The Catalog of Good Deeds

Some time ago, in the 1990s, our parish invited a local "tree surgeon," Leo M., to cut down a couple of dead trees in the back of the church property. He came and worked with his wife, Kathleen, doing the job quickly and with kindness to the rest of the surroundings. But they strongly resisted being paid, insisting on offering their work gratis to our church. They were non-Orthodox, and we wondered about the reason for such generosity. The reason, as we learned from them later, was to be found in something that happened a few years before, just after they had been married.

Both Leo and Kathleen were serious enthusiasts of mountaineering and rock climbing, and so for their honeymoon trip they decided to go to Alaska to bag the highest peak of North America, mount Denali (aka McKinley), 20,320 feet. While living at the camp at the foot of the mountain, they thoroughly prepared their expedition: talking to guides, studying the maps, checking the equipment, and waiting for a long stretch of good weather.

When they finally started their exciting, but extremely difficult, ascent, everything went just fine for a few days. But at the end of one day, on a narrow path, they met an old, strange-looking man in a long dark robe. He was walking in the opposite direction, down the mountain. In a friendly manner he greeted them and advised them to turn around and return to the base camp as quickly as possible because the weather was changing into a severe storm. Soon, he said, it will be very dangerous around here. And, as if in answer to their unasked question of how could he know such a thing, he explained that he was local and knew the climate very well. Leaving them surprised and uneasy, he continued on his way.

Some minutes later, after Leo and Kathleen made the wise decision to turn back, and then tried to recall the appearance of the old man, they realized that they hadn’t seen a backpack or any other hiking gear with him. How could he have made it up so high in the bare, rocky mountain in sub-zero temps, without any food or protection?!

A few days later, almost at the bottom of the mountain, they were indeed caught by a severe storm. They survived it, constantly in their minds thanking the old man who had warned them of the danger. A week later, still staying at the base camp, they learned that some other climbers, who happened to be at higher elevations than they were during the storm, never came back.

Then, as if in answer to their curiosity, Leo and Kathleen noticed something at the camp cafeteria. It was a picture of their rescuer, pinned on a bulletin board between some miscellaneous ads and photos of the mountain. They recognized him at a glance. When they asked the waiter for his name, he told them, " It's an Orthodox saint who lived in Alaska. His name is St. Herman." And the photo showed the icon of St. Herman from the Orthodox church nearby.

The Saint had told them the truth. He was indeed a local guy...

"By enduring the trials of nature, the storms' cold and wind together with hunger, thou didst kindle spiritual peace, warmth and satiety, and become unaffected by the elements, truly a heavenly man and earthly angel, O wondrous Herman; so wishing to honor thee as is meet we cry out: Rejoice, conqueror of nature's hardships! Rejoice, thou who wast arrayed in the virtues! ... Rejoice, O venerable Father Herman, adornment of Alaska and joy of all America! " (From Akathist to St Herman)

Matushka Galina Tregubov and Lee Browne-Beed

Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church, Claremont, NH

Source: http://orthochristian.com/43717.html

By Fr. Sergius Nezhbort

We haven't heard about iconoclasm for many centuries now. Icons are no longer destroyed, like they were in the 8th and early 9th century. Sadly, the struggle with the image of God is apparently still going on. It happens in every person's heart because a human being is made in God's image but the sin in our hearts attempts to defile and destroy this image.

If we look at the history of art, we'll discover that our civilization is rooted in antiquity. The Ancient Greek and Ancient Roman art was anthropocentric, i.e., focused on the human. Ancient artists recognised an amazing mystery in every human being and tried to uncover it. If we look at the Greek and Egyptian works of art, we'll see that they always portray humans. Unfortunately, even though those humans were created in the image of God, they had the sin living inside their hearts, and that was why icon painting could not emerge during those times.

When Jesus Christ, the God-man, came into this world, we begin to see a deified human being in an icon. It's like a bridge with God becoming human on the one side and a human becoming like God on the other side. It is in icons that we encounter the real human being, the true beauty that is ever-present in Jesus Christ. The Christian civilization has God-man, rather than just the Man, in the centre.

Unluckily, our modern world brings the sinful, defective, and crippled human being back into the spotlight. That's why we say that the struggle with the icon goes on even today, in a sense. We must be aware of the fact that in a certain sense every person, every Christian, is an icon painter. You don't have to be a professional icon painter: if you live with God, there's an icon being painted in your soul. I suppose that this icon must be visible not just to yourself but also to all other people, so that they could see that we're different and that there is Christ shining through our eyes, words, and actions. More often than not, we fail to be the example and the image of God that we ought to be.

I recall how I was invited to speak about the icon in front of some people who knew little, if anything, about the Church. It was in the Fine Arts Museum. The tour guide said, "Father, please tell them more about miracles. People like to hear about miracles." I thought, "Of course, we all know that miracles happen when people pray in front of icons. The Lord responds to their prayers and makes miracles to reward their faith. However, there is another miracle, namely, the creation of an icon. Who paints icons? A weak human being, with his personal story and his problems. In spite of that the Lord performs this amazing miracle through that poor person. It's a miracle, indeed! It is quiet and unimpressive but it "is" a miracle, it's so beautiful and so near, so close to our daily lives. This miracle happens not because that person is especially talented but thanks to the prayer of the entire Church."

I heard a priest say, "Icons are born out of people's prayers." If you go to Tretyakov Gallery and look at the 14th-15th century icons, you will see how people used to pray at that time and how spiritually advanced they were. Their spirituality revealed itself in their icons. When we look at contemporary icons, we have to admit that our prayers aren't as fervent as they used to be. We should be aware of the fact that it is our prayer that determines the kinds of images that icon painters can paint. I say so because I work in this field.

July 30, 2018

St. Elisabeth Convent

A friend wrote:

My kids want to know where we got the story of the fall of the devil… How he was originally an angel and chose to stray… Is this actually an Orthodox belief? I couldn’t find it in the Bible… is it?

Sometimes in the Gospels, Christ mentions something in an aside that makes us stop and remember that this is the eternal God incarnate. One of those places is in Luke 10:18, where he says, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”

Some of the passages the Church reads in that context are ostensibly about someone else. But just as the deliverance of Israel at the Red Sea was both a historical event and a prophetic image of baptism, the Church recognizes some meaningful lessons in passages like Ezekiel 28. Here Ezekiel is prophesying the fall of the king of Tyre — but he suddenly begins talking about another proud ruler who was brought down:

Son of man, take up a lamentation for the prince of Tyre, and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord God; “You are a seal of resemblance, and crown of beauty. You were in the delight of the paradise of God; you bound upon you every precious stone, the sardius, and topaz, and emerald… and you filled your treasures and your stores in you with gold. From the day that you were created you were with the cherub: I set you on the holy mountain of God; you were in the midst of the stones of fire. You were faultless in your days from the day that you were created, until iniquity was found in you. Of the abundance of your merchandise you filled your storehouses with iniquity, and sinned. Therefore you have been cast down wounded from the mountain of God, and the cherub has brought you out of the midst of the stones of fire. Your heart has been lifted up because of your beauty; your knowledge has been corrupted with your beauty. Because of the multitude of your sins I have cast you to the ground, I have caused you to be put to open shame before kings. Because of the multitude of your sins and the iniquities of your merchandise, I have profaned your sacred things; and I will bring fire out of the midst of you. It shall devour you, and I will make you to be ashes upon your land before all that see you. And all that know you among the nations shall groan over you: You are gone to destruction, and you shall not exist any more.”’ (Ezekiel 28:12-19, LXX)

This is one of the passages in which the Church sees an image of the fall of Satan. The being that Ezekiel laments was “with the cherub… on the holy mountain of God… among the stones of fire.” That expression, “stones of fire”, is how Isaiah describes the presence of God the Consuming Fire, in Isaiah 33:14ff, asking who is righteous enough to dwell there?

The Hebrew version of Ezekiel’s lament, in v.14 and 16, calls this king “the anointed cherub who covereth” (KJV) which associates his original mission both with holy authority (anointing) and with the Jewish idea of atonement (covering). For more on this angelic being’s original purpose and his fall, we look at Isaiah’s prophecy, ostensibly regarding the king of Babylon:

And it will be in the day when the Lord gives you rest from your pain and turmoil and harsh service in which you have been enslaved, that you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: “How has the extortioner ceased, and the taskmaster ceased! The Lord has broken the yoke of sinners, the yoke of princes. Having smitten a nation in wrath, with an incurable plague, smiting a nation with a wrathful plague, which spared them not, he rested in quiet. All the earth cries aloud with joy… Hades from beneath is provoked to meet you: all the great ones that have ruled over the earth have risen up together against you, they that have raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All shall answer and say to you, ‘You also have been taken, even as we; and you are numbered among us. Your glory has come down to hades, and your great mirth: under you they shall spread corruption, and the worm shall be your covering.’ How has the dawn-bearer, that rose in the morning, fallen from heaven! He that sent orders to all the nations is crushed to the earth. But you said in your heart, ‘I will go up to heaven, I will set my throne above the stars of heaven: I will sit on a lofty mount, on the lofty mountains toward the north: I will go up above the clouds: I will be like the Most High.’ But now you shall go down to hades, even to the foundations of the earth. They that see you shall wonder at you, and say, ‘This is the man that troubled the earth, that made kings to shake; that made the whole world desolate, and destroyed its cities; he loosed not those who were in captivity.’ All the kings of the nations lie in honour, every man in his house. But you shall be cast forth on the mountains, as a loathed carcass, with many dead who have been pierced with swords, going down to the grave. As a garment defiled with blood shall not be pure, so neither shall you be pure; because you have destroyed my land, and have slain my people.“ (Isaiah 14:3-20, LXX)

English versions usually use either “Lucifer” or “star of the morning” to translate the word Isaiah uses in v.12. In Hebrew it’s hêlêl which comes from a root for praise, glory, shine, celebrate; from the root of this word we get “Hallelu Jah,” the command to exuberantly praise the Lord. This was also anciently the name for the morningstar, Venus, which shines brighter than any other “star” in the morning sky. The Septuagint renders this name with eophoros (dawn-bearer) and Jerome brought that into Latin as lucifer (light-bearer.) Lucifer isn’t a proper name, it’s just Isaiah describing how brightly this being used to shine.

In his Revelation, St. John the Evangelist presents so many figures and images at once that it’s hard or impossible to separate them into past, present, and future. Without trying to interpret too deeply, we can see in Revelation chapter 12 an image of the fall of Satan:

And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth… And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.” Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child…

John explicitly calls this fallen heavenly being “devil” (diabolos = false accuser) and Satan (Hebrew for “enemy”) and tells us the devil is on earth. He’s not in “the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 5:41) and he’s certainly not ruling in hell as Milton and popular mythology would have it.

At the end of this age we know that the devil will be thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:10.) Until then, our “adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8) but *ldquo;greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4), so “submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).

By Fr. Silouan Thompson

Source: http://silouanthompson.net/2009/02/the-devil-is-in-the-details/

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Parable of the Day: How to Understand You Are Pure Enough

A Personal Story about the Miraculous Help of St. Herman of Alaska

Parable of the Day: You Have to Live Here and Now!

Every Christian Is an Icon Painter!

The Fall of the Devil: Is It an Orthodox Belief?

Parable of the Day: How Is Love Supposed to Unite Us?

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