The Catalog of Good Deeds

Question: Father Andrew, your blessing. I study psychology at a university. Could you please respond to the following questions: How does Orthodoxy view conflicts in general? What about interpersonal and intrapersonal conflicts in particular? How does Orthodoxy view violence in all its forms? What is the Orthodox view on wars and warfare? What should we do when we are caught up in a conflict? Sergey

Answer by Fr. Andrew Lemeshonok: The first conflict that happened in the Universe was when Lucifer didn’t persevere in love, didn’t trust God, disregarded the glory and beauty that the Lord had given him, and decided that he didn’t want to obey God any longer. He wanted to become a god himself. A third of all Angels seceded from God, according to the Church doctrine. However, the good Angels won, and Archangel Michael—a warrior of Christ—threw Lucifer down into the underworld.

God is not with the might: He is with the right. That’s why conflicts are an unavoidable phenomenon of the world that has stepped away from God. There was the second conflict when man didn’t persevere in love and blamed God, his Creator, for that. Of course, God will always win. Evil doesn’t possess real power. Evil is self-deception or deception of someone else. It is destruction, desolation, and desecration. That is why we should fight the sin. To do so, we have to spur ourselves because the sin lives inside our hearts. Our very nature is infected by sin, and therefore we have to motivate ourselves all the time to keep working hard, for the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence.

As far as conflicts with other people are concerned, if we are talking about the enemies of our homeland or those who want to stop us from practising our faith, we’ve got to fight them. We know that Saint Sergius of Radonezh sent two of his schema-monks to Dmitry Donskoy’s army, and they took the swords and died in battle. We know that the Church blesses the defense of the borders of our country, our faith, our Fatherland, our nation. The soldiers who died during the Great Patriotic War and others who died while serving their nation, are accepted into the Heavenly Kingdom. Generally, war, murder, and violence are sins. That’s why we don’t share Tolstoy’s views on non-resistance to evil by force. The Church doesn’t allow us to be passive and unconcerned with regard to certain kinds of evil.

Currently, there is a spiritual warfare going on. The Church must engage in that battle and do everything possible to help people find God and start a new Christian life. The future of the entire world depends on us. Everything that goes on in the world is the continuation of that war that broke out after the initial conflict. The devil does whatever he can to lead people away from God and to divide them, essentially ripping them off of any chance to live in the Heavenly Kingdom and to serve their Creator. That’s the core of the intrapersonal conflict. Apostle Paul says, For I know that in me… dwell two persons. (See Romans 7: 17‒23). These two persons wage war against one another. We have to make it clear whose side we take. Fyodor Dostoyevsky used to say that a human heart is a battlefield where the devil fights with God for the control thereof. One cannot be a passive observer. Either you hide from God and follow your sins, lusts, and passions, until you become a puppet in the hands of the enemy, or you choose to fight, in which case even if you get knocked down, you’ve got to get up again and follow Christ during your whole life, knowing that this is your only way into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Man needs God’s help to grasp the essence of the conflict. If everyone insists on his or her own truth, it’s a sin. If one defends others, if one defends his or her faith and beliefs, that’s something every Christian must do. As soon as we become Christians through the Sacrament of Baptism, we become warriors for Christ. Our war is not against flesh and blood. It’s against the evil spirits. That’s what Apostle Paul tells us. This war, the invisible battle, continues until your last breath here on earth.

November 27, 2018

St. Elisabeth Convent

“They look at me as a traitor to the cause of feminism, all because I choose to work willingly for the people who love me, rather than to work for money for people who don't. Well, those gals can all fight it out among themselves. I reject the feminist paradigm.”

Editor's note: Debates normally present the impassioned views of people on both sides of a given subject. But in most cases, a third group of people is left without a voice: What about those people who don't want to participate in the debate? What are these people thinking, and why? For this article, we sought the perspective of Susan Blazek, a faithful Orthodox Christian wife and mother of seven, who is well educated, and who generally doesn't bother with debating or blogging. We asked her to emerge from her domestic paradise for just a few minutes, so she could write this article and share her sane and peaceful perspective with others.

Several recent articles and comment threads regarding feminism, Orthodoxy, and the modern mindset have led me to ponder this one question: can I just be quiet?

I attended an academically rigorous Catholic all-girls high school in the 80s, and feminism was in the very air we breathed. We were encouraged to try to “have it all,” to forge new ground for women, and not to worry about things like marriage or family. “We could do better,” we were all told. Career and achievement were viewed as the highest goal. As the valedictorian, I was expected to lead the charge, to do something great, to make a difference. Looking back 28 years later, I like to think I have indeed made a difference — but in a completely opposite way from what was expected.

Fast forward to today: my husband and I have 7 children, and we homeschool. Our lives center around our Orthodox church, the liturgical cycle, educating our kids, and helping to care for our aging parents. My day is filled with a mixture of laundry, Curious George, the Prologue of Ohrid, geometry proofs, and proofing bread dough. It's busy and crazy, and also deeply soul-nourishing. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Except possibly in one way: Am I allowed to just be quiet? In Facebook discussions and the blog-o-sphere, everyone is clamoring to make themselves heard, to express their opinion and to say their piece. To have the last word and to definitively speak out. Feminism would dictate that I participate in this fray; that I be strident and out-spoken, upholding the Female Voice, and never backing down. However, I often want to choose a different path: that of just not arguing. It doesn't mean that I lack an active interior life, or that 10 pregnancies have turned my brain into Mommy Mush; I just don't feel the need to be strident anymore.

Some people accuse me of "wasting my education." They look at me as a traitor to the cause of feminism, all because I choose to work willingly for the people who love me, rather than to work for money for people who don't. Well, those gals can all fight it out among themselves. I reject the feminist paradigm. I'll take my quiet Orthodox life any day over what the world has to offer.

The world is not entitled to know, nor indeed does it benefit from knowing, my every thought on every subject. Especially as I grow in Orthodoxy, I think about saints who stayed silent in the face of accusation, who withdrew into silence and meditation, who stayed so humble and peace-seeking that they would even flee from visitors. There's no need to argue anymore with strangers on the Internet. I just want to be small and still.

The world doesn't want me to be small. It wants me, as a woman, to seek to enlarge my sphere of influence, to argue and strive and add to the clamor.

But as an Orthodox wife and mother, I just want to lead a quiet life. I want to focus on my soul, my marriage, my family, my home, my church, and my church family. A quiet corner, a patch of green garden, an icon corner to pray before, an apron to wipe my flour-covered hands on, and a rocker in which to read great books to my children: that's all I need. That's about it. A quiet life. That's enough for me. Why can't it be enough for the rest of the world?

By Susan Blazek

Source: https://russian-faith.com/family-values/quiet-life-quiet-wife-n1667

Tomorrow we will celebrate the feast day of St. Nicholas Archbishop of Myra in Lycia. This amazing man has become one of the most beloved and revered saints in our native land. In him is a boundless compassion for others and an intense faithfulness to God. There are scores of instances from his life that are striking evidence of this.

In Patara, there lived an impoverished merchant who had three daughters. Lack of money for a dowry prevented him from giving them into marriage. The desperate father decided on a terrible thing — to sell the honor of his daughters to get badly needed money for his family. Fortunately, St. Nicholas vigilantly followed the lives of his flock. Upon learning of the merchant’s plan, he decided to save him from spiritual death. Three times, over the course of a few days, Saint Nicholas went to the poor man’s house at night and secretly threw him bags of gold. The kindness that was demonstrated not only allowed the father to give his daughters in marriage, but moved the merchant to actively help the needy when his business recovered.

No less famous is the account of how St. Nicholas saved three citizens of the world who were convicted to death by the slander of enemies. The Saint saved them right before the very moment of death. He snatched the sword from the hands of the executioner, and commanded him to release the innocent. His authoritative command was not contradicted. It was clear to all that what was happening before their eyes was the will of God.

Finally, it is worth remembering the tradition which says that during the meeting of the Council of Nicaea, St. Nicholas could not tolerate blasphemy and struck Arias on the cheek —a heretic who rejected the Divinity of Jesus Christ.

What important lessons can be learned from these accounts?

First – do not delay in providing support to those in need.

Second – do not judge others, because it may be that your “righteous anger” burns over a fire fueled by gossip, slander, and defamation.

Third – do not be afraid to steadfastly and zealously defend your faith, because very often it is silence that betrays God.

By Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanich)

Source: http://www.pravmir.com/from-the-church-s-view-lessons-of-st-nicholas/

Sveta couldn’t imagine living without alcohol. She would pour vodka in her throat without eating anything with it. Veronica was almost homeless. Her parents refused to let their daughter who had become a drug addict back into their house. Their stories could have ended at that if not for the rehabilitation center of St. Elisabeth Convent. It provides shelter for women who are in trouble. The Convent supplies them with accommodation, food, and jobs. It gives them the second, third, or fourth chance. Apparently, everyone starts believing in God here. Who else can they turn to?

Breeding Goats and Growing Oyster Mushrooms

Women’s Rehabilitation Center of St. Elisabeth Convent was established in 2011 on the territory of a former military base near v. Nialidavičy (Minsk Raion). The Convent bought several buildings and received some other buildings later for free. There had been a church here, too, but it burned down several days prior to land registration. The circumstances suggest that it was arson: some local resident must have set the church on fire because they didn’t want women who had been on the wrong side of the law to live near their villages. They thought that if they burned down the church, there would be no rehab, either. Time has proven them wrong. Today, a new church is being built here.

“Believe it or not, until we started building the church, we couldn’t finish the repairs of the dormitory. Problems were popping up all the time,” Nun Barbara (Atrasevich) says.

The new church under construction

She is in charge of this rehabilitation center. A former accountant, the nun easily deals with her administrative duties, of which there are plenty. There is a farm at the rehabilitation center, with hens, rabbits, and goats. There is a winter greenhouse on the foundation of a former soldiers’ bathhouse. The women plant tomatoes, bell peppers, and greens. They use former bomb shelters to grow oyster mushrooms from October till April. This year, however, they didn’t grow mushrooms in the bomb shelters: instead, they chose to store willow branches there. The sisters prepare ca. 50 thousand of willow branches for Palm Sunday every year.

Nun Barbara talks with the sisters

There were four “residents” in the rehabilitation center first. Today, there are twenty-eight of them. They are former prisoners, women with alcohol or drug abuse issues, mental health problems, and orphans who were evicted from their free state-provided accommodation. “Of course, they are not led here by the desire to serve God. They come here because they have nowhere else to go,” Nun Barbara is realistic. “Some of them are not accustomed to working at all. They would work only if I promised them a pack of cigarettes, you know.”

The nun recalls how the police tried to talk her out of allowing former prisoners in the rehabilitation center.

“They exclaimed, ‘Do you know what she was in prison for?’ That woman, Marina, spent twenty-five years in a prison camp for murder out of jealousy. She spent four months in our rehab and then went back home. They arrested her and sent her back to prison. She comes to us every time she is released from the prison camp. Currently, she’s behind bars for robbery.

A woman is cooking the dinner for everyone

The sisters, as the patients are called here, live in a dormitory or in a house, three persons in one room. They have meals in a refectory. Some of them stay here with their children. Child protection services don’t mind it: they’ve already seen that the mothers don’t drink while they stay here, and that their children are taken care of. While the women are at work, their underage children go to a kindergarten in v. Višnieŭka.

Every sister chooses for herself how long she is going to stay in the center. Initially, she is allowed to stay here for three or six months. When the three-month-long term ends, she has a conversation with nuns and the spiritual father of St. Elisabeth Convent who are trying to check whether her attitude has changed and whether it’s sensible to let her stay in the rehabilitation center any longer. One can stay in the rehab for as long as she wants but she has to be proactive and help the nuns.

Do the women really change? “The problem is that others can’t believe it. They think that it’s fake. Instead, they should support that person and let her see that her efforts aren’t in vain,” Nun Barbara points out.

The Rules: Don’t Drink, Wear a Long Skirt

While we’re anxiously looking at the soaring prices in the mall, the life of the rehab is different in that it’s much calmer. The women get together for prayer in the mornings and evenings. They recite an akathist —a special prayer to a certain saint. They spend the remaining time working. They sweep the floor and work in the Ceramic and Sewing Workshops. The Sewing Workshop makes priest vestments and modest clothes for female parishioners.

“These women will work only as long as they stay in the Convent. We’ve learned the hard way that they are unable to work anywhere else. Either they don’t get along with their employers or have a breakdown,” Nun Barbara maintains.

During the common prayer

As soon as the sisters gather the harvest in the fall, they start to get ready for Christmas caroling. They rehearse the carols that they will sing during the Christmastide to congratulate the locals on this glorious holiday. They have been to the nearby villages Kosyń, Nialidavičy, Luskava, Višnieŭka, Papierno this year. “The old ladies who live in those villages were so excited! People invite us to visit their homes the next year, too,” Nun Barbara recalls.

Father Andrew comes to the rehabilitation center every Tuesday and celebrates the Liturgy here. No one is forced to pray but… They recall a story that you wouldn’t call anything other than “unbelievable”. During the Great Lent, the sisters decided to read the Psalter round the clock, an hour each. Only three women refused. Later, their mental disorders exacerbated…

There are few rules in the rehabilitation center. Work honestly, don’t drink, don’t smoke inside the center, and wear modest clothes, i.e., a long skirt and a headscarf. Even the guard dog wears pants here.

Not everyone is ready to obey these rules, though. For example, when some volunteers brought a homeless woman who had slept in the railway station to the rehab, she spent only one night here, and then grabbed her belongings and left. Those who don’t want to stick to the rules are asked to leave the rehab. The nuns don’t just kick them out: they do everything they can to find accommodation and employment for them outside of the rehab. The nuns find farming jobs for the women and ask local authorities to provide accommodation for them.

“My Daughter Was Adopted While I Was in Prison”

We are having tea in the nuns’ house. There are icons on the shelves in the dining room and a carpet with an image of Christ hanging on the wall in the corridor. Even fridge magnets come from various holy places.

Alla is sitting in front of me. The woman came here six years ago. She had issues with alcohol abuse. She was trying to fight that dependency on her own but soon she figured out that it’s impossible without God. When she came to the rehab, she had a black eye and no papers. When I look at that smiling woman, I can’t believe that she is the same person who had gone through so much trouble in the past.

Alla has three children. Her youngest son is 15 and her oldest daughter is 24. She visits them from time to time but she doesn’t want to bother them too often. “It’s useless now: they have their own lives. My in-laws took care of them while they were kids. I’m not sure that I really need to be involved in their upbringing now. They are glad that I’m okay.”

Alla is the only woman who has never left the rehab. She wanted to get married several times but the sisters warned her against a hasty marriage. “I love the rehab: it’s my home,” the woman says. “I’d like to become a nun but I don’t want to leave this wonderful place.”

“Look, Gena is coming!” The sisters notice a male figure in the window. “It’s your guest, Sveta, for sure!”

Sveta runs outdoors. She returns a couple of minutes later with a smile on her face and a wristwatch in her hands. “We’ve worked things out. Look what he’s given me.”

Sveta found herself in the rehab because she had no other choice. If she had, she chose alcohol.

“I was a lawyer. Then my mom had a stroke and died. It was at that time that something went terribly wrong… My father is an alcoholic. He has been an alcoholic for as long as I remember him. I started drinking heavily, too—to the point of neglecting my appearance.

When child protection services took Sveta’s daughter away, she came to her senses. She found a job at a health resort and the social workers allowed her to take her daughter back home. Sadly, it wasn’t long until she started drinking again. “I would always say to myself: just one last shot to relax. After you drink, you forget all your promises. I didn’t even need anyone else to drink with.”

Child protection services had to intervene again. They took her daughter away again and sent Sveta to Novinki (a psychiatric hospital in Minsk) for a three-week treatment course. It was there that she met Gena, who worked in the Convent. When the woman was discharged from hospital, she didn’t stop drinking. One day she didn’t have enough liquor. Sveta knew that her neighbor stored a gallon of pure alcohol at home. She broke into the neighbor’s house and stole it. Three days later, the police raided her house. She was sentenced to house arrest. Sadly, the woman didn’t want to obey the terms of her house arrest. Three violations of the terms were enough to get her behind bars but she committed forty violations so it was natural that she was sent to a prison camp located in Homiel for fourteen months.

Sveta came to the rehabilitation center for the first time in December 2016. However, she was unable to stay here long. She returned in July 2017: Gena talked her into it. She resisted, though. She drank vodka to make sure that they wouldn’t let her in while she was drunk. The “diehard atheist”, as she had proudly called herself, finally gave in and asked the nuns to let her come in for rehabilitation the following day.

“There’s little free time here, and that’s great. When I was bored, I was looking for something to occupy myself with and would invariably start thinking of alcohol,” Sveta recalls.

There is only one detail that is missing in the happy end of Sveta’s story. While she was in prison, her daughter was adopted. She doesn’t even know who her new parents are. “What do I do now?” she keeps asking.

“You have to pray,” Nun Barbara suggests.

“I Said: If You Refuse to Help Me, I’ll Die”

Veronica is a young mother who stays in the rehab together with her 5-year-old daughter Milana. Nowadays, she is happy to earn a small amount of money in the ceramic workshop, even though she used to be super-rich because she worked as a croupier in a casino. Drugs spoiled everything.

“Even when I gave birth to the baby, I didn’t stop,” she recalls. “My husband used drugs, too. I was thinking of leaving him but where could I go? I have poor relationships with my parents: we just can’t get along. They were ready to accept their granddaughter but not me. I came to the Convent because I had attended services here for a while. I said: If you refuse to help me, I’ll die.”

Veronica carrying vases and cups made in the Ceramic Workshop of St. Elisabeth Convent

Veronica had a hard time getting accustomed to the new lifestyle.

“I could no longer afford expensive smartphones and designer clothes. I had thought, ‘I’m never going to wash a public restroom in my life!’ I had to force myself into doing the work that I have to do here.”

Veronica’s former husband visits their daughter sometimes. “He keeps talking about love all the time but in reality…” Veronica sighs. She has spent four years in the rehabilitation center. She plans to leave it next spring. “Everybody says it’s too early but it seems to me it’s time. I’m going to rent an apartment in the city. I’m planning to continue working in the workshop for now, and then who knows… I dream of living in the mountains.”

…Nun Barbara knows for sure: If one acknowledges her problem, she’s made her first step to freedom. It is easier to work with openhearted and sincere women. Unfortunately, nuns can’t always be near. What happens to those who eventually decide to leave the rehab? Nun Barbara doesn’t hide the fact that it depends. There is only one piece of advice that she offers to those who leave the rehab, “If you keep going to church, everything will be fine.”

By Natallia Lubnevskaya

Photos by Sergei Nikonovich

Translated by The Catalog of Good Deeds

Source: http://zviazda.by/ru/news/20180119/1516352190-kak-zhenshchinam-posle-koloniy-i-vytrezviteley-dayut-priyut-pri-monastyre

We often call Christmas the “season of giving”. If you are like me, most of that giving is in material things. Toys for little ones, maybe nice clothes for older ones… maybe something really expensive for those precious ones. And of course, there is always the receiving of these fine gifts from others who have entered into the “season of giving”. Most everyone really likes being on the receiving end of a gift.

Now this article is not about to condemn such activities. In fact, I think it is really nice that we have a chance to give gifts to those we love and care about. And, it’s really nice to be on the receiving end too! At the same time, it is called the “season of giving” for a much different reason. Perhaps this story will help shed a little light.

Wealth More Precious than Jewels (Author unknown)

A wise woman who was traveling in the mountains found a precious stone in a stream. The next day she met another traveler who was hungry, and the wise woman opened her bag to share her food. The hungry traveler saw the precious stone and wanted it, so the woman gave it to him. She did so without hesitation. The traveler left rejoicing in his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime.

A few days later, he came back to return the stone to the wise woman. “I’ve been thinking,” he said. “I know how valuable this stone is, but I give it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious. Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me this stone.”

Even though this traveler had gotten hold of a precious stone that was worth a fortune, he realized that he was missing out on something even more valuable. The Giver of the gift had something of much greater worth than that stone. The traveler came back desiring that greater treasure.

We can be a lot like that traveler as we go through life. We may suddenly find ourselves in a bad situation. It could be serious, as in a health problem or divorce or death of a loved one. It could be less serious, as in feeling depressed or stressed out or in need of some material thing. Next thing we know, we find ourselves asking God for help. I imagine every one of us can recount a time when God intervened to bring us that gift we asked for.

Many of us have gone on our merry way after receiving His gift of help, forgetting that just maybe there was something far greater behind that gift. Is it possible that the One, who could give us that gift of help we needed, might actually have something more valuable to give us? Indeed, the real message of Christmas is not just that we have a God who is able to heal our broken health, or to bring comfort in the midst of great grief, or to bring peace of mind when our world is stressed out beyond belief. The message of Christmas is far deeper and greater for those who would bring their gift of life back to God and seek the more precious gift.

For those who would like to look further into that gift of Christmas, here’s some great reading from the Giver of Life Himself:

Luke 2:1-20; Galatians 4:1-7; John 1:1-13; 3:13-21.

God’s richest blessings to each of you this Christmas season!

By Fr. Stephen Powley

Source: https://upwordglance.com/2016/12/14/could-you-give-back-your-best-gift/

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What Does Orthodoxy Say About Conflicts?

Orthodoxy and Feminism

From the Church’s View: Lessons of St. Nicholas

How Women with Troubled Fates Receive Shelter in St. Elisabeth Convent

What Kind of Music Is Forbidden for Christians?

The Season of Gifts and Our Ability to Give What's the Most Precious to Us

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