The Catalog of Good Deeds

This month we consider the important task of parenting. As we consider the demanding responsibilities, rewards, and challenges of parenting today, it is worthwhile to reflect upon parental models that inspire confidence and faith. In this effort, we are aided by numerous examples of parents in the Holy Scriptures. These figures are distinguished certainly by their dedication to God, but even more so by their commitment to providing lifelong spiritual nurture and care to their children so that they may mature, discern, and follow the will of God for their own lives.

Archbishop Demetrios of America

Consider for example the story of Esther and her uncle Mordecai, who raised Esther as his very own daughter. Having become queen in a foreign land through an unusual turn of events, Esther had a difficult time reconciling her role in relation to her Jewish identity. In the midst of a dramatic crisis, and in a state of confusion and considerable anxiety concerning the fate of her people, Mordecai's words of counsel to Esther to discern the will of God for her own life were penetrating: "Who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:14)

This parental responsibility of providing spiritual nurture and care to one's children repeats itself as a theme in numerous other examples of parenting in the Holy Scriptures. Here, another fitting illustration is the story of Hannah, the mother of Samuel, which is recounted in the first two chapters of I Samuel (Septuagint I Kings). Hannah's lifelong nurturing of her son imbued him with a love for the Lord that was both pure and strong. Accordingly, in the midst of others who served false gods, Samuel served the Lord, even as a child (cf. I Samuel 2:12-18). Samuel found favor with the Lord and with others, eventually coming of age to live out the special and unique purpose that God had planned for him and his people.

From these two examples in the Old Testament we catch a glimpse of the profound effect of a parental figure upon a child. Similar other examples abound in number throughout the Holy Scriptures, such as Abraham and Isaac, Jesse and David, and Elizabeth and John the Baptist, to name a few. Each of these examples is rich in content, capable of serving as welcome passages for your own regular reading of the Bible as a family. The important element held in common by each of these examples, however, is their contemporary application to the challenges of modern parenting.

In our contemporary world, the need for sustained parental guidance continues to be pronounced. As parents and persons who are called to fulfill parental roles, the task of providing spiritual nurture to our children and loved ones is manifold. As with Mordecai, this task involves the offering of sound counsel that emphasizes being open to God's will. As with Hannah, it presumes that in order to discern God's will for our lives and the lives of our children, we need to be living our own lives in prayer. As Orthodox Christians, healthy and effective parenting also presumes that we live our lives in close connection with God. Finally, providing spiritual care to our children and loved ones necessitates our elevating the inherent dignity of the child. This involves our careful balance of setting limits that allow our children to grow in moral integrity, while also recognizing that God calls every child to grow independently as persons with a unique purpose in life.

As you gather as families, I encourage each of you to reflect upon these and other examples through regular reading of the Bible as a family. These examples inspire confidence in our own abilities as parents. They encourage us to be faithfully devoted to God and to be fully committed to providing spiritual care and nurture to our children and loved ones, even in the face of uncertainty, confusion, doubt, or anxiety. At the same time, these examples remind us that while contemporary parenting is replete with challenges, it is also replete with a myriad of rewards and blessings. It is my heartfelt prayer that the peace of Almighty God may be with you and may give you strength as you contemplate these challenges, rewards, and blessings in your own lives as parents and as persons called to be givers of care.

By Archbishop Demetrios of America

Source: https://www.goarch.org/-/archpastoral-reflections-july-2005

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/

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Parental Responsibility of Providing Spiritual Nurture to Their Children

A Perspective on the Authenticity of Orthodox Church Music

The Life of Holy New Martyr Peter, Metropolitan of Krutitsa

Honest Friendship: An Orthodox Christian Perspective

Archaeologists Believe to Have Found and Ancient Reliquary of St. John the Apostle

The Theologian in Silence: Analyzing the Icon of St. John the Theologian

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