The Catalog of Good Deeds

Archpriest Andrew Lemeshonok, the spiritual father of St. Elisabeth Convent, answers various questions of the parishioners.

How not to be afraid of joy? Why do we find it hard to be happy sometimes?

We are aware of the fact that our joy will not remain forever. That’s why we feel terrified. It is difficult to get down to the sinful earth and to suffer after being exalted by joy.

Ups and downs in our lives are inevitable and very painful for each of us. That is why the Lord grants happiness and special grace to those people who don’t feel dispirited, who can endure the sorrows and trials that can befall a person right after the moments of graceful joy.

Sometimes a person doesn’t fast too strictly and doesn’t pray too fervently, but he still receives great joy at Easter… What does Easter joy depend on?

Here is the depth of one’s inner life and the depth of one’s heart. Sure, sometimes people work really hard and abstain from a lot of things but they still don’t receive grace. The Lord knows one’s heart and He knows what each person needs most. There can be an unexpected joy when someone did not do anything special to receive it, and he is surprised: what was the reason for it? The Lord simply gives his love and touches one’s heart.

The publican walked into the Temple… Did he read all canons? Did he fast? Did he fulfil the Law? No, he didn’t but he came to the church, and his soul was ready to accept God’s grace because it was humble, it knelt before God, and the Lord comforted his sick and suffering soul. Our entire lives are in God’s hands. The amount of joy and love that the Lord gives us depends on his Providence, and not on our own efforts. Otherwise, we would work hard and demand, “Come on! Comfort me, now! Why do you comfort that guy over there? He spent less time working for you…” We would start arguing and quarrelling with God. We would not be able to enter the Kingdom of God in that case. “How can it be that I denied myself all my life, and that guy lived as he pleased, and he was a thief but here he is the first in the paradise?!” It is fair? No, but it’s love.

It is said that if one dies on Easter or during the Bright Week, he will not go through ordeals and go straight into the Heaven. Is it true?

Yes, there is such an opinion. I believe that each person will be tested with the question, “Lovest thou Me?” However, we guess that death does not occur at random. Its time and date is not haphazard. When the Royal Door is opened, when the heaven and the earth celebrate the victory of life over death, we would like to think that one’s soul will go to the paradise no matter what.

However, approximately one hundred people die on Easter in Minsk every year. We can’t say that they immediately go to paradise. Those who didn’t have the encounter with God in the course of their lives also die, unfortunately. That’s why the day of Easter is not a 100% guarantee of free entry into the paradise. However, when a believer who goes to church regularly dies on Easter day, it does matter for his soul. It is a testimony for his relatives, too, that their deceased relative had pleased God.

What if someone dies on a different day but had led a saintly life, does it change anything? I suppose not. All days are holy for God. That’s why we have to humble ourselves down and to repent in order to get into the paradise.

April 11, 2018

St. Elisabeth Convent

Archpriest Andrew Lemeshonok, the spiritual father of St. Elisabeth Convent, answers various questions of the parishioners.

There is a petition for a shameless and painless repose in the Litany but more often than not people die in pain and sorrows. What do we ask for then?

The “shameless” death means that we have to entrust our immortal souls to God. We must have faith and peace inside. We say that we hope for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come but we are limited by the time and space of this world. What does the life of the world to come look like? What will happen after death? It is too tricky; we can barely comprehend it. However, when you see a person who is about to depart from this life and, in spite of all pain, his eyes radiate light, hope, absence of panic, and trust in God, it has a huge influence on all people around that dying person.

I recall the death of a woman who had worked for the KGB. She did not have any family, except for two kids. Her husband had abandoned them. It was really tragic. I gave her communion just a couple of days before she reposed. She was assured that her children would be taken care of and that God would not leave them alone. She looked frightening, her skin was yellowish; yet her eyes were filled with so much liveliness, so much trust, and so much love! I don’t know why but I wanted to stay by her deathbed for as long as I could. “I’d like to have the spiritual power of this brave woman, too,” I thought to myself. This must be that shameless and peaceful kind of death when a person knows where and to whom he is about to go. May God grant everyone a death like this!

Why does God demand absolute loyalty from our souls?

Darkness can’t coexist with love and light. God won’t let you choose a part of your life that you can set apart for him and then keep on doing what you want, i.e. sinning, with the rest of your life. We must give up all our heart to God because He deserves it. He gave up his entire life as a human for our sake. He feeds us with his Body and Blood; His love is absolute; He came into this world to save us. That is why He cannot say that there is a part of your heart and your life that belongs only to you and that you can dispose of as you please. You have to hand your whole life over to God and to rely on his Providence. That is how we can enter the eternal life and defeat death.

Ye cannot serve God and mammon (Cf. Matthew 6: 24). You can’t divide your heart and your life. You’ve got to choose yes or no. If we decide to follow Christ, we must follow him till the end. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved (Matthew 24: 13).

Sometimes a person feels God’s grace after communion, and this grace supports him for some time. However, one might sometimes think that he does not deserve communion. Should one worry about it or not?

You must not rely on yourself. When your soul is sick, you disinfect its wounds by communion. It can hurt. The Lord may grant comfort and joy one time and you may have to withstand a spiritual battle the other time and feel depressed. The medicine works anyway, and you should not go by your emotions because it may be a trial sent by God.

We hear that there used to be ascetics who spent decades praying despite the fact that they could not feel anything. God regarded it as a great feat of ascetic devotion. Naturally, we would like our souls to be soaring high after a communion; sometimes they feel pain and suffer instead. It doesn’t mean that we are unworthy. In fact, no one deserves the Holy Gifts—who can be worthy of it? Do you really think that the fact that you don’t eat something or read some prayers means that you deserve the Communion? Of course not!

Speaking of worthy communion, the less worthy of it you feel, the more you deserve it. If you acknowledge that you are guilty and that the Lord loves you as you are: the dirty, ungrateful, and ill-spirited person that you are; if you feel sorry for that, this is what makes you worthy. The other kind of “worthiness”, i.e., when you deem yourself better than someone else; when you feel superior because you have read all there was to read, because you have prepared properly to receive this love—that’s a shameful condition. We’d better avoid it.

April 18, 2018

St. Elisabeth Convent

By Archimandrite Andrew (Konanos)

Come to your beloved person and tell how much you love him, kiss him and show him all your tenderness.

One of my acquaintances received a blessing from his spiritual father to consume some meat even during Great Lent because he works physically a lot and gets very tired. However. His wife is keeping the fast rather strictly, and this is why she is worrying and reproaching him because he does not go to church often. Her husband said to me: “Father, I can’t stand it anymore. Tell her something, She will listen to you”. I replied: “Who told you she would listen to me? What is wrong with her behavior? What is the problem?” And he told me: “Here is what’s going on. I am not obsessed with meat, but since I work physically all day long, I have to consume it. As soon as I am going to eat a piece of meat, she comes to the table and stands near. “Why are you eating meat?” Father, I perceive what I eat as lenten food. Is this steak really insolent? But my wife doesn’t let me eat in peace. I seems I’m not fed with the steak, but what I’m really fed up with is her constant grievance”.

I spoke to his wife, but she did not understand me, too. She does not even want to. I advised her: “Let him be. God doesn’t demand fasting from him now. Show your husband your love at first, and then you can do what you want”. – “No, father, I ask him to listen to all your lectures so that he become better”. – “But he doesn’t want to do this.” – “He must do this anyway”.

Try to solve your problems. Strange situations happen sometimes. I am sure you think sometimes, “It is so good I have married”, while the other time you may think, “Wasn’t it a wrong decision?” Everyone experience such periods. Everyone is good. Say to your beloved person how sincerely you love him and kiss him. Say “my love” when you address him and give him all your warm. Will you do this? You will not!.. I know it can be difficult for you, you may feel embarrassed. One woman said to me: “I can’t do what you ask me to do, but I can show him my feelings in another way”. – “In what way?” – “I will cook some rolls of grape leaves. He loves them very much, and thus he will understand everything”.

One child told be a similar story: “When my mother wants to please me, she cooks pasticcio. But when she is angry about me, she cooks bamia!”

I understand. You have problems now. It hurts… I would like to accompany you a bit. For no reason, I will not teach you at all. I just want to be with you. You wrote to me at Facebook about this great sorrow you faced. I know what is going on. You told me about everything. I want only one thing: let us pray to Christ together, let us appeal to His grace, His strength and feel His presence and help.

From the book by Fr. Andrew (Konanos),

“There are certain difficulties in the marriage…”

Translated by The Catalog of Good Deeds

Source: http://pravlife.org/ru/content/arhim-andrey-konanos-sovetuet-kak-pravilno-pokazat-svoyu-lyubov-samym-blizkim-lyudyam

I will quickly confess that I am not a philosopher. I am not trained in the subject and always struggled in the few doctoral classes that were in the area of “Philosophical Theology.” Thus, this will not be a philosophical response that settles matters for believers viz. atheism, or settles matters viz. Orthodox Christianity for atheists. It is just some observations.

That the world would be better off if everyone were an atheist is to me, a silly thought. We have too much evidence to the contrary. Atheist states have been the most efficient killing machines in all of history. Dostoevsky is quoted as saying, “If there is no God, everything is permitted.” It is questionable that he ever wrote it in that succinct fashion, but it certainly reflects a number of statements that occur in his writings. And it is true.

Though there are some very strange things happening in our culture as the result of religion, they hardly hold a candle to the strange things taking place among those who are committed to hedonism and other forms of modern atheism.

The greatest challenge from Atheism is what Orthodoxy would term the “problem of the human heart.” Orthodoxy (and many other Christians) understand very clearly that human beings have a “dark” side and that religious “delusion” is a constant issue for believers. Properly taught and nurtured, Orthodox Christians should be more sensitive to questions of religious delusion than non-believers.

The problem of the human heart (this deep, spiritual center of man) is that it very easily becomes hard. And that in its hardness it is capable of almost anything. The amount of atrocities carried out by professed believers is ample testimony to the dangers of the heart, even for Christians.

What would an atheist propose for the treatment of the heart? It cannot be that less religion means a healthier human heart. Indeed, the modern nation state is what threatens to take the place of religion. And the modern nation state has not shown itself to be a repository of kindness, gentleness and altruism with regard to its clients.

If anything, the spiritual teaching of the Orthodox Church is particularly directed towards our distortions of reality and our denial of the True God in an acceptance of a false god. The proper practice of Orthodoxy is ruthlessly self-honest and self-critical and believes that true belief in God can only be measured by the love we have for our enemy. Anything less than this is not the fullness of the Orthodox faith.

Our conversation with Atheism is not about the stars and the planets, or about how our planet came to be and how long ago. Our conversation with Atheism is not about the literal character of stories in the Old Testament. Christians who focus on such things in their discussions with Atheism are largely agreeing that these are the essential questions for humanity – and they are not.

The central question for humanity is the God revealed to us in and through Jesus Christ. If that God is the true God, then our religion can only be measured by the love we have for our enemy.

By the same token, we can ask of anyone, Atheist included, “Do you love your enemies?” If they do not, then we can say with confidence, “Your heart is in trouble.” And if anyone’s heart is in trouble (most are) then the world is indeed a very dangerous place (it is).

We believe that the world is so dangerous that even God Himself is not safe within it (cf. crucifixion). We also believe that our mission as Christians is to follow the example of the God/man Jesus Christ and yield ourselves up for crucifixion on behalf of our enemies. Anything less than that is not Orthodox Christianity in its fullness.

St. Paul noted: “One will hardly die for a righteous man — though perhaps for a good man one will dare even to die. But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:7-8). While this is undeniably true for Christ – it is also meant to become true for all who follow Him. Anything less is not the fullness of the Orthodox faith.

The challenge of Atheism is the challenge of despair. For Atheism cannot claim that human beings are improving. If anything, technology only makes us capable of far worse than the past. The marvels of this internet now mean that evil men have easy access to vulnerable children and are manifesting that evil in epic proportions. The Atheist can only (if he is honest) look at history and despair. We are heading towards a certain destruction on our present trajectory. If there is no one who can intervene and heal the human heart then our fate is indeed a sad one.

Orthodox Christianity does not believe that all religion is good. Indeed, we might very well argue that most religion is not good because it embraces the delusion that clouds the human heart. Most religion does not measure itself by its love of its enemies. In that sense, much of religion among men is just a peculiar manifestation of politics and nothing more.

But I believe that Christ is truly God in the flesh and that God so loves us that He emptied Himself and endured death on the cross in order to rescue us even from the relative non-existence we had brought on ourselves (in Hades). I believe that we can judge ourselves only by the standard of the love of God on the Cross. Either we are denying ourselves and extending our hearts towards others, especially our enemies, or we are not following Christ. Anything less than that is not the fullness of the Orthodox faith.

There is a path to salvation but it only goes through the cross (not just the Cross of Christ but through the cross He has set before each of us). It is the only means of curing the sickness of our heart. Such religion endangers no one. Such religion would see the Atheist not as our largest problem, but simply one of many examples of the heart of man in need of healing. Indeed, many Atheists may be closer to that healing than many deluded Christians. We can and must pray for all mankind and for the triumph of the Cross in their heart. The sooner the better. And let it begin with me.

By Fr. Stephen Freeman

Source: https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/glory2godforallthings/2007/03/23/the-challenge-of-atheism/

Theory and Practice

Why was Apostle Thomas called “the doubter”? Who of the apostles did believe without seeing? They all saw at first and believed then…

How can a modern person believe without seeing Christ?

We can see Him. Due to the enormous labor of the holy fathers. It belongs to them that the teaching about the Personality of Jesus Christ received the very form that corresponds with the Holy Scripture, the Church story and our personal perception.

The Holy Fathers did not invent a new teaching. According to St. Vincent of Lérins, they just gave new names to the old things. They gave us the forms of human’s perception, through which the Holy Scripture becomes clear for us. And Christ comes alive.

Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanich)

Due to the efforts of the Holy Fathers, many of whom gave their lives for the purity of the Church teaching, we believe in the Holy Trinity, in our Lord Jesus Christ, the true God and true human, Whose divine and human natures are joined inseparably; we believe that there are two wills that act in Christ –the divine and the human one.

The dogmas of the faith are the necessary theory. But how is it going with practice?

In fact, all the saints implemented those dogmas in their lives. They not only showed us the path that we should follow, but completed that path by themselves, too. Unfortunately, many of us do not act at all after they have studied the theory. Thus, they stay for their whole life within the ranks of the talkative theorists.

“Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it” – it is important not just to listen to the word of God, but to keep it, to implement it in our life. When we read the Holy Gospel, we hear Christ Himself. Everything that is written in the New Testament refer not only to the witnesses of Christ’s earthly life: these words are addressed to each of us.

Three variants

Our earthly life is a preparation for eternal life: to be with God in Heavens, we have to live with Him on earth first. The faith of a true Christian should be clear and fully expressed in one’s attitude towards life and other people. Few people manage to reach this top, settling for only the first small steps. Perhaps, some people are afraid of the ascent itself, while other think that they have not enough strength for this or just do not believe that from this top they will be able to discover certain new horizons for themselves.

There are signs of unbelief among faithful people, who attend the church regularly. Some people can say right words, can have necessary knowledge and look beautiful and pious outside, but at the same time, they can be rotten inside like an old worm-ridden fruit.

The worms of doubt devastate the soul of a person who has little faith. He know the theoretical base but cannon trust his life to Christ, trying to be its full and only owner. As a rule, the main passions of such a person are freethinking, arrogance and pride. The faith of such people, who externally follow all the rules, is without the living God. In case of any little challenge, their “faith” crashes. They stop going to church, withdraw into themselves, consider themselves right, while the Church is wrong on their opinion. They lack of saving humility.

The faith of other people can be precocious. A soul that is not ripe for the meeting with Christ yet, begins to self-destruct. Often it happens so that the early knowledge and information taken from various sources is joined with the thin strings, which cannot withstand a challenge and break when the first storm comes.

Such people set their hearts upon rather quickly; at the same time, they lose their enthusiasm as much quickly. They take only what is on the surface and do not deepen into the faith. As a rule, they do not know themselves and do not even try to, trying to avoid a trustful talk with themselves and consequently with God. They prevent the Creator from entering their lives by all their forces, settling for knowledge about Him.

Finally, the most common sign of unbelief is reflexive faith, when you do everything without thinking. A person does not mind the words of the prayer, the meaning of the Church rites or the course of the service – one just mechanically repeats what other people do.

Such faith brings no fruits. It is neither alive nor dead. The life of such people counts months and years just like a clock hand, which is spinning around in the same circle repeatedly. They do not change for years without going beyond their narrow perception of the Divine things and they are satisfied with this mechanical living.

This is the most senseless way of life. It is rather difficult or almost impossible to reach out to such people.

Let us strive to remind ourselves as often as possible that we are living here for eternity, while any earthly worries, no matter how important they are for us or our family, are temporal in comparison with what is prepared for us by the Creator Himself.

We are destined to eternal salvation.

By Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanich)

Translated by The Catalog of Good Deeds

Source: http://pravlife.org/ru/content/kak-raspoznat-svoe-bezverie-3-osnovnyh-priznaka

Subscribe to: Posts ( Atom )

Search This Blog

featured Slider

3 Answers from Father Andrew: Why Do We Find It Hard to Be Happy Sometimes?

3 Answers from Father Andrew: Why Does God Demand Absolute Loyalty from Our Souls?

How Am I Supposed to Show My Love?

The Greatest Challenge from Atheism

Being a Reader in the Orthodox Church: Ordination, Terminology, Vestments and Duties

Church Etiquette or Some Things You Should Know while in Church

Lack of Faith Warning Signs Among Orthodox Christians

Partners