Whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name

June 15, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Sat­ur­day. [Acts 20:7–12; John 14:10–21] And what­so­ev­er ye shall ask of the Fa­ther in my name, that will I do (John 14:13). What a con­sol­ing prom­ise! But how few make use of it! Peo­ple rare­ly keep this in mind. There are peo­ple who do not un­der­stand this at all, and do not ac­cept it. Why is this so? Be­cause they do not love the Lord, and they do not ful­fil His com­mand­ments. This un­faith­ful­ness of the heart to­ward the Lord re­lin­quish­es any bold­ness to pe­ti­tion the Lord, just as a la­zy ser­vant does not dare ask some­thing of his mas­ters, for he knows that he does not de­serve any mer­cy. The es­tab­lish­ed pray­ers are read in their usu­al course, and they con­tain very great pe­ti­tions; but they are merely read, and this, as we well know, is far from prayer and pe­ti­tion­ing. We can­not stand with true prayer be­fore the Lord and ex­tend our pe­ti­tions to Him un­til our con­science is clear be­fore Him.

He who has the Son has the Father

June 14, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Fri­day. [Acts 19:1–8; John 14:1–11] If ye had known me, ye should have known my Fa­ther al­so (John 14:7). There­fore, deists do not know God, in spite of the fact that they bear His name (Deus means God; from here comes the word deist), and rea­son el­o­quent­ly a­bout Him. There is no true God with­out the Son and with­out the Ho­ly Spir­it. He who be­lieves in God, but does not con­fess Him as the Fa­ther of the Son, does not be­lieve in a god that is the true God, but in some per­son­al in­ven­tion. The true God gave His Son, gave pow­er to be­come the sons of God (John 1:12), loves them, and hears each of their pray­ers, for the sake of the Son. That is why he who has the Son has the Fa­ther; and he who does not have the Son, does not have the Fa­ther. No one comes to the Fa­ther ex­cept through the Son, and re­ceives noth­ing from the Fa­ther, ex­cept through the Son. A­part from the Son there is no path to the true God; and he who thinks to in­vent Him is de­luded.

The Need For Unbelief

June 12, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Wednes­day. [Acts 18:22–28; John 12:36–47] Lord who hath be­lieved our re­port? (Is. 53:1), the Proph­et Isa­iah la­ments in as­ton­ish­ment. Now it would be fit­ting to cry out, “Who now sin­cere­ly be­lieves Thy word, O Lord?” Al­most ev­ery­one has be­come slack. Man­y are yet si­lent a­bout their un­be­lief; while it is rare to find a heart that has not turn­ed in the oth­er di­rec­tion. What is the rea­son for this? In­ter­est in un­be­lief has begun to be felt; the need for un­be­lief has de­vel­oped, for con­ceal­ing in­ter­ests of the heart which do not a­gree with faith. Here is the root of evil. Rea­son is not the ad­ver­sary of faith, but a cor­rupt heart is. Rea­son is on­ly guilty here in that it sub­mits to the heart, and be­gins to phi­los­o­phize — not ac­cord­ing to the foun­da­tions of truth, but ac­cord­ing to the de­sires of the heart. Fur­ther­more, pow­er­ful ar­gu­ments for the truth seem worth­less to the mind, and some trifling ar­gu­ment a­gainst the truth be­comes a whole moun­tain. In gen­er­al, con­fu­sion comes in­to the men­tal realm, blinding the mind, which does not and can­not see, no mat­ter what you tell it.

Blind to the Truth

June 6, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Thurs­day. [Acts 14:20–27; John 9:39–10:9] And Je­sus said, For judg­ment I am come in­to this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind (John 9:39). They which could not see were the sim­ple peo­ple who be­lieved the Lord in sim­plic­i­ty of heart, while they which saw were the scribes and learned men of that time, who due to their pride of mind did not be­lieve, and held back the peo­ple. Our clev­er ones think that they see, and, this is why they are a­li­en­a­ted from that faith in the Lord that the sim­ple in heart and mind firm­ly hold to. There­fore, ac­cord­ing to the truth of the Lord they are blind, where­as the peo­ple see. They are ex­act­ly like those birds which can see at night, but not dur­ing the day. The truth of Christ is dark for them, where­as what is con­tra­ry to this truth — false­hood — to them seems clear: here they are in their el­e­ment. This is so ob­vi­ous, but nev­er­the­less they are read­y to ask: Are we blind al­so? (John 9:40). There is noth­ing to hide; you are blind. But since it is your own fault that you are blind, the sin of blind­ness and not see­ing the light lies on you. You can see, but you do not want to, be­cause you came to love a de­cep­tive, yet tempt­ing lie.

Consequence of unbelief

June 4, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Tues­day. [Acts 12:25–13:12; John 8:51–59] The Jews be­came an­gry with the Lord be­cause of His ac­cu­sa­tion, and pick­ed up stones to cast at Him. But the Lord went through the midst of them, and so pass­ed by (John 8:59). They did noth­ing to the Lord, but they de­stroy­ed them­selves, for the con­se­quence of their un­be­lief was the ter­ri­ble sen­tence of the Lord: Be­hold, your house is left un­to you des­o­late (Matt. 23:38) and al­so: let us pass from here. And the Lord pass­ed to an­oth­er place and chose oth­er peo­ples for His hab­i­ta­tion, in­stead of the be­loved Is­ra­el. Even now, in­sig­nif­i­cant peo­ple, in the self-de­lu­sion of a proud mind which does not con­tain the truth of Christ, take up stones of op­po­si­tion to the Lord and cast them at Him. They do not harm Him, be­cause He nev­er­the­less is the Lord, and His truth is the im­mu­ta­ble truth; they on­ly de­stroy them­selves. The Lord goes by, leav­ing such peo­ple in their vain wis­dom, which whirls them, like a whirl­wind spins loose specks of dust. But when an en­tire na­tion is car­ried a­way with false wis­dom, then the des­ti­ny of an en­tire na­tion is formed, as it was for the Jews. Un­der­stand, ye na­tions, and sub­mit to the Lord!

Not believing in the truth

June 3, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Mon­day. [Acts 12:12–17; John 8:42–51] What means, do you think, did the Lord use to ex­plain to the Jews the rea­son for their not be­liev­ing in Him? The means he used was to tell them the truth. And be­cause I tell you the truth, ye be­lieve me not (John 8:45). The lie be­came, as it is said, their flesh and blood, and made them un­able to re­ceive the truth. Why do peo­ple not be­lieve to­day? For the same rea­son; the Lord speaks the truth; this is why they do not be­lieve. But how can this be? Are they not all sci­en­tists, and don’t they talk on­ly a­bout the truth? They have man­y words, but no deeds. They spin their sys­tems as a spi­der spins its web, on­ly they don’t no­tice the flimsiness. The prin­ci­ples of their sys­tems are ground­less, and their con­clu­sions can­not be proved; but they are sat­is­fied with them nev­er­the­less. There has be­come such a de­mand for hypotheses that it seems they alone make up the en­tire con­tent of their minds, and this is reputed to be sol­id ed­u­ca­tion. They ap­ply the fog of their dreams to the few facts they have pro­cured; and these facts ap­pear in this fog to­tal­ly dif­fer­ent from what they are in re­al­i­ty. Nev­er­the­less, this is all reputed to be the sphere of im­mu­ta­ble truth. So their mind has gone rot­ten, and its taste has been ruined! How can it con­tain the truth? And so they do not be­lieve the Lord, Who speaks on­ly the truth.

Cleave to the Lord

June 1, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Sat­ur­day. [Acts 12:1–11; John 8:31–42] The Lord said: If the Son there­fore shall make you free, ye shall be free in­deed (John 8:36). Here is where free­dom is! The mind is bound with bonds of ig­no­rance, de­lu­sions, su­per­sti­tions, and un­cer­tain­ties; it strug­gles, but can­not get a­way from them. Cleave to the Lord and He will en­light­en your dark­ness (cf. Ps. 18:28) and dis­solve all the bonds in which your mind lan­guish­es. The pas­sions bind the will, and do not give it space in which to act; it strug­gles, like one bound hand and foot, and can­not get a­way. But cleave to the Lord and He will give you the strength of Sam­son, and will dis­solve all the bonds of un­truth bind­ing you. Con­stant wor­ries sur­round the heart and do not give it peace. But cleave to the Lord, and He will soothe you; then, at peace, and see­ing clear­ly ev­ery­thing a­round you, you will march in the Lord with­out hin­drance or stum­bl­ing through the gloom and dark­ness of this life, to the all-bless­ed, com­plete joy and spa­cious­ness of eter­ni­ty.

Mystery Of His Body And Blood

May 27, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Mon­day. [Acts 10:1–16; John 6:56–69] When the Lord pre­sent­ed His teach­ing a­bout the mys­tery of His Bo­dy and Blood, set­ting it as a nec­es­sary con­di­tion for com­mu­ni­ca­tion with Him­self and as a source of true life, then man­y of His dis­ci­ples went back, and walk­ed no more with Him (John 6:66). Such an act of God’s bound­less mer­cy to­ward us seem­ed too mi­rac­u­lous to them, and their dis­in­cli­na­tion to­ward the mi­rac­u­lous tore them from the Lord. The Lord saw this, and al­though He was pre­pared to be cru­ci­fied for the sal­va­tion of ev­ery per­son, He did not con­sid­er it pos­si­ble to di­min­ish or can­cel the mi­rac­u­lous. It is so cru­cial in the econ­o­my of our sal­va­tion! Al­be­it with re­gret, He al­low­ed them to de­part from Him in­to the dark­ness of un­be­lief and de­struc­tion; and said to them and to the cho­sen twelve as well, will ye al­so go a­way? (John 6:67) This show­ed that He was read­y to let them go al­so, if they could not bow down be­fore the mi­rac­u­lous. So it is, that to flee from the mi­rac­u­lous is to flee from the Lord and Sav­iour; and one who turns a­way from the mi­rac­u­lous is as one who is per­ish­ing. May those who are horrified by the mi­rac­u­lous heed this! Even they will come a­cross a mir­a­cle which they will not be able to thwart: death, and af­ter death, judg­ment. But wheth­er this in­abil­i­ty to thwart it will serve them un­to sal­va­tion, on­ly God knows.

From Unbelief To Belief

May 26, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Sat­ur­day. [Acts 9:20–31; John 15:17–16:2] When Saint Paul began to preach in Da­mas­cus, all were a­mazed, say­ing: Is not this he that de­stroy­ed them which call­ed on this name? (Acts 9:21). Isn’t it al­ways this way? Those close to some­one who con­verts from un­be­lief to be­lief, or from sin to vir­tue, mar­vel over what hap­pen­ed has with this per­son. He did ev­ery­thing our way and now sud­den­ly ev­ery­thing has changed: his words and his gaze, his step and his thoughts are not the same, and his un­der­tak­ings are dif­fer­ent, and the plac­es where he goes are dif­fer­ent. It is as if one were walk­ing to­ward the west, and then sud­den­ly turn­ed a­round to the east. These two lives are con­tra­dic­to­ry and mu­tu­al­ly ex­clude one an­oth­er. He who wants to com­bine them, or to make a whole life with part from the one, and part from the oth­er, will waste both time and ef­fort with no suc­cess. What can these lives have in com­mon?! On­ly those who do not un­der­stand things can say, “Why does it have to be so dras­tic!”

Sainted Nicholas of Myra – the Transfer of the Relics from Lycian Myra to Bari in Italy

May 22, 2013 | Saints & Martyrs, Uncategorized

Commemorated on May 9

      Sainted Nicholas the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Myra in Lycia – the Transfer of the Relics from Lycian Myra to Bari in Italy: The Vita about his life is located under the 6 December feastday.
      In the XI Century the Byzantine Greek empire was living through some terrible times. The Turks put an end to its influence in Asia Minor, they destroyed cities and villages, the murdered the inhabitants, and they accompanied their cruel outrage with the desecration of churches, holy relics, icons and books. The Mussulmen attempted also to destroy the relics of Saint Nicholas, deeply venerated by all the Christian world.
      In the year 792 the caliph Aaron Al’-Rashid sent Khumeid at the head of a fleet to pillage the island of Rhodes. Having lain waste this island, Khumeid set off to Lycian Myra with the intent to rob from the tomb of Saint Nicholas. But instead of it he robbed another, standing alongside the crypt of the saint. Just as they succeeded in committing this sacrilege, a terrible storm lifted upon the sea and almost all the ships were shattered into pieces.

The desecration of holy things shocked not only Eastern, but also Western Christians. Christians in Italy were particularly apprehensive for the relics of Saint Nicholas, and among them were many Greeks. The inhabitants of the city of Bari, located on the shores of the Adriatic Sea, decided to save the relics of Saint Nicholas.
      In the year 1087 merchants from Bari and Venice set out to Antioch for trade. Both these and others also had proposed on the return trip to take up the relics of Saint Nicholas and transport them to Italy. In this plan the men of Bari commissioned the Venetians to land them at Myra. At first two men were sent in, who in returning reported that in the city – all was quiet, and in the church where rested the glorified relics, they encountered only four monks. Immediately 47 men, having armed themselves, set out for the church of Saint Nicholas. The monk-guards, suspecting nothing, showed them the raised platform, beneathe which was concealed the tomb of the saint, where by custom, they anointed foreigners with myrh from the relics of the saint. The monks told them during this about an appearance of Saint Nicholas that evening to a certain elder. In this vision Saint Nicholas ordered the cautious preserving of his relics. This account encouraged the barons, – they saw an avowal for them in this vision and as it were a decree from the saint. In order to facilitate their activity, they revealed their intent to the monks and offered them money – 300 gold coins. The monk-guards refused the money and wanted to warn the inhabitants about the misfortune threatening them. But the newcomers bound them and put their own guards at the doorway. They took apart the church platform beneathe which stood the tomb with the relics. In this effort the youth Matthew was excessive in his especial zeal, wanting to as quickly as possible to find the relics of Saint Nicholas. In his impatience he broke the cover and the barons saw, that the sarcophagus was filled with fragrant holy myrh. The compatriots of the barons, the presbyters Luppus and Drogus, made a litany, after which the break of Matthew began to flow with myrh from the overflowing sarcophagus of the relics of the saint. This occurred on 20 April 1087.
      Seeing the absence of a container chest, presbyter Drogus wrapped the relics in the cover cloth, and in the company of the barons he carried them to the ship. The monks – having been set free, alerted the city with the sad news about the abduction of the relics of the Wonderworker Nicholas by foreigners. A crowd of people gathered at the shore, but it was too late…
      On 8 May the ships arrived in Bari, and soon the joyous news made the rounds of all the city. On the following day, 9 May 1087, they solemnly transported the relics of Saint Nicholas into the church of Saint Stephen, situated not far from the sea. The solemn bearing of the relics was accompanied by numerous healings of the sick, which inspired still greater reverence for the Saint of God. A year afterwards a church was built in the name of Saint Nicholas and consecrated by Pope Urban II.
      This event, connected with the transfer of the relics of Saint Nicholas, evoked a particular veneration for the Wonderworker Nicholas and was marked by the establishing of a special feastday on 9 May. At first the Feastday of the Transfer of the Relics of Saint Nicholas was observed only by the people of the city of Bari. In the other lands of the Christian East and West it was not adopted, despite the fact that the transfer of the relics was widely known about. This circumstance is to be explained by the custom in the Middle Ages of venerating primarily the relics of local saints. Moreover, the Greek Church did not establish the celebration of this remembrance, since for it the loss of the relics of Saint Nicholas was a sad event.
      The Russian Orthodox Church celebration of the memory of the Transfer of the Relics of Saint Nicholas from Lycian Myra to Bari in Italy on 9 May was established soon after the year 1087, on the basis of an already established veneration by the Russian people of the great Saint of God, brought over from Greece simultaneously with the acceptance of Christianity. The glorious accounts about the miracle-workings, done by the saint on both land and sea, were widely known to the Russian people. Their inexhaustible strength and abundance testify to the especially graced help of the great Saint of God for suffering mankind. The image of Saint Nicholas, a mighty Wonderworker and Benefactor, became especially dear to the heart of the Russian people, since it inspired deep faith and hope for his intercession. The faith of the Russian people in the abundant aid of the Saint of God was marked by numerous miracles.
      A significant body of literature was compiled about him very early in Russian writings. Accounts about the miracles of Saint Nicholas done in the Russian land were recorded early on in deep antiquity. Soon after the Transfer of the Relics of Saint Nicholas from Lycian Myra to Bari, there appeared a Russian redaction of his Vita and an account about the Transfer of his holy relics, written by one contemporary to this event. Earlier still was written a laudation to the Wonderworker. And each week on Thursday, the Russian Orthodox Church honours his memory in particular.
      In honour of Sainted Nicholas were erected numerous churches and monasteries, and with his name Russian people are wont to name their children at Baptism. In Russia are preserved numerous wonderworking icons of the saint. Most reknown among them are the images of Mozhaisk, Zaraisk, Volokolamsk, Ugreshsk and Ratny. There was neither house nor temple in the Russian land, in which there was not an image of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker. The significance of the graced intercession of the great Saint of God is expressed by the ancient compiler of the Life-Vita, in the words of whom Sainted Nicholas “did work many glorious miracles both on land and on sea, aiding those downtrodden in misfortune and rescuing the drowning, carried to dry land from the depths of the sea, raising up others from corruption and bringing them home, liberating from chains and imprisonment, averting felling by the sword and freeing from death, and granting much healing to many: sight to the blind, walking to the lame, hearing to the deaf, and speech to the mute. He brought riches to many suffering in abject poverty and want, he provided the hungry food and for each in their need he appeared a ready helper, an avid defender and speedy intercessor and protector, and such as appeal to him he doth help and deliver from adversity. Both the East and the West know of this great Wonderworker, and all the ends of the earth know his miracle-working”.

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