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.

 

 

 

Facing the Persecutor

 

Persecution. Not the greatest of topics, but as the past two blogs have become a running theme, it’s the logical next step in our discussion that I have taken up on my blog. We have discussed St. Sophronios who was beloved by his flock but saw that the persecution of the Christians was due to lukewarm hearts and disdain for true and righteous beliefs. We discussed St. Ephraim, who left his home in Greece to become a monk and come to America, a foreign and strange land to him where he would be looked down upon for his simple way of life and his status as a monk. But we have not gotten at the heart of the matter, rather the heart of the world. Our discussions on this blog have shown that persecution does exist, sometimes subtly, other times as it was with the Islamic Invasions of the Holy Land, very real and very straightforward. But both times it is there. It lurks in the shadows as does the devil. He doesn’t need to work in the light, for by working in the shadows does he do his greatest damage to the hearts of men. When the devil corrupts, he corrupts only to the point in which we allow him to. Just like God, he doesn’t force himself on us, but whispers and connives and plots in hearts until we are so ensnared by his thinking, we pass it off as our own and often the world sees what the devil has created as normal. And that is where we land ourselves in this article today.

You see we see it in the world around us whether we admit it to ourselves or if we are ignorant and blissful of the situation, but it is real. From political leaders who wish to tear down the fabric of society and remake it in their image, or from so called religious leaders who beg and plead with those they have been entrusted with to make evil good and good evil. But dear brothers and sisters this is simply persecution in its subtleness. Jesus spoke of those who would hate true Christians and seek to destroy them. He says in John 15:23, “He who hates Me hates My Father also.” He also says even before that in John 15:18, “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.” The world is constantly working against Christians. That is why I have spoken at great length about the bastions of faith like Elder Ephraim and St. Sophronios. Father Seraphim Rose’s book was such an eye opener for me, that it has changed how I view the world and how I interact with it. The world hates what we stand for, they are willing to go into destruction of their own accord by being themselves deceived. And yet, they do not want to admit this. Sin has corrupted their hearts and minds and allowed them to persecute the Church and her members in the name of preserving peace and prosperity. In fact, Jesus even speaks of this, because he in John 16:2 in the same discourse as the two previous mentioned verses in this article says, “They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.”  We have seen this time and time again. St. Paul before he was appointed as Apostle to the Gentiles was himself a great persecutor of Christians. There have been martyrs too numerous to count who have surrendered their lives, by being beheaded, burned alive, fed to wild beasts, pushed off cliffs, broken on wheels, and other such torturous devices.  

The hopes of these people who commit these acts is not as I have said to preserve peace and prosperity, but to eradicate their own conscience and to try and expunge the name of God from the Earth. They wish to not have to confront their own demons, their own sins. They wish to again as I have said place the blame on others for their own rejection of God. My dear brothers and sisters, it is just beginning. Elder Ephraim speaks of the neo-martyrs of America, others have said what began in Russia will be finished in America. Elder Paisios was known to have spoken about the war between Russia and Turkey and retaking of Constantinople and the defeat of the NATO forces. All of this in preparation for the coming of Jesus and the beginning of the age of eternity. These times may come in our lifetime, they may be years, decades away, it is not for us to decide but to wait and watch. God calls us to be protectors of our nous, our hearts and minds, our souls.  Persecution will come. It will grow stronger as the chains that bind Satan will be loosened. This however will be for a short time. Just like in the days of the early church when droves went to the arena and contested for their faith among the multitudes, we ourselves might be called once again to great contests. If that is the case, we must arm ourselves with spiritual armor, with the hope of salvation. We know that times will test us but when we are strongest is when we have our faith solely rested in the Bosom of God.

Amen.

Restoring America: The Life of Elder Ephraim of Arizona

 

Elder Ephraim of Arizona, the great Elder of American Orthodoxy, was in fact not American himself. This elder perhaps more than any other outside of Metropolitan Jonah Paffhausen of America has had more of an impact on my life coming to Orthodoxy.  Elder Ephraim was and is a spiritual stalwart of American Orthodoxy and has many things to teach us in his life and works. We will explore some of those here today and hopefully understand better the man and his life.

            The spiritual son of St. Joseph the Hesychast, Elder Ephraim began to become a shining star of orthodoxy in the 1960s on the Holy Mountain, the garden of the Theotokos, Mount Athos. Elder Ephraim was by all accounts a radiant joy of a human. His face shone with light and a countenance that is not seen by many. Perhaps one of my favorite things about Elder Ephraim was his constant call to draw us to conversation with God, noetic prayer. Of course, what better prayer than to do this with than the Jesus Prayer and the use of a prayer rope. I am sure my love of the prayer rope of which I have gone through many in just my five years of being Orthodox is because of Elder Ephraim’s call to use the Jesus Prayer to be constantly enraptured with the Spirit of God.  He carried with him a slow way of speaking, not hurried, not derived of any earthly time but was focused on his future life, the life beyond this one. He was contrite from my research, especially after Compline, which if anyone has heard me speak, is my favorite service. Elder Ephraim of Arizona was given the sacred hesychia as a spiritual inheritance from his Elder, Joseph, and passed it to his spiritual children of which there are many. But it is the spiritual inheritance of all True Christians, the gift that allows us to unite ourselves with the Divine Spirit of God and to dwell in that otherworldly realm while experiencing life here in the mortal realm. But here in lies the heart of the matter that I want to delve into a little deeper.

            While America maybe considered a realm of Christianity, it is filled with Roman Catholic and Protestant teachings that are at best scholarly and academic approaches to God. Outlining the teachings, one must do to be a Christian and reducing salvation to a basic formula. Orthodoxy, though with its great writers and teachers is not devoid of academic and theological resources and texts is more about experiencing God in His pure form, in having a relationship with God as he intended…face to face. It is not about defining who God is, but just understanding that God is. In Hesychia and noetic prayer we draw ourselves to God into the Heaven Liturgy of which I have spoken about before. We ascend as Paul did into the heavens and fall at the throne of God. We take the bucket of our souls and fill it with the Living Water as St. Photini did at the Well. It is not about knowledge, power, or grandeur. It is about living within Christ. Take away the icons, the gold chalices, the vestments and the building of the church and you would still have Orthodoxy. You would still have the scriptures written on the hearts of all True Christians and life would still go on. Elder Ephraim knew this. Therefore, when he was called away from the Holy Mountain all those years ago, he traveled here, to America to bring the Light of Christ to a darkened world. He brought with him the patristic teachings, the Faith of the apostles, the hope of salvation. 

            I have spoken at length in previous blogs about the spiritual decay that America has experienced whether that be through the charismatic movement of which is not Christian, or the Hindu and Buddhist traditions that call to reject Christ completely. America though largely nominally Christian has lost its center, its perfect balance. While many of the forefathers of America would claim Christianity, America is not a Christian nation. It perhaps was thought of at one time as great Christian nation, one that the West could look to for its scholarly and academic approach to Christianity, but it was not one that ever truly fulfilled this purpose.  It was founded for religious freedom, for the ability to reject God or to accept Him. It never had in its morality the ability to be called Christian. The leaders we have today reflect this, rejecting the sacred writings of the Church, and the teachings of Christ in favor of luxury and ease. We see this with calls for constant war, for the spread of “democracy” and the acceptance of homosexuality and abortion, as basic human rights. Elder Ephraim came to America to call it back home. He left his home, much as Christ did when he came from Heaven to restore man to what it was meant to be. Yes, his way of life is foreign to us here in America where Greek is not the predominant language. Yes, his way of living was foreign to us in America where more stuff, more items, more glory, more prestige is expected from those who are career driven. But it is this call that makes it appealing to me.

            As I have said, hesychia is the goal to unite with God not by letting go as with the Buddhist or Hindu tradition. We are not trying to become devoid of all feelings and earthly thoughts, rather we are trying to instead become what God intended for us. God is love. God wants us to love all people and all things as he loves them. Each person is created in the image of God and should be greeted with such fervor as you would even the Logos. But with the hatred we see today among brothers this is certainly not the case. We are bickering and fighting with each other because we wish to be proven right. Christ himself did not even fight back when accused of crimes he didn’t commit. We are too engrained in scholarly and philosophical debates and try to discover hidden meanings of things. We try to brush our problems on other people, God, and anything but ourselves. We don’t want to confront the reality that God has given us the standard in which we should live and to embrace that standard as the only truth. We have become arrogant in our luxury and arrogant in our ease.

            Before I end this treatise today on Restoring America, I again come to the man who started this. Elder Ephraim. Elder Ephraim though a simple man, who wore the simple schema of a monk was extraordinary. He founded 20 monasteries, bastions of Christian prayer and thought in America. He lived in Arizona, the hot dry desert, where many would consider it to be a wasteland. He taught and lived his life, not for the glory of man, but for the Glory of God. Though the music, speaking, and services were nothing like Americans are used to in their houses of worship today, people flocked to St. Anthony’s to glimpse at the Elder, to seek his counsel. I wish I had been one of them, but I did not get a chance to meet him before his repose. If there is any regret in this life it is that I must wait until the next to greet the Elder and to thank him for his work in trying to bring America hope. May God through Elder Ephraim’s prayers have mercy on us.

 

Amen.

St. Sophronios and the Rejection of Heresy.

 

            St Sophronios, the Patriarch of Jerusalem is celebrated on March 11^th, the day I’m writing this blog. He was a stalwart of the early church, being a devout follower of the ascetic lifestyle set forth in the example of both Christ and other members of the early church. He as a young man met John Moschus who became his closest friend. One of the greatest defenders of the faith, we have him to thank for the defense of the Fourth Council of Chalcedon, and for his refutation of the Monothelite heresy. Today we look at why that was so important to the faith we have been handed and preserved in the 21^st century.

            The Fourth Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon was the council out of which the two natures of Christ were fully established. The Church for the first 400 years of its existence had debated and argued over regards to how Christ was to be perceived. I have previously mentioned Nestorius but would like to do so again here for the benefit of my readers and for those still unfamiliar with this heresy that is still promulgated by some within the realm of Christian thought today. Nestorius rejected the long held and orthodox view that Mary is the Theotokos, the Mother of God.  He held that God could have no mother, and that Jesus Christ was created to be united with God at his birth instead of being God from all eternity. He is one of the adoptionism proponents, wherein Jesus Christ was a man, who was later on given the title of Son of God by God the Father and thus, God made him divine by his blessing rather than by being God Himself. This is foreign to most Christians, because today we understand that in the realm of the trinity, Jesus is the Son of God, the Logos, one of the three hypostasis of God. While Nestorius was condemned at the Third Ecumenical Council, the teachings raged on, until the Fourth Council was called to refute Eutyches. Eutyches taught the opposite of Nestorius, in that Jesus only appeared as man, but was never truly human. Both, very distinct heresies, undermine the importance of Jesus’ Incarnation at the hands of the Theotokos and the Holy Spirit.  The Church has always taught that God became incarnate to unite His nature with ours in union. While Eutyches refuted Arius who denied the divinity of Christ, Eutyches was still himself a heretic and needed to be corrected. When finished with Council, the Chalcedon Definition which formulated the long-standing Orthodox teaching of faith that has been carefully safeguarded by the Church for 2000 years. The Chalcedon definition gave the Orthodox view that Christ has two natures-divine and human. It also said he was one person, the Logos of God.

            The second and more pressing of the two heresies that St. Sophronios was called to refute, was the Monothelite heresy.  This is a little bit more complicated than that of the teachings I have afore mentioned. Monothelitism teaches that Jesus Christ had one will, one energy. This meant that everything Jesus did was single willed. That he only appeared to be tempted, and that he was never able to do anything that went against his nature. While the nature of that statement might seem plausible it was nevertheless a heresy. But all heresies are rooted in some appearance of truth. Dyothelitism which is the teaching that Christ had two natures, two wills, but were nevertheless without division, alteration, separation, or confusion won the day. Jesus was both God and Man. That is clear and that is where we find St. Sophronios of Jerusalem. Refuting the emperor and standing clearly in opposition to Monothelitism.

            St. Sophronios of Jerusalem was a staunch defender of the Chalcedon faith, the faith that God had preserved for his people Israel. Just as today we see the world bowing and bending to every whim and fantasy that takes flight, so too were the people of St. Sophronios’ time. They were lukewarm Christians, not wishing to upset the status quo, to defend what their forefathers would have died for. He saw the Islamic Invasions of the Holy Land as a chastisement for their lack of faith, their wavering opinions. He knew that God was in a way trying to call them back to the root of their faith. So too today is God calling us back. He wants all to be a part of Holy Orthodoxy, he does not wish for his beloved people to be divided and caught up in earthly affairs. He wants people to be willing to surrender their lives for the sake of life in His Son Jesus Christ. St. Sophronios of Jerusalem was. Though he did not repose as a martyr, he was a defender of the Faith. He protected it with every fiber of his being and yet today many would rather sacrifice their Faith for the sake of comfort and ease. They want everyone to be included, everyone to be accepted, everyone to share in the Kingdom of God. But they reject that God has very strict standards for those who wish to enter. They refuse to accept that God rejects sin.  Whether that is homosexuality, abortion, ecumenism, people of today will make excuses for their actions and pass it off on God as the one who has problems not them. This is foreign to Orthodoxy and foreign to all those who accept Jesus Christ as Lord of the World.

 

Amen.

The Call of Obedience

 

I had meant to write this yesterday, but circumstances didn’t allow me, so let’s talk about it today. There is a lot in the media today about rebellion and “living your best life.” Oftentimes the typical mainstream media television show or movie will feature a character fed up with their job and they leave it to find true freedom and happiness doing whatever they want and however they want. In an era that has rejected the basic principles of Christianity, the world sees freedom as being able to do what you want, when you want. There is no sense of obedience. The media, the elites, the intellectuals, all have reduced us to basic primal animals. We are told that releasing our inner animal and fulfilling our pleasures are what will give us a satisfying life. Whether its sexual, or monetary, or anything in between. Everything goes. That is where our problem for today’s blog lies and what we can do about it.

To start our discussion about obedience, we need to start at the source. That means we look at the One who gave us the example to follow, who every life of every saint is patterned after. I am of course referring to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ as the epitome of humankind gives us the clearest picture of how we should act. In John 6:36-39 Jesus says, “For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.” Jesus though God himself, did not come to do his own thing. He wasn’t going to go off script and try to do something that was against his nature. With the Holy Spirit dwelling within all Orthodox Christians, we can become more like Jesus. If we are to be more like Jesus, then, we should not act differently than what God has called us to be. True obedience to God means surrendering our wills, our desires and our thoughts for the sake and glory of his Kingdom. It is not the source of a poor life, a worse life than one if we forsake God. On the contrary, by surrendering ourselves to God we open the entire world for us. We become the Sons of God. We enter the glory of the Lord and participate in the heavenly liturgy. Again Psalm 119 discusses this in verses 1-8 when it says, “Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the Lord.  Blessed are those who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart—they do no wrong but follow his ways. You have laid down precepts that are to be fully obeyed. OH, that my ways were steadfast in obeying your decrees! Then I would not be put to shame when I consider all your commands. I will praise you with an upright heart as I learn your righteous laws. I will obey your decrees; do not utterly forsake me.  Clearly there are benefits to obeying the commandments of God. Of course, there are also benefits for obeying the commandments of others, especially those in authority. The same can be said for breaking commandments

People today don’t normally believe in Hell. In fact, I would argue that most people today do not believe in Hell. But to the Orthodox Christian, Hell is just as real as Heaven, and to believe in one, a person must believe in the other. This isn’t a get out of jail free card from Monopoly, your actions, and your reactions to the teachings of Jesus Christ determine your eternal fate. I don’t want to discuss Hell in this blog, because its solely focused on obedience, but the consequence of Hell is important to our discussion. Disobedience of God’s commandments is sin. Im sure most reading this blog are familiar with that term. But sin, in the western world is a transgression against God, and God must enact justice upon those who sin. Sort of life a Judge, Jury and Executioner. But for us in the Orthodox Faith, that have kept the tradition and teachings of the Apostles, sin is rather a sickness. A disease that infects all mankind. We only can overcome this sickness through prayer, fasting and obedience to our spiritual father and elders. The more that we turn away from God and choose to do our own things as I mentioned in the opening, we create more sickness, more death inside of us. Some will scoff and say how could a good and benevolent God do something so evil as to condemn those who commit sin to eternal punishment? My response is this…You have already condemned yourself by turning from God and rejecting the very gift he has presented to you. It is not his fault you have sinned. He has given you every opportunity to repent and to come to the fullness of faith, but so many have rejected this path to “live their best life now” (looking at you Joel Osteen). 

Without a sense of structure, without obedience, without temperament, we cannot achieve spiritual success. This Lent, I am calling all of us, to look into our own hearts and find the obedience to listen to God. To follow his example. To take up our cross. This Lent, the Lent of Forgiveness, I am pleading for all to join together and find our pathway to the Tomb.

Amen.

St. Ignatius of Antioch

 

    One of the most beloved saints of the Church is St. Ignatius of Antioch, who lived around the first to second century AD. He is called Theophorus meaning God-Bearer and was one of the children Jesus took into his arms and blessed when the apostles refused the children to come to Him.  Not much is really known about Ignatius’ early life but we know he converted to Christianity at a very early age. We also know through various writings that St. Ignatius was the disciple of St. John the Apostle. St. Ignatius like many of the Christians of his era was martyred for the faith.  While scholars may debate the legitimacy of why he was sent to Rome to be executed, we as members of the Church have no reason to speculate. We understand that whatever the cause was or reason, that it was for the ultimate glory of God as is all the lives of God’s saints. While on his way to be executed in Rome, under the Roman emperor Trajan, Ignatius was able to write a series of seven epistles which the Church has carefully preserved to be read. While not included in the Holy Scriptures, St. Ignatius’ writings have been beloved by Christians since they began to be widely circulated and along with St. Clement of Rome and St. Polycarp is among one of the most widely read Saints of the early church.  St. Ignatius stressed the importance of the Eucharist, the loyalty of the church to a single bishop in a city with assistance by priests and deacons, and that Christ was divine, refuting those who deny the divinity of Christ. He said in his Epistle to the Magnesians, “Take care to do all things in harmony with God, with the bishop presiding in the place of God, and with the presbyters in the place of the council of the apostles, and with the deacons, who are most dear to me, entrusted with the business of Jesus Christ, who was with the Father from the beginning and is at last made manifest.”  For those who reject that the church has had hierarchy and the church should do away with bishops and priests in this modern age, St. Ignatius’ words are most piercing. St. Ignatius also believed in the universal church. That it could not be divided or split, and refutes the branch theory promulgated today with this statement to the Smyrnaeans, “Wherever the bishop appears, there let the people be; as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church. It is not lawful to baptize or give communion without the consent of the bishop. On the other hand, whatever has his approval is pleasing to God. Thus, whatever is done will be safe and valid.” Without the Bishop as the spiritual father of the diocese and flock, there is no church. St. Ignatius knew this and he preached it.  He also warned us about those who hold heterodox views.  St. Ignatius was fully committed to teaching the truth, and did not have time for heretics and heterodox people. He again says to the Smyrnaeans, “Take note of those who hold heterodox opinions on the grace of Jesus Christ which has come to us, and see how contrary their opinions are to the mind of God. ...They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, flesh which suffered for our sins and which that Father, in his goodness, raised up again. They who deny the gift of God are perishing in their disputes.”  He understood that heterodox regardless of what they were able to retain as orthodox were opposed to the mind of God. That though they appear genuine and may hold fast to Christ, that in reality they did not know Him. It is no different than when Christ says, “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!” (Matthew 7:22-23) St. Ignatius calls us to hold orthodox values and teachings above those of man.

    St. Ignatius’ life is a life led of grace and piety. It is a life that is to be respected and called to love. In a world where easiness and luxury are abundant and the world would have us be lukewarm, holdfast to your faith. Do not be tempted by the wiles of the devil, or the call to be indifferent. Know that Christ will hold you firmly and that you must hold him firmly to be called into eternal rest with Him at the Last Judgement.

 

Amen. 

St Nektarios of Aegina

 "O faithful, let us honor Nectarios, divine servant of Christ, offspring of Silivria and guardian of Aegina, who in these latter years was manifested as the true friend of virtue. All manner of healing wells forth for those who in piety cry out, "Glory to Christ who glorified you; glory to Him who, through you, wrought wonders; glory to Him who, through you, works healing for all."

    

 Perhaps one of the most beloved saints of the 19th and 20th Centuries is St. Nektarios of Aegina. St. Nektarios was born Anastasios Cephalas and moved to Constantinople at a very early age.  He left home for the island of Chios in 1866 and became a monk at the age of 30.  Anastasios as he was known then was a pious man, having been raised by a pious family, albeit a poor one.  Anastasios eventually was ordained a deacon because of his piety and given the name Nektarios, thus this was the name he would be known by for the rest of his life. Noticing his piety was growing in the faith, he was consecrated Bishop of Pentapolis in Libya by Patriarch Sophronios of Alexandria in 1889.  

    This was the beginning of the hardships of the life of St. Nektarios as he would serve as a bishop in Cairo for one year, before jealousy and hatred would encircle his life. Clerics of the Patriarchate of Alexandria began to stir up lies and discontent within the Patriarchate towards St. Nektarios and the Patriarch, Sophronios, felt as if the only way of dealing with the situation was to remove him as bishop.  A trial was never held and he was anathematized by the Patriarchate and exiled from Egypt. To a normal man, without faith, this would have broken them and destroyed their faith. However, St. Nektarios like any true Christian, took the suffering in stride.  He returned to his native Greece, becoming a director for Rizarios Ecclesiastical School and preached widely throughout Athens. He is known for his harsh punishments on himself for conflicts within the school, solving a dispute with two seminarians by fasting himself for three days. At the end of 15 years with the school, he left at the request of a group of nuns to be their spiritual father on the island and the place where his name is most widely associated with. 

    At the urging of some nuns, St. Nektarios traveled with them to the island of Aegina, in the Saronic Gulf, which is part of the Saronic Islands, and 17 miles near Piraeus. There St. Nektarios would continue his work, at the Holy Trinity Convent, where he would live out the rest of his days in peace.  He heard confessions, taught, preached and wrote. St. Nektarios was even more popular now than he had been before. St. Nektarios also used personal funds to build and grow gardens around the island, and was appointed the Metropolitan there. He eventually reposed in the Lord on November 8, 1920. It is recorded that a miracle occurred upon his death, when his shirt was thrown onto a neighboring bed and the man lying in the bed was healed. 

    The Church canonized St. Nektarios on April 20th, 1961, a mere 40 years after his death. The Patriarchate of Alexandria, which had anathematized him in the late 19th century, recanted their statements under Petros VII, in 1998 asking for forgiveness from the saint, and restoring to St. Nektarios that which was unfairly stripped from him by Patriarch Sophronios.

    By his intercessions, Lord, may you have mercy on us and save us. May St. Nektarios pray for us always. 

Amen. 

 

Elder Cleopa of Romania

​Elder Cleopa of Romania is one of the most beloved elders and saints of the 20th century, especially in Romania. At the age of 17 he entered the monastery and six years later he took the name Cleopa which means guide upon his tonsure into the monastic life. In 1948 he was ordained a deacon and a year later in 1949 he was ordained a priest monk. Between 1952-1954 he was sought after by the secret police of Serbia but by the grace of God he was not found In 1956 he returned to Sihastria Monastery where he had been anointed and in 1964 he retired there spending the next 34 years offering his advice to clergy and laity a like. He reposed in 1998 having given Romania everything he could. 

May he intercede for us before God. 

Amen.