The Catalog of Good Deeds

Dear friends! The Catalog of Good Deeds team starts a new series of personal stories devoted to the Feast of the Nativity. Our brothers and sisters are going to share with you some of their brightest Christmas memories from their childhood and explain how that influenced their own perception of this Great Feast.

There are lots of people for whom Christmas means a warm family reunion and sweet memories. You know, those memories that return when we go to the attic or the basement and open a box filled with old letters, photos, and other little things that we cherish. My box contains a metal bell with battered ornament, a wooden reindeer, and a glass ball with snow. These objects bring back my childhood memories of Christmas.

My family went to a parish, which cooperated with a US-based charity. The charity sent us a parcel with lots of gifts for the most fantastic children's holiday one year. All the gifts were in paper-wrapped boxes. The parcel came a couple of weeks before Christmas, so the colorful skyscrapers made of gift boxes stood in the Sunday School auditorium waiting for the holiday.

There was a Liturgy and a solemn meal on January 7, and after that, all Sunday School students received their gifts. The rustling paper was unwrapped with caution, and the students opened their boxes, anxious to find out what was inside. The gifts were different but no matter what you found in your box, it felt like a treasure: color pencils, postcards, notebooks, and knitted scarves. The children's faces were shining as the kids unpacked their gifts, discussed them, exchanged the toys, and ran to show them to their parents. It seems that the gift boxes, packed with warmth and care, contained more than just presents. They had sincere hearts of caring people inside.

I keep opening that box every year before Christmas and thank again the wise people who, in spite of all their busyness and hassle of our times, found some time to send us Christmas in a box.

By Sister Olga (Nichiporuk),

a customer manager, a member of The Catalog of Good Deeds team

Question: "In the Old Testament we read that there is 'a time to keep silence and a time to speak' (Ecclesiastes 3:7). What is the value of silence and quiet in a time when we are always 'plugged in'?"

Answer: This passage is actually speaking about silence in terms of when we should speak. However, your question is more focused on silence in terms of removing distractions from our life, particularly for times of spiritual focus. Both aspects are important to consider.

What Ecclesiastes is saying is that there are times when we should speak, and there are times when we should not. There are times when we can betray God by speaking, and there are times when we can betray God by our silence. When to speak or when not to speak is a question of wisdom, and seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

How does one acquire the wisdom needed to make the right choices? One thing we need to do is to inform ourselves by studying the Scriptures, which contain great wisdom. We should also seek wise counsel, and we should pray for divine guidance. And then, you have to make what seems to be the wisest choice, but remaining open to the correction of others and praying that God will correct you, if you have made the wrong choice.

The Fathers say quite a bit about the virtues of silence. One good source to read on this is "The Evergetinos," which is a compilation of sayings of the desert fathers, but arranged topically, by St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain. In volume 2, beginning on page 353, there is a section entitled "Concerning speech and silence, how and when to make use of them, and that idle talk is a sin." Here are a few excerpts from that section:

"An Elder said: "One man thinks that he is being silent, and yet his heart is judging others; such a man is always talking. Another man talks from morning until evening and yet keeps silence; that is, he says nothing that is not beneficial."

"A brother visited a certain Elder and said to him: "Abba, give me a word, so that I may be saved." The Elder replied: "If you go to someone, do not hasten to speak before you consider what you are going to say." Filled with compunction at this saying, the brother made a prostration and remarked: "Truly, I have read many books, but never have I come across such learning." Thus edified, he departed."

"Abba Isaiah said: "Wisdom does not consist in speaking; wisdom means knowing the time when you should speak and when to reply as necessary. Make it seem that you know nothing, although you have knowledge, so as to avoid great distress; for he who appears to have knowledge lays burdens on himself. Do no boast about your knowledge, for no one knows anything."

"An Elder said: "If you acquire silence, do not pride yourself on having attained to virtue, but say: 'I am unworthy even to speak.'""

From St. Diadochos: "Just as, when the doors of the baths are left continually open, the heat inside is quickly driven out, so also the soul, when it wishes to say many things, even though everything that it says may be good, disperses its concentration through the door of the voice. Hence, the soul, deprived of suitable spiritual ideas, loses the strength to struggle against thoughts and babbles with anyone it encounters. Since in this way (through loquacity) the soul drives out the Holy Spirit, it cannot keep the intellect free from harmful fantasies; for the Good Spirit always flees from loquacity, which is the cause of every upset and fantasy. Timely silence is good, since it is nothing other than the mother of the wisest thoughts."

"Two brothers from Sketis wanted to visit Abba Anthony. They embarked on a boat, and with them embarked a certain Elder, whom the brothers did not know and who was likewise going to visit Abba Anthony. As they sat on the boat, the brothers discussed what the Fathers say about the Scriptures and also talked about their handiwork. The Elder was silent. After they had disembarked from the boat and reached their destination, Abba Anthony said to the brothers: "You found good company in this Elder." Then he said to the Elder: "You had good brothers travelling with you, Abba." The Elder replied: "They are good, but their house has no door; anyone who wants to can enter the stable and untie the ass." He said this in order to show that they said whatever came into their mouths."

Here are some thoughts on the question of distractions:

"There are a number of important things that should be observed by those seeking spiritual development. One of these is physical and mental quiet (hesychia), made possible by living in a quiet place [or turning off the TV at home, the radio in the car, etc.], away from noise, confusion, and distractions. Control of talking is another. Such control helps bring about inner silence, which strengthens a person spiritually, whereas unnecessary talking does the reverse" (Anchored in God: Life, Art, and Thought on the Holy Mountain of Athos, Dr. Constantine Cavarnos).

"Silence greatly helps in spiritual life. It is good for one to practice silence for about an hour a day: to test himself, to acknowledge his passions and to fight in order to cut them off and purify his heart. It is very good if there is a quiet room in the house which gives him the feeling of a monastic cell. There, “in secret”, he is able to do his spiritual maintenance, to study, and to pray. A little spiritual study done before prayer helps greatly. The soul warms up and the mind is transported to the spiritual realm. That’s why, when a person has many distractions during the day, he should rejoice if he has ten minutes for prayer, or even two minutes to read something, so as to drive away distractions" (Excerpts from Family Life, by St. Paisios the Athonite).

We cannot avoid distractions all of the time, but we need to set aside times when we intentionally avoid them, so that we can make progress in the spiritual life. Great Lent is one tenth of the year. We should treat it as a tithe, and especially set this time apart for spiritual focus. This does mean we need to cut down the usual noise, and spend more time in prayer, more time reading the Scriptures and other spiritually edifying books, and more time in the services of the Church.

By Fr. John Whiteford

Source: http://fatherjohn.blogspot.com/2016/03/stump-priest-time-to-keep-silence.html

Nowadays, we often call a woman who is expecting a child gravid, from a Latin word which means heavy. A much more apt way of naming this condition was used in Russia in ancient times: “not idle”, i.e., she who is busy carrying a baby and preparing for childbirth, which would be best translated into English as 'expectant’.

An icon showing the Expectant Mother of God was discovered during the restoration of 14^th-century frescoes in a convent in v. Dirbi, Georgia, in the late 1990s or early 2000s.

This image, like the Symeon's Prophecy icon, alludes to the Gospel passage where the Righteous Joseph the Betrothed who had been entrusted with the task of keeping the chastity of the most pure Virgin, realized that She was pregnant. [B]efore they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.

The righteous man was embarrassed and planned to let her go in secret to prevent the Jews from stoning her to death as a promiscuous woman in accordance with their custom. At that point, he was assured by an Angel that her conception was chaste and mysterious. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.

The icon portrays the Theotokos with her right hand raised to her head and wiping her tears and her left hand pointing to Joseph that She knoweth not a man, i.e. She is a virgin. This icon became widely known and revered across Georgia in the early 2000s.

People who can't have children for some reason pray before the icon. Also, pregnant women and new mothers ask the Mother of God to help them raise their children in piety and to grant them future wellbeing.

Interestingly enough, a similar image of the Mother of God known as The Helper in Childbirth was discovered around the same time (in 1993) in the town of Serpukhov, Russia.

It depicts the Theotokos with her palms on her belly. Baby Jesus is depicted inside her womb. People pray in front of this image asking for help in pregnancy and childbirth, too.

Translated by The Catalog of Good Deeds

Source: https://pravoslavie.fm/articles/5-interesnyih-obrazov-presvyatoy-bogoroditsyi/

The Meeting of our Lord is an amazing and wonderful holiday. It is as remarkable as a genuine meeting of God and man, the Creator and His wayward creation, can be.

There was an old man who was really old. He had seen a lot in his lifetime. Perhaps, he had experienced a fair share of happiness but also plenty of grief, sorrows, and troubles. The Lord never abandoned that old man; on the contrary, He would always comfort and support him. Despite that, God delayed the greatest comfort and the greatest joy in the life of the holy elder whose name was Symeon—the comfort, which made it into the history of our salvation and which we remember at every Vespers service and after every Eucharist—until the man's last days. The holy elder devoted his simple life to persistent anticipation of this great God's gift.

According to the Gospel, the Lord had promised the righteous man that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ (Luke 2:26). The godly elder spent many years waiting for the miraculous encounter. Finally, he met the long-anticipated Messiah in the holy city of Jerusalem. The most holy Virgin and Saint Joseph the Betrothed brought Baby Jesus into the Temple of the Lord on the 40^th day in keeping with the Mosaic Law: And when the days of her purifying are fulfilled, for a son, or for a daughter, she shall bring a lamb of the first year for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon, or a turtledove, for a sin offering, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, unto the priest (Leviticus 12:6).

The Holy Gospel tells us that the righteous elder was moved by God to go to the Temple that day.

And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law, then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said,

Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace,

according to thy word:

for mine eyes have seen thy salvation,

which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;

a light to lighten the Gentiles,

and the glory of thy people Israel.

And Joseph and his mother marvelled at those things which were spoken of him. (Luke 2:27-33).

How amazing is that?! What a great encounter of a man advanced in years and worn out by hard work and afflictions, and God, who was looking at the old man with the clear eyes of an innocent baby! It wasn't just a meeting of Baby Jesus and the Righteous Symeon who had been waiting for the consolation of Israel (cf. Luke 2:25)—it was an encounter of the Eternal God and the aging humankind, burdened by wars and iniquities, exhausted from injustices and illnesses, lost in its human wisdom, and tired of looking for God, His truth and love.

The Good God visited Elder Symeon and the entire human race at last. Finally, the miraculous encounter of God the Savior and the dying Man occurred. The twinkling Star of Bethlehem, which only the select few had been able to see, gradually sheds Its gracious light upon Adam's descendants until It finally becomes an inextinguishable, all-penetrating, and ever-shining Sun of Righteousness that incinerates all sins.

The Orthodox Church prays on the day of the Meeting of our Lord, “Receive, O Symeon, Him whom Moses beheld in the gloom on Sinai giving the law, and Who hath become a babe submitting to the law; He is the One who speaketh through the law; He is the One spoken of by the prophets. Who for our sake has become incarnate and saveth man. Him let us worship!” (Sticheron on Lord I Have Cried, by Patriarch Herman).

Let us pray to our Lord Jesus Christ so that our encounter with Him would bring us joyful knowledge of God and help us to lead fruitful lives. Also, let's pray for those who are still seeking the Truth.

By John Nichiporuk,

a Bachelor of Theology,

specialized in Biblical Studies.

The Catalog of Good Deeds, 2018

See full Nativity infographics here.

Unpracticed faith—that is, faith without works—St. James writes, is dead. It has no transformative or sanctifying power; it is intellectual assent that descends into paralyzing doubt (or worse), which is no faith at all. That’s because faith is revealed, confirmed, and made perfect by our actions not affirmations (for by their fruits you will know them).

Consider a child, standing nervously at the edge of the pool, coaxed by his father to dive into the water. He has a choice: plunge headlong into the pool where the able arms of dad are ready to receive him, or remain at water’s edge frozen in fear, dithering in doubt. He may sincerely believe that his father won’t let harm come to him, but until he jumps, fear holds him captive in functional unbelief, revealing that his faith is in a danger that his father cannot save him from.

When the “rubber” of belief meets the “road” of decision, a choice has to be made. There is no middle road other than doubt, which defaults to unbelief and tosses us to and fro on the agnostic waves of uncertainty. Indeed, we will never walk on the troubled waters of life until faith moves us to get out of the boat!

Functional Atheists

Behavioral studies by various pollsters suggest that the vast majority of Americans who self-identify as Christian are functional non-Christians, if not atheists, with rates of divorce, sexual promiscuity, substance abuse, and other behaviors on par with those of their non-Christian neighbors. (By their fruits you will know them.)

In his 2001 book Growing True Disciples, George Barna reported, “To the naked eye, the thoughts and deeds (and even many of the religious beliefs) of Christians are virtually indistinguishable from those of nonbelievers.” Six years later he similarly reported, “born again Christians are statistically indistinguishable from non-born again adults on most of the behaviors studied.” The studied behaviors included lying, substance abuse, and extra-marital sex. (By their fruits you will know them.)

For example, although the Church teaches that sex is reserved within the marital bond of one man and one woman, 94 percent of adults admit to having had non—marital sex. Considering that roughly 70 percent of the U.S. populace is Christian, it is safe to say that a lot of Christians—very likely, the majority—are guilty of sexual sin. (By their fruits you will know them.)

A Christian I’ll call “Kurt” is a case in point. Over breakfast one morning, as Kurt was telling me about his girlfriend, I was taken aback when he breezily insinuated the sexual nature of their relationship. When I asked how he squared that with Church teaching, his jaw went slack as if I’d asked about the burial rites of the Inuit. After an awkward pregnant pause, he replied, “I’m committed to her!” as if that would resolve any biblical difficulty I might bring up. I brought up a few. He was unmoved. A few months later I heard that he was in another “committed” relationship.

On the issue of abortion, the pro-choice Guttmacher Institute found that in 2014, 54 percent of women who chose abortion were Christian (24 percent Catholic and 30 percent Protestant) compared to 46 percent who were non-Christian. That finding led the Jesuit publication, America, to report that Catholics are just as likely to get an abortion as anyone else. What’s more, although the Catholic Church stands resolutely against abortion, more Catholics favor its legality than oppose it. Every Sunday morning at the Catholic Church I attend, I’ve noticed a car in the parking lot with a bumper sticker stating, “STOP the GOP war on women!”

Many of these people most likely would consider themselves good Christians. They are active in church, perhaps theologically conservative, even espousing conventional Church teaching. Yet, when it comes to the way they actually live they have cultivated, what Mary Eberstadt has called, the “will to disbelieve” what the Church plainly teaches.

By their words, they profess faith in Christ, but by their actions they reveal that their faith is in their instincts, urges, feelings, and the secular sirens of culture: Dear Abby, Oprah, Joel Osteen. (By their fruits you will know them.)

Barna’s research suggests some underlying causes here. From surveys taken between 2005 to 2010, Barna found that less than 20 percent of Christians are committed to spiritual formation. What’s more, says Barna, “less than one out of ten have talked about their faith with a non-Christian, fasted for religious purposes, and had an extended time of spiritual reflection during the past week.”

He goes on to report that among self-identified Christians, less than 3 percent “have surrendered control of their life to God, submitted to His will for their life, and devoted themselves to loving and serving God and other people.”

Just think—70% of Americans profess to be Christians, and yet as few as 3% could be called disciples—that is, believers who have dedicated their lives to become more like Jesus by learning to do the things He commanded us to do. The rest are people of unpracticed faith who, if church members, are in effect “belonging-non-believers.”

In result, we have Christians who are exuding more the stench of death than the aroma of life and a Church that is losing its social and moral capital in an ever-increasingly secularized world. Lord have mercy!

By Regis Nicoll

Excerpts from: Crisis Magazine

Source: https://www.orthodoxytoday.org/blog/2018/06/unpracticed-faith-is-functional-atheism/

Tinian people preserve their local manners and customs as sacred. Besides, many of those stem from ancient religious traditions. These customs survive mostly in the villages, although the Main Town also has its own traditions. In addition, the locals often combine their deep religious faith with their love for dancing and singing, regularly organizing local festivities and fairs.

A custom that proves the deep religious faith of Tinians is the lighting of Vigil Lights. It is an unwritten law, binding the locals to light all the country chapels this way every Saturday afternoon and on the eve of the celebration of a Saint’s memory. Every chapel has a permanent or temporary owner, responsible for keeping the custom. Non-fulfillment of this obligation is considered a moral offence not tolerated by the locals.

This custom sometimes takes the form of a solemn religious promise. Thus, many Tinians often as a token of gratitude, supplication or thanks to a Saint, vow to go to the chapel dedicated to the Saint’s name. The pilgrims arrive at the chapel early in the morning. If the oil lamps are already lit, they add some oil to keep them burning and they leave the oil bottle they brought with them next to the candelabrum so it can be used later.

In every case, the ritual includes candle lighting and incense burning. These three ritual elements are the only material sacrifice that has survived since the early Christian years. Its nature is symbolic. Its value is not measured by the materials offered, but by the pilgrim’s devoutness. In general, oil lamp lighting represents the light in their souls. The flame symbolizes the light of the Holy Spirit and the resplendence of all the Saints who are deep in the locals’ hearts.

An old Christian custom, of monastic origin, is held during the Christmas season in Tripotamos. Every year, one family, whose leader receives the title of ‘Kavos’, takes on the responsibility of taking care of the village church, which is dedicated to the Presentation of the Virgin Mary. Among their responsibilities is to keep the oil lamp (vigil light) hanging over the Icon of the Nativity lit all year round. In addition, they keep the church clean, they pay the costs for the Christmas Divine Liturgy, the provision of candles, while they are also responsible for the making of a huge candle for the New Year’s Day Service.

On Christmas day, at noon, the Kavos invites the priest and the men – the head of families of the village – for lunch. Each one of the guests has to bring his own fork, spoon, bread and wine, all wrapped in a napkin. The Kavos has to make provisions for a lavish meal, with soup, veal stew, and braised meat with tomato sauce, stuffed vine leaves and several other local specialties. Wine is served in goblets, special mugs of hemispherical shape made of brass that are used only on this occasion.

After the meal, the priest and some of the table-companions carry the Icon of the Nativity from the church to their host’s house chanting Christmas hymns. The Icon is placed on the table, the priest hands out the holy bread, while everyone lights candles, similar to those used in the morning service. This is the moment when the priest appoints the next ‘Kavos’. After eating the traditional sweets, the Icon is taken back to church while the crowd chants Christmas hymns.

On the next day (26^th of December) all the men of the village gather again in the house of the former Kavos, to finish up the leftovers from the previous day. Typically, the responsibilities of the former Kavos end with the Christmas meal. However, the oil lamp has to remain lit till the last day of the year. After Divine Liturgy on the 31^st of December, there is a procession of the Icon around the houses of the village according to the custom of ‘podariko’ (=first visitor at a house on New Year’s Day is considered to bring good luck).

Today the list for the title of Kavos runs till 2025, which means that this custom is very popular with the locals. In earlier days though, the Kavos would be a last-minute choice, since most of the families were not well-off.

Source: https://stjohntheforerunnerblog.blogspot.com/2017/12/a-christmas-tradition-on-island-of-tinos.html

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