The Catalog of Good Deeds

It all began with our forefathers, Adam and Eve. They received a commandment in paradise not to taste of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (cf. 2:17). The commandment not to “taste of this or that” is quite well known to any Orthodox Christian. This is the commandment to fast—the most ancient, beginning factor of family life.

As we know, the first family was tempted by satan, the forefather of all evil. That envier could not calmly watch their happy life. Adam and Eve broke the commandment of not eating. The Lord called them to account. Then they tried to place their own blame on someone else, as if they were not guilty at all. Not only that, but Adam blamed his wife, who, as he emphasized, he had received from God. That is how the fall into sin happened, and people did not repent of what they had done. The Lord deprived them of paradise, and gave them a penance.

Let us briefly recall the words of that penance from God. The wife was told: I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee (Gen. 3:16). To the husband, the Lord said, In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return (Gen. 3:19).

Sorrows entered the life of human beings. Steadfast endurance of sorrows is an important part of asceticism.

Our task is to remember that sorrows came as the result of sins. We have to bear them without anger, without murmuring against God. It is painful to be sick, painful to die (to return to dust). This feeling of sorrow must be melted in repentance. Then those oppressive thoughts of death can become exalted; they can become the remembrance of death.

After the fall, Adam not only had to work—he had to work hard. That is how it was in his life, and that is how it is in ours. Every man has to think about how he will feed himself and his family. He must at times do work that is both hard and dreary.

Archimandrite Sergei (Shevich) often found that his parishioners were sometimes weighed down by the work that they had to do every day. Fr. Sergei pointed out to them that work for a married person is the same as an obedience for a monk. As we know, monks do not choose their obedience according to their own taste. The monastic does whatever he has been given the blessing to do. Be it unattractive and boring, obedience nevertheless accustoms a monk to cutting off his own will, and, accordingly, to do the will of God. For Adam and his descendants, God’s will is to live after the fall under non-paradisal conditions, not to complain about this, and to repent. They should also hope in God, Who leads people to His Kingdom.

For a woman, a time of particular trial is pregnancy. She has to think more about her child than about herself, to pay special attention to her own health, keep to a regime, and, perhaps leave a lucrative job for the sake of her child—to give up her planned career growth. This is her ascesis of self-restraint. This is not to mention the pain of childbirth, and the uninterrupted care and fuss over the newborn.

The infant’s parents have to deny themselves basic rest, and are sleep deprived. They worry about their little one, and pray during anxious times for their child’s well-being: “Lord, You know all things, and Your love is perfect. Take the soul of (name), and do what I wish to do, but cannot.”

And if the child was born handicapped… What faith in God’s Providence is needed in order to bear that heavy cross!

Almost immediately after the birth of a child a great labor begins—raising the child. Even if we take the non-religious side of the matter, we know that we cannot get by without God’s help. Fr. Gleb Kaleda was right when he insisted that the foundation of upbringing and education is placed in the family, while school and college serve only to supplement what has been done in the family. The supplement is important, but it only enhances the main thing.

Often we see that in school children are required to memorize information, but taught very little about how to think for themselves. Even less are they taught morals. What should be done in this case? The family can make up for the inadequacies of an impersonal and commercial education and upbringing—that is if the parents seriously take care of their child, and not only of his physical needs, but also his emotional needs. All this takes many patient years.

Parents are also called to care for the spiritual needs of their child. It would be good to teach the small child to pray (in the majority of schools and universities, he will not be taught to pray to God). But to do this the parents themselves need to know how to pray attentively, to understand the language of prayer, and to accessibly explain the essence of the church services to their child. As the child grows to school age, he should be prepared for his first confession. How can parents explain to him what sin is, and why he needs to tell the priest about his sins. Here one’s personal example is needed, the parents’ personal efforts on the spiritual path. If the mother takes the child to Communion but does not herself approach the chalice or go to confession, if the father goes only rarely to church, then it will be pretty hard to convince the child that all of us need the Church Sacraments.

In the home where there is no understanding of breakfast, lunch, and dinner, where everyone eats whenever they want (and even when they don’t want), it is hard for a child to assimilate the concept of fasting. “You can’t lead children to fasting if they are allowed to eat whenever they like, if they are allowed to run through the house with a piece of bread and sausage or a biscuit. Regularity of food intake is, if you will, the beginning of Christian ascesis… Through prayer before a meal a person learns to begin everything with prayer. If there are visitors in the house and it is not possible to pray in front of them, it is important that all members of the family cross themselves if only mentally… It is necessary to cultivate both the obvious and secret forms of everyday Christian life,” Fr. Gleb Kaleda used to say. Domestic life can become a good support for spiritual life, but it can also become a profound obstruction.

***

The passion of self-love stands out as the family’s worst enemy. Egoism is a dangerous enemy.

When a married couple does not want to yield to each other in anything, each morbidly guarding his or her own pride; if each continually counts the times that he or she did something for the family, then that family will little-by-little fall apart. If couples easily give place to anger, argue over trifles, and cannot peacefully live with each other’s close relatives, then they themselves feel wretched, and their children absorb their bad example. How hard it is to bring up children by our own example!

True ascetic labor is required of parents in order not to consign their children to the education of television, internet groups, or the streets. That is on the one hand; on the other hand, children must not be tortured with excess care. After all, super-care leads to infantilism, introversion, and sometimes even rebellion against parents.

The family is a school of love.

All Christian ascesis is directed toward acquiring love. Christ the Savior boiled down all the commandments to two: love of God and love of neighbor. St. Theophan the Recluse compares love to fire: if we do not throw logs on the fire it will go out; if love between husband and wife is not stoked with deeds of love, it will eventually die out. And what are these deeds of love? They are the deeds of basic care one for the other, obvious and unobvious signs of attention. They are the ability during arguments to overcome outbreaks of anger and to be the first to come and make peace. They are the ability to take your egotistical inclinations in hand, to correct your actions, always thinking to yourself “I am not the only one.”

Fr. Gleb Kaleda wrote very well and in detail in his book about the ascetical life in a family, The House Church. His book is firmly supported by Orthodox tradition that has gone down through the ages, but he does not close his eyes on the particulars of Christian life in our complex times.

By Deacon Pavel Serzhantov

Source: http://orthochristian.com/64414.html

I grew up in Binghamton, New York, in a parish where the church was the center of my life. I served as an altar boy and went to the Church School, which was huge! We had a teenage Bible Study group; the church had a basketball team (which I was not very good at). I ran the parish library. We had altar boy practice every Saturday – we sang the Liturgy and learned about serving the services – there were as many as 36 altar boys at a time! So, almost every weekend, I was in church for Saturday Liturgy, Vespers, Matins, and Sunday Liturgy… plus holy days, baptisms, weddings, funerals and everything else that came with life in the Church.

After high school, I went to college nearby and lived at home. I never had the problem of wondering, “What do I do when I’m on my own?” I worked out my class schedule so I could be at the Liturgy during the week when there was one. Church was the place to be.

I loved being in church, and I loved what I was doing in church – especially serving in the Altar and learning about the Faith. So it was only logical for me to want to become an imitation of my parish priest, Fr. Stephen Dutko of blessed memory, so that I could have, and give, that same kind of experience. I wanted to be like Father Stephen.

And so I did. I went to seminary right after college. I got married and ordained at 22 years old. I was assigned to my first parish, Saints Peter and Paul Church in Homer City, PA, and I was raring to go.

Then it all changed. After 29 days of marriage, my wife and I were in a car accident. She was killed instantly. I was in the hospital – in a coma. I came out months later, confused and bitter, guilt ridden and doubting. I was feeling all those kinds of things that a person would feel in that horrific situation. Why did God let this happen? It had to be somebody’s fault. All the confusion, all the anger, definitely made me think about not being a priest anymore.

However, I couldn’t conceive of not serving at the Altar. I could not conceive of living my life outside of that experience that I had had all those years. I just could not imagine that.

So, rather than walk away from the Church, I did what I really needed to do – and what I have counseled so many people, of all ages from the youngest to the oldest, to do when we have these terrible, tragic experiences. And that is to draw closer to Christ in the face of pain and agony and loss. When I did that, it was not just an inner, “me and Jesus” kind of experience. The Lord came to me, and began to heal me through the faces, the words, the embraces, the love of His people: the Church.

My spiritual father was one of them. He was tough on me. He told me, “Your faith just has to kick in.” One of the questions I raised was, “Where was God when all this happened?” And he said, “He was in the same place the day that Debbie died that He was on Great and Holy Friday, when His Son died.” He told me that even though that particular Tuesday when we had the accident might have been a Good Friday to me… still, Good Friday is not the end of the story… Pascha is. He reminded me that Christ triumphed over death – and I had to believe that my wife was a sharer in that victory and in the Resurrection.

So, I never left the Church. I never walked away from the priesthood. My first parish as a priest became a replica of what I had experienced in my home parish as a young person… and those people who I served as a young widowed priest helped me nurse back to spiritual health – as well as me helping them in their dark moments and in their difficulties. It wasn’t just me, as their priest, taking care of them. Guided by God, as His family, we cared for each other.

A famous Christian writer named Tertullian, who lived less than 200 years after Jesus, wrote that “A Christian alone is no Christian.” He meant that no one is saved alone… it takes the Church to save a soul. Whenever I look back on that incredibly painful time in my life, I am more and more deeply convinced that I never would have survived – not spiritually, and maybe not literally – without the Church. I do not mean just the Church as a building, although that is the place where we meet and pray and even play together. I mean, the Church as a community; the constant presence of the people of God – my spiritual father, my parishioners, my brother priests and their families, with all of the guidance, the prayers and the love that they have to share.

Even though my hope for you who read this is that you never have to go through what I went through, I pray that somehow, whenever you do experience difficulties, doubts, and obstacles, by God’s grace, your faith will “kick in.” I pray that you will seek, and find, the healing and the love that Our Lord offers us in the faces, the embraces, and the prayers of others — the love of Christ Jesus, shown within the community of His Church.

One of my favorite quotes in the Bible is from St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, in which he asks the question, “What can separate us from the love of Christ?” (Rom. 8:35). And he answers that neither height nor depth… nor life nor death… nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Thanks to the Church, I am living proof that this is true.

By Bishop Michael (Dahulich) of New York and New Jersey

Source: http://www.pravmir.com/what-can-separate-us-from-the-love-of-christ/

A Lecture by Sister Irina, who serves as the sister of mercy in the mental Health Hospital in Minsk:

The history of the convent started with the social work in the hospital. One of the current nuns was a nurse there and saw how much people suffered there. Surely, any hospital is a place of sorrow.

Our patients are not necessarily people from socially disadvantaged environment or dysfunctional families. Imagine a person who was successful, but something happened in his life and he got to the hospital and was diagnosed with schizophrenia. People who get there for treatment suffer not only from their disease itself, but also from the understanding of their diagnosis. After you leave the hospital, it is quite difficult to find a job. Perhaps, only the convent can accept these people without any problems. People with such illnesses are often misunderstood in everyday society, and this makes people suffer much more themselves. They begin to ask questions. Why me? Why do other people live a normal life, while I have to spend my life here?

I have visited a woman who used to be a successful and beautiful person once but then she got to the mental health hospital. She was desperate. We have a proverb saying that if you feel bad you should look at someone who feels much worse that you. I tried to use the example of parents whose child died from cancer. I said, “Look at these unhappy people. They have been fighting with the disease for years but still they lost their child. They do not scorn God, they thank Him. You are young and you will get help here. Then you will receive supportive treatment and your life will get better. Of course something will change, but you will leave this place”. She replied, “Of course it is much easier for them to cope with their sorrow. They do not feel shame for their child’s death. This is not disgraceful”.

Our main task as the sisters of mercy is to prepare our patients for confession, Holy Communion, tell them about God, communicate with them and comfort them. We tell them about God as the source of life and joy.

How do our visits look like? We come, greet the personnel and the patients, we anoint all and anyone who wants with the holy oil, pray together and then just talk. It is up to us to decide what to discuss with these people. Usually, I read them the Holy Gospel and then we discuss what I have read.

Many people ask why we are not afraid to go there. When I began to visit the patients, I was told to be careful, to make sure no one stands behind me, to take off my glasses. I had a wonderful experience after which I forget about any fear. Once I came to the department and saw that the woman I had recently visited was lying tied to the bed. She asked me to come to her, but it was forbidden. I talked to all my patients and we read the Gospel together. Suddenly I heard a noise and saw that woman running to me across the hall. I leaned to the wall, but she run right at me. She reached me and throw herself at me and said, “Please, save me”.

Today there are 32 working departments in the hospital. We visit 30 of them, 2-3 sisters for each department. There are 15 mental health departments, 2 departments for people with alcohol addiction, departments for dangerous criminals, for men and women. There are also departments for children, 3 departments for elderly people who lie there helplessly because of their age and and various illnesses. There was a case when Fr. Andrew, our spiritual father, came to that department on Easter to serve a moleben. An elderly woman went towards him. She did not understand at all why and where she was going. Her condition was quite difficult. He asked her, “How do you feel? How are you?” And she answered, “Dear son, everything is great”.

There are departments for people with depression. A person has no desire for anything. He cannot eat or drink, he just does not care for anything. He lies on his bed and looks at the wall. One of our sisters visited a woman who was in similar condition. She always lied on her bed against the wall and never spoke. The sister came, greeted the woman, put a caramel near her bed and left the room. It went like that for some time, and then the woman was checked out of the hospital. Much later the sister told us that she was going on the bus, when a woman came to her and asked, “Don’t you recognize me? Your caramel has saved me”. Such a simple gesture, a simple candy helped a person to cope with depression. Of course, the treatment helped to recover, but the candy matters too.

We persuade our patients to accept their treatment. There are certain diseases, which need special treatment. Such medications can block certain parts of the brain, and this can look quite unpleasant: the eyes roll, some drool… People are afraid that they will remain in such a state forever. This is why we tell the patients they should cooperate with the doctors. We tell them about human dignity and that God loves everyone.

We had the cases when people were baptized right in the department. One of the patients of the narcological department completely changed his life and became a priest. I think that our communication, our sisters and our convent become a great support. While we believe, that people and their prayers support us.

We really needed to build the church in honor of St. John of Shanghai so that the liturgy for the sick can be served there. People will come there to pray and rest. On the ground floor of the church there will be a place where we can organize meetings with people who have been discharged from the mental health hospital. We will teach such people handiwork.

Many people do not understand the reason why we visit the hospital. Are you paid a salary? No. Don’t you have a family? Are you unhappy? No. Don’t you have anything to do at home? We have. Are you jobless? No, we are employed. We come to these people because they are our brothers and sisters. And we need to visit them.

St. Elisabeth Convent

November 27, 2017

A noble young man gave up all his possessions and came to live in a monastery. Due to the fact that he was well-educated, he was appointed to a special obedience of copying worship books.

The elder would spend a lot of time talking with the scribe, so finally other disciples started having grudges against their teacher and accused him of favoritism.

Having heard that, three of the most honorable monks decided to learn why the elder preferred his scribe to everyone else.

The elder did not answer anything to their enquiry. He simply led them to his disciples’ cells.

— Brother, come here quick! I need you! — he repeated over and over again as he was knocking on their doors.

None of his disciples opened the door: one brother was singing Psalms and did not want to be interrupted; another brother was weaving ropes with prayer and he was afraid to spoil the rope due to haste.

Finally, they came to the scribe’s cell.

The elder knocked at the door and uttered just one word, Brother!

The door swung open, and the surprised scribe appeared in front of the elder.

— Tell me dear fathers where do you see my other disciples? — the elder asked as he entered the young monk’s cell.

They did not know what to say.

The elder took a manuscript that his disciple had just been writing in.

— See dear fathers: he was writing this letter but as soon as he heard my voice, he sprang to his feet and did not even finish that letter. Doesn’t this letter tell you about the obedience that this disciple of mine has towards me better than all words? This is the kind of obedience that I love him for.

— You are justified in loving him, Abba, — the first monk said.

— We all love him, — the second monk added.

— God loves him for it, too! — the third monk exclaimed.

A craftsman who was making pencils, took one pencil and said, “Before I send you to the pencil box, I want you to know five things. Remember them and never forget, and you’ll become the best pencil you can be.

One: You’ll be able to do many great things only if you allow Someone to hold you in his hand.

Two: You’ll have to endure painful sharpening from time to time but it will be instrumental in making you a better pencil.

Three: You’ll be able to correct the mistakes that you make.

Four: Your most important part will always be inside.

Five: Whatever the surface that they use you on, you must leave your mark everywhere. Regardless of your condition, you must keep writing.”

The pencil promised that it would remember its creator’s words; it lay in the pencil box with a vocation in its heart.

You must remember these five rules and never forget them.

One: You will be capable of doing many great things but only if you allow God to hold you in his hand and if you allow other people to access the talents that you have.

Two: You will go through a painful sharpening from time to time by encountering various problems. You will need these problems to become a stronger person.

Three: You will be able to correct your own mistakes or just grow out of them.

Four: Your most important part is in your heart.

Five: Wherever you go, you must leave your own mark. No matter what your situation is like, you must continue serving God in all things.

Saint Nikolaj Velimirovič said:

Keep all things at a distance and bring your soul closer to God.

If you pour water on the fire, you will have neither fire nor water.

If you desire someone else’s property and hate your own, you will lose both.

If you fall in love with a maid as with your wife, you will have neither.

If you often drink someone’s health, you will lose yours.

If you keep counting others’ money, you will have less and less money.

If you keep counting others’ sins, your sins will multiply.

If you chase a fox and catch it, you will get your rooster back; if you chase a bear and catch it, you will neither get your rooster back nor your life.

An elder kept telling his disciples:

– When a king wants to conquer a city, he besieges it and deprives it of water and food supplies.

His starving enemy has no choice but to obey him. It is true of sins, too. If one abides in fasting and prayer, eventually his enemy will become weak and leave his soul alone.

There was a man who asked an elder:

– What good can I do?

The elder replied:

– All good actions are equal, aren’t they? The Scripture says, Abraham was hospitable, and God was with him. Elijah loved silence, and God was with him. David was meek, and God was with him. Therefore, do what your soul wants but first of all keep your heart pure.

Someone asked an elder:

– Father, what does sadness mean?

– Being sad means keep thinking about yourself all the time, – he explained briefly.

Someone asked an elder, “Is that man rich?”

– I don’t know, - the elder replied. – All I know is that he has a lot of money.

– So he’s rich, isn’t he?

– Being rich and having a lot of money isn’t the same thing, – the elder replied. - A person can be really rich only if he is fully satisfied with what he already has. A person who wants to have more is poorer than the person who has nothing but is nevertheless satisfied with what he has.

Translated from: https://azbyka.ru/days/