Divine Liturgy with His Grace Archbishop Maxim

March 30, 2014 | News & Events, Uncategorized

When: March 30, 2014
Where: 2148 Michelson Drive, Irvine, CA

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Mysteries of the Jesus Prayer

March 27, 2014 | Media, Uncategorized

Sermon on “Paying Attention to our Faith”

March 27, 2014 | Media, Uncategorized

Sermon on the “Measure of your Faith”

March 27, 2014 | Media, Uncategorized

“Encountering Mary” podcast series

March 26, 2014 | Media, Uncategorized

A series podcasts by Ancient Faith Radio that discusses several misconceptions, misperceptions and offer some perspectives that will help someone see the Orthodox devotion to Mary in a Biblical and balanced way.

Each podcast can be listened to using the below links:

Encountering Mary: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8

The GreatMartyr Theodore Stratelates

February 21, 2014 | Saints & Martyrs, Uncategorized

ememCommemorated on February 8/em/em

The GreatMartyr Theodore Stratelates came from the city of Euchantum. He was endowed with many talents and an handsome appearance. For his charity God enlightened him with the perfective knowledge of Christian truth. The bravery of the saintly soldier became known to many after he, with the help of God, killed a giant serpent living on a precipice in the surroundings of the city of Euchantum. The serpent had devoured many people and animals, holding in terror all the surrounding countryside. Saint Theodore, having armed himself with a sword and a prayer to the Lord, vanquished it, glorifying amongst the people the Name of Christ. For his bravery Saint Theodore was appointed military-commander (stratelatos)in the city of Heracleium, where he as it were carried out a dual obedience, combining his official military service with an apostolic preaching of the Gospel among the pagans subject to him. His ardent persuasion, reinforced by his personal example of Christian life, turned away many from the pernicious “false-gods”. Soon nearly all of Heracleium had accepted Christianity.

During this time the emperor Licinius (307-324) began a fierce persecution against Christians. Wanting to decapitate the new faith, he resorted to making persecution against the enlightened adherents of Christianity, in which not without foundation he saw as the fundamental threat to the dying paganism. Among such was also Saint Theodore. The saint himself invited Licinius to Heracleium, having promised him to offer a sacrifice to the pagan gods. To make this splendid ceremony, the saint requested to be gathered up at his house all the gold and silver statues of the gods which they had in Heracleium.

Blinded by his hatred for Christianity, Licinius trusted the words of the saint. But his expectations were cheated: having seized hold of the statues, Saint Theodore smashed them into pieces which he then distributed to the poor. Thus he shamed the vain faith in soulless idols and literally on the shards of paganism he affirmed the laws of Christian charity. Saint Theodore was arrested and subjected to fierce and refined torture. The witness was the servant of Saint Theodore – Saint Varos, who barely found in himself the strength to write down the incredible torments of his master. Sensing the nearness of death, Saint Theodore yet turned to God with a last prayer, saying: “Lord, Thou hast told me formerly, I am with thee, wherefore dost Thou now abandon me? Behold, O Lord, how the wild beasts do tear at me on account of Thee, my eyes are gored out, my flesh lacerated with wounds, the face is smashed and teeth broken, and they have my bared bones on a cross: remember me, O Lord, having suffered a cross on account of Thee, the iron and fire, and being raised up on nails for Thee: wherefore accept my spirit, since my life doth expire”. God however, by His great mercy, willed that the end of Saint Theodore should be as fruitful for those near him as was his life: He healed the bruised body of the saint and brought him down from the cross, on which he had been left all night. In the morning the imperial soldiers found him alive and unharmed; persuaded in their own eyes of the infinite might of the Christian God, they right there, not far from the place of the unsuccessful execution, accepted holy Baptism. Thus Saint Theodore became “like a day of splendour” for those pagans dwelling in the darkness of idol-worship and he enlightened their souls “with the bright rays of his suffering”. Not wanting to flee a martyr’s death for Christ, Saint Theodore voluntarily gave himself over into the hands of Licinius, preventing the people believing in Christ from rising up against the torturer, with the words: “Beloved, halt! My Lord Jesus Christ, hanging upon the Cross, held back the Angels and did not permit them to take revenge on the race of man”. Going to execution, the holy martyr with but a word opened up the prison doors and liberated those locked up from their bonds. The people also who touched at his robe were restored of body, healed instantly from sicknesses and freed from demons. By order of the emperor, Saint Theodore was beheaded by the sword. Before the death by execution he told Varos: “Neglect not to write down the day of my death, and put my body in Euchantum”. Together with these words he asked for an annual remembrance. Then, having said “amen”, he bent his neck beneathe the sword. This occurred on 8 February 319, on a Saturday, at the third hour of the day.

© 1996-2001 by translator Fr. S. Janos.

Do not rely upon yourselves

February 18, 2014 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Tues­day. [I John 3:11–20; Mark 14:10–42] Saint Pe­ter so en­thu­si­as­tically in­sist­ed that he would not re­ject the Lord; but when it came down to it, he de­nied Him, and three times no less. Such is our weak­ness! Do not re­ly up­on your­self, and when you en­ter in­to the midst of en­e­mies, place all your hope to over­come them on the Lord. For this pur­pose such a fall was al­low­ed to such a great per­son — so that af­ter­wards no­bod­y would dare on his own to do some­thing good or to over­come some en­e­my, ei­ther in­ner or out­er. You must hope in the Lord, but not stop try­ing. Help from the Lord joins our ef­forts, and thus makes them pow­er­ful. If these ef­forts are not there, God’s help has no­where to de­scend, and it will not de­scend. But again, if you are fill­ed with self-re­li­ance, and con­se­quent­ly you have no need for help and seek no help — again, God’s help will not de­scend. How is it to de­scend when it is con­sid­ered un­nec­es­sary?! Nei­ther, in this case, is there any­thing with which to re­ceive it. It is re­ceiv­ed by the heart. The heart o­pens up to re­ceive through a feel­ing of need. So both the for­mer and the lat­ter are need­ed. Say, “Help, O God!” But don’t just lie a­round.

The Holy Martyress Agnes

February 3, 2014 | Saints & Martyrs, Uncategorized

Commemorated on January 21

The Holy Martyress Agnes was born at Rome during the III Century. Her parents were Christians and they raised her in the precepts of the Christian faith. From her youthful years she devoted herself to God, and decided to dedicate herself to a life of virginity. When she refused to enter into marriage with the son of the city official Symphronius, one of his associates revealed to him that Agnes was a Christian. The wicked governor decided to subject the holy virgin to shame and he gave orders to strip and send her off to an house of harlotry for her insult against the pagan gods. But the Lord would not permit the shaming of the saint – on her head there instantly grew out her long thick hair covering her body from people; later situated in the house of harlotry the saint shone with an Heavenly light, which blinded the sight of anyone approaching her. The son of the governor, himself having come to dishonour the virgin, fell down dead in merely having touched her hand. But through the fervent prayer of Saint Agnes he was restored to life and before the face of his father and many other people he proclaimed: “There is One God in the heavens and on earth – the Christian God, and the other gods be but dust and ashes!” In seeing this miracle, 160 men believed in God and were baptised, and then in short order accepted a martyr’s death from the pagans.

Saint Agnes, at the demand of the pagan priests, was given over to torture. They tried to burn her in a bon-fire as a witch, but the saint remained unharmed in the fire, praying to God, and after this they killed her with a strike of the sword to the throat. The holy virgin martyress was buried by her parents not far from the city of Rome (in about the year 304).

At the grave of Saint Agnes occurred many a miracle. The relics of Saint Agnes rest at Rome in a church on the outskirts, built in honour of her name, along the Via Nomentana

Difference of opinions

January 16, 2014 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Thurs­day. [James 1:19-27; Mark 10:17-27] Some­one turn­ed to the Lord with a ques­tion: emGood Mas­ter, what shall I do that I may in­her­it eter­nal life?/em What ne­ces­si­tated this ques­tion? Were there no scrip­tures? Was the law not read ev­ery Sat­ur­day for ev­ery­one? There was ev­ery­thing — both Scrip­ture and its in­ter­pret­ers; but in so­ci­e­ty dif­fer­ence of opin­ion went a­round and mud­dled ev­ery­one. The Phar­i­sees said one thing, the Sad­du­cees an­oth­er, the Es­senes, their own thing, the Sa­mar­i­tans their own. In Gal­i­lee, per­haps even pa­gan teach­ings were heard, and each put forth their own with a tone of con­vic­tion. Any­one who was zeal­ous for sal­va­tion nat­u­ral­ly came to the ques­tion: What should I do? What should I fol­low, that my soul not be de­stroy­ed? Our sit­u­a­tion now is very sim­i­lar those times. What teach­ings are not go­ing a­round our schools, in so­ci­e­ty, and in lit­er­a­ture! For the in­dif­fer­ent it is noth­ing; but they for whom ev­ery teach­ing is not the same can­not but seek an an­swer to the ques­tion, “What should I do?” So what is the so­lu­tion? The one the Sav­iour gave: Be­lieve and live as God com­mand­ed, and do not lis­ten to peo­ple’s talk; let them talk. The talk of sci­en­tists is like ru­mours and fash­ion: to­day they say one thing, to­mor­row an­oth­er. But you should heed on­ly God’s word, which a­bides un­to the ages. What the Lord com­mand­ed no phi­los­o­phiz­ing can re­voke. Ev­ery­thing must be done, and can­not be put off. The judg­ment in­deed will be ac­cord­ing to the word of the Lord, and not ac­cord­ing to our phi­los­o­phiz­ing.

Integrity of marriage

January 14, 2014 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Tues­day. [Heb. 12:25-26, 13:22-25; Mark 10:2-12] emWhat God hath join­ed to­geth­er, let not man put asun­der/em. With these words the Lord af­firms the in­teg­ri­ty of mar­riage; on­ly one law­ful ground for di­vorce is in­di­cat­ed — a spouse’s un­faith­ful­ness. But what should one do if one dis­cov­ers some­thing like this? Be pa­tient. We have a uni­ver­sal com­mand­ment — to bear one an­oth­er’s bur­dens; even more will­ing­ly should close ones, such as spou­ses, mu­tu­al­ly ful­fill this with re­spect to one an­oth­er. Un­will­ing­ness to be pa­tient blows up some un­pleas­ant­ness out of pro­por­tion, and tri­fles pile up in­to a di­vid­ing wall. What is the mind giv­en us for? To smooth out the path of life. Wis­dom will work out any un­pleas­ant­ness which is met. Be­cause of lack of earth­ly wis­dom, it not worked out; even more be­cause of an un­will­ing­ness to think over well the state of things, and even more from not hav­ing any goal in life oth­er than plea­sure. Plea­sures cease, sat­is­fac­tion with one an­oth­er ceases; on it goes un­til di­vorce. The more goals in life are de­based, the more fre­quent di­vorc­es be­come on the one hand, and on the oth­er — un­law­ful tem­po­rary co­hab­i­ta­tion. The source of this evil lies in ma­te­ri­a­lis­tic views of the world and life.