The Catalog of Good Deeds

1. Houses are traditionally blessed with "Theophany water" each year. A house can be blessed at any time, but the usual season for yearly blessings is from Theophany until the beginning of the Lenten Triodion, which begins four Sundays before Great Lent begins. This is not a hard and fast rule, but a good rule of thumb.

2. Some people place great importance on "Theophany water". This is just water that has been blessed with the Great Blessing of the Waters service on Theophany. Another name for this water is simply "Holy Water". We can bless water any time of the year that there is a need for it. In Moscow, for example, there is a huge vat of holy water that the faithful partake of regularly. On regular basis, the vat is refilled with water when it becomes empty, and this new water is blessed. The water blessed in for instance, August is no more and no less "holy" than the water blessed on Theophany.

3. Water is blessed using the “Great Blessing of the Waters” service two distinct times during Theophany: after Vespers on the Eve of Theophany and after the Divine Liturgy on Theophany. The blessings are identical, and the water is identical.

4. In many places, it is traditional to bless water in lakes or rivers. In Russia, clergy often go to such a place, and bless the cold water after a hole has been cut in the ice. Many people will take a dip in the water after it is blessed.

5. When a home is blessed, the priest brings everything needed for the blessing:

- Holy water

- A "krupilla" (brush for flinging the holy water),

- Bowl for the water

- Candles

- Theophany icon.

Many pious homes supply a bowl, candles and the family Theophany icon.

The family should provide the priest with a list of all family members, living and deceased.

The bowl and icon should be placed on a clean table with a cloth on it, preferably near the family icon corner. It is good for candles to be lit. The house should be clean, with all radios and televisions off.

The priest will bless all rooms of the house except the bathrooms. In homes with children, it is always good for the little ones to carry a candle or a small cross and "lead" the priest throughout the house. An elder member of the house may also do this.

6. The basic order for a simple home blessing is as follows.

a. The bowl of water, icon and lit candles are placed on a clean table. IF there is a censer, it may be lit.

b. The priest begins the service with a blessing and the Trisagion prayers (O heavenly King through the "Our Father".) It is always preferable that the eldest of another member of the family say the Trisagion prayers.

c. After this the entire home is blessed, with the family walking with the priest holding candles and the Theophany icon while the Theophany Troparion is sung over and over:

Tone 1: When Thou, wast baptized in the Jordan, O Lord,/ the worship of the Trinity was made manifest;/

for the voice of the Father bare witness to Thee, /

calling Thee His beloved Son./

And the Spirit in the form of a dove/

confirmed the certainty of the word./

O Christ our God, Who hast appeared//

and hast enlightened the world, glory be to Thee.

It is a very good idea for the family to sing this troparion, and know it by heart. Otherwise, of the priest has many houses to bless, his voice will get tired!

d. Upon finishing blessing the house, the family gathers again at the table, and a short litany is said for the welfare of the family. The priest should have been provided a list of all family members, including those who are ill.

e. After this a short prayer, and the service is ended.

f. It is entirely appropriate the deceased loved ones of the family be commemorated from a list provided to the priest.

g. Sometimes the family wants to give the priest a little something to eat; depending on the time the priest has, he may stay and visit.

7. When a priest visits, it is NEVER required that the family gives him money. The scripture tells us "Freely you have received, freely give".

It is a pious custom among some to give the priest a donation at this time, but this should never be though of as a requirement. The priest comes to the home because he wants God's blessing to be upon it, and to know those in his flock better and to be available to them.

Source: http://www.orthodox.net/10things/theophany-house-blessings.html

Cross processions in Russia have a vibrant history and are hugely popular. So much so that 60,000 Russians are willing to walk 100 miles to honor religious occurrences.

On holidays and special occasions, Russian believers will all suddenly empty out of the church and proceed outside, whether it’s swelteringly hot or snowing, and follow the cross and the priests... sometimes for a walk around the church, other times for hundred-mile hikes.

Cross processions are a traditional and very popular part of Russian Christianity. The tradition dates back to the Byzantine empire in 400 AD when saints organized night processions around Constantinople to help protect the city from the heretics of the day.

The clergy leads the procession with a cross, a Bible, and religious banners. Behind them, the crowd follows, singing religious hymns and sometimes carrying candles. The procession makes frequent stops to pray (and sometimes get sprayed with holy water).

Russians love the tradition. Sometimes cross processions are held to celebrate church holidays, such as Easter when the procession occurs at midnight. Everyone in the church files out and walks around the church three times, singing resurrection hymns. The empty church symbolizes the empty tomb of Christ.

Some monasteries have daily processions in the evenings. Monks walk around the perimeter of their monastery with candles. After they return to the gates of the monastery and re-enter it, the monastery is locked for the night. This procession is believed to protect the monastery from all evil and turmoil for the night.

There is another, especially popular, type of cross processions that reenacts spiritual journeys of saints or miracle-working icons. One of the most famous ones is a 92-mile walk to the place where, in 1382, the Velikoretsky miracle-working icon of St. Nicholas was found.

Though the icon itself disappeared during the 1930s and the Soviet Regime outlawed cross processions, pilgrims continued coming. Despite the danger of being harassed, arrested and some even executed, unofficially, the tradition continued throughout the entire Soviet period. In 1990, it was officially reinstated.Today, the procession mobilizes up to 60,000 people and lasts a week. Nights are spent in the fields.

Here is an excellent photo essay of one procession, captured by Russian photographer Alexei Yurenev. From the accompanying text:

“While carrying supplies to last you a week, you start walking every day at 2 or 3 a.m. and stop at 9 in the evening. Every couple hours you take short breaks with one long break in the afternoon.All you can do during those breaks is eat, sleep and change the Band-Aids on your feet. Seeing thousands of people of all ages walk beside you was empowering and an incentive to carry on.”

According to a famous Russian priest, cross processions are physical expressions of " one communal national faith and zealous prayer for help and grace.” Indeed, the immeasurable zeal of people who joyfully dedicate a week to communal, religious marches to glorify God is absolutely stunning and inspiring.

Source: http://russian-faith.com/explaining-orthodoxy/religious-marches-are-big-part-russian-christianity-n1075

Gerontissa Taxiarchia (Dukas) came to the US from the Greek monastery of Panagia Hodigitria in 1989 by the blessing of her spiritual father, the Athonite elder Ephraim (Moraitis) of Philotheou, the spiritual son of the great elder Joseph the Hesychast. Gerontissa Taxiarchia became the first inhabitant and abbess of the Monastery of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos in Saxonburg, Pennsylvania. This monastery was the first of the twenty habitations founded by Elder Ephraim of Philotheou and Arizona on American soil.

The blessed gerontissa Taxiarchia acquired the gifts of ceaseless prayer, of healing the human body and soul, clairvoyance, fervent faith, and the love of Christ. Gerontissa labored in monastic podvigs for many long years. There are known cases of when her prayers healed cancer patients. After Gerontissa Taxiarchia’s blessed repose the Lord attested to her podvig by the appearance of fragrant myrrh on her face. Below is a collection of memories of Gerontissa, from those who knew her well.

Eleana Mitchell, spiritual child of Elder Ephraim:

The blessed Gerontissa Taxiarchia was born and raised in the Greek village of Agria, near the city of Volos. In early childhood, during the civil war, she was left without a father. Her name in the world was Aphrodita Dukas. The blessed gerontissa was generously endowed with beauty, both external and internal. She was, from an early age, as they say, a true bride of Christ.

In early childhood she was diagnosed with severe heart disease. A fight for her health began from that time. From time to time she had to go stay at the hospital in Thessaloniki for at least two months. At first, being still quite young, she had to go to the hospital in Thessaloniki completely on her own, due to a lack of funds in her family. No one visited her, as they did other patients, and she received no communications. It was then that the manliness of her soul was first manifested.

All alone in a strange city, amidst unknown people, growing weak, emaciated, with sunken cheeks, the young girl battled her illness alone, dreaming only of how to see her mama sooner and tell her about all her sufferings. However, when this long-awaited day finally arrived, and her mother came to see her, Aphrodita as if heard the voice of God, which enlightened her to refrain from speaking about her sufferings. It’s as if her ego was put in second place.

She began to reason with wisdom surprising for her young age: “Oh, how I grieve for my mama, poor widow! After all, doesn’t she love me? Doesn’t she worry about me?” And, recognizing in this inner voice the voice of God, Aphrodita said to her mother: “Oh, dear mama! I’m fine in the hospital: they take care of me and feed me here! There are several women who visit me and bring me sweets, and chocolates and books. Time flew by so quickly!” “Then, Aphrodita, you weren’t upset that I couldn’t often visit you?” “No, mama, I didn’t have any time to be sad or upset!” Her words greatly comforted her mother and she returned home with peace of soul.

The girl was again left alone, but now her sickness and needs were of no consequence in comparison with the joy of seeing and comforting her mother.

At that time, she prayed every day, as she herself told us, that the Lord would take her from this life, because she saw herself as undeserving and worthless and only complicating the lives of her mother, brothers, and sisters.

But the Omniscient God did not fulfill her request, but instead vouchsafed her to accept the angelic schema in the monastery of the Panagia Hodigitria, not far from Volos, with the great gerontissa Macrina, who taught her and nourished within her, along with the other sisters of the monastery, the virtues of sacrifice, love, patience, and obedience.

As I recall from her words, she said: “Do you know when I understood why the Lord didn’t take me then? When Elder Ephraim told me, when I was fifty, that I had to live in America!”

Blessed be the Lord God, leaving this blessed soul on earth, that we might be granted to meet and get to know her! The blessed gerontissa was a pious, chaste, good, and noble eldress, prone to self-sacrifice. She was the guardian of orphans here in the US.

The good things of the world and worldly viewpoints didn’t interest her in the slightest. Mother’s sole concern was the salvation of all, and of her own soul. Day and night, despite being tired to the point of exhaustion, she gave herself to heartfelt prayer. “Have you ever slept standing up, with open eyes?” Gerontissa asked us, smiling with her blessed smile which filled our hearts with heavenly bliss. “No, Gerontissa, never!” “It has happened to me,” answered this blessed soul.

Without any abuse, rigor, condemnation or reproach, but only with her kindness and gentleness, she could easily open a person’s soul and purify it. And she knew how to make every one of your days spent with her lived to the glory of God! As soon as the sun rises in the dawn, you immediately and involuntarily say: “What can I do today to thank God?” and you do it automatically, from your whole heart.

She fell asleep in the Lord on August 3, 1994. From the hospital to the monastery huge pure streams of rain accompanied her exodus. There was another miracle—that numerous sweet-smelling droplets of myrrh, glistening in the sun, appeared on her face after death. We all experienced this blessed “joyful sorrow.”

Gerontissa Theophano, the current abbess of the Monastery of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos:

Gerontissa Taxiarchia came to Pennsylvania in 1989 in July, and I came in March 1990, from New York. At first we just had a small wooden home with two bedrooms, and nothing more. We were three sisters.

When Elder Ephraim came to visit our monastery for the first time (at that time he would spend three months in America and nine months at Philotheou Monastery on Mt. Athos), I said to him, about Gerontissa Taxiarchia: “She is truly a saint!” which was obvious from first sight. And he answered me: “I sent here one of my best nuns… No, she is my very best nun.”

Gerontissa Theophano

Gerontissa Taxiarchia really was a holy person. She had a heart condition, and upon arriving in America they discovered she had breast cancer. Other women suffering from cancer were healed by her prayers. For example, there was a case where once three or four pilgrims visited us to meet with Gerontissa. Among them was one nun, the mother of one of our sisters, who was discovered to have cancer. She wanted to tell Gerontissa about it, but she didn’t allow her to say anything, only repeating: “It’s nothing, nothing.” And so, not asking anything, Gerontissa touched the place where the cancer was found.

Nuns usually avoid touching, but Gerontissa touched precisely on the suffering spot and said to her: “Don’t worry, matushka, you are all clean.” When matushka returned home, the doctors couldn’t find any cancer at all.

Another pilgrim, who also had breast cancer, came to us as part of the same group. Gerontissa Taxiarchia was giving out something as a blessing, and this woman wanted to stand in line. Here Gerontissa begins to push her out of the line. This pilgrim was quite surprised and after a while came back and stood again at the end of the line. Gerontissa again asked her to leave. This repeated several times, and then Gerontissa said to her: “You have no more cancer.”

Another miracle occurred with a family from Tennessee that we know well. Throughout many years they had no children, and Gerontissa said to them: “Don’t fret! Next year you will come to me with a child.” And so it happened that in a year they visited with their newborn daughter.

There was another case of healing already after Gerontissa’s death. There was a woman who worked in a beauty salon as a hairdresser. From working with chemicals for so many years she had serious problems with her fingernails. She took oil from the lampada that we lit in church during Gerontissa’s funeral. We always add oil to this lampada. So, this woman anointed her fingers with the oil from the lampada and after that she was healed.

There was another woman, who has already passed away, who from her youth suffered from a very severe form of asthma. She helped Elder Ephraim with the building of our monastery. Before Gerontissa reposed, this woman asked her: “Gerontissa, can I ask you a favor? Please, take away my asthma!” Then after Gerontissa’s death, and this woman was already around eighty years old, her asthma left her forever.

We have accumulated many such stories. She was holy, a real saint. Just like Elder Ephraim, she was able to read our thoughts. She was all love.

Because she was the first of Elder’s nuns to move to America, and also because of her all-consuming love, women from completely different places sought her out, from the places where other monasteries of Elder Ephraim were subsequently built—from New York, Chicago, and so on. Sometimes she would tell these pilgrims: “When you build a monastery for your home, don’t forget that you should help your gerontissa just as you help me.” Thus she prepared them for this mission beforehand.

One day a man brought us an old icon of the Most Holy Theotokos. He didn’t realize what kind of icon it was. This was an Orthodox man married to a Protestant. His wife was going to throw out all the icons. It so happened that two nuns, mother and daughter, passed by and heard their conversation, as he tried to convince his wife not to toss the icons. They suggested that he give the icons to the monastery.

The man came to the monastery with the icon wrapped up and said to Gerontissa: “I won’t open it until tomorrow.” He didn’t realize what a treasure he had. They next day we celebrated the “Unfading Bloom” icon of the Mother of God. They unwrapped the bundle and saw that it was precisely the same icon, the “Unfading Bloom.” When Gerontissa took the icon, the whole monastery was filled with the sweet scent. You could smell it everywhere—upstairs, downstairs, even in the basement. This icon is still in our monastery.

Gerontissa Taxiarchia departed to the Lord on August 3, 1994 at the age of fifty-eight. Probably about a thousand people came here for her funeral. Each person felt loved by Gerontissa more than all…

When Gerontissa reposed, before we buried her, droplets of myrrh appeared on her face, which emanated a wondrous fragrance. I collected this myrrh with cotton which I have kept until now. It’s been twenty-one years, and that cotton swab to this day is fragrant.

Nun Nektaria, oldest inhabitant of the Monastery of Panagia Hodigitria in Portaria:

Gerontissas Macrina and Taxiarchia

I knew Gerontissa Taxiarchia from the moment she arrived to our monastery. She had a heart condition and had to undergo two heart surgeries: one while she was still living in the world, and the second after she had become a nun. Before the first operation she made a vow: if the operation would be successful then she would spend six months in a monastery, helping the sisters and praying, in this way thanking the Most Holy Theotokos.

Having spent six months in Portaria, she realized that she liked the monastic life and that she wanted to stay here. She began to ask Gerontissa Macrina to accept her into the monastery. At first Gerontissa was afraid to keep her, fearing that her weak heart couldn’t endure the severe monastic style of life. But she so begged and was so kind and obedient that in the end Gerontissa agreed, and Elder Ephraim blessed her to stay.

Gerontissa Taxiarchia was very quickly accounted worthy of tonsure into the schema, because, in the words of Gerontissa Macrina, “she was completely ready for it.”

She had obediences in the kitchen and guest house. Gerontissa Macrina had high blood sugar, and Sister Taxiarchia prepared her food. She attended to this obedience very attentively, measured everything meticulously—how much of what to add so as not to violate the doctor’s orders. She loved her gerontissa very much.

Unfinished work of Gerontissa Taxiarchia

She was very good at embroidering, which she started doing while still in the world. Her embroidery looked as if it wasn’t created by human hands. When Gerontissa Taxiarchia lived in our monastery she embroidered with her own hands golden altar cloths for the Holy Mountain. She had many such gifts and grace from God. She loved everyone and was equally kind to everyone.

Her second obedience in the monastery was to meet guests and pilgrims. She had the gift of words. She could find a path to any person, and her words were always enlightened with love; that is, they enlightened others. She helped the sisters at other obediences—she always hastened to help where help was needed.

She was a person of God and a great woman of prayer. She was distinguished by nobility, mercy, and sacrifice. Prayer came from her mouth continuously. When you spoke with her, you could feel that the Holy Spirit dwelt within her.

She had to have a second operation before leaving for America. She had so much faith in God that she didn’t fear this operation even a little bit. After she left for America we continued to communicate, writing letters to one another.

From a story of Elena Ksenu from Volos, sixty-five years old, and a spiritual child of Elder Ephraim for twelve years:

Gerontissa Taxiarchia was from the village neighboring us, Agria. As a child, they say, she was very kind and gentle. From childhood her future character was evident—very easy and accommodating.

She was a very talented iconographer, and embroidered icons by hand. Faces of Christ, and of the Mother of God and of the saints came from her like living faces—because she did it with prayer.

She had some kind of special softness in her face, and her words were very comforting—there was a feeling as if you were speaking with an angel. That’s why Elder Ephraim chose to send her to America when he opened his first monastery there. She lived there alone at first.

I knew her sister according to the flesh, who has already departed to the Lord. They all lived in Agria. Her sister showed me a dried twig from some tree, which Gerontissa Taxiarchia sent her in one of her letters from America. She wrote: “My dear sister, do you see this twig? This twig is from one of the trees that grow here, around my monastery. Each of them has been abundantly watered by the tears of my loneliness.

Elder Ephraim

She didn’t know the language or customs—nothing. The elder decided, and she showed unconditional obedience—that’s how Elder Ephraim’s first monastery appeared in America. She didn’t object to the elder’s decision, not even a word. She accepted it with peace. She left for America to live there; and there she died.

After some time local Greeks and immigrants learned about the monastery and began to go there for Sunday services. At first they appeared in the monastery dressed up, with stylish hairdos, and they came to the monastery to socialize with one another. The Greek diaspora in America at that time had seriously deviated and fallen under the influence of the Catholic Church. Gerontissa very quickly made them Orthodox Christians again.

Some older nuns from Portaria told me this story about Gerontissa Taxiarchia. During her second heart surgery in Greece there was a Greek Orthodox priest there next to her. When she came to herself after the operation she suffered greatly from pain. It was so painful that she lost consciousness. In that moment, when she had just recovered, this priest heard her say: “O, Mother of God, how beautiful you are! You are the most beautiful, the most beautiful on earth!” She saw the Theotokos directly before her. She saw the holy apostles and spoke with them: “O holy Apostles Peter and Paul, how beautiful, how beautiful you are! Oh, how beautiful!”

Gerontissa Taxiarchia labored in America for five years and died due to her poor health. After her death, immediately after her funeral, miracles began to happen at her grave. A few days after her funeral a family came to the monastery that had earlier visited Gerontissa. Their daughter had eczema. They found out that Gerontissa had reposed and they got upset. The girl’s skin was anointed with oil from the lampada that burned at her grave. Her eczema cleared up immediately and hasn’t returned yet. There have been many other miracles.

Ioannis Devorak, an American with Russian roots living near St. Anthony’s Monastery in Arizona:

When my wife and I first went to the monastery in Pennsylvania, I didn’t know anything about Gerontissa Taxiarchia. I hadn’t even seen a photo of her. We hadn’t spent much time in the monastery, were already planning to leave and got into the car when my wife asked me to return to the church and buy some candles. It was already evening and and the church was deserted. There was nobody around except for one elderly nun who was sitting and making prayer ropes. Off in the distance I spotted three deer peacefully grazing.

I went up to the nun to say hello and take her blessing. “Did you see those three deer? They come here every evening when I sit here and tie prayer ropes. Do you know how to tie prayer ropes?” she asked me. I answered that I didn’t know how, and then she asked: “Would you like me to teach you?” I responded that, unfortunately, we were leaving just then, and they were waiting for me. She said: “Ok, then I’ll teach you next time when you come visit me in a year.”

I wasn’t planning to come here again, but I didn’t object, politely said goodbye, bought some candles, and we left. Sometime later I was at a friend’s house and I saw a photograph of Gerontissa Taxiarchia, and was surprised to recognize her as the same nun that spoke with me in Pennsylvania. I started asking about her and was even more surprised to learn that she had already died. And after a year I really did go back to the monastery. Exactly one year later was the uncovering of the relics of blessed Gerontissa Taxiarchia; Elders Ephraim and Paisios invited me to go with them, and, of course, I agreed.

Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God have mercy upon us!

By Olga Rozhneva

Source: http://orthochristian.com/98455.html

By Fr. Valery Zakharov

If we compare ourselves to people around us, we might think that we are successful enough. However, if we compare ourselves to God, we will realise that we have a lot to be sorry for and a lot to change. We've come to God, eager to change our lives, but we still see that we have a long way to go until we finally reach the desired change. Will it happen here on earth? I would like it to come true, I hope that we will enter the eternal life as joyful people who are free from the restrictions, from the limitations that grow under the influence of external forces and are driven by our unwillingness to obey God. […]

Repentance… Reconsidering one's own actions… It would be great if it didn't happen in a haphazard manner but instead was a steady movement towards the likeness of the Lord that He wants to see in us. (Sermon before the Confession in the Boarding Home for Children with Special Needs on May 5, 2017)

The understanding that God is near must be always present wherever we are, be it in the church or in our daily lives. God is everywhere. If we remember that He is ever-present, we will not part with him. If we never part with him, we will be his transmitters. This connection, this link becomes the route through which the Lord can use us to influence people around us and ourselves. (Sermon before the Confession in the Boarding Home for Children with Special Needs on May 12, 2017)

Help us, O Lord, to preserve inner peace and not to be troubled by the worries which our tumultuous lives are filled with, by everything we have to endure. Help us to live a focused life, a life with God where He lives. (Sermon after the Divine Liturgy in the Boarding Home for Children with Special Needs on May 6, 2017)

By Fr. George Glinsky

You can only have faith in God. You can't make anyone believe regardless of the arguments and syllogisms that you use. If we take a closer look at ourselves and our faith and our life, we will realise that we have to fight against the transformation of our faith in God into a boring and formal execution of religious duties.

The potential for the transformation of the world lies within us. Only the Lord who opens up salvation for us can help us. We must direct all our efforts and all our abilities to turn our faith into trust, our belief and our hopes into fruitful trees that shoot out roots and feed everyone with their fruit and whose leaves cover everybody from the heat of the day, from the suffering and the tragedy of disbelief. May the Lord help us to change our lives. May the power of the Risen Christ allow us to see that the joy that we feel every time when we hear about the Resurrection of our Lord must change us. (Sermon after the All-Night Vigil on May 13, 2017)

Christ comes into this world and dies on the Cross because He loves every person in particular and all humanity as a whole. Of course, He wants us to force our will and our conscience into being more sensitive not only to our own suffering but also to the feelings of those around us. May this desire to see other people saved grow stronger and lead us to prayer, care, and attention, so that serving others in the Church would not remain mere words but have genuine repercussions in the hearts of us Christians. (Sermon after the Matins on March 14, 2017)

Fasting as an ascetic practice reminds us that the world was created not for our consumption but for our care and attention. Like the first human who looked after the garden where he lived, we must also see the entire world as a Divine Garden and look at it with different eyes, as God looks at it. If we perceive the world as the new heaven and new earth, we will get to know the Truth that resides in the heaven. May this Lent allow us to discover proper attitudes to our environment — lit up by the love that God has towards all of us, as it is written in the Gospel. (Sermon after the Matins on March 20, 2017)

By Fr. Sergius Nezhbort

Every human being is chosen by God. We must appreciate and preserve this chosen-ness. This yoke is not always light. Oftentimes, it is the opposite. Nevertheless, we must remember that the Lord has chosen every one of us and never give up on this calling, never desecrate the holiness that the Lord has entrusted us with. (Sermon after the All-Night Vigil on March 18, 2017)

Unfortunately, we often abide by certain formal rules: we go to church, confess, and fast — but as soon as the moment of temptation comes, we can recoil. We can half-consciously betray our neighbour, our ideals, and even God. It means that our living with God is more external than internal nowadays. We should do our best to let it penetrate deep inside our hearts. […]

We treat people around us not as brothers or sisters sometimes but as though they annoy us and make us feel uncomfortable and unpleasant. Although we don't take up arms, we would be happy if those annoying people disappeared. Christianity is a different way of life where people try to place God in the centre of their lives and to perceive all people as brothers and sisters even if we don't support or even fathom some of their moral values. This is immensely important. Let us remember that. Let us love each other so other people could notice it. (Sermon after the Divine Liturgy on May 15, 2017)

By Fr. Sergius Faley

Our lives are managed by God's Providence. Each person has his own unique path. The Lord can see a human's heart. He sees his personality and knows where he lives, how he works and how he was brought up by his parents. Based on this knowledge, the Lord creates a road to salvation tailored to everybody's life story and guides people on this road. This is why when we don't understand something in our lives, we must recall this amazing love of God and just humbly ask him to give us strength to accept the things that we don't understand and do not want to accept. It would be a wise and right thing to do. The Lord will lead everyone who faithfully follows Christ to the Haven of Salvation. (Sermon after the All-Night Vigil on May 4, 2017)

If a person is deprived of the Church and Her Sacraments, he will perish. It is not just him that is evil: there is a war in this world. There are two huge camps: the Church of Christ on the one hand, and the rest of the world, which lies in iniquity, on the other hand. Nowadays this evil has turned into a horrible machine of hell that attempts to subjugate everyone who lacks the protection of the Church. This is why we must thank God for being in the Church, and we must pray to him for our loved ones, for our families and friends. Let us pray for the Lord to bring them to the Church, too. (Sermon after Gospel Reading on May 14, 2017)

December 22, 2017

St. Elisabeth Convent

Many do not understand the concept of faith. They think that Christians are weak intellectually, believing with insufficient evidence. Atheists often adhere to an unproven underlying assumption, that reason is the highest way to find truth. They have not understood that faith is actually a very positive attribute. Jesus thanked God the Father for not just revealing His truth to the intellectuals, but for sending His gift of faith to the humble. He said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes” (Matt 11:25).

Bishop Kallistos Ware, in his introduction to the book “The Art of Prayer”, talks about three elements of man – body, soul and spirit. He goes on to say that body, soul and spirit each have their special way of knowing: the body, through the five senses; the soul through intellectual reasoning; the spirit can come to a mystical perception that transcends man’s ordinary rational processes.

What is implied in your question is as follows. Science has made very impressive progress. Atheists often claim that faith in God is a feeble attempt to “fill in the gaps”. In previous centuries thinkers would, for example, study the amazing beauty and order of nature, but could not explain how such order could have come about just by chance, so concluded there must be a creator. Belief in God filled this “gap”. Science then progressed: for example, Charles Darwin came up with the clever idea of “survival of the fittest”. Science had filled this gap, so there was no longer a need to invoke the concept of a creator. Your question implies that now that we have reached the 21st century, virtually all the gaps have been filled by science.

Thorough knowledge of science can lead to a different conclusion. Yes, science may have offered a plausible explanation for some gaps, but as science has progressed it has found other gaps. For example, modern physics has realised that it has no explanation for the amazing “biofriendliness” of the universe. There are about 30 basic parameters (e.g., the speed of light, Planck’s constant), which if they were a little different to their present values, would mean no life and certainly no humans. Scientists have done calculations and realized that if the speed of light or one of these other constants was only 1% more or less, or if the laws of physics did not happen to be exactly what they are, then there would be no life. The earth would not be continuously orbiting around the sun, there would be no carbon, therefore no DNA, and thus no life.

Another example is the so-called mind-brain debate. Even in the 21st century, no atheist has been able to come up with a convincing explanation of what philosophers call the “hard problem of consciousness”. We are aware that we exist, we can feel. An atheist believes that this can be “reduced” to physical processes occurring in our brains, that somehow out of the complex wiring of our brains there “emerges” self-awareness. They seem to start with the assumption that there is no God, they admit that currently we have no physical explanation for self-awareness, but conclude that there must be some physical explanation, that one day science and our imagination will progress and we will explain this gap as well. We in the Church however have received from God revelation that every human being has an immortal and eternal soul, which is closely connected with his body. The Church has a deep knowledge of human nature – man unites with his existence the tangible and intangible world.

Space does not permit me to give other detailed examples. We could have also referred to modern scholarly research on the “genre” of the Gospels: they do not have the features of “legend” but of “eye-witness accounts”.

In conclusion, an unbiased thinker can be convinced that it takes more faith to be an atheist than to be a Christian. We need to be humble and strive against the passions, we need philotimo, and to look into our faith with an open mind. We need to strive to truly pray and live the life of the Church. St Silouan was speaking from experience when he used to say, “It is one thing to know about God, and another to know God”. Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matt 5:8).

Source: https://www.lychnos.org/how-is-it-possible-to-believe-in-god-in-the-21st-century/

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