The Catalog of Good Deeds

Just as an authentic icon makes visible for us, the invisible Kingdom of God, so too, authentic Church music makes audible for us the inaudible song of the angels around the throne of God.

And just as an icon of Christ or the Theotokos differs in style from nation to nation, and from one century to the next, so too, a musical setting of a hymn to Christ or to His mother differs in style from nation to nation and from one century to the next.

Because we respect the tradition of the Church, and because we know that no culture or no era stands in isolation from another in Church History, we seek to develop Church art in a living continuity with the past, realizing however, that the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church to which we are united, is not simply the Church of the past, but also of the present and of the future.

Our Patriarch Ignatius IV commenting in his book The Resurrection and Modern Man on the Apocalyptic verse "Behold, I make all things new" emphasizes that God comes into the world from the future. So, too, should our music, and iconography be made new from generation to generation, not in the sense of radical innovation or novelty, but new according to the renewal of the Holy Spirit in the Church. We must trust that the Holy Spirit will reveal the mind of the Church in every generation and in every nation as the faithful apply the great commission not only to the spread of the Orthodox faith in thought, word and deed, but also in Christian art.

Each nation and every generation must be taught and baptized. Every culture must be sanctified, and the effective missionary will find things already existing in the culture to illustrate the universality of the Gospel, just as St. Paul did at the altar of the unknown god (Acts 17:23) and the Russian missionaries with the native culture of Alaska.

In our day and age, music abounds in so many forms. Church music abounds in many forms. Authentic Church music of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church abounds in expressions from other cultures, other nations, and previous generations. We know our roots, and because we live in America, we have to say "roots" and not "root" because we live in the melting pot of the world. Concerning the Church, it is no different. We live in the musical and iconographic melting pot of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.

There are forces at work, however, that would prevent us from baptizing our nation with the whole tradition that has been handed down to us. We have the Bible, the Liturgy, the Councils, the Fathers, the canons and the lives of the saints. All these things have been translated into English, so that we can read, study and worship in our own tongue. To a certain degree, our architecture, music and iconography remain in what might be called "cultural captivity".

Perhaps it is because art, more than any of these other aspects of our holy tradition, expresses our ethnic and nationalistic roots and our love for the fatherland. But what is the true fatherland? Is it not the kingdom of God not of this world, the age to come, the eschaton? It is this kingdom, which demands our ultimate loyalty and the culture of this kingdom, which we are called to preserve and protect.

Authentic Church music is music that helps us to pray, to worship God, to enter the heavenly Holy of Holies. Authentic Church music is Orthodox Church music. But when we say the word "Orthodox" what do we mean? Do we mean Church music that finds its root and expression in certain geographical areas of the world? Is Orthodox Church music limited to that music, which through the centuries has been developed in the great patriarchal, sees of Antioch, Jerusalem, Alexandria, Constantinople, and Rome? Should we add Moscow and Kiev, and throw out Rome because of the great schism? Is Orthodox Church music limited to Byzantine, Russian, Romanian, Serbian, Carpathian and Bulgarian?

How did the music of the Church in Russian become Russian? Since the faith was received from Ss. Cyril and Methodios, its roots are Byzantine, or is it? Are we not aware that the music of today's Church in Russia was heavily influenced under the reign of Peter the Great by the Polish-Ukrainian composers of the 17th Century followed by the Italian-style choral polyphony of the 18th and 19th Centuries?

Is the Byzantine music that we sing today really Byzantine, i.e. from the Byzantine era of the 4th through the 15th Centuries? Are we not aware that the Church music of the See of Constantinople was heavily influenced by the demands of the Turks after the fall of the empire in 1453 AD? Are we aware that the authentic music of the Byzantine Church lost its diatonic character and accepted enharmonic and chromatic intervals during this period of the Turkish yoke? Are we aware that the music of today's churches in the Byzantine tradition throughout the entire Mediterranean region of the world is the result of the codification of these oriental elements by Chrysanthus in the 19th Century and is scarcely 200 years old?

Why is it necessary to point out all these things? Is it to shock us or to scandalize us? Absolutely not. Rather, it is important to note that the Church has always accepted certain cultural adaptations of its music in order to minister to the faithful, to further the spread of the Gospel and to continue to baptize the culture in which it finds itself, and in order to continue living in the renewal of the Holy Spirit in the Church.

Again, it is important to ask, what is "Orthodox" Church music? Is it simply music that is contrasted in its sound and use in worship to Roman Catholic music, Episcopalian music, Baptist music, or Mega Church Music? Are we simply another denomination with our own brand of Church music to be used as a kind of badge or nametag so people know who we are, so that we can simply distinguish (or denominate) ourselves from others who call themselves Christian?

In the 4th Century, St. Ambrose of Milan, whom we commemorate on December 7th, wrote countless hymns in Latin, rhymed and metered in long meter. Are these hymns Orthodox? If we are referring to their theological content and use in true prayer and spiritual ascent in worship, the answer is a resounding YES. If however, we say that they are not Orthodox because he lived in Italy or was a bishop in the See of Rome, we are sadly mistaken.

Rome was Orthodox in the 4th Century and St. Ambrose is our saint, and his writings and hymns belong to the body Patristic literature handed down to us through the ages. Obviously his hymns are not prescribed for us to sing in our services since they are not found in our Typikon or in our hymnals; nevertheless, this example is used to challenge our perspective in terms of how we use the word "Orthodox".

Orthodox music is not defined by its nationalistic culture or geographical origin. Neither is it defined simply in denominational (i.e. prejudicial) terms. The one, holy catholic and apostolic Church is not a denomination.

Orthodox Church music is that music which raises the eyes of our hearts to see the True Light. Orthodox Church music lifts up our hearts to receive the Heavenly Spirit and discover the true faith as we worship the undivided Trinity in the Kingdom of God not of this world. Orthodox Church Music, authentic Church music as such, transcends all cultural and denominational expressions and labels.

Some may negatively assume that such a proposal must necessarily lead to the development of an American Orthodox music, which will sound like Protestant music or the 70's rock and roll Christian music of the baby boomer generation's surfer churches. On the contrary, we are hinting at the development of authentic sacred music for the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church in North America, a music founded on "that which has been delivered to us", but which is also the result of our interaction as Orthodox Christians with the surrounding American culture.

Others may say that western music lacks that "mystical" quality of the eastern musical tradition, which is so important to our worship. We should be reminded once again, however, that Orthodoxy couldn't be defined in geographical terms. The Orthodox Faith and worship is not trapped in its architecture, music or iconography in the eastern hemisphere. If it is trapped, then we need to free it from its bonds.

It is therefore incumbent upon us, here today at this Conference on Missions and Evangelism to struggle with these issues, to humble ourselves before God, to lay down the sword used to attack our own and to raise it up instead, against the Devil. So, who is the Devil? Any person who disagrees with me? Let's hope not. The Devil is the one who would foil our mission to bring America to it's true spiritual home in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church.

We need to band together as a family, as brothers and sisters in Christ for the great challenge ahead of us. We need to encourage those among us whom God has gifted with music to exercise and multiply their talents for the spread of the Gospel in this nation. In order to do this, we need to look at the progress that has already been made, follow in those footsteps, and then forge ahead where the need is felt and the Spirit of God leads.

A path has already been cut by Orthodox American musical pioneers such as the Priest Michael G.H. Gelsinger, Professor Michael Hilko, the Archpriest James Meena, Frederick Karam, Basil Kazan, Raymond George, the Archpriest Antony Bassoline, the priest Sergei Glagolev, the priests Vladimir and Igor Soroka. These and many others have taken English translations of our hymns and set them to traditional old country melodies, transposed the Byzantine notation into western musical notation, (i.e., five lines and four spaces) and harmonized Byzantine melodies. Some composers have even produced new melodies that do not belong to any 8-tone system, but are somehow reminiscent of the long-standing "Church sound", i.e., the sound of heaven.

So, where do we go from here? This question is being posed fundamentally to the composers and arrangers of music for the Church. What is the next step? The answer that came to me from Fr. John Namie of blessed memory will surprise you. He said to me, "Fast and pray. If you fast and pray, just as the iconographer fasts and prays before he or she produces an icon, you will produce music that we can use to pray."

So, we must become spiritual musicians, a holy people, and a people after God's own heart. The King of Rock and the King of Pop will not likely produce the music for our prayer, but musicians who pray will produce music for prayer.

Our objective is not to save our kids with musical cultural relevancy, although we want our kids to be saved. But children respond to spiritual authenticity and repel hypocrisy. If we as musicians don't pray, if our only experience of church is Sunday Divine Liturgy, if we don't understand the liturgical cycles and structure of the services Vespers, Matins, Holy Week, major feasts and such, we may produce American music for the Church, but will it be Orthodox sacred music for prayer in America?

In addition, we need to continue working on the translations of our texts into English, and improve on existing ones. We should continue the work of transcribing Byzantine notation into modern western linear notation and adopt modern western scale intervals. We need to simplify the melodies in connection with the texts and encourage congregational participation. We should encourage the harmonization of the melodies. I have heard it said that the great musical contribution of the East is its melodies and the great contribution of the West is its development of harmony. What better place than America to bring these two great traditions together to form something uniquely American in terms of Orthodox Music? This, of course, has already been done in Russia, and will undoubtedly be a powerful influence on what is done in America in this area of musical development.

Finally, we need to work on a blend of musical renderings by clergy, cantors, choir and congregation, but not exclusively any one of these. The congregation should sing the responses, acclamations, and dialogues, but the fixed and variable sung hymnody and psalmody should include this blend described above.

In conclusion, I would like to thank the Department of Missions and Evangelism and the Department of Sacred Music of the Antiochian Archdiocese of North America for sponsoring this weekend entitled The Gospel in Song: Music, Missions and Evangelism. My prayer today, is that the leadership of these departments will rediscover that artistic path which has already been cut for us, and organize the construction of a musical, architectural and iconographic superhighway that will allow all Americans seeking the true faith, to make their journey home to the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. Amen.

An article by Rev. John Finley

Source: http://antiochian.org/node/22682

“A wild animal is kinder than the wild-souled atheists”.

Metropolitan Peter of Krutitsa (in the world, Peter Feodorovich Polyansky) was born in 1863. In 1920 he was Consecrated Bishop. In the will of the most saintly Patriarch Tikhon, he was designated as one of the three Hierarchs who were in turn to become Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne after his repose. On 12 April 1925, Metropolitan Peter assumed the governance of the Russian Church, which was being put through terrible hardships by the atheists.

From the very first, Metropolitan Peter made no concessions to the Soviet State. After several months, on 10 December of the same year, he was imprisoned and was successively sent to prisons in Vyatka, Perm, Ekaterinburg, Tiumen, and Tobolsk (in Siberia).

From there, they exiled him to the village of Khe, near the Ob River, two hundred kilometers from Obdorsk.

According to Metropolitan Peter’s own account, which we know from many sources, one night he was inhumanly thrown off the train Metropolitan Peter and Patriarch Tikhon conveying him to Tobolsk. It is known that many Bishops and Priests died in this manner. The Metropolitan fell on the snow as if onto a pillow. He got up and looked around: snow, forest, not a sign of life.... He walked a long while through the snow and finally grew tired. The bitter cold pierced his bones. He was wearing only an old exorason [outer cassock—Trans.]. Understanding that his end was approaching, he began to pray more intensely before he should die....

Suddenly, he saw an enormous bear approaching him! What was it doing there, seeing as how those animals sleep all winter long, and when for some reason they do wake up, they become terribly wild, aggressive and dangerous to people? Aghast at the thought that he would be devoured, the Metropolitan did not have the strength in his weariness and exhaustion to flee.

The bear approached, sniffed him, and peacefully lay down at his feet, coiled up with his belly towards the Metropolitan, and, having stretched out, began to snore! From his massive body emanated heat and life!

The Metropolitan hesitated a bit, but then lay down on the bear’s fur, changing sides a number of times towards her. At daybreak, he heard a distant cock-crow, something which signified an inhabited area! Then, with great care not to wake the bear, he got up. But the bear, as if it had not slept at all, got up, shook himself, and calmly headed towards the forest!

In a short while, the Metropolitan reached a small village in which he sought hospitality, saying that his sister, who lived not far from there, would pay the expenses. He was received in a house where he lived for half a year. He wrote to his sister and she came to the village. But, shortly after, some other “politicians” arrived—that is, agents of the secret police, the fearsome “Cheka” (precursor of the KGB).

Twelve years of inconceivable tortures followed: imprisonments, punishments, and exiles to the frozen, Northern Arctic regions. Dozens of times, the Soviets offered him the “opportunity” to abandon his Confession and to work together with them, with the office of Locum Tenens, or even the Patriarchal Throne as bait; but Metropolitan Peter remained faithful to our Holy Church.

He was executed on 10 October 1937 in Magnitogorsk for the Faith and love of Christ, without, of course, having seen earthly freedom, but having been vouchsafed that holy Freedom that is granted by the Divine Comforter to the children of God, in Christ and in His Church. Amen!

Source: http://www.hsir.org/Theology_en/E3d5023NMPetr.pdf

How many times has someone you are talking to and whom you hardly know, labeled you a ‘friend?’ Or how many times have you been talking about someone with whom you have casual familiarity and said: “Oh! My friend, so and so, ..” etc? I think if we were to count all those whom we know or interact with whom we call ‘friends,’ most of the world would be one happy group of ‘friends.’

However, consider the words of Jesus: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (Jn 15: 12-13).

Psychologist Abraham Maslow, (1970) wrote that the feature of such love is a “profound interpersonal” relationship. He indicates that such a relationship “is not a matter of moment,” “demands a good deal of time,” which implies the “circle of [true] friends is relatively small.” War veterans would also add their understanding of the depth of the lasting, true friendship of comrades-in-arms who literally place themselves in the line of fire, allowing their lives to be laid out for their companions.

Thousands of years before psychological observation, the intense, committed depth of true friendship was perceived by Solomon, the writer of Proverbs (18:24): “There are friends who pretend to be friends, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” King Solomon also notes the consequences of false friendship: “Wealth brings many new friends, but a poor man is deserted by his friend.” (Pv 19:4)

The spiritual fathers of the Eastern Church understood well the implications of the precept of Jesus and the adages of Solomon. Evagrios the Solitary (345-399 AD) writes: “The friends that you do have should be of benefit to you and contribute to your way of life. Avoid associating with crafty aggressive people ….Let your friends be men of peace, spiritual brethren, ….” (Philokalia I) Another Eastern monk makes the requirements of friendship much more clear. St. Maximus the Confessor (580-662 AD) tells us: “A true friend is one who in times of trial calmly and imperturbably suffers with his neighbor the ensuing afflictions, privations and disasters as if they were his own.” (Philokalia II) The good saint continues: “’A faithful friend is beyond price’ (Ecclus 6:15), since he regards his friend’s misfortunes as his own and suffers with him, sharing his trials until death. Friends are many, but in times of prosperity. (cf. Pv. 19:4). In times of adversity you will have difficulty finding even one.” (Philokalia II) “’A faithful friend is a strong defense’ (Ecclus 6:14); for when things are going well with you, he is a good counselor and a sympathetic collaborator, while when things are going badly, he is the truest of helpers and a most compassionate supporter.” St. Maximus the Confessor, (Philokalia II).

The lesson for us is to reflect on determining who are our real friends and to be truly committed and devoted to them. Non-hypocritically, we should also realize that most individuals we know are acquaintances. However, someone being an acquaintance does not let us off the ‘loving-helping hook.’ (Morelli, 2006). We can recall another precept of Jesus: “So whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them.” (Mt 7: 12). At the very least: “…pray for those who persecute you.” (Mt 5: 44). We have a modern witness of such radical love who eschewed the conventional boundaries of class and politics. The biographer (Alexander, 1998) of a modern saint, Fr. Arseny, an Orthodox priest banished into a Soviet gulag, recounts that upon seeing in spiritual visions the humanity of his fellow prisoners -- some political, some brutal thieves and murderers, some prison officials and guards who tortured him in Soviet labor camps --he prayed: "O Lord, O my Lord! Do not leave them. Help them; save them!"

An article by Fr. George Morelli

Source: http://antiochian.org/node/19981

Among all the Apostles, the title “Theologian” is only bestowed upon St John, which attests to the spiritual heights to which he attained, and the depth of the heavenly wisdom he was granted. The author of the profound Fourth Gospel and the witness of Divine Revelation, it is to this Saint that the contemplative mystics of later centuries looked to as a model of Faith and Prayer. It is the icon of St John the Theologian “in Silence” (Rus:Иоанна Богослова “в молчании”) that best depicts this ideal Theologian.

Various icons of St John in Silence appeared in Russia from the 16th century onwards. John was the only Apostle not to have been martyred, and lived a good seventy years after Christ’s death, Resurrection, and Ascension into Heaven. It was towards the end of his life that St John wrote his Gospel, which explains why it is so different in layout to the other three, and why it concentrates less on the chronological events of Jesus’ life, which were already well-known, but concentrates on the spiritual meaning behind them.

The icon shows the Apostle John in these latter years, as the elder “Theologian”. In his hands he holds the Gospel, with the words: “In the beginning…” (John 1:1). To his left, an angel is shown whispering the Gospel into John’s ear, yet the Apostle does not look to him, but casts his eyes down in contemplation. The Saint’s right hand is raised up, making the sign of the cross over his mouth, guarding it lest he were to say something from his own imagination: the great Evangelist is reduced to silence.

The inspiration for the image could be the words of John himself when he writes: And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen. (John 21:25).

Yet there is something else. St John’s pose here resonates with the 4th century monastic saint Evagrius Ponticus’ words on prayer: “Do not cherish the desire to see sensibly angels or powers or even Christ lest you be led completely out of your wits, and taking a wolf for your shepherd, come to adore the demons who are your enemies.”. He also writes: “Keep your eyes lowered while you are praying. Deny your flesh and your desires and live according to the spirit.”

And perhaps St Evagrius’ most famous line: “If you are a theologian you truly pray. If you truly pray you are a theologian.”

The Apostle John, then, is shown as a true Theologian: in prayer, and specifically in silent, contemplative prayer.

During the late 14th century, the silent, contemplative, prayer of the Athonite monks (called: Hesychasm) came under attack from within the Church by those who believed such prayer was a waste of time, time which would be better spent in gaining intellectual knowledge of the Divine. The hesychasts, with St Gregory Palamas as their champion, successfully defended their way of life. It may be that icons of St John the Theologian “in Silence” made their way to Russia by the 15th and 16th centuries as a result, and found a home among the monasteries of the Northern wilderness where such contemplative prayer was also practiced.

Already a lot of words have been spent on describing an icon which shows the Great Theologian in Silence; better to end here with the final words the Apostle himself, this beloved friend of Christ:

When he was dying, his disciples asked him for a final counsel to keep with them. “My children,” he said, “Love one another,” and then repeated it again. “Is that all?” he was asked. “That’s enough,” John said, “because it is the covenant of the Lord.”

Source: https://iconreader.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/john-the-apostle-the-theologian-in-silence/

“So, you’re Christian…What type of Christian are you?” I overheard the conversation of some high-school-aged people sitting next to me.

“Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, Catholic?” he questioned the girl sitting next to him.

“I’m not really anything. I’m just Christian,” she answered back.

He forgot to mention “Orthodox Christian,” I thought to myself. Did he know about Orthodox Christianity? I didn’t feel like speaking up or barging into the conversation. But something kept tugging at me. I will admit, at that moment, I didn’t want to be the voice for Orthodoxy. I just wanted to be in the background.

But I said it anyway.

“You know, there’s also Orthodox Christian.”

“Oh yeah. That’s right. I’ve heard about them,” he said. “It’s like Catholic, right?”

“It’s more traditional, like Catholic. But it’s the original Christian church, the one all the other Christian churches came out of.”

“Oh, that’s cool.”

“I’m actually Orthodox Christian,” I said.

This was totally out of my comfort zone, but I felt the need to plant a seed. Not in a know-it-all, holier-than-thou way, but as a laid-back invitation. My hope was that someone would think, “Hmmm…I’ve heard about the Orthodox church. What is that all about anyway?”

And who knows? Maybe one month down the road, maybe ten years later, they might walk into an Orthodox church and experience it for the first time. And maybe, they might choose to stay.

It drives me nuts how much misinformation is out there about Orthodoxy. I can’t even count how many times I’ve been asked:

“Do I have to be Greek to go to your church?”

Of course, I always say, “No,” and I explain the roots of the church and the Greek influence.

A few months ago, I took my children to an ice cream shop. Noticing that they were playing Christian music, I commented to the teenagers who rang up my order.

“I like that you guys are playing Christian music. You don’t see that very often.”

“Oh yeah. The owners are Christian,” the young woman behind the register said. “Do you guys go to

church around here?”

“Yes, we do,” I said, and told her we attended an Orthodox Christian church.

“Orthodox Christian? I’ve never heard of that,” she said.

“It’s basically the early Christian church, way back from the times of the Apostles,” I said.

“Oh. That’s interesting. The early church. Cool.”

It’s so crazy to think that so many people still don’t know about Orthodoxy, or they think it’s only a church for certain ethnic groups.

The way I see it, it takes each Orthodox Christian going out there into the world and living their lives as examples, sharing the treasure of our faith. If we do our best to be loving, caring Orthodox Christians, contributing to our communities, people will start to put a face to the words “Orthodox Christianity.” They will begin to see it as real, not ancient buried history. And for those who have had bad experiences with Orthodoxy, or are ignorant, maybe we can be the change that softens their heart.

What are you doing to put a face to your Orthodox Christianity? Go out there and plant the seeds!

By Christina Pessemier in The Sounding Blog

Source: http://myocn.net/you-are-the-face-of-orthodox-christianity/

"The feast day of this great apostle and evangelist is celebrated on September 26. This day (May 8) commemorates the miracle which appeared at his grave. When John was over one hundred years old, he took seven of his disciples, went outside the town of Ephesus and ordered them to dig a grave in the form of a cross. After that, the elder went down into this grave and was buried. Later on, when the faithful opened John's grave, they did not find his body. On May 8 of every year, dust [also called 'manna'] is raised from his grave from which the sick are healed of various diseases."

St. Nikolai Velimirovich

Each year, for about a thousand years, from the grave of the holy Apostle John on May 8th, there came forth a fine ash-dust, which believers called "manna", and gathered it up after an All-Night Vigil and were healed of sicknesses by it. Therefore the Church celebrates the memory of the Apostle John the Theologian still on May 8 to commemorate this annual miracle, even though his main feast is on September 26.

Many pilgrims of medieval times made note of this extraordinary annual miracle. Both Augustine and Gregory of Tours make reference to it. Anglo-Saxon Willibald, later a bishop and a saint, visited Ephesus in 724 and marveled at the miracle of the manna that bubbled from the tomb of the Apostle. Symeon Metaphrastes in the tenth century writes of the festival on May 8th being of such great magnitude that it seemed there were more people in attendance to take part in the miracle and receive a portion of its distribution than there were stars in the sky. For the unhappy Metropolitan George Tornikes (1155–56), the tomb with its inexhaustible dust was his sole consolation for having to live in what he considered a barbarous place with a dilapidated church.

Abbot Daniel, a Russian pilgrim of the early 12th century, visited the Basilica of St. John that was built over his tomb, and described the feast celebrated on May 8th as well as the shrines and relics surrounding the area:

"It is 60 versts from the isle of Chios to Ephesus; and at this latter place is seen the tomb of St. John the Evangelist. On the anniversary of his death, holy dust rises from this tomb, which believers gather as a remedy against every kind of disease; the garment which John wore is also here. Quite near is the cave in which rest the bodies of the Seven Sleepers who slept for 360 years, having fallen asleep in the reign of the Emperor Decius, and awakened in the time of the Emperor Theodosius. In this same cavern are the (remains of the) three hundred Holy Fathers and of St. Alexander; the tomb of Mary Magdalene is also here, as well as her head; and the holy Apostle Timothy, the disciple of St. Paul, reposes in his ancient coffin. In the old church the picture of the Holy Virgin is preserved; it was with this that the holy (fathers) refuted the heretic Nestorius. Here, too, one sees the Bath of Dioscorides, where St. John the Evangelist labored with Prochorus in the house of Romana. We saw, also, the harbor, named the 'Marble Port', where St. John the Evangelist was cast up by the sea."

According to one author, the most elaborate description of the miracle dates to 1304 by Catalan Muntaner who arrived in a mercenary force:

"On Saint Stephen’s day, every year, at the hour of Vespers, it comes out of the tomb (which is four-cornered and stands at the foot of the altar and has a beautiful marble slab on the top, full twelve palms long and five broad), and in the middle of the slab there are nine very small holes, and out of these holes, as Vespers are being sung on St. Stephen’s day, (on which day the Vespers are of St. John), manna like sand comes out of each hole and rises a full palm high from the slab, as a jet of water rises up. And this manna issues out . . . and it lasts all night and then all Saint John’s day until sunset. There is so much of this manna, by the time the sun has set and it has ceased to issue out, that, altogether, there are of it full three cuarteras of Barcelona [about 120 quarts]. And this manna is marvelously good for many things; for instance he who drinks it when he feels fever coming on will never have fever again. Also, if a lady is in travail and cannot bring forth, if she drinks it with water or with wine, she will be delivered at once. And again, if there is a storm at sea and some of the manna is thrown in the sea three times in the name of the Holy Trinity and Our Lady Saint Mary and the Blessed Saint John the Evangelist, at once the storm ceases. And again, he who suffers from gall stones, and drinks it in the said names, recovers at once. And some of this manna is given to all pilgrims who come there; but it only appears once a year."

Regarding the Basilica of St. John the Theologian built by the Emperor Justinian, originally it had been in a cruciform shape with six massive domes. More recently they have uncovered a baptistry and and a small chapel to the side. The tomb of the Apostle is today exposed to the elements, but originally it was located under the main central dome of the church. Unfortunately three relics which were still in the church during Ottoman times are now lost to us - a piece of the True Cross worn by the Apostle John around his neck, a garment of the Apostle made by the Theotokos, and most significantly for biblical scholarship today was the original manuscript of the Apocalypse (Book of Revelation) which was authored by this apostle. Today the Basilica is in ruins.

Source: johnsanidopoulos.com/2010/05/manna-of-saint-john-theologian.html

Question: What are we to make of passages of Scripture in the Old Testament in which God commanded the Israelites to slaughter entire cities or tribes, including the women and children? How do we square such a vengeful God with the merciful God we find in the New Testament?

Answer: This is a question that is often raised by atheists to attack the Christian Faith, but it is also raised by sincere laymen who are unsure of how we should understand these passages. To answer the question requires that we consider several issues, and not look at the question in a superficial way.

What is interesting is that people do not generally raise moral objections to the flood in the days of Noah, even though every man, woman, and child, except Noah's family, was drowned. Nor do they raise moral objections to the fact that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even though women and children were no doubt killed. And no one raises moral objections when the Scriptures talk about God sending other nations to destroy the Israelites, even though men, women, and children were killed as a result.

The problem we have with God telling the Israelites to kill women and children is that we live in a rationalistic age, and people are not so sure God really talked to people like Joshua. Also, we don't want folks to go around killing people because they claim God told them to do it. But if God could wipe out a city with fire and brimstone, there's no reason why He couldn't do it via the Israelites if that was indeed His choice. And so if He did indeed tell the Israelites to utterly destroy a city, He had the sovereign right to do so, and the people of Israel, who had seen so many miracles worked by God had every reason to believe that God was speaking to them through, Joshua, and later through their Judges. The Church has not taken this as a precedence, but has seen it as something of literal application only to that specific time and place. The applications we can make from these passages today would be primarily of an allegorical nature, from a patristic perspective.

Another thing that we should keep in mind is that, if you really believe in God and in the afterlife, death is not the worst fate that could befall someone. Far worse than physical death is spiritual death, and it was for the salvation of future generations that these things were commanded. Death is a punishment for sin, but it is also a mercy in that it puts limits on the evil men may do, and also gives them cause to repent and turn to God. God sometimes allows people to die young in order that they might be spared worse things that would come their way. For example, the wicked king Jeroboam’s son was allowed to die at a very early age, “because in him there is found something good toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam,” and so of the house of Jeroboam, only this child died in peace, and was properly buried. And no doubt, in his early death he was also spared the evil influence of his family (1 Kings 14:13).

God judges nations in history. Nations do not have an afterlife in which they can receive punishment or reward. God dispenses His justice upon nations in history, and so this justice by its very nature is dispensed collectively. If a nation is wicked, it will suffer the fruits of that wickedness, and unfortunately that means even the youngest children in that nation reap the bitter harvest sown by their parents. Our culture is very individualistic, but in Scripture, we find a view of the human race that sees us as having a corporate personality as well as being individuals. We are ultimately judged as individuals in eternity, but in this life we are not just individuals... we are part of families, tribes, and nations. If our forefathers make wise decisions, we reap benefits that are not due to our individual choices or merit. If our forefathers make wicked decisions, we also reap what they have sown. This is why you find people in Scripture not only repenting of their own sins, but of those of their forefathers. Of course if we come from a line of unbelievers, we can make the decision to embrace the Gospel and change the future for our descendants for the better. Is it “fair” that a child who is born in a Christian home hears the Gospel, and is more likely to grow up as a Christian than a child born to an unbeliever? Is it fair that a child born to a drug addict will grow up facing challenges that other children do not? If you look at this with a purely individualistic mindset, it might seem unfair, but the Biblical worldview is that we are not islands unto ourselves. We are not just souls who had the misfortune or fortune to be born to a particular set of parents, but we are their offspring, and are connected to them on a deeper level. Adam and Eve’s choice to sin has affected all of their offspring – we were not consulted before they made their decision, and yet we have suffered the effects of their decision. However we have been given the option of placing ourselves under a new head, and aligning ourselves with a new Adam – Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:20-49), and so we can change the future for our offspring for the better, though they have not been consulted either.

The other thing that has to be kept in mind is that the level of civilization at the time, made things like internment camps impossible. If the Israelites were going to spare the children, they would have had to have spared the mothers, and unless they were going to marry the mothers or keep them as slaves, they would have needed to spare the men also. But the Canaanites were an incredibly evil people who engaged in ritual prostitution and child sacrifice, and so leaving Canaanite culture in their midst would prove to be a snare to the Israelites, who were like children spiritually, and more likely to be influenced by the Canaanites than to be able to convert them to a better way of living and thinking. It was God’s intention that the Canaanite culture be wiped out, and that could not be accomplished if the adults of the Canaanites were spared. Even the pagan Romans were shocked by the evils of the Carthaginian culture, which was Phoenician colony, that shared the same religion as that of the Canaanites – which is why their battle cry was "Carthago delenda est!" (Carthage must be destroyed!).

But the fact is, the Israelites did not obey God. They did not kill all the Canaanites, and in fact the Canaanites and their culture were a thorn in their side that continually led them astray up until the time that God finally sent the Babylonians to destroy Jerusalem, and to take the people into exile. When Israelite farmers had Canaanites telling them that if they wanted their crops to grow, they had to make Baal happy, they repeatedly gave in to the temptation to cover all the bases, and engage in the ritual prostitution and child sacrifice that the Canaanites believed were the only sure way to ensure good harvests. As it says in Psalm 105 (106):34-39: "They did not destroy the heathen, concerning which the Lord had spoken to them. They mingled among the nations and learned their works; and they served their graven things, and it became for them a stumbling-block. And they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto demons. And they poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the graven things of Canaan. And the land was befouled with the blood of murder, and it was defiled with their works; and they went a whoring with their own inventions."

It was only after this experience of the exile that the Jews matured spiritually enough that they would never again be tempted into idolatry by their neighbors, though they often lived in a diaspora, in which they were a small minority surrounded by a pagan majority. Having the fullness of Gospel, we are better able to resist the temptations that come with being surrounded by evil people, and in fact, we are called to bring the Gospel to those wicked people, and to change the spiritual climate by the power of the Gospel, and not by the sword, as before, in the Old Testament.

What is perhaps most ironic about this issue is that the atheists that point to these passages to argue against Christianity are appealing to a Christian sense of morality, love, and mercy, in order to be outraged. But the fact is, as Dostoyevsky pointed out, if there is no God, all things are lawful. If there is no God, the slaughter of innocent children is of no more moral significance than when a colony of ants is washed away in a flood. There is no moral standard that one can appeal to. There is only power, and those who have the will to use it. And in fact, if you want to see the worst and most monstrous examples of the brutal slaughter of innocents by the millions, no one has surpassed brutality of militant atheism in the Soviet Union, Communist China, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, etc.

The only moral standard that can have any real meaning is one based on what God has revealed. God has revealed the most excellent way of the Gospel to us, and that is the standard we live by now. God, who is the giver of life, does not have to answer to us when He chooses to take it. We know that He is Love, and we know that He is Holy. We know that He always seeks the salvation of men, but we also know that He punishes the wicked, and places limits on their wickedness by His judgments, and that “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether” (Psalm 18(19):9).

None of this means that we should read these accounts and feel no sense of grief over what happened. In fact, we have an entire book of the Bible that is called "Lamentations", and it was written by the Prophet Jeremiah, who prophesied that the judgment of God would fall on the Kingdom of Judah, and he lived to see it come to pass. And this book is a lament over the fulfillment of Jeremiah's prophesy, because the people did not listen before it was too late. Obviously, he knew that the judgment of God was just, but he nevertheless wrote:

"Oh, that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!" (Jeremiah 9:1).

"My eyes fail with tears, my heart is troubled; my bile is poured on the ground because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because the children and the infants faint in the streets of the city" (Lamentations 2:11).

"The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword; Thou hast slain them in the day of Thine anger; Thou hast killed, and not pitied" (Lamentations 2:21).

But even in the midst of the Prophet Jeremiah's lament over the destruction of his people, he also confesses:

"But though He cause grief, yet will He have compassion according to the multitude of His mercies. For He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men" (Lamentations 3:32-33).

We should grieve over such destruction, but we should grieve for the right reason – not because God wished to destroy the Canaanites for some arbitrary reason, and that this was unjust of Him; but rather because sin and rebellion against God inevitably lead to such horrible ends as this.

It should also be pointed out that one finds a great deal of God's mercy revealed in the Old Testament, and one finds a great deal of God's wrath revealed in the New Testament. There was a heresy in the early Church called "Marcionism" and this heresy taught that the God of the Old Testament was not the same as the God of the New Testament, and so Marcion, the heresy's founder, rejected all of the Old Testament, but also much of the New Testament – he only accepted the Gospel of Luke and 10 of St. Paul's epistles, but he also edited those books he did accept in order to come up with a version of Scripture that matched his views. But the Church decisively condemned Marcionism as a heresy, and so the God of the Old Testament is the same God that we find in the New. He find God more fully revealed in the New Testament, but rejecting what we find in the Old is heretical.

Finally, it is a tempting approach to this problem to simply say “Those Israelites were primitive people, and God wouldn’t have really said those things.” However, if you say that about the passages in which God commanded the Israelites to kill all of the Canaanites, there is no reason why someone else could not come along and apply the same logic to the question of sodomy, for example, and say “Those Israelites were primitive people, and God wouldn’t have really said those things.” In fact, once you go down that road, there’s no reason why you couldn’t dismiss just about anything in Scripture that you may happen to not like. However, if we believe, as the Church always has, that the Scriptures are fully inspired, this solution to this question is unacceptable.

Source: http://fatherjohn.blogspot.com.by/2013/06/stump-priest-what-about-violence-in-old.html

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