The Catalog of Good Deeds

Collectively, Australians speak over 200 languages. Other than English, the most common languages spoken today are Chinese, Italian, Greek and Arabic. So many cultures and so many beliefs! Christianity is the most commonly reported religion (52.1% of the population). The Islamic population with 2.6% of the total population is the second largest religion, closely followed by Buddhism (2.4%). However, as many as 30% of Australians reported that they had ‘no religion’. How can we preserve our Orthodox Christian Faith in such a multicultural society?

In a MONOcultural society, where everyone adheres to one culture, one language and one religion, it is much easier to just do what the others do, to believe what the others believe and to be one of the group. In a monocultural society you may even be an outcast if you do not follow the main group and its beliefs. In some ways, it is like being a boat, safe in a protected harbour.

However, in a MULTIcultural society, it is like being out in the open ocean. In a multicultural society, you are exposed to every possible belief and you need to make the right choices. You need to be conscious and sure of your identity and you have to constantly work to cultivate and nurture it. You must be strong in who you are. In our multicultural society we are invited to search for the spiritual and divine Truth amongst many options that parade as truth, but which are falsehoods.

So again, I ask myself, how can we preserve our Orthodox Christian Faith in such a multicultural society? The truth is that we only preserve something if we think it is of value to us. Our Faith, our belief in the one true God, must be something we value. If it is, then we naturally protect it, nurture it and grow it. We do this by using prayer, reading, Holy Communion, acts of charity, Confession, liturgical life and fasting. Is this you? Keep going! You are on the right path.

However, if you do not value your Faith, it will be impossible to preserve it. In fact, you probably do not even have the desire to preserve it. The evidence is that you probably do not want to connect with God, you cannot be bothered worshipping or even learning about Him, and you find excuses to justify your sins. If this is you, then you are like a rudderless boat in the open sea. Any fake and false belief can sweep you away and you will be lost. If this is you and you realise that you are in danger, but you really want to change, then you must start building up your faith.

First, ask God for help. Start with a small program of prayer and some easy spiritual reading each day. Then build up slowly. Keep company with people who have the same faith and practice. Find a spiritual father, a priest confessor, to coach you how to reconnect with our Lord. Ask him how to receive Holy Communion to give you strength to keep going. Slowly, slowly your faith will become stronger and even though you live in a multicultural, multi-faith society, you will ‘stand firm’. You will know God. You will know your identity. You will be at peace. It is indeed possible, desirable and beneficial to preserve your Orthodox Christian Faith in a multicultural society.

Source: https://www.lychnos.org/how-do-we-preserve-our-orthodox-faith-in-a-multicultural-society/

We continue to publish the materials of Spas TV program My Path To God, where Priest George Maximov interviews people who converted to Orthodoxy. The guest of today’s program is Archpriest Lev Semyonov. He was baptized at a mature age, but all the years before his baptism he always considered himself Christian. After taking interest in their interpretation of the Bible, he joined the Unification Church … How did he, a Unificationist preacher and one of the leaders of the Russian division of this sect manage to separate the truth from lies? Is it difficult to quit a sect and why? What should you do if your close friend has joined a sect? What are the things you should never do in this situation? These are the questions that we will be discussing with Father Lev in today’s program.

Priest George Maximov: Hello! You are watching My Path To God. The guest of today’s program is Archpriest Lev Semyonov, Senior Lecturer, Doctoral Candidate of Historical Sciences, and head of the Spiritual Enlightenment Center of St. Tikhon Orthodox University of Humanities. I will tell you right away that Father Lev spent several years of his life in the Unification Church, a religious organization founded by Sun Myung Moon. Moreover, he held a high-ranking position in this organization, working as Deputy Chairman of the Council of the Russian Division. We will talk to him about this, but we should probably start from the very beginning.

Archpriest Lev Semyonov: Thank you, Father George, for making it easier for me. My religious quest dates back to my childhood and youth. Without discussing them, it would be difficult to understand how I could make that fateful mistake and lost six and a half years of my life as an adult.

As you suggested, I will briefly tell you about my distant childhood. I was born to a family of teachers and physicians. At that time, speaking about religion was not customary; moreover, it could be dangerous. I was an only child, so in a way I was spoiled. Unfortunately, I did not receive any religious education when I was a child. Although, a certain inherent affinity for learning about something empyreal manifested in me in my very early years. Nevertheless, I was ignorant in the matters of religion. For example, when I was five or six years old, I was passing by a church and saw a beggar asking for alms and making the sign of the cross. I didn’t know the meaning of that sign. I wanted to find out what it meant, but since my parents never talked about the Church, I intuitively would not dare to touch upon this subject and ask them about it. Instead, this was how I explained it to myself: This man is asking for alms and probably wants to show that he needs help, so he uses this gesture to show where it hurts. This story may seem amusing on one hand, but on the other hand, it is sad as it shows my absolute ignorance in the matters of faith.

Now let’s talk about the time when I was 17. It was the spring of 1963. I was looking for something in an old, early twentieth century oak bookcase. It was huge, and books on the shelves were placed in three rows. This is very good in terms of capacity, but extremely inconvenient when you want to get a book from the second or the third row. The advantage of this bookcase was that it allowed my parents to hide the books that they for some reason didn’t want to leave in plain sight. Once when I was looking for a book in the third row on the top shelf, I noticed a book that I never saw my parents read. It was a very nicely made book in morocco binding with golden edges and a golden cross embossed on the cover. When I opened the book, I saw that it was the Gospel.

The text was arranged in two columns: in Church Slavonic and in Russian. That was the first time I held the Holy Scripture in my hands. Standing on the stool that I used to get to the top shelf, I started reading it from the very beginning. As at that time the questions of faith were quite foreign to me, Jesus Christ’s lineage that is described in the beginning of the Gospel didn’t seem interesting, but when I read further, I understood that this wasn’t something you read standing on a stool, it was something that required your full attention. Thankfully, there was nobody in the house on that day, so I climbed off the stool and kept reading until I finished all four Gospels.

Father George: What was your impression?

Father Lev: This was a turning point in my life. It shocked and amazed me. I was overwhelmed with the knowledge about this new, totally different way of life! It was a different reality, a different meaning of life. When my parents came home from work, I was so overwhelmed with juvenile naivety and enthusiasm that I made them sit on the sofa while I read the Gospel to them: “Just listen to this!” I kept on reading the book to them throughout the week until they heard all four Gospels.

Then I said something that shocked them. Remember, it was the spring of 1963, Khruschev was in power and persecution of the Church was at its peak. Amid all this, a 17-year old boy, after reading the Gospel of John, announced to his parents, “I have decided to become a priest, and so this summer I want to go a seminary to get proper education…” In response, they launched, so to say, the counter-propaganda campaign. They explained why I should not be doing this. Now, half a century later, I can understand my parents’ motives. I was their only son and, given the existing situation, they wanted a different future for me. They thought that perhaps I should be involved in some research. They thought that becoming a priest was dangerous and tried to talk me out of it in any way they could.

When they exhausted all their reasoning and saw that I was not giving up, they came up with their last argument that was irrefutable in my perception. They said, “Ok, Lev, you are turning a deaf ear to what we’re saying and you don’t care about your future. But have you thought about us? You are our only son. If you become a priest, people will wonder how we, a deputy principal at school and a physician in the hospital, could raise our only son to become a priest?” They won’t let us work long enough to be eligible to receive pension. We hoped that when you gain your footing, you’d be helping us and we will have some sustenance in our old age… If you go ahead with this, we will be blacklisted.” Under the existing conditions, this forecast was quite realistic. A person would be better off working as a night guard in a kindergarten, than being a deputy principal accused of bringing up her son so that he decided to study in a seminary. Alas, these were the times my generation grew up in. I hope that today’s youth wouldn’t forget about that period, because there is a lesson to be learned from those dangerous times and it is important to prevent those circumstances from happening again.

I couldn’t fend off this argument, because while I could decide my own destiny, I could not let my parents down. As a result, I made a decision that seemed a compromise to me: I decided to study the history of the Church and Christianity at the historical faculty. And I did.

This story about my journey is too long, so I’ll skip dozens of years and tell you what happened when I was 44. It was 1990. I was already a Candidate of Historical Sciences and a Senior Lecturer. I was delivering lectures at the university on such subjects as ancient history, the history of the world culture and religious studies. One day they summoned me to the rector’s office and the first pro-rector of the university suggested that I should go to some conference. He said, “Considering the subject of the presentations, this is right up your alley, something to do with religion.” It was an international conference, by the way, held in Sofia.

Father George: Father Lev, how did you perceive yourself at that time? Did you consider yourself a Christian, a religious person?

Continue reading here: http://orthochristian.com/93202.html

The joyousness which accompanies the performance of the Divine Liturgies of St. Basil the Great and St. John Chrysostom was regarded by the early Church as not suitable for the penitential season of the Great Fast. For this reason, the Synod in Laodicea (363 AD) forbade the performance of the Divine Liturgies during the Great Lent. except on Saturday, Sunday, the Feast of the Annunciation, and Holy Thursday.

The Christians of that time were in the habit of receiving Holy Communion almost daily and now were deprived of the strengths derived from Holy Communion for about a week. The greatly saddened them.

The Church, desiring Her children to continue their pious habit of daily receiving the Holy Communion, permitted its reception but from Holy Gifts that had been consecrated in a preceding Liturgy. Thus the Liturgy of Presanctified Gifts was formed, and was celebrated on evenings from Monday through Friday during Great Lent; there is no consecration of the Sacred Elements at the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, but those who desire to communicate receive the Holy Gifts which have been consecrated at the previous Divine Liturgy. The Christians did not eat anything all day.

It received its present form from St. Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome in the sixth century. It became a Canon at the Quinisext Council in 692 AD. The Canon reads:

On all days of the holy fast of Great Lent, except on the Sabbath (i.e. Saturday), and the Lord's Day (i.e. Sunday) and the holy day of the Annunciation, the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is to be served (Canon 52, Quinisect Council, 692 AD).

As the years passed, however, the Christians unfortunately lost their original zeal and ignored the benefits from Holy Communion, and so they did not receive it every day or even every Sunday. They received it at long intervals. Therefore the Liturgy of Presanctified Gifts lost its original and main meaning to those celebrating it. Today, it is used only during the Great Fast, on Wednesdays and Fridays; on Thursday in the fifth week of Great Fast; and on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in Passion (Holy) Week.

The Liturgy of Presanctified Gifts consists of Vespers, with special Prayers together with a portion of the Divine Liturgy, omitting its most important part, the consecration of the Holy Gifts; and the Third, Sixth and Ninth Hours (with the Typical Psalms) are used in a particular manner at the beginning.

The Sacred Elements, consecrated at the Divine Liturgy on Saturdays and Sundays, are preserved on the holy Altar in the tabernacle. The priest places the Gifts on the diskos with prayer and incensing after the Great Litany, during the chanting of the psalms (kathisma). He carries them in solemn procession around the back of the Altar, and to the Table of Oblation.

The evening psalm, Lord I call upon You, is then sung with the special hymns for the day. This is followed with the evening entrance, the hymn Gladsome Light, and two Biblical readings; from Genesis and from Proverbs. The Bible readings are punctuated by the Priest blessing the faithful with the censer and a lighted candle proclaiming "The Light of Christ illumines all!". This blessing symbolises the light of Christ's Resurrection, which illumines the Old Testament Scriptures and the entire life of mankind. This is the very Light with which Christians are illuminated in the life of the Church through Holy Baptism.

The Prayer of St. Ephraim is read after the singing of the evening psalm "Let my prayer rise in Your sight as incense. The augmented litany is chanted, and the Presanctified Gifts are brought solemnly and to the altar table. This is when the following special entrance hymn is chanted:

Now the powers of heaven do serve invisibly with us.

Lo, the King of Glory enters.

Lo, the mystical sacrifice is upborne, fulfilled.

Let us draw near in faith and love, and become communicants of life eternal.

Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.

The Prayer of St. Ephraim is read again, accompanied with a litany and a special prayer before Holy Communion (Eucharist). "Our Father Who art in heaven ..." is sung and the faithful receive Holy Communion to the singing of:

"O taste and see that the Lord is good. Alleluia"

The communicants "depart in peace" with thanksgiving to God for His Coming. The special dismissal prayer asks God for a successful fulfillment of Lent and to worthily celebrate the Great Feast of Pascha - the Resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord.

O Almighty Lord ... Who has brought us to these all-holy days for the purification of the soul and body, for the controlling of carnal passions ... and the hope of the resurrection ... enable us to fight the good fight, to accomplish the course of the Fast, to preserve inviolate the Faith ... to be accounted victors over sin ... and uncondemned, to attain unto and to adore Thy Holy Resurrection...

The evening reception of Communion is fulfilled after a day of prayer and fasting, with the total abstinence from food and drink at least from the early morning hours of the day - not an easy task.

The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is one of the great masterpieces of Orthodox piety and liturgical creativity. It reveals the central Christian doctrine and experience in its form and content; namely that our life must be spent in prayer and fasting in order to be in communion with Christ who will come like 'a thief in the night'. It tells us that all of our life, and not only on fast periods, is completed with the Presence of the Victorious Christ who is risen from the dead. It witnesses to the fact that Christ will come at the end of the ages to judge the living and the dead, and to establish God's Kingdom "of which there will be no end". It tells us that we must be ready for His arrival, and to be found watching and serving; in order to be worthy to "enter into the joy of the Lord".

The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is one of the most beautiful and meaningful liturgies in the Orthodox Christian Church.

Adapted from Fr Thomas Hopko's Orthodox Church in America

and Fr Nicholas M. Elias's Greek Orthodox Church, Athens

Source: http://www.orthodoxchristian.info/pages/Gifts.htm

As this Divine Liturgy (really Vespers with the communing of the faithful) is served only on weekdays during Great Lent, prostrations are done by the faithful at various parts of the service. This little pamphlet is designed to help you understand when prostrations are done, as well as explain a few of the interesting anomalies of this Divine Service.

- Prostrations are done when you enter the Church. Rather than just crossing yourself three times when entering you in fact cross yourself and prostrate yourself to the ground three times upon entering.

- When lighting candles and kissing the icons prostrations are done as well. Two prostrations following by the kissing of the icon, the placing of your candle, and finally a third prostration before the icon.

- When the curtain is closed (following the third Small Ektenia), all the faithful (except for the one person reading the psalms) prostrate themselves to the ground. They do not arise until the curtain has again been opened.

- After the first reading from the Old Testament the priest opens the Royal Doors and says “The Light of Christ Enlightens All!” As he blesses the faithful with the candle the faithful (including the Reader) make a prostration to the ground.

- During the singing of “Let my prayer arise…” the faithful and the singers prostrate themselves. The faithful prostrate themselves while the TRIO is singing (in some parishes the trio actually sings in the middle of the church on its knees). The trio prostrates itself while the CLERGY are singing. The people stand while the clergy are singing.

- During the two readings of the Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian (after “Let my prayer arise…” and after the Great Entrance) the faithful prostrate themselves as does the priest.

- During the Great Entrance the faithful prostrate themselves as the Holy Gifts are brought out of the altar. They remain prostrate until the priest says quietly “With faith and love let us draw near…”

- When the Holy Gifts are brought out of the altar for the Communion of the faithful and the priest says “With the fear of God and faith draw near!” the faithful prostrate themselves.

- After the Communion of the faithful, when the priest again brings out the Holy Gifts and says “Always, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages!” the faithful prostrate themselves.

- If the Presanctified Liturgy is served on any day but Friday the faithful do three prostrations as they exit the church (except for those who have communed). If it is Friday we cross ourselves three times as usual, without prostrations.

The question, of course, arises as to why we are doing so many prostrations at the Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. As we usually attend church services on Saturday nights and Sunday mornings when prostrations are forbidden, we feel a bit odd prostrating ourselves on the floor in the Church. However, we do prostrations on almost all days throughout the year except on Sundays. When we prostrate ourselves before the Holy Gifts we express our belief that the Holy Bread and the Holy Wine are truly the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is, we bow down before God Himself.

A few other practical tips regarding the Presanctified Liturgy:

-There is no prosphora offered at the Presanctified Liturgy. As there is no consecration of the Body and Blood of Christ at this service (the Gifts were PRESANCTIFIED at the Liturgy on Sunday), there is no prosphora offered.

- Infants who do not eat solid foods do no commune at this service according to the ancient tradition of the Church. There is a long explanation to this practice. Please see Fr. Gregory if you would like to learn more.

- The cross is not held by the priest following the service. Again, this is an ancient practice of the Church and reminds us of the penitential character of Great Lent.

- The priest commemorates the saints from both the day of the Presanctified Liturgy and the day following, since the Liturgy is actually a Vespers service and it encompasses aspects of both days.

How to make a Prostration

Frederica Mathewes-Green

To make a prostration we make the sign of the cross on ourselves, kneel, place our hands on the floor and touch our foreheads down between our hands.

One former Episcopal priest said that seeing people prostrate themselves was one of the things that made him most eager to become Orthodox. He thought, "That's how we should be before God."

How to make a Prostration

“Orthodox America”

Prostrations are less awkward and less physically taxing if made in the following manner. Keeping the feet together, bend slightly and fall "lightly" to the floor, onto the hands, positioning them at a comfortable distance in front of the knees (which touch the ground only after the hands) to allow one to spring back up to a standing position, after lightly touching the head to the floor. It takes very little practice to master this technique, which requires surprisingly little physical stamina.

Source: http://www.stvladimiraami.org/pamphlets/presanctifiedliturgytips.pdf

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

The last Beatitude taught us to have hunger, an unceasing desire, for higher things. In the Beatitudes, Jesus is teaching us how to climb a Divine ladder that leads us to blessedness, or Theosis. In this Beatitude we are called to become merciful.

What is mercy?

Gregory says,

The obvious meaning of the words calls men to mutual charity and sympathy, which are demanded by the capricious inequality of the circumstances of life; for all live not in the same conditions, neither as regards reputation nor physical constitution nor other assets. Life is in many ways divided up into opposites, since it may be spent as slave or as master, in riches or poverty, in fame or dishonor, in bodily infirmity or in good health–in all such things there is division. Therefore the creature in need should be made equal to the one who has a larger share, and that which goes short should be filled by what has abundance; this is the law mercy gives men in regard to the needy…

Mercy is a voluntary sorrow that joins itself to the sufferings of others.

We all have differing issues in life. Some of us are rich and some are poor. Some live in highly industrialized nations and others in rural underdeveloped nations. Some have very good health while other suffer from painful maladies. Mercy, Gregory is pointing out, has to do with placing ourselves in an equal situation with those who do not enjoy the same benefits of life that we do. This is why he says it's a “voluntary sorrow.”

We all would like to share in the good fortune of others but not generally in their misfortune. Mercy involves intensified charity where we choose to also share in the misfortunes of others. This is the height of virtue.

Think of the kind of world it would be if all developed this virtue. Gregory says,

Envy would be futile, hate would die out, remembrance of injuries would be banished along with lies, fraud, and war, all of which are the off spring of covetousness. If that hard and unfeeling attitude were removed, the evil growths would be weeded out with it completely, as with the root of wickedness. And with the departure of evils there would enter instead the whole array of good things, peace and justice with all their train of virtues… Therefore mercy, as the definition has shown, is the parent of kindness, and the pledge of charity; it is the bond of all loving disposition…

There is another meaning here as Jesus says, for they shall obtain mercy. This implies that those who are merciful will have their reward later. Gregory says this shows us a higher doctrine. Mercy is a course we must choose with faith.

He who made man in His own image endowed the nature of His handiwork with the principles of all goodness. Hence nothing good enters into us from outside, but it lies with us to have what we will, and to bring forth the good from our nature as if from some inner chamber. For from the parts we are taught about the whole, that there is no other way of obtaining one's desire except by procuring the good for oneself. Therefore the Lord says to His hearers: “The Kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21); and, Everyone that asks receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks, it shall be opened. (Matt 7:8) So it depends on us and is in the power of our free will to receive what we desire, to find what we seek, and to enter where we wish to be.

Gregory laments on this teaching:

How is it possible that with this in mind we should spend our pity on the misfortunes of others? Should the soul not rather be disposed to have pity on itself if it thinks of what it once possessed, and from what state it has fallen?

His answer is as follows:

it is blessed to be concerned with one's physical health. For if a man is concerned about this, he will live in good health. Thus also is the merciful called blessed, because the fruit of mercy becomes itself the possession of the merciful;

We need to ask, when the time of judgment comes what will happen to us. Will we feel acclamation by the God of all creation?

Gregory concludes:

Therefore, brethren, let us heed the voice of the Lord, who in a few words teaches us so many things about the future life. Let us become merciful, so that through mercy we may become blessed, in Christ Jesus Our Lord to whom be glory and power for ever and ever.

Source: http://orthodoxwayoflife.blogspot.com.by/2009/09/5th-beatitude-blessed-are-merciful.html

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How to preserve our Orthodox Christian Faith in a multicultural society?

Interview: From an Unificationist Preacher to an Orthodox Christian Priest

Great Penitential Canon by St Andrew of Crete

The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts as one of the great masterpieces of Orthodox piety and liturgical creativity.

Practical Tips on the Presanctified Liturgy

The Fifth Beatitude: What is mercy?

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