Tue Aug 31, 2010
On the Holy and Life-giving Cross of Christ
1. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up" (John 3:14). And just exactly as all who were bitten by the serpents looked upon the bronze serpent which was suspended and were healed, thus also every Christian who believes in our Christ and has recourse to His life-bearing wounds, who eats His Flesh and drinks His all-holy Blood, is cured of the bites of the spiritual serpent of sin and by this most holy nourishment is made to live unto the renewal of a new creation, that is, new life in harmony with His life-giving commandments. (Elder Ephraim of Philotheou Mount Athos, "Counsels from the Holy Mountain")
2. "The Cross, is wood which lifts us up and makes us great ... The Cross uprooted us from the depths of evil and elevated us to the summit of virtue". (St John Chrysostom)
3. ... The holy Fathers relate that when the thief of the Gospel, too, came to the gates of the Kingdom, the Archangel with the flaming sword wanted to chase him away, but he showed him the Cross. Immediately the fire-bearing Archangel himself withdrew and permitted the thief to enter. Understand here not the wooden cross. But which? The Cross in which the chief Apostle Paul boasts and concerning which he writes, 'I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus (Gal. 6:17).' (A Collection of Letters to Nuns by St. Anatoly of Optina)
4. But we are able to see Christ's inexpressible love for man not only from the cross itself but also from the words which He spoke whilst upon the cross. At the very time when He was nailed and they were mocking Him, deriding Him and spitting upon Him, He said: "Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do" (Luke 23:34)... At the same time that they were saying, "If You are the Son of God save Yourself," He was accomplishing everything necessary to save these same ones who were reproaching Him. ... He did forgive them, if they wished to repent, because if He had not forgiven them this sin, Paul would not have become an apostle;' if He had not forgiven them this sin, the three thousand and the five thousand, and the many other thousands, would not have immediately believed. (Homily by St. John Chrysostom, “Concerning the Cross and the Thief” )
5. Did you see how baptism is a cross? Learn that even Christ called baptism the cross when He used the name of baptism interchangeably [with that of the cross]. He called your baptism a cross. 'I call my baptism a cross,' he says. Where does He say this? 'I have a baptism to be baptized with, of which you do not know.' And how is it clear that He is speaking of the cross? The sons of Zebedee came up to Him - rather, the mother of the sons of Zebedee, saying 'Command that these my two sons may sit, one at thy right and and one at thy left hand, in thy kingdom.' A mother's request, even if it was an inconsiderate one! How then did Christ answer? 'Can you drink of the cup of which I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?' You see that He called the cross a baptism. (St. John Chrysostom, Baptismal Instructions)
6. Do not seek the perfection of the law in human virtues, for it is not found perfect in them. Its perfection is hidden in the Cross of Christ. (St. Hesychius the Priest)
7. Far be it for me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Gal. 6:14).
Truly this symbol is thought despicable; but it is so in the world's reckoning, and among men; in Heaven and among the faithful it is the highest glory. Poverty too is despicable, but it is our boast; and to be cheaply thought of by the public is a matter of laughter to them, but we are elated by it. So too is the Cross our boast. He does not say, `I boast not,' nor, `I will not boast,' but, `Far be it from me that I should,' as if he abominated it as absurd, and invoked the aid of God in order to his success therein. And what is the boast of the Cross? That Christ for my sake took on Him the form of a slave, and bore His sufferings for me the slave, the enemy, the unfeeling one; yea, He so loved me as to give Himself up to a curse for me. What can be comparable to this? (St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Galatians)
8. Glory, O Lord, to the power of Thy Cross, which never fails! When the enemy oppresses me with a sinful thought or feeling, and I, lacking freedom in my heart, make the sign of the Cross several times with faith, suddenly my sin falls away from me, the compulsion vanishes, and I find myself free… For the faithful the Cross is a mighty power which delivers from all evils, from the malice of the invisible foe. (St. John of Kronstadt)
9. In Paradise of old, the tree stripped me bare, for by the eating thereof, the enemy brought in death. But now the most holy tree of the Cross that doth clothe all men with the garment of life hath been set up on earth, and all of the world is filled with most boundless joy. Seeing it exalted, ye people, now, let us the faithful all cry out with one accord to God in faith: Thy house is full of glory, O Lord. (Feast of the Elevation of the Holy Cross - Sessional Hymn of the Canon)
10. Many indeed are the wondrous happenings of that time: God hanging from a Cross, the sun made dark, and again flaming out; for it was fitting that creation should mourn with its Creator. The Temple veil rent, blood and water flowing from His side: the one as from a man, the other as from What was above man; the earth was shaken, the rocks shattered because of the Rock; the dead risen to bear witness of the final and universal resurrection of the dead. The happenings at the Sepulchre, and after the Sepulchre, who can fittingly recount them? Yet not one of them can be compared to the miracle of my salvation. A few drops of Blood renew the whole world, and do for all men what the rennet does for milk: joining us and binding us together. (St. Gregory the Theologian)
11. O Saviour, the true sweetness, Who of old didst sweeten the bitter waters of Marah, thereby prefiguring at that time the wood of the divine Cross: How wast Thou nailed thereto, O Sinless One, and wast given gall to drink and wast pierced in the side, and didst pour forth the Blood and water of forgiveness, unto the refashioning of mortal nature? Wherefore, we glorify Thine ineffable mercy, and we entreat Thee: O Lord, in the season of the fast, grant us the fear of thee, and the forgiveness of our offences, and great mercy. (Vespers Stichera for Thursday of the 4th Week)
12. Of course, it would be easier to get to paradise with a full stomach, all snuggled up in a soft feather-bed, but what is required is to carry one's cross along the way, for the kingdom of God is not attained by enduring one or two troubles, but many! (Elder Anthony of Optina)
13. The Most High planted in the middle of Paradise The thrice blessed wood, the gift of life for us, In order that, in approaching it, Adam might find eternal and immortal life, But he did not strive earnestly to know this life, And he failed to attain it, and revealed death. However, the robber, seeing how the plant in Eden Had been beautifully transplanted in Golgotha, Recognized the life in it and said to himself: `This is what my father lost formerly In Paradise.' (St Romanos the Melodist - On the Adoration at the Cross)
14. The first duty of a Christian, of a disciple and follower of Jesus Christ, is to deny oneself. To deny oneself means to give up one's bad habits, to root out of the heart all that ties us to the world; not to cherish bad desires and thoughts; to quench and suppress bad thoughts; to avoid occasions of sin; not to do or desire anything from self-love but to do everything out of love for God. To deny oneself means, according to the Apostle Paul, to be dead to sin and the world, but alive to God. (St. Innocent of Alaska, Indication of the Way into the Kingdom of Heaven)
15. The one who knows God will follow the Lord's footsteps, bearing the cross of the Saviour. It is said, "The world is crucified to him and he to the world." The Lord says, "He who loses his life will save it." We can "lose our lives" in one of two ways. First, we can risk our lives just as the Lord did for us. Secondly, we can separate our lives from the customary things of this world. Bearing the cross means to separate our souls from the delights and pleasures of this life. If you do this, you will find your life again - resting in the hope of what is to come. Dying to ourselves means being content with the necessities of life. When we want more than these necessities it is easy to sin. (St. Clement of Alexandria in “The One Who knows God”)
16. What does it mean to take up your cross? It means the willing acceptance, at the hand of Providence, of every means of healing, bitter though it may be, that is offered. Do great catastrophies fall on you? Be obedient to God's will, as Noah was. Is sacrifice demanded of you? Give yourself into God's hands with the same faith as Abraham had when he went to sacrifice his son. Is your property ruined? Do your children die suddenly? Suffer it all with patience, cleaving to God in your heart, as Job did. Do your friends forsake you, and you find yourself surrounded by enemies? Bear it all without grumbling, and with faith that God's help is at hand, as the apostles did. (Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich, “Homilies, Vol. 1”)
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Sun Aug 22, 2010
St. Isaac the Syrian (7th/8th century) On the Topic of Compassion
“What is a merciful heart? It is the heart's burning for the sake of the entire creation: for men, birds, animals, and for every created thing. And by the recollection and sight of them, the eyes of a merciful man pour forth abundant tears. From the strong and vehement mercy which grips his heart and from his great compassion, his heart is humbled and he cannot bear to hear or see any injury or slight sorrow in creation. For this reason he continually offers up tearful prayer, even for irrational beasts, for the enemies of the truth and for those who harm him, that they be protected and receive mercy…because of the great compassion that burns in his heart without measure in the likeness of God.”
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Wed Aug 18, 2010
Major Feasts of the Orthodox Church
•January 6: The Feast of Epiphany
•February 2: The Presentation of Christ
•Great Lent, Holy Week, and Pascha
•The Annunciation
•The Ascension of Christ
•Holy Pentecost
•August 6: The Transfiguration of Christ
•August 15: The Dormition of the Theotokos
•September 8: The Nativity of the Theotokos
•September 14: The Exaltation of the Cross
•November 21: The Entrance Into the Temple of the Theotokos
•December 25: The Nativity of Christ
(taken from the website of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America goarch.org)
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Thu Aug 12, 2010
The Dormition of the Theotokos, Ever-Virgin Mary, and Mother of God (August 15)
“Concerning the Dormition of the Theotokos, this is what the Church has received from ancient times from the tradition of the Fathers. When the time drew nigh that our Savior was well-pleased to take His Mother to Himself, He declared unto her through an Angel that three days hence, He would translate her from this temporal life to eternity and bliss. On hearing this, she went up with haste to the Mount of Olives, where she prayed continuously. Giving thanks to God, she returned to her house and prepared whatever was necessary for her burial. While these things were taking place, clouds caught up the Apostles from the ends of the earth, where each one happened to be preaching, and brought them at once to the house of the Mother of God, who informed them of the cause of their sudden gathering. As a mother, she consoled them in their affliction as was meet, and then raised her hands to Heaven and prayed for the peace of the world. She blessed the Apostles, and, reclining upon her bed with seemliness, gave up her all-holy spirit into the hands of her Son and God.
With reverence and many lights, and chanting burial hymns, the Apostles took up that God-receiving body and brought it to the sepulchre, while the Angels from Heaven chanted with them, and sent forth her who is higher than the Cherubim. But one Jew, moved by malice, audaciously stretched forth his hand upon the bed and immediately received from divine judgment the wages of his audacity. Those daring hands were severed by an invisible blow. But when he repented and asked forgiveness, his hands were restored. When they had reached the place called Gethsemane, they buried there with honor the all-immaculate body of the Theotokos, which was the source of Life. But on the third day after the burial, when they were eating together, and raised up the artos (bread) in Jesus' Name, as was their custom, the Theotokos appeared in the air, saying "Rejoice" to them. From this they learned concerning the bodily translation of the Theotokos into the Heavens.
These things has the Church received from the traditions of the Fathers, who have composed many hymns out of reverence, to the glory of the Mother of our God.”
Apolytikion in the First Tone:
In birth, you preserved your virginity; in death, you did not abandon the world, O Theotokos. As mother of life, you departed to the source of life, delivering our souls from death by your intercessions.
[Taken with much gratitude from the website of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America goarch.org]
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Tue Aug 10, 2010
“Christ’s Lordship in the Bible and the Title Theotokos”
“If they insist on saying, ‘where the Virgin is called Theotokos in the Scripture,’ let them clearly hear the angel proclaiming this piece of good news to the shepherd and saying: “For today to you a Savior is born, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). He does not say, ‘Who shall be Lord’ or ‘in whom the Lord shall dwell,’ but ‘who is Lord.’ Behold, then, the angel openly preaches the good news that the one born is Lord. And then, he supplies, as it were, a sign to them of the vision of the Lord, ‘You shall find a baby in swaddling clothes lying in a manger’ (Luke 2:12). Peter also preached the same things as the angel, when he came to Cornelius and said, ‘He sent the Logos to the sons of Israel proclaiming peace through Jesus Christ; He is Lord of all’ (Acts 10:36). Do you see how the Logos is said to have been sent instead of the saving message of Jesus Christ? And how, when he showed to them who Jesus Christ might be, he said, ‘He is Lord of all?’ Do you see that the baby [is called] Lord both by the angel and by Peter? Undoubtedly, therefore, she, who gave birth of the Lord, is Theotokos. Similarly, she was addressed by the mother of the blessed Baptist, who was moved by the Holy spirit: ‘For Elizabeth, it says, was filled with the Holy Spirit an cried: Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb; why has it happened to me that the Mother of my Lord should come to me’ (Luke 1: 41-43)? Who is so insane as not to want to call with the Scriptures the holy Virgin Theotokos? Let them not, therefore, disturb the hearing of those of greater integrity by speaking about a child and a baby lest little by little, they reject the whole event of his advent. For he had been called by the angel both baby and Lord.”
[St. Cyril of Alexandria, Against Those who are Unwilling to Confess that the Holy Virgin is Theotokos]
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Tue Aug 03, 2010
The Faith of our Holy Fathers
“We confess that he [Jesus Christ] is the Son, begotten of God the Father, and Only-begotten God; and although according to his own nature he was not subject to suffering, yet he suffered for us in the flesh according to the Scriptures, and although impassible, yet in his Crucified Body he made his own the sufferings of his own flesh; and by the grace of God he tasted death for all: he gave his own Body thereto, although he was by nature himself the life and the resurrection, in order that, having trodden down death by his unspeakable power, first in his own flesh, he might become the first born from the dead, and the first-fruits of them that slept. And that he might make a way for the nature of man to attain incorruption, by the grace of God (as we just now said), he tasted death for every man, and after three days rose again, having despoiled hell. So although it is said that the resurrection of the dead was through man, yet we understand that man to have been the Word of God, and the power of death was loosened through him, and he shall come in the fullness of time as the One Son and Lord, in the glory of the Father, in order to judge the world in righteousness, as it is written.”
[St. Cyril of Alexandria, Third Epistle to Nestorius]
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Tue Jul 27, 2010
The Dormition of the Theotokos (Celebrated August 15)
“The dominions and the thrones, the rulers, the principalities and the powers, the cherubim and the fearful seraphim glorify thy Dominion” (Vespers Sticheron, Tone 1).
The sacred Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos marks her repose, which was followed by the translation of her sacred body three days later into heaven. This feast, therefore, marks her soul being commended into her Son's hands and the short sojourn of her body in the tomb. Unlike the Resurrection of Christ, the mysterious character of her death, burial, resurrection and ascension were not the subject of apostolic teachings, yet they were recorded by the tradition of the Holy Orthodox Church and writings of the Church Fathers.
The Dormition of the Theotokos took place while Apostle Thomas was preaching the gospel in India. The other Apostles had been caught up from various lands on the clouds of heaven, and were transported to Gethsemane, to the bier of the all-blessed Virgin. This was permitted by the will of God, so the faithful might be assured that the Mother of God was bodily assumed into heaven. For just as they were more greatly assured of the Resurrection of Christ, through the disbelief of Thomas, so did they learned of the bodily assumption into heaven of the all-pure Virgin Mary through the delay of Thomas.
On the third day after the burial St. Thomas was suddenly caught up in a cloud in India and transported to a place in the air above the tomb of the Virgin. From that vantage point, he beheld the translation of her body into the heavens, and cried out to her, "Whither goest thou, O all-holy one?" She removed her girdle and gave it to him saying, "Receive this, my friend." And then she was gone.
He then descended to find the other disciples keeping watch over the sepulchre of the Theotokos. He sat down beside them, with the girdle in his hand, greatly saddened that he had not been there when she reposed, as had been the other Apostles. Hence, he said, "We are all disciples of the Master; we all preach the same thing; we are all servants of the one Lord, Jesus Christ. How, then, is it that ye were counted worthy to behold the repose of His Mother, and I was not? Am I not an Apostle? Can it be that God is not pleased with my preaching? I beseech you, my fellow disciples: open the tomb, that I also may look upon her remains, and embrace them, and bid her farewell!"
The Apostles took pity on St. Thomas and opened the tomb. All were aghast when they found it empty, not realizing that moments before she had been bodily transported to paradise to be the mediatress of Christians. All that remained were her burial clothes, which emitted a wonderful unearthly fragrance.
The Feast's kontakion speaks of her as an unfailing hope and mediation, reminding us of her intercessory role in paradise. Neither the tomb nor death had power over the Theotokos, who is ever watchful in her prayers and in whose intercessions lies unfailing hope. For as the Mother of Life she has been translated unto life by Him Who dwelt in her ever-virgin womb.
[Reference: The Life of the Virgin Mary, The Theotokos published by Holy Apostles Convent and Dormition Skete, Colorado USA, 1989, ISBN 0-944359-03-5]
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Mon Jul 19, 2010
On the Theotokos and Ever Virgin Mary
“It is truly right to bless you, O Theotokos, ever blessed and most pure, and the Mother of our God. More honorable than the Cherubim, and beyond compare more glorious than the Seraphim, without defilement you gave birth to God the Word. True Theotokos we magnify you.”
— Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom
“If one does not acknowledge Mary as Theotokos, he is estranged from God.”
— St. Gregory of Nazianzus (Epistle 101)
“The golden incenser is the Virgin, and its pleasant scent is our Saviour.”
— Orthodox Chant
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Wed Jul 14, 2010
Pray, Pray, Pray !
"The potency of prayer has subdued the strength of fire. It has bridled the rage of lions, hushed anarchy to rest, extinguished wars, appeased the elements, expelled demons, burst the chains of death, expanded the gates of heaven, assuaged diseases, repelled frauds, rescued cities from destruction, stayed the sun in its course, and arrested the progress of the thunderbolt."
[St. John Chysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople]
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Tue Jul 13, 2010
Something to Consider
“The greatest truths are the simplest, and so are the greatest men.”
[Inspired by St. Anthony the Great]
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