The Catalog of Good Deeds

Today we lead such busy lives that many say, "I don't even have time for prayer. At the end of the say I am so tired. With Children and the trend of both parents working this is a common problem these days. The only solution is to make sure you have the right priorities in your life. To lead a balanced life you need to struggle to simplify it. First examine why it is necessary for a mother to work while the children are living at home. Is this a necessity or is it just to gain material things.

Elder Paisios advises:

It's better for a mother to be involved with the nurturing of her children... A mother [if she is not working a full time job] can speak to her children about Christ; she can read the Lives of the Saints to them. Thus, at the same time she will be occupying herself dusting off her own soul so that it will be spiritually shiny. The mother's spiritual life will then quietly help the souls of her children. Thus, her children will live happily, and she will be joyful because she will have Christ within her. If a mother doesn't find the time to say even the Trisagion, how can she expect he children to be sanctified?

When she does her housework, can't she pray at the same time? It was my mother who taught me to way the Jesus Prayer. When we were children and had done some mischief, and my mother was about to get angry with us, I remembering her saying, "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me." When she put the bread in the oven, she would say, "In the name of the Christ and Panaghia." And whenever kneading, or cooking, again, she constantly said the Jesus Prayer. In this manner, she herself was blessed, as were the bread and the food whe was preparing, and so were those who partook of it later.

I wonder if in today's world we appreciate the significance of a spiritual upbringing. The elders of our Church tell us the mother's traditional role is a most important one. Elder Paisios says, "The mother's devotion has great significance. If the mother has humility and fear of God, then family life is smooth." The challenge today with its materialistic orientation is to seek to simplify life so one parent can dedicate themselves to the nurturing of their children both physically and spiritually. Children are geared to learn by observation. You are the models they will begin their life with. Make that model as close to the image of God as is possible.

A good friend told me a story of his early child raising days. He had the habit of not going to Church each Sunday, but he instead stayed in bed and then getting up after his wife and children had gone to church to read the Sunday paper in peace. One day, is young son made the comment to his Mom, "I cant wait until I get as old as Dad. Then I won't have to get up and go to Church each Sunday. I can stay home and read the paper and relax." He over heard his son saying this and this woke him up. He realized he was setting a bad example for his son. From that day on he never missed a day in Church.

Source: http://orthodoxwayoflife.blogspot.com.by/2013/07/more-on-raising-children-and-making.html

By Fr. Andrew Lemeshonok

It is painful to live in this ephemeral world because everything is built on sand — on sins like selfishness, vainglory, and self-promotion. People who live in this world unwittingly begin to play this game, and it is really difficult to stop doing it and begin to live a thoughtful and God-seeking life, where God is the cornerstone, unlike in the lives of ordinary people. No one in this world needs Christ because the whole world lieth in wickedness (1 John 5: 19). That’s why if we genuinely want to become Christians, we will have to struggle against ourselves and this world. There is sin inside us. Given favourable conditions, it may surface out. At the same time, we have already witnessed God’s love, and we can no longer survive without it. This ambiguity and this suffering, in which a Christian is born, can sometimes be very hard to endure. And yet, we have to move on.

***

Sin literally killed us humans. If we want to resurrect, we have to ascend to the cross voluntarily and go through a great deal of suffering of our souls and our consciences. Only then will we be restored. Sure, you can adapt all things in the Church and Her worship to please this fugacious life. Is it reasonable? It isn’t. Jesus tells every person: Follow Me (Matthew 8: 22). We reply, “Wait, we have things to do, we have too little time and too little energy to follow you. We want to keep running.” No matter how fast you run, sooner or later you will find yourself in the grave. On the other hand, we keep talking about eternity, the soul’s ascent and progress, and its transformation… The Church nurtures us and teaches us to be able to say, “No, that’s wrong. I don’t mind losing everything if my soul remains with God.” May God grant you courage and patience! (Sermon before the Confession on August 12, 2017)

By Fr. Sergius Faley

Remember the Gospel story about the paralytic who was carried to Jesus on his bed by his friends? The house was filled with people who had come to hear the word of the Lord and to be healed. It was impossible to get inside. They disassembled the roof and suspended the bed with the paralytic right in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith, He told the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven” (cf. Matthew 9: 2).

This is similar to what happens when we pray for the deceased. A deceased person is like a paralytic because his or her agency is frozen: they cannot help themselves. Our private prayers, and especially prayers of the Church and her members are a meaningful way to help them. We pray that the Lord would forgive their sins. Those deceased who have already had their sins forgiven, pray for us, and God helps us thanks to their prayers. May we all have such people among our ancestors. However, if we don’t have such people, the Lord has brought us to his Church and given us the chance to pray for our deceased relatives with faith. (Sermon after the All-Night Vigil on October 27, 2017)

By Fr. Valery Zakharov

Trusting God means staying in full submission to his will. God acts only to the extent that we open our hearts to him. God does not address our minds. He addresses our hearts. (Sermon after the Divine Liturgy in the Boarding Home for Children with Special Needs on August 5, 2017)

Having received a blessing in the church, we return to the turbulent world. Our task is to make it peaceful. It must not infect us with its turbulence but instead it should receive the peace of Christ from us so that our family members wouldn’t hide away from us but on the contrary, seek our company to receive some light of God’s grace, which we must radiate by carrying it inside our hearts and never losing it. (Sermon after the Divine Liturgy in the Boarding Home for Children with Special Needs on November 11, 2017)

By Fr Sergius Nezhbort

People are afraid of evil spells or black cats. In fact, they themselves are the people that they should in all honesty be afraid of. This is why we need sanctification and purification. The Lord keeps sanctifying and purifying us all the time. This is the mercy of God that we cannot accept without humbling down.

I had a conversation with one of our sisters lately. She complained that she could not take communion. I asked, “What’s wrong?” — “I cannot get ready: sometimes I don’t read all required texts, sometimes I don’t fast for the required time, sometimes I’m late…” I asked another question to clarify, “How long ago did you take communion for the last time?” — “Oh, it’s been a while, I don’t even recall it, and I am afraid I won’t take it again.” Here is a person who attends church regularly, and still cannot take communion…

We all sometimes want to bargain with God: you do your part of the deal, and I’ll do mine. I read canons for your sake, and you reward me for my feats. Sometimes you have to get used to the fact that right now, you are totally unworthy, your spiritual life is the worst of the worst, but regardless of all that, you come to God and ask him to accept you in his Kingdom, like the good thief on the cross. That is the moment when one feels God’s grace most often. (Sermon after the Divine Liturgy on August 14, 2017)

Let me tell you a story. There were two brothers, and the older brother found a seashell. Normally, he would just grab things and keep them. This time, he gave the seashell to the other brother, which was unusual. I said, “The Lord will comfort you now that you’ve committed such a heroic act!” And we continued walking. Hardly did he walk ten feet that he asked, “Well, when will the Lord comfort me?” I replied, “Just keep walking; the Lord will certainly comfort you.” Ten feet later, he said, “Why?! I gave up all I had, so to say, but God does not comfort me…” The Lord comforted him eventually, of course. It seems to me that it is typical of us. Sometimes we give up something. It may be even less significant than a seashell. And we sit there waiting for God’s grace to fall upon us. If it doesn’t come in a couple of days, we feel indignant: why, what’s wrong, where’s God, why doesn’t He stay true to his promises? Nonetheless, we must remember that the Lord will definitely comfort us, and it may happen when we don’t expect it. (Sermon after the Divine Liturgy on August 13, 2017)

January 22, 2018

St. Elisabeth Convent

Q: I have heard it argued that the phrase in the Liturgy "A mercy of peace, a sacrifice of praise" is both nonsensical and a corruption of an earlier text. Is this correct, and if not, what does the phrase mean?

A: It is true that there are some textual issues related to this text. There are number of manuscripts that read "Mercy, peace, a sacrifice of praise," and some argue that this reading makes more sense. However, in an article by Robert Taft on the subject, the oldest text that is cited, is the text of the commentary on the Divine Liturgy by St. Germanus of Constantinople, and it has the reading just as we use it today (Textual Problems in the Diaconal Admonition before the Anaphora in the Byzantine Tradition (Orientalia Christiana Periodica, 49 (1983) 345; St. Germanus of Constantinople, On the Divine Liturgy. Trans. [with Greek parallel text] Paul Meyendorff (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir Seminary Press, 1984), p. 90f.), This variant also made its way into the pre-Nikonian Slavonic texts, though since the Nikonian reforms, the mainstream Slavonic texts have followed the standard reading.

The fact that the standard text is criticized as being a more difficult reading is actually an argument in favor of its authenticity. One of the basic principles of textual criticism is that (all things being equal) the harder reading is more likely to be original, and a smoother reading is more likely the result of a later "correction." If such a "harder reading" were found only in an isolated manuscript here or there, one could perhaps make the case that it was the result of some error in copying -- but not when such a reading is the predominant reading.

In any case, whether it was the original reading or not, it is the accepted reading that the Church has embraced. That being the case, suggesting that the text is "nonsensical" reflects both a lack of humility and piety. If the Church has embraced it, it cannot be nonsensical. It may be that it is hard to understand, or that one might not understand it; however, just because a person does not understand what it means, this does not mean that it is incapable of being understood. After all, this is not a line from some obscure text that few would have ever encountered, or would have encountered infrequently. This is a line from the most prominent part of the most prominent service of the Church, which is served almost every day of the year. Consequently, it is unfathomable that such a text could have gained such wide acceptance in the Church had it truly been nonsensical.

Some try to argue that the text, at least as it stands in English, is ungrammatical, because "mercy" is an uncountable noun, and so cannot be used with the indefinite article ("a"). However, if you look up the word "mercy" in Merriam Webster's dictionary online, one of the examples of how the word is used is "it was a mercy they found her before she froze." Countless examples of this could be cited from the great works of English literature... and so it is simply not true that this construction is ungrammatical.

As for what this means, keep in mind that this line follows the words of the deacon: "Let us stand well, let us stand with fear, let us attend, that we may offer the holy oblation in peace." And so, in context, we see that this line is referring to the holy oblation.

Fr. Thomas Hopko provides a concise explanation of what this means:

"The Holy Oblation is Christ, the Son of God who has become the Son of Man in order to offer himself to his Father for the life of the world. In his own person Jesus is the perfect peace offering which alone brings God’s reconciling mercy. This is undoubtedly the meaning of the expression a mercy of peace, which has been a source of confusion for people over the years in all liturgical languages.

In addition to being the perfect peace offering, Jesus is also the only adequate sacrifice of praise which men can offer to God. There is nothing comparable in men to the graciousness of God. There is nothing with which men can worthily thank and praise the Creator. This is so even if men would not be sinners. Thus God himself provides men with their own most perfect sacrifice of praise. The Son of God becomes genuinely human so that human persons could have one of their own nature sufficiently adequate to the holiness and graciousness of God. Again this is Christ, the sacrifice of praise" (The Orthodox Faith, Volume II - Worship: The Divine Liturgy, Eucharistic Canon: Anaphora).

By Fr. John Whiteford

Source: http://fatherjohn.blogspot.com.by/2016/01/stump-priest-mercy-of-peace.html

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