The Catalog of Good Deeds

The Rev. Gregory Joshua Edwards didn't always believe in God.

Growing up in Pennsylvania, Edwards avoided his family's Episcopalian beliefs and focused on academics.

Valedictorian of his 1996 high school graduating class, he served as student body president and editor of the yearbook.

He referred to himself as an atheist.

Then, as a student at Brown University, he began to question the meaning of life.

Edwards' spiritual inquiries led him to the Greek Orthodox Church, into which he was received in April 2003.

After graduating with a degree in religious studies from Brown in 2003, Edwards worked as a teaching assistant and master's candidate in the religion department at Florida State University. He volunteered with AmeriCorps, managing soup kitchens and building houses for people in need. In 2006, he enrolled as a doctoral student in the School of Theology at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

On Feb. 22, 2009, he was ordained in the holy priesthood of the Orthodox Church.

Edwards, 38, recently accepted a position at St. George Greek Orthodox Church in New Port Richey. The church, at 9426 Little Road, welcomed him as its father in October.

I asked Edwards about his path to faith, what it means to serve others and his new position in Pasco County.

What appealed to you about the Orthodox faith?

When I was in college, I was an atheist, studying Nietzsche, Sartre, etc. At a certain point, I came face to face with a real existential crisis. Why was I here? What was the purpose of my life? Was it really only to get good grades so that I can get a good job, so that I can buy a big house, fancy car? I came to realize that there was a God, but I didn't know who he was. I wanted a relationship with him because I understood that he was life. But how can you have a relationship with someone you don't know? So I changed my major in college and began studying the history of religions.

I went back to the Protestant church I grew up in. But the Christianity that was being presented to me in the U.S. didn't ring true. Disillusioned, I began exploring Buddhism, and I was attracted by its mystical prayer and contemplation. But something was missing there, too. I had never even heard of Orthodox Christianity until it was mentioned by a professor in a course about the history of Christianity. She said that the same worship service that Christians were using in the 5th century was still being used today in the Orthodox Church. I had to know where I could find this. The more I read about the history of Christianity, the more I was convinced that the Orthodox Church had preserved the Christian inheritance in a way that western Christianity had not. I was especially moved by its unchanging doctrine and its focus on mystical prayer.

Why did you decide to pursue a career within the church?

Once I discovered where the spring for the water of life was, I wanted nothing else but to be near it at all times. Everything else, my promising worldly career, suddenly paled in comparison. I felt I could do nothing else.

What is most rewarding to you about serving others?

We Christians believe that Christ came "not to be served, but to serve," Mark 10:45. He who is God assumed the form of a humble servant. For me then, serving others is an imitation of Christ. I try to do it, however, not out of some religious obligation, but out of the radical freedom that God has given me by making me in his image and likeness, just as God himself became man of his own free will.

I'm not Greek, but I learned many things in my 10 years in Greece, one of which was the concept of philotimo, which actually can't be translated into English. It means something like "freely responding with sincere goodness to the smallest good done by another." When I look at how much God has done for me, I am moved by this sense of philotimo to serve Him and others.

What do you hope to offer your new church home going forward? What do you like most about the church?

I was fortunate to spend 10 years in Greece, soaking up the world view of the country where Christianity first blossomed in Europe, the land of Thessalonica, Corinth, the land which has preserved and maintained Christianity at great cost for 2000 years. I hope to be able to bring some of this experience to the U.S. and offer a translation to contemporary American culture. My goal is simply to try to bring authentic Orthodox Christianity and most important to try to embody it in my own person and life.

The thing I like most about the parish of St. George is its warm sense of community, its friendliness and openness to outsiders, including me, a former Protestant raised in Pennsylvania. We welcome everyone to join us.

Source: http://www.tampabay.com/news/religion/priests-spiritual-path-leads-him-to-st-george-greek-orthodox-church/2300825

“Oh, if only I could / At least to some degree, / Write eight lines I would / About passion’s properties. / About the / transgressions and the sins, / The running and the chasing, / The hasty inadvertences, / The elbows, my palms”¹— thus wrote Pasternak, aware that a precise, accurate word on the passions is difficult to give, and there can be few such words. Precise words on the passions slip out of your hands, like a wet and lively fish, and the passions themselves are interwoven together, knit together one with another, forming a repugnant unity. Obviously the word “passions” in the this case is used as a synonym for “disease of the soul,” and not as romantic longing or a noble fire in the blood.

That of which Pasternak confessed himself powerless was done long ago by Abbot John, called Climacus. This servant of God wrote not just eight lines, but an entire book on the passions and the battle with them. This book was born out of the experience of the struggle and victory, inasmuch as man, in his usual state, is found in backbreaking labor for sin, and, O woe!—he does not notice its evil. Only when man frees himself or begins to free himself is he given a view of himself from outside, and, therefore, the possibility of describing the process of inner healing.

This book is truly “about the transgressions and the sins, the running and the chasing,” and it begins with a chapter on the flight from the world. It’s the first of thirty rungs leading to Christ the King, and therefore it befits monastics in particular to read The Ladder. This book is also necessary for those remaining in the world and incapable of a full-fledged and irrevocable flight, but not as a handbook. It is necessary as an example of heavenly thinking while living in a fragile bodily shell. Perhaps, in Great Lent, when the marriage bed cools and is sanctified by abstinence, when there is no substantial difference between the food on the tables of monks and of the laity , a person not wearing a black robe, can read something from among the monastic books. To be engaged in such reading constantly and at all times can be dangerous for laity. The danger is that our lifestyle should correspond to our chosen reading. But if our books and our life differ, the soul bifurcates, suffering itself and inflicting suffering upon those around it.

So, not leaving the world in our body, we should be free from a worldly spirit to some degree. St. Symeon the New Theologian tells us that, “The world is neither silver nor gold, nor horses, nor mules, nor food, nor wine, nor bread. It is neither house, nor fields, nor vineyards, nor country homes. What is it? Sin, addiction to things, and passions.” If it is “the world which lies in evil,” then you can run, but you won’t get anywhere.

And the words of the wise better expose the sin living in man than those of others. The words of the wise put everything in its proper place, and give an exact value to those radiant forgeries that we ourselves are inclined to call virtues.

Climacus, for example, writes that zealous devotion in the world most often feeds upon vanity, as if upon some dirty and hidden runoff. It’s impossible to know anything about the spirit of a man, so long as he lives among people. A worldly analogy for such words can be the song advising, “Take some friends to the mountains.”² Any situation, carrying a risk or unusual heaviness, that demands a sacrifice and brotherly cohesion and does not promise a reward of flowers and medals, shows who is who. “There you will understand, who is who,” the song says. And the words of the saint: “I have seen how in the world they planted many different plants of the virtues, which were watered by vainglory as by an underground sewage pipe, and were hoed by ostentation, and for manure were heaped with praise. But when transplanted to a desert soil, inaccessible to people of the world and so not manured with the foul-smelling water of vanity, they withered at once.”³

These are barbed words, such as is becoming of words of genuine wisdom. The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd (Ecc. 12:1). The horror of the final and righteous Judgment may be not so much in that we sinned, and sinned a lot, but in that even our best impulses and efforts were deeply poisoned by sin and are unworthy of blessed eternity. That’s where the real trouble is, and I don’t know where healing might come from, if not from those salted with the wisdom of words of spiritual experience. One of those having love in themselves said that the books of the saints are worthy of the same honor as the relics of the saints, and maybe even more.

Or another example:

It’s hard to find a man who does not suffer, at least sometimes, from wanton lust. The corruption of lust rules in the world says the apostle Peter, and we do not have to read a lot to confirm the validity of these words. But how to fight it? There is fasting and prayer, but either we don’t know their strength, or our sin is so strong that we do not feel free. You can run from the world, plugging your ears and closing your eyes. But temptation will follow you everywhere, because it has made its way into your memory and its poisonous sweetness has settled in your heart. Here Climacus gives us unexpected advice: “Eagerly drink scorn and insult as the water of life from everyone who wants to give you the drink that cleanses from lust. Then a deep purity will dawn in your soul and the divine light will not grow dim in your heart.”⁴

That’s how it is. You suffer in secret in your heart from the adulterous thorns for a day, two, and more. Then your boss suddenly summons you, and sullies your good name, blaming you for all real and imaginary shortcomings. Then the fornication will permanently depart from your soul, giving place to bitter resentment, and God thereby delivers you from the chasm at the edge where you were standing. The resentment will pass; resentment is not so dangerous.

***

The so-called “mind of salvation” is necessary for salvation, without which all our work risks turning out to have been a sowing on asphalt and plowing in the swamp. The praying fool from the proverb really does break his forehead doing prostrations, and besides this unnecessary trauma he obtains no other fruit. Therefore, the crystallized experience of the Church should be in demand by us, and we must find time to become attentively familiar with it, with persistence, so we don’t run in the wrong direction and don’t beat the air (cf. 1 Cor. 9:26).

The Ladder is not the Typikon; it has a different value. There are no prayer rules written there, no defined number of prostrations or amount of food to partake of. More important things are disclosed there, the effect of which is not revealed to the superficial gaze. In fact, the reading of such books is healing from blindness. And we ourselves, no matter how many years the Lord metes out to us, will never understand our inner life with such depth and clarity as did Abbot John of Mt. Sinai.

Books such as The Ladder can be read for an entire life and digested slowly, according to the measure of our practical effort. In them breathes that wisdom which is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy (Jas. 3:17). nion with God, a livetc. , so when said about oursleves feel free.the be even more. . ideist, and hte rnce in the owrld..

Archpriest Andrei Tkachev

Translated by Jesse Dominick

Source: Pravoslavie.ru

27 / 03 / 2017

1 In everything I want to reach... (Во всем мне хочется дойти...)

2 “A Song About a Friend,” by Vladimir Visotsky

3 Ladder 2.6

4 Ladder 8.45

The oil that burns in our oil-lamps, "“τον του Θεού υπεµφαίνει έλαιον”" writes St. Symeon of Thessaloniki, the mercy of God that was revealed when the dove returned to Noah's Ark to signify the cessation of the flood, having in the beak an olive branch, or when Jesus, prayed at length, He watered with the sweat of His clots the olive tree, under the branches of which He knelt on the dreadful night on the Mount of Olives. Of course, we all know how infinitely superior of the material light is the internal light, a light lit by the Holy Spirit. So wrote the God-bearer Father Gregory Nazianzus: “Φωτίσωµεν… γλώσσαν” “Let us lit…the tongue” and the commentator adds: was this achieved? The oil symbolizes the infinite mercy of God, but the oil-lamps also, symbolize the Church that is imparting of the Divine Mercy and lighting. They also symbolize the saints themselves that their light shone according to the word of the Lord, "let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." (Mt. 5:16)

There are many reasons for which the Orthodox we should lit the oil-lamp, for example:

1.In order to remind us of the need for prayer.

2. To illuminate the space and to drive-away the darkness where the evil forces are dominant.

3. To remind us that Christ is the only true light and the faith in Him is light,

4. To remind us that our lives should be bright.

5. In order to remind us that as the candle requires our own hand to light thus the soul requires the hand of God, that is His Grace.

6. To remind us that our will must be burnt and be sacrificed.

7. For the love of God, and many more...

Needless to say, that the vigil-oil should be an olive oil and the best possible quality. Besides, the Lord prayed in the garden of Olives and the temple with the oil-lamps is converted to a new garden and mercy (oil) and Divine Mercy, their oil reminds us of the compassion of God and their light in our lives, that should be bright and holy. The shedding of light in the temple symbolizes the divine light of God's presence that illuminates the hearts not only of neophytes but all Christians as well. The Lord revealed this great truth about Himself in the following words: "I am the light of world"(John 8:12). He is light not only because of His luminous teachings, but mainly due to His luminous presence. This is confirmed by the particular miraculous Transfiguration, where "His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light."(Matth.17:2).

In the Symbol of Faith (The Creed), the Son of God is presented as "light from light." In the service of Vespers the hymnographer also presents the Lord as "Joyful Light." And the Christians with the mysteries of the Church and their spiritual struggle can receive the light of the grace of the Holy Spirit and to radiate it with their lives. In "the sermon of the mount" the Lord advising His disciples told them: "Ye are the light of the world .... Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. "(Matthew 5:14-16). Here it is clear that the light of Christ’s disciples is the good works of their holy spiritual life. The saints, in the after-life will be like the Lord, they will become "gods by grace." The Lord expresses this clearly with His prophetic words: " Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. "(Matt. 13:43).

Source: http://orthodoxinfo.com/general/The-Meaning-and-Use-of-Candles-Incense-and-Vigil-Lamps.pdf

Half a decade ago, the few converts to Orthodoxy were usually individuals who wanted to marry an ethnic Orthodox Christian. Catechetical preparation for reception into the Orthodox Faith was minimal, at best.

In the past thirty or so years, we have experienced a literal flood of converts to the Faith. They are embracing Orthodoxy because they realize they have found the true Faith. Almost every parish now has classes for those who are interested in converting to Orthodoxy, and instruction in the beliefs of the Church is quite intense.

Thanks be to God!

While catechumens and newly baptized adults learn about doctrine, worship and Orthodox theology, there are a number of practices which often go unnoticed. When people visiting monasteries see or hear about certain practices they are amazed and say “I never knew that!” even though they had undergone extensive catechetical instruction. Often they ask, “Where does it say that?” The truth is that while we very often can point to canons and specific teachings, there are many things that come from the “living tradition of the Church.”

Note that this is “tradition” with a small “t”, not a capital one.

Many people of ethnic background who grew up in the Faith had a grandmother who was their first and primary teacher in Orthodoxy. A number of those grandmothers were uneducated in the formal sense of the word, but they truly lived their Faith. Perhaps they could not expound on theology, but their piety and faith spoke louder than any words. One Greek priest referred to some of the things we learned from our grandmothers as “Yiayia-ology”; a Russian priest called it “Baba-theology”. While some things may be tinged with superstition, many of these grandmothers’ teachings are true traditions that are not included in formal catechism, but which form a valid practice in the life of the Orthodox Christian.

We would like to present a few practices which are very valid. Some of the following are perhaps pious “grandmother theology” while others are very definitely things that are included in the service books and/or in the holy canons of the Church.

The sign of the Cross

It is the practice in every Orthodox country to make the sign of the cross when passing by an Orthodox Church or cemetery, when beginning a task, and when setting out on a journey by car, train, plane, bus, etc. In passing a church, it is done as a sign of respect for the holy place; by a cemetery, it is a prayer for the departed, and in beginning any task or journey, it is asking God’s blessing.

New clothing, vehicle, home

The first time one would wear new clothes, shoes, etc. is to Church. Obviously this practice would not include things like bathing suits or prom dresses! In wearing something to Church for the first time, there is the sense that these clothes are dedicated to God and are to be worn in honorable situations.

This same understanding of something new being brought to the church is applied to a new car. There is a blessing in the service books of the Church specifically for this! The first place that a new vehicle should be brought is not to show one’s friends and relatives, but to the priest for prayers to bless its use and keep its occupants safe.

We know that the priests bless homes at Theophany, but no Orthodox Christian brought up with proper “grandmother theology” would ever move into a new dwelling before it was blessed by the priest. For those who are building a home, there is even a prayer for blessing the foundation of the house!

Patron feast days

Catechumens have learned to observe their patron feast day by attending Divine Liturgy (if it is served), to pray to their patron saint, and to greet others who celebrate their feast day with “Many years!” There is more: the Church provides a special blessing for a coliva on a saint’s day. We often think of coliva—the sweetened boiled wheat—as something offered in honor of the departed, but there is also a “coliva for the saint”. This coliva can be the sweetened boiled grain, or it can be a bread, even fruit or pastries. It is brought to church and placed on a small table (not in the place where the coliva for the departed is placed) and then at the “Blessed be the name of the Lord” at the end of the Divine Liturgy, the choir sings the troparion to the saint, the priest comes with censer and holy water and reads the specific prayer for the blessing of this coliva in honor of the saint. After the dismissal of the Liturgy, the person who has offered the coliva distributes it to the people present in honor of his feast day.

It is also customary to make an offering either to the church, a monastery or the poor on one’s feast day, in honor of the saint, for the saints were not only offerings to God, but also teach us to show mercy and give alms.

Godparents

Those serving as Godparents in parishes with a large percentage of converts, have learned well that among their responsibilities as a Godparent they are to pray for their Godchildren, help instruct them in the Faith through example, gifts of books, icons, etc., remember them on their feast days, share in their other special days (graduations, birthdays, etc.), take an infant or young Godchild to the chalice for communion, etc. Many Godparents still feel that they should be doing more. They are right. The canons state that he who is a father to someone spiritually is more a father than the one who is the biological father. (This “fatherhood” also applies obviously to those who are Godmothers). Just as a biological parent has financial responsibilities regarding the birth of the child, so the Godparent also has certain such responsibilities at the child’s/individual’s spiritual birth. These responsibilities include all of the expenses surrounding the baptism: the baptismal cross, clothing, towels, offering to the church/priest, and festive meal following the service.

Icons

We know that icons are venerated in our Faith, that we have icons in our churches and homes, even in our vehicles. We need to remember that these are holy and must be treated as such. Saints died for the sake of venerating icons, yet we who venerate them, who “collect” them, who adorn our homes with them are often iconoclasts! Just as no one would smoke a cigarette in church, he should also not do so in a room or vehicle which has an icon in it. Icons should be put in places of honor, not laying on top of a coffee table where something will spill on it, not placed on the floor, not in a place of dishonor like a bathroom or inside a barn.

Many church bulletins, newspapers and other printed matter have icons on them. These are still icons and should not be thrown into the trash can when we are done reading them. The proper way to dispose of any holy item is to burn it and then bury the ashes in a clean place (not in a garden which is fertilized with manure). Icons on bulletins, newspapers, etc. can also be cut out, mounted or framed, or sent to missions which are in need.

Prayers for the departed

There is a way of speaking in Orthodoxy that is very distinctive and which makes our very mention of someone who is departed a prayer in itself. Whenever someone mentions the name of a departed loved one or relative, they immediately say, “May God forgive him! her.” For example, “My grandfather, may God forgive him, had a great influence on my life.”

Of course, our faithful, both converts and those raised in the Orthodox Church, know that we pray for the departed at specific Memorial Services and that they are remembered at the Proskomedia before the Divine Liturgy. We can also request a Memorial Service (Panakhida, Parastas) for an individual or for family members at any time of the year (with only a few exceptions). It is traditional when having a Memorial Service to also make a financial offering to the church as well, and to host a meal in memory of the departed.

Very often, when a family member falls asleep in the Lord, the family will make an offering to the church of a needed item: an icon, candle stand, vestments, etc. in that person’s memory.

Offerings in memory of the departed can be given at any time whatsoever, even without a Memorial Service. In fact, in villages in an Orthodox country it is very common to have a complete stranger approach you and hand you a handkerchief, a small bread or pastry, even a few coins, etc, saying, “this is in memory of my mother! father/brother, etc.” In accepting this gift, the recipient says “May God forgive him/her.”

It is especially the practice to make an offering on behalf of the departed if/when someone dreams of that person, for it is felt that the departed one is in need of intercession at that time. St. Ephraim the Syrian affirms that “the departed feel the prayers and sacrifices made for them.”

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

By Father Andrew Lemeshonok

Living in this world, we are searching for the ways, which can lead us to eternal life . God says: “I am the way” (John, 14:6), “I am the light” (John, 8:12), “And the light shineth in darkness” (John, 1:5). Perhaps, each of us felt inspired when he came to God. Everything becomes bright and pure, because God dwells in you, and He protects you from lies and filth of this world. You can see the main thing, and nothing can disturb you from this, because the knowledge of God has struck you. This joy revealed the sense of life to you. You were choking on this earth before, for everything is the same there: always the same menu, always the same laws. The rulers are changed by other rulers. Everyone wants to be the head, to outperform his competitors… People constantly choose something or someone. But we choose Christ, and we do this not through certain manifestations or bulletins, but through our life.

It is so difficult to say “I am with Christ”, when everything crashes in your life, when you suffer, when no one can understand you, and you do not understand what is going on in the world. When it seems to you that what is going around is just madness.

The most people judge on their spiritual condition by how they feel. However, this is quite naive. We cannot focus on ourselves, because we are corrupted by sin. We partake of the Holy Communion not just to make our soul soar, to restore peace inside, and to make all the problems disappear. We need the Holy Communion to burn the old “self”, which tells us how to live, which deceits us, while we believe him. And this is why we cannot know right from wrong.

Fr. Sophrony (Sakharov) said, that it is impossible to live in this world like Christians. We can only die for this world like Christians. But we want to live here and now. And God gives us such opportunity. He lets us see the blue sky and the sun, which is warming already, by the way. However, no matter how good this life is, it will end. This is why we should harden ourselves. If someone suffers and thinks that God does not hear his prayers, he should not believe this condition. He should not believe his grievance and despair, which dwell in a person when he does not see the effect of his prayer. There is always effect, but God did not come to this world to make our life great here and now. He came to this world so that we all could prevail over death. He wants us to take part in our own resurrection.

The forthcoming week is devoted to a great ascetic – Saint John Climacus. Spiritual life is a ladder, which leads to the Heavenly Kingdom. We climb it, we fall down, we hit the ground, we stand up and we fall again. The thing is, we need to stand up over and over again. The ascetics, who devoted their lives to studying spiritual laws and struggle against sin, have left to us a lot of works for edification. However, we need to be prudent. It can happen that a person, who came from the world, has read the works of the ascetics, but still does not understand the main things of the Orthodox teaching. While the main thing is to humble yourself - to acknowledge your own weakness and to let God enter your life. You do not need to surprise people with your feats and talents. The Lord speaks simply in the Gospel: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls” (Matthew, 11:29).

March 27, 2017

St. Elisabeth Convent

Subscribe to: Posts ( Atom )

Search This Blog

featured Slider

Achieving Artistic Equality for the Children with Special Needs

The Path to Orthodoxy: From Atheism to Priesthood

Why does the Orthodox church allow divorce and more than one marriage?

Climacus

7 reasons for which the Orthodox should light the oil-lamp

I Never Learned that in Catechism!

The Ladder to the Kingdom of Heaven

Partners