighted candles and asks the groom: “Do you take her (name) to be your wife, to love her and to take care of her until your death”? And then he asks the bride: “Do you (name) take (name) to be your husband, to love and to take care of him until your death?” Only when the answer of both is “yes”, the priest begins the service.   The bride and groom hold lighted candles which symbolize the eternal light and warmth of Jesus Christ and His teachings of salvation. The candles symbolize the light which appeared on Pentecost on the disciples and enlightened them. So now this light illuminates the couple in their belief that Jesus Christ is “the Light of the world and whoever believes in Him shall never walk in darkness but have eternal life”.   The blessing of rings   After the Litany of peace, the priest takes the rings, blesses them over the Holy Gospel and touches with them the forehead of the groom and of the bride, makes the sign of the Cross with the rings over both of them and prays for their unity and unbroken bond between them and to live in love and peace. He concludes the prayer: “Lord, bless their rings with a heavenly grace and may an Angel go before them all the days of their life. After that the priest places the rings on the third finger of their right hands. The best man then exchanges them three times between the bride and the groom.   The betrothal rings are a sign of self-sacrifice and mutual commitment, not in terms of a passive subjection to the other, but rather of a positive acceptance of the other person. The rings put emphasis on mutual support and assistance for fulfillment of their aim of Christian life in their marriage. The exchange of the rings means the unconditional acceptance of the one by the other and promise of mutual support.

B. The service of Crowning

  In this part of service of the Sacrament of Marriage the bride and the groom accept a great recognition by the Church. They have struggled against their passions, their weaknesses and temptations and now they have decided to live with one another, for one another and by one another until the end of their lives. Because of this vow, honor and glory are bestowed upon them as they are crowned as king and queen of their home and future family under the King God which is going to be a reflection of the Church.   Theologically each marriage is a small kingdom, which leads the couple to God’s heavenly Kingdom. The crowns are kept in the home to remind the couple that they must live with love, compassion, righteousness and respect.   Joining of hands   The priest starts this service by chanting verses from the 128^th Psalm and people respond: “Glory to you, our God…” After that he reads a Prayer and turns to bride and groom by asking them to hold each other’s right hand. The key words in the Orthodox Marriage are those said by the priest as he joins the hands of the couple, he prays: “O Master stretch out Your hand from Your Holy Dwelling place, and join Your servant (name) and Your servant (name) for by You they are husband and wife united…”   The priest joins the hands of the couple at that moment in the service signifying that the bride and groom become one in the presence of the Church and through the sanctifying action and grace of God. The joined hands are signifying that the couple starts to be one, united for all their life.   The crowning   The priest, after that, takes the two crowns (from fresh or dry flowers), which are joined together in the back with a ribbon to show the oneness of the two, and blesses them on the Holy Gospel. Then he blesses the couple by crowning first the groom by touching his forehead and then the bride making the sign of the Cross with the crowns over both of them three times saying for each of them a special prayer. He then places the crowns on their heads saying: “Lord, our God, crown your servants with glory and honor”.   When the priest laces the crowns on the heads of the bride and groom he is making an invocation of the Holy Spirit upon the couple. Crowning them three times emphasizes the shared equality of people, which is based on love, humility and the patience of husband and wife. The best man or woman exchanges the crowns between them three times to demonstrate that they are being crowned in equality, dignity and mutual love and support.   The Readings   A passage from the Epistle to the Ephesians is read. This reading presents a mystery that happens during the Sacrament of Marriage. The two independent and free persons are united in one in the love, devotion and care for each other. This union does not damage their personalities, their freedom but they through the Sacrament become able to act as one and two at the same time! They get the kind of love that exists between Christ and Church. This love brings unity that preserves the reality of their differences.   The Gospel passage is from St. John (2:1-11) and describes the first public act of Jesus Christ at a wedding in Cana. By this act, as the following prayer says, Christ declared marriage honorable by His presence. So Jesus Christ with His first public act blesses the marriage as the Holy Trinity blessed the very first union of Adam and Eve.   Blessing and offering of the Common Cup   Following the Lord’s Prayer, a cup of blessed wine is offered to the couple from which each takes three sips. The priest blessing the Cup says: “O God, Who made all things by Your power, and established the world, and adorned the crown of everything that you made, bless this common cup, which You offer to those joined in marriage…”   Until fifteenth century the Sacrament of Marriage was included in the Divine Liturgy. In the EarlyChurch the Sacrament of Marriage was performed immediately after the Divine Liturgy and the newly wended couple received their first Holy Communion together, so they started their marred life with Christ as cornerstone. But later the marriage service was separated from Divine Liturgy; but it was required all legal marriages to be performed in the Church.   At that moment of the service, after the Lord’s Prayer, as it is in the Divine Liturgy, the couple is also given to drink of the common cup three times. The Common Cup of wine symbolizes the cup of life that the couple will drink: bitterness, disappointment, happiness, joy, etc. but they will forbear and rejoice together!  Now the married couple receives the common cup as “one flesh” rather than as two individuals.   In the service of Marriage the rings are exchanged three times, the crowns are crossed three times, the cup is drunk from three times and the dance moves three times around the table that represents the Altar. This triple repetition is a constant reminder and symbolism of the Holy Trinity.   The “dance” of Isaiah   After the prayer and offering the common cup the priest leads the groom and the bride around the table three times, holding them by their joined hands with his left hand and with his right hand he holds the Holy Gospel. The best man, who is going to be at their side throughout of life, walks behind them, holding the ribbon that joins the two crowns in the middle with one hand. The priest and people chant three hymns of joy: “O Isaiah dance for joy, for the Virgin has indeed conceived and bore Emmanuel…”   These hymns refer to joyful events and to the fact that those who remained faithful to Christ and died for Him received crowns in heaven. Likewise if the newly married remain faithful to each other and their commitment, on that great day the crowns, which they are wearing today, will be exchanged with crowns of glory. So the way into eternity is symbolized by the circular “dance of Isaiah”.   This dance signifies the Church led by Christ, Who now is symbolized by the Holy Gospel that the priest holds. Jesus Christ leads the couple in their new life in the Church; He is the One Who guides them in their common life. Just as marriage is not an individual affair but a corporate event so also it incorporates not only human persons but God Himself.   After the “dance” of Isaiah the couple returns to their original positions and the priest reads the final prayer to them: “O God… bless Your servants who by Your providence have been joined together in matrimony; bless their goings and coming… preserve their union spotless, blameless… Take up their crowns into Your Kingdom…” (And the priest removes the crowns from their heads).   The concluding prayer   “Be you magnified, O Bridegroom, like Abraham…” “And you, O bride, be glorified like Sarah…” “God bless your servants who by Your providence have been joined together in matrimony…”. “May the Holy Trinity bless you and grant you long life, beautiful children, progress in life and growth in faith and make you worthy to enjoy the blessings of Paradise… Amen”.   The Sacrament of Marriage begins with the invocation of the Holy Trinity and concludes the same way. The dismissal prayer is recited and then the priest takes the Holy Gospel and separates the joined right hands of the bride and groom. This symbolizes that once a man and a woman have been joined in the Sacrament of Marriage only God should separate them.

E. Ganouri

                   

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