The Catalog of Good Deeds

When we chant "eternal memory" ("αἰωνία ἡ μνήμη") at the end of Memorial Services and Funerals, it is often falsely assumed that this memory of the departed be preserved on earth not only in the minds of loved ones, but even for many generations after. In fact, however, this hymn is not addressed to the loved ones of the deceased, nor is it addressed to the deceased, nor does it have any mortal purpose, but it is addressed as a prayer to God, who is eternal, on behalf of the departed.

One day the apostles came to Christ with joy saying: "Lord, even the demons submit to us in Your name." Jesus replied: "Do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in the heavens" (Lk. 10:17-20). In other words, Christ told His apostles to not rejoice over something here on earth that bears nothing on their salvation, but to rejoice over the fact that their names are eternally remembered in the kingdom of heaven. Their names are written in what is commonly known in Holy Scripture as the "Book of Life". This is best illustrated in the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man. Poor Lazarus after death is found in God's kingdom, and his name has become eternally remembered, while the miserable rich man lingers in Hades, utterly nameless. The name of a person is their identity.

"Eternal Memory" is equivalent to saying "may you ever be in God's memory." The Church says this prayer so that the deceased "continue" in God's memory. Because if God "forgets" us, if He says "I never knew you" (Matt. 7:23), we are led into spiritual extinction. But if He remembers us, then like the thief on the Cross who asked Christ to remember him, we also will live eternally with Him in Paradise.

According to the Holy Fathers, creation lives and exists spiritually only when it participates in the deifying energies of God. Through this uncreated Grace we continuously receive our spiritual being and the potential for development. And this is natural, since "the divinity is being and creation is non-being" (St. Maximus the Confessor). Therefore, creation exists and has being because it participates in the essence-giving, life-giving, and deifying uncreated Grace of God. As Saint Basil the Great says: "Only two things exist, divinity and creation, the sanctifying power and the sanctified."

The immortality of the soul after death is a given. We could say that it is natural and therefore forced on humans. And the damned exist eternally on the basis of the immortality of the soul, but their existence, precisely because immortality is natural and forced, is a "death". Hell is a "place of the dead," because participation in the deifying and life-giving uncreated Grace of God is absent from those in it. Absent is the necessary relationship with God and therefore the personal identity that creates this relationship. For we must know that the relationship with God, the partaking of the deifying energy of His Grace, is what gives substance to a person and not nature itself. The relationship of a person with God substantiates their nature and they become truly a person.

Many see the salvation of the soul only in light of the fact that they won't be tormented eternally, while salvation is in fact this relationship, this love, our participation in uncreated Grace. The soul, because it is immortal by nature according to the Grace of God, and not immortal by nature in and of itself, has an existential need for existence, to be substantiated in a relationship to a Person, to acquire a personal and eternal identity. And this identity, as we said, is given by God within a relationship that is freely initiated and created by people already in this life within the Church through her Mysteries. If, therefore, we do not create this divine relationship, we will be "deprived" of being in God's memory and "fall" into the "I never knew you." Essentially, this is "spiritual death."

By John Sanidopoulos

Source: www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2015/05/what-does-it-mean-when-we-chant-eternal.html

George Velikanov, an altar-server of the church of the All-Merciful Savior in Moscow, and the former first press secretary of the Orthodox “Mercy” social service, died saving a homeless man who had fallen onto the tracks before the moving train. The parish of the church leant about that from the social networks.

“His death was a real feat! He died fulfilling the commandment of Christ, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends”, says one of the messages published on George’s Facebook page.

Reportedly, the tragedy occurred on January 25 at the Krasnogorskaya train station outside of Moscow. George dragged the homeless man into the station platform, but was himself hit by the train.

The head of the “Mercy” service, Bishop Panteleimon, the Chairman of the Synodal Department for Charity, made a heartfelt statement about George: “An extremely bright man has died. George Velikanov the first press secretary of the Orthodox service “Mercy”. He died a righteous death, trying to save a homeless man on the railway platform. George was a deep, bright, kind person, who was interested in theology and was directly involved in works of charity and mercy. I know that he was going to become a priest.

I express my deep condolences to his wife, his parents, and all the friends and relatives of our dear George. I am praying for the repose of the servant of God George. May God grant him the Kingdom of Heaven. Memory eternal”.

George Velikanov graduated from the Theological Department of St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University for the Humanities. He was a historian and an author of theological articles. He served in the choir and in the altar at the aforementioned Church of the All-Merciful Savior. He was actively engaged in helping people in need, in particular, he was a volunteer and helped adults with disabilities in psychoneurological boarding home. George worked as the Mercy press secretary from 2011 to 2012.

The staff of the “Mercy” service, the Synodal Department for Charity and the editorial team of Miloserdie.ru express their deep condolences to the family and friends of George.

Source: https://www.miloserdie.ru/news/altarnik-moskovskogo-hrama-pogib-spasaya-bezdomnogo/

How can we help our loved ones who have departed this life? Hieromonk Job (Gumerov) talks about the commemoration of the dead.

According to Orthodox teaching, through the prayers of the Church the dead can receive relief or freedom from their punishments beyond the grave. “Anyone who wishes to show his love for those who have died and give them real help can do this in the best way by praying for them, and especially by commemoration at the Liturgy, when a particle removed [from the prosphora, or communion bread] for the living and the dead is immersed in the Blood of the Lord with the words, ‘O Lord, take away the sins of those whom we commemorate here by Thy precious Blood, through the prayers of Thy saints’” (St. John [Maximovich], Life afer Death.)

In keeping with this the Church has established special services:

1. Prayers commemorating the dead at Divine Liturgy (at the proskomedia, after the sanctification of the Holy Gifts, and at the litany for the dead).

2. Pannikhidas and litias.

3. Reading of the Psalter.

In order of significance, the commemoration at the proskomedia and after the sanctification of the Holy Gifts stands above the rest. The outstanding expert in Church service rubrics St. Athanasius (Sakharov) writes, “The commemoration of the living and the reposed at the proskomedia and after the sanctification of the Gifts, albeit unspoken, for its significance, power, and effectiveness cannot be compared with any other commemoration prayers—prayers for the living, Pannikhidas, or any other pious labors in memory of the living or the dead. It cannot be compared with spoken commemoration at the same Liturgy at the great and augmented litanies (which are allowed in some places) and at the special litanies for the reposed” (On the commemoration of the dead according to the rubrics of the Orthodox Church).

At every proskomedia, one of the prosphora used in the service (the fifth, in the Russian practice) is offered particularly for the dead. It is necessary to regularly give lists of names at the proskomedia. We can also order daily commemorations at the Liturgy for forty days, a half-year, or a year.

The Church has established special commemorative Saturdays, which have been named ancestor Saturdays: Before Meatfare Sunday (that is, before the fast-free Cheesefare week), before the feast of the Holy Trinity (Pentecost), before the day of St. Demetrios of Thessalonica, and on the second, third, and fourth Saturdays of Great Lent. Every Orthodox Christian should strive to fulfill his duty before his parents and other departed relatives and submit lists of names at the Liturgy and Pannikhida served on these days. “Pannikhida” (Greek: pan—“all” and nikh—“night”) literally means “all night service”. This name is given to the prayer service for the reposed because its composition resembles a part of the All-Night Vigil service, and also because in the early days of the Church, during the time of persecutions, it was served at night, like the All-Night Vigil. Any [Orthodox] person can order a Pannikhida for his departed relatives. This is most often ordered on days that are special for the reposed persons (their name days or anniversary of their day of death).

Sometimes people want to know why we [at Sretenky Monastery] ask not to submit long lists. This is only because the serving priest’s possibilities are very limited. He has to commemorate hundreds and hundreds (on feast days over a thousand) names at the proskomedia, which lasts only 30–40 minutes. During this time he must also commemorate those names written in the church’s synodic (commemoration books for the living and the dead). If he were to commemorate them all at the litany, it would take up a third of the Liturgy, which would disrupt the good order of the service. Those who wish to commemorate their relatives can do so themselves during the time that the priest is serving the proskomedia by reading their own commemoration books. The brother of St. Nikon (Belyaev), John, when he was a novice with St. Barsanuphius, recalled that in the Optina Skete of St. John the Forerunner there were huge commemoration books in which were entered the names of benefactor and their families for many decades. Strictly according to the rule, in the altar there would be only the serving priest, a hierodeacon, and a sexton. The elders blessed all the brothers to read the commemoration books not in the altar but in the church, while the proskomedia was being served. He writes that earlier he would submit lists of names, but later he also began reading them during the proskomedia. So also can any person in church read commemoration lists that were not submitted due to the large number of names. We have to believe that the merciful Lord, Who sees our circumstances, will accept this prayerful request for the living and the dead. We can also read our prayer books while the priest or deacon is pronouncing the litany for the living and the dead.

From deep antiquity there has also been the tradition of commemorating at home. Those who want to fulfill their duty before their reposed relatives can regularly read the Psalter. Some read a kathisma every day, others with a specific regularity. The commemoration of the living and the dead is also a part of the Morning Prayer rule.

Close relatives of the reposed (especially children and grandchildren, i.e, immediate family) have the great opportunity to help their departed ancestors—to manifest fruits of spiritual life (to live in the prayerful experience of the Church, participate in the holy Sacraments, to live according to Christ’s commandments). Although our ancestor may not have grown these fruits themselves, but their children and grandchildren did, they (the departed ancestors) are participants in these fruits as the root or trunk of the tree. Just how great this help is even for relatives who lived outside the Church we know from the letters of St. Ambrose of Optina to Count Alexei P. Tolstoy. A mullah was baptized in his house church. The great elder wrote on this occasion, “The baptism of this mullah, the conversion to Christianity of the Lezgin [a nation in the Caucasus Mountains] Assan, the reception into the Church of an Abyssinian, and several similar examples has given us the thought that God also honors various tribes and peoples with various errors relative to the one true Divinity; because although it happens rarely, from almost all existing tribes in different times people have converted to true Christianity… This means that if out of the darkness of impiety one has turned to the Lord, then this is sufficient for the Lord; and for the sake of this one convert, He will honor the whole generation [i.e., lineage] that produced him” (Collected Letters [Moscow, 1995], 7).

“The lot of the departed is not considered decided until the general Last Judgment. Until then, we cannot consider anyone as finally judged; and on the basis of this we pray, convinced in our hope in God’s immeasurable mercy!” (St. Theophan the Recluse, Collected Letters, v. 6, letter 948).

By Hieromonk Job (Gumerov)

Source: http://www.pravoslavie.ru/101172.html

How would you respond to someone who destroyed or defaced a picture of one of your loved ones? You would probably be very upset with that person, for how we treat images of people indicates what we think of them. If we dishonor someone’s picture, we dishonor that person. But if we treat images with care and respect, we honor the person whose image it is.

On this Sunday of the Last Judgment, we remember that every human being is created in the image and likeness of God. There is no avoiding what that means: How we treat others is how we treat the Lord. Every person is a living icon, and how we treat them reveals the true nature of our relationship with Jesus Christ.

That is why He taught in today’s gospel reading that the ultimate standard of judgment is how we treat those whom it is so easy to disregard: the hungry, the stranger, the naked, the sick, and the prisoner. To the extent that we serve these people, we serve our Lord. To the extent that we ignore them, we neglect and denigrate Him. Christ says to the righteous, “In that you did it to the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.” And He says to those headed for punishment, “In that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.”

We learn from this passage that the health or sickness of souls is manifested—is shown—in what we do every day as we encounter those whose life circumstances require sacrifice on our part for their well-being. Contrary to popular opinion, the Christian life is not some kind of pious escape from the unpleasant challenges of life, but a vocation to take up our crosses as we become living icons of our Lord’s love and mercy, especially for those whose challenges are in no way attractive or congenial to us.

It is hard to hear, but nonetheless true: How we treat the living icons of Christ manifests the true nature of our relationship with Him, regardless of what we say we believe. St. John wrote in his Epistle, “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?” (1 John 4:20) He also writes, “But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” (1 John 3: 17-18)

It is easy in a place such as Abilene, TX, to be a Christian in word only, for it usually costs us very little here to say that we believe in Jesus Christ. But that is only a matter of words which are rarely challenged in West Texas. It is much more demanding to be so united with Christ that we convey His love and mercy to everyone in our lives, especially those whose problems we would rather ignore. All the more is that the case when we notice that the righteous people in our gospel text were not even aware that they were caring for the Lord when they served those in need. They spontaneously showed love and mercy to their needy neighbors simply because that is the kind of people they were. That is how they served Christ without even knowing what they were doing.

If you are like me, you are a long way from meeting that standard of holiness. It is so easy to excuse ourselves from helping others because we have more important things to do. We say we are too busy and do not have enough resources. We think that other people’s problems are their fault and their concern, not ours. We like to avoid the truth that we really do encounter Christ in our neighbors, especially when they are annoying, demanding, and unappreciative.

Of course, we do not have to be wealthy or even healthy in order to give someone a call or otherwise express friendship. It does not require a lot of money to read to a child or to visit someone in a nursing home. A homebound person can send a note or email message or make a phone call. Even with Lenten fasting, many can donate blood and save someone’s life. Everyone can put at least something into the “Food for Hungry People” containers that we will distribute during Lent. No matter how young or old we are, we interact with people who need our companionship, our encouragement, and our prayers. Instead of ignoring them, we must treat them as Christ treats us, showing mercy and love even when we are more annoying, demanding, and unappreciative than we know.

It sounds so easy, but we all know how hard it is in practice. And that is precisely why we need the spiritual disciplines of Great Lent, such as fasting, prayer, almsgiving, forgiveness, and reconciliation. For when we humble ourselves before God and our neighbors in these ways, we open ourselves to the holy strength that conquers even death itself. When we turn our attention from obsessive self-centeredness to the love of God and neighbor, we take a crucial step toward the healing of our souls.

As much as we do not like to hear it, the person whose life circumstances we find to be revolting bears the image of God. Christ died and rose again for those whom we are inclined to condemn, disregard, and ignore. And, no, our lives will not be destroyed if our plans, schedules, routines, and agendas are put on hold or replaced by those a Kingdom not of this world. Since our goal is to enter that Kingdom, we should not be surprised when we experience discomfort and struggle in serving a Savior Whom the world rejected.

Even as St. Paul, in addressing whether Christians should eat meat that had been sacrifice to pagan idols, said that “if food makes by brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble,” we must undertake our Lenten disciplines so that we will find the spiritual strength not to cause others to stumble, especially by failing to show them the love and concern due to every living icon of the Lord. His ultimate judgment will be to confirm the state of our souls, to confirm who we have become through our thoughts, words, and deeds. Regardless of whether we have the eyes to see it, our daily actions shape us profoundly and have eternal consequences.

As we prepare for our Lenten journey, we should remember that fasting is not simply a change in diet, but a tool that can help us fight passions that keep us from serving Christ in our neighbors. When done in secret and with humility, fasting weakens the self-centeredness that keeps us from sharing God’s love with others. It is therapy for the healing of our souls that frees us to serve Christ in our neighbors more fully. Since they all bear the image and likeness of God, how we treat them is how we treat Him.

If you are like me, you really need the spiritual disciplines of Lent to help you serve Jesus Christ more faithfully. And if you wonder how to serve Him, just think about the sick, lonely, poor, and otherwise needy people you know. As St. James wrote in his epistle, “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” (James 1:27) Surely, that is the Lord’s will for us all this Lent and every day of our lives. If we live that way, then His judgment will confirm that we have shown others the same gracious mercy that we have received from Him. For since He has loved and served us so profoundly through His cross and glorious resurrection, then we must love and serve Him in all who bear His image and likeness. For even the most miserable and lowly human being is truly a living icon of Jesus Christ. Lent will help us gain the spiritual vision to see that glorious truth.

By Fr. Philip LeMasters

Source: https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/easternchristianinsights/2016/03/05/780/

Question: What does St Paul mean when he says "Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law" (1 Corinthians 14:34)? Does this mean that women cannot direct or sing in the choir?

Answer: Interpreting this passage is complicated by the fact that it is in the context of a discussion of how speaking in tongues and prophecy were to be handled during the services of the Church, and yet because of the abuse of these practices by those who were suffering from spiritual delusion, the Church ceased to allow such things to be done in the context of the services altogether. Furthermore, because women who claimed to have the gift of prophecy were very prominent in the Montanist heresy (which began in the second century), in many of the comments about this passage you find in the Fathers, they are using it polemically. And so it may be that polemics led some to take the view that this passage means that women should refrain not only from speaking in prophecy or singing audibly in the Church, but even from praying audibly. However, this view was not unanimously held.

St. Paul said earlier in the same epistle: "But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven" (1 Corinthians 11:5), and here he makes no suggestion that they should not pray or prophesy in Church... only that they should not do so without their heads uncovered. St. John Chrysostom points out:

"For there were, as I said, both men who prophesied and women who had this gift at that time, as the daughters of Philip, (Acts 21:9) as others before them and after them: concerning whom also the prophet spake of old: “your sons shall prophesy, and your daughters shall see visions” (c.f. Joel 2:28 and Acts 2:17 -- from Homily 26 on 1 Corinthians).

In his 37th homily on 1 Corinthians (which covers 14:34), he says that the prohibition is directed against women speaking "idly," or "inconsiderately" (i.e. out of the proper order discussed earlier in chapter 14), but he does not suggest that the statement prohibits women who had the gift of prophecy from prophesying in Church.

The context of chapter 14 is about the proper order that should prevail when people either spoke in tongues or prophesied... and there is a previous instance in which St. Paul speaks of keeping silence:

"If any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two, or at the most by three, and that by course; and let one interpret. But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church; and let him speak to himself, and to God (1 Corinthians 14:27-8).

Clearly in this case, St. Paul is not making an absolute ban on such a person speaking in Church -- he is only forbidding him to speak in tongues if there is no one to interpret (in which case no one else would receive any edification). And so the silence is with regard to speaking out of good order.

Then St. Paul again speaks of keeping silent:

"Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge. But if anything is revealed to another who sits by, let the first keep silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged. And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints" (1 Corinthians 14:29-33).

When it speaks of letting the others judge, this suggests that after a person would prophesy, others would comment on it -- most likely this would have been done by those who had charge of the Church (certainly an Apostle, if present, and the local bishop, presbyters, and deacons). Probably some would ask questions about what was said. It is in both of these respects that St. Paul is telling women to keep silence, and if they had questions to ask their husbands about it later -- but this meant keeping silence with regard to these specific things. And St. John Chrysostom's comments about refraining from idle talk were certainly also applicable here.

Of course, in our context, we would not allow either a man or a women to speak in tongues or prophesy in the context of a service, but the point is that the statement that women should keep silence was not an absolute prohibition against women praying audibly or singing.

St. Ephrem the Syrian actually formed women choirs in Edessa (see "Spoken Words, Voiced Silence: Biblical Women in Syriac Tradition, by Susan Ashbrook Harvey). According to Fr. Robert Taft (a noted historian of Eastern Liturgics), there was also a woman's choir in the Hagia Sophia (Interview of Sister Vassa Larin, "Orthodoxy is not a Religion of Fear").

There are also long standing traditions of congregational singing, such as among the Carpatho-Russians, which obviously included women in the singing. And those who have grown up in that context will tell you that this was one of the most powerful aspects of parish life.

Furthermore, women have been singing in mixed choirs and even directing choirs in the Russian Church for a very long time now, and saints, such as St. John of Shanghai have not only raised no objections to it, but have blessed it to be so. So while one may make a case against women singing on the basis of the comments of some Fathers, the fact that the Church has allowed it, and that this has been without any controversy, and with the blessing of many saints should restrain anyone from making dogmatic arguments against the practice.

It is also a fact that without women singers and choir directors, many parishes would be hard pressed to pull off a decent service, and so even if you could make the argument that in an ideal world, choirs would consist of only tonsured male readers, the problem remains that we do not live in such an ideal world, and have to use the resources that we have. St. Paul's concern in his first epistle to the Corinthians was that "all things be done decently, and in good order" (1 Corinthians 14:40). If our interpretation of his admonitions leads us to the opposite effect, then I would suggest this means we are misreading him on some level.

When a baby girl is baptized, she is Churched. And in that service, the priest brings her into the middle of the Church and says "In the midst of the church shall she sing praises unto Thee" (c.f. Psalm 21[22]:22). It is hard to imagine why we would say this if we did not intend that it should actually happen.

By Fr. John Whiteford

Source: http://fatherjohn.blogspot.com.by/2015/11/stump-priest-women-singing-in-church.html

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