The Catalog of Good Deeds

The Divine Liturgy is truly a gift of the Holy Spirit to humanity. It is an initiation into the mysteries of the Spirit, a mode of the revelation of God and of all things heavenly. There is nothing in the Liturgy which is not revelatory of the Godhead and of the energies of the Holy Trinity.

Because we know and believe that God is our Father, we view the church, especially when we celebrate the Liturgy, as our true home. We come in and go out freely, we are happy to be here, we make the sign of the cross, we light our candles, we speak with our friends, and it is easy to see that the Orthodox feel that the church is their home… The Liturgy is our family our gathering, our house. And what a spacious house it is! Together with us are those who are absent, along with sinners, and with the wicked, and the dead, indeed, even those who are in hell, but who may yet remember something about God….

So we come to church, to our true home, and we are truly glad. This is the greatest privilege which a Christian can have. Here we experience the grace of God. We experience our salvation, the results of the redemptive work of our God, of Christ, the great “High Priest.”… Christ lives for us, he prays for us, and raises his hands to the heavenly Father… He has not ceased to urge our saints — and particularly His Mother of God — to intercede for us to the heavenly Father, for our hearts, for our sins, for our pains, for the disappointments of our life…. So don’t think that when we go to church, we are simply entering and exiting an ordinary building. Instead, we go up to, and make our entrance into, the Holy of Holies, into the heavens themselves…

When we enter church, then, we are traversing the distance from church to heaven… We see the bread and wine, but who among us does not believe they are Christ? We inhale the fragrance of wine and bread, but who among us does not believe this to be the body and blood of he Savior?…This is a sacrament. This is what a “mystery” of the church means…

Our liturgy is an exceeding great gift. No one is worthy of such greatness. No one can do anything without God. He alone makes these magnificent blessings real, and places them in our hands and hearts.

…And for this we say: Thank you, Lord our God, because you have brought down the ranks of angels and raised us up to heaven. We are found worthy to stand before the heavenly Father. What blessedness! What happiness!

But let each of us ponder how great and rich God has made us; how highly he has exalted us, dispite the fact that we are sinners! “Woe is me,” said Isaiah the prophet, for God himself has descended upon me, and I am afraid I will die. And this is what we should also say when we come to church. We should be afraid, but we should also rejoice. We should tremble, but our hearts should also leap for joy, because we are embracing God, and God is embracing us.

So we have come to church, to the Liturgy! Let nothing disturb the tranquility of your soul. God is present. Wherever we look, God is before us! If we don’t see Him, this doesn’t mean He isn’t there, but only that our eyes are not used to seeing Him…

With the eyes of our mind, let us see the king for whom we sinners opened the way, and let us say with the Psalmist: “Come let us worship and fall down before Him and cry to the Lord… for He is our God.” (Ps 94.6-7) Let us open the depths of our hearts to the Lord, who is present here with us, and let us advance more each and every day, so that we will be able to discover everything that God, our redeemer, has done for us.

By Archimandrite Aimilianos of Simonopetra

Source: http://orthodoxwayoflife.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-divine-liturgy-is-gift-of-holy.html

On June 11 the Church celebrates the uncovering of the relics of a great saint and miracle-worker of our times, Holy Hierarch Luke (Voino-Yasnestsky), Archbishop of Simferopol and the Crimea. On St. Luke’s commemoration day, the readers of the Russian site Pravoslavie.ru shared their experiences of his miraculous help. We have translated a few of them for our English language readers.

“She felt as though someone was giving her an operation”

(By Olga Valerievna)

Dear editors, great thanks and a deep bow to you, that amidst the bottomless internet space you appear as an island of salvation and Orthodox faith. We greatly revere St. Luke and would like to share our story.

Our aunt from Georgia suffered all her life—and she is already 55 years old—from terrible attacks of migraine. Everyday she would take a handful of pills just ease the unbearable pain a least a little.

We told her about St. Luke and showed her the film, “Saints of the 20th Century.” She wept and kissed the icon of the saint and asked him for help. She prayed to him many nights, and read his sermons and spiritual instructions. And in around a month a friend of ours from Simferopol brought some oil and a little icon from the relics of St. Luke. Our aunt anointed the painful area with this oil and prayed every day, touching her head to the icon.

One day, when she woke up in the morning, with great trembling and unwavering faith in St. Luke’s help, she told us the following. Just as she had done several day earlier, she prayed in the evening before going to bed, anointed the painful spot with the oil, touched the icon to it, lay down to sleep, and…

After that, she said, she felt as if someone was giving her an operation on her head: They rubbed something on, opened it up, and as if pulled something out. At first it was very painful, but to the measure of its release the painful spot began to go away “from something”. Then that spot burned for a long time like fire, and by morning the pain was completely gone.

Now almost a half a year has passed and, glory be to God, she no longer takes any pills and has forgotten what it’s like to have a migraine.

We have a little boy who we named Luke—our fourth child. During pregnancy and birth I prayed to St. Luke for help and a successful birth, and this help came. We thank thee, holy father Luke, and we honor thy holy memory, for thou dost pray for us to Christ our God!

“As a doctor, I understand that this is almost impossible”

(By Ekaterina Filatova)

I would like to tell you about St. Luke’s help to my son. Little Vanyusha had a hernia, and I remembered that there was a vial with oil from St. Luke in our house. I prayed to the holy surgeon, and anointed the hernia with oil.

On the next day I discovered that it had disappeared! As a doctor I understand that this is almost impossible. But as a believing Christian I know that what is impossible to man is possible to God. Glory to God for all things!

“The operation was cancelled, and the tumor was pronounced benignant”

(By Elena Kapulin)

Three years ago I was given a diagnosis of: “hygroma of the Achilles tendon.” My right leg was already ailing without that—cerebral palsy. They scheduled an operation, told me to have a tomogram, and then onto the operating table. I was very scared (this had been the third tumor diagnosis in my life).

Every time I came to church I venerated the icon of St. Luke with the particle of his relics. A week passed, I received Communion and went to have the tomography. And the doctor announced, very amazed, “As you like, but you don’t have a hygroma. This is a fibroma! (a fibroma is a post-operative change in tissue). I said, “Of course I had an operation on the Achilles tendon, but that was 25 years ago! But the doctor insisted: “I do not see a hygroma on the tomogram! This is a fibroma!

Well, the operation was cancelled and he tumor was called benignant. I thank God and St. Luke!

“I said that I would take car of it!”

(By Natalia Popova)

My godson was born sickly, and this was a great blow to his whole family. The boy required many operations, and most of them were performed when he was not yet a year and a half. Of course, we sought help from the Lord, the Mother of God, and the holy God-pleasers.

I had heard about St. Luke of the Crimea but somehow I, a sinner, was not accustomed to turning to him for help. And suddenly I began to understand that in the churches I was more and more often running into icons of St. Luke, and felt his gaze on me, which asked, “Why don’t you ask me?”

There was such alarm and fear, but I had an infinite surety that everything would be all right with the child. After watching a documentary on St. Luke, perhaps my calls for help became especially fervent. He himself came to me in a dream and said that he would help our boy. I hoped that this was a good dream.

The first three operations on the intestines went very well, and the hindrances that came up simply disappeared suddenly. But there was still to be an operation on the head, and when some doubts arose regarding the choice of clinic (the doctors did not promise a very successful result), I as if heard a St. Luke’s words: “I said that I would take care of it!”

The alarm passed, and Glory to God and the Mother of God, glory to St. Luke of the Crimea and all the holy God-pleasers, the operation was very successful! My godson recovered rapidly. There are more operations ahead, but I know that all will be well with him! I have prayed to St. Luke of the Crimea for help ever since!

“He makes the doctors understand how best to do operations”

(By Svetlana Sadchikova)

Thanks, a thousand times! We always pray to St. Luke for our close ones—and he always miraculously helps. He makes the doctors understand how best to do operations. Enormous thanks to him!!!

Source: http://orthochristian.com/77994.html

1. Houses are traditionally blessed with "Theophany water" each year. A house can be blessed at any time, but the usual season for yearly blessings is from Theophany until the beginning of the Lenten Triodion, which begins four Sundays before Great Lent begins. This is not a hard and fast rule, but a good rule of thumb.

2. Some people place great importance on "Theophany water". This is just water that has been blessed with the Great Blessing of the Waters service on Theophany. Another name for this water is simply "Holy Water". We can bless water any time of the year that there is a need for it. In Moscow, for example, there is a huge vat of holy water that the faithful partake of regularly. On regular basis, the vat is refilled with water when it becomes empty, and this new water is blessed. The water blessed in for instance, August is no more and no less "holy" than the water blessed on Theophany.

3. Water is blessed using the “Great Blessing of the Waters” service two distinct times during Theophany: after Vespers on the Eve of Theophany and after the Divine Liturgy on Theophany. The blessings are identical, and the water is identical.

4. In many places, it is traditional to bless water in lakes or rivers. In Russia, clergy often go to such a place, and bless the cold water after a hole has been cut in the ice. Many people will take a dip in the water after it is blessed.

5. When a home is blessed, the priest brings everything needed for the blessing:

- holy water;

- a "krupilla" (brush for flinging the holy water);

- bowl for the water;

- candles;

- Theophany icon.

Many pious homes supply a bowl, candles and the family Theophany icon.

The family should provide the priest with a list of all family members, living and deceased.

The bowl and icon should be placed on a clean table with a cloth on it, preferably near the family icon corner. It is good for candles to be lit. The house should be clean, with all radios and televisions off.

The priest will bless all rooms of the house except the bathrooms. In homes with children, it is always good for the little ones to carry a candle or a small cross and "lead" the priest throughout the house. An elder member of the house may also do this.

6. The basic order for a simple home blessing is as follows.

a. The bowl of water, icon and lit candles are placed on a clean table. If there is a censer, it may be lit.

b. The priest begins the service with a blessing and the Trisagion prayers (O heavenly King through the "Our Father".) It is always preferable that the eldest of another member of the family say the Trisagion prayers.

c. After this the entire home is blessed, with the family walking with the priest holding candles and the Theophany icon while the Theophany Troparion is sung over and over:

Tone 1: When Thou, wast baptized in the Jordan, O Lord,/

the worship of the Trinity was made manifest; /

for the voice of the Father bare witness to Thee, /

calling Thee His beloved Son. /

And the Spirit in the form of a dove /

confirmed the certainty of the word. /

O Christ our God, Who hast appeared //

and hast enlightened the world, glory be to Thee.

It is a very good idea for the family to sing this troparion, and know it by heart. Otherwise, of the priest has many houses to bless, his voice will get tired!

d. Upon finishing blessing the house, the family gathers again at the table, and a short litany is said for the welfare of the family. The priest should have been provided a list of all family members, including those who are ill.

e. After this a short prayer, and the service is ended.

f. It is entirely appropriate the deceased loved ones of the family be commemorated from a list provided to the priest.

g. Sometimes the family wants to give the priest a little something to eat; depending on the time the priest has, he may stay and visit.

7. When a priest visits, it is NEVER required that the family gives him money. The scripture tells us "Freely you have received, freely give".

It is a pious custom among some to give the priest a donation at this time, but this should never be though of as a requirement. The priest comes to the home because he wants God's blessing to be upon it, and to know those in his flock better and to be available to them.

Source: http://byztex.blogspot.com/2010/01/house-blessing-primer.html

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ today in today’s Gospel we hear our Lord say “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.” Our Lord said this to call the apostles. This is not just the apostles’ call but it is our own. What this statement says is that if we follow the Lord Jesus Christ we will bring men to Him.

Following the Lord Jesus Christ means that we are live our lives in the same manner that He lived His. That means that we are to be obedient to our Heavenly Father and take up the way of the cross. As our Lord said to His disciples; “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24).

It also means that we must be one as the Son is with His Father. Our Lord prayed for this at His Passion saying “Holy Father, keep through Your own name those whom You have given me, that they may be one, as we are. (John 17:11) I in them, and You in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that You have sent me, and have loved them, as You have loved me.” (John 17:23)

In order for us to be one with God as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one we must be first be obedient to the will of God. Obedience to the will of God means that we must place God in charge of our lives. In other words we must surrender our will to God’s will. That is exactly what the apostles did when they forsook everything and followed Jesus. As our Lord said “He that loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me: and he that loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.” (Matthew 10:37)

This means that we must love God above all things. This is the great commandment “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30)

To love God above all things is a difficult path to follow but, it is also a path of joy. This is because the path of the cross leads to the resurrection. Many people look at this path as without seeing the joy of the resurrection at its end. Saint Paul reminds us of this in his First Epistle to the Corinthians when he says “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18)

What the cross leads to is restoration of lives to that which we were created to be by God. When this happens we become changed. We are at peace with creation. This peace is often referred to as serenity.

Accepting the path of the cross is something we do voluntarily. While our Lord calls us to the path of salvation through the cross He leaves us to choose between the path of salvation and the path of destruction.

If we choose the path of destruction and are hearts are completely turned to evil, then God leaves us and satan becomes our master. This was the case with Judas when he turned against our Lord Jesus Christ for thirty pieces of silver. Our Lord did not impinge on Judas’ freewill but rather said to him “That thou doest, do quickly.” (John 13:27)

Our Lord allows us to choose between good and evil freely. His call to us to make this choice is “Follow me!” or “That thou doest, do quickly.”

In making this choice we all too often become concerned about our own welfare. We become scared to surrender everything over to God. Our Lord assures us that these concerns are unfounded when He says “Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they?” (Matthew 6:26)

If we have made the choice to follow Christ, then as the Gospel says we will become fishers of men. This means that as fishermen cast their nets into the dark depths of the sea for a catch of fish so, will we with Christ and the Gospel catch men from the dark depths of this world.

As fishers of men we will fulfill the Lord’s command “Go therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19)

All too often we abdicate this responsibility to someone else. If we do this then we must ask ourselves are we truly following Christ. The Gospel says “Follow Me AND I will make you fishers of men.” One of the key ways that we are fishers of men is through the way we live our lives; as the fisherman uses a lure to attract the fish to his hook.

However we also have the responsibility to share our faith as fishers of men. This sharing can be as simple as Philip saying to Nathaniel “Come and see.” (John 1:46)

Come and see what I have found.

Come and see what I have.

Come and see what gives me joy.

In sharing the faith the apostle Paul instructs Timothy in the following manner; ““Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, where unto you are also called, and have professed a good profession before many witnesses. (1 Timothy 6:12)”

So my dear brothers and sisters in Christ my prayer for you is that you may fight the good fight of faith following the way of the cross of Christ so that you may draw men into Christ’s net through your profession of Him before men in the manner in which you live your lives.

Amen

Delivered by Fr. Milan Medakovic on the 2nd Sunday

after Pentecost, 2009

Source: https://frmilan.wordpress.com/2009/06/21/sermon-2nd-sunday-after-pentecost/

"For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God." (1 Corinthians 15:9)

Saint Apostle Paul, or Saul as he was called before his baptism, was named so by his parents in honor of his ancient ancestor king Saul. The apostle descended from the tribe of Benjamin and was the child from quite a wealthy family. There is an interesting fact that although Paul was a pureblood Hebrew, he had a Roman citizenship from his very birth. At that time, it was a great advantage for the residents of such a big and important city as Tars, where the future apostle was from.

The Present day city or Tarsus (Tars)

According to the writings that have survived to this day, Saul was a disciple of Gamaliel, one of the most well known and educated Pharisee of that time, at whose feet the future apostle was brought up and taught the Law of Moses. Apostle Paul was a many-sided and well-educated person who was also familiar with the works of ancient philosophy and literature.

For the first time, Saul is mentioned on the pages of Acts – in the episode about the stoning of the first martyr archdeacon Stephen. It is known that Saul did not participate in that slaughter. Perhaps, the fact that he was still a minor and could not take part in executions according to the law was the reason for that. However, he was asked to watch the clothes of the Hebrews who put it off for the execution. Thus we can see that Saul approved the murder.

Later we see Saul as a participant of the persecutions of the Church. The Book of Acts tells us: “As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison” (Acts 8:3). What is more, he even asked the archpriest for the letters for the Damascus synagogues stating that anyone who would find the followers of the apostolic teaching had to tie them and bring them to Jerusalem. Right on his way to Damascus, his conversion to Christ happened. When Saul was blinded with light, he fell to the ground and heard the voice: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” Paul said, “Who are You, Lord?” – and then he got the answer: “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads” (Acts 9:4-5). Paul went blind and was brought to Damascus. There he spent three days in fast and prayer, until he was baptized by Christ’s disciple called Ananias. The Lord appeared to him and ordered to baptize the former persecutor of Christians for “he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel” (Acts 9:15).

The Road to Damascus

Saul was baptized, and at that very moment, he saw the light both with his eyes and his soul and “Immediately he preached the Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God” (Acts 9:20).

Paul became one of the greatest apostles, who worked more than anyone else on preaching the Word of God and establishing Christian communities on the territory of Asia Minor and Europe. It is worth mentioning also that the largest part of the New Testament consists of 14 letters of Apostle Paul to various Christian churches. Although Apostle Paul was not one of the Twelve Apostles and did not witness the life and miracles of Jesus Christ as well as His Resurrection like other apostles did, the holy Church honors him for all his works as a Holy and All-praised Supreme Apostle.

What St. John Chrysostom says in his works:

“Blessed Paul, who gathered us today and enlightened the whole universe, was once struck blind at the moment of his conversion. But his blindness led to the further enlightenment of the universe. Since he looked at the world wrongly, God blinded him so that he could recover his sight to good use. He both proved His power by that, foretold the future sufferings and taught the way of preaching – the way by which he had to close his eyes, reject himself and all his previous life to follow Christ. This is why he exclaimed himself: “Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise” (1 Corinthians 3:18). So, it was impossible for him to recover well without rejecting those intentions that bothered his mind and without devoting his life to faith.”

Reflections in the Holy Church Traditions:

Thou wast called from on high and not by mankind, when the earthly darkness had bedimmed thy fleshly eyes, and by this blinding, had brought to light and shown forth clearly the dismal gloominess of impiety, then the light from Heaven shined its lightning radiance upon the eyes of thy mind, O Paul, thereby revealing to thee the beauty of godly piety. Hence, thou didst come to know the One that doth bring forth light out of darkness, yea, Christ our God. Do thou therefore entreat Him to enlighten and to save our souls.

To be continued...

Click here to read about the conversion of Apostle Peter.

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The Divine Liturgy as a Gift of the Holy Spirit to Humanity

Can a Laymen Give a Blessing?

Modern day miracles of St. Luke (Voino-Yasnestsky)

7 Facts About the Blessing of Home

Second Sunday After Pentecost: Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.

Apostle Paul: The Conversion of the Persecutor

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