St. Paisios of Mount Athos

 

*Disclaimer: I will speak the truth in this blog. Some might find my words harsh to describe some groups and enemies of the Church. If I offend you, I implore you to seek forgiveness and return to the Orthodox Faith. I do not do this harm you or hate you, for I love all of you dearly. I only do so that you might see the truth and live

Today’s Saint is Saint Paisios. Though today is not his feast day, I have studied St. Paisios since before I was chrismated into the church. St. Paisios has spoken at length along with so many others regarding the masons, Marxists and other enemies of the church. Even those who the world would assume as the people of God, the Jews are fully against God and His Church. Do not have anything to do with those who seek to destroy it. I have been reading once again the remarkable prophecies of St. Paisios and have recorded some in previous articles so that you might find strength and repentance when the time comes. Today we will look at the remarkable life of the saint, and also detail his words of encouragement for the Church. Though he reposed in 1994, two years after I was born I have felt a strong connection to this saint and was one of the names I mulled over in my mind before I took St. Seraphim’s name. I will hopefully do a blog, Lord willing, on St. Seraphim in a few days’ time that looks more in depth at him. St. Paisios though is one of the pinnacles of the recent church and his life can give us hope and encouragement. Let us pray that he will do so through this article.

               He was born Arsenios Eznepidis in Cappadocia, Turkey where many of our most beloved saints have hailed from. From an early age Arsenios was well versed in the theology of the church and the Holy Scriptures, his family was uprooted from their home in Turkey to Epirus in Greece as part of an exchange between the two countries. Though Arsenios would be called to military action during the Greek Civil War, he did not wish to do time as a combatant and served instead as a radio operator. He was noted for his bravery and his concern for others despite not caring for his own safety. He wished to enter the monastic life in 1950, but was also concerned for his sisters, who unmarried were his responsibility as well. Thus, having taken care of his sisters Arsenios finally sought the monastic life. Having entered the monastery as a novice, he was taught the ways of monasticism and prayer and was finally tonsured as a monk in 1954, receiving the new name Averkios. He went to Philotheou Monastery where his uncle resided and was placed under the care of Elder Symeon. There he dwelt in extreme self-denial, focusing purely on his own sins and judging himself very harshly. He was given the small schema in 1956, with the name he would carry the rest of his life…Paisios. From there many visitors would come to seek his counsel, but he would pretend to be a fool so as to preserve his silence and meditation on the holy things of God. In 1958, after groups of protestant heretics began speaking out against the Orthodox Faith, he went home to his village and spoke out against them, encouraging the faithful and returning many back to the apostolic faith. In 1962, he left for Sinai, where he had wished to go for a long time, seeking the desert but also the spiritual desert where he could grow in faith and stature. The Bedouin people of the region became well endowed to St. Paisios and loved him with great love. He would buy the people food from the woodcarving he would do, as he was a trained carpenter. In 1964, after failing health, he returned to Mount Athos, a place where he would rarely leave again. He had part of his lungs removed in 1966. He was finally granted the highest rank of monasticism, the Great Schema, and resided in the hermitage of Elder Tikhon. In 1979 he finally left for his last home on the Holy Mountain that of Panagouda. Because of his extreme asceticism, he was only afforded 2-3 hours of sleep a night. St. Paisios at this time began to receive visitors for hours on end, at a women’s monastery where he could relax and be their spiritual father. He had no choice but to leave the mountain, a few times due to illness and returned without complaining, noting that all was for God’s glory and he did not expect anything in return. Finally due to cancer, St. Paisios left Mount Athos for the final time. In 1993, he was diagnosed with Cancer and sent to Thessaloniki for treatment. He was eventually transferred to a local monastery where despite his suffering and pain he continued to receive visitors and listened intently at their sorrows. On July 11^th, 1994, he received communion for the final time, surrendering his soul to the care of God on July 12^th. Officially declared a saint by the Holy Synod of Constantinople in 2015, he is widely regarded as a living saint while here on earth. The Church only proclaimed what God had already established.

               Now a little regarding his prophecies. I said I would speak to the nature of them and will do so now. St. Paisios was always concerned for the wellbeing of the people and for his Greek nation. He often noted the lukewarm nature of many priests and the spiritual deception that was taking place in the world. He also noted that time was coming when Turkey would no longer exist, and that Greece would once again be triumphant. He predicted the beginning of WW3 and what it would entail for the people that participated in that horrific conflict. He has also been proven right in regard to the reestablishment of the Hagia Sophia as a mosque and the call to extend the borders of the Greek nation. All of which precedes the beginning of the end for Turkey and the number of enemies the Church has gathered. He had incredible foresight into the nature of the world and predicted the coming of a great illness (possibly Covid-19).  He spoke out against protestants, against the communists, and against the New World Order. He knew that all of those things would be greatly influential in the coming years though noting that Christ would be victorious. He asked us to guard our hearts from any flight of the devil and to remain steadfast and true. In a world today that seeks to say that truth is unknowable he boldly preached the truth of the Church.

               We know that all of us are not called to the monastic life. Some of us will be married, raise children, and participate in the life of the parish, which it too is for the glory of God. I have not been called to such a position and remain happily married and enjoy life within my own parish in Memphis. While we certainly can learn from the extreme humility and patience that St. Paisios exhibited can be a great comfort and example for us all. May God through his intercession bring us all to repentance that we may live.

               Amen.

The Heart of the Mother

 “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

As we prepare for one of the great feasts of the Church, the Annunciation of the Theotokos I am once again reminded of the courage and the love the Mother of God, showed by accepting the calling that God himself placed upon her.  As the story reads, we find Mary, the virgin from birth in the sixth month of her cousin’s pregnancy herself. Elizabeth six months earlier had become pregnant with John the Forerunner and Baptist.  Through the tradition kept by the Church through the records that have been handed down to us, there is much more to this story than one can find in the scriptures. Though of course the scriptures tell us what we must know for salvation, it does not give us the entire detail of who the Theotokos was what her life was like before and even after this. Today I want to look at the Theotokos more closely and discover the heart of the greatest woman to have ever lived. Come take this journey with me.

Mary, was the daughter of Saints Joachim and Anna of that we can be most certain. Both Joachim and Anna were elderly upon the birth of the Theotokos and had been humiliated and run at the temple. Joachim and Anna went to the very cave that Elijah had several hundred years earlier. There they prayed for the shame and humiliation to come to an end. At that time, an Angel of the Lord appeared to them, blessing them and announcing that they would bear a child who would give birth to the Life of the World. Saints Joachim and Anna then proclaimed they would give the child back to God, and that she would be in service to God her entire life. At the age of three she was given to the Temple and when Zacharias the High Priest saw her he carried her into the Holy of Holies, knowing she would be the New Ark. The New Covenant would be carried through her and she would bless all generations through the giving of her life for God.  As she grew in stature at the temple, she became well versed in the theology of God and the life of a true witness for Christ. At the age of 13, she was forced to leave the temple because of her menstrual cycle according to Jewish law. Thus, enters Joseph into our story. As I previously stated, you cannot find this in the scriptures, but it has been handed down to us through the tradition of the Apostles. Joseph was elderly, around 80 years of age. He himself had been previously married and had several children. These are the brothers and sisters of Jesus that read about in scripture. From there our story continues as Joseph and Mary remained only betrothed and never consummated their marriage. The early church always view Mary as being ever-virgin and it wasn’t until the Protestant Reformation that many came to believe that Mary was not a virgin after her marriage to Joseph. We know from scriptures that Mary and Joseph lived together in their home, and that Mary became pregnant through the Holy Spirit and Jesus was conceived within her womb. Though Joseph sought to divorce her and send her away, he did not. From there she gave birth to Jesus Christ.

After the birth of Jesus Christ we know that Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus traveled to Egypt to hide from Herod who sought to kill the babe. As Mary walked with God through Egypt idols would crumble at her feet, and she was amazed at the power of God that he was showing through her. On their way out of Egypt into the Holy Land once again, a tree that was possessed by a demon bowed at her feet, and the demon was cast out by the mere presence of Christ. The tree is still there by the way and you can visit it. We know from there that Jesus was raised in Galilee and he became strong in stature in the Lord. Mary would ponder often the fate that Simeon had prophesied about her son. She never left his side. She went where he went and traveled where he traveled. We know the story from scripture at this point. Jesus was crucified for our sins on the cross and rose on the third day. While on the cross he entrusted the care of his beloved mother to St. John the Apostle.   From there St. John did not leave her side. Mary became not just the Theotokos but was now the Mother to the Apostles. She and St. John traveled and visited the bishops of the Church and gave them encouragement and comfort along the way. We then know that Mary on one such voyage was travelling to Cyprus where St. Lazarus who Christ had resurrected a week before his own passion was now bishop. Mary and St. John were blown off course by a violent storm and landed on the peninsula now known as Mount Athos one of the holiest places in Orthodoxy. The Lord gave this place to her as his gift and Mount Athos to this day is regarded as her garden. That is why no women are allowed. St. Luke the Evangelist painted the first icon of her during this time and it is still with us to this day. After this, it came time for her repose. Like all humans it is appointed once for us to die. Mary was no exception.

At her repose, all eleven of the apostles, minus Thomas gathered to her side. They knew her time had come and it was good to see their beloved mother one last time. At this point we pick up again with tradition and know from there Mary reposed in the Lord and her funeral bier was carried to Gethsemane. While on their way a man called Jephonias, seeing the funeral bier being carried tried in earnest to push the body of Mary into the dirt to destroy her. The Lord in his righteousness sent the Archangel Michael to defend her body.  Jephonias’ hands were cut from his body and he could not complete his task. Three days passed. By this point Thomas had arrived and was greatly distressed that he had not been there at the moment of her repose. The apostles agreed to open the tomb one last time to venerate her body together.  Upon their discovery of the tomb, there was not a body laying in the tomb. The Apostles believed that someone had come to desecrate her relics and destroyed the body of the Mother of God. At dinner that evening, the Theotokos appeared to them and comforted them, telling them that Christ in his love and devotion to His mother had glorified her earthly body and raised her to his own right hand to be the intercessor for the entire Church. She herself could not be contained by death because she had the Life of the World in her womb. She was sanctified by Christ. 

We learn of the devotion that Mary had for her son, and love she always carried. Many people today try themselves to discredit Mary and bring her lower than she really is. But she is the epitome of motherhood. She never once questioned the plan that God had for her Son. She gave her whole heart and life for Christ. Teaching, comforting, encouraging those around her by her love and compassion. She gave when she should have been given to. Instead of thinking about herself she always thought of others. Mary is the person we should all strive to be. That is the heart of the mother. That is the Theotokos.

Amen.

 

Tollhouse Cookies or Tollhouse Road: The Final Ascent Tollhouses 11-20

 

Yesterday we looked at the first ten tollhouses in which God will allow the demons to test your faith on your journey after death. We looked at how one would be judged and the sort of things that will be asked of you by the angels and demons as God makes his judgment regarding your soul. The first ten were relatively concentrated on the pride and the dereliction of your duty with fellow man. We have seen that pride is the root cause of all life’s problems and as we reach further up the ascent into heaven we no doubt will as well encounter the tollhouse of pride. While I would again stress this is figurative language, the journey of the soul is something that we Orthodox take seriously. Especially as it regards to the prayers for the dead and if you haven’t read that blog I suggest you do so.  May God grant us understanding as we continue this discussion on the tollhouse road.

The eleventh torment is that of pride. Yes, after we have endured all our sins that we have committed regarding avarice, envy, and love of riches we come to heart of the matter. We come to pride. It is here at the eleventh tollhouse all of the prideful moments of our lives will be laid bare. All the times we have forgotten to honor our parents, our government, and the superiors God has placed over us, will be exposed. We will be asked to account for our sins as they have taken place. There is often a lot of talk in the media today about pride. The LGBTQ+ community has even rallied around the very term in a sense to be proud of who they are. God does not ask us to proud of ourselves. Because without Him our lives are nothing. God asks us to be humble, to be meek, to seek Him and Him alone. Being self-absorbed in ourselves we lose the focus to focus on those around us. Taking care of others, being kind and in short we become lovers of ourselves.  God does not look kindly on us rejecting his plan for our lives, seeking our own earthly desires. But here the pride we have accumulated in ourselves will be exposed. It is a grave sin brothers and sisters. Do not fall into it.

The twelfth torment is that of anger. Christ himself was once filled with holy anger for the things that he found in the temple, and how he drove the moneychangers and others from the temple in Jerusalem. However, we are not so much concerned with holy anger for the things that God abhors and detests. We are talking about the things said to those out of anger and hatred for our fellow man. How many times do we lose our temper when things aren’t going our way and we lash out because we are filled with such rage that we become hostile to those around us. We speak ill of each other and we harm the salvation and very being of people by our actions. Do we punish our children severely when an encouraging word or a light punishment was sufficient for their actions? Do we show wrath against people who have wronged us? Oftentimes we do. We live in a world today where people are seeking to be first without equals, not among equals. We don’t treat each other with respect. We cancel those who disagree with us, and we shame those with a dissenting voice. We create in ourselves this self-righteousness that is not at all how Christ acted. He could have gotten angry and lashed out at Pilate, Herod, the pharisees and Sanhedrin. But he did not. We must control our temper lest it is laid bare for us at this tollhouse and exposes us as a fraud and hypocrite. We must walk with humility and patience. Knowing that our fellow man is also sinful. Anger and hatred have no place in the heart of a Christian. We must root this out with prayer, fasting and the Holy Eucharist. Otherwise here at the 12^th tollhouse the demons will come and will be able to overcome us.

The thirteenth torment is again exposing more of the same, but it hearkens back to what Christ says, “love your enemies.” The thirteenth torment is that of holding grudges. How many people do we absolutely hate and cannot forgive them for their actions? Here I am convicted again of my own sins in my own life where I have despised someone for a wrong they have committed against me. And I humbly ask you to pray for me that I might forgive them for their actions. I pray that we will forgive all people for their actions. People today do not want to forgive their neighbor, believing themselves to be above reproach and that what they want is more important. Holding grudges and basically already judging them in place of God is a dangerous sin. Are we better than God? Do we have more knowledge and wisdom than the God that created all things? If we believe this brothers and sisters, we must repent immediately. We must turn from our wicked ways and go and seek forgiveness not just from God but from the person we have a grudge against. We must learn to let it go. The thirteenth tollhouse will expose this and I would not want for Satan to have any way of accusing us at the judgement of my failure to love.

The fourteenth torment is murder. Christ says hating one’s brother or sister is already committing murder in the heart. Have we killed? Have we struck someone down because we wanted to? Taking a life is never easy, but so too is holding anger in hearts. Committing murder in our souls against our neighbor. We must restrain ourselves from harming one another. Even if it means rejecting our passion of harming someone who has harmed us.

The fifteenth torment is that of sorcery. Now today’s world places a large emphasis on sorcery with the Harry Potter novels, the Charmed television series, and other books that feature fantastical feats with use of magic. We dear brothers and sisters, must reject it for what it is. We must reject it, because magic is using the power of the demons to achieve our goals. To achieve what we want. Magic is real. Wiccans today perform magic through the use of their spells and other acts that a Christian must reject. It may be enjoyment for us to watch shows and want to have that sort of power. But when we let the demons creep into our minds using their subtle but effective methods we could get the idea that we too should practice witchcraft and use the power of the demonic arts to achieve our goals. Here the sins of sorcery and witchcraft will be laid bare for us. If we have not participated in this we have nothing to fear for we must be reminded that God sees all and forgives all. If we only repent we will not be subject to the terrors of the demons.

Now we come to the sexual torments. Those of which are terrible and great in the world today. We see these most often in the culture that we live in especially here in the United States. The sixteenth torment is fornication. Lust and the power of sex is rampant in the world today. We see this with Onlyfans, with Instagram, and other social media sites catering to our desire to fulfill our sexual urges. Porn is easily accessible to our youth, to everyone really. Pornhub caters to people who are seeking to fulfill a longing for companionship. We do not wish to seek the companionship of God. We want earthly desires to take away the responsibility of living our lives in fellowship with God and do not want to account for our actions. It is said here that these sins will be exposed and the demons as our prosecutors will accuse of us all the sins we have committed in fornication and lusting after those who we find desirable.

Next is the seventeenth torment. Getting closer to paradise, but still a ways to go. Adultery is here exposed. The seventeenth torment will see all that which we have done in relation to the marriage bed laid bare. Have we been faithful to our spouse? Have we sought another while being married to the person God has intended? For most Christians and people this will be an easy tollhouse as for most keeping the marriage bed sacred has been a duty and an honor. They have found the person they want to spend the rest of their lives with and will do anything to keep it pure. But for others, through divorce and their own pride they have sought to destroy it whether openly or secretly. Swinging and websites like Ashley Madison have made it easy for a person to cheat on their spouse with the help of few people or a few simple clicks. People have rejected the love of their spouse and the love of God for love of themselves.  We must not fall into that trap brothers and sisters. We must rise above it, whether we are celibate for the glory of God or have found a spouse. We must keep the marriage bed sacred and love the person God has entrusted to us with the upmost purity.

The eighteenth torment is that of homosexuality and sodomic sins. These sins are those where we have lusted after the person of our same gender our same kind. We have turned from the love between a man and woman and twisted it. We see this with the LGBTQ+ community today, calling for love is love. We see people accept it as natural, as a way in which God has intended but this tollhouse and Christianity in general know that it is not. It is a foreign concept that has invaded the minds and hearts of the people of this generation.  I have known many people who were of this persuasion in my life and it is an unnatural persuasion. It is not the life God has intended for us. Yet, through repentance they too can be saved. It is not that God will condemn them and sentence them, for we know God will forgive everything if we only confess. But confession must be pure, it must be an about face. We cannot continue to live in sin when we know it is not God’s chosen plan.

The next to last torment, the nineteenth torment is that of heresies. I have spoken quite often on heresies here, but this is once again a serious issue and must be taken accordingly. Here we will be asked if we upheld the doctrines of the Church. Whether we held within our hearts the true faith, or if we have allowed false teachings to permeate our lives. Have we clung true to the faith that has been preserved for 2000 years or have we allowed new ideas and teachings to be adopted as our own. The Orthodox Church is unchanging and unrepentant in our belief that we have protected the faith that God established and that everything outside of it is heresy. Yes that will be off putting for some, but you must look and discover the truth for yourself. I nor anyone else can come to a realization of faith for you. Heresy is a dangerous game, one that if not carefully discerned can lead to the corruption of the soul and eventually its condemnation.

Finally the twentieth and last torment. Here the soul will experience the greatest of trials, where nothing else but mercy will matter.  Have we granted mercy in our life time to those who deserve it? Have we rejected giving it when it mattered most? This is the last and greatest trial the soul will take up in the ascension to heaven. But do not fear, for God forgives all. We must only be able to understand and ask for mercy. Here in this lifetime we must seek mercy for all people, not just our own life. We must be willing to give mercy to even those who we believe do not deserve it. It is difficult, but with God’s grace and love in our hearts everything is possible.

We have reached the end of our journey and have completed the road to paradise. The tollhouse road was filled with distressing things. My mother told me other day after reading Part 1, that I need to remember that the demons do not have the power to drag us to hell. And yet she is indeed right. Only ourselves condemn us. The demons do not have the authority to drag us down and bring us into hell. Only by the judgment from God. Though this is figurative language and much of it is misunderstood by even the most scholarly of priests and clergy, we must understand that these torments are indeed real and will be used to judge us as to whether our salvation has been secured through Jesus or if we were simply going through the motions. Our lives are filled with opportunities to turn to Christ or to turn away. I am saved, am being saved, and will be saved. It is not a once saved always saved mentality. It is a living our lives in accordance to the commandments and we must fulfill them to have a true Christian faith. For most they will fall away. Others will rise to the occasion and live out as best they can the teachings of Christ. So I leave you with a question. Will you take up your cross and follow Christ or will you follow Satan and his demons?

Amen.

Delicious Tollhouse Cookies or The Tollhouse Road: Part 1 of the Discussion on Tollhouses

 

            Nothing is more misunderstood in the world of Orthodoxy and the faith in general than that of the soul after death. I recently discussed why I do not fear death, and not only do not fear it, but I embrace it. There is another topic that the world of Orthodoxy loves to debate and discuss and that is tollhouses. To the uninitiated, tollhouses seem almost like an Orthodox view of purgatory, or some other holding place for the soul until it awaits final judgement at the Awesome Judgement Seat of Christ. However, I would like to clearly state from the onset that the Orthodox view purgatory as a heresy. It was invented by the Roman Catholics without fully understanding the scriptures and with their own biases mixed in, which as we have discussed before and I will always say is dangerous. Myself coming from a Southern Baptist background before my conversion was very distrustful of the tollhouses, and the theology behind them. Learning and growing in the faith these past five years has given me a new look and perspective on the tollhouses and their role in God’s redeeming of mankind. I also will not say that I am an expert on this theology, so this is not a conclusive definitive definition of the tollhouses. It is also not a theological treatise about the tollhouses. This is simply and as usual a presentation of the facts as they relate to the faith that has been preserved by God for the past two thousand years. If you would prefer a more in depth look at the soul and soul after death, my recommendation is as always Father Seraphim Rose who wrote “The Soul After Death” and of course The Departure of the Soul by St. Anthony’s Monastery in Arizona where the relics of Elder Ephraim reside.

            Tollhouses. The very word starts to confuse and discombobulate people into a panic and also into fits of madness. People have spent years, decades even trying to grasp the nature of tollhouses. The short answer is that the Orthodox Church teaches that upon the repose of a person the angels, particularly your guardian angel, will come to your side to carry you to heaven. The demons will likewise come to carry you to hell with them. However, you will be judged in a series of “tollhouses” as the saints describe them. It must be noted here that God is the impartial judge in all of this, and the angels and demons merely act as a defense and prosecution. It is also a figurative language that is used to describe this event as actual tollhouses do not exist, it is simply a figure of speech to describe the event that the soul must go through before entering either into eternal glory, or eternal torment.  This figure of speech is laid out by Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos when he says in one such sermon, “First. The symbolic language of the Bible requires the necessary interpretation. Anyone who only keeps to the images used distorts the Gospel message. For instance, we must say that words in the Bible can be misinterpreted if we only look at their theological meaning. The same thing is true in the case of the customs houses. We should not be thinking only of today's customs houses, through which everyone has to pass at the national borders. The symbolic image is intended to present something, but it must be interpreted in an orthodox way. Second. There are demons, which are dark angels. They are persons and therefore have freedom, and with God's permission, but also through the wrong use of freedom by man, they have been able to dominate him. That is to say, after the soul's departure from the body, the demons demand to possess a soul which they have mastered because of its unrepentance. In Christ's well-known parable about the foolish rich man there is the sentence: "Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?". According to the patristic interpretation it is the demons who demand possession of the soul of the foolish rich man after its departure from the body. Third. The demons have no authority over the men of God. All who are united with God and have within their soul and heart the uncreated energy of God are outside the control of the demons. So the deified will not go through the so-called customs houses. Fourth. According to the teaching of the Fathers, as we have seen before, the demons, which are real spirits, act by means of the passions. The fact that the passions cannot be gratified after the soul's departure from the body is a suffocation of the soul.” Such great ascetics as St. Anthony the Great, St. Athanasius and even St. Justin Martyr describe that the demons will come to accuse our soul of the terrible and great deeds we have done in our life. But through repentance and confession of our sins we have nothing to fear from these wretched creatures.  The clearest example we have of the tollhouses comes from St. Anthony the great in his vision regarding the forgiveness of sins, it is stated in that vision the following, “and that he was led in the air by certain ones. Next certain bitter and terrible beings stood in the air and wished to hinder him from passing through. But when his conductors opposed them, they demanded whether he was not accountable to them. And when they wished to sum up the account from his birth, Antony's conductors stopped them, saying, 'The Lord has wiped out the sins from his birth, but from the time he became a monk, and devoted himself to God, it is permitted you to make a reckoning.' Then when they accused him and could not convict him, his way was free and unhindered.”

How then can we be saved from these tollhouses and the judgement of God? St. Justin Martyr says in his dialogue with Trypho, “And the prayer that His soul should be saved from the sword, and lion's mouth, and hand of the dog, was a prayer that no one should take possession of His soul: so that, when we arrive at the end of life, we may ask the same petition from God, who is able to turn away every shameless evil angel from taking our souls. And that the souls survive, I have shown to you from the fact that the soul of Samuel was called up by the witch, as Saul demanded. And it appears also, that all the souls of similar righteous men and prophets fell under the dominion of such powers, as is indeed to be inferred from the very facts in the case of that witch. Hence also God by His Son teaches us for whose sake these things seem to have been done, always to strive earnestly, and at death to pray that our souls may not fall into the hands of any such power.” St. Theodora on the other hand in her description of the tollhouses to Gregory a disciple of St. Basil the New, says in about the departure of this world, “Those who believe in the Holy Trinity and take as frequently as possible the Holy Communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ our Savior’s Body and Blood—such people can rise to heaven directly, with no hindrances, and the holy angels defend them, and the holy saints of God pray for their salvation, since they have lived righteously. No one, however, takes care of the wicked and depraved heretics, who do nothing useful during their lives, and live in disbelief and heresy. The angels can say nothing in their defense.” She also says regarding the prayers of the church, “Having said this, he took something out that appeared like a little bag of gold and gave it to the angels with the words: 'Here is the treasure of prayers before the Lord for this soul! If you want to learn more about prayers for the dead, I suggest you read that blog as well.

Furthermore, it can be said that these tollhouses are an opportunity for Satan to collect a debt he believes is owed to him by our souls for the sins we have committed upon earth. St. Cyril says in his commentary on Luke the following passage, “Now all of us, without exception, upon earth are guilty of offences: he who has a suit against us and accuses us is the wicked Satan: for he is "the enemy and the exactor." While therefore we are in the way: that is, ere yet we have arrived at the termination of our life here, let us deliver ourselves from him: let us do away with the offences of which we have been guilty: let us close his mouth: let us seize upon the grace that is by Christ, which frees us from all debt and penalty, and delivers us from fear and torment: lest if our impurity be not cleansed away, we be carried before the judge, and given over to the exactors, that is, the tormentors, from whose cruelty no man can escape: yea, rather, who will exact vengeance for every fault, whether it be great or small.” So, it is also confirmed that our actions in this life will determine our fate. What we do with the time given to us is very important. Will we use it to serve Christ, or ourselves and by extension the demons themselves? How will we react to teachings of the church? How we will conduct ourselves knowing that the eternal tormentors and torments of hell are awaiting us if we do not seek to repent from the sins that we have committed. St. Cyril says that those who are searching and rooted in the Faith are then, “Far removed from this danger are those who search for the time of Christ's corning, and are not ignorant of His mystery, but well know that the Word, though He be God, has shone forth upon the inhabitants of earth in likeness as one of us, that freeing them from all blame, He may bless with exceeding happiness those who believe in Him, and acknowledge Him as God and the Son of God: by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen.”  Very comforting words indeed for those of us who are rooted in the faith. Protected by God from the wiles and schemes of the demons we can then safely pass through the tollhouses as our journey to heaven ascends. But woe to those who are living in sin and unrepentant such as heretics and apostates, for those will be cast into hell with no recompense.

This is but the first part in this discussion of the tollhouses. I had a thought to finish it in one blog, but realize that it is such a in depth topic that it will require more study and more quotes from the early Christians to understand fully. I hope that this has been as informative for you as it was for me studying this. There is more to come on our tollhouse road.

Amen.

Cancelling Cancel Culture

 

Cancel Culture. How does it relate to Orthodoxy, and Christianity in general? The most obvious part of cancel culture is that it does fit the loving, caring and forgiving nature of Christ.  At its core, cancel culture seeks to destroy and devalue any and every position that it finds as wrong and distasteful in the sight of the world. At its core, cancel culture has a sense of pride about it. This is pride is that what anyone believes that goes against the collective majority is wrong and must be stamped out for the greater good. Christianity as we will see will indeed have a cancel culture within it, but not what you might think.

            First, we must understand that cancel culture is a mob mentality. It is a sense of pride and arrogance that the person who has been offended has more value to the world than those who they are trying to cancel. The person who is speaking, usually against something that is morally or spiritually wrong is told that their views are outdated, misogynist, homophobic or racist. While there is some of that going on in the world, yes, the majority of it is trying to belittle their fellow man and create god in their own image. They want a world free of the responsibility of sin, a world in which man can do as he pleases and does not answer to a higher power. We have allowed those who want to allow sin to creep into our doors and places of worship to overrun the society in the media, the government, and the schools that teach our children.  They seek to destroy the fabric of our faith with ideas foreign to that of the gospel, to the teachings of the Church. They seek to liberalize Christ and reject the words that he preached. For example, those who speak against homosexuality. We as Christians know from Romans 1:26-27 that, “Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.  In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.”  Thus we know from the writings of Paul that homosexuality is a sin. Those who stand up for this belief are told that God is love and that he wouldn’t allow for people to feel this way if it wasn’t natural. The same could be said for me when I want to eat a piece of cake. That cake looks good, its natural to eat food, but if I eat that cake it could cause me to have diabetes down the road. So while it may be “natural” it is a sickness that causes men and women to lust after each other and to commit sins against their own selves. But in the eyes of the world, they are considered pure, almost holy for being homosexual. The same with transgenderism, where men want to become women and women want to become men. The enemy has twisted the minds of people into believing that gender is construct, that people can change who they are based on what they feel in the inside. If you speak against it, you are labeled as evil yourself, and against people being who they are. We as Christians want people to be who they are, but we want them to be built in God’s image, not their own. This is pride. My last final thought on the pride of cancel culture is that of misogyny. People who believe women are devalued in the eyes of the world, the church, and society in general. This in the context of an Orthodox perspective is that the church should allow women priests, because it creates equality, and men and women are equal.  I would argue that Orthodox men and women are some of the most respectable people when it comes to equality, our greatest saint, and the pinnacle of faith is Mary, the Mother of God, called the Theotokos. As far as men and women being equal St. Paul also gives us a teaching regarding this, when he says, “Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.” Paul clearly says that women should not speak or teach in the church. This isn’t a view that women are inferior, but rather that men should take the roles of leadership and allow women to do what they do best, serve. That is why for 2000 years men have been chosen as priests, bishops, and patriarchs. They have governed the church and preserved the faith. Again, it comes back to pride. Instead of humbling themselves, women who call for a women priesthood are prideful and arrogant, unrepentant of their sin and refusing to accept their role within the structure of the church.

            Secondly we see that cancel culture devalues humanity. Instead of instructing and growing a person to become more knowledgeable or to correct their views on an issue, people want them mocked, removed from society. We are seeing this now with those speaking against Ukraine, with those in support of the Nazis in Ukraine calling for the arrest of anyone speaking against the war. We see this with celebrities who have stood for truth and justice being blackballed and removed from roles and other jobs because they did not agree with the narrative. Instead of showing these people the error of their ways, it has created a “My view is the right view and everyone else is wrong” mentality. Eventually when enough people believe the lies they are told, it becomes a mob mentality where the masses rule and the truth is squashed. Though the truth of the Church can never be overcome, see Matthew 16:18 for that, people want to marginalize the Church and its teachings to a point where it can not have any influence on society. People have established in their hearts that something is amiss, and they can fill this void with everything but Christ. They have tried their best to discover hidden truths, hidden messages, forgotten doctrines, instead of leaning on the understanding of the Church for 2000 years. The scriptures again tell us that this is dangerous, when it says in Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”  The scriptures remind us that we should not rely on our own thoughts and beliefs but to rely on the Lord. Those that have twisted the scriptures and twisted the hearts and minds of the people have not relied on the Lord, and instead have created this false narrative that permeates through the society and has created this cancel culture. If we are to do anything about it, we must return to the Church and place our faith solely in Christ, nothing else.

            Finally I said I would speak about Christianity having a cancel culture of its own but not in the way you would expect. This of course is the cancelling of sin. Sin cannot abide in the House of God, in the Body of Christ. Sin is a disease that sours the whole loaf. It creates problems and drags down those who even though they might seem strong will break at the very thought of something that goes against their beliefs. Therefore, the Church guards closely against heresies and false teachings. It is why the church only allows members to be entered into the church after a period of reflection and even then some will fall away, either because of their own sins, or because of the sins of others. The Church thus has a system of excommunication in which it expels members for a time to allow the person to repent of their sins and to come back into the fullness of faith. It is a foreign concept to most western Christians, because their churches do not practice it, but it is a custom as old as the Church itself. It when used correctly sees the person living in sin return to the fold stronger and more willing to follow the teachings of the church. When a person rejects the excommunication put on them it leads to further heresies and prelest. The Church cancels sin. It is a part of our culture. We therefore cannot stand idly by when a person is endangering their soul and causing havoc on others. We must stand for what is right and defend the truth.

            I had a lot to say in this article and I hope everyone was able to grow and learn from this today. May God bless you and keep you, guiding you to the place where there is no sorrow or suffering, but life-everlasting.

 

Amen.

St Patrick of Ireland

 

Holy Bishop Patrick, faithful shepherd of Christ’s royal flock, you filled Ireland with the radiance of the Gospel: The mighty strength of the Trinity!  Now that you stand before the Savior, pray that He may preserve us in faith and love!

            Today is March 17^th, St. Patrick’s day to those who celebrate it, and just another day for other people…who are crazy. Among the Irish people of Europe and North America today is a national day of celebration, a day of great importance and remembrance for a hero of their people. But who really was St. Patrick? Why do we as Orthodox still remember this great Patron Saint of Ireland and why was his teaching important to the furtherance of the Kingdom of God? I hope to in turn answer some of those questions today.

            First, who was St. Patrick? He was the son of a deacon, born in Kilpatrick in Scotland, he was of Scottish origin, not Irish, which most people believe.  His father, Calpurnius the deacon, was part of the Christian minority in Britain at this time, and was the son himself of a priest. Patrick was raised in the Christian faith, but did not have a strong belief in God at this time in his life. Patrick, it seems was the typical teenager questioning the beliefs of his parents and not strong willed. At the age of 16, Patrick was captured by a raiding party and carried off as a slave to Ireland.  It was during this period of captivity, that Patrick’s faith in Christ was fully realized. Obtaining the grace of the Holy Spirit and becoming well versed in Christian theology and the Faith. Patrick at the age of 22, left Ireland and sought clerical training, becoming a priest, and in 430 at the age of 40 a bishop when he returned to Ireland. From there Patrick preached the gospel to the various kings of the counties of Ireland, and gained permission to teach their subjects.  For nearly 31 years of his life, Patrick brought the pagan worship of Ireland to an end, establishing Christianity on the Emerald Isle and bringing light to the darkness. He reposed in the Lord in 461, around the age of 71.

            The next question I would like to answer is why St. Patrick is still remembered by the Orthodox. For most people, St. Patrick is a Catholic saint, who is most revered by the Roman Catholic population of the island. While this is true that St. Patrick is also recognized by the Roman Catholics, we must remember that St. Patrick born in 390 A.D. was born before the Roman Catholics broke away from the Great Church. Before 1054, or even earlier by some accounts, the Orthodox Church was whole, no breaks of communion and no loss of fellowship or heresies were present in the church. Thus, St. Patrick taught an orthodox theology to the people of Ireland. He taught what the Church had always believed. He preached the Creed without the filioque. He did not promulgate the Arian or Nestorian heresies. St. Patrick is Orthodox rather than Roman Catholic because Roman Catholicism only was established with the break of communion with Constantinople and the other 3 patriarchs in 1054. So, St. Patrick is remembered in the Synaxarion by the Orthodox because he was Orthodox before everything else.

            Finally, why was St. Patrick so important for the furtherance of the Kingdom of God? The most obvious answer is his teaching on the Trinity. As many who read the blog know, the earliest of heresies dealt with the Trinity and relationship between the personages of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. So too in Ireland the pagans who worshipped many gods, were confused by the Trinity. It is a teaching of the church that has wrought the downfall of many and causes people to rationalize everything and fall into heresy themselves. So much so that among the Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jesus is a created being, rather than God Himself. St. Patrick in defense of the Trinity is famous for using the shamrock, to describe that while each leaf on the shamrock was different, and had its own portion, it was still one shamrock. That is why he is painted on the icons with the shamrock, and why we see shamrocks in stores and decorations around this time. We see his devotion to God in his Lorica, the Breastplate of St. Patrick. This prayer calls upon the trinity and reaffirms the faith of the apostles. It teaches us of the protection God gives through the saints, through the angels. The prayer also calls upon God to shield him from the heretics, from the wiles of the demons, and other evil things. The prayer is a testament not only to the faith of St. Patrick, but to all who call earnestly on the name of God. St. Patrick realizes as do all who yearn for the love of Christ that they can do nothing without Him. (Philippians 4:13).  He also recognizes that salvation comes from nothing else than Christ. You can’t place your faith in riches, in people, in items, in talismans. Salvation is Christ’s and Christ’s alone to give to those who he sees fit. Lastly, St. Patrick is important because he created a bastion of the faith in Ireland. He established a place where Christianity flourished. Though Roman Catholicism and its heresies have taken root in Ireland, Orthodoxy is slowly returning to the isle and many monasteries and churches are being reestablished there. The Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia came to the island in the 1920s after the Soviet Revolution. The Greeks came in the 1980s. The people of Ireland though wandering aimlessly for all that time never forgot their original faith, and Orthodoxy is again alive and well in Ireland.

            St. Patrick is more than a leprechaun, more than a celebration of Irish heritage. He is a true beacon of hope in the troubling times that we live in today. He has given us the faith of our forefathers. He brought a land out of darkness. St. Patrick is an inspiration to us all who follow Christ. May we remember his love and his devotion on this his feast day and all days in honor of a true hero of Christianity.

Amen.

An Explanation of the Creed

 

I believe in one God, Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages; Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten, not created, of one essence with the Father through Whom all things were made. Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became man. He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried; And He rose on the third day, according to the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father; And He will come again with glory to judge the living and dead. His kingdom shall have no end.

And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Creator of life, Who proceeds from the Father, Who together with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified, Who spoke through the prophets.

In one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.

I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.

I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the age to come.

Amen.

 

                The Creed. The Symbol of Faith. Perhaps no other document outside of the Holy Scripture is so much beloved and well known to Christians. Especially those of us in the Orthodox Faith. The Creed is the lifeblood of the Church, it shapes it, gives it its purpose and its mission. It confesses everything we need for salvation. While rummaging through another of Father Spyridon Bailey’s books I was once again compelled to write an article. This time not so much a book review of “Small Steps into the Kingdom” which is the book for anyone interested. No, this time I was compelled to write an article because it is extremely important for the truth to be proclaimed. The Nicene Creed is just that truth.

                The Nicene Creed, more commonly known as the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, is the creed proclaimed by the Church Fathers in Nicaea in what is today Turkey but was once a part of Greece. The Council was formed to stop the spread of heresy and to establish the basis for everything that Christ had taught and had been passed down from one bishop to the next. Most protestants will be interested to learn that the Church was already an established hierarchy by the time this council was established, and more so when the canon of scripture was established.  The Church in turn chose their successors to from among the honorable men, and in turn the process has continued until this very day. These group of bishops, the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council not only reaffirmed the Faith that had already been preserved by God through them but reaffirmed the faith for all generations. The Nicene Creed is and will forever be the vow of all Christians who truly place their faith in Christ and believe in the true wholeness of the Church.

                Let’s take the first statement. I believe. This isn’t a group of people talking about something they think or want to think is real. This is actual wholehearted belief. It is something as I have mentioned before worth dying for. I believe, means that you not only think it, that you also dwell on it, and that you would act on it. It is the very fiber of your being. The statement I believe, means your whole soul is committed to the words that come after it. If not, you are a Pharisee and a hypocrite. You are paying service with lips, not with actions and you certainly have no place in the Kingdom.

                The second phrase-In One God. Christians do not have a pantheon of gods, a whole host of gods who rule the stars, the air, the winds, the trees, the forges and the lightning. No, there is but One God, whose name is the Most High. He is the source of all beings, the source of all life, the source of all light. He is called the Father of Lights in one of my favorite prayers the priest prays. One God, nothing other than Him can sit on the throne of our hearts. He is called Father, Creator, Almighty. These are descriptions, they describe who God is. We cannot know God in his essence, but we can know God in how he works. He is the Father of us all, whether we acknowledge that reality or not, He Is. He is also Almighty, full of might. Nothing is impossible for God. He does what he wishes, and he wishes what he does.  He cannot contradict himself; he cannot do what is outside his nature. He is who He is. He is also Creator. The trees, the birds, the fish, and yes humans are his creation. He gives us the nous to let us flourish and grow in Him, to mature and become citizens of Paradise.  Even the invisible the Creed says, those things that the human eye cannot perceive are created by Him. The spiritual realm, the realm where the angels work and do the bidding of God is all his domain. Nothing in and of itself can do anything without the permission of God.

                Moving forward in the Creed, we get to the part about Jesus. Now this was crucial in the earliest days of the Church, because as I have said before there were those who denied both the humanity and divinity of Jesus Christ. Light of Light-I’ve already said God is Father of Lights. He is the creator of everything, and light is one of those things. So Jesus being Light of Light confirms his status as God. But then the Council really hammered the point home, when they said True God of True God. Confirming that Jesus was indeed God, not some created being like the Jehovah’s Witnesses would have you believe. Incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, again confirming that Jesus was both human and divine. But also granting Mary the title of Theotokos, the Mother of God. Then there are those who like the Muslims believe that Jesus did not die, but rather turned someone else into a copy of Jesus and was not crucified. The Church Fathers reaffirm the scriptures as the Scriptures reaffirm the Creed when it says he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, suffered, and was buried. Yes, Christ actually died. He suffered, it wasn’t a mirage, it wasn’t some trick laid on by the eyes, it happened, and Christ was buried. His tomb at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem can still be seen to this day. It is not the “garden tomb” that is promulgated by some protestant Christians.  He rose again on the third day after. Yes, he was dead is now alive. Revelation says as much. His ascension is recorded in the Book of Acts, and Jesus spoke often about His Second Coming. He will return. He will judge the living and dead and His Kingdom has no end.

                Now we get into the controversial portion of the creed. It was bound to happen. And in the Holy Spirit the Lord, the Creator of Life, Who proceeds from the Father.  Now all you Roman Catholics and some of you protestants just had your minds either blown or they exploded in a fit of rage. You’ll say to me he proceeds from the Father and the Son.  Actually…. No. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone, and not from Jesus Christ. The filioque as you would put it, was only added later and at the condemning by the eastern patriarchs and only accepted by Rome. The Holy Spirit is and always will be God, and in saying that he proceeds from Jesus Christ only diminishes His role within the Trinity.  

                In one holy catholic and apostolic church. First there are not many churches. There are many faith traditions within Christianity, but only One Church, the Orthodox Christian Church. We are not Eastern Orthodox, though some call us that. We are catholic, with a small c to avoid confusion with the Roman Catholics. We are a universal church, we can be found on every continent, in almost every country and every land. The Church is holy, because it was established by Christ, not by man. It is apostolic, because we have an unbroken line of succession from the apostles to the current bishops today. For example, Patriarch Bartholomew is the 270^th Patriarch of Constantinople, founded by St. Andrew, brother of St. Peter. Theodore II of Alexandria is the 115^th successor, meaning the 116^th Pope of Alexandria, founded by St. Mark who the wrote gospel that bears his name. So, you see the Church is reaffirming what is already believed, and was established at this point in time.

                Baptism for the forgiveness of sins. Again self-explanatory. We understand that baptism is a crucial aspect of salvation, not just a mere symbol. It is our entrance into the Church, our act of faith that admits into the mysteries of the church. Without baptism there is no salvation. There is a baptism not of water, but of blood, the blood of the martyr which the church teaches as well. So baptism here is not a baptism of the Holy Spirit, but rather, water that Christ spoke about with Nicodemus. The Resurrection of the dead.  We all accept that Christ will return and will resurrect the dead when he comes. The dead shall rise first and then those who are alive. The life of the age to come means the eternal life. The life we have beyond this mortal being and spend with Christ in glory.

 

So, there you have it. A simple explanation of the Creed. I hope that you get a chance to continue growing in the faith and will love as Christ loves.

 

Amen.  

On Repentance and Salvation

 

Blessed are You, O Lord, teach me Your statutes.

The choir of the saints has found the fountain of life and the door of

Paradise. May I also find the way through repentance, the sheep that

was lost am I, call me up to You, O Savior, and save me.

It seems like my heart has been heavier than ever these past few weeks and days, mainly because of everything that has been going on in the world. I have been dealing with a lot of struggles and demonic attacks as of late and could use your prayers as I pray for you. However, I would be remiss if I did not discuss repentance and what it has meant to the Church and the world around us. It is during the worst of times that God can bring about the most change in our lives because when we live in peace, we often think we don’t need God. Today let us discuss repentance and hope of salvation. 

                First let us set the groundwork for salvation. Salvation is a topic that many in the world believe they understand, but few truly grasp its real presence in their lives. I am not sure who said this so I can’t give credit to the following statement, but I know from experience, that I am saved, am being saved and will be saved. Salvation is not in itself a one time walk down the aisle pray a prayer and magically one is granted entrance into heaven. Salvation is a process. A process by which one becomes more like Christ. In the Orthodox Church we call this Theosis. Theosis while not a common term one might find in English bibles, it is plain to see in the scriptures especially written by St. Paul. Galatians 4:3 says, “Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world.” The bondage of the world is the slave to sin, Theosis is the bondage of Christ, becoming a servant of the Most High. Colossians 1:18 says, “And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.” If he is the firstborn among the dead, so too must we die to ourselves and become new creatures. The way through this is the path of salvation. When we participate in the divine liturgy, the services of the church, the prayers that come from our prayer books we unite ourselves to Christ in such a way that his divine energy the Energeia in Greek (Ενέργεια του Θεού). He is allowed to work through us and with us, only by our choosing, protestants might say that we must accept the gift of salvation. Christ uses us as the instruments by which divine grace is poured out on the world and distributed among the nations of the world. He uses the priests to distribute the gifts of the Eucharist, the Bishops to uphold the teachings of the church, and the laypeople to go out into the world and sow the seeds of salvation by example, drawing all people to himself. Though many reject him, this is still the divine plan, whether they accept it or not.

                The way to salvation is a simple one. It is the way of repentance. We have discussed what salvation is, in that is the way in which God brings all people to himself and unites himself with us in union, but how must we unite ourselves to Christ. Surely, we just live our lives and God accepts for who we are right? No. That is not the case. It never has been and never will be. God being a Holy and Just God cannot dwell in the realm of sinners and cannot dwell where the stench of evil lives. The Greek word for this is called, metanoia. Repentance according to my own jurisdiction of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America says, “The Greek term for repentance, metanoia, denotes a change of mind, a reorientation, a fundamental transformation of outlook, of man's vision of the world and of himself, and a new way of loving others and God.” It is more than a prayer, reading the scriptures, or any other sort of act that we do. It is a complete change of mind and heart. The things that we once enjoyed, the things that are mundane and fleeting become dim lights in the eyes of one with true repentance. They look forward to the coming of Jesus Christ at the Second Coming, and they participate in the services with joy and gladness. They do not seek the wealth and pleasures of this world. Theirs is a home in paradise where there is no sighing or suffering, but life everlasting. To achieve this, one must seek Christ and his saints through prayer, through offerings and through actions. It is one thing to confess Christ, it is another to act upon it. If you believe in something so strongly that it consumes you like Christ should, you will act upon this belief. People who walk down the aisle of protestant churches, or are chrismated in the Orthodox Church, who never return once the service is over have no true repentance in their hearts. They only offer lip service to Christ like the Pharisees did. Repentance is allowing Christ to take that which is corrupted by sin, and to restore you to the way things were prior to the fall. Just as salvation is the way that Christ acts within us, repentance is the gate that must be open for Christ to come in. You must break down the bars of your own Hades, so that Christ can come in and harrow it. In this, the light of Christ can be shown through you, and you truly become the salt of the earth. My favorite Orthodox hymn repeats the phrase, “For His Mercy endures forever and ever alleluia.”  This hymn reminds me it is never too late for you to accept Christ in this world. You have the chance now. Don’t waste it on the things of the world. Nothing in this life can compare to the things prepared for us in heaven.

                I am hoping that life and Lent finds all you well as we have entered into the second week. I pray that you are struggling against the devil as St. George did with the dragon and will not yield. I pray that this article might give you hope as it does to me.

 

Amen.

On Seeking Earthly Glory

 

            Today’s blog is going to be about something that has been on my heart for a while now, and something that is important to understand in this trying time in the world. We recently just had the Olympics and the Paralympics and watching those athletes was a sight to behold. I was .5 seconds from the Paralympics and know all so well how hard it takes to train, eat and become the champion so many want to become. I never made it. For reasons that are now not so important in my life, but nevertheless I am happy where life has led me and to the people God has placed in my path. So, it is fitting that we should be discussing earthly glory today, and what a Christian should do about it.

            A lot on this blog has dealt with Arius and Nestorius, two early heretics whose teachings have permeated the realms of Protestant and Roman Catholic thought and have largely been rejected by the Church though some still cling to these falsehoods. While both Nestorius and Arius tried to bring down Christ in their rational and logical minds to make God in their own image, we know the Church has preserved the truth about Christ and his divinity for these 2000 years. It is Christ’s divinity that makes it possible for our salvation. Had Christ been a simple man, a good teacher, he would have fallen into the same corruptions that people across the world are falling into today. Whether it be the latest fashion trend, the latest food craze or even among the younger generations the latest TikTok dance, people are drawn to fame and glory like a magnet.  Christ wasn’t. Christ was sent to bring man out of the perpetual cycle of pride that it had fallen into for all those centuries. Christ was sent by God to give us life, hope and fulfillment in Him. We were to be like a bucket of water, filled not with water from the well, but from the living well, that is Christ. People today, they want faster cars, more money, more power, larger titles, larger offices, and to be respected among society. But as we know from the scriptures, Christ never sought this, in fact he told the scribes in Matthew 8:20, “Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” Jesus didn’t come to seek a glorious earthly kingdom or money. He came to bring people to himself. People today want followers on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms, not because they have something wonderful to share with the world, no it is because it is seen as a status symbol and a sense of pride for the person. When I mentioned Jesus didn’t seek an earthly kingdom I was instantly reminded of the conversation between Pilate and Jesus at his trial that reads, “Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world; if it were, My servants would fight to prevent My arrest by the Jews. But now My kingdom is not of this realm.” “Then You are a king!” Pilate said. “You say that I am a king,” Jesus answered. “For this reason, I was born and have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to My voice.” (John 18:36-37) Even then Jesus only came to testify to the truth.  John later speaks in his first universal epistle about seeking earthly glory when he says, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.” (1 John 2:15-17) James 4:4 says, “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” Seeking the things of this world is a dangerous game, one in which we play at the expense of souls.

While not all of us can be monks and live our lives in quiet solitude, it is the goal of each of us to sit and to focus on those things that is holy and pure, St. Paul says, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. (Philippians 4:8) Christ also says in Matthew 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” St Paul says in Hebrews, “Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” Again, we are called to a higher purpose, a better purpose, one that has been ordained for us from God, not of our own devices. In fact, 2 Corinthians speaks of this when St. Paul says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”  We should throw off the yoke of servitude that we do to service ourselves and begin to serve God with the same vigor that we put into making YouTube videos, and planning for expensive vacations.  We should be focusing on raising awareness for the poor, for the needy, for our fellow man. We should be in our churches day and night praying for the salvation of all mankind. Holding vigils, saying an Akathist, and reciting the Jesus Prayer. Time after time, we get caught up in the pleasures and life of this world and forget the next. I personally, do not want to spend my eternity in the place of eternal torment, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. I want to spend my eternity in the light of Christ, in the Heavenly Liturgy. I may not make it. I may not have the strength to embrace Christ as much as I can in this life. But I pray that God’s grace be poured out not for me, but for those around me. I know that I am weak, and God sees my weakness. I am as much preaching to myself on this issue as I am to all of you.

We have come full circle once again as I wrap up yet another blog article where I judge myself harder and harder the more, I write these. Seeing my own failings is a difficult thing, because we want to be light on ourselves. Yes, as I sit down to play Madden 22 for the 3000^th time this year it would have been nice for God to allow me to be a famous football player for my New York Giants, or to have made the Paralympics and won a medal. But God did not see fit to bless me with those gifts. I no longer wish to seek any earthly glory, and I am content with where I am placed in life. I pray that all of us, whether given much or given little will seek to use what we have, to glorify God and not ourselves. Earthly glory will pass away but Eternal Glory lasts forever.

Amen.

A look at Orthodox Monarchy

 

            When choosing a name for something, like a dog or your children, a lot of thought goes into the decision. You may talk with family members, you may seek advice from your priest, you may even pray about the decision. All of these are noble and good, and in the end the name that you give your child especially will be carried with them the rest of their earthly and eternal lives. So too when I took up my keyboard to first write this blog, I took my time in deciding a name for it. As you all know by now if you’re reading this, the name of the blog is The Tsar’s Corner. That’s not by accident, and certainly not a misnomer. When something is laid on your heart, a wellspring of the Holy Spirit pours forth and if you allow it, God can speak through you. I don’t imagine God uses this 29-year-old young man from the spiritually inept regions of the United States to do much good, but I pray that as God guides me on my journey, he might just give me the grace of the Holy Spirit to do a few good things in this life. This article you are about to read is one of those things I pray God blesses with the uttermost blessing. A chance to share with you a passion of mine, as well as something that I have grown to understand is the basis of how God not only rules the universe but has ordained man to govern the earth. It is a foreign concept in our age of enlightenment, in our age of reason, but nonetheless it is the way God has intended. I am of course talking about monarchy. And my friends that is why this blog is called the Tsar’s Corner. Named in honor of St. Nicholas II, Tsar of Russia.

            With that said, let’s look at the most recent Orthodox monarchy, that of Russia for our first inspiration. Russia, that bastion of orthodoxy that has in recent years come under so much scrutiny from the west and the United States of America was once the mightiest of the Orthodox lands, the third Rome if you will. Now, I am not going to go into detail over whether it is the Third Rome, that is an entirely different argument, but it is important that it was center for Orthodox thought from the fall of Constantinople in 1453 to 1917 when it itself fell to the abominable and morally heinous Soviet Regime. Out of Russia, great saints of the faith rose certainly after this especially during the great periods of persecution and tribulation that was suffered at the hands of the soviets, but so too before this. We witness of course, Seraphim of Sarov, of who’s name I carry. We witness the Optina Elders, Valaam had its greatest period of spiritual growth during the reigns of the Tsars and certainly the people were allowed to worship fully in spirit and in truth during the reigns of the Tsars from St. Vladimir the Great, to the final Romanov monarch St. Tsar Nicholas II. St. Vladimir, influenced by the repentance of his grandmother St. Olga of Kiev, sought the light of Orthodoxy in Constantinople. It was there that his emissaries said, “We knew not whether we were in Heaven or on Earth… We only know that God dwells there among the people, and their service is fairer than the ceremonies of other nations."  The truth of Christianity was brought back to Kievan Rus and there it stayed and has not left since.

            Though Russia was the last bastion of Orthodox Monarchy, it was not the first. We know that from the reign of St. Constantine the Great and his mother St. Helen, that Byzantium and the Eastern Roman Empire was a Christian nation. It was there when the forging of the great Nicene Creed, the ecumenical councils, and when the church fathers began to write. God was the King of the Universe, and the Emperor was God’s chosen vessel to rule. Now this seems eerily familiar with the so called “Vicar of Christ” title the Pope of Rome has assumed, but no, it was different. The Emperor wasn’t chosen by God to rule over the Church and create new teachings and new policies or to rule over the thoughts of men, but rather to bring peace and stability to the people and govern justly and with the heart of Christ.  The Emperor would from time to time be asked to solve disputes within the church, but as an outside adjudicator. The Emperor was after all, not an ordained priest, but a layman, under the guidance of a spiritual father. A confessor. The Emperor was meant to be one of virtue. Now we know that this wasn’t often the case, many were corrupt men, as all men are. We also know that many saints and many of the elders of the church were at one time royalty, surrendering everything they had for the sake of Christ. These men and their spouses were to uphold the commandments for all to follow, to be the shining example of their people. If we compare it to today’s politicians, we see that those men are not examples for us to follow, rather they are laughed at, mocked, and often times are involved in things that as Christians we should and must scorn.

            Finally, we reach the last argument I will make regarding monarchy. Heaven. Yes even heaven is a monarchy. With Jesus as King and Sovereign over the universe, and the angels his ministers, or as the bible more eloquently puts it, “He makes winds his messengers, flames of fire his servants.” (Psalm 104:4) I am reminded of the Lord of Spirits podcast, of the teachings of Fathers Andrew Damick and Stephen De Young, who as Orthodox priests proclaim the truth that Orthodoxy has maintained, in that Jesus as the King, and the angels his ministers, sit in council together, and final authority rests of the shoulders of God, and thus heaven itself is a monarchy. Though God does take counsel, he being creator of all, and omniscient, knows everything. He makes the decisions for the world that is best for us. He being the good king, like an Aragorn of Lord of the Rings note. Again, don’t take my word for it, rather read Isaiah 37:6 which says, “O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.” Or Psalm 95:3 which says, “For the Lord is a great God And a great King above all gods,” I might do a future post on God of gods, and the like but now is not the time. Another verse that shows that heaven is a monarchy, is 1 Timothy 1:17 it reads, “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.  Psalm 47:8 says, “God reigns over the nations, God sits on His holy throne. Even Matthew says in 4:!7, “From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Revelation 11:15 talks about the victory that Christ won at His Resurrection, and the establishment of the eternal Kingdom of God when it says, “Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.”

            So you have seen the examples of Russia and Byzantium. You have also been given scriptural references that Heaven is a monarchy. So what do we do with this information now that it is presented. There are always two options. The first is to reject it. As often men do when it doesn’t fit their narrative. They reject it and come up with a rational explanation. No, heaven is a monarchy, people should be free to govern themselves, a king would only make matters worse. If we look at the democracies of the world in which this argument has been made, then, it is a lie. Countries of the west, like Britain, France, Germany, Poland, and the United States are all spiritually weak, and feeble minded. We see this with the politicians, and leaders of the countries allowing mob rule and for morality to be thrown aside for comfort and ease. Places like Russia and Ukraine and the Eastern European nations that once held fast to the Tsar are albeit spiritually sound but struggling against the pulls of the devils and their wiles to bring down these nations and destroy them. When power rests in the hands of one person, decisions can be swift, and taking the council of a few chosen who have been learned in the scriptures and writings of the Church can make the actions of the ruler much more informed. What happens when we allow all to make a decision is that no one agrees on anything, and they try to profit off gaining their own interests and power. Sad really. So that is why I pray for the return of an Orthodox Emperor, one who can unite the Commonwealth of Peoples under the Orthodox banner of faith and restore peace and stability to the world. Not in a one world new world order sort of way, but one that will bring honor and glory to God and God alone.

 

Amen.