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.

Serbian New Year 2014

January 11, 2014 | News & Events, Uncategorized

When: January 11, 2014
Where: Parish Center @ 2148 Michelson Drive, Irvine, CA

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Simplicity of faith

January 11, 2014 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Fri­day. [Heb. 11:8, 11-16; Mark 9:33-41] The Sav­iour sets forth a child as a mod­el of faith and life. Sim­plic­i­ty of faith gives birth to sim­plic­i­ty of life; from both of these comes a mod­el mor­al sys­tem. Let phi­los­o­phiz­ing in here, and it will make dis­or­der with­in; un­der the ap­pear­ance of bet­ter ar­rang­ing af­fairs, it will throw one’s en­tire life in­to dis­or­der. Phi­los­o­phiz­ing al­ways cries, “This is not so, that is not so; let me es­tab­lish ev­ery­thing in a new way; the old is worth­less, bor­ing.” But it has nev­er yet, in any place, ar­ranged any­thing good; it on­ly throws things in­to con­fu­sion. The mind should obey what is com­mand­ed by the Lord. True, the mind is call­ed “the tsar in the head”; how­ev­er, this tsar is not giv­en leg­is­la­tive pow­er — on­ly ex­ec­u­tive pow­er. As soon as it starts mak­ing laws, it con­structs it knows not what. Mor­al, re­li­gious, world­ly, and po­lit­i­cal or­ders are thrown in­to con­fu­sion, and ev­ery­thing goes up­side down. It is a great mis­for­tune for so­ci­e­ty when the mind in it is giv­en free­dom to soar, with no re­straint by Di­vine truth! This is God’s wrath. A­bout it is said, emhide thy­self a lit­tle for a mo­ment, un­til the in­dig­na­tion pass a­way/em (Isa­iah 26:20) Dur­ing this apo­gee of men­tal self-wil­ful­ness it is best to wrap one­self in sim­plic­i­ty of faith. Just as dur­ing a storm it is bet­ter to sit at home and not step out to fight self-as­sured­ly with it, so dur­ing storm­y self-mind­ed­ness it is bet­ter not to step out in­to bat­tle with it, or to seize the weap­on of phi­los­o­phiz­ing, or re­sist it. Sim­plic­i­ty of faith is strong­er than phi­los­o­phiz­ing; clothe your­self in it, like in ar­mour, and you will with­stand.

Main obstacles to a sinner’s conversion

January 8, 2014 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Wednes­day. [Heb. 10:1-18; Mark 8:30-34] Hav­ing in­vit­ed peo­ple to fol­low Him with the cross, the Lord shows al­so shows this path, elim­i­nat­ing the main ob­sta­cles to it, which are not out­er, but in­ner, root­ed in the hu­man heart. It is as though He is say­ing, “If you want to fol­low Me, first of all do not pit­y your­self, for he who pit­ies him­self will de­stroy him­self; sec­ond, do not have any­thing to do with self-in­ter­est, for, emWhat shall it prof­it a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul/em (Mark 8:38)? Third, do not be em­bar­rass­ed by what peo­ple will say or how they will look at you: emWho­so­ev­er there­fore shall be a­shamed of Me and of My words, in this adul­ter­ous and sin­ful gen­er­a­tion, of him al­so shall the Son of man be a­shamed, when He com­eth in the glo­ry of His Fa­ther with the ho­ly an­gels./em Self-pit­y, self-in­ter­est, and em­bar­rass­ment are the main chains by which a per­son is held in a life not pleas­ing to God, on the path of pas­sions and sin. They are the main ob­sta­cles to a sin­ner’s con­ver­sion; they are the main ob­ject of spir­i­tu­al strug­gle in a per­son who re­pents and who al­ready has begun to bring forth fruits of re­pen­tance. As long as these threads are not cut, the Chris­tian life in us is un­re­li­a­ble, full of stum­bles and falls, if not al­ways out­er, then in­ner. Let ev­ery­one look at­ten­tive­ly at him­self; if there is any­thing in you of what is said a­bove, take care to give it up: oth­er­wise you can not hope to rise to per­fec­tion in Christ, al­though you may out­ward­ly be very prop­er.

The Holy Great Martyress Barbara

December 17, 2013 | Saints & Martyrs, Uncategorized

Commemorated on December 4

      The Holy GreatMartyress Barbara lived and suffered during the reign of the emperor Maximian (305-311). Her father, the pagan Dioskoros, was a rich and illustrious man in the city of Phoenician Heliopolis; early left a widower, he concentrated all his attention in tender devotion to his only daughter. Seeing the extraordinary beauty of Barbara, Dioskoros decided to raise her concealed from the eyes of strangers. For this he built a tower, where besides Barbara, there were present only her pagan teachers. From the tower heights there opened up a view of God’s world of hills stretching into the distance. By day she was able to gaze upon the wooded hills, the swiftly flowing rivers, and on the meadows covered with a gayly mottled blanket of flowers; by night the harmonious and majestic vault of the heavens twinkled and provided a spectacle of inexpressible beauty. Soon the maiden began to ask herself questions about the Primal Cause and Creator of so harmonious and splendid a world. Gradually she became convinced of the idea, that the soul-less idols – were but only the work of human hands, and though her father and teachers offered them worship, the idols were not sufficiently clever and august enough to have made the surrounding world. The desire to know the True God so consumed the soul of Barbara, that she decided to devote all her life to this and to spend her life in virginity.
      But the fame of her beauty spread throughout the city, and many sought for her hand in marriage. But despite the endearing entreaties of her father, she refused. Barbara cautioned her father, that his persistence might end tragically and separate them forever. Dioskoros decided, that the temperament of his daughter had been affected by her life of seclusion. He therefore permitted her to leave the tower and gave her full freedom in her choice of friends and acquaintances. The maiden thus encountered in the city youthful confessors of faith in Christ, and they revealed to her teachings about the Creator of the world, about the Trinity, and about the Divine Logos. Through the Providence of God, after a certain while there arrived in Heliopolis from Alexandria a priest in the guide of a merchant. He performed the sacrament of Baptism over Barbara.
      During this while at the house of Dioskoros a luxuriant bath was being built. By his orders the workers prepared to put into it two windows on the south side. But Barbara, availing herself of her father’s absence, asked them to make a third window, in the form of a Trinity of Light. Over the entrance of the bath-house Barbara patterned a cross, which was durably set into stone. On the stone steps of the bath-house there later remained the imprint of her feet, while within the water-spring had dried up, appearing later on with great healing power, – all which Simeon Metaphrastes in writing about the sufferings of the holy martyress, compares with the life-creating power of the stream of Jordan and the Pool of Siloam. When Dioskoros returned and expressed dissatisfaction about the change of his plan of construction, his daughter told him about her knowledge of the Triune God, about the saving power of the Son of God, and about the futility of worshipping idols. Dioskoros went into a rage, grabbed a sword and was on the point of striking her. The maiden fled from her father, and he rushed after her in pursuit. His way became blocked by an hill, which opened and concealed the saint in a crevice. On the other side of the crevice was an entrance upwards. Saint Barbara managed then to conceal herself in a cave on the opposite slope of the hill. After a long and fruitless search for his daughter, Dioskoros saw two shepherds on the hill. One of them pointed out the cave to him, where the saint had hidden. Dioskoros beat his daughter terribly, and then locked her under watch and tried to wear her down with hunger. Finally he handed her over to the governor of the city, named Martianus. They beat Saint Barbara fiercely: they struck at her with ox thongs, and ground into her wounds with an hair-shirt. By night the holy maiden prayed fervently to her Heavenly Bridegroom, and the Saviour Himself appeared and healed her wounds. Then they subjected the saint to new, and even more cruel torments.
      Amidst the crowd standing near the place of torture of the martyress was the Christian Juliania, an inhabitant of Heliopolis. Her heart was filled with sympathy for the voluntary martyrdom of the beautiful and illustrious maiden. Juliania likewise wanted to suffer for Christ. She began loudly to denounce the torturers, and they seized hold of her. For a long while they tortured both holy martyresses: they lacerated and tore at their bodies with hooks and then led them stripped through the city amidst derision and jeers. Through the prayers of Saint Barbara the Lord sent an Angel, which covered the bareness of the holy martyresses with splendid garb. The steadfast confessors of faith in Christ, Saints Barbara and Juliania, were then beheaded. Dioskoros himself executed Saint Barbara. The wrath of God was not slow to punish both torturers, Martianus and Dioskoros: they were struck down by bolts of lightning.
      In the VI Century the relics of the holy GreatMartyress Barbara were transferred to Constantinople. In the XII Century the daughter of the Byzantine emperor Alexis Comnenes, the princess Barbara, having entered into marriage with the Russian prince Mikhail Izyaslavich, transferred them to Kiev. They rest even now at the Kiev Vladimir cathedral.

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

What is written?

December 17, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Twen­ty Fifth Sun­day Af­ter Pen­te­cost. [Eph. 4:1-6; Luke 10:25-37] To the man who ask­ed how to be saved, the Lord on his part of­fer­ed a ques­tion: emWhat is writ­ten in the law? how read­est thou/em? By this He show­ed that to re­solve all per­plex­i­ty one must turn to the word of God. And so that there will not be such per­plex­i­ty at all it is best to al­ways read Di­vine Scrip­ture at­ten­tive­ly, with dis­cern­ment and sym­pa­thy, ap­ply­ing it to your own life, and ful­fill­ing in your own thoughts what re­lates to thoughts, in your own feel­ings and dis­po­si­tions what re­lates to the sens­es, and in your deeds what re­lates to deeds. One who heark­ens to the word of God gath­ers bright un­der­stand­ing of all that is in him, what is near to him, and what is a­bove him; he clar­i­fies his ob­li­ga­tions in all as­pects of life, and ho­ly rules, like valu­able pearls, are strung on­to the thread of his con­science, which then pre­cise­ly and def­i­nite­ly in­di­cate how and when to act so that he please the Lord. He tames the pas­sions — some­thing read­ing the word of God al­ways acts to as­suage. No mat­ter what pas­sion trou­bles you, be­gin to read the word of God and the pas­sion will be­come quiet­er and quiet­er, and at last it will be en­tire­ly calmed. He who en­rich­es him­self through knowl­edge of the word of God is over­shad­ow­ed by the pil­lar of cloud which guided the Is­ra­el­ites in the des­ert.

The Lost Sheep

December 13, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Wednes­day. [I Tim. 1:18-20, 2:8-15; Luke 15:1-10] emThe par­a­ble a­bout the stray sheep and the lost sil­ver piece/em. How great is the Lord’s mer­cy to­ward us sin­ners! He leaves all those who are prop­er and turns to the im­prop­er to cor­rect them; He seeks them, and when He finds them, He Him­self re­joic­es and calls all the heav­ens to re­joice with Him. How is it that He seeks them? Does He not know where we are who have step­ped a­way from Him? He knows and sees all; but if it were on­ly a mat­ter of tak­ing and trans­fer­ring them to His own, all sin­ners would im­me­di­ate­ly re­ap­pear in the same ranks. But one must first dis­pose them to re­pen­tance, so that their con­ver­sion and re­turn to the Lord would be free; and this can­not be done by com­mand or oth­er ex­ter­nal or­der. The Lord seeks a sin­ner by guid­ing him to re­pen­tance. He ar­ranges ev­ery­thing a­round him so that the sin­ner comes to his sens­es, and, see­ing the a­byss in­to which he has been rush­ing, re­turns. All the cir­cum­stances of life are di­rect­ed in this way, all meet­ings with mo­ments of sor­row and joy, even words and looks. And the in­ner ac­tions of God through the con­science and oth­er right thoughts ly­ing in the heart nev­er cease. How much is done to con­vert sin­ners to the path of vir­tue, while sin­ners still re­main sin­ners!… The en­e­my cov­ers them in dark­ness and they think that ev­ery­thing is all right, and all will pass. If wor­ries a­rise they say, “To­mor­row I will stop,” and re­main in their for­mer state. Thus day af­ter day pass­es; in­dif­fer­ence to their sal­va­tion grows and grows. A bit more and it will hard­en in­to sin. Who knows if con­ver­sion will come?

The Nun Mastridia

December 7, 2013 | Saints & Martyrs, Uncategorized

Commemorated on November 24

The Nun Mastridia lived in Egyptian Alexandria. She gave a vow of virginity and, keeping the fasts and silence, she dwelt in unceasing prayer. The pure life of the holy virgin was beset by trials. A certain young man, attracted to her with impure desire, began to pursue her such that she could not go from her home even for church. Grieving over the fact that she had unwillingly led the youth into temptation, and being zealous for his salvation, the saint invited him into her home. Knowing that it was her pretty eyes especially that attracted him, the nun with complete selflessness put them out with a linen weaving instrument. Having saved herself and the youth from temptation, Saint Mastridia brought him to repentance. He accepted monasticism and lived as a strict ascetic, and Saint Mastridia finished her life in works for the Lord.

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

Except ye repent, ye shall all like­wise perish

December 5, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Thurs­day. [II Thess. 2:13-3:5; Luke 13:1-9] Pi­late min­gled the blood of Gal­i­le­ans with their sac­ri­fic­es — the Lord said: ex­cept ye re­pent, ye shall all like­wise per­ish; the tow­er of Si­lo­am fell and killed 18 peo­ple — the Lord again said: ex­cept ye re­pent, ye shall all like­wise per­ish. This gives an un­der­stand­ing that when some mis­for­tune be­falls oth­ers, we must not rea­son a­bout why it hap­pen­ed, but rath­er look at our­selves and ex­am­ine wheth­er there are any sins on us de­serv­ing tem­po­rary pun­ish­ment for the in­struc­tion of oth­ers, and has­ten to wipe them out with re­pen­tance. Re­pen­tance cleans­es sin and re­moves the cause which at­tracts a ca­tas­tro­phe. While a per­son is in sin, an axe is laid to the root of the tree of his life, read­y to cut it down. It does not cut be­cause it waits for re­pen­tance. Re­pent and the axe will be taken a­way, and your life will flow to its end in the nat­u­ral or­der of things; if you do not re­pent — ex­pect to be cut down. What man can know wheth­er he will live to the next year? The par­a­ble a­bout the fruit­less fig tree shows that the Sav­iour prays that Di­vine jus­tice spare each sin­ner in the hopes that he will re­pent and bring forth good fruits. But it some­times hap­pens that Di­vine jus­tice no long­er hears the in­ter­ces­sions, and per­haps He will on­ly a­gree to al­low some­bod­y one more year to re­main a­live. How do you know, sin­ner, that you are not liv­ing your last year, your last month, day and hour?

Peace on Earth?

December 4, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Wednes­day. [II Thess. 2:1-12; Luke 12:48-59] Sup­pose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rath­er di­vi­sion: For from hence­forth there shall be five in one house di­vid­ed, three a­gainst two, and two a­gainst three. The fa­ther shall be di­vid­ed a­gainst the son, and the son a­gainst the fa­ther; the moth­er a­gainst the daugh­ter, and the daugh­ter a­gainst the moth­er; the moth­er-in-law a­gainst her daugh­ter-in-law, and the daugh­ter-in-law a­gainst her moth­er-in-law. What is the rea­son? Those who be­lieve in the Lord are fill­ed with an en­tire­ly dif­fer­ent spir­it, con­tra­ry to that which reigned in peo­ple be­fore His com­ing; that is why they can­not get a­long to­geth­er. The pa­gan world pur­sued ex­clu­sive­ly world­ly and earth­ly in­ter­ests. The Jews at least had in­di­ca­tions of higher good things, but to­wards the end they in­clined to­ward the path of the pa­gans. The Lord, com­ing to the world, show­ed peo­ple oth­er trea­sures, out­side of the fam­i­ly, out­side of so­ci­e­ty, and awak­en­ed oth­er as­pi­ra­tions. Those who ac­cept­ed His teach­ing nat­u­ral­ly es­tab­lish­ed a way of life dif­fer­ent from be­fore, for which they were sub­ject­ed to hos­til­i­ty, op­pres­sion, and per­se­cu­tions. This is the di­vi­sion. The A­pos­tle Paul then said that all de­sir­ing to live god­ly in Christ Je­sus shall suf­fer per­se­cu­tion (II Tim. 3–12). So it was and so it is. When world­ly and earth­ly in­ter­ests be­gin to pre­vail in so­ci­e­ty, then so­ci­e­ty looks un­fav­our­ab­ly at those who dis­play oth­er, un­earth­ly striv­ings; it can­not even un­der­stand how it is pos­si­ble to be in­ter­est­ed in such things. Peo­ple can­not stand those who serve as rep­res­ent­a­tives of a way of life which is not sim­i­lar to their life. This is hap­pen­ing now be­fore ev­ery­one’s eyes. Is this not a sign of the times?…