The gate of heaven, the door of the heart

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Friday of the 12th Week of Luke

In today’s Gospel, we read that Satan entered into Judas, and he decided to betray the Lord Jesus Christ:  

At that time Jesus was teaching in the temple; and at night he went out, and abode in the mount that is called the mount of Olives. And all the people came early in the morning to him in the temple, for to hear him.  Now the feast of unleavened bread drew nigh, which is called the Passover. And the chief priests and scribes sought how they might kill him; for they feared the people.  Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve. And he went his way, and communed with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray him unto them.  And they were glad, and covenanted to give him money.  And he promised, and sought opportunity to betray him unto them in the absence of the multitude.  Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the passover must be killed.  And he sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare us the passover, that we may eat. – Luke 21:37-22:8

St. Theophan the Recluse, in commenting on Judas’s betrayal, teaches us how not to become Judases ourselves:  we must watch constantly over the door of the mind and heart, and consistently repel bad thoughts:  

Satan entered into Judas, and taught him how to betray the Lord; he agreed, and betrayed Him. Satan entered because the door had been opened for him.  What is within us is always closed; the Lord Himself stands outside and knocks, that we might open it. What causes it to open? Sympathy, predisposition, and agreement.  If all of this is inclined in the direction of Satan, he enters.  If, on the contrary, it is inclined toward the Lord, then the Lord enters. If Satan enters, and not the Lord, the person himself is guilty.  If you do not allow thoughts pleasing to Satan, if you do not sympathize with them, or dispose yourself to their suggestions and agree to do them, Satan will come near, and then leave.  After all, he is not given authority over anyone. If he takes possession of anyone, it is because that person gives himself over in slavery to him.  The source of all evil is in one’s thoughts.  Do not allow bad thoughts, and you will forever close the door of your soul to Satan.  That bad thoughts come – what can you do?  No one in the world is without them, and there is no sin here.  Chase them away, and that will end everything.  If they come again, chase them away again – and so on for your entire life.  When you accept thoughts and become engaged in them, it is not surprising that sympathy for them appears as well; then they become even more persistent. After sympathy come bad intentions for some sort of bad deeds. Vague intentions define themselves later by an inclination toward one thing or another. Acceptance, agreement, and resoluteness set in, and now sin is within!   The door of the heart is opened wide.  As soon as agreement forms, Satan jumps in and begins to tyrannize.   Then the poor soul, like a slave or a pack animal, is driven and wearied into doing indecent things.  If it had not allowed bad thoughts, nothing of the sort would have happened.  – Thoughts for Each Day of the Year, pp. 275-276.   

We imagine the great events in history as dramas played out by people we have never met on a vast stage outside of ourselves:  Bloody battles, fateful decisions by famous rulers, stock market crashes, royal marriages and divorces, civil wars and revolutions, political assassinations, scientific discoveries, leaps in technology, and so forth.  Here, however, in today’s Gospel, we see that what is beyond measure the greatest event in history, whose effect on us eclipses that of all other events combined, from the beginning to the end of the world – that is, the world-saving, infinite Sacrifice of the God-Man for our salvation – comes about, on the human level, when an obscure and finite man gives in to a bad thought.   God, of course, turns this finite evil to infinite good in His divine Providence.   But, in the words of Christ Himself, it had been better for Judas had he never been born.  He has destroyed himself by allowing one evil thought – the envy of the goodness of Jesus – to capture his mind and darken his heart.  

St. Theophan provides a short primer on guarding ourselves from doing what Judas did.  He describes the stages of sin:  First, there is the thought, which is involuntary and is not a sin.  Sin ensues and gradually worsens when we engage the thought, then sympathize with it, then agree with it, and then do what the thought suggests.  Finally, one who keeps doing this becomes enslaved to evil habit and becomes helpless to resist temptation altogether, which is a foretaste of hell.  

What must we do to avoid this terrible fate?  Very simple:  as St. Theophan says, “Do not allow bad thoughts, and you will forever close the door of your soul to Satan.”   The real Christian life entails continuous warfare within the mind to resist every evil thought, even the slightest.  The Orthodox Church teaches its children how to do this, and the grace in the Church gives them the power so to do.   All the writings of the saints on the ascetic life keep getting back to this central point:  resist evil thoughts!   Keep your heart pure!   Do not sin for one moment even by engaging an evil thought to dispute with it; just drive it away.    

We cannot, of course, do this on our own; it is humanly impossible.   Only by the grace of Jesus Christ, and the power of His holy name, can we drive away the enemies at the gates ever fighting against us.   If we repeat His holy name – the name of Jesus – continually, and cry out to Him for aid, admitting our powerlessness, He will come and abide in us, and He will save us.  The soul that has Christ within will not fear death, and at the hour of death will joyfully leave the body and fly unhindered to its beloved Lord.   Here is what St. Hesychius of Jerusalem says:  

When after death the soul soars into the air to the gates of heaven, it will not be shamed by its enemies even there, if it has Christ with it and for it; but then, as now, it will boldly “speak with the enemies in the gate.”  So long as it does not grow weary of calling to Our Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, day and night till death itself, He will avenge it speedily, according to His true promise, given in the parable of the unjust judge: “I tell you that he will avenge them speedily” (Luke 18: 8) – both in this life and after leaving the body. – Texts on Sobriety and Prayer, No. 149, by St. Hesychius of Jerusalem. 

The door of the heart and the door of Paradise are the same door.  Our enemies wait at the gate of the heart to enter in, in this life, as they will wait at the gate of heaven, in the next life, to prevent our entry there.    Let us resolve never to abandon the Jesus Prayer, to make time daily for the Prayer at set times, even for a few minutes a day, when we are alone, and then to carry it with us through the day.   The holy name of Jesus has infinite, divine power, because it is the human name of the Incarnate God, and it conveys to us all the grace of God.  It cannot fail. 

“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” – Romans 10:13

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The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness comprehends it not

9 December OS 2022 – The Conception of the Theotokos by St. Anna 

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Today we celebrate the conception of the Most Pure Virgin Theotokos in the womb of St. Anna, who by her husband St. Joachim conceived in great old age after a lifetime of barrenness, by the will of God.

The Gospel reading for today’s Feast is Luke 8: 16-21 –

The Lord said: No man, when he hath lighted a candle, covereth it with a vessel, or putteth it under a bed; but setteth it on a candlestick, that they which enter in may see the light. For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad. Take heed therefore how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have. Then came to him his mother and his brethren, and could not come at him for the press. And it was told him by certain which said, Thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to see thee. And he answered and said unto them, My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God, and do it.

These words of Our Lord apply most fittingly to His holy grandparents. Their virtues were hidden for many years before being made known – their prayer, their almsgiving, their fervent trust in God in the midst of their great sorrow – and they were derided by their neighbors for being childless, for many of the Jews (especially those who belonged to the sect of the Sadducees, which included the priestly and aristocratic classes) had no belief in eternal life, thinking that immortality meant only living on through one’s descendants and believing therefore also that childlessness meant that one was cursed by God.

The Lord in His great wisdom indicated two things through His miraculously giving St. Anna the ability to conceive by her husband in her old age: He indicated that the Holy Virgin so conceived was His elect vessel, chosen for a very specific role in the salvation of mankind, and He indicated that Ss. Joachim and Anna were not cursed but indeed blessed above all others before them, for their hope and courage were greatly rewarded, indeed rewarded beyond all expectation: they became the parents not simply of a saint but of the flower of the human race, of the human person who, in the expression of St. Gregory Palamas, stands at the boundary of the created and the uncreated realms, the Mother of God Incarnate, who is more honorable than the Cherubim and beyond compare more glorious than the Seraphim.

We cannot compare our level of piety to that of Ss. Joachim and Anna. Their example, however, does give us hope, for often we feel that we labor for our salvation in isolation, and that no one understands us.   There are those who not only do not understand our Faith but also believe that we are bad somehow for practicing it!   When we try to help them by telling them the truth about God or morality or society or any other important topic, they may even hate us somehow for it, recalling St. Paul’s experience with the Galatians when trying to correct them: “Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth? (Galatians 4:16).” But we must remember that their hatred should cause us not to hate them in return, but rather to grieve over them, for they are trapped by their fallen nature, fallen human society, and the fallen spirits. The degree of their anger reflects the corresponding degree of their misery.

Let us, therefore, pray to Ss. Joachim and Anna when we are experiencing spiritual loneliness, when no one, even perhaps our Orthodox brethren and relatives, seems to sympathize with our spiritual struggles.   The Lord sees, and the Lord will judge! “For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest…” Let us only humble ourselves and be faithful, as they were faithful in their loneliness.

Also, let us all pray to our dear St. Anna that she will, in particular, intercede with her divine Grandson to send good spouses to our Orthodox young people.   It is so hard today to find the right person to marry, the person who will help us find our salvation!   St. Anna, pray to God for us!

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Serene faith

Wednesday of the 11th Week of St. Luke

Listen to an audio podcast of this post at https://www.spreaker.com/user/youngfaithradio/lk11wed_1. The recording was made in 2021 and therefore mentions a Menaion date different from today’s. But the appointed daily Gospel reading is the correct one for today.

Today’s daily Gospel reading is Luke 20: 1-8

At that time, as Jesus taught the people in the temple, and preached the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes came upon him with the elders, And spake unto him, saying, Tell us, by what authority doest thou these things? or who is he that gave thee this authority? And he answered and said unto them, I will also ask you one thing; and answer me: The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men? And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say, Why then believed ye him not? But and if we say, Of men; all the people will stone us: for they be persuaded that John was a prophet. And they answered, that they could not tell whence it was. And Jesus said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.

Of course, these questioners – the chief priests, scribes, and elders – were not asking Our Lord this question because they sincerely sought the truth. Their minds were made up, and they were simply trying to trick Him.   Their minds were poniro, as we say in Greek – sneaky, twisted, and evil-intended – and they could not think straight or see straight or talk straight. For them, language was a tool to get power over others, not a holy medium of heart to heart communication.   St. Theophan the Recluse comments on this encounter to illustrate the difference between the mind of Faith, which is also the deep and reasonable mind, and the mind of hardened unbelief, which is superficial and unreasoning:

The priests, scribes, and elders did not believe in the Lord. In order to raise them up to faith, He offered them a question: “The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men?” Consider this without bias, and your reasoning will bring you to faith. What is said about John’s appearing can be said about every event accompanying the Lord’s advent in the flesh, and about His very advent, and all that comes into contact with it. Let each person consider all of this, and the conclusion will be the same: “Truly this was the Son of God (Matt. 27:54).” Various thoughts can come, confusion can arise, what seem like incongruities can be encountered; but at the end of all investigations one universal conviction will result: that it is impossible to think any other way than as is shown in the Gospels and apostolic writings. “Great is the mystery of godliness: God is manifest in the flesh (I Timothy 3:16).” This remains a mystery, but if the mind compels itself by a spiritual need to investigate it, then this mystery will become clear to the mind – and it will confess this way, and in no other way. Unbelievers either do not investigate it at all as they ought to, or they investigate it superficially, with a mind alien to it, or they take on a miserable state of mind that is opposed to what is required by the Faith. To justify their unbelief, they are satisfied with the most insignificant trifle to refute the Faith. The words of unbelievers shake believers, who, being satisfied with simple faith, do not seek clarification of the foundations of the Faith. Those words take them unawares, and hence they are shaken. – Thoughts for Each Day of the Year, p. 268

Why are we sometimes shaken by the specious (i.e., seemingly valid but actually worthless) arguments of the faithless? It may be that we have not studied our Faith enough, but that by itself is easily remedied – the books are all out there, and we have only to immerse ourselves in the tremendous wisdom and insight of the Church expressed by Her various exponents, in order to see how the Orthodox Faith is far and away the most satisfying explanation to life’s puzzle.   The underlying problem is not lack of knowledge but the lack of godly confidence caused by a passion we all suffer from, which is vanity.

This may be surprising to some people, for they often mistake timidity for humility, and imagine that if they are mealy-mouthed this shows that they are not vain. But what is humility? It is not groveling and acting like the doormat of the human race. True humility is knowing Who God is, who you are, and what life is really about. It is accurate knowledge of reality, that’s all.   If you know white is white and black is black, it is not humble to say that white is black, just because that will stroke someone else’s ego. On the contrary, it is extremely vain and proud, because it means that you think you have permission to overturn reality in order to luxuriate in the good feelings of some other finite creature. It is playing God.

A truly humble person is courageous.   Since he knows that God in His Providence is taking care of him, that nothing can be done to him that will defeat God’s plan for his salvation, he is not afraid of those who attack his Faith or of what they will do to him if he does not go along with them.

A truly humble person is confident in the truth.   Even if he does not understand every detail, even if he cannot answer every specific objection to his Faith, he knows that the Big Picture of Orthodoxy is as good as it gets, insofar as having a worldview, an understanding of what life is all about. If there is some little thing that has not been explained completely, he trusts that it is explainable to the extent he truly needs it to be, and with prayer and trust he seeks to grow in the knowledge of his Faith.

A truly humble person is meek. He does not have to snarl at someone who raises objections to his faith; he does not have to bite.   With the calmness and courage born of heartfelt certainty, he can serenely and patiently ward off the powerless arrows of false objections, even when his critic is unkind to him personally.

A truly humble person is compassionate. When he sees the unbelief of the other person, he says, “There but for the grace of God go I.” Having accurate self-knowledge, he knows the capacity of his own heart for self-deception, and therefore he recoils from condemning another person who has the same problem. With true sympathy, he wants this person in front of him to be delivered from deception, for he wants what God wants, and God is He “… Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth (I Timothy 2:4).”

Let us immerse ourselves in the treasures of our precious Faith’s priceless theology, pray for more accurate self-knowledge, and beg the Lord to save our neighbors who labor so painfully in the darkness of unbelief!

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Going to Jerusalem

Friday of the 8th Week of St. Luke

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The reading from the Holy Gospel today is Luke 13: 31-35

At that time, the same day there came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto him, Get thee out, and depart hence: for Herod will kill thee. And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. Nevertheless I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

The Pharisees imagined they could frighten the God-Man with the threat of Herod’s evil intentions, but they were mistaken.   He announces calmly that He knows that He will be killed, and that it will happen in Jerusalem, the city that always murdered the prophets.   He also announces that, until this happens, He will continue to “walk,” that is, to carry out His mission of teaching, preaching, healing, casting out devils, and raising the dead – His mission to inaugurate the Kingdom of God.   He is in complete control of the situation, and He is going to His voluntary Passion to fulfill the will of the Father, to fulfill God’s providential plan for our salvation from before the ages.

Today we may feel that matters are out of our control, involving both the Church’s situation and society in general, in many ways that affect our lives directly.  This chaos, however, is limited and temporary – a trial we must pass through, our Golgotha.   We must “set our face towards Jerusalem” as the Lord did (And it came to pass, when the time was come that He should be received up, He steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem – Luke 9:51) – we must voluntarily join ourselves to Him in His Passion.   And, as we resolve to endure whatever the Lord allows for our salvation, we must resolve with equal determination to go about our mission as well, to do the Lord’s work, the Church’s mission.

How does one acquire courage to carry on when the outlook is grim?   Here are three considerations:

Perspective – From God’s point of view – sub specie aeternitatis (from the perspective of eternity) – the entire history of this whole world, much less one’s lifetime, is the blink of an eye.   He is the King of the Ages, the Sovereign of History. All is unfolding according to His plan for our salvation, which He desires infinitely more than we do.   We have only to do our part in history; we have no responsibility for controlling history.   He will arrange everything for our true good.

Consolation in Prayer – When external circumstances are at their worst is precisely the time when consolation in prayer is greatest, if we are faithful to prayer and wholeheartedly resolve to grow closer to God in our trials.   Many Orthodox Christians who suffered in the communist hell of the 20th century testified that ultimately their time in prison, living in the utmost humiliation and deprivation, became the happiest time of their lives, precisely because it was at this time that they experienced what prayer really is and what a human being is really made for – most intimate union with the Lord, Who becomes everything to us when we have lost everything else.   We cannot conceive of the unspeakable consolation such people experienced…but we may have the opportunity to do so in future.   Let us begin now to deepen our life of prayer!  The next time we are anxious over the future course of events, let us turn to a favorite book on prayer and spiritual life that has motivated us in the past, rather than to this or that website to read the latest spin on the absurd epiphenomena of man’s vain strivings.

Love for Others – Typically fear for the future is mixed with self-pity.   Let us forget ourselves and act determinedly each day for the true good of those for whom we are in varying degrees responsible.   A man becomes a good soldier only when he counts his own life as nothing, when he thinks himself already a dead man.   Let us be good soldiers in the Church Militant, counting our lives as nothing, determined to lay down our lives for our friends, in order to practice that love than which there is no greater.   With this option clearly open to us, how can we say that our lives are out of control?

The duty is ours; the consequences are God’s.    Let us set our faces serenely to go to Jerusalem, and on the way, each day, seek simply to know and to do His will.

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Righteous art Thou in all that Thou hast done to us

Friday of the 5th Week of St. Luke

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The reading from the Holy Gospel today is Luke 10: 1-15.

At that time, the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come. Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves. Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes: and salute no man by the way. And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house. And if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it: if not, it shall turn to you again. And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house. And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you: And heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. But into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you not, go your ways out into the streets of the same, and say, Even the very dust of your city, which cleaveth on us, we do wipe off against you: notwithstanding be ye sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom, than for that city. Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, which have been done in you, they had a great while ago repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment, than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell.

St. Theophan the Recluse comments on the ultimate fate of those who reject the apostolic preaching:

In the next world, will there be such condescension toward those who do not accept the Lord as He showed toward those living on the earth?   No, there will not be. Sending the Seventy to preach, the Lord commanded them that when they were not received, they should say in the streets: “Even the very dust of your city, which cleaveth on us, we do wipe off against you: notwithstanding, be ye sure of this, that the Kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.” That is, we do not need anything of yours. It is not with self-interest that we walk and preach, but to proclaim peace and the Kingdom of God unto you. If you do not want to receive this blessing, then let it be as you wish – we will go on. Thus it was commanded for the present time; but how will it be in the future? “It will be more tolerable in that day for Sodom, than for that city.”  Therefore, unbelievers have nothing to give them hope of the Lord’s lenience. While on the earth they take their liberties, but as soon as death comes, the entire storm of God’s wrath will come down upon them. It would be a great misfortune to be as the unbelievers!   They do not even have joy on the earth, because without God and the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior and Redeemer, even here everything is dismal and dreary. As to what will happen there, it is impossible to describe it in words or to imagine it. It would be more tolerable to be destroyed, but even that will not be given to them. – Thoughts for Each Day of the Year, p. 234

Thoughts like these are very difficult for us.   It is terrible, unthinkable, that people we love – relatives, friends, even spouses and children – would be condemned for their lack of faith in Christ.   On the other hand, the alternative is even more unthinkable – that the words of Christ are not true. For if these hard words of His about the necessity of Faith and the reality of His Judgment are not true, why should any of His words be true? And if He is not the Truth, nothing and no one is, and there is no truth. And if there is no truth, life is not worth living.

The only way out of the painful state of mind caused by juxtaposing these two alternatives is complete humility and surrender to the will of God.   We have to “commit ourselves, one another, and all our life to Christ our God.” The knowledge of Who He is, the conviction that we have a Creator and a Redeemer, is by itself the source of limitless joy, a never-failing fountain of happiness for every moment of the day, if only we thought about it.   Clinging to Him, walking the narrow path with Him and to Him – for He is our constant companion on the very road to Himself – should occupy all of our mental energy for spiritual matters.  Why waste energy and risk getting lost by wandering off the path to indulge in theological speculation about the fate of the faithless?   They have a Creator and Redeemer, Who knows them better than we do and Who loves them better, as well.   Let Him take care of it.

We certainly can pray for God’s mercy for those who have died outside the Church: make a list, read their names every day, and say, “O Lord have mercy on them!”   You can also say the Trisagion Prayers and the psalms for their souls –  especially Pss. 90, 50, and 118.  Say the Prayer of Jesus on the prayer rope, and offer a certain number of prayer ropes for their salvation.  Make prostrations for them.  Give alms in their memory.  

In regards to those among the living whom we deeply desire to convert to the Orthodox Faith, again:  pray for them every day – make a list, read their names, and say, “O Lord have mercy on them!”   You can also say the Trisagion Prayers and the psalms for them.  Say the Prayer of Jesus on the prayer rope, and offer x number of prayer ropes for their salvation.  Make prostrations for them.  Give alms for their sake.  

When you are actively engaged in helping the departed by prayer and in helping the living to find their salvation, all of these speculations about the justice of God in condemning those outside the Church, etc, fall away – we are too busy for that.   We have to do our job, and that is helping others not be condemned. This, and – which is more essential – paying attention to the state of our own souls,  should occupy our minds sufficiently until we draw our own last breath. And we should never give up: as the great American philosopher Yogi Berra reminds us, “It ain’t over till it’s over.”

Let us cast away all of our logismoi – our dark, troubled, and confused thoughts – and let us cast ourselves into the abyss of God’s inscrutable wisdom and absolute love for mankind.   His peace, which the world cannot give, shall envelope us, calm our troubled minds, and give us the courage to confess our Faith, share it with others if they want it, and persevere to the end.

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I.M. Andreyev on the Moscow Patriarchate – Session 3

Is the Grace of God Present in the Soviet Church? – Session 3

Excursus:   Two corroborations of the importance of our study.    

A.  An impressive confirmation of the importance of this study from the publisher of “Is the Grace of God Present in the Soviet Church?”:   

The publisher of “Is the Grace of God Present in the Soviet Church,” Fr. Andrew Kencis, wrote us recently, to thank us for our efforts to discuss this landmark monograph publicly, and to give us further insight into how the English translation came to be made.   

  Here is what he wrote (published with his permission):  

“I heard about the podcast this past Sunday from a few parishioners who listen to your offerings…. We where quite intrigued so we listened to part one on the way home from church (it’s a long drive every weekend!).

“THANK YOU. You completely understood the point of the book!!! I almost broke down and cried while driving…. “SOMEBODY  GOT THE POINT! Finally!!!”

Metropolitan Vitaly approached me in 1998 asking me to get it translated as he wanted this book out  in English. I gave it to my mother,  who had translated “Royal Way of the  Cross.” After that I sent the  translation to Jordanville for review…. I received back  the text which I was told was gone over by Fr.. George Shaffer (now Bishop George). As I went through both versions ( the original text from my mom and Fr. George’s changes ) There was a section where Fr. George completely changed the  meaning and thrust of the message. Changing it to a more positive towards the MP tone. It didn’t make sense what  I read, so reviewing  the phrase  and comparing both versions, checking with a Russian dictionary. It was clear Fr. George changed the text to something that was NOT  in the original. 

“After that I had to go through the entire translation AGAIN  carefully. One has to recall what  was happening in ROCOR at that time…

“When it finally came out in print. I recall Father Victor Potatov denouncing it on the ROCORClergy list. Saying in part “brothers, do we really need such a book at the point in time???”  That was all it took and the book hardly received any orders. 

“The book I still consider to be our masterpiece,  and  as you rightly realized “goes far beyond the title.” Simply put, the book  is about discernment and pointing out to us “that we live for the life of the age to come.” Even this explanation cheapens its profundity.

“The introduction was the result of numerous phone discussions I had with Father Christopher [Birchall, author of the Introduction.]  concerning the point of publishing this book,  the  “why make the effort?” [question].  …its point is “discernment of falsehood.” I even agonized over changing the title as most would only see  it as a anti-MP polemic and not even give it a chance. In the end I decided to leave it titled as the author.   But in the  introduction Father Christopher masterfully incorporated all the themes and points Metropolitan Vitaly wanted a thoughtful reader to grasp. 

“The footnotes (which are not in the original) are mostly my work but with input from others in ROCOR at that time who also comprehended the importance of this work. We tried to show the “mind of the Church” It is imperative… to read the footnotes as they appear in the text. 

“Thank you again for going through this work. Interestingly,  Matushka and I discussed reprinting this book this winter to keep it in print because of its importance in  our times of “counterfeits” and, frankly, lack of sobriety among  the  faithful. 

“In Christ,

“Fr. Andrew”. 

—   Email received from Fr. Andrew Kencis of Monastery Press on October 27th 2023 ns.   

(Before going on, I’d like to correct something I said earlier, that this essay was available in English prior to this 2000 edition.  It was not.  This was the first time it had been translated into English.).  

Fr. Andrew makes several important points here:   

1.  Metropolitan Vitaly, the last right-confessing First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad as she existed before the 2007 “union” with the MP, commissioned this translation, because he considered the work so important at that time (the late 90s, early 2000s), when the forces to liquidate the Church Abroad were working overtime to bring about the captivity to the MP.   

2.  Hieromonk George (Shaffer), then a monk at Jordanville, now a ROCOR-MP bishop, deliberately distorted the text in order to make it seem that Andreyev had a favorable opinion towards the Sergianist church organization.    You don’t deliberately alter texts unless you have something to hide and you have no argument to defend your position.   

3.  Fr. Victor Potapov, one of the leading agitators for the “union,” attacked the publication of the book simply through derision, without an argument.   Because of his status in the ROCOR at the time, this was enough to keep the clergy from reading it and distributing it.  You don’t simply dismiss an opponent’s arguments without a reasoned response unless you have something to hide and you have no argument to defend your position.   

4.  The purpose of the original essay in 1948 and its republication in 2000 was not simply to attack the Moscow Patriarchate out of a spirit of partisanship, but, most importantly, to express the mind of the Church of all ages regarding the discernment of falsehood, of the spirit of Antichrist.  Thus this work, as Fr. Christopher Birchall beautifully expresses in his Introduction, is not an angry, one-sided polemic rendered obsolete by its being concerned solely with a long-dead controversy, but rather constitutes a permanently useful, profoundly wise and genuinely spiritual instruction, coming from the erudite, balanced, and deeply pious mind of a great man, a true man of the Church, who has suffered for the Faith.  Its timeliness relating to our need for discernment in our circumstances should be obvious to anyone paying attention to the contemporary Church situation, which has not improved, but rather has grown immeasurably worse, since Andreyev’s time.  

B. Confirmation that the present day MP has not rejected, but rather has canonized Sergianism.  Thus our study of the question of the MP’s Sergianism is still needed; it’s not a dead issue. 

The Sergianism of the Moscow Patriarchate is not a thing of the past.   They are doubling down on their exaltation of Metropolitan/“Patriarch” Sergius and the correctness of his position.  Subdeacon Nektarios, in two well-researched articles on his “Orthodox Traditionalist” website, makes this clear.  Please see 

https://www.orthodoxtraditionalist.com/post/ecumenism-sergianism-did-the-moscow-patriarchate-renounce-them

And    https://www.orthodoxtraditionalist.com/post/letter-from-metropolitan-anastasius-gribanovsky-on-patriarch-alexy-s-address-to-the-rocor.   

Subdeacon Nektarios demonstrates the accuracy of his understanding of what Sergianism is in the first above-mentioned article, in a point by point description of this spiritual phenomenon.  I’d like to reproduce this description in full:  

“Sergianism is then a bowing of the hierarchs to the forerunners of the Anti-Christ [the Soviet Regime] and declaring obedience to them and to their agendas, which history has shown us includes the persecution of the Orthodox Church and the murder of its saints. The primary characteristics of Sergianism are: 

“1. Viewing the Church administration first and foremost as an organization which must be blindly obeyed (despite its hierarchs teaching bareheaded heresy) as if the voice of the organization was always and without exception the voice of Christ (think of when the Church was ruled by the Arian faction, Patriarch Nestorius and the Iconoclasts). 

“2. Failing to distinguish between the God-given authority of Caesar and the God-allowed ‘authority’ of the Antichrist which is rooted in Satan (Apocalypse 13:2). 

“3. Lying, doing evil, persecuting the Saints and overturning tradition to supposedly save the Church from evil. 

“4. An idolization of ‘canonicity’ and using this to quench the Spirit. Along with this, Sergianism replaces genuine spiritual life with dead canonical forms; while failing to distinguish how the Church must act during normal times versus times of persecution. 

“5. Gazing upon the ‘Mystery of Iniquity’ and proclaiming Soviet ‘joys and successes are our joys and successes and whose failures, [our] failures’ [2]. Thus the mission of the Church is perverted and replaced by something else (whether openly evil or seemingly good) and effectively a new master is proclaimed as the acting head of the Church (instead of Christ). 

“6. Sinning against the dogma of the Church by perverting her nature; this is done by identifying the Church with Caesar or with the Anti-Christ, instead of with Christ himself. This attempts to turn the Church from being the house of salvation into a political or social organization.

“7. Betraying Christ and trampling upon the truth for the sake of obtaining or maintaining a legally functioning Church organization. Sergianism attempts to kill and suppress the organism for the sake of the organization. 

“8. Denying the spirit of Martyrdom and Confession of the Faith and making, before the world, a spectacle of the Church by presenting the Church (the Body of Christ) as if it were a pathetic slave without freedom and dignity.

“9. And finally, the Chiliastic (belief advanced by some religious denominations that a Paradise will occur on Earth prior to the final judgment) spirit which aims to transform the existing social and political order through the establishment of Christian ideals in order to form a moral or religious governmental New World Order or a Kingdom of God on Earth.

“Sergianism, in short is an idolatry, heresy, ecclesiastical renovation, schismatic design and apostasy from true Orthodox ecclesiology and ultimately Orthodox Christian doctrine. It is a system of cowardice, non-resistance to evil, a criminalization of confessing the Orthodox faith and a denial of God’s providence and a scorning of the Neptic tradition of the Saints.”

Having received these clear confirmations of the importance of our study, we shall return next week to reading and commenting on 

“Is the Grace of God Present in the Soviet Church?”  

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True charity

Wednesday of the 5th Week of St. Luke

The reading today from the Holy Gospel is Luke 9:44-50.

Listen to an audio podcast of this post at https://www.spreaker.com/user/youngfaithradio/lk5wed_1

The Lord saidLet these sayings sink down into your ears: for the Son of man shall be delivered into the hands of men. But they understood not this saying, and it was hid from them, that they perceived it not: and they feared to ask him of that saying. Then there arose a reasoning among them, which of them should be greatest. And Jesus, perceiving the thought of their heart, took a child, and set him by him, And said unto them, Whosoever shall receive this child in my name receiveth me: and whosoever shall receive me receiveth him that sent me: for he that is least among you all, the same shall be great. And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name; and we forbad him, because he followeth not with us. And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us.

In commenting on this passage, St. Theophan the Recluse chooses to write about the words, “…whosoever shall receive me receiveth him that sent me…”

…whosoever does not confess the Lord does not honor God, because he does not confess the God Who is the true God. The true God does not exist without the Son, Who is co-eternal and co-unoriginate. Therefore, once you cease to confess the Son, you no longer confess the true God. Only God will discern what your confession is worth; but since God is revealed to us as the true God, apart from this revelation one cannot have the true God.   – Thoughts for Each Day of the Year, p. 233

The God Whom Abraham worshipped is the same Holy Trinity Whom Christ revealed and Whom the Church confesses.   There is no other God. The Trinity is not one of many ideas about God, or even simply the best idea about God.  The Holy Trinity is God. There is no other. 

Yet today many supposed experts, including nominally Orthodox bishops and theologians, tell us that Jews and Moslems also worship the same God as do the Christians, the God of Abraham.  This, however, is not true, and for an educated Christian knowingly to make this assertion in public is a formal act of apostasy, for by saying this he denies the only true God, Who is not only the God of the Christians but also the only God of all men and all the universe – God the Holy Trinity.  

How do people who consider themselves Christians delude themselves into accepting such a fundamental error?   When one examines this question, one usually discovers two reasons, an intellectual error and a spiritual problem.

Many, if not most, Christians today, including nominally Orthodox Christians, have false assumptions they are not aware of, assumptions that they have breathed in with the pestilential air of the times, to borrow an apt expression from the late Fr. Seraphim Rose. These assumptions include the idea that God is just out there somewhere, that no one really knows much more about Him than anyone else, and most human beings are basically good people who sort of grope their way to some understanding of God based on their cultural background and do their best to worship Him in whatever way they can.  Everyone needs to do what works for him, i.e., what provides psychological comfort and social belonging. Theology is a hobby for priests and professors, and dogmas are really just opinions of one faction or another; all that matters is to be a good person who has some kind of religion.

The spiritual problem coupled with this intellectual error is the lack of heartfelt love for Christ and the lack of desire for the salvation of one’s neighbor.   If someone understands Who Christ is and what He suffered for us, the blasphemy that “all religions lead to God” horrifies him; he cannot remain indifferent. Intellectual indifferentism, then, is the twin of spiritual indifference: the lack of faith coupled with the lack of zeal, and, ultimately, the lack of the most essential virtue, which is charity. True charity must involve charity towards God, first of all, and how can one love God if one stubbornly denies that which He has so plainly revealed about Himself? True charity towards one’s neighbor, means, above all, desiring his salvation. But there is no salvation apart from Christ.

The odd thing is that people claim that their indifferentism is a manifestation of love, when in fact it is the opposite: it is a manifestation of malice, i.e., bad will, manifesting itself as a fundamental indifference to the true good of one’s neighbor. 

Let us pray for our hearts to be filled with the burning love of Christ Crucified for us, an essential mark of a true Christian, so that our prayers and our words will act with divine power for the enlightenment and salvation of our neighbor.

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With faith unashamed

Tuesday of the 5th Week of St. Luke

Listen to a recording of this post at https://www.spreaker.com/user/youngfaithradio/lk5tues_1

In today’s Gospel, the Lord calls upon us to confess Him before men:

The Lord said to His disciples: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away? For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father’s, and of the holy angels. But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God. – Luke 9: 23-27

If we desire to follow Christ, we have to take up our cross – daily, as St. Luke records the Lord saying – and follow Him. Part of this daily cross is not to be ashamed of Jesus Christ and His Gospel before other people, which is actually a tall order, because we are very prone to cringing before the opinion of society – we want others to like us, or at least we want to avoid conflict with them.   But if we are to be true Christians, conflict is inevitable, for the world is at war with God.

St. Theophan the Recluse laments over the fact that no one talked about God or salvation in the fashionable Russian society of his day:

Do not be ashamed to confess the Lord Jesus Christ as the Incarnate Son of God, Who redeemed us through His death on the Cross, Who through His Resurrection and Ascension opened for us the entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven. If you are ashamed, then He will be ashamed of you “…when He shall come in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels.” Now it has become fashionable in society not to talk at all about the Lord and about salvation, whereas in the beginning these precious subjects were all that people talked about. One’s talk more readily flows from the place where the heart abides. Can it really be that people’s hearts abide less with the Lord? Judging from the talk, this must be the case. Some do not know Him at all, and others are cold toward Him. Fearing encounters with such people, even those who are warm toward the Lord do not direct conversation toward Him, and the priesthood is silent. These days, discussion about the Lord and Savior and about our main concern – salvation – is excluded from the range of conversation acceptable in society. “What?” you say, “Is that really all we’re supposed to talk about? Why only about that?” It is possible to talk about anything, but it must be done in a way that is underscored by the spirit of Christ. Then it would be possible to guess whether the speaker is a Christian or pagan. Now, however, it is impossible to guess what they are, either by their talk or by their writings. Look through all the periodicals – what don’t they write about? But no one wants to make Christian conversation. Strange times! – Thoughts for Each Day of the Year, pp. 231-232

In our own experience, of course, we do meet people who want to talk religion, but usually their ideas are so inadequate, strange, or even blasphemous that it is painful to talk with them; we feel that we are casting our pearls before swine. What to do?   What is left to us is the constant struggle for prayer, so that we are ready to say a good word in season when the occasion arises.   If we always are abiding in the Lord, then the people in front of us will, as St. Theophan says, be able to discern that we are Christians, and they will respond to us accordingly. It may be that people with a genuine thirsting spirit, with the fear of God, will cross our path, and that we must be ready to respond to them. May God grant!

If, in our inevitable run-ins with unbelievers and freethinkers, someone states a blatant untruth contrary to the Christian faith, we simply have to say, “That is not true.” We do not have to engage in argument, but simply confess our faith: “I believe in the Holy Trinity, in Christ, in the Orthodox Faith, and in everything the Church teaches.” If they want you to explain, but you don’t think you can, give them your priest’s email address or telephone number.   If they are serious, they will contact him.   When they see that you are serious, they should respect you for sticking to your guns. If they do not respect you, their good opinion is not worth having.

It is a great thing to become a skilled apologist for Orthodoxy, and we need trained clergy and laity who can skillfully defend our Faith in debate.  But all of us – the trained apologists and the simple believers, the young and the old – all of us are expected to be courageous confessors. This takes few words but strong faith, with peace of heart. The world is going its way: let it go!   We must go our way. This thought should give us peace in the midst of the turmoil and spiritual barrenness of contemporary life.

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Orthodoxy of the heart

Sermon on the Parable of the Sower – 4th Sunday of Luke

Here is a link to the recording of a sermon preached at St. Ieronymos Orthodox Church in Hillsdale, Michigan, on the Fourth Sunday of Luke, on which we read the Parable of the Sower.

https://www.spreaker.com/user/youngfaithradio/lk4sun

Here is the link to the article mentioned in the sermon: https://www.orthodoxtraditionalist.com/post/father-seraphim-rose-on-schmemann-meyendorff-the-pseudo-patristic-scholars-of-orthodoxy

Here is a link to the essay by Fr. Michael Pomazansky on the liturgical theology of Alexander Schmemann: http://orthodoxinfo.com/phronema/pom_lit.aspx

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I.M. Andreyev on the Moscow Patriarchate – Sessions 1 and 2

Is the Grace of God Present in the Soviet Church?Session 1 

Listen to this session at https://www.spreaker.com/user/youngfaithradio/ourstruggleclass7_1

Recently we began a reading and discussion of the essay by I.M. Andreyev, “Is the Grace of God Present in the Soviet Church.” Below are the outline notes for sessions 1 and 2. These discussions will be listened to with much interest by those who are concerned about finding and remaining in the real Orthodox Church during these times of spiritual confusion and apostasy. It is strongly recommended to obtain the booklet containing this essay, from Monastery Press, at https://monasterypress.com/sovchurc.html.

This is a landmark essay by a great mind of true Orthodox in the 20th century.  Important for several reasons:  

1. It summarizes the position of the confessing Russian Church – the Catacomb Church and ROCOR – of the Soviet period. 

2.  It explores the question of how a church can appear outwardly beautiful but still not be the Church.  

3.  It links ecclesiology to Orthodox anthropology and soteriology by linking the question of grace to the question of the distinction between the psychic and the spiritual.  

4.  It offers an example of a painful struggle for discernment of the presence of the spirit of Christ vs. the spirit of Antichrist in situations when the canons do not give clear guidance.   

  Tonight we shall begin reading the introduction to the 2000 edition from Monastery Press, by Protodeacon Christopher Birchall. 

Session 2

Is the Grace of God Present in the Soviet Church?

Listen to the audio podcast of this lecture at https://www.spreaker.com/user/youngfaithradio/andreyev2

A.   The Nature of the Soviet Authority – pp. 23 – 26 

1.  Legitimate authority established by God (Romans 13:1) 

    2.  “But an authority which does not recognize the higher authority of God over her, is not an authority but a despotism.  

    3.  Sovietism denies the essence of authority itself. 

    4.  Atheism – Pride and indifference.  

    5.  Soviet system a perfected system of extreme evil without precedent. 

    6.  Communist party the mystical body of Antichrist.  

    7.  The choice presented by the Soviet authority anticipates the trial of the faithful in the time of Antichrist.  

    8.   Final goal of Bolshevism:  world government. 

    9.  Must see Bolshevism as a spiritual phenomenon.  To see it as just another cruel system of government is too miss the essence of what it is.  It is a mystical reality. 

    B.   The Response of the Confessing Church to the Declaration of 1927, pp, 26 – 30

    1.  The confessing true Church of Russia regards the Soviet authority as an Antichrist anti-authority.  

    2.  The delegation of the Petrograd diocese of 1927, of which Andreyev was a member.  The response of Sergius:  to laugh.  

    3.  Those who rejected the Declaration did so on moral grounds, not simply political allegiance.  

    4.    The followers of Sergius declared that the martyrs were criminals and that Stalin was the “chosen of God.”   

    5.  Many of the best bishops, clergy, and theologians rejected the Declaration.  Initially the rejection was widespread.  Anti-Sergianism was put down not by any canonical means or theological argument, but by the violent physical elimination of all those who opposed the Declaration.  Their imprisonment, torture, and death was accomplished with the full knowledge, cooperation, and approval of Sergius and his “synod.”      

    C.  The “Canonical” Basis of the Sergianist “Synod” – pp. 30 – 31

    1.  Sergius violated a basic canon, Canon 34 of the Apostolic Canons, which directs that the president of a synod do nothing without the consent of the other bishops.  Moreover, Sergius was not even really the canonical head of the Church – that was Metropolitan Peter of Krutitsa.  Sergius was on the deputy locum tenens, a position of temporary administrative status, certainly not entitled to make such momentous decisions, and certainly not to do so unilaterally.    

    2.  He silenced the clergy who disagreed with him with (suspension, defrocking, unlawful transfers, etc., , and he declared all those who opposed him were “counter-revolutionaries” and therefore subject to prosecution under Soviet law.

    3.   Stalin made him “patriarch” with a fraudulent election during WWII, in 1943.     

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