The Catalog of Good Deeds

Abba Paul the Barber and his brother Timothy lived in Scetis. They often used to argue. So Abba Paul said, “How long shall we go on like this?” Abba Timothy said to him. “I suggest you take my side of the argument and in my turn I will take your side when you oppose me.” They spent the rest of their days in this practice.

The life of a man who found God is characterised by absence of anger, by meekness, humility, constant vigilance of the soul and being watchful to keep sinful movements of his soul at bay because they destroy the peaceful mood. A man sees God's Providence in his life and does his best in order to cherish this peace of Christ but as soon as he forgets God, he is in for struggle. It is impossible to have victory over sin using only our own efforts. We need God's help to do this.

If we seek human justice, we are certain to justify ourselves, to decide that we were offended and to pity ourselves in any conflict. When we hear an angry or irritated word, we are unable to forgive and to humble ourselves down before our neighbour.

We need to remember God and His love in order to quench down the sinful movements in our souls. Apostle Paul writes, “Bear ye one another's burdens” (cf. Gal. 6:2). There is no other way to fulfil the law of Christ. The path of a Christian is truly a narrow one, but it is this path that allows one's soul to acquire inner peace and to abide in God's love.

The Lord humbled himself unto death, even the death of the cross (Phil. 2:8). The Lord defeated the sin, the evil of the entire world by His humility and meekness. He teaches us to seek love instead of human righteousness. He is the source of this love. “I am the Way... I am the beginning and the end of this way.” (cf. John 14:6; Rev. 1:8). The Lord brought us His righteousness, and it is according to this righteousness that we ought to concede, to humble ourselves and never scandalize our neighbour. Even if we see that our brother or sister does or says something wrong, we ought to correct it and help that person to get rid of the lie and the sin. We can only do that if we have compassion, if we do not reject that person and do not add our own sins to his.

God's love has enlightened the whole universe. If we are patient enough to carry the burdens of the people around us, if we are humble and forgiving, our world will become brighter, our homes will become warmer because of God's love. How can we help our neighbour if we do not understand or hear him? One cannot defeat the sin with nice words and clever advice. One cannot teach another person to love if his own heart is cold and empty. This is why we all need God's forgiveness, God's blessing; this is why we all are enormously indebted to God for his love. We receive it, we survive only thanks to it but we are so quick to forget it and to lose it as we are looking for our unique place in this world.

The Lord says, “If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all.” (Mark 9:35). And, “Judge not, that ye be not judged.” (Matthew 7:1). The Lord leads us to Mount Golgotha. He stretches His holy arms out to us from the Cross, and we see wounds from the nails on His hands. The Blood of Christ that pours from these wounds washes away the sins of the entire world. We consider ourselves to be Orthodox Christians, we go to church but how often we cannot humble ourselves down before a brother. How often we forget about God who loves our offender as much as He loves us even though we humiliate, insult and ignore him because of our own understanding of truth and justice.

The world did not accept the love of Christ. Man crucified God but God who had come to save man did not take revenge on him and did not renounce His love. He drank the cup of suffering for the sake of our salvation. That is why we must reconcile with all our offenders before we take communion in church; only after reconciliation can we approach the Chalice of Life.

We follow Christ by subduing ourselves, by surmounting our personal view of the truth and justice, by learning the commandments of Christ, which are based not on human laws but on the all-forgiving and ever-winning love.

May God help us to follow the example of these holy elders who found such a simple answer to the problems in their monastic life! They decided to ignore angry words, to be patient with their brother, and thus remained peaceful and helped their neighbour.

Peace in our homes with the people around us will be easily restored and maintained if we eliminate excess words, bad looks or thoughts.

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The light of Christ enlightens all. Holiness is sanctification of the life of an individual with the love of Christ. Repentance is the way to holiness. It is through repentance that man receives graceful help and dares to go to the Light, to reveal his sinful illnesses, his infirmities. One's soul suffers from seeing his sins, it suffers because it cannot see its own God-created beauty. This pain and suffering teaches man to hate the sin. A man opens his eyes and sees that the sin does not bring joy or satisfaction. The sin deceives and kills his immortal soul. This is why repentance is the courage of the soul which does not hide from God, which does not try to deceive herself, to justify herself and hide behind others' backs. A person follows the Light consciously, understanding that he is going to suffer because of what he shall see. However, he believes in God's love, he believes that the Lord will be able to heal his sins, to give him power to defeat and hate the sin, and to sanctify his life.

Holiness is the norm of life for a Christian. Holy things to the holy! The Holy Church exclaims so before the greatest Sacrament, the Sacrament of Communion, communion of man with God. God is holy, and therefore a man who unites with God also becomes holy. Man hears that he is already defeating the order of his nature, and that he is already in the eternity. “Servant of God is partaking of the Eternal Life” means that the death and everything that is temporary, perishable and transient, is defeated.

It is in the Church of Christ that man is nurtured and learns to live for the sake of the Eternity, learns to live with God and build all his earthly relationships through God. “Christ is in our midst! He is, and He shall be!” - this is what priests say before the communion of the Holy Mysteries; and we start having Christ before us and in our midst so that we could begin a new life and new relationships through Christ, so that we would submit everything we have, all our lives, into God's hands. By trusting God man becomes free, he becomes free from within. Man is no longer bound or chained with his own personal interests, desires and wishes. He wants the same things that God wants; he wants to fulfil God's will, he looks for God's will because he understands that even if it does not coincide with his own desires, even if his heart protests and does not want to accept this will of God, it is still much better and more trustworthy than our desires and emotional states, which push us into this or that direction day after day. Man needs a solid foundation on which to stand in this world when temptations, sorrows and stresses come and make us feel desperate and hopeless.

This is why we build our lives upon the rock, and this rock is Christ. In fact, when man finds God and understands that God is near in each moment of his life and in all situations, he is able to hope for God's help and salvation. Likewise, when man loses his connection to God, he becomes desperate and depressed, he loses all his strength, and it seems to him that the sin has separated him from other people and from God for ever.

The Church nurtures us and prepares us for the eternal life, like a loving mother. This life becomes real for every believer even now, in this transient world. When we come to church and participate in the Divine Liturgy, in the Sacraments of the Church of Christ, we can feel the Eternity, we enter the Eternity because we ought to leave all transient earthly cares at the threshold of the church.

The sin makes an individual inconsistent, it divides man within himself. One's mind cannot stay still, emotions run wild and make one lose peace within his heart. It is on his way to God that a person brings himself to reason, tries to bring his mind, his emotions and all his heart together. Man is created in order to allow God to dwell in him. God leads our lives when we humble ourselves, when we reconcile with our neighbours, when we begin to value what we have got.

Grace is given to the humble. This grace, the Holy Spirit, directs the life of that person. The person does not suffer because of his problems and does not waste his time thinking what he should do and where he should go in this life. He begins and ends his every single day asking God, “Thy will be done!” His heart becomes a compass that helps man find his path to salvation. The heart is deep, and when it is peaceful, the person tries not to lose this peace and not to make his neighbour lose this peace.

Our journey to the Heavenly Kingdom continues, and like babies, we learn to make our first steps, to say our first words to God our Heavenly Father. These words connect us with the Eternity. There is God's Spirit in these words. We feed our soul with penitential prayer and praise, we start to talk with God inside our hearts, and the worldly noise must not silence down this talk. Prayer becomes the word of life, the new life, the life where there are no ups and downs and disappointment, which is so typical of the earthly life. This is how our life gradually becomes holy and sanctified. We escape the darkness of sin, we stop hiding under the masks of hypocrisy and people-pleasing, we come to realise that God watches over our every step and that there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed. And this is why we learn to live in God's sight. Our every thought and every word are our steps towards the Eternity. We must remember that each person is going to answer for his life, for each day he lived and for each idle word he uttered. So we ought to spare our words and to hold them precious; we start looking for God who will always be by our side and who will lead us to resurrection from the dead.

Our journey to the Heavenly Kingdom is our journey inside our hearts; it is the way of dying (when our old man dies) and rising from the dead for the Eternal Life, for sacrificing all our lives to our Creator and for making our entire lives filled with service and ministry. “Love God and thy neighbour” - these words become the most important in our lives. We do not love anyone because sin dwells in our souls; but when we struggle with our sins and make attempts to overcome them, the Lord teaches us to love, the Lord reveals His love, which become the fountain of everlasting life for us. Then we all become one, the entire Church becomes one Body of Christ.

The people whom the Lord leads into the church, change; it is the love of Christ that changes them; it enters our hearts and sanctifies our lives. This is why the Church exclaims, “Holy things to the holy,” this is why She calls us to praise God with one mouth and one heart; this is why the Holy Fathers used to call the Church “heaven on earth” because even here on earth we can enter into the Eternal Life and are sanctified by this Light of Love, which defeats the darkness of this world and resurrects man for the new life.

Sermon by Fr Andrew on June 22, 2008.

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Every Christian mother considers it one of her primary obligations to teach her child prayer as soon as his consciousness begins to awaken prayer that is simple and easy for him to understand. His soul must be accustomed to the warm and fervent experience of prayer at home, by his cradle, for his neighbors, his family. The child's evening prayer calms and softens his soul, he experiences the sweetness of prayer with his little heart and catches the first scent of sacred feelings.

It is harder for a child to take in the atmosphere which prevails in church. At first he just observes. He sees people concentrating and rites he does not as yet understand and hears incomprehensible words. However, the very solemnity and festivity of the church have an uplifting effect on him. When a two year-old child wants to take part in church, to sing, speak or make prostrations—in this we can see his uplifted state of soul, with which he is involuntarily infected. We say this from simple observation.

But there is also something higher than our sense perceptions. Christ is invisibly present in church and He sees the child, blesses him, and receives him into the atmosphere of the grace of the Holy Spirit. Grace envelopes him as a warm wind wafts over a blade of grass in a field, helping it to grow up slowly and gradually, to put down roots and develop. And so the mother hastens to bring her child to Christ, to His grace, regardless even of whether he has any understanding at all of this contact with the gift of grace. This especially concerns the Eucharist, the very closest union with Christ. The mother brings her infant to this mystery while he is still a baby lying in her arms. Is the mother right?

"Suffer the little children to come unto Me, for of such is the kingdom of God." Can you really say with certainty that there and then in the fields of Palestine these children had already understood Christ's teaching, had been sitting at the Teacher's feet and listening to His preaching? Do not say this, for the Evangelist himself remarks that "they brought unto Him also infants, that He would touch them: but when His disciples saw it, they rebuked them". In bringing their little ones, the mothers' purpose was simply that His hands should touch the children, and not that He should teach them divine knowledge.

Allowing children to have contact with spiritual grace is one of the first, basic concerns of a Christian who thinks about his children, and the task of Christian society, which is concerned about its youth. Here is the door to a correct Orthodox Christian upbringing. Enlightenment, compunction and joy, as they awaken in the infant's growing consciousness are an external indicator of the fact that the little Christian is feeling warmth from the divine source in himself. And even if he does not feel it, the invisible action of God's grace does not stop; only we do not see it, just as we do not see the effect of the sun on our own health instantly and at once. In Russian literature we have such apt examples of the disposition of children's souls during preparation for confession and communion, after confession and after communion of the Holy Mysteries.

Nevertheless, how often it is forgotten that herein lies the key to organizing religious education. How often, on seeing the inadequacy of religious education, we pick up the programs and re-work them, lay the blame on the textbooks and the teachers—and forget about the importance of the church and the influence of the services; certainly we do not always ask ourselves the question: "But did the children go to church?"

As the child grows tip, he should enter more deeply into the life, of the Church. The child's mind, the youth's mind must be enlightened by the church services, learn from them, become immersed in them; the church should give him knowledge of God.

This matter is more complex. The task of religious 'education will be fulfilled only when we teach our children to love church.

When we, the adults, organize church services, make arrangements for them, shorten or lengthen the order of service and so on, we are accommodating ourselves to our own concepts and needs, or simply convenience, understood in adult terms. But in so far as the concepts, needs and spiritual strivings of children are not taken into account, the surroundings are often not conducive towards making children love church. This is nevertheless one of the most important means of religious education: let the children come to love the church, so that they may always attend church with a pleasant feeling and receive spiritual nourishment from it. And since parents often cannot help here, if only because not, infrequently they are irreligious themselves, we are often compelled, when we think about our Orthodox children, to place this work into the hands of the community, the hands of the school, the hands of the Church.

Just as we are not afraid of destroying a devotion to learning and books, or love for our national literature and history by making our children come running to class at the sound of a bell and sit at desks, and by immersing them in an atmosphere of strict discipline and compulsion; so also, one might think, we would have no reason to be afraid of using a certain amount of compulsion in the matter of attending church, whether it be part of school regime or an expression of self-discipline on the part of youth organizations—both those that are connected with school and those that are not. But certainly, if this remains just compulsion, and to such an extent that it creates a psychological repulsion in the young people—this will show that the aim has not been attained, that the method has proved to be inadequate and the compulsion in vain. Let the child brought by our will express a desire to remain there through his own will. Then you will have justified your action.

And again we say: it is not only natural, psychological effects that take place in children's souls in church, but the action of grace. Our whole concern should be that the soul of the baby, child or youth should not be closed to holy impressions, but should be freely opened: and then it will no longer need effort, force or any other form of self-compulsion; it will be nourished freely and easily and joyfully.

There is one thing that must not be forgotten: human nature requires at least a minimal degree of active participation. In church this can take the form either of reading, or of singing, or of decorating and cleaning the church, or of some other activity, even if it is only indirectly connected with the services.

The indisputable importance of the church and of communal church services for the religious upbringing of children constitutes one of the arguments in favour of the Orthodox understanding of the mystery of baptism: that is to say, an argument in favor of baptizing children at a very young age, as we do in the Orthodox Church. Baptism is the door through which one enters the Church of Christ. One who is not baptized—which means he is not a member of Christ's family—has no right to participate in the life of this family, in its spiritual gatherings and in its table—the Lord's table. Thus our children would be deprived of the right to be with us in church, to receive the blessing in the name of the Holy Trinity, to communicate the Body and Blood of Christ. And however we may influence them in our family at home, however much we might teach them the Gospel, we would be depriving them of the direct action of heavenly grace, and at best we would arouse a thirst for faith in them—but we would still be keeping them far from the heavenly light and warmth, which comes down, regardless of our human efforts, in the mysteries, in all the services, in holy prayers. How grossly mistaken are those religions which recognize only adult baptism!

The holy maidens Faith, Hope and Charity, and the holy young bride Perpetua, who became martyrs, are witnesses to the fact that adolescence is an age prepared even for the highest active participation in Christ's Church. The baby in his mother's arms in church who cried out, "Ambrose for bishop!", and by his exclamation determined the choice of the renowned Ambrose of Milan for the episcopal cathedra—this baby is a defender of children's rights to an active participation in Christ's Church.

And so let us take some trouble over our children: first let us give them the chance to take more part in church—and in a wider and more elevated form than just giving the censer to the priest; and secondly, let us adapt ourselves somewhat to our children when praying together with them.

Let the children be conscious that they are members of Christ's family.

Let the children come to love church!

Sermon by Protopresbyter Michael Pomazansky from Orthodox Life, Vol. 27, No. 3 (May June 1977), pp. 29-33.

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Petrovskaya icon of the Mother of God from the workshops of St.Elisabeth Convent

The story of the icon

The name of the Petrovskaya icon of the Mother of God derives from her creator and icon painter – Saint Petr, Metropolitan of Moscow. He painted the icon in approximately 1306 when he was still the Father Superior in the city of Volyn. The icon was presented to Metropolitan Maxim, who in turn brought the icon to the city of Vladimir, adorned it with precious stones and gold, and piously kept the icon in his quarters, praying for his flock.

Upon the death of Metropolitan Maxim, a certain Father Superior by the name of Geronty, wishing to be elevated to the dignity of Metropolitan, took hierarchal vestments and the icon and went to Constantinople to get the position. There were however, quite a few Russians, including Prince Yuri of Galicia, who objected to having Geronty as a metropolitan. Prince Yuri persuaded Father Superior Petr to go to Constantinople to be elevated to the high rank. Petr obeyed the Prince’s wish and having arrived in Constantinople ahead of Geronty. Patriarch Afanasy received him well and consecrated him to the rank of metropolitan of all of Rus.

In the meantime, Geronty’s journey did not fare well. Powerful storms, heavy winds, large waves all kept Geronty’s ship from arriving to Constantinople. During the night of the storm, the Mother of God appeared to him, with her appearance being the same as on the icon painted by St. Petr and told him that he was wasting his time traveling such long distances. She told him that it was not meant for him to be the metropolitan of Rus. She says that the one who painted her image, Petr, the loyal servant of Christ would take up that position. Having awoken from the dream, Geronty, hurried in fear to tell the rest of his crew about the vision and that their attempts were futile and that he would not be granted the rank he desired.

The ship by which Geronty was traveling finally arrived to Constantinople with great difficulty. Geronty was forced to tell Patriarch Afanasy his dream. The patriarch then proceeded to confiscate the hierarchal robes and the icon of the Mother of God and gave it back to its rightful owner, Metropolitan Petr. He then told him: “Take this sacred and holy image of Theotokos, which was painted by your own hands, because of this the Mother of God gave you such a gift, foretelling about you.”

In 1325, the diocese of the metropolitan was moved from the city of Vladimir to Moscow. At the same time Metropolitan Petr transferred the icon to the altar of the Dormition Cathedral in Moscow, where the icon remained until the Russian revolution. The only time the icon would be removed from its place is during large processions when it would be brought our along the another sacred and holy icon – the Icon of the Mother of God of Vladimir.

Petrovskaya icon of the Mother of God was always highly venerated among the faithful Orthodox Christians in Russia and was considered to be a miracle working icon from ancient times. Grand Duke Ivan III(Ivan the Great) prayed in front of the icon. At the end of the 16^th Century Patriarch Iov took the icon with him in order to persuade Boris Godunov to be crowned czar. Finally in 1613, the icon was taken to Kostroma to call upon Mikhail Feodorovich Romanov to accede to the Russian throne.

Sometime between the end of the 19^th and beginning of the 20^th century the icon disappears from the cathedral. A small icon remains in the Cathedral which is also dated around 14-15 century, and some assume that it is the true Petrovskaya icon. The feast day of the icon is on September 6^th (August 24) and is celebrated on the same day as the translation of the relics of St. Petr, when his relics were transferred to a newly build Dormition Church in 1479.

The Iconography

The icon of the Mother of God “Petrovskaya” is similar to the most popular icon among the Russian people – The Tenderness Icon of the Mother of God. The iconography of the icon is similar to the Mother of God of Vladimir.The Mother of God and Infant Christ are depicted on this icon in a unique way. They are both painted from the chest up.

There are certain peculiarities in the gestures of the Mother of God and the Savior. The depiction of the Mother of God embracing the Son is quite rare for the iconography of the Holy Theotokos. The “Petrovskaya” shows that the Mother of God is embracing Christ with her left hand and pointing at Him with the right one, as He is “the True Way and Life”. At the same time, Her right hand lies on the Christ’s chest, which symbolizes parental caressing. This 14-century icon from the Novgorod style of icon painting, on red background underlines this gesture in an even more specific way – the Mother of God embraces Christ’s neck with Her arm.

In return the hands of the Savior are responding – the Son is nestling with His face to the Mother’s face, just like on the Mother of God of Vladimir. There is a scroll in His left hand, and with the right hand the Infant can be seen with a blessing sign which is quite rare for such ancient icons. At the same time Christ’s right hand is lying on the Mother’s chest. The unique icon from the city of Kirillov shows the warmth of love between the Mother of God and Christ: where the Son is touching the Mother’s face with His blessing arm.

Copies of the icon

In the city of Kaluga there is a copy of the Mother of God “Petrovskaya”, which is well known to be a miracle working icon.

The 16th century copy is now kept in the museum in the city of Kirillov.

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Peace and Serenity of the Soul

From the life of the Convent: Pilgrimage of the sisters of St.Elisabeth Convent to venerate the relics of St.Silouan the Athontie

On the Way to Holiness

Let the children come to love church!

The story and iconography of the Petrovskaya icon of the Mother of God

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Peace and Serenity of the Soul

From the life of the Convent: Pilgrimage of the sisters of St.Elisabeth Convent to venerate the relics of St.Silouan the Athontie

On the Way to Holiness

Let the children come to love church!

The story and iconography of the Petrovskaya icon of the Mother of God

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