Parable of the Day: Searching for Peace Outside and Inside
There was an old
man who liked fine arts. He was collecting paintings his entire life, and he
finally acquired a formidable collection of portraits, landscapes, and still
life paintings. They were pleasing to the eye but not to the heart; that was
why the old man was dreaming of a painting that would fill in that gap.
Having saved enough
money, the old man ordered several artists to paint the picture. His chief
request was for the painting to cause feeling of peace and tranquility and make
the viewer’s heart warm and happy.
The artists set out
to create the pictures. Finally, all pictures were painted, and the old
connoisseur had a look on them. All the paintings were wonderful but only one
of them was exceptional.
The first painting
showed a magnificent and lofty northern landscape with blindingly white snow
that sparkled in the sunlight, the water’s edge appearing from beneath
turquoise ice, and silent seagulls high in the sky. The painting was as
glorious as the Snow Queen but as cold as her.
The second painting
was impressive for its resplendent colors: it showed flowers on a meadow high
in the Alps, with butterflies and dragonflies on them. This bucolic landscape
was shielded from all hurricanes and tempests by picturesque mountains, which
propped up an incredibly blue sky.
The picture was as
wonderful and as sickly-sweet as a lollipop candy.
The third artist
painted mountains, too, but those mountains were rocky and gloomy. Thunderbolts
were tearing up the turbulent sky, foreshadowing a thunderstorm. A mountain
creek poured down a steep mountain slope, raising dust where it fell. That
landscape could cause anxiety and nervousness, and the feeling of
defenselessness before the forces of nature but… if you looked at it closely,
you could see that there was a bush growing out of a split in the rock under a
small stone ledge near the waterfall. There was a bird’s nest on that bush. It
was there that the bird, undaunted by the natural forces, hatched its
nestlings.
The old man spotted
the little bird immediately (he was a real art lover, after all), and his heart
melted from tenderness. The peaceful bird in the midst of a tempest made
everyone who looked at the landscape feel protected and secure. The old man was
happy because he found what he had been looking for so long. The masterpiece
took up the vacant place in the center of his rich collection on that very day,
and his family and guests enjoyed it for many years.
Peace doesn’t mean
that everything around you is calm and quiet. Peace is in your heart.
Translated by The Catalog of Good Deeds
The Importance of Visiting Church on Saturday Night
"Let us lay aside all earthly
cares" - from the Hymn of the Great Entrance
Three decades ago, a film came out that codified the
way in which North Americans looked at Saturday nights.
Since the 1960s, the concept of a quiet and prayerful
Saturday night, preparing for the Lord's Day, has been on the decline. Perhaps
this is due to the disappearance in the Protestant West of the concept of
keeping vigil before a Church Feast - or to be more to the point, even
observing Church Feasts. Perhaps it is due to the Roman Catholic concept of
multiple services - the sort of drive-through 30 minute Masses that allow a
pick-your-own approach in the spiritual life of faithful people.
This is of course nothing like having to actually be
together to spoil the rampant individualism we so often pursue with vigor.
Spending Saturday evening - or more specifically, one part of Saturday evening
- at a Vespers or Vigil Service, prepares Orthodox Christians for the central
Holy Mystery of our lives: Holy Communion. It therefore makes sense that we
should lay aside our own plans, our own entertainment and self-indulgence, to
prepare to partake of the Holy Mystery that makes us one: one with Christ, and
one with each other.
It may be fair to place the blame for the decline in
the observance of Saturday Vespers by Orthodox Christians on the bat habits of
the heterodox, or the fast pace of our materialistic western world.
But like all things in the spiritual life, the biggest
part of the blame can only be placed on us as Orthodox Christians - each of us
- who in the struggle to lay aside all earthly cares, more often than not
decide that the earthly cares are the very thing we prefer to the Body and
Blood of Christ, ahead of communion with our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Let us prayerfully resolve to take up this essential
part of our life, for the transformation of our souls, and the renewing of our
lives. Let us, with God's help, resolve to make this preparation integral to
our week, every week, and take up willingly the cross of laying aside our
Saturday night earthly cares, whatever they may be.
By Archpriest Geoffrey
Korz
Source: http://www.asna.ca/articles/200711-01.html
The Quick to Hear: a Rare Icon of the Mother of God from Zograf Monastery
This icon of the Most Holy Theotokos is located in
Zograf Monastery on Mount Athos. The name of the icon is explained by the
following miracle.
When
Saint Cosmas of Athos was still young and lived in Zograf Monastery, he visited
Vatopedi Monastery on the Annunciation Day. He spotted a beautiful and majestic
Woman in the church during the service and in the refectory during a meal.
Saint Cosmas was embarrassed and unable to explain how She appeared on Mount
Athos where no female had ever stepped and why monks of that monastery allowed
Her presence. Carried away by these thoughts, he returned to Zograf and went to
his elder. The elder saw that his disciple was baffled and asked him:
“Why are you so sad and wistful?”
Cosmas told him what he had seen in Vatopedi Monastery
and honestly shared with the elder all his doubts and thoughts about the Woman that
he had seen among the monks of that monastery.
“What did that Woman look like? What did She wear?” the
elder asked again.
Cosmas described Her appearance in detail. The elder sighed
and told his disciple:
“You failed to recognize the Female that appeared to you
in the monastery, didn’t you? Now, listen: she wasn’t a mere mortal woman. She was
the Queen of our Holy Mountain and all creation.”
Soon afterwards, Saint Cosmas was alone in the church.
He started praying fervently to the Mother of God and exclaimed:
“O Most Holy Theotokos, please pray to your Son and God
so that He would lead me to the route of salvation!”
Hardly did he utter these words that he heard the voice
of the Theotokos:
“O my Son and my God! Teach Thy servant how to be saved!”
Then Cosmas heard an immediate response to Her prayer:
“He must leave the monastery and live in solitude.”
Cosmas followed that revelation. Having received his abbot’s
blessing, he went to a neighboring desert, dug a cave, and spent the rest of his
life in that cave carrying out his monastic duties. He was rewarded by the Lord
with the gift of miracles.
The
icon in front of which Saint Cosmas prayed and from which he heard the voice,
is called “She who is quick to hear.” It is located in a niche in the east wall
of the sanctuary of the cathedral church of Zograf Monastery.
Translated by The
Catalog of Good Deeds
Parable of the Day: Your Salvation Depends on What You Do
There was a man
who accumulated a lot of wealth. He never wanted to go to church to confess or
donate. He had a ten-year-old son. It happened that the wealthy man fell
seriously ill, and his family members advised him to confess and do something
for the salvation of his soul. He refused, “May my son be in good health. He
will do everything I need for the salvation of my soul.” The man was conquered
by the devil, and nothing could make him change his opinion.
There was a pious elder in that area. He shaved his beard and put on secular clothes, and then went to the rich man’s house.
“What do you want?” they asked him when he knocked at the door.
“I’m a foreigner. When I happened to come to your village, I learned that your ruler is ill. I’ve come to see him, for I’m a doctor.”
They let him in immediately. All the rich man’s family gathered around the elder.
“How is the patient right now?” the elder asked them.
“I feel awful,” was the rich man’s own answer.
“What do local doctors say?”
“They say that I’m terminally ill.”
The elder-pretending-to-be-doctor took his hand and said:
“Yes, that’s right. You’re dying. However, if you could find a certain remedy, you wouldn’t die.”
“What’s that remedy that we have to find?”
The elder ignored that question and asked:
“Do you have kids?”
“Just one boy.”
“Don’t worry, your remedy is at hand. I promise that you won’t die.”
He requested a cup of water and some flour. He mixed the water and the flour, pretended to add some other substance into the mix, and then said:
“Now, the remedy is almost ready. One last thing: your son has to come here, and I’ll prick his little finger with a needle and add three drops of his blood into the mix. You will recover as soon as you drink the remedy.”
The rich man’s son was playing in the backyard of their house. They hurried to bring him to the doctor, saying:
“Sonny, please return to the house. There’s a doctor who can make your father well again.”
The boy wasn’t happy with that but they dragged him to his father’s bed.
When the doctor saw the boy, he said:
“My boy, I’ll prick your little finger with a needle and take three blood drops to prepare a remedy for your father to get well.”
“Am I a fool to allow you to injure my little finger?”
The doctor exclaimed:
“Sonny, it’s you who can help your father to survive this illness. Can’t you see how much wealth he has accumulated to leave to you?”
“I don’t care if he lives or dies, I’m not going to give you my blood,” the young man retorted and left.
Then the doctor said to the ruler:
“I am the spiritual counselor of this land, and I set this up trying to show you that you mustn’t expect any kind of care for your soul from your child.”
The rich man rose from his bed and said:
“I neglected my soul for the sake of my son to leave him a large estate but he didn’t want to sacrifice three droplets of his blood to rescue my life? You’re right, Father.”
He tore his will into pieces and gave all his possessions to the poor, leaving his son without any inheritance. He went to the Paradise where he’s always happy.
Now you who have children, don’t lay your hopes on them saying that they are good people and that they will take care of your souls. You’ll be left in the afterlife only with what you’ve done in this life on the earth.
Translated
by The Catalog of Good Deeds
The Assurance of Salvation: Will We Be Saved no Matter What?
Question:
"Often in Protestant circles and
Bible studies one will reference 1 John 5:13, “These things I have written to
you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have
eternal life." This is a verse that they claim as a basis for having
complete assurance of their salvation. What is the Orthodox teaching on this
passage?"
The question here
is what does it mean to know that you have eternal life? Do we have to know
that there is nothing we could possibly do to lose our salvation in order to
know that we have eternal life?
This sort of
thinking is something that has emerged from a strange Protestant mix of
Arminianism and Calvinism. Calvinism teaches that God has decreed before all
eternity who will be saved and who will be damned, and so obviously, if you are
among the elect, there is nothing you could possibly do to become unelected.
But a Calvinist would say that those who are elect will show the fruits of
their election at some point before they die, and begin to live like Christians.
Arminians, on the other hand deny that God determines who will be saved, and
that the offer of salvation is open to everyone, and that furthermore, one can
fall away from God and lose their salvation. Most Baptists are partially
Calvinistic and partially Arminian -- they believe that salvation is open to
all, but that once who are saved, you cannot lose your salvation. You could
"steal a horse and ride it into heaven." And for those who have
bought into this perspective, the idea of eternal security is something they
believe in very strongly. And in fact, they seem to have a hard time
understanding how anyone could have any confidence in their salvation if they
did not have the absolute assurance that they could not possibly lose their
salvation.
I have known my
wife since I was 17, and we have been married for more than 27 years. I feel
very secure in our relationship, but I am quite certain that there are things I
could do to destroy that relationship. I am not in fear of that happening,
however, because I have no intention of doing any of those things. So I know
that my wife loves me, but I also respect her, and make sure that I treat her
with love and respect so as to maintain that relationship. Our relationship
with God is similar. We know God loves us, but we also know that if we turn our
back on Him, we will not remain in a right relationship with Him. All we need
to do, however, is to not do that.
St. Nicholas
Cabasilas explains how we are saved in our cooperation with God this way:
"There is an
element which derives from God, and another which derives from our own zeal.
The one is entirely His work, the other involves striving on our part. However,
the latter is our contribution only to the extent that we submit to His grace
and do not surrender the treasure nor extinguish the torch when it has been
lighted. By this I mean that we contribute nothing which is either hostile to
the life or produces death. It is to this that all human good and every virtue
leads, that no one should draw the sword against himself, nor flee from
happiness, nor toss the crowns of victory from off his head" (The Life in
Christ, trans. by Carmino J. DeCatanzaro, (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s
Seminary Press, 1974), pp. 48-49).
Countless passages
of Scripture could be cited to demonstrate that it is possible for us to lose
our salvation, but the following words of the Prophet Ezekiel are a fairly
clear example:
"The soul that
sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father,
neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the
righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon
him. But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and
keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely
live, he shall not die. All his transgressions that he hath committed, they
shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done he
shall live. Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the
Lord God: and not that he should return from his ways, and live? But when the
righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and
doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he
live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his
trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them
shall he die" (Ezekiel 18:20-24).
By Fr. John Whiteford
Source: http://fatherjohn.blogspot.com/2015/12/stump-priest-assurance-of-salvation.html
Subscribe to:
Posts
(
Atom
)
About Our Blog
Welcome to the official blog of the Catalogue of St.Elisabeth Convent! The blog includes recent ministry updates of the convent, sermons, icons, personal stories and everything related to Orthodox Christianity. Join our Catalog of Good Deeds and become part of the ministry of St.Elisabeth Convent! #CatalogOfGoodDeeds
Most Popular Posts
Partners
