The Catalog of Good Deeds

Theory and Practice

Why was Apostle Thomas called “the doubter”? Who of the apostles did believe without seeing? They all saw at first and believed then…

How can a modern person believe without seeing Christ?

We can see Him. Due to the enormous labor of the holy fathers. It belongs to them that the teaching about the Personality of Jesus Christ received the very form that corresponds with the Holy Scripture, the Church story and our personal perception.

The Holy Fathers did not invent a new teaching. According to St. Vincent of Lérins, they just gave new names to the old things. They gave us the forms of human’s perception, through which the Holy Scripture becomes clear for us. And Christ comes alive.

Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanich)

Due to the efforts of the Holy Fathers, many of whom gave their lives for the purity of the Church teaching, we believe in the Holy Trinity, in our Lord Jesus Christ, the true God and true human, Whose divine and human natures are joined inseparably; we believe that there are two wills that act in Christ –the divine and the human one.

The dogmas of the faith are the necessary theory. But how is it going with practice?

In fact, all the saints implemented those dogmas in their lives. They not only showed us the path that we should follow, but completed that path by themselves, too. Unfortunately, many of us do not act at all after they have studied the theory. Thus, they stay for their whole life within the ranks of the talkative theorists.

“Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it” – it is important not just to listen to the word of God, but to keep it, to implement it in our life. When we read the Holy Gospel, we hear Christ Himself. Everything that is written in the New Testament refer not only to the witnesses of Christ’s earthly life: these words are addressed to each of us.

Three variants

Our earthly life is a preparation for eternal life: to be with God in Heavens, we have to live with Him on earth first. The faith of a true Christian should be clear and fully expressed in one’s attitude towards life and other people. Few people manage to reach this top, settling for only the first small steps. Perhaps, some people are afraid of the ascent itself, while other think that they have not enough strength for this or just do not believe that from this top they will be able to discover certain new horizons for themselves.

There are signs of unbelief among faithful people, who attend the church regularly. Some people can say right words, can have necessary knowledge and look beautiful and pious outside, but at the same time, they can be rotten inside like an old worm-ridden fruit.

The worms of doubt devastate the soul of a person who has little faith. He know the theoretical base but cannon trust his life to Christ, trying to be its full and only owner. As a rule, the main passions of such a person are freethinking, arrogance and pride. The faith of such people, who externally follow all the rules, is without the living God. In case of any little challenge, their “faith” crashes. They stop going to church, withdraw into themselves, consider themselves right, while the Church is wrong on their opinion. They lack of saving humility.

The faith of other people can be precocious. A soul that is not ripe for the meeting with Christ yet, begins to self-destruct. Often it happens so that the early knowledge and information taken from various sources is joined with the thin strings, which cannot withstand a challenge and break when the first storm comes.

Such people set their hearts upon rather quickly; at the same time, they lose their enthusiasm as much quickly. They take only what is on the surface and do not deepen into the faith. As a rule, they do not know themselves and do not even try to, trying to avoid a trustful talk with themselves and consequently with God. They prevent the Creator from entering their lives by all their forces, settling for knowledge about Him.

Finally, the most common sign of unbelief is reflexive faith, when you do everything without thinking. A person does not mind the words of the prayer, the meaning of the Church rites or the course of the service – one just mechanically repeats what other people do.

Such faith brings no fruits. It is neither alive nor dead. The life of such people counts months and years just like a clock hand, which is spinning around in the same circle repeatedly. They do not change for years without going beyond their narrow perception of the Divine things and they are satisfied with this mechanical living.

This is the most senseless way of life. It is rather difficult or almost impossible to reach out to such people.

Let us strive to remind ourselves as often as possible that we are living here for eternity, while any earthly worries, no matter how important they are for us or our family, are temporal in comparison with what is prepared for us by the Creator Himself.

We are destined to eternal salvation.

By Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanich)

Translated by The Catalog of Good Deeds

Source: http://pravlife.org/ru/content/kak-raspoznat-svoe-bezverie-3-osnovnyh-priznaka

On November 9, the Eastern Churches commemorate one of the greatest of the ancient Desert Fathers, "St. John the Dwarf." This remarkable father left for Scetis at the age of 18 and was trained there by Abba Ammoes for twelve years. One of the most vivid characters in the Egyptian Desert, he attracted many disciples and in order to preserve his own solitude, he dug himself a cave underground. Abba John was later ordained priest and the number of his sayings that are recorded and preserved point to his importance among his disciples. After 407, he went to Suez and the Mountain of St. Anthony. We have a photo in our Egypt Gallery that shows the door of a very old Coptic Church in Upper Egypt on which an image of Abba John has been carved. This church is over the cave where he spent much of his life. St. John has long been considered one of the greatest of the ascetics, a disciple of Abba Pambo and a teacher of St. Arsenius the Great.

Some two and a half years ago, this newsletter ran a two-part study of St. John's teachings on asceticism, a study we would like to repeat here today and next week, as many of our readers have probably not read them. They are simply superb.

TEACHINGS OF ST. JOHN THE DWARF ON ASCETICISM

– It was said of Abba John the Dwarf that he withdrew and lived in the desert at Scetis with an old man of Thebes. His abba, taking a piece of dry wood, planted it and said to him, "Water it every day with a bottle of water, until it bears fruit." Now the water was so far away that he had to leave in the evening and return the following morning. At the end of three years the wood came to life and bore fruit. The old man took some of the fruit and carried it to the church saying to the brethren, "Take and eat the fruit of obedience."

– It was said of Abba John the Dwarf, that one day he said to his elder brother, "I should like to be free of all care, like the angels who do not work, but ceaselessly offer worship to God." So he took off his cloak and went away into the desert. After a week he came back to his brother. When he knocked on the door, he heard his brother say, before he opened it, "Who are you?" He said, "I am John, your brother." But he replied, "John has become an angel, and henceforth he is no longer among men." Then the other begged him saying, "It is I." However, his brother did not let him in, but left him there in distress until morning. Then, opening the door, he said to him, "You are a man and you must once again work in order to eat." Then John made a prostration before him, saying, "Forgive me." (NOTE: this story is, according to most sources, from Abba John's youth when he was still living with his family)

– Abba John the Dwarf said, "If a king wanted to take possession of his enemy's city, he would begin by cutting off the water and the food and so his enemies, dying of hunger, would submit to him. It is the same with the passions of the flesh; if a man goes about fasting and hungry the enemies of his soul grow weak."

– Some old men were entertaining themselves at Scetis by having a meal together; amongst them was Abba John. A venerable priest got up to offer drink, but nobody accepted any from him, except John the Dwarf. They were surprised and said to him, "How is that you, the youngest, dared to let yourself be served by the priest?" Then he said to them, "When I get up to offer drink, I am glad when everyone accepts it, since I am receiving my reward; that is the reason, then, that I accepted it, so that he also might gain his reward and not be grieved by seeing that no one would accept anything from him." When they heard this, they were all filled with wonder and edification at his discretion.

– The brethren used to tell how the brethren were sitting one day at an agape* and one brother at table began to laugh. When he saw that, Abba John began to weep, saying, "What does this brother have in his heart, that he should laugh, when he ought to weep, because he is eating at an agape?"

– Some brethren came one day to test him to see whether he would let his thoughts get dissipated and speak of the things of this world. They said to him, "We give thanks to God that this year there has been much rain and the palm trees have been able to drink, and their shoots have grown, and the brethren have found manual work." Abba John said to them, "So it is when the Holy Spirit descends into the hearts of men; they are renewed and they put forth leaves in the fear of God."

– Abba John said, "I am like a man sitting under a great tree, who sees wild beasts and snakes coming against him in great numbers. When he cannot withstand them any longer, he runs to climb the tree and is saved. It is just the same with me; I sit in my cell and I am aware of evil thoughts coming against me, and when I have no more strength against them, I take refuge in God by prayer and I am saved from the enemy."

– Abba Poemen said of Abba John the Dwarf that he had prayed God to take his passions away from him so that he might become free from care. He went and told an old man this: "I find myself in peace, without an enemy," he said. The old man said to him, "Go, beseech God to stir up warfare so that you may regain the affliction and humility that you used to have, for it is by warfare that the soul makes progress." So he besought God and when warfare came, he no longer prayed that it might be taken away, but said, "Lord, give me strength for the fight."

– The old man also said this to a certain brother about the soul, which wishes to be converted, "There was in a city a courtesan who had many lovers. One of the governors approached her, saying, "Promise me you will be good, and I will marry you." She promised this and he took her and brought her to his house. Her lovers, seeking her again, said to one another, "That lord has taken her with him to his house, so if we go to his house and he learns of it, he will condemn us. But let us go to the back, and whistle to her. Then, when she recognizes the sound of the whistle she will come down to us; as for us, we shall be unassailable." When she heard the whistle, the woman stopped her ears and withdrew to the inner chamber and shut the doors." The old man said that this courtesan is our soul, that her lovers are the passions and other men; that the lord is Christ; that the inner chamber is the eternal dwelling; those who whistle are the evil demons, but the soul always takes refuge in the Lord.

– One day when Abba John was going up to Scetis with some other brothers, their guide lost his way for it was night time. So the brothers said to Abba John, "What shall we do, Abba, in order not to die wandering about, for the brother has lost the way?" The old man said to them, "If we speak to him, he will be filled with grief and shame. But look here, I will pretend to be ill and say I cannot walk any more; then we can stay here till the dawn." This he did. The others said, "We will not go on either, but we will stay with you." They sat there until the dawn, and in this way they did not upset the brother.

* agape: the primary meaning of this Greek word is "love." Here, it refers to the common meal taken by the fathers after the celebration of the Liturgy. It can also refer to the Liturgy itself.

From Sr. Benedicta Ward, The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, (Kalamazoo, Michigan: Cistercian Publications, 1975), pp. 85-89

Source: http://www.innerlightproductions.com/2013/10/st-john-dwarf-teachings-on-asceticism.html

6th century. Near Port Isaac, on the north coast of Cornwall, is the little village of Endellion, where the Roscarrock family made their home for four hundred years, and where Nicholas, to whom we owe so much information about the saints of Cornwall was born. He lived through the latter part of the sixteenth century and into the early years of the seventeenth, at a time when the veneration of the saints was being suppressed, and their shrines were being demolished. He had a great regard for the saint of his native village, and it is from his description that we are able to identify the original shrine of St. Endellion.

St. Endelienta was one of the numerous children of Brychan, who settled at Trenkeny, where she lived a very austere life, sustained by the milk of one cow only. This animal was killed by the lord of Tregony because it trespassed on his land. Her godfather, a great man, had the lord killed for this offence, but Endellion miraculously brought him back to life.

When she perceived that the day of her death was drawing near, she asked her friend that her body should be laid on a bier and be buried where certain young stots, bullocks and calves, should of their own accord draw her. The beasts drew the bier to the top of a hill, where there was a piece of waste mirey ground, and there she was buried and a church raised over the grave dedicated to her memory.

The late Sir John Betjeman poet laureate wrote Inside the church gives the impression that it goes on praying night and day, whether there are people in it or not. A modern carved angel in memory of Sir John Betjeman may be seen in the sanctuary above a slate tablet.

Nicholas Roscarrock tells us that there was another church bearing her name on Lundy Island, which is opposite Hartland, where her brother St. Nectan is buried. He also mentions two wells called after her and says that the one more distant from Endellion Church is the one she used.

The tomb, which is now in the south aisle, is evidence of the affection and reverence with which she was held in the middle ages, for it is fifteenth century workmanship, in Catacluse stone, with fine niches and moulding. It originally stood under the easternmost arch of the nave on the south side, and as the tomb is empty, the bones of the saint are probably buried under the floor in that place. In the fourteenth century the church was served by a college of priests. The parish revel was held on the Saturday after the Ascension but Nicholas Roscarrock gives her feast day as April 29th.

Troparion of St Endelienta, Tone 5:

O holy Endelienta,

when thy cow, thine only source of sustenance,

was cruelly killed,

thy heart was filled with forgiveness for the slaughterer.

Pray to Christ our God

that we may ever forgive our enemies and ourselves find mercy.

Sources: http://celticsaints.org/2018/0429a.html
https://sttimothy-toccoa.org/files/Daily.../Troparia-April.docx

An accident …

Sergei is totally paralyzed except for his head, neck and shoulders. By our hero’s own admission, nothing remained for him but to learn how to do something with the muscles that still had some potential for movement. This desire proved to be enough to find his calling in life. His sole chance to maintain contact with the world was via the computer, and his old friend Igor Sitnikov, now living in Canada, encouraged him to paint icons. His friend’s idea found a place in his heart, and besides, he had always drawn well, although, admittedly, it is hard to imagine with what difficulty Sergei could do this!

“With the help of my shoulder joint I can manage my disobedient right hand, laying it on my computer mouse.”

“To paint one icon takes between three and five weeks, with twelve to sixteen hours of work a day. My icons are painted with the help of special artistic programs, subject to, naturally, the Orthodox canons. Of course, I wouldn’t be able to do all this on my own, if not for my partners from the guild. Besides me, there are a few other people, including a carpenter and graphic designer. We have worked together since 2008. People who order icons from us say they bear a special grace.”

“I want to emphasize that I have no merits in this, except for patience,” says Sergei, sharing the secrets of his skill.

Before and After

Listening to Sergei’s story, I caught myself thinking that his story shocked me to the depths of my soul. Of course it would seem so, with such a feeble body but such a powerful spirit! For us, the healthy and carefree, everything is different. It seems to me that this young man, entirely dependent on outside hep and compassion, is truly an example for us all—an example of how to live, not feeling sorry for yourself; how not to whine, overcome daily pain, and to bless God for every trial sent to us. It’s not Sergei who needed to talk to me but me who needed to communicate with him, to understand how it’s possible to live and even create, being bedridden, when life itself seems to have lost all meaning. To live, and not grumble about your circumstances. To enjoy every day, do all within our power for our neighbors… But Sergei doesn’t just live; he supports himself in life and also helps his neighbors. Caught in a difficult situation, he became a deeply believing man. After all, that he is even still alive is itself a true miracle. With such injuries as Sergei had you just don’t survive. Seven cervical vertebrae were cracked into splinters, tearing up his spinal cord. It’s the same as having your head torn off.

Here we need a small digression. I knew Sergei from school (we were in the same grade). Many of my girlfriends were in love with him. Tall, handsome, blue eyes… We girls sensed then nobility and a generous soul in him.

Not so long ago, unaware of the drama happening in Sergei’s life, I asked a mutual friend: “How’s Kozlov?” and I heard: “He’s paralyzed. He had an accident diving into a river…”

This is how his classmates remember him:

Svetlana Andreeva:

“In school Sergei was an active, happy, fun-loving guy. Incidentally, he also drew very well. Basically all the girls liked him. And of course! He was so handsome—tall and handsome. He got married very early, ahead of all our male classmates.”

Tatiana Lazareva (Prokopova):

“I can say only good things about Sergei Kozlov. I remember his infectious laugh, how he ‘neighed’ to the whole class and everyone roared with laughter…”

The fateful fall…

It happened in 2002, by some mystical confluence of circumstances, on July 7, the day of St. John the Baptist. Legend has it that on this day mermaids gather young men into their kingdom. On the same day the Orthodox Church celebrates the Nativity of St. John the Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord. And now it is Sergei Kozlov’s second birthday… Such sad thoughts were spinning around in my head when I spoke with Serezha. I sat and listened, and he daunted me with every phrase:

“God forbid that I should return to the state in which I lived for thirty years,” he said unexpectedly. “I am thankful to Him that this happened to me.”

“Serezha, do you remember that fateful day?”

“I remember it like it was yesterday. Some friends and I went to the Bityug River. As usual, it was noisy and fun—just some pleasant, non-committal hanging out. Of course, no one was thinking of anything bad. We were at the river for five or seven hours and were planning to leave when I decided one last time to dive from the shore, as I had done many times. The next second I felt impact with the bottom, and a loud crack ringing in my ears. At that moment I had the thought: ‘I need to swim to the top, and figure out everything up above.’ And then I realized—my body was not listening to me. Slowly sinking to the bottom of the river, I couldn’t help but admire the underwater life. Looking at the bright greens and the fish frolicking in them, I suddenly perceived that I needed to take a breath—and that breath is now the most important event in my miserable life. My friends were gathering their things to go home just then, and no one was watching after me. By the time they remembered me twenty minutes already had passed. By that time it was a blue corpse they took from the river. The spectacle, of course, was not for the fainthearted. At that moment my friends were panicking. No one knew exactly what to do. Just imagine—the human brain can go without oxygen no more than five minutes, and after seven minutes it dies. In my case about twenty minutes went by. When finally they began to do CPR on me, trying to bring me back to life, no one suspected that anything was wrong with my body. Who knew that I had broken vertebra? And that to touch someone in such a situation is extremely dangerous? Frantically trying to save me from death, my friends were unaware that splinters from my vertebra were permanently mutilating my spinal cord.”

“You don’t blame your rescuers?”

“What?! It was God’s providence. No, I don’t blame those who saved me at all. Until the end of my life I will be grateful to them, because they forced the water out of my lungs, and I would now be living at the bottom of hell. From my first breath then I received a new birth. The Lord gave me another chance to reevaluate my life.”

A premonition of trouble…

“Many people say that just before some tragic event in their lives they have a premonition of trouble, experiencing inner discomfort and inexplicable anxiety. Such a feeling, that the soul feels something ahead of time, is very difficult to explain with words. Sergei Kozlov’s story is no exception. According to him, there was a horrible premonition. A sense of expectation of those terrible events did not leave the heart of Tatiana Ilychina—Sergei’s mother. She felt an inexplicable agitation; her soul was tossed about, not finding any rest, until they wrote to her that her son had had an accident. Sergei himself had a similar feeling. The day before they had buried his friend, and before this planned trip to the river Kozlov saw his departed friend in a dream.

“It was on the border between sleep and waking—I opened my eyes and I saw my friend Sergei’s huge face, who had tragically died in a car accident a few days before. For some reason Sergei smiles at me, and then suddenly rushes into some unknown distance, and, finally, disappears into the darkness. It was an amazing vision—I didn’t know what to make of it, but I felt that it’s somehow connected with the subject of death,” Sergei said, sharing his recollections.

He is convinced that death does not come abruptly—it always gives signs of itself, and man feels it. It’s a primal, inexplicable fear. A little later Sergei would again call to the lady in black, staring her in the eye more than once…

“No electricity comes through a broken cable”

After being miraculously saved, Sergei had to endure, in his expression, “real torments of hell in my own body,” as no one gave him any hope that he would live. When Kozlov was loaded unconscious into an ambulance, the doctors had no hope for a favorable outcome. On the road to the hospital he howled like a wild beast. The pain was unbearable. Even less comforting was the medics’ prognosis: “He has a few hours left to live.” They told Sergei’s mother right away that she should prepare for his funeral, explaining that such a trauma is fatal. But the night passed, and Sergei lived. They moved him to another hospital. He regained consciousness just as two young doctors were discussing his fatal trauma. “What happened to me?” Sergei asked with difficulty. Silence was the answer.

The first operation lasted seven hours. It seemed like an eternity to his family. And again—no encouraging prognoses. It stretched into horrible weeks and months. Literally every day he had to fight for his life, watching as people with similar traumas were dying.

“A month later, I turned into a mummy—at a height of 6’ 3’’, my weight was eighty-eight pounds,” Sergei recalls about that time.

Then his attending doctor decided on another operation. It also lasted seven hours, only practically without anesthesia, because strong anesthesia would have led to cardiac arrest.

“I felt it as they hollowed out the damaged parts of my spine through my opened neck with a hammer and chisel and replaced them with new ones; how they carved the bone tissue out of my hip,” Sergei recalled.

The details are not for the fainthearted… Just imagine—Sergei clinically died three times during his operation! He kept dying and returning to life.

“It was like I left my body and saw myself from outside when they saved me again. I’ll remember this state of lightness and weightlessness my whole life. I was shown what man truly is, that in reality our bodies are just visible shells, temporary dwellings for the soul. For me it was a kind of consolation, given by God.

Then there was another operation, and another, and another, but they didn’t change anything.

“For five years I worked hard on my body with a masseuse and a medical gymnast, but, as you know, no electricity comes through a broken cable. Then I came to the conclusion that a multifunctional bed is precisely what I’d been dreaming of all my life,” Sergei concluded, serious or joking.

A happy couple ordered Sergei’s icons for their wedding. Photo: gitie.ru

He’s been lying in bed since then—his reckless youth, early marriage, and divorce remaining in his past. Now his mother is always with him, and his visitors, his beautiful daughter Yana, his comfort and joy, who gave him his beloved grandchildren Ilya and Ivan. Today these remarkable tots fight amongst themselves for the right to distract their young grandpa from his work.

“Health is a gift, but sickness is a priceless gift!”

When everything is good and smooth like butter we barely remember the Most High; rather, we are more ready to believe in our own importance than in Him. But should any of us be faced with difficulties, stumble, lose our loved ones or become seriously ill, we immediately remember the higher powers, clumsily asking the Lord for a miraculous healing or comfort. Human nature is so ordered: We do not protect what we have, but we weep when it’s lost…

According to Sergei, he always felt the presence of his guardian angel nearby:

“With delight and pride I told my friends about it. I loved to reflect upon Holy Scripture, but in reality, I was in no rush to allow God into my heart. Only my accident spiritually healed me. I felt that the Lord is near.”

Every day in his prayers Sergei thanks God that He didn’t allow him to drown, and saved his soul. Deeply believing, he, it seems, has acquired peace of soul.

“It is my air—now I breathe by Him. It is my path along which I walk, and I have no right to leave it,” he shared with me. Hope that his earthly sufferings will not be eternal, and that his soul, like an angel, will soar with ease into Heaven, gives him strength.

“And what now do you ask God for, Sergei?”

“I always ask Him for one thing—that He would forgive my sins. What else can I ask for? I don’t ask for a better lot. The meaning of my life is now to worthily exit into the other world. I do not fear death, as I have stared it in the face more than once. We are all mortal. But the question is, how will we die? There’s no other way for us but repentance. No podvigs are required from us—only to learn to gratefully accept all sorrows and sickness from God, which He sends us for the salvation of our souls.”

“How do you manage not to complain about your circumstances?”

“In general, despondency is a great sin. As I already said, it is necessary to thank the Lord for all sends us. Then everything will be seen to be relative. We complain that we have periods of throbbing back pain; but, thank God, the pain goes away. And I’m already accustomed to living with constant pain. I remember only twice being awakened because the pain had left, and even then it only lasted three minutes at the most. I woke up because I had no pain, do you understand? There was a moment when I thought, ‘Am I alive?’ That’s how unusual this feeling was—like in a dream where I am always healthy. In real life I just lie in bed, and in another—I’m running on my feet. Basically, I accept what happened to me as my due. It is my cross. I moved towards it my whole conscious life, not finding any peace in my former worldly life. I wanted to devote myself entirely to some beloved work, holding nothing back. But I found no such thing. My soul was tossed about until what happened happened. But I can’t just lie here. I realized that I had to somehow provide for myself, to at least earn money for my own medicine. I couldn’t just depend on my parents! I began to look on the internet for a way to occupy myself. And there the field is unplowed—just pick something and do it! I began with Photoshop. I took orders for touching up old photos. Here again you need artistic skill, and from childhood I had drawn pretty well, so I had to recall some nearly forgotten skills. They came in handy later when I began to explore a special program for drawing icons. I had finally found my beloved work. A wise man once said: ‘Health is a gift, but sickness is a priceless gift!’ The difference is unmatched—the feeling of spiritual peace instead of worldly vanity—the constant presence of God instead of the enemy of mankind.”

It seems Sergei has only one regret—the daily hassle he brings his mother. She is ready, together with her son, to walk this path to the end; for “where your heart is—there will be love.” Love, supported by their faith in God.

Source: http://stillwaterorthodox.org/2017/03/paralyzed-iconographer-sergei-kozlov-disability-invaluable-gift/

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Church Etiquette or Some Things You Should Know while in Church

Lack of Faith Warning Signs Among Orthodox Christians

10 Teachings of St. John the Dwarf on Asceticism

Orthodox Saints You May Not Have Known About: St. Endelienta the Recluse

Personal Story of a Paralyzed Iconographer: Disability as an Invaluable Gift

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