The Catalog of Good Deeds

By Father George Glinski

On January 19, the Orthodox Church celebrates the feast of the Holy Theophany of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is also called the feast of the “Epiphany” or, as it was called in ancient times, “Epifania” - the Appearance of God in our world.

The name of this feast reflects its essence, because God ceased to be a Faceless Absolute for people, Who existed somewhere far from our real being, and Whose will people had to obey. God ceased to be the God of Job, who addressed the Maker, but could not always hear and understand His answers. God become close to us, because He came into this world as a human, He incarnates, accepting the human’s nature. As Apostle John the Theologian writes, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (John, 1:14).

The Lord in Christ accepted the full experience of the human’s life. The only thing He differed from us on earth was that He was free from sin, and this is another thing the feast of the Theophany reminds us about. Christ came to the one, who had become His Forerunner. To the one, who had to make the world ready for the coming of the Messiah, Who would save them all from sin and the devil, as the Prophet Isaiah said. And when Christ stepped into the waters of the Jordan river, John the Forerunner saw that this Man was the only human being on earth Who was not exposed to the blight of sin. And then his understanding was strengthened by the voice of God the Father, sounding from the sky, and the descent of the Holy Spirit on Christ the Savior (the appearance of the Holy Spirit in Him), which meant that God came to heal our spiritual wounds and change our life.

The image of the Theophany of Christ reminds us about one of the Old Testament events – the Great Flood, which wiped the sin out of earth. The Holy Spirit, descending in the shape of a dove, tells us about the dove, sent by God to Pious Noah to prove the reconcilement between Himself and people. The event of the Christ’s Theophany tells that Christ came to our world to reconcile the humanity with God in Himself. As St. Gregory of Nyssa wrote, He leaned over our pathetic being, over our dead body to make it resurrect with the power of His Resurrection. The whole earthly life of the Savior was devoted to that. He preached for people, He taught people, He healed the weak and even raised the dead – all those things were aimed to show God as the Loving Father, Who cares about a human and his needs.

On the day of the Theophany we also should remember about the appeal, with which Christ started His social ministry: “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew, 4:17). The repentance (metanoia) as our changes for the better: the cultivation of a moralist thinking and personal perception should be the dominance of each Christian’s life. It should constantly remind him about the day, when he rejected the devil and washed his sins in the baptistery, when, according to St. Simeon the New Theologian, the seed of grace was planted in his soul, so that it can grow as the fruits of good. His whole life should be a constant mindfulness about what God has done for him, when He entered the history of the humanity and changed it once and forever.

St. Elisabeth Convent, 2017

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Source

Pt. 1, Ch. 1. For a Harmonious Family

A good start to family life

— Geronta, a certain young man who has chosen the married life asked me how one properly begins this.

— From the beginning, he should seek to find a good girl who will comfort him, as people are relaxed and find comfort differently with different people. He should not seek to find someone who is rich or beautiful, but above all simple and humble. In other words, he should give more attention to interior rather than exterior beauty. When a girl is a positive person and capable of dealing with men, without having more womanly character than is necessary, this greatly helps the man to find immediate understanding and not a lot of headaches. If she also has fear of God and humility then they are able to join hands and pass the evil current of the world.

If the young man is seriously considering a certain girl for a spouse, I think it is better that he first makes his intentions known to her parents through one of his relatives and afterwards he can discuss it himself with the young lady and her parents. Later, if they give their approval and the two are engaged—and it is better that the engagement not carry on too long—he should strive, throughout the passing time until marriage, to view her as his sister and respect her. If both of them struggle with philotimo and keep their virginity, then in the Mystery of marriage, when the priest crowns them, they will richly take of the Grace of God. For, as St. John Chrysostom says, the crowns are symbols of victory against pleasure.

Then, as much as they are able, they must strive to cultivate the virtue of love and always remain two united, with the Third, our Sweetest Christ. Naturally, in the beginning, until they get themselves together and become well acquainted with one another, they will have certain difficulties. This happens with every new beginning. Why, just the day before yesterday I saw a baby bird. It had just gone out to find food and could only fly about an inch above the ground. The poor thing didn’t know how to catch insects and wasted an hour trying to catch just one, little bug to eat. As I watched it, I was considering how every beginning is difficult. When a student finally receives his diploma and begins working, in the beginning it is difficult. A novice in a monastery also has difficulties in the beginning. A young man, when he marries, again in the beginning is met with difficulties.

— Geronta, does it matter if the woman is older than the man?

— There is not a Church canon which says that if a girl is two, three or even five years older than the young man they are not able to be married.

The harmony of God is hidden within a diversity of personalities

One day a man came to my kalyve and told me that he was very worried because he was not of the same mind with his wife. I saw, however, that there was nothing serious between them. He just had a few rough edges, his wife had a few others, and they couldn’t deal with one another. They needed a little sanding. Take two planks of wood before sanding them. One has a knot here, the other has a knot there; if you try to join the planks there is an empty space left between them. If, however, you sand one a little here and the other a little there, using the same tool, they join perfectly.

Some men tell me: “I don’t see eye to eye with my wife; we have opposite personalities. She has one temperament, I have another! How can God do such strange things? Couldn’t He have arranged a few things so that couples matched, and they were able to live more spiritually?” I tell them, “Don’t you understand that the harmony of God is hidden within a diversity of personalities? Different temperaments actually create harmony. Alas, if you had the same personalities! Think what would have happened if, for example, you both got angry easily: you would destroy your house. Or, consider if both of you had mild temperaments: you would sleep standing up! If you were both stingy you would get along, yes, but you would both end up in hell. Likewise, if both of you were open-handed, would you even be able to keep your house? No. You would disperse everything, and your children would be turned out to the streets. If a spoiled brat marries a spoiled brat, between themselves they get along fine, right? But, one day someone is going kill them! For this reason God arranges it so that a good person marries a spoiled brat, that the latter may be helped. It may be that he or she has a good disposition, but was never instructed correctly when young.”

Little differences in the characters or personalities of spouses actually help couples to create a harmonious family, for the one completes the other. In a car it is necessary to use the gas pedal to go forward, but also the brake pedal to stop. If the car only had brakes it wouldn’t go anywhere; and if it only had gears, it wouldn’t be able to stop. Do you know what I said to one couple? “Because you are similar, you don’t match!” They are both sensitive. If something happens at home, both of them lose it and start-up: The one, “Oh, what we suffer!” The other, “Oh, what we suffer!” In other words, the one causes the other to lose hope even more! Neither is able to comfort the other a little by saying, “Hold on, our situation is not that serious”. I’ve seen this in many couples.

When spouses have different personalities it helps in the raising of children even more. One spouse wants to put on the brakes a little, but the other says, “Give the children a little freedom”. If they both are overbearing they will lose their children. If, however, they leave them on their own, again their children will be lost. Therefore, when the parents have different personalities, the children enjoy a certain stability.

What I’m trying to say is that everything is needful. Naturally, one’s personality quirks shouldn’t go beyond their limits. Each spouse should help the other in his own way. If you eat a lot of sweets, you’ll want also to eat something a little salty. Or if you eat, let’s say, lots of grapes, you’ll want a little cheese to cut the sweetness. Vegetables, if they are very bitter, are not eaten. But a little bitterness helps, as does a little sourness. Some people, however, are like this: If someone is sour, he says: “Let everyone become sour like me.” And whoever is bitter says, “Let everyone become bitter.” Likewise, those who are salty say, “Everyone should become salty.” Bridges aren’t built like that!

Source: http://orthodoxinfo.com/praxis/elder-paisios-on-family-life.aspx

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In 2006, a photographic copy of a manuscript was published containing spiritual counsels written by the hand of St. Seraphim of Sarov († 1833) to the then young Hieromonk Anthony (1792-1877), who regularly visited and sought advice from the Saint. In 1831, St. Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow, chose Father Anthony as his spiritual Father and appointed him Rector of the Holy Trinity Lavra near Moscow (the Metropolitan was then Abbot of the Monastery). Father Anthony, as Archimandrite, worthily served the renowned Lavra, and Russian monasticism more generally, for more than forty years, until his saintly repose.

It seems that the original text was found among the personal archives of Father Anthony at the Lavra. We do not have further information regarding either the original or the photographic copy; nevertheless, the Grace-filled spiritual admonitions of the text are wholly consistent with the well-known “Brief Teachings” of St. Seraphim.

A copy of the original handwritten letter and an English translation of the text follow.

Father Seraphim: words written by his own hand.

1. Learn noetic prayer of the heart as the Holy Fathers teach it in the Philokalia; for the Jesus Prayer is a light on our path and a star leading us to Heaven.

2. Learn to practice the Jesus Prayer while breathing in through your nose, with your lips shut; this technique is a scourge against the flesh and carnal desires.

3. Add “through the Theotokos have mercy on me” to the usual Jesus Prayer.

4. Outer prayer alone does not suffice, for God is attentive to the mind. Thus, monks who do not unite outer prayer with inner prayer are not monks, but little black heads.

5. Fear like the fire of Gehenna those painted ravens [women]; for they often transform soldiers of the King into servants of Satan.

6. Keep in mind that the true mandyas of a monk is patient endurance of slander and disparagement with joy; where there are no sorrows, neither is there salvation.

7. Do everything gradually, calmly, and not at once. Virtue is not a pear; it is not devoured in one bite.

Source: http://www.hsir.org/Theology_en/E3d5095AutografSer.pdf

The Orthodox Church, as we confess in the Symbol of Faith (Creed), is Catholic because it holds all of uncovered truth, but also because it encompasses the whole world. It is not restricted to a narrow geographic context, nor does it discriminate between sexes, races and nations. It prays for the whole world and its Divine Liturgy is offered for the universe. The Agiologion includes saints from the entire world. The venerable Seraphim was Russian in origin and yet when we study his life we feel him near us, and consider him one of our own, because we have the same faith and the same tradition.

Fatherless at three years old, he grew up with his mother, who taught him to love prayer and the Divine Liturgy. At seventeen he left for Sarov Monastery and at thirty-five he withdrew into the wilderness, where "winged with divine eros" he lived the blessed life of the desert. He loved prayer and asceticism, obedience, silence and humility, and he gained the Grace of the Holy Spirit. He would say that the purpose of our life was the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, and that the foolish virgins of the parable were left out of the bridal chamber because they did not have the Holy Spirit.

In the wilderness we encounter him associating with a bear, which sat near him like a lamb and he would feed it to the mouth. This is testified by a nun who visited him in order to be advised about a certain problem that occupied her and, as she says, when she saw it she almost had a heart attack. But then she was persuaded to feed the bear and felt great joy.

When someone becomes a true person, that is, when they acquire humility and are filled with the Holy Spirit, then they become as innocent and harmless as a little child and the wild beasts are subdued before them and they obey. Creation before the fall of the first Adam was subject to man. After the fall, however, it rebelled against the apostate. The air did not want to breathe in his nostrils, the wells did not want to gush out their water, and the earth did not want to give its fruit. The beasts changed and their tameness became wildness. However, when a person is sanctified and reaches the state of Adam before the fall, creation is subordinate to him and the wild beasts serve him.

The Apostle Paul says that joy and peace are fruits of the Holy Spirit, and whoever has within them the Grace of the Holy Spirit has peace and joy. We see this verified in the person of the venerable Seraphim in a most unequivocal manner. He was a man with a joyful disposition. He tried and exceeded all of his problems, because he believed that others were not obligated to see him sullen and sulky. He truly rejoiced for the gifts of God, for the conquering of life over death, for the presence of visitors at his "little desert" whom he received with the beloved greeting: "Christ is Risen, my joy!" Certainly he felt sorrow and pain for the sins and sorrows of the people, because he had love, but true joy is something deeper. It doesn't abandon a person even during their greatest trials.

He said about inner peace: "Acquire peace in your soul and thousands of people around you will find peace."

Inside the Church we are struggling as individuals to become persons or, to use another expression, we are trying to become persons so we don't become "sulky". The peace of the soul, a smile and a joyful disposition are directly related to internal regeneration and the Holy Spirit.

By Protopresbyter Fr. George Papavarnavas

Translated by John Sanidopoulos

Source: http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2014/01/saint-seraphim-of-sarov-as-model-for.html

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