The Catalog of Good Deeds: Q&A

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Every Orthodox Christian should have some holy Theophany water at home. Traditionally, the Orthodox drink the holy water consecrated on Theophany Day on an empty stomach with a prosphora after morning prayers. This water is sacred and demands utmost respect.

Saints on Holy Water

Saint Demetrius of Kherson wrote, “Consecrated water is a powerful means of sanctifying the souls and bodies of those who use it.” If we take it with faith and prayer, it can cure our physical illnesses. St. Seraphim of Sarov would always make his visitors drink some holy Theophany water after confession.

Saint Luke of Crimea advised, “Drink holy water as often as possible. It is the best and the most effective medicine. I’m saying that not just as a priest but also from my experience as a doctor.”

St. Seraphim of Vyritsa always recommended his spiritual children to sprinkle raw and cooked food with holy Theophany water, which, according to him, “consecrates everything all on its own.” Whenever anyone fell seriously ill, St. Seraphim would bless them to take a tablespoonful of holy water hourly. He used to say that there are no better remedies than holy water and holy oil.

Good to Know

The Greater Hagiasma is viewed by Church canons as a lower level of Holy Eucharist: in the cases when a member of the Church is forbidden to take the Holy Body and Blood of Christ due to their wrongdoings, the canon law usually adds, “he may drink hagiasma, though.”

It is good to know that dipping in consecrated water reservoirs on Theophany Day is a folk custom. It doesn’t make you free from sins and cannot be regarded as the substitute for the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession). Christians should do their best to participate in church services and the greatest Sacrament of the Church, i.e., the Holy Eucharist, on church holidays.

May One Sprinkle Unclean Places with Holy Water?

The power of the Cross can shield people like exorcism does. Thus, consecration has two meanings: either we use holy water to ‘fill something with grace’ or ‘to prevent any evil spirit from hiding in a certain place’ such as our bathroom.

May One Drink Holy Water After Eating?

Traditionally, people drink holy water on an empty stomach in the morning, which is understandable: first you take holy water and then your regular food. As far as the rest of the day is concerned, the Typikon (Chapter 48, Menaia for January 6) contains the following regulations:

Let it be known of the holy water: those who do not drink it because they have already consumed food, are mistaken, for God’s grace is granted for the sanctification of the entire world and all creatures. We sprinkle all places, including unclean ones and even the floor under our feet, with holy water. Where is the reason of those who do not drink it because of having eaten food?

Therefore, it isn’t reasonable to abstain from holy water because of having eaten some food. The Church does not prohibit us to drink holy water, even Theophany water at any time, and admonishes those who believe that it is forbidden to drink holy water not on an empty stomach.

Where Should We Store Holy Water?

Holy water is stored in a special vial or bottle. You can attach a note to the bottle to avoid using the water for the purposes that it isn’t intended for. You can find special bottles for holy water in many church stores.

Translated by The Catalog of Good Deeds

Source: https://azbyka.ru/voda-svyataya

We have received an email from someone which goes as follows:

"Hello,

I was just wondering if you could give me your opinion on a question about entering into the monastic life.

If one was married in the past and had a child, and now the two are divorced and she re-married and he has not can he enter the monastic life? Become a monk?

Thanks for your time! God Bless you!"

Here is our understanding of the matter.

We assume that you live in the United States. You are subject to U.S. civil and criminal law as a citizen of the state in which you live. Hence, whatever you do religiously, you are subject to the civil and criminal laws of your jurisdiction. The matter is the same, with the necessary changes, for whatever legal jurisdiction you live in.

Assuming that there is no impediment in regard to civil or criminal law—for example a court order concerning child support or some other matter—then according to the tradition of the Orthodox Church and Orthodox canon law (as far as we know; we are not an expert in Orthodox canon law), there is no impediment to your becoming a monk having been once married, having fathered a child and then having been divorced.

However, the question would arise of the status of your marriage in the eyes of the Orthodox Church. This is especially true if you originally married in the Orthodox Church but obtained a civil divorce. Historically, the Orthodox Church has treated the monastic tonsure as dissolving an existent marriage, and without the consent of the spouse, but it is doubtful whether today any Orthodox jurisdiction would apply this principle without an investigation of the particular situation. This is a matter you would have to discuss with the senior members of the Orthodox jurisdiction to which you presently belong.

There is also the question of the welfare of the child—whether you have any legal or spiritual responsibility that would interfere with your becoming a monk in a particular monastery. This is again something you would have to discuss with the senior members of your Orthodox jurisdiction.

The next problem is that to become a monk in the Orthodox Church, you have to become a monk in a specific monastery–there is no such thing as an Orthodox monk of nowhere in particular. But that means that the superior of the monastery and possibly the council of senior monks of the monastery would have to be satisfied with your bona fides. They would make their own assessment of you and your marital history. Normally, a monastery is not obliged to accept any particular postulant so this will be an assessment independent of whatever the senior members of your jurisdiction decide. However, if the senior members of your jurisdiction have decided that you have an impediment then the monastery would normally acquiesce and refuse you. This phase of personal assessment will vary from monastery to monastery and jurisdiction to jurisdiction and country to country. We could only suggest that you discuss the matter with the superior of the monastery which you are interested in entering.

Finally, both the senior members of your Orthodox jurisdiction and the monastic superior together with the senior members of the monastery will want to assess the significance of your marital history for your personal psychological and spiritual condition with regard to the possibility of your entering the monastic life and of remaining in that state until death. There is no dispensation from vows in the Orthodox Church.

Hence, there is no theoretical impediment to your becoming a monk per se, but both the ruling bishop and the monastic superior would have to judge the merits of your particular case before you could receive permission.

Source: https://orthodoxmonk.blogspot.com/2008/12/can-divorced-man-become-orthodox-monk.html

The word 'fate' comes from the Latin word fatum, which broadly translates as 'God's judgment'. Therefore, the foreordained plan of our lives, which we call fate, is in fact the fulfillment of God's will with regard to each human being.

With that said, Orthodox theology has never supported the idea of fate as a steadfast course that we're bound to follow. Of course, God knows everything there has ever been, everything there is, and everything there will be. There is no moment in time hidden from the Creator. However, God's omniscience isn't binding.

Saint John of Damascus writes, "You must be aware that God knows everything in advance but He doesn't predestine everything."

The Holy Fathers say that God doesn't prescribe our actions; instead, He foreknows them. What does it mean? First of all, if there is a total predestination, there is no place for our freedom. If everything is foreordained, there isn't anything in our lives that depends on us. If we are meant to perish, we surely will, regardless of whether we do good or bad. In other words, if our 'fate' is to go to hell, there is nothing we can do to avoid it. Hence, we might as well do nothing, given that it doesn't matter if we follow God's commandments or not, if we love God and our neighbor or not.

The Orthodox Church has always rejected this line of thinking. Human freedom is a most important principle in the relationship between man and God. Hieromartyr Irenaeus of Lyon says that freedom is the greatest gift of the Creator, and that's why God will never intrude on human freedom.

Consequently, our fate depends solely on whether we use our freedom to serve God and people or to serve sin. Our eternal destiny doesn't depend on an arbitrary decision or sheer luck. It depends on how we use our freedom—this great God's gift that we received at the moment of creation.

By Andrei Muzolf, an associate professor

of Kiev Theological Academy

Translated by The Catalog of Good Deeds

Source: https://pravlife.org/ru/content/sushchestvuet-li-ponyatie-sudba-ot-kotoroy-ne-uydesh

Today we’re going to tell you what wineskins are, and perhaps, the meaning of the words of Christ will be more clear for you. Neither is new wine put in old wineskins; for if it is, the skins burst and are torn in pieces, and the wine is spilled and the skins are ruined. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved. (Matthew 9:17).

What did ancient vessels look like?

Wineskins are leather bags of some sort, which were used for carrying liquids. People in ancient times could not use clay or stone vessels to carry water or wine with them on the go: they could break and were generally too heavy. That is where wineskins came in handy. The wineskins were bags made of animal skins (e.g., goat or camel skin). The skin was treated thoroughly and then sewn in such a manner so as to leave only one hole (where the animal’s neck had been), which served as the bottleneck. You might have guessed that wineskins came in various sizes depending on the size of the animal. They could be so huge that they held up to 18 bucketfuls of water.

New wineskins, like other leather products, were soft and flexible. That is why new wine was to be poured into new wineskins: fermentation continued within the soft vessel and the gases stretched it a bit. Old wineskins became stiff and more tearing-prone. That was why fermentation of new wine could cause them to burst. In that case, both the wine was spilled and the skins were ruined.

Where else does the Holy Scripture mention wineskins?

We read an interesting story in the Old Testament. Residents of Gibeon came to Joshua to make a peace deal with the Israeli people. Trying to fool the Israelites, they wear old clothes and take old wineskins with them, so that Joshua could believe that they had made a very long journey. They had to do so because God had forbidden the Israelites to make peace with their nearest neighbours (the Canaanites, to which Gibeonites belonged). Israeli elders were fooled, and the residents of Gibeon had their way thanks to this trick. When their trick was discovered, they could not be punished with death because the elders swore to keep them alive. Although Joshua didn’t exterminate the liars, he turned them into slaves: Now therefore ye are cursed, and there shall none of you be freed from being bondmen, and hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God. (cf. Joshua 9:23).

We learn more about the characteristics of the wineskins from the Psalter of King David, For I have become like a wineskin in the smoke, yet do I not forget Thy statutes. (Ps. 119:83). It points at the fact that the leather vessels were blackened with smoke and became very dark. The Psalmist basically uses this image to point out that he has become black from grief.

The Meaning of the Parable of the Old Wineskins

It is especially important to pay attention to the context of this parable. Some disciples of John the Baptist asked Jesus why his disciples didn’t fast. He responded with this parable, thus making it clear through simple images that one cannot lay a serious burden on someone who isn’t ready for it yet. Saint Ignatius Bryanchaninov explains it perfectly, “It is not only sin that is devastating for us. Even good actions can be harmful when we do good at a wrong time or out of measure. Thus, not only hunger but also eating too much food or consuming food, which doesn’t correspond to your age and physical needs, can be bad for your health… The Lord used this parable to emphasise that acts of virtue must by all means correspond to the condition of the actor, or else they will damage the actor and perish, that is, they will be to no avail and will turn out to be harmful for the soul, in contrast to what they were intended for.”

By Ilja Alekseev

Illustrations by Irina Savritskaya

St. Elisabeth Convent

December 6, 2018

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All You Need to Know about Holy Water

Q&A: Can I Divorce and Become a Monk?

Is There a Fate That You Can't Avoid?

Bible Stories: What’s Wrong with Pouring New Wine into Old Wineskins?

What Kind of Music Is Forbidden for Christians?

What Epitimia Is and What We Should Do with It

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