The Catalog of Good Deeds

In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

In today's Gospel (St. Luke 10:25-37) we hear the Lord saying to each of us that our neighbour is not the one whom we like, not even the one whom we love; it is the one who needs us, whether he likes us or not, and it is to him that we must turn in compassion, in charity, as indeed the Lord God Himself turned to us at the moment when the whole of mankind was alien to Him; and again, turns to each of us at the moment when we are at rock bottom, when we are as far away from Him as we can imagine, indeed, much farther, because only God can measure the distance that separates us from our being in Him, with Him, the distance which measures His absence from our life.

On November 28th is the beginning of fasting time that prepares us for Christmas; many will turn to fasting, eating those things which are appointed by the Church; but is that the fast which God wishes us to keep? Listen to what the Lord said to the Hebrews, from the lips of Isaiah the Prophet [Isaiah 58:3-8]:

"Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show My people their transgressions ... Yet they seek Me daily, and delight to know My ways, as though they were a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God. ... Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and Thou seest not? Wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and Thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure and exploit all your labourers! Behold, you fast for strife and debate and to smite with the fist of wickedness! You shall not fast as you do this day, to make your voice heard on high. Is it such a fast that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord? Is not this the fast I have chosen to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, to break every yoke! Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him? and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily, and thy righteousness shall go before thee, and the glory of thy Lord shall be thy rearguard."

Let us remember these words, because more than ever in our time we must not fast hypocritically, not fast with false piety, but fast by turning away from every evil, from all evil, put right in our lives everything that has gone wrong.

Are we going to meet the day when the Lord our God took flesh in order to enter into the realm of death, He Who is the Eternal One, the day when He chose to enter into the realm of suffering for our sakes — are we going to meet this day by accepting to continue in our estrangement from Him? And we are estranged from Him when we hate our neighbour, when we reject our neighbour, when we refuse to forgive, when we turn away from him or her who is in need of our mercy — not only of bread, not only of shelter — indeed, that also counts! — but in need of forgiveness, of the mercy of the heart! Are we going to meet the Lord who came to save sinners by rejecting those whom we consider as sinners, those who have offended us, those against whom we have fought? Can we meet the Lord on such terms?

Let us think of the shepherds: they were simple people, unsophisticated, uncomplicated, but their hearts were open to the extent to which it was possible to them, they were clean, pure of heart, and therefore, they could hear the news of the Incarnation; they could hear and receive the news as the most wonderful thing that changed everything in their lives. We have been listening to the good news day-in, day-out, year after year — has it come to us as good news that has transformed our lives, made us into people beyond compare, people who are prepared to live and to die for those who hate, who reject, who ignore, who offend us? If we are not — it is in vain that we speak of being Christian; he who does not love his brother is a liar when he says that he loves his God — these are the Apostle's words.

Let us therefore enter into this period of fasting in earnest, stand in judgement before God to be judged by Him, and ask ourselves whether we could stand side by side with Him when others come to be judged, and step forward and say, 'Lord! I have forgiven — Thou hast no grudge against him, against her, any more!' Amen.

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh

November 25, 1990

Source: http://www.mitras.ru/eng/eng_196.htm

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The Holy Angels: An Orthodox Perspective

Our Holy Bible starts with this sentence: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. By Heaven is meant not an empty space beyond our space, but the living world of invisible spirits. Thus, the above sentence could be phrased in other words: In the beginning God created the invisible and the visible world, as it is said in the first...

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Give thanks in all circumstances!

“Give thanks in all circumstances!” This was the response that an amazing prisoner gave me, when I asked him how he maintained such a grateful spirit inside the medium security prison where he lived. I met this man during my weekly visits to a prison during my seminarian years. During our friendship that developed, this man shared that he was serving a life sentence...

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On giving thanks to the Creator

Giving Thanks As thou takest thy seat at table, pray. As thou liftest the loaf, offer thanks to the Giver. When thou sustainest thy bodily weakness with wine, remember Him Who supplies thee with this gift, to make thy heart glad and to comfort thy infirmity. Has thy need for taking food passed away? Let not the thought of thy Benefactor pass away...

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Christian Gratitude: A fundamental hallmark of Orthodox Spirituality

The text of this article, translated from the Greek, is taken from an address by Father Cyprian, a brother of the Holy Monastery of Sts. Cyprian and Justina in Fili, Greece, and Secretary of the Holy Synod in Resistance. It was delivered on October 4, 1999, at the convocation held annually at the Novotel Convention Center, in downtown Athens, to honor the Name...

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Dispelling confusion about fasting during Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day has a very significant role in American families because it is one of the few times a year that the family gets together. Thanksgiving Day is also called a Turkey day because it usually involves a meal with turkey or at least a more elaborate meal. Most American Orthodox Christians started the Nativity Fast on November, 15. How can an Orthodox...

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Interview with Matushka Larisa: The obedience of serving in the city hospitals

Matushka Larisa, what was the beginning of your obedience serving in the city hospital? It started with two young women. One of them gave up studying in the university and began to work as a nurse. The second one finished her studies, but came to a...

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12 Suggestions on how to raise an Orthodox Christian, and, possibly, a saint.

When the child is yet young, begin to train him/her in sympathy and consideration for others and in unselfishness. By these means he/she will grow up to understand that the material things of this world are not the most important things for Orthodox Christians. Your life-style and example will be the greatest influence on your child in this matter...

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Akathist to Archangel Michael

Kontakion 1: Chosen captain of the heavenly hosts and defender of mankind, we - delivered by you from afflictions -offer this hymn of thanksgiving, and do you standing before the throne of the King of Glory set us free from all distress that we may cry to you with faith and love: Rejoice, Michael, great chief captain with all the hosts of heaven!...

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Sheepskin Coats: A heartwarming Christmas miracle story

In December of 1991, right before the New Year while I was sick, our community church council had gathered in my home to discuss certain matters. In that moment, we received a call from our local hospital and they asked us...

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Why do we burn incense in the Orthodox Church?

In our Orthodox church, we burn incense in a metal vessel that hangs on three chains and has a sliding cover to regulate the burning of charcoal. The whole apparatus is called a censer or thurible. On the chains are twelve small bells, signifying the Disciples. We put grains of incense on burning charcoal in the censer with a prayer, “We offer thee...

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Prayer is grace. God gives it when there exists zeal and humility… Let Christ not be missing from your heart. Elder Amphilochios of Patmos

The most easy, brief and safe path to heaven is humility. This is the only safe and undangerous path. Elder Joseph the Hesychast

All Saints through humility were elevated, honored, glorified, made wondrous and sanctified by God. If you take away humility no one would be a Saint. Elder Joseph the Hesychast

Inner and real humility is for one to feel, that whatever he has, life, health, wealth, wisdom all are foreign, are gifts of God. Elder Joseph the Hesychast

The only hope of salvation from the delusions and the heresies, the innovations and the traps of wicked people and of the devil is prayer, repentance and humility. Elder Joseph the Hesychast

The more a man is found worthy to receive God's gifts, the more he ought to consider himself a debtor to God, who has raised him from the earth and bestowed on dust the privilege of imitating to some degree its Creator and God. For to endure injustice with joy, patiently to do good to one's enemies, to lay down one's own life for one's neighbor, and so on, are gifts from God, bestowed on those who are resolved to receive them from Him through their solicitude in cultivating and protecting what has been entrusted to them, as Adam was commanded to do. St. Peter of Damascus

"The Lord does not forbid us to desire to become His favorites, for He wants us to desire advancement in the spiritual life. But He does not want us to grasp for honors and privileges, but rather to acquire the heights by humility." Blessed Theophylact, commenting on Mark 9:33-41

Paul writes, 'I know of nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this' (1 Cor. 4:4). You see he does not exalt himself, but humbles and abases himself in every way, and that just when he had reached the summit. And the Three Children were in the fire, in the midst of the furnace, and what did they say? 'For we have sinned and transgressed by departing from You; and we have done evil in every way' (Dan. 3:29). This is what it is to have a contrite heart. St. John Chrysostom

If the grace of God comes, everyone and everything changes; however, in order for it to come, we must humble ourselves first. Elder Porphyrios

If you are enclosed within yourself through prayer, humility, and mourning, you will find a spiritual treasure - only let pride and criticism be far from you. Elder Ephraim of Philotheou

May you love one another and not be embittered by reason of egotism. Humility is a sure guide; it does not allow the one who has it to strike against the reefs of carelessness and be crushed, but as a luminous guide it leads faultlessly to safety. Ephraim of Philotheou

I think the quality needed is a certain deep humility of mind that enables one to accept other ways of looking at things, other emphases, as equally Orthodox with one's own. Fr. Seraphim Rose

“Know thyself”: this is true humility, the humility that teaches us to be inwardly humble and makes our heart contrite. Such humility you must cultivate and guard. For if you do not yet know yourself you cannot know what humility is, and have not yet embarked truly on the task of cultivating and guarding. To know oneself is the goal of the practice of the virtues. Nikitas Stithatos in The Philokalia

Reading and spiritual knowledge are good, but only when they lead to greater humility. St. Peter of Damaskos

True humility does not say humble words, nor does it assume humble looks, it does not force oneself either to think humbly of oneself, or to abuse oneself in self-belittlement. Although all such things are the beginning, the manifestations and the various aspects of humility, humility itself is grace, given from above. There are two kinds of humility, as the holy fathers teach: to deem oneself the lowest of all beings and to ascribe to God all one's good actions. The first is the beginning, the second the end. St. Gregory of Sinai

Make account that thou hast done nothing, and then thou hast done all. For if, being sinners, when we account ourselves to be what we are, we become righteous, as indeed the Publican did; how much more, when being righteous we account ourselves to be sinners. St. John Chrysostom

Meekness and humility of heart are virtues without which it is impossible to inherit the Heavenly Kingdom, to be happy on earth, or to experience inner calm. Counsels of Venerable St. Antony of Optina

No man, wise in his own opinion, because he has studied all the sciences and is learned in external wisdom, will ever penetrate God's mysteries or see them unless he first humbles himself and becomes foolish in his heart, repudiating his self-opinion together with the acquirements of learning. St. Simeon the New Theologian

Man, as far as his body is concerned, is like a lighted candle. A candle must be consumed; thus also the body must die. But the soul is immortal, and so our care also must be more for the soul than for the body. 'For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul'. St. Seraphim of Sarov

Nothing else extinguishes passions so much as compassion. On the other hand, if someone struggles as a result of vainglory or with the idea that he is applying himself to virtue, he is not struggling with knowledge. He, though, who abstains with knowledge does not think he is exercising virtue, neither does he want to be commended as an ascetic, but believes that by way of abstinence prudence is obtained and that through this, comes humility. Abba Dorotheos

Our humility is our surest intercessor before the face of the Lord. It is by dint of humility and penance that the last shall be first. St. Macarius of Optina

Our prayer begins to be of value only when grace comes. As long as we have only the natural fruits of prayer, what we achieve is valueless, both in itself and in the judgement of God. For the coming of grace is the sign that God has looked on us in mercy. St. Thalassius

Pointing out that man has nothing of which to be proud, the Elder added "Actually, what does man have to crow about? A ragged, wretched beggar cries out for alms: 'Have Mercy! Have Mercy!' But as to whether he will be shown mercy, who knows?" St. Amvrossy of Optina

Pray Simply. Do not expect to find in your heart any remarkable gift of prayer Consider yourself unworthy of it-then you will find peace. Use the empty, cold dryness of your prayer as food for your humility. Repeat constantly: "I am not worthy, Lord, I am not worthy!" But say it calmly, without agitation. This humble prayer will be acceptable to God. St. Macarius of Optina

Source: http://www.orthodox.net/gleanings/humility.html

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According to tradition, the icon was painted by Apostle Luke. Its name “Kykkiotisa” was originated from Mount Kykkos, located on the island of Cyprus. The sacred image was kept in the emperor’s chamber in the cathedral, which was built in honor of this very icon.

Before its appearance on the island, by God’s providence, the image was wandering across the world for a long time. At first it was kept by the first Christian communities in Egypt. Later it was brought to Constantinople, where it was kept until emperor Alexios I Komnenos came to power (the beginning of 11^th – the end of 12^th century). At that time an elder by the name of Isaiah, who lived in Cyprus, had a vision, in which he was told that the sacred image of Kykkos painted by Apostle Luke would come back to Cyprus with his help. The Elder did his best to fulfill the divine revelation.

When the icon reached the island, many miracles were performed through its miraculous power. Elder Isaiah was instrumental in building a church dedicated to the Theotokos, and placing the Kykko Icon in it. From ancient times up to the present day, the faithful afflicted flock went there to venerate the sacred image of the Mother of God, and they receive healing according to their faith. The Orthodox Christians are not the only ones who believe in the miraculous power of the icon, but people of other faiths also come to pray in front of it in case of illness or trouble.

The miraculous “Kykkiotisa” Icon of the Mother of God has a remarkable feature: it is covered by a half shroud from the upper left corner to the lower right, but no one knows from what time. That is why no one is able to see the faces of the Mother of God and the Divine Infant. The depiction of the Mother of God appears to be of the Hodigitria type, just like the Icon of the Mother of God of Smolensk. The head of the Mother of God is adorned with a crown.

Nowadays a copy of this icon is especially venerated at St. Nicholas Convent in the city of Mukachev.

Translated from: http://www.patriarchia.ru/db/text/914330.html

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My heart is inundated with sincere joy at this moment, because, by the Grace of Christ our Savior, I am fulfilling an obedience which, although very difficult, is at the same time very gratifying. The great difficulty in question concerns my many inadequacies, of which you have assuredly always been well aware; and I ask your forgiveness for these. However, the great delight involved derives from the fact that this evening, at our annual Eucharisteria [Thanksgiving], we are celebrating the twentieth anniversary of your Episcopacy.

This anniversary is very important for our monastic Brotherhood, for your wider flock, and for our Church; it is an anniversary which prompts us to undertake an historical retrospective of two decades filled with accomplishments for the glory of God. Such an anniversary is, naturally, a source of special joy and gladness for your spiritual children.

Now, every happy anniversary is directly bound up with gratitude; that is, it reminds us of, and underscores, our debt of gratitude and thanksgiving both to our Lord and to the people whom His philanthropic right hand has used as instruments for His glory, for our sanctification, and, in general, for the progress of His salvific work.

I hope, therefore, our Most Reverend Metropolitan, that you will allow me, rather than mentioning those historic stages in your twenty years as a Hierarch that portray your contribution to the Church, to focus my attention, instead, on the topic of gratitude.

Let me take this opportunity to proclaim with a loud voice, from this podium, that we are most deeply grateful to you, since, among many other things, you have taught us, and continue to teach us, in word and deed, that very gratitude which is the predominant component of your personality. Hence, let my address this evening, which centers on gratitude, be viewed as a spiritual repayment to Your Eminence for your untiring toils, during twenty continuous years, for our edification and consolation. I invoke the protection and strengthening of our Lady Theotokos and our Holy Patrons, Saints Cyprian and Justina, that, by your prayers, I might expound on this subject.

I shall, at the onset of my address, pose a crucial question: Is gratitude really a matter of concern in our crisis-ridden era? Unfortunately, this question is raised not only by worldly people, but also by pious Christians, who not only do not practice gratitude in their lives, but who neither reflect on it nor perceive its absence as a serious deficit. This constitutes, in the fullest sense of the term, a very grave sin. How, indeed, is it possible for Christians, who are deemed worthy of the greatest gift—that is, of being members of the Body of Christ — to be unaware that gratitude is the fundamental hallmark of Orthodox spirituality and an indispensable element of our Christian identity?

We observe with profound distress that this ignorance concerning gratitude constitutes yet another proof of the corruption which the Orthodox ecclesiastical ethos has undergone, owing to the influence of a worldly mentality. Such a mentality leads man, a rational creature fashioned according to the image of God, into behavior that is more irrational than that of irrational animals. Is this characterization perhaps exaggerated? I shall let a Patristic text provide us with the answer. This text relates a very charming, moving, and instructive event, which speaks for itself and introduces us to the important issue of gratitude.

A hyena, having a blind whelp, took it in her mouth and delivered it to St. Makarios of Alexandria. She pushed open the hatch of his dwelling with her head, went inside, and threw her whelp at his feet. St. Makarios picked it up and ascertained that it was blind. He spat on its eyes and prayed; the whelp then immediately opened its eyes. After suckling it, its mother took it and departed.

On the following day, the hyena brought St. Makarios the hide of a large sheep. The Saint looked at it and said to her: Where did you find this? You must have eaten a sheep. And so, since it is the result of an injustice, I will not accept it from you. The hyena then bowed her head, knelt, and left the hide at the Saints feet.

The Saint said to her: I tell you, I will not accept it, unless you swear to me that you will never again cause distress to poor folk by eating their sheep. At this, she nodded her head, as if to agree with St. Makarios. The Saint then accepted the hide which the hyena had [in gratitude] brought him.

Let us now attempt to approach, as succinctly as possible, the theological foundations of gratitude as an indispensable hallmark of human nature. Orthodox Tradition teaches us that man is a eucharistic being, that is, a rational creature who exists in an unceasing communion of love (agape) with his Creator and is oriented towards Him with an insatiable disposition of gratitude, thanksgiving, and doxology. Man has this innate capacity for love and thanksgiving because he is fashioned according to the image and likeness of God; it is precisely for this reason that he bears the seal of gratitude indelibly within himself. God freely created man out of His exceeding goodness, in order that man might participate in Divine Goodness; and the Lord created beneficently so that His creatures, the recipients of this beneficence, might gratefully commune with Him, offer thanksgiving and glory to Him, and thus become partakers of Divine glory. The desire to glorify God, says St. Basil the Great, is by nature implanted in all rational creatures. St. John of Damascus, in a summary of Patristic teaching on this subject, makes these telling remarks:

Since, therefore, God, Who is good, and preëminently good, was not satisfied with contemplation of Himself, but in His exceeding goodness willed that certain things should come into existence which would enjoy His benefits and participate in His goodness, He brought all things, both invisible and visible, out of non-being into being and created them—including man, who is a compound of the visible and the invisible.

In connection with this, it should be firmly emphasized that we become fully aware of this loving, grateful, and eucharistic nature of man in the sacred Mystery of Divine Communion. What takes place here? In this Divine Mystagogy, we have a foretaste of the eschatological glory of Deified human nature in the sanctified atmosphere of thanksgiving and doxology to God; in the Liturgy, there is revealed to us the fulfillment of the Kingdom of Heaven—that is, the communion of God with His rational creatures in the glorified Body and Blood of the God-Man, Christ the Savior—and we experience this fulfillment in our lives.

Mans gratitude to his Creator reaches its highest point in this supernatural Mystery, because his fallen nature receives the most sublime gift of re-creation, renewal, and Deification in Christ, as St. Symeon the New Theologian writes with profound lyricism:

Therefore, in partaking of Thy Flesh, I partake of Thy Nature, and I truly participate in Thine Essence, becoming a communicant and also an heir of Thy Divinity in the body, greater than the Bodiless Powers, I reckon, and I become a son of God, as Thou didst say, not to the Angels, but to us, thus calling us gods: I said: Ye are gods, and all of you the sons of the Most High.

Therefore, the supernatural and all-holy Mystery of Divine Communion is, in truth, the Mystery of Gratitude. For this reason, as St. John Chrysostomos marvelously puts it,

the dread Mysteries, full of such great salvation, which are celebrated at every Liturgy, are also called a Thanksgiving [Eucharistia] because they are the remembrance of many benefits, and they signify the culmination of God's Providence towards us, and in every way cause us to be thankful to Him.

From this perspective, that is, of man's nature as a eucharistic being, we can now understand very clearly the persistence of the Holy Fathers in exhorting us to be unceasing practitioners of gratitude. This is the will of God, St. John Chrysostomos pithily assures us, that we always give thanks; this is the mark of a virtuous soul. And to the question of why this is the will of God, the same Saint responds simply and precisely: God accepts nothing so much as a grateful and thankful soul. In another place, he reiterates: Nothing so gladdens God as when one is thankful.

However, it would be very useful for us to mention also the immediate practical results of blessed gratitude, in order to dispel—apart from anything else—the mistaken idea of some, that gratitude pertains only to the contemplative life and eschatological recompense. In the first place, we should not forget the following important truth: in order to preserve a benefaction in the best way possible, we should always remember it and constantly thank God for it. For the best preservative of any benefaction, say the Saints, is the remembrance of that benefaction, and a continual thanksgiving.

Next, the immediate result of continual thanksgiving is the following: when our Lord ascertains that we respond with gratitude to His gifts, He gives us richer gifts and never ceases from doing good to us: For such is our Master, affirm the Saints, that, whenever He sees that we are grateful for what has already come our way, He bestows lavish gifts on us and never desists from doing good to us, rewarding the gratitude of those who show obedience.12 In emphasizing this idea, Abba Isaac the Syrian adds that, when he who is benefitted thanks God, it is as if he provokes His Goodness to give greater gifts than the previous ones: Gratitude on the part of one who receives provokes the Giver [God] to give greater gifts than before.

We should also keep in mind that constant remembrance of God's gifts ultimately proves to be our best instructor in the virtuous life, since it unceasingly prompts us to strive gratefully to reciprocate God's love: Remembrance of benefactions [and gratitude for them] will be a suitable instructor for us in the virtuous way of life.

I shall conclude this section on the immediate practical benefits of Grace-filled gratitude by extolling, in particular, its value for us as an invincible weapon whereby we can repel all the devices of the demons: There is nothing so good as thanksgiving... We have one weapon which is the best, and sufficient to repel all such devices as these: in everything to give thanks to God.

End of Part I

Source: http://orthodoxinfo.com/praxis/gratitude.aspx

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