The Catalog of Good Deeds

Blasphemy is a terrible sin! Every time people joke about sacred objects or actions, lack proper reverence for the saints and all that has to do with the Church, defame clergy or slander them, this is blasphemy. Beware of this great sin! You may tell me, “Vladyka, we are not blasphemers!” That is good! But there are many such among us that are close to blasphemy. Let’s take an example. We’re going to an Orthodox home and we see portraits of family and friends hanging on the walls, and they are clean, and everything is beautiful. But nearby, in the corner, there’s an icon hanging, blackened from dust, from which are hanging some old, faded, and wrinkled flowers. Is this pleasing to God?

There are priests who don’t keep up with the cleaning in the altar and on the altar table well enough—this awesome place where angels look with fear and love. I had one case: I was going around the diocese. I arrived to one city, and the dean told me that one batushka was slovenly and needed to be tightened up. I went to his church, and what did I see? On the altar table—a layer of dust, on the icons—flowers that hadn’t been changed in two years. “Where is your wonderworking icon?” I asked. “Here it is!” “I don’t see it!” I said. “It’s right here, Vladyka!” “No!” I said. “I don’t see the icons behind all the dust accumulating on them.” The priest asked forgiveness and promised to change and to report to me every week how he’s maintaining order in the church.

Here’s another picture. Pascha. You’ve made it through Matins and Liturgy and you’ve sat down to break the fast. You eat a piece of kulich, or cheese Pascha, greet one another with “Christ is Risen!” with a blessed egg, break it, and eat it. Everything is done well and piously. “And where to put the egg shells?” the maid asks. “In the trash, of course!” And this shell, which was only just sprinkled with Holy Water at church, over which “Christ is Risen!” was sung many times—you’re going to throw it into the trash? Is this respect for the sacred things and Church of God?! Remember well that everything relating to the Divine services and to the Church of God is sacred, through which the grace and love of God are poured out upon us, and to which you should therefore relate with great love and piety. I wanted to end with this, but I remembered one more story which I must tell you.

It was in the Monastery of St. Nil of Stolobensk on Lake Seliger. The relics of this saint are venerated there, now in a new reliquary, and the previous reliquary with an image of the saint on the cover stand in the church empty. One day a pious woman went to the monastery with her two small children to venerate the holy relics. While the woman was praying in church, her children were running around the garden, picking the ripe mountain ash berries which grew in abundance there. They entered the church, which was empty at that time, where the saint’s previous reliquary stood. They started their game: throwing berries at the image of the saint.

And suddenly, under a clear sky, everyone present in the monastery heard a terrible thunderclap that shook the whole building. The woman, not seeing her children around her, rushed to search for them, in view of such danger, and finally found them lying unconscious by the empty reliquary. The monks gathered there to bring the children back to their senses. When they finally regained consciousness, the mother asked them what happened to them? They openly told how they started playing a game of throwing berries at “grandfather,” and how they suddenly saw that “grandfather” raised himself up and wagged his finger, after which the lightning flashed, the thunder rang out, and after that they didn’t remember. You see how God chastises and admonishes even small, foolish children for disrespecting His saints. Admonish your children and caution them against this.

By the prayers of St. Gregory the Wonderworker, may the Lord send us and our children the gift of pious veneration of our icons and sacred objects. Amen.

By Hieroconfessor Nikolai (Mogilevsky),

Metropolitan of Alma-Ata and Kazakhstan

Translated by Jesse Dominick

Source: http://orthochristian.com/109335.html

Question: "When Jesus was asked how we are to pray, he gave the "Our Father" prayer, and said nothing about the "Jesus Prayer." Some Orthodox writers almost give the impression that a person will not be saved without the Jesus Prayer, but Christ never taught such a thing. Why would God require a mantra from people every conscious moment of their lives? Repetitive prayers (mantras) are a Hindu, Buddhist and Islamic thing. Does not the same practice imply a common source?"

Did Christ Teach it?

Are you sure Christ did not teach us to pray the Jesus Prayer? In the Gospels we have many examples of people calling upon Christ in ways that are similar to the Jesus Prayer:

"And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying, and saying, Thou son of David, have mercy on us" (Matthew 9:27).

"And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil" (Matthew 15:22).

"And, behold, two blind men sitting by the way side, when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou son of David" (Matthew 20:30).

"And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: and they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us" (Luke 17:12-13).

But in the parable of the Public and the Pharisee, the prayer that the publican says, for which he is commended, is "God be merciful to me a sinner" (Luke 18:13). And so unless one disputes that Christ is God, Christ did teach us to pray a prayer that is substantively similar to the Jesus Prayer.

The Name of the Lord

We are also taught in Scripture to call upon, praise, and trust in the name of the Lord:

"I will give praise unto the Lord according to His righteousness, and I will chant unto the name of the Lord Most High" (Psalm 7:18).

"Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we will call upon the name of the Lord our God" (Psalm 19:8).

"Blessed is the man, whose hope is in the name of the Lord Psalm" (Psalm 39:5).

"Praise the Lord, O ye servants, praise ye the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord from henceforth and for evermore. From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same, the name of the Lord is to be praised" (Psalm 112:1-3).

"All the nations compassed me round about, and by the name of the Lord I warded them off. Surrounding me they compassed me, and by the name of the Lord I warded them off. They compassed me about like unto bees around a honeycomb, and they burst into flame like a fire among the thorns, and by the name of the Lord I warded them off" (Psalm 117:10-12).

"Praise ye the name of the Lord; O ye servants, praise the Lord" (Psalm 134:1).

"The name of the Lord is a strong tower; The righteous run to it and are safe" (Proverbs 18:10).

"For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Roman 10:13).

"And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Acts 2:21).

"And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him" (Colossians 3:17).

For more on the significance of the Jesus Prayer, and the name of Jesus, see:

The Power of the Name, by Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware), and On Practicing the Jesus Prayer, by St. Ignaty Brianchaninov.

So the content of the Jesus prayer is not only unobjectionable, but it is completely Biblical, in fact it is a summary of the Gospel.

Vain Repetitions?

But if the content of the Jesus Prayer is admitted to be Biblical, the next objection that is raised is usually in reference to Matthew 6:7, which says in the King James Version:

"But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking."

So does this apply to the Jesus Prayer? No. To begin with, while the King James is general a very good translation, in this case, the translation is a bit debatable. The word behind that translation "vain repetitions" is the Greek word "battologeō" (βαττολογέω), which more precisely means "to stutter" to "babble". Some examples of contemporary translations that reflect this are:

“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words" (ESV).

"And in praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words" (RSV).

"And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words" (NIV).

The Word Biblical Commentary has this to say about the meaning of this text:

"In view is the attempt to manipulate God through repetitive, perhaps even magical phrases, as the verb battalogein, "babble," and the noun polylogia, "much speaking, " suggest. Battalogein, an onomatopoetic word, is probably derived from the cognate noun meaning "stammerer" or "stutterer." The verb here, however, refers not to a speech impediment but to the repetition of meaningless syllables. Polylogia seems to have in mind vain repetition and lengthiness. They "think" (dokousin) they will be heard by means of these devices, but in this they are mistaken" (Donald A. Hagner, Word Biblical Commentary: Matthew 1-13, vol. 33a (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1993), 147).

And Blessed Theophylact says:

"But when ye pray, do not babble as the Gentiles do." "Babbling" means praying foolishly, as when someone asks for such worldly things as fame, wealth, or victory. "Babbling" is also inarticulate, childish speech. Therefore you, O reader, must not pray foolishly, For they think that they shall be heard for their many words. It is not necessary to make long prayers, but rather short and frequent prayers, uttering few words, but persevering in prayer" (The Explanation of the Holy Gospel According to Matthew. Fr. Christopher Stade, Trans. (House Springs, MO: Chrysostom Press, 1992), p. 57).

And so what Christ is speaking of are prayers that meaningless... perhaps treated like magical words, which because of their repetition are intended to make God respond in some desired way. But this is not true of the Jesus Prayer.

For one thing, the words are not meaningless -- they are filed with deep meaning. And the proper use of the Jesus Prayer requires that one pray it attentively, focusing on the meaning of the words. A prayer is only vain, if you don't mean it, or if you pay no attention to what you are saying, or have no understanding of what you are saying.

Is it a Mantra?

The purpose of a mantra is for the person saying it to empty his mind of all thoughts. The purpose of the Jesus Prayer is to fill our mind with the meaning of the words, and to raise up our thoughts to God.

St. Paul teaches us to "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you" (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).

St. Augustine, in commenting on Psalm 37[38]:9, speaks about the meaning of unceasing prayer:

"And who observed and noticed the cause of his groaning? “All my desire is before Thee” (ver. 9). For it is not before men who cannot see the heart, but it is before Thee that all my desire is open! Let your desire be before Him; and “the Father, who seeth in secret, shall reward thee.” For it is thy heart’s desire that is thy prayer; and if thy desire continues uninterrupted, thy prayer continueth also. For not without a meaning did the Apostle say, “Pray without ceasing.” Are we to be “without ceasing” bending the knee, prostrating the body, or lifting up our hands, that he says, “Pray without ceasing”? Or if it is in this sense that we say that we “pray,” this, I believe, we cannot do “without ceasing.” There is another inward kind of prayer without ceasing, which is the desire of the heart" (St. Augustine, Commentary on the Psalms 37:14 (NPNF1 8:106-7).

This prayer of the heart is what the Jesus Prayer helps us to achieve. The words of the Jesus Prayer are not magical. There are various forms of the Jesus Prayer in use. But the words of the Jesus Prayer are Biblical, the practice is Biblical, and the purpose is also Biblical.

By Fr. Fr. John Whiteford

Source: http://fatherjohn.blogspot.com/2014/12/stump-priest-jesus-prayer-scripture.html

The Most Holy Theotokos helps not only half-legendary people from ancient times but also us: we just have to ask. Priests of our Diocese share their stories of the Mother of God’s help in various life circumstances.

Some people from Kurakhovo came to our parish recently. A woman came to me and asked, “Father, do you remember us?” “Well, of course, I do,” I replied. That woman and her husband had visited our church six years ago to bathe in the springs. There are two springs in our village, one consecrated in honor of the Life-Giving Spring icon of the Mother of God and the other in honor of St Panteleimon the Holy Healer. The man and his wife didn’t have children because the wife had a cyst. I said, “Pray to the Mother of God, St. Panteleimon and St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, take communion and unction. You’ve got to work hard and not just talk.”

They went home and I didn’t hear of them for a long time. The other day, there was a service in our church, and the woman entered the nave with a baby in her outstretched arms, and showed it to me. The service was on and she said, “Father, here is your Maryika!” The choir burst out laughing! I laughed, too, and said, “Our whole parish was praying for you, so don’t make me responsible!”

Later, that woman told me how it happened. They did everything they were required to. Then she went to a doctor, and the doctor told her that there wasn’t a cyst in her body any longer, so she didn’t need any surgeries. The doctor asked, “What did you use to treat this condition?” The woman answered, “I bathed.” The doctor was exasperated, “We all bathe! Could you provide any details?” “I bathed in a holy spring,” the woman responded. She was healed of her cyst and managed to give birth to a baby without any surgical intervention. It was a great gift from the Mother of God. That woman has come to us again recently and informed us that her daughter is going to school this year.

There is another miracle that I can recall. It is related to the construction of a church in Verovka, a village 3 miles from ours. We found ten people who would motivate others and of course, we also began praying to the Most Holy Theotokos. As a result, we have managed to build so much in these three months, it’s hard to believe. You can only label it as a miracle. We didn’t have any money. We laid the foundation in just three Saturdays, so it didn’t cost us a lot. We were promised thirty cubic meters of timber. We thought that we would have to wait for that timber for a long time but they called us and said, “We’ll bring the timber in a week, get ready.” I started looking for money to pay for the timber, and I found it. I also found the builders to build the church from that timber. Two men from Transcarpathia came to us, unloaded the timber on August 13, erected the walls, the sanctuary, and covered the roof, and left us on August 25. The wooden church was constructed literally in a dozen of days. Whenever I asked them, “Guys, need help?” they would reply with “Mother of God will help us!” They worked from dawn till dusk, and the church was built. Of course, we still have to make the dome—there’s still a lot of work to be done—but the help of the Mother of God is truly amazing. It is impossible to make so much from scratch in just a month and a half.

My third story is about our elderly parishioner. One day he came to the church and donated five thousand hryvnia, and then the same amount again. It is a lump sum for a regular person. Later, he told me, “Father, I’m likely going to be laid off.” It turned out that his company was about to implement budget cuts, and since he already exceeded retirement age, it was almost guaranteed that they were going to make him redundant. I said, “Here is the Mother of God and here is St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. Pray to them!” And so he did. After a while, it turned out that not only wasn’t he fired but he was in fact appointed to a higher position and became deputy director of that company. He did not lose his job and even managed to land better conditions. Grateful to the Mother of God and St. Nicholas, the man bought a big candle holder and donated it to our church.

There are lots and lots of stories like these, we don’t even write them down. People who can’t have kids or whose kids stutter come to our holy springs and get healed. The Mother of God sympathizes with us poor and wretched sinners. She intercedes before God on our behalf. Let us pray to her and be thankful for her help!

By Fr. Anatoly Kostenko

Translated by The Catalog of Good Deeds

Source: http://gorlovka-eparhia.com.ua/kak-mater-bozhiya-pomogaet-nashim-sovremennikam/

Question: "How does one become a Reader, and what does a Reader do?"

Answer: We learn a great deal about what it means to be a Reader from the admonition that the bishop gives to a Reader after he is tonsured (i.e., made a Reader):

"My son, the first degree in the Priesthood is that of Reader. It behooveth thee therefore to peruse the divine Scriptures daily, to the end that the hearers, regarding thee may receive edification; that thou in nowise shaming thine election, mayest prepare thyself for a higher degree. For by a chaste, holy and upright life thou shalt gain the favor of the God of loving-kindness, and shalt render thyself worthy of a greater ministry, through Jesus Christ our Lord: to whom be glory unto the ages of ages. Amen."

This tells us that the office of the Reader is the first rank of the priesthood. There are two types of clergy: minor clergy, and major clergy. Readers are tonsured, which means that rather than being ordained in the Altar, they are set apart by having some of their hair cut in the form of the Cross (as also happens at baptism, and when someone is made a monastic) and ordained in the Nave of the Church, as are Subdeacons, who are also minor clergy. The major clergy are Bishops, Priest, and Deacons.

But what it means for this to be the first rank of the priesthood is that the same basic requirements to be ordained a Priest are also required of a Reader. A reader must of course be Orthodox. He must also be a man who has not been married more than once. He must be of a good reputation. There are other possible impediments to ordination, and most of them apply equally to readers (there are different age requirements for deacons, priests, and bishops, and bishops are required to be monastics).

A Reader should also read the Scriptures daily, and be familiar enough with the texts that he reads that those who hear him are able to understand him, and be edified by his reading. In addition to that, a Reader should learn the rubrics of the services, and should learn to sing his way through the services by learning the tones, and how to use and combine the liturgical texts at the kliros. In most parishes, there are choir directors who do most of that work at the main services, but a Reader should learn this as well, so that if he is the only person at the kliros (as can happen at some of the daily services) he will be able to read and sing all of the parts of the services that are not specific to the Bishop, Priest, and Deacon.

The admonition to the Reader that he "in nowise" shame his election means that he should be an example to others in the Church. As St. Paul admonished St. Timothy: "be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conduct, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity" (1 Timothy 4:12). And a reader should do this in order to prepare himself "for a higher degree." In other words, a reader should be preparing himself for the possibility of serving in a higher rank of the clergy. Of course all Christians should try to be an example "in word, in conduct, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity," but this should be especially the case for clergy. This means a Reader should be personally pious, loving towards others, and should love the services of the Church.

Anyone who is able (and of course an Orthodox Christian) can serve the function of a Reader, when needed. And there are many people who are not tonsured as Readers who do. However, one who actually is a Reader has a duty to fill this role, and so should be zealous to prepare himself to fulfill this role, and should be eager to actually do it, being present whenever possible for the services, and making themselves available to do their duty.

If someone is interested in becoming a reader, they should speak to the priest and begin applying themselves to learning how to properly do it. Even if they are not eventually tonsured as a Reader, the knowledge they acquire is beneficial to any Orthodox Christian.

For more on what it means to be a Reader, I would recommend reading Instruction for the Church Reader as well as A Guide for Readers in the Orthodox Church, by Fr. Geoffrey Korz.

By Fr. John Whiteford

Source: http://fatherjohn.blogspot.com/2016/10/stump-priest-readers.html

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How and What for to Become a Reader?

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