Why we abstain from meat during the Cheesefare week?
Cheesefare
Sunday received it's name because the previous week we did not eat meat, but
only dairy products, such as milk, cheese, etc., as well as eggs and fish.
Many find
this rule of the Church to be "unreasonable", saying: "How is
milk of a lamb allowed but not the meat of the lamb, since milk is produced by
the lamb? How are eggs allowed and not chicken, since the first are produced by
the second?"
Of course
these people would have a point, if we maintained that the meat of the lamb or
fowl was tainted and for this reason we do not eat it. Then we should not eat
what is produced by them, since these also would be tainted. But through our
Church no food is tainted. This is what is taught by the apostle Paul in his
First Epistle to Timothy (4:3-5). Rather the Church simply divides food into
greater or lesser consumption towards self-restraint and, at certain times,
allows the one and forbids the other.
An
accurate response towards those who say the above has been answered by
Athanasios of Parios, a wise and important teacher of the Church, when he
writes to a certain doctor:
"You
criticize your friend because during Cheesefare he eats eggs, yet does not eat
the chicken which gives birth to the egg...? But what similarity can be made
between an egg, which is not alive, and a chicken, which is alive? The egg is
much lower than the fowl. And as proof I appeal to your own opinion, that is,
the opinion of a doctor. To whomever is sick and begins to approach the stages
of recovery you prescribe as food small and delicate chicks and not tough fowl.
For what reason do you do this? Because, you say, the fat and greasy foods will
harm him who now begins to recover from his sickness, since his stomach does
not have the strength to endure and digest heavy foods. If therefore there is a
difference between a small chick and a big chicken and the chick is, as a food,
much lower in strength than the chicken, and no doctor has ever said that the
egg of a chick or chicken is the same food or equally suitable for the sick, is
it not clear that unreasonable are those who criticize us for eating eggs and
not fowl?... They criticize us also that we eat olives, but not olive oil, even
though inside the olives is the olive oil. But within grapes is wine also. Yet
however many grapes we eat we will not get drunk; at most we will become
stuffed in our stomachs...."
Besides
this, it is well-known that with olive oil we are able to cook innumerable and
delicious foods, though olives are considered xerophagy (dry foods). Xerophagy
is to not eat cooked foods, but unprepared ones, such as bread with olives or
dry fruit, etc.
By Elder Epiphanios Theodoropoulos
Translated by John Sanidopoulos
Source: http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2011/03/why-only-no-meat-during-cheesefare-week.html
What Does the Chant "Eternal Memory" Mean at Memorial Services?
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
An Orthodox Man Dies while Saving a Homeless Man
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/
St. John Chrysostom as one of the most prolific Church writers
On January 27/February 9 the holy Orthodox
Church celebrates the translation of the relics of the great hierarch and
ecumenical teacher John Chrysostom, archbishop of Constantinople. His name is
known by every Orthodox Christian, as the Divine Liturgy according to the order
of St. John Chrysostom is served in all churches throughout the greater part of
the Church year.
St. John
was born in the middle of the fourth century in Antioch, in the fourth greatest
city of the Roman Empire, in the center of Syria. There he became a priest.
At the
end of the century, in 398, St. John was elected bishop of the
Constantinopolitan see. To some he seemed a severe, withdrawn, and even
stuck-up person. But this was far from true. Rather, he truly was severe—in the
ascetic podvig of abstinence and prayer, withdrawn—he didn’t love entertainment
and idle company, “stuck-up”—in unceasingly holding himself up to the high
measure of the Christian life. He never demanded from others that which he
himself did not do.
St. John
Chrysostom became one of the most prolific Church writers. In the Russian
translation his works take up twenty large volumes, each of which is divided
into two (and some even into three) books. The lion’s share of the hierarch’s
work is oral preaching, copied down by scribes and then edited by St. John
himself.
Continue reading here: http://orthochristian.com/100897.html
Commemoration of the Reposed in the Orthodox Liturgical Tradition
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
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