On the Way to Holiness
The light of Christ enlightens all. Holiness is sanctification of the life of an individual with the love of Christ. Repentance is the way to holiness. It is through repentance that man receives graceful help and dares to go to the Light, to reveal his sinful illnesses, his infirmities. One's soul suffers from seeing his sins, it suffers because it cannot see its own God-created beauty. This pain and suffering teaches man to hate the sin. A man opens his eyes and sees that the sin does not bring joy or satisfaction. The sin deceives and kills his immortal soul. This is why repentance is the courage of the soul which does not hide from God, which does not try to deceive herself, to justify herself and hide behind others' backs. A person follows the Light consciously, understanding that he is going to suffer because of what he shall see. However, he believes in God's love, he believes that the Lord will be able to heal his sins, to give him power to defeat and hate the sin, and to sanctify his life.
It
is in the Church of Christ that man is nurtured and learns to live for the sake
of the Eternity, learns to live with God and build all his earthly
relationships through God. “Christ is in our midst! He is, and He shall be!” -
this is what priests say before the communion of the Holy Mysteries; and we
start having Christ before us and in our midst so that we could begin a new
life and new relationships through Christ, so that we would submit everything
we have, all our lives, into God's hands. By trusting God man becomes free, he
becomes free from within. Man is no longer bound or chained with his own
personal interests, desires and wishes. He wants the same things that God
wants; he wants to fulfil God's will, he looks for God's will because he
understands that even if it does not coincide with his own desires, even if his
heart protests and does not want to accept this will of God, it is still much
better and more trustworthy than our desires and emotional states, which push
us into this or that direction day after day. Man needs a solid foundation on
which to stand in this world when temptations, sorrows and stresses come and
make us feel desperate and hopeless.
This is why we build our lives upon the rock, and this rock is Christ. In fact, when man finds God and understands that God is near in each moment of his life and in all situations, he is able to hope for God's help and salvation. Likewise, when man loses his connection to God, he becomes desperate and depressed, he loses all his strength, and it seems to him that the sin has separated him from other people and from God for ever.
The
Church nurtures us and prepares us for the eternal life, like a loving mother.
This life becomes real for every believer even now, in this transient world.
When we come to church and participate in the Divine Liturgy, in the Sacraments
of the Church of Christ, we can feel the Eternity, we enter the Eternity
because we ought to leave all transient earthly cares at the threshold of the
church.
The
sin makes an individual inconsistent, it divides man within himself. One's mind
cannot stay still, emotions run wild and make one lose peace within his heart.
It is on his way to God that a person brings himself to reason, tries to bring
his mind, his emotions and all his heart together. Man is created in order to
allow God to dwell in him. God leads our lives when we humble ourselves, when
we reconcile with our neighbours, when we begin to value what we have got.
Grace
is given to the humble. This grace, the Holy Spirit, directs the life of that
person. The person does not suffer because of his problems and does not waste
his time thinking what he should do and where he should go in this life. He
begins and ends his every single day asking God, “Thy will be done!” His heart
becomes a compass that helps man find his path to salvation. The heart is deep,
and when it is peaceful, the person tries not to lose this peace and not to
make his neighbour lose this peace.
Our
journey to the Heavenly Kingdom is our journey inside our hearts; it is the way
of dying (when our old man dies) and rising from the dead for the Eternal Life,
for sacrificing all our lives to our Creator and for making our entire lives
filled with service and ministry. “Love God and thy neighbour” - these words
become the most important in our lives. We do not love anyone because sin
dwells in our souls; but when we struggle with our sins and make attempts to overcome
them, the Lord teaches us to love, the Lord reveals His love, which become the
fountain of everlasting life for us. Then we all become one, the entire Church
becomes one Body of Christ.
The people whom the Lord leads into the church,
change; it is the love of Christ that changes them; it enters our hearts and
sanctifies our lives. This is why the Church exclaims, “Holy things to the
holy,” this is why She calls us to praise God with one mouth and one heart;
this is why the Holy Fathers used to call the Church “heaven on earth” because
even here on earth we can enter into the Eternal Life and are sanctified by
this Light of Love, which defeats the darkness of this world and resurrects man
for the new life.
Sermon by Fr Andrew on June 22, 2008.
Sermon by Fr Andrew on June 22, 2008.
Let the children come to love church!
Every Christian mother considers it one of her primary
obligations to teach her child prayer as soon as his consciousness begins to
awaken prayer that is simple and easy for him to understand. His soul must be
accustomed to the warm and fervent experience of prayer at home, by his cradle,
for his neighbors, his family. The child's evening prayer calms and softens his
soul, he experiences the sweetness of prayer with his little heart and catches
the first scent of sacred feelings.
It is harder for a child to take in the atmosphere which prevails in
church. At first he just observes. He sees people concentrating and rites he
does not as yet understand and hears incomprehensible words. However, the very
solemnity and festivity of the church have an uplifting effect on him. When a
two year-old child wants to take part in church, to sing, speak or make
prostrations—in this we can see his uplifted state of soul, with which he is
involuntarily infected. We say this from simple observation.
But there is also something higher than our sense perceptions. Christ is invisibly present in church and He sees the child, blesses him, and receives him into the atmosphere of the grace of the Holy Spirit. Grace envelopes him as a warm wind wafts over a blade of grass in a field, helping it to grow up slowly and gradually, to put down roots and develop. And so the mother hastens to bring her child to Christ, to His grace, regardless even of whether he has any understanding at all of this contact with the gift of grace. This especially concerns the Eucharist, the very closest union with Christ. The mother brings her infant to this mystery while he is still a baby lying in her arms. Is the mother right?
"Suffer the little children to come unto Me, for of such is the
kingdom of God." Can you really say with certainty that there and then in
the fields of Palestine these children had already understood Christ's
teaching, had been sitting at the Teacher's feet and listening to His
preaching? Do not say this, for the Evangelist himself remarks that "they
brought unto Him also infants, that He would touch them: but when His disciples
saw it, they rebuked them". In bringing their little ones, the mothers'
purpose was simply that His hands should touch the children, and not that He
should teach them divine knowledge.
But there is also something higher than our sense perceptions. Christ is invisibly present in church and He sees the child, blesses him, and receives him into the atmosphere of the grace of the Holy Spirit. Grace envelopes him as a warm wind wafts over a blade of grass in a field, helping it to grow up slowly and gradually, to put down roots and develop. And so the mother hastens to bring her child to Christ, to His grace, regardless even of whether he has any understanding at all of this contact with the gift of grace. This especially concerns the Eucharist, the very closest union with Christ. The mother brings her infant to this mystery while he is still a baby lying in her arms. Is the mother right?
"Suffer the little children to come unto Me, for of such is the
kingdom of God." Can you really say with certainty that there and then in
the fields of Palestine these children had already understood Christ's
teaching, had been sitting at the Teacher's feet and listening to His
preaching? Do not say this, for the Evangelist himself remarks that "they
brought unto Him also infants, that He would touch them: but when His disciples
saw it, they rebuked them". In bringing their little ones, the mothers'
purpose was simply that His hands should touch the children, and not that He
should teach them divine knowledge.
Allowing children to have contact with spiritual grace is one of the
first, basic concerns of a Christian who thinks about his children, and the
task of Christian society, which is concerned about its youth. Here is the door
to a correct Orthodox Christian upbringing. Enlightenment, compunction and joy,
as they awaken in the infant's growing consciousness are an external indicator
of the fact that the little Christian is feeling warmth from the divine source
in himself. And even if he does not feel it, the invisible action of God's
grace does not stop; only we do not see it, just as we do not see the effect of
the sun on our own health instantly and at once. In Russian literature we have
such apt examples of the disposition of children's souls during preparation for
confession and communion, after confession and after communion of the Holy
Mysteries.
Nevertheless, how often it is forgotten that herein lies the key to organizing religious education. How often, on seeing the inadequacy of religious education, we pick up the programs and re-work them, lay the blame on the textbooks and the teachers—and forget about the importance of the church and the influence of the services; certainly we do not always ask ourselves the question: "But did the children go to church?"
Nevertheless, how often it is forgotten that herein lies the key to organizing religious education. How often, on seeing the inadequacy of religious education, we pick up the programs and re-work them, lay the blame on the textbooks and the teachers—and forget about the importance of the church and the influence of the services; certainly we do not always ask ourselves the question: "But did the children go to church?"
As the child grows tip, he should enter more deeply into the life, of
the Church. The child's mind, the youth's mind must be enlightened by the
church services, learn from them, become immersed in them; the church should
give him knowledge of God.
This matter is more complex. The task of religious 'education will be
fulfilled only when we teach our children to love church.
Just as we are not afraid of destroying a devotion to learning and
books, or love for our national literature and history by making our children
come running to class at the sound of a bell and sit at desks, and by immersing
them in an atmosphere of strict discipline and compulsion; so also, one might
think, we would have no reason to be afraid of using a certain amount of
compulsion in the matter of attending church, whether it be part of school
regime or an expression of self-discipline on the part of youth
organizations—both those that are connected with school and those that are not.
But certainly, if this remains just compulsion, and to such an extent that it
creates a psychological repulsion in the young people—this will show that the
aim has not been attained, that the method has proved to be inadequate and the
compulsion in vain. Let the child brought by our will express a desire to
remain there through his own will. Then you will have justified your action.
And again we say: it is not only natural, psychological effects that take place in children's souls in church, but the action of grace. Our whole concern should be that the soul of the baby, child or youth should not be closed to holy impressions, but should be freely opened: and then it will no longer need effort, force or any other form of self-compulsion; it will be nourished freely and easily and joyfully.
And again we say: it is not only natural, psychological effects that take place in children's souls in church, but the action of grace. Our whole concern should be that the soul of the baby, child or youth should not be closed to holy impressions, but should be freely opened: and then it will no longer need effort, force or any other form of self-compulsion; it will be nourished freely and easily and joyfully.
There is one thing that must not be forgotten: human nature requires at
least a minimal degree of active participation. In church this can take the
form either of reading, or of singing, or of decorating and cleaning the
church, or of some other activity, even if it is only indirectly connected with
the services.
The indisputable importance of the church and of communal church
services for the religious upbringing of children constitutes one of the
arguments in favour of the Orthodox understanding of the mystery of baptism:
that is to say, an argument in favor of baptizing children at a very young age,
as we do in the Orthodox Church. Baptism is the door through which one enters
the Church of Christ. One who is not baptized—which means he is not a member of
Christ's family—has no right to participate in the life of this family, in its
spiritual gatherings and in its table—the Lord's table. Thus our children would
be deprived of the right to be with us in church, to receive the blessing in
the name of the Holy Trinity, to communicate the Body and Blood of Christ. And however
we may influence them in our family at home, however much we might teach them
the Gospel, we would be depriving them of the direct action of heavenly grace,
and at best we would arouse a thirst for faith in them—but we would still be
keeping them far from the heavenly light and warmth, which comes down,
regardless of our human efforts, in the mysteries, in all the services, in holy
prayers. How grossly mistaken are those religions which recognize only adult
baptism!
Let the children be conscious that they are members of Christ's family.
Let the children come to love church!
Sermon by Protopresbyter Michael Pomazansky from Orthodox Life, Vol. 27, No. 3 (May June 1977), pp. 29-33.
The story and iconography of the Petrovskaya icon of the Mother of God
 |
| Petrovskaya icon of the Mother of God from the workshops of St.Elisabeth Convent |
The story of the icon
Upon the death of Metropolitan Maxim, a certain Father
Superior by the name of Geronty, wishing to be elevated to the dignity of Metropolitan,
took hierarchal vestments and the icon and went to Constantinople to get the
position. There were however, quite a few Russians, including Prince Yuri of
Galicia, who objected to having Geronty as a metropolitan. Prince Yuri
persuaded Father Superior Petr to go to Constantinople to be elevated to the high
rank. Petr obeyed the Prince’s wish and having arrived in Constantinople ahead
of Geronty. Patriarch Afanasy received him well and consecrated him to the rank
of metropolitan of all of Rus.
The ship by which Geronty was traveling finally
arrived to Constantinople with great difficulty. Geronty was forced to tell
Patriarch Afanasy his dream. The patriarch then proceeded to confiscate the
hierarchal robes and the icon of the Mother of God and gave it back to its
rightful owner, Metropolitan Petr. He then told him: “Take this sacred and holy
image of Theotokos, which was painted by your own hands, because of this the
Mother of God gave you such a gift, foretelling about you.”
Petrovskaya icon of the Mother of God was always
highly venerated among the faithful Orthodox Christians in Russia and was considered
to be a miracle working icon from ancient times. Grand Duke Ivan III(Ivan the
Great) prayed in front of the icon. At the end of the 16th Century
Patriarch Iov took the icon with him in order to persuade Boris Godunov to be
crowned czar. Finally in 1613, the icon was taken to Kostroma to call upon
Mikhail Feodorovich Romanov to accede to the Russian throne.
Sometime between the end of the 19th and
beginning of the 20th century the icon disappears from the cathedral.
A small icon remains in the Cathedral which is also dated around 14-15 century,
and some assume that it is the true Petrovskaya icon. The feast day of the icon
is on September 6th (August 24) and is celebrated on the same day as
the translation of the relics of St. Petr, when his relics were transferred to
a newly build Dormition Church in 1479.
The Iconography
The icon of the Mother of God “Petrovskaya” is similar
to the most popular icon among the Russian people – The Tenderness Icon of the
Mother of God. The iconography of the icon is similar to the Mother of God of
Vladimir.The Mother of God and Infant Christ are depicted on
this icon in a unique way. They are both painted from the chest up.
In return the hands of the Savior are responding – the
Son is nestling with His face to the Mother’s face, just like on the Mother of
God of Vladimir. There is a scroll in His left hand, and with the right hand
the Infant can be seen with a blessing sign which is quite rare for such
ancient icons. At the same time Christ’s right hand is lying on the Mother’s
chest. The unique icon from the city of Kirillov shows the warmth of love
between the Mother of God and Christ: where the Son is touching the Mother’s face
with His blessing arm.
Copies of the icon
In the city of Kaluga there is a copy of the Mother of
God “Petrovskaya”, which is well known to be a miracle working icon.
The 16th century copy is now kept in the museum in the
city of Kirillov.
Saint Seraphim of Zhyrovichy: An Example of a True Orthodox Christian
Archimandrite Seraphim was born with the name of Roman in 1901 in a large peasant family. Despite the
lack of money, the future archimandrite managed to get a quite decent education. When he was 21
he went to the Monastery of Zhyrovichy, where within a year, on April 1, 1923, he was
tonsured as a monk and took his new name – Seraphim. In three more years he became
a hierodeacon. In 1939 he became father superior of the monastery.
The defining moment for the future life of archimandrite Seraphim came in 1941. He and his friend
Georgy Kudarenko were honored to perform a vital mission on the territory of
occupied Belarus – to restore and reopen the churches which have been closed before
the beginning of the second world war.
The missionaries
interceded that the churches should be opened, they served the divine services,
baptized children and performed funeral services. More importanlty they contimued to preach during the course of the their mission
Wherever Father
Seraphim was, he gathered information about persecutions against the Orthodox
Church in Belarus. According to his reports, there were no functioning churches in East Belarus (except from one in the city of Orsha), the clergy was
exiled and a lot of priests were murdered. The churches were turned into theatres
and clubs. Once, when the church was reopened in Vitebsk, people were so happy
that began to cry, which nearly prevented the priests from serving.
The Divine Miracle
During such an important and difficult mission, the missionaries faced dangerous problems many
times, but the Lord helped His servants and never left them. When Father
Seraphim visited his native village on his way to Grodno, he told a story which
happened to him. Once, he was suffering from a disease and his condition was
getting worse each day, untill finally the illness became life threatening. Father Seraphim could not even climb on his bed without a low chair, and he hurt every time he tried to move. At one point when he was in bed, the Soviet
aviation began to attack the city. Father Georgy was going to hide in the
basement, but he did not want to leave his sick friend, who could not go down
with him. So the priest decided to stay with his friend.
Suddenly Father
Seraphim heard the voice ordering him to leave the room. The archimandrite
stood up with great difficulty and went to the kitchen room. Then the voice
ordered to call Father Georgy as well. When he entered the kitchen, the bomb hit their
house. At that moment something mysterious happened. The shard of the bomb hit
Saint Seraphim and opened the apostasies without causing harm to any organ. The
gleet flew out from that wound, and soon Father Seraphim recovered completely.
Thus the operation happened without human interference. God cured His servant
himself.
When Father
Seraphim and Father Gregory returned to Minsk, they continued to serve in the Holy
Spirit Church, which they themselves had opened. Here, they also founded a monastery,
which got its spiritual literature from the historical museum. Father Seraphim also visited hospitals, home for the disabled, and orphanages. The good shepherd was carrying the light of Gospel and God’s love
everywhere.
Preaching at the cost of life
The convicts
were tortured severely, but their spirit remained strong regardless. There
is a copy of the interrogation of Father Seraphim dated to December, 5, 1994:
Q: Now you may
tell everything about your work on German secret service.
A: I have never
been an agent of German secret service.
Q: Your evidence
is false. You are concealing all the time that you were a German agent.
A: My evidence
is true. I have never been a German agent.
Q: I offer you
another opportunity to tell everything about your cooperation with German
agents.
A: I have
already told everything I can say on this account. I have no other evidence.
According to
the protocol the interrogation begun at 1 p.m. and ended at 4:15 p.m. It
lasted more those 3 hours but only those words were written. We can only guess
what was happening during the interrogation…
The prisoners
were on trial for 10 months. Finally they were sentenced to imprisonment for 5
years in a special concentration camp. A year after the conviction Archimandrite
Saraphim passed away inside the camp. The official cause of death was cardiac
failure, but the circumstances of death are still being investigated.
The feast of
Saint Martyr Seraphim of Zhyrovichy is celebrated on September, 6 – on the day
of the arrest which became the beginning of his path to martydom.
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