The Lord coming to you Himself

March 12, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

[Jude 1:1–10; Luke 22:39–42, 45–23:1] The Meeting of the Lord. At this meeting the Lord is surrounded on the one side by Sim‐eon — righteousness which awaits salvation, but not in righteousness itself, and Anna — a life of strict fasting and prayer, made alive by faith; and on the other side by sub‐stantial, comprehensive and stead‐fast purity — the Virgin Mother of God, and by humble, silent submis‐sion and devotion to the will of God — Joseph the Betrothed. Transfer all of these spiritual attitudes to your heart and you will meet the Lord; not carried to you, but coming to you Himself. You will take Him into the embrace of your heart, and you will sing a hymn which will pass throughout the heavens and glad‐den all the angels and saints.

Saint Theophan the Recluse

Beyond Our Present Life

March 10, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Saturday (Commemoration of the Dead). [I Thess. 4:13–17; John 5:24–30] Now the Holy Church directs our attention beyond the borders of our present life, to our fathers and brothers who have passed on from here. The Church hopes that by re‐minding us of their state (which we ourselves shall not escape), to pre‐pare us to spend Cheese-fare week properly, as well as Great Lent which follows. Let us listen to our mother the Church; and commemo‐rating our fathers and brothers, let us take care to prepare ourselves for our passing over to the other world. Let us bring to mind our sins and mourn them, setting out in the future to keep ourselves pure from any defilement. For nothing un‐clean will enter the Kingdom of God; and at the judgement, nobody unclean will be justified. After death you cannot expect purifica‐tion. You will remain as you are when you cross over. You must pre‐pare your cleansing here. Let us hurry, for who can predict how long one will live? Life could be cut off this very hour. How can we appear unclean in the other world? Through what eyes will we look at our fathers and brothers who will meet us? How will we answer their questions: “What is this badness in you? What is this? And what is this?” What shame will cover us! Let us hasten to set right all that is out of order, to arrive at least some‐what tolerable and bearable in the other world.

Saint Theophan the Recluse

True PrayerPrayer

March 5, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Tuesday. [I Thess. 1:6-10; Luke 11:1-10] The Lord gave a common prayer for everyone, combining in it all of our needs, spiritual and bodily, in‐ner and outer, eternal and tempo‐ral. But since it is impossible to in‐clude everything which one has to pray to God about in life in only one prayer, a rule is given after the com‐mon prayer for private requests a‐bout something: Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. So it is done in the Church of God: Christians pray in common a‐bout common needs, but each pri‐vately sets his own needs and re‐quirements before the Lord. We pray in common in churches ac‐cording to established rites, which are nothing other than the Lord’s Prayer which has been explained and presented in various ways; while privately, at home, everyone asks the Lord about his own things in whatever way he can. Even in church one can pray about one’s own concerns, and at home one can pray with a common prayer. We must concern ourselves about only one thing: that when we stand at prayer, at home or in church, we have true prayer in our soul, true turning and lifting up of our mind and heart to God. Let everyone do this as he is able. Do not stand like a statue, and do not mutter the pray‐ers like a street organ wound up, playing songs. As long as you stand like that, and as long as you mum‐ble the prayers, you are without prayer, the mind wandering and the heart full of vain feelings. If you al‐ready stand in prayer and are ad‐justed to it, is it difficult for you to draw your mind and heart there as well? Draw them there, even if they have become unyielding. Then true prayer will form and will attract God’s mercy, and God’s promise to prayer: ask and it will be given, it will be fulfilled. Often it is not given because there is no petition, but on‐ly a posture of petitioning.

Saint Theophan the Recluse

The Monk Maruph

March 1, 2013 | Saints & Martyrs, Uncategorized

Commemorated on February 16

The Monk Maruph was bishop of a city founded by him, Tigrit (Greek –Martyropolis), – a border city between the Byzantine empire and Persia. He was famed for his knowledge and his piety, he wrote about the martyrs, and he suffered for his faith in Christ under the Persian emperor Sapor. He also left behind other works in the Syrian language, among which the most famous are: “Commentary on the Gospel”, “Verses of Maruph”, “Liturgy of Maruph” and “The 73 Canons of the OEcumenical Council at Nicea” (325) with an account of the acts of the Council. In the year 381 Saint Maruph participated in the II OEcumenical Council at Constantinople – convened against the heresy of Macedonius, and in the year 383 – at the local Antioch Council against the Messalians. During the years 403-404 Saint Maruph set off to Constantinople to plead with the emperor Arkadius to protect Persian christians. He was twice sent by the emperor Theodosius the Younger to the shah Izdegerd to secure the peace between the empire and Persia. In the year 414 Saint Maruph, having done his duty as envoy to the court of Izdegerd, persuaded the shah to a favourable disposition towards christians, and he assisted greatly in the freedom of confession of the true faith in Persia. He rebuilt christian churches razed during the persecution by the Persian shah Sapor. He also located relics of saints that had suffered martyrdom and transferred them to Martyropolis (Tigrit). He died there in about the year 422. The relics of Saint Maruph were later transferred to Egypt and placed in a skete monastery of the Mother of God.

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

Ashamed to Confess Christ

February 27, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

[Col. 2:20-3:3; Luke 9:23-27] Do not be ashamed to confess the Lord Jesus Christ as the incar‐nate Son of God who redeemed us through His death on the cross, who through His resurrection and ascen‐sion opened for us the entrance into the Kingdom of heaven. If you shall be ashamed, then He shall be a‐shamed of you, When he shall come in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy Angels. Now in socie‐ty there is a trend to not talk at all a‐bout the Lord and about salvation, whereas in the beginning these dear subjects were all that people talked about. One’s talk more readily flows from the place where the heart a‐bides. Can it really be that people’s hearts abide less with the Lord? Judging from the talk, this must be the case. Some do not know Him at all, others are cold towards Him. Fearing encounters with such peo‐ple, even those who are warm to‐wards the Lord do not direct the conversation towards Him, and the priesthood is silent. Now, talk about the Lord and Saviour and about our main concern — salvation — is ex‐cluded from the circle of talk ac‐ceptable in society. What, you say, are we really supposed to talk only about that? Why only about that? One can talk about anything, but in a way that is shaded by the spirit of Christ. Then it would be possible to guess whether the speaker is Chris‐tian or pagan. Now, however, it is impossible to guess what they are, neither by their talk, nor by their writings. Look through all the peri‐odicals — what don’t they write there? But nobody wants to make Christian conversation. What a complicated time!

Saint Theophan the Recluse

The Nun Maria (Marinos)and her father the Monk Eugene (Eugenios)

February 25, 2013 | Saints & Martyrs, Uncategorized

Commemorated on February 12

The Nun Maria (Marinos)and her father the Monk Eugene (Eugenios) lived at the beginning of the VI Century in Bithynia (northwest district of Asia Minor). Bereaved of his wife, Eugene decided to withdraw to a monastery, but his daughter did not want to be separated from him, and so she accompanied him, dressed as a man. Together they entered a monastery not far from Alexandria, and the daughter received the name Marinos. “Brother” Marinos became much accomplished in virtue, and distinguished in humility and obedience. After several years, when the father of Saint Marinos died, she all the more intensified her ascetic efforts and received from the Lord the gift to heal those afflicted by unclean spirits. One time the “Monk” Marinos was sent with other monks to the monastery gardens, and along the way they had to spend the night at an inn. The inn-keeper’s daughter, having sinned with one of the lodgers, denounced the “Monk” Marinos and accused “him” as the culprit of her downfall. Her father complained to the hegumen of the monastery, who expelled the “sinful brother”. The nun said not a word in her defense and began to live at the monastery wall. When the hapless girl gave birth to a boy, the inn-keeper brought it to Marinos, and without a word he abandoned his grandson and withdrew. The saint took the infant and began to raise it. After the passing of three years the brethren besought the hegumen to take back the “Monk Marinos” into the monastery. The hegumen, who very reluctantly gave in to the requests, began to assign “brother Marinos” very burdensome obediences, which the nun fulfilled with the greatest of zeal, while attending to the raising of her foster-child. Three years later the saint peacefully expired to the Lord in her cell. The brethren arriving saw the deceased “monk” and the boy crying over “him”. When they began to dress the saint for burial, her secret was revealed. The hegumen of the monastery tearfully besought forgiveness of the departed, and the inn-keeper too followed his example. The body of Saint Maria was reverently buried in the monastery. The daughter of the inn-keeper came to the grave of the saint and openly confessed her sin, in connection with which she was healed from a demonic illness. The boy whom the saint was raising afterwards became a monk. The relics of the saint were transferred to Constantinople, and from there in 1113 were carried off to Venice.

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

Rhyme of PrayerPrayer

February 25, 2013 | Uncategorized, Wisdom

Pray gently and calmly, sing with understanding and rhythm; then you will soar like a young eagle high in the heavens.

The Philokalia: Volume One, page 65

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts

February 19, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

[I Pet. 3:10–22; Mark 12:18–27] But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts (I Pet. 3:15). Sanctify‐ing the Lord in one’s heart is the soul and spirit of the hidden man of the heart depicted above. As in the beginning, God created the body of man out of particles of dust, breathed into him the breath of life (cf. Gen. 2:7), and man became as he ought to be, so the hidden man of the heart, created on the inside from the indicated virtues, is only a real spiritual man when his heart sanctifies the Lord God. Thus, we read in the Lord’s Prayer, “Hal‐lowed[1] Be Thy Name.” If this does not occur, then the man, who was modelled from the aforementioned virtues, will end up a stillborn child, without the spirit of life. Let this be known to those who think to get a‐way with a few virtues without hav‐ing any relationship to God! What does it mean to sanctify God in the heart? It means showing great rev‐erence before Him unceasingly, al‐ways bearing in mind the thought of His omnipresence; being eager at every instant to zealously please Him, and with all fear to beware of everything unpleasing to Him. Espe‐cially, it means committing all of your temporal and eternal life unto His fatherly care; to accept all that happens humbly, submissively and thankfully, as coming straight from His hand.

Saint Theophan the Recluse

[1]In the Slavonic, the words “sanc‐tify” from the Epistle is the same as word as “hallowed” in the Lord’s prayer.

Faith God’s Gift

February 17, 2013 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

[II Cor. 5:1-10; Luke 7:2-10] What a bright person the centurion is! How did he reach such faith that he sur‐passed with it all Israelites, raised with revelation, prophesies and miracles? The Gospels do not indi‐cate how, but only describe his faith and tell of how the Lord praised him. The path of faith is a secret, concealed path. Who can even ex‐plain within himself how the con‐victions of faith are composed in the heart [cf. Lk. 2:19]? Best of all, the holy Apostle resolved this by calling faith God’s gift. Faith truly is God’s gift, but unbelievers are not without responsibility, and, consequently, they themselves are at fault for the fact that this gift is not given them. If there is no recipient for this gift, it is not given, for there is nothing to receive it with; while in such a case to give is the same as to spend in vain. How a soul is made a worthy recipient of the gift of faith is diffi‐cult to determine. Extreme humility could be seen in the centurion, de‐spite the fact that he was a man of power, virtuous and sensible. Is it not through humility in general that this great mercy, which gives faith, is attracted? This is not at all sur‐prising. At the very least it is known to everyone that unbelievers always are of a proud spirit, and that faith most of all requires the submission of the mind beneath its yoke.

Saint Theophan the Recluse

The Monk Xenophontes, his spouse Maria and their sons Arkadios and John

February 9, 2013 | Saints & Martyrs, Uncategorized

Commemorated on January 26

The Monk, his spouse Maria and their sons Arkadios and John, were noted citizens of Constantinople and lived in the V Century. Despite riches and position, they distinguished themselves by their simplicity of soul and goodness of heart. Wishing to give their sons John and Arkadios a more complete education, they sent them off to the Phoenician city of Beirut. Through Divine Providence the ship on which both brothers sailed became ship-wrecked. The brothers were pitched by the waves onto shore at different places. Aggrieved at being separated, the brothers dedicated themselves to God and accepted monasticism. For a long time the parents received no news about their children and presumed them to have perished. Xenophontes, however, now already quite old, maintained firm hope in the Lord and consoled his wife Maria, telling her not to sorrow but to believe that their children were watched over by the Lord. After several years the spouses made pilgrimage to the Holy places and at Jerusalem they met their sons, pursuing asceticsm at different monasteries. The joyful parents gave thanks to the Lord for providently re-uniting the whole family. For the remainder of their lives, the monastics Xenophontes and Maria dedicated themselves to God and accepted monasticism. The Monks Arkadios and John, having taken leave of their parents, went out into the wilderness, where after long ascetic toil they were glorified by gifts of wonderworking and perspicacity. The monastic elders Xenophontes and Maria, having pursued asceticism in silence and strict fasting, also received of God the gift of wonderworking.

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