Nobody Will Know

May 17, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Fri­day. [Acts 5:1–11; John 5:30–6:2] Why did An­a­ni­as and Sapphira sin so bad­ly? Be­cause they forgot that God sees their deeds and thoughts. If they kept in mind that God sees ev­ery­thing both in­ter­nal and ex­ter­nal more clear­ly than all peo­ple see, even with re­gard to them­selves, it would not have en­ter­ed their mind to lie in such a way be­fore the A­pos­tles. This is why all of our sins and sin­ful plans a­rise. We con­trive to con­ceal ev­ery­thing from the gaze of man, and think that ev­ery­thing is fine. Peo­ple seem not to see any­thing, as­sume we are in good shape; but this does not change our es­sen­tial noth­ing­ness. Know­ing this, re­peat each of you to your­self: why doth Sa­tan fill my heart to lie be­fore the face of God? His eyes which are brighter than the sun see in­to the in­ner­most re­cess­es of the heart; nei­ther night nor sea, nor cave are con­ceal­ed from Him. Re­mem­ber this and so ar­range your in­ward and out­ward be­hav­iour, though it be un­seen. If the All-see­ing One were al­ien to us, it would be pos­si­ble to re­gard His om­ni­science in­dif­fer­ent­ly. But He is judge, and He of­ten pro­nounces His judg­ment, by vir­tue of His Om­ni­science, soon­er than we ex­pect. It could be that He has al­ready pro­nounced judg­ment up­on us the very mo­ment we thought to hide our­selves and our sins with a dark lie, say­ing, “God doesn’t see!”

Living Deeds

May 16, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Thurs­day. [Acts 4:23–31; John 5:24–30] And they shall come forth; they that have done good, un­to the res­ur­rec­tion of life; and they that have done evil, un­to the res­ur­rec­tion of dam­na­tion (John 5:29). This is how ev­ery­thing ends! As each riv­er flows in­to its own sea, so the flow of each of our lives comes, at last, to a place ac­cord­ing to its na­ture. Those who will be res­ur­rect­ed un­to life will al­so be at the judg­ment; but the judg­ment will on­ly seal their jus­ti­fi­ca­tion, and de­ter­mine their life, while the oth­ers will be res­ur­rect­ed on­ly to hear the con­dem­na­tion of eter­nal death. Their life and death are char­ac­ter­ized even now — be­cause some do liv­ing deeds, while oth­ers do dead and dead­en­ing deeds. Living deeds are those which are done ac­cord­ing to the com­mand­ments, with joy of the spir­it, un­to the glo­ry of God; dead deeds are those which are done in op­po­si­tion to the com­mand­ments with for­get­ful­ness of God, to please one­self and one’s pas­sions. Dead deeds are all which al­though in form may not op­pose the com­mand­ments, are done with­out any thought a­bout God and eter­nal sal­va­tion, ac­cord­ing to some as­pect of self-love. God is life; on­ly what con­tains part of Him is a­live. And so who­ev­er has on­ly dead and dead­en­ing deeds is bound di­rect­ly for death, and on the last day will come out in­to the con­dem­na­tion of death; but who­ev­er has all liv­ing deeds is bound for eter­nal life, and on the last day will come and re­ceive it.

Quotes from The Philokalia Vol. 1, pg 169

May 15, 2013 | Uncategorized, Wisdom

We are not mightier than Samson, wiser than Solomon, more knowledgeable about God than David, and we do not love God better than did Peter, prince of the apostles. So let us not have confidence in ourselves; for he who has confidence in himself will fall headlong.

Let us learn humility from Christ, humiliation from David, and from Peter to shed tears over what has happened; but let us also learn to avoid the despair of Samson, Judas, and that wisest of men, Solomon.

The more the rain falls on the earth, the softer it makes it; similarly, Christ’s holy name gladdens the earth of our heart the more we call upon it.

Quotes from The Philokalia Vol.  1, pg 169

The Truth of Christ is clear

May 14, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Tues­day. [Acts 4:1–10; John 3:16–21] He that believeth not in the Son of God is con­demn­ed al­ready (John 3:18). For what? For the fact that when light is all a­round, he re­mains in dark­ness, due to his love for it. Love of dark­ness and ha­tred of the light make him en­tire­ly to blame, even with­out his de­ter­min­ing where the truth lies; be­cause he who has sin­cere love for the truth will be led by this love from the dark­ness of de­cep­tion to the light of truth. One ex­am­ple is the ho­ly apos­tle Paul. He was a sin­cere lov­er of the truth, devoted with all his soul to what he con­sid­ered to be true, with­out any self-in­ter­est. There­fore, as soon as he was shown that the truth lay not in what he con­sid­ered to be true, that very mo­ment he cast aside the old — which proved to be un­true — and cleaved with all his heart to the new, which was tan­gi­bly proven to be the truth. The same oc­curs with ev­ery sin­cere lov­er of truth. The truth of Christ is clear as day: seek and ye shall find. Help from a­bove is al­ways read­y for one who sin­cere­ly seeks. There­fore, if some­one re­mains in the dark­ness of un­be­lief, it is on­ly due to his love for that dark­ness, and for this he is al­ready con­demn­ed.

We Crucify The Lord by our sins

May 13, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Mon­day. [Acts 3:19–26; John 2:1–11] Re­pent ye there­fore, and be con­vert­ed, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of re­fresh­ing shall come from the pres­ence of the Lord (Acts 3:19). Thus spoke the ho­ly apos­tle Pe­ter to the Jews who cru­ci­fied the Lord, com­fort­ing them that they did it out of ig­no­rance. But we are cru­ci­fy­ing the Lord with­in our­selves for a sec­ond time, not out of ig­no­rance, but through our sins; but the most mer­ci­ful one re­ceives us too when we re­pent and turn to Him with all of our heart. We did this dur­ing Great Lent. Each came run­ing to the Lord with tears of re­pen­tance over his sins; and the more sin­cere­ly one did this, the more strong­ly did he feel the re­fresh­ment of for­give­ness, pro­ceed­ing from the face of the Lord, through the hands and word of ab­so­lu­tion of God’s priest. Now what is left for us to do? To be on guard a­gainst new falls, so that we would not fall again in­to the guilt of cru­ci­fy­ing the Lord. The A­pos­tle says that heav­en on­ly re­ceiv­ed the Lord Je­sus un­til the times of res­ti­tu­tion of all things (cf. Acts 3:21). Then He again will come and set forth judg­ment. With what eyes will those who pierced His side look up­on Him! In­deed, we too will have to stand in their ranks if we stop bring­ing forth fruits of re­pen­tance and re­turn to our old ways.

Walk in the spirit

May 10, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Fri­day. [Acts 3:1–8; John 2:12–22] There are cer­tain in­div­id­u­als whom the ho­ly fa­thers praise for their Chris­tian lives, for they rose from the dead be­fore the gen­er­al res­ur­rec­tion. What is the se­cret of such a life? They mastered the char­ac­ter­is­tic fea­tures of a life ac­cord­ing to the res­ur­rec­tion as they are shown in the word of God, and made them their own in­ner prop­er­ties. The fu­ture life is de­void of all that is flesh­ly: there men nei­ther mar­ry, nor are wo­men giv­en in mar­riage, there they will not eat dead food, and they will re­ceive a spir­i­tu­al bod­y. Thus, who­ev­er lives es­tranged from all flesh­ly things re­ceives in him­self, or re­turns to him­self, el­e­ments of the fu­ture life ac­cord­ing to the res­ur­rec­tion. Reach the point that all flesh­ly things with­in you die, and you will be res­ur­rect­ed be­fore the fu­ture res­ur­rec­tion. The apos­tle in­di­cates the path to this when he says: Walk in the Spir­it, and ye shall not ful­fil the lust of the flesh (Gal. 5:16). And he at­tests that through this path it is sure­ly pos­si­ble to at­tain what is a­wait­ed: he that soweth to the Spir­it, he says, shall of the Spir­it reap life ev­er­last­ing (Gal. 6:8).

Truth of The Resurrection

May 8, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Wednes­day. [Acts 2:22–36; John 1:35–51] The mind can prove the truth of the Res­ur­rec­tion through rea­son based on the scrip­tures, and a non-be­liev­er can­not but ad­mit the pow­er of its ar­gu­ments, as long as a sense of truth is not yet dead in him. A be­liev­er does not need proof, be­cause the Church of God is fill­ed with the light of the Res­ur­rec­tion. Both of these in­di­ca­tors of truth are faith­ful and con­vinc­ing. But count­er-rea­son­ing can spring up and con­tra­dict mind’s rea­son, and faith can be tram­pled and shak­en by per­plex­i­ties and doubts, com­ing from with­out and aris­ing with­in. Is there no in­vin­ci­ble wall a­round the truth of the Res­ur­rec­tion? There is. It will oc­cur when the pow­er of the Res­ur­rec­tion, re­ceiv­ed al­ready at bap­tism, be­gins to ac­tive­ly be re­veal­ed as it purges the cor­rup­tion of soul and bod­y, and es­tab­lish­es with­in them the be­gin­nings of a new life. He who ex­pe­ri­en­ces this will walk in the light of the Res­ur­rec­tion, and any­one talk­ing a­gainst the truth of the Res­ur­rec­tion will seem to him in­sane, like a per­son say­ing in the day­time that it is night.

Pascha Celebration 2013

May 5, 2013 | Children & Youth, Istochnik Choir, News & Events, Uncategorized

Come and celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Serbian food and dancing.

When: May 5, 2013
Where: 2148 Michelson Drive, Irvine, CA

View Photos of Plastanica Lamentations (May 3)

View Photos of Children Egg Coloring

View Photos of Resurrectional Matins

View Photos of Great and Holy Pascha

View Video of Plastanica Lamentations (May 3)

View Video of Children Egg Coloring (May 3)

View Video of Resurrectional Matins (May 4)

View Video of Great and Holy Pascha Divine Liturgy (May 5)

View Video of Istochnik Choir Concert (May 5)

View Video of Great and Holy Pascha Celebration Banquet & Music (May 5)

The Cross Of Joy

May 3, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

The cru­ci­fix­ion of Christ the Lord and the syn­ax­is of Arch­an­gel Ga­bri­el! A new con­sol­ing com­bi­na­tion! Ga­bri­el pro­claims be­fore­hand the birth of the Fore­run­ner; Ga­bri­el brings good ti­dings to the Vir­gin; he, very like­ly, pro­claim­ed the joy of the birth of the Sav­iour; no one else pro­claim­ed to the wo­men a­bout the res­ur­rec­tion of Christ the Lord. There­fore Ga­bri­el is the her­ald and bear­er of ev­ery joy. The cru­ci­fix­ion of Christ is the joy and glad­ness of all sin­ners. A sin­ner, com­ing to a feel­ing of his sin­ful­ness and of the all-righ­teous truth of God, has no­where to take shel­ter, ex­cept un­der the shad­ow of the cross. Here he ac­cepts the as­sur­ance that he has no for­give­ness while he stands alone be­fore God with his sins and even with tears over them. The on­ly sal­va­tion for him is in the death on the cross of the Lord. On the cross the hand­writ­ing of all sins was torn a­part (cf. Col 2:14). And each who ac­cepts this with com­plete faith is made a par­tic­i­pant in this mys­tery of for­give­ness. As this faith rip­ens, con­fi­dence of for­give­ness rip­ens as well, and al­so com­fort from the feel­ing of en­ter­ing in­to the state of for­give­ness for all ages. The cross is the source of joy, be­cause a sin­ner drinks with faith from it the joy of for­give­ness. In this sense, it is in its own way an arch­an­gel, bring­ing good ti­dings of joy.

The Monk Simeon the Bare-Foot (Bosoi)

May 2, 2013 | Saints & Martyrs, Uncategorized

Commemorated on April 19

The Monk Simeon the Bare-Foot (Bosoi) was the son of a priest. At 15 years of age he came under the spiritual guidance of the bishop of Demetriada (Laryssa diocese), Pakhomios, who gave him monastic vows and ordained him to monk-deacon. In order to better learn strict monastic life, Saint Simeon soon withdrew to a monastery near Mount Olympos, and from there he settled on Holy Mount Athos, at the Laura of Saint Athanasias. By his humility and zealous obedience he there gained the respect of the brethren and was ordained to priest-monk. When the monk transferred to the Philotheon monastery, he intensified his God-pleasing-toil, he became an example for the brethren, gained their overall love and was unanimously chosen as head of this monastery. Afterwards, through the sly cunning of the enemy of good, Saint Simeon had to put up with unjust grumbling on the part of weak-souled monks. Leaving it to the will of God to bring judgement upon the culprits, Saint Simeon quit the monastery and withdrew to Mount Phlamuria. There, in solitude and quiet, without roof nor fire, in old clothing, and almost without food, in constant prayer either standing or on bended-knees, the holy hermit carried on the inner struggle. After three years certain God-loving people came upon him, and inspired with reverence for his lifestyle, they besought him to accept them to live with him.

After seven years by the efforts and zeal of Saint Simeon a whole monastery was formed. A church was built in the Name of the MostHoly Trinity, wherein the monk made daily Divine liturgy. When the life of the brethren in the wilderness monastery had been put in order, the wise servant left the monastery and began to preach the Word of God in Epirus, Thessaly and Athens. By his instructions and teaching the saint affirmed the wavering in their faith, those in error he set aright on the way to salvation, the strong in their faith he made even stronger, and he taught al to love one another, and to observe Sundays and feastdays with a visit to the churches of God.

The boldness of the holy confessor aroused the wicked malice of the opponents of the Christian faith. In the city of Euripa they slandered the Monk Simeon in front of the city-governor, Ayan, accusing him of making a Turk accept Christianity. The saint was arrested and sentenced to public burning. But the providence of God did not permit of the culmination of the injustice. At the interrogation where the condemned one had been led to in shackles, barefoot (bosoi) and in an old ryasa, Saint Simeon – inspired by the Holy Spirit – so wisely gave answer to the governor, that Ayan was not able to impose the death sentence. The saint received his freedom and continued with his efforts, sealing the preaching of Christianity by healings and miracles. Many followed after the Monk Simeon and entrusted themselves into full obedience to him. Everyone he accepted, he gave blessing for the monastic life and sent them on to his monastery. The work of Saint Simeon finished at Constantinople. He peacefully expired to the Lord and was buried reverently by the patriarch himself at Chalkas, in a church in honour of the MostHoly Mother of God. After 2 years, when the monks of the Phlamuria monastery decided to transfer his holy relics to the monastery, and the grave with his body was opened, fragrance wafted forth and here already began healings.

The Vita and the Service to the Monk Simeon were published at Smyrna in the year 1646.

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