The Catalog of Good Deeds

Holy Thoughts

There was an elder who is said to have spent fifty years in complete abstention. He did not even eat bread, and he drank just a little water. That elder boasted that he had eradicated fornication, love of money, and vainglory from his soul. When Abba Abraham heard it, he came to that elder and asked him:

– Have you said so and so?

The elder replied:

– Yes, I have.

Abba Abraham responded:

– Imagine you get into your hut and see a woman in your bed. Can you refrain from thinking that she is a woman?

– No but — but I struggle with the thought and try not to touch her.

Abraham concluded:

– So you haven’t eradicated fornication: it is alive in your heart but it is bound. Again, imagine you are walking down the road and see rocks and potsherds, and gold coins scattered among them. Won’t you think about the gold coins?

The elder admitted:

– No but I will cast that thought away and won’t take the gold.

Abraham stated:

– So your passion is alive but bound. Again: if you meet two brothers, one of whom loves and praises you to the skies, while the other hates and insults you — will your heart be predisposed towards them equally?

The elder replied:

– Of course not but I will struggle with my thoughts and do as much good to the one who hates me as to the one who loves me.

Abba Abraham summed it up:

– Consequently, your passions are still alive but they are bound with holy thoughts.

Pure Heart

Someone asked St. Isaac of Syria:

– How does a person get to know that his heart has become pure?

The elder replied:

– When that person considers all people to be good, and regards no man filthy and foul — that’s when he has a really pure heart.

Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled (Titus 1:15)

Strong Wind

A traveler sought advice from the abbot of Skete.

– I’d like to lead a better life but I can’t protect myself against sinful thoughts.

The abbot noticed that it was windy outdoors. He said to the pilgrim:

– It’s hot. I’d appreciate it if you catch some wind from the outdoors and bring it here to make the room less stuffed.

– That’s impossible, – the traveler protested.

– Likewise, you can’t protect yourself against ungodly thoughts, – the monk replied. – But if you know how to say no to the temptation, those thoughts won’t do you any harm.

Service and Praise

One day, elders were sitting at the table. Abba Alonius was waiting on them.

The elders commended him but he did not say anything in response.

One of the elders enquired:

– Why didn’t you say anything to the elders when they praised you?

Abba Alonius told him:

– If I had said anything to them, it would have meant that I accepted their praise.

Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake. (Ps. 115:1)

Hermit’s Hunger

There was a hermit who came to his spiritual father to complain that he felt hungry in his secluded cell as early as 9 o’clock every morning, even though he had managed to do without food for several days when he had lived in a monastery.

– Don’t be surprised, my son, – the elder replied. – There is no one in the desert who would see your fasting and support and feed you with praises. Vainglory used to be your food when you were at the monastery. The satisfaction that you felt because of your exceptional abstention was sweeter than a meal.

Three Monks

There were three diligent monks. One of them chose to restore peace among those who quarrelled as his spiritual practice. The second monk decided to put his efforts into visiting the ill. The third monk went to the desert to stay in solitude. The first monk had a lot of work because people just wouldn’t stop quarreling. He came to the second monk and saw that he was likewise tired and ceased to tend to his cause. They agreed to visit the hermit, tell him about their problems, and see what good he had done in the wilderness. The hermit paused and then poured some water into a cup, saying:

– Look at the water.

The water was muddy, and they couldn’t see anything. After a while, he invited them to look at the water again.

– See, the water is still now.

They looked at the water and saw their faces like in a mirror. He said to them:

– That’s what happens to a person who lives amidst other people. He has to cope with so much hassle that he cannot see his sins. When he stays silent, especially in the wilderness, he can spot his shortcomings.

Praising and Cursing the Dead

A newly-tonsured monk came to a renowned hermit hoping that the elder would show him the way to perfection.

– Go to a graveyard tonight, – the elder said, – and praise the dead who lie there till dawn. Then come and tell me how they receive your praises.

The newly-tonsured monk returned from the graveyard the following morning:

– I’ve done what you ordered me, Father! I praised those dead people with a loud voice all night long. I called them holy, blessed fathers, great and righteous men who pleased God, the lights of the universe, the treasure troves of wisdom, and the salt of the earth. I claimed that they had all the virtues I had ever read about in the Holy Scriptures and the philosophers’ books.

– So what? Did they show you their appreciation?

– No, they didn’t, Father: they kept silent all the time. I didn’t hear a single word from them.

– Sounds strange, – the elder said. – That’s what you should do: go to the graveyard again tonight and curse them as hard as you can until you elicit any response.

The newly-tonsured monk returned the following day and reported:

– I kept cursing and smearing them. I called them dirty dogs, devil’s vessels, God-forsakers; I likened them to all wicked men of the Old and New Testament, from Cain who murdered his brother to Judas who betrayed the Lord; from the lustful Gibeonites to Ananias and Sapphira who attempted to lie to God. I claimed that they were guilty of all heresies, from the Simon’s and Valentine’s old heresies to the new one called Monothelitism.

– Well, and how did you escape their anger?

– I didn’t need to, Father! They kept silent all the time. I even put my ear close to their tombs but no one moved.

– You see, – the elder concluded, – you have reached the first stage of Angelic living, which is obedience. You will reach the top level on earth only when you become as indifferent towards praises and curses as those dead people.

…By honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true (2 Cor. 6:8)

Those of us whose ancestors are French, Irish, Scandinavian, German, Italian or other British or European nationality, would do well to remember that we too have a rich Orthodox heritage. Unhappily, it has in many cases been buried under a thick layer of Catholic and Protestant history.

Despite the universality of the Holy Orthodox Church, it is not infrequently that converts confess to feeling “out of place” in the Russian, Greek, Serbian, or other ethnic tradition which, with few exceptions, dominates parish life in the Orthodox West. This is a natural outcome of the circumstances in which Orthodoxy spread to the West: it was primarily an immigrant rather than a missionary movement. Today, however, a majority of converts come from a West European stock that is neither Slavic nor Greek. Those of us whose ancestors are French, Irish, Scandinavian, German, Italian or other British or European nationality, would do well to remember that we too have a rich Orthodox heritage. Unhappily, it has in many cases been buried under a thick layer of Catholic and Protestant history. It would, however, serve not only our own interests, but the interest of the Orthodox Church as a whole, were we to bring to light that treasury of Western saints and their rich legacy, of which we are the unworthy inheritors.

This process was begun in earnest by a true apostle of our own day, Archbishop John Maximovitch, of Blessed Memory. While living in Paris as ruling Archbishop of Western Europe, he was inspired by a love for the Church to begin collecting information on early saints of the West, together with their pictures or icons. Thus he began a task of promoting amongst Orthodox living in the West, a consciousness of, and a devotion to, those saints who had lived in the West before the Schism of 1054. In 1952 he spoke on this subject before a Sobor of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, presenting for their consideration a list of pre-schism Western saints for inclusion in the Orthodox calendar.

A similar task was undertaken by one who was himself an Orthodox saint of the West, St. Gregory, Pope of Rome—also known as St. Gregory the Great, or St. Gregory the Dialogist. Writing at the end of the sixth century, he compiled a book honoring the memory of the saints of Italy for the edification and instruction of his fellow countrymen. The book is written in the form of a dialogue between himself and his deacon Peter, from whose comments it is clear that we are not alone in our ignorance of these holy and illustrious men of God.

Peter: “I do not know of any persons in Italy whose lives give evidence of extraordinary spiritual powers. This land of ours has undoubtedly produced its virtuous men, but to my knowledge no signs or miracles have been performed by any of them; or if they have been, they were till now kept in such secrecy that we cannot even tell if they occurred.”

Gregory: “On the contrary, Peter, the day would not be long enough for me to tell you about those saints whose holiness has been well established and whose lives are known to me either from my own observations or from the reports of good, reliable witnesses.”

St. Gregory proceeds to recount a veritable ‘Paradise of the Fathers’ of the West. These men and women, by whose prayers the dead were raised, the sick healed, who calmed the seas and tamed wild beasts, were in no way behind their fellow laborers of the East in their ascent of the ladder of virtue. Amantius, Eleutherius, Fortunatus, Boniface, Donatus, Honoratus, Cerbonius-these are but a few to whom we are introduced in St. Gregory’s Dialogues. The second book of the Dialogues is devoted entirely to the life of St. Benedict of Norcia, a monastic father of the West. Unable to confine his love and enthusiasm for God’ s saints to Italy, St. Gregory crosses over to Spain, a country which had Christian settlements as early as the first century.

Going north into France, we again discover a whole army of Orthodox saints: the desert- dwellers of the Jura Mountains, the monastic fathers of Lerins, the saintly bishops of Poitiers, Tours, Paris, Lyons. Numbered among their ranks is St. Clotilde, Queen of France (d. 545), by whose prayers her husband, Clovis, King of the Franks, received the faith of Christ where again we are fortunate in having primary sources available to us in English: St. Gregory of Tours’ History of the Franks contains some lives of saints, while his magnificent Vita Patrum (Life of the Fathers) was translated by Hieromonk Seraphim Rose.

In his Introduction to this series, Fr. Seraphim writes: “The 20th-century Orthodox Christian will find little that is strange in the Christianity of 6th-century Gaul; in fact, if he himself has entered deeply into the piety and spirit of Orthodoxy as it has come down even to our days, he will find himself very much at home in the Christian world of St. Gregory of Tours.” St. John Maximovitch included several of these saints in his own list, among them St. Germanus of Auxerre and his companion St. Lupus (St. Loup) of Troyes.

Crossing the Channel to England, we find a wealth of Orthodox saints all but unknown even to those living there! The discovery, not long ago, of the relics of St. Edward the Martyr, a 10th century King of England, has brought attention to the historical presence of Orthodoxy in Britain, but work has only just begun in this fertile field of Orthodox sanctity which could do so much toward the strengthening of faith among native Britons and those of British heritage. Two sources on this subject deserve special mention: A History of the English Church and People by the Venerable Bede and Saints of the British Isles, compiled by two English converts to Orthodoxy, A. Bond and N. Mabin.

What convert of Irish ancestry doesn’t have a devotion to St. Patrick? So successful were the apostolic labors of this wondrous saint that by the sixth century Ireland had become a genuine Thebaid of the West whose monastics penetrated the farthest corners of Europe in their missionary zeal. Wales, too, had an illustrious bishop, St. David, as its patron. Here was another breeding ground of missionary saints, many of whom are more illustrious in the lands they evangelized than in their homeland. St. Ninian of Scotland, Amend of Belgium, Anschar of Sweden . . . There is no country in Europe which does not have an Orthodox heritage. Let us make an effort to uncover these beacons of Christianity for our own edification and to the glory of God, wondrous in His saints.

Source: http://www.pravmir.com/a-convert-heritage-western-saints/

It was one of the strangest episodes in all of military and Christian history--an army killing its own best soldiers. The time: A.D. 320. The place: Sevaste, in present-day Turkey. The issue: Would Christian soldiers obey and bow to pagan gods?

Governor Agricola spoke mildly but firmly. He had good and strong warriors before him. He needed them. They must be brought into line. "I am told you refuse to offer the sacrifice ordered by Emperor Licinius."

One of the soldiers answered on behalf of the rest. "We will not sacrifice. To do so is to betray our holy faith."

"But what about your comrades? Consider--you alone of Caesar's troops defy him! Think of the disgrace you bring upon your legion. How can you do it?"

"To disgrace the name of our Lord Jesus Christ is more terrible still."

A note of exasperation crept into the governor's voice. "Give up this stubborn folly. You have no lord but Caesar! In his name, I promise promotion to the first of you who steps forward and does his duty." He paused a moment, expecting his lure would break their ranks. None of them moved. He switched tactics. "You persist in your rebellion? Then prepare for torture, prison, death! This is your last chance. Will you obey your emperor?"

The soldiers stood firm, although they well knew the governor would carry out his threat. They spoke: "Nothing you can offer us would replace what we would lose in the next world. As for your threats--we've learned to deny our bodies where the welfare of our souls is at stake."

Agricola ordered, "Flog them." Pairs of guards seized each man and dragged them out into the cold where they were stripped and tied to posts. Soon the swish of whips and the thud of blows filled the air with groans. Hooks of iron tore the men's sides. Unbelievably, although their flesh was bruised, their skins were tattered and their blood flowed, not one of the forty surrendered.

"Chain them in my dungeons!" roared Agricola. "We'll see what Lysias has to say about this."

Lysias, commander of the 12th Legion, was in no gentle mood when the forty Christian soldiers were hauled before him a few days later. His ride from Antioch to Sevaste had been tedious and cold. "You will obey me," he said sternly, "or pay a sharp penalty."

The men answered him with respectful defiance, just as they had Agricola. Lysias had not become a commander by coddling traitors, and he did not intend to begin now. He motioned to Agricola.

Agricola came beside Lysias. As judge, he must make these unbending men conform. But how? Just then, a frigid gale blew across the frozen pond below and stabbed into his cheeks. It gave him an idea. "Take them down to the pond," he ordered. Turning to the soldiers he added, "You will stand naked on the ice until you agree to sacrifice to the gods."

Agricola could hardly believe what his eyes saw next. The rebels began stripping off their own clothes and running toward the pond in the freezing March air. "We are soldiers of the Lord and fear no hardship," shouted one. "What is our death but entrance into eternal life?"

Sing It, Brothers!

Striking up a song, the men marched onto the frozen pond. Baffled, Agricola posted guards around them. He squinted into the falling sun. Surely the bitter cold of evening would change their minds....

Wait! There was something else he could do. "Heat baths of warm water," he ordered the guards. "Place them around the pond. That ought to lure them out pretty quickly," he smirked.

The sun sank behind the hills. Then upon the night air could be heard a prayer: "Lord, there are forty of us engaged in this battle; grant that forty may be crowned and not one be missing from this sacred number."

Standing on the shore, the shivering guards shouted into the night. "Don't be idiots. What's the point? Come on out. Warm yourselves!"

"Look," one of the guards suddenly exclaimed, pointing toward the sky.

"What?" said his fellow guard, eyes probing the darkness. "Its too dark to see anything. By Jove, I wish this was over. I'm freezing out here."

"Don't you see them? Spirits...hovering with golden crowns over those fellows heads, holding out rich robes for them!"

"Are you out of your mind? It's pitch black. Hey! There's someone coming! It's one of them."

Babbling, one of the forty crawled toward them from the ice. The two ran forward, grasped his shuddering arms and helped him into a bath. But the heat was too much of a shock to his frozen system. He went into convulsions and died.

The guard who had seen the vision of crowns, without delay, shucked off his clothes and ran onto the ice. The martyrs would be forty again!

When the sun rose, Agricola was told that the forty were dead. "Well, get the bodies off the ice," he commanded. "Burn them. And dump the ashes in the river."

The Youngest Was Still Alive

The guards backed a wagon as near the pond as they could and began stacking the stiff corpses onto it. Then a bizarre twist occurred.

"Hey, we've got a live one here," a guard shouted. "It's Melito. Poor fellow. He's just a kid."

"A local boy, too. That's his mom up there." The soldier beckoned to the woman and she came near. "Listen, Mother, take your boy home, save his life if you can. We'll look the other way."

"What kind of talk is that?" scolded the woman. She seemed genuinely upset! The guards looked at each other in astonishment. "Would you cheat him of his crown? I'll never let that happen!" As the wagon began to roll away, she lifted her son with her peasant's strength, hoisting him in with the others.

"Go, Son," she cried. "Go to the end of this happy journey with your comrades so that you won't be the last to present yourself before God."

One of the guards tapped the side of his head and rolled his eyes upward. "Christians!" he muttered. "I just don't understand them."

Fascinating Facts Behind the Forty Martyrs of Sevaste

How many agreed to sacrifice? A legion consisted of from 3,000 to 6,000 infantry plus cavalry. Apparently at least 2,960 men from the Sevaste legion sacrificed at Licinius's order. Barely 1% bucked his demand!

The famous Thundering Legion. The legion stationed at Sevaste may have been the famed Thundering Legion. Dating back to Caesar Augustus, it took its name from a lightening emblem on its shields. The Thundering Legion is connected with another unusual historical event. During the reign of Marcus Aurelius, it was trapped in a dry valley and only saved from dying of thirst by a furious thunderstorm which provided drinking water and threw enemy soldiers into panic. Christian writers spoke of the thunderstorm as a miracle in answer to the petitions of a group of praying Christian soldiers. Pagan authors attributed it to sorcery or to the prayers of Marcus Aurelius.

Why a legion of troops in Sevaste? Licinius had to defend against Barbarians and Persians. Sevaste (now Sivas, Turkey) was a logical place to station a sizable force to meet challenges from North and East.

Save the remains. The bodies of the Forty were burned and their ashes cast into a river. The current deposited fragments of bone at a bend in the stream. Christians collected and preserved them as honored remains to be kept among local churches.

Sevaste (now Sivas, Turkey) was in Armenia. It was a strategic location to station troops to meet threats from North and East.

Too Incredible to Be True?

Are we really supposed to believe that forty men in the prime of life voluntarily undressed to die by freezing? Is this just a legend?

Actually, the story is as solid as ancient history gets. There are at least three sources for it. The men were martyred in 320. Gregory of Nyssa (c.335-396) tells that he was still a boy when a feast was established in their memory and churches dedicated to them. He wrote two sermons on them and declared his intention to bury his parents beside the remains of some of the brave soldiers.

When Gregory's brother, Basil the Great, Bishop of Caesarea (c.330-379), preached a sermon on the feast day of the Forty Martyrs, there were still men and women alive who remembered the brave fellows. Basil's sermon, by the way, is the oldest written record we have of their icy death, and was preached in a church named for the Forty Martyrs.

Another person who later wrote about the martyrs was actually alive as a fourteen-year-old boy when they spent their night on the ice. Ephraim the Syrian (c.306-373) became a leading Christian scholar and hymn writer. He spent much of his life in Edessa, about two hundred miles south of Sevaste. Among his many poems was a eulogy on The Forty.

That Day the North Wind Did Blow

The day was very cold. Surely I do not have to inform you about the cold since today's weather gives you a clear idea about it. The chill even penetrates the walls... such was the season of the contest and the time of their miracles when the north wind blew so vehemently. – Gregory of Nyssa's 1st Sermon on the Forty Martyrs

Did Licinius Kill for Spite?

It is commonly and inaccurately stated that Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire when he became emperor. Not so. It was Theodosios I over a half-century later with his edict of 380. Constantine actually came to power with a co-emperor Licinius.

In 313, Licinius needed Constantine's help and struck a deal with him. To seal the bargain, Constantine married his sister to Licinius. The two generals issued the edict of Milan, granting religious toleration to the empire. Licinius even fought under a Christian banner.

So what changed? Why did Licinius turn on the Christians in 320? Both wanted the same thing --single control over the empire. Persecuting Christians was one way for Licinius to show how much he hated Constantine, whose favor for the Christian faith was well known.

Out of Place Christians?

What were Christians doing in the army? Early Christian writers tell us that Christians believed it was wrong to fight and kill. Could it be that The Forty were draftees? Or had Christians decided it was okay to fight as long as they did so under a Christian banner? Perhaps the men converted to Christ after enrolling in the armed forces.

Source: https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/301-600/40-martyrs-of-sevaste-11629648.html

Some years ago, when we adopted our two daughters from Russia, I was searching for an Orthodox parish our eldest might go to. (She had been baptised Orthodox.) I was concerned for her smooth assimilation into American life, so I wanted to find a parish with a good youth program. I phoned the local Romanian parish and spoke with Fr. Anton. I explained the situation and told him, “I’m looking to find a parish with a good youth program.” There was a long pause on the other end of the phone. Then Fr. Anton answered, “We don’t shop for churches in Orthodoxy.”

Over and over again through the years, the wisdom of Fr. Anton’s remarks has remained with me. The church is not a commodity. It is not selling anything. Parishes are not in competition with each other.

What, then, is the church? Rightly understood, each parish is a family. What are the keys to a family’s health and success? It isn’t rocket science. Here are a few:

– Healthy families are always open to gaining new members. When a baby comes home from the hospital, or a new member is added by adoption or marriage, healthy families open to make room for the new person. They are willing to undergo the temporary discomfort or awkwardness that comes with new life, and they give thanks to God for the new life. They are flexible, yet retain their own identity.

– Healthy families aren’t focused on gaining new members at all costs. Growth should be natural. Those with problems where they are should be told to go back and work on those problems first, before coming. No one should be received without the blessing of their priest. Baggage must be left at the door.

– Members of healthy families are committed to share a common life. Cal Ripken Jr., the man who broke Lou Gehrig’s consecutive game streak, was asked the secret of his success. “The key,” he said, “is mostly just showing up.” Joining a parish is committing to sharing a common life. That requires engaging with all sorts of different people. Some are outgoing, some are shy; some take part in lots of things and others mostly pray. All are essential; none is superfluous.

– Healthy families commit to work through problems and challenges together. Everyone gets teary-eyed when they read of long-married couples who die on the same day. But stories have those endings only because the couple worked through many problems and challenges throughout the years.

– Healthy families have differences. The goal, in a healthy family, is not to make everybody to be the same. The variety of persons is revealed in a variety of gifts and, sometimes, on a variety of viewpoints. Diversity is no threat, when we are all agreed to journey together.

– Healthy families are ordered. There are husband and wife, parents and children, older and younger siblings. These roles are distinct and not interchangeable. Each lives for the other. Love is given and respect is returned.

Source: http://frgregory.blogspot.com.by/2017/06/the-healthy-parish-family.html

Many men may not love church, but Orthodox men do. Frederica Matthewes-Green asks them why.

In a time when churches of every description are faced with Vanishing Male Syndrome, men are showing up at Eastern Orthodox churches in numbers that, if not numerically impressive, are proportionately intriguing. This may be the only church which attracts and holds men in numbers equal to women. As Leon Podles wrote in his 1999 book, "The Church Impotent: The Feminization of Christianity," "The Orthodox are the only Christians who write basso profundo church music, or need to."

Rather than guess why this is, I emailed a hundred Orthodox men, most of whom joined the Church as adults. What do they think makes this church particularly attractive to men? Their responses, below, may spark some ideas for leaders in other churches, who are looking for ways to keep guys in the pews.

Challenges. The term most commonly cited by these men was "challenging." Orthodoxy is "active and not passive." "It's the only church where you are required to adapt to it, rather than it adapting to you." "The longer you are in it, the more you realize it demands of you."

The "sheer physicality of Orthodox worship" is part of the appeal. Regular days of fasting from meat and dairy, "standing for hours on end, performing prostrations, going without food and water [before communion]...When you get to the end you feel that you've faced down a challenge." "Orthodoxy appeals to a man's desire for self-mastery through discipline."

"In Orthodoxy, the theme of spiritual warfare is ubiquitous; saints, including female saints, are warriors. Warfare requires courage, fortitude, and heroism. We are called to be 'strugglers' against sin, to be 'athletes' as St. Paul says. And the prize is given to the victor. The fact that you must 'struggle' during worship by standing up throughout long services is itself a challenge men are willing to take up."

A recent convert summed up, "Orthodoxy is serious. It is difficult. It is demanding. It is about mercy, but it's also about overcoming oneself. I am challenged in a deep way, not to 'feel good about myself' but to become holy. It is rigorous, and in that rigor I find liberation. And you know, so does my wife."

Clear Disciplines. Several mentioned that they really appreciated having clarity about the content of these challenges and what they were supposed to do. "Most guys feel a lot more comfortable when they know what's expected of them." "Orthodoxy presents a reasonable set of boundaries." "It's easier for guys to express themselves in worship if there are guidelines about how it's supposed to work—especially when those guidelines are so simple and down-to-earth that you can just set out and start doing something."

"The prayers the Church provides for us--morning prayers, evening prayers, prayers before and after meals, and so on--give men a way to engage in spirituality without feeling put on the spot, or worrying about looking stupid because they don't know what to say."

They appreciate learning clear-cut physical actions that are expected to form character and understanding. "People begin learning immediately through ritual and symbolism, for example, by making the sign of the cross. This regimen of discipline makes one mindful of one's relation to the Trinity, to the Church, and to everyone he meets."

A Goal. Men also appreciate that this challenge has a goal: union with God. One said that in a previous church "I didn't feel I was getting anywhere in my spiritual life (or that there was anywhere to get to—I was already there, right?) But something, who knew what, was missing. Isn't there SOMETHING I should be doing, Lord?"

Orthodoxy preserves and transmits ancient Christian wisdom about how to progress toward this union, which is called "theosis." Every sacrament or spiritual exercise is designed to bring the person, body and soul, further into continual awareness of the presence of Christ within, and also within every other human being. As a cloth becomes saturated with dye by osmosis, we are saturated with God by theosis.

A catechumen wrote that he was finding icons helpful in resisting unwanted thoughts. "If you just close your eyes to some visual temptation, there are plenty of stored images to cause problems. But if you surround yourself with icons, you have a choice of whether to look at something tempting or something holy."

A priest writes, "Men need a challenge, a goal, perhaps an adventure—in primitive terms, a hunt. Western Christianity has lost the ascetic, that is, the athletic aspect of Christian life. This was the purpose of monasticism, which arose in the East largely as a men's movement. Women entered monastic life as well, and our ancient hymns still speak of women martyrs as showing 'manly courage.'"

No Sentimentality. In "The Church Impotent," cited above (and recommended by several of these men), Leon Podles offers a theory about how Western Christian piety became feminized. In the 12th-13th centuries a particularly tender, even erotic, strain of devotion arose, one which invited the individual believer to picture himself or herself (rather than the Church as a whole) as the Bride of Christ. "Bridal Mysticism" was enthusiastically adopted by devout women, and left an enduring stamp on Western Christianity. It understandably had less appeal for guys. For centuries in the West, men who chose the ministry have been stereotyped as effeminate. A life-long Orthodox layman says that, from the outside, Western Christianity strikes him as "a love story written for women by women."

The Eastern Church escaped Bridal Mysticism because the great split between East and West had already taken place. The men who wrote me expressed hearty dislike for what they perceive as a soft Western Jesus. "American Christianity in the last two hundred years has been feminized. It presents Jesus as a friend, a lover, someone who 'walks with me and talks with me.' This is fine rapturous imagery for women who need a social life. Or it depicts Jesus whipped, dead on the cross. Neither is the type of Christ the typical male wants much to do with."

During worship, "men don't want to pray in the Western fashion with hands clasped, lips pressed together, and a facial expression of forced serenity." "It's guys holding hands with other guys and singing campfire songs." "Lines about 'reaching out for His embrace,' 'wanting to touch His face,' while being 'overwhelmed by the power of His love'—those are difficult songs for one man to sing to another Man."

"A friend of mine told me that the first thing he does when he walks into a church is to look at the curtains. That tells him who is making the decisions in that church, and the type of Christian they want to attract."

"Guys either want to be challenged to fight for a glorious and honorable cause, and get filthy dirty in the process, or to loaf in our recliners with plenty of beer, pizza, and football. But most churches want us to behave like orderly gentlemen, keeping our hands and mouths nice and clean."

One man said that worship at his Pentecostal church had been "largely an emotional experience. Feelings. Tears. Repeated rededication of one's life to Christ, in large emotional group settings. Singing emotional songs, swaying hands aloft. Even Scripture reading was supposed to produce an emotional experience. I am basically a do-er, I want to do things, and not talk about or emote my way through them! As a business person I knew that nothing in business comes without effort, energy, and investment. Why would the spiritual life be any different?"

Another, who visited Catholic churches, says, "They were conventional, easy, and modern, when my wife and I were looking for something traditional, hard, and counter-cultural, something ancient and martial." A catechumen says that at his non-denominational church "[w]orship was shallow, haphazard, cobbled together from whatever was most current; sometimes we'd stand, sometimes we'd sit, without much rhyme or reason to it. I got to thinking about how a stronger grounding in tradition would help."

"It infuriated me on my last Ash Wednesday that the priest delivered a homily about how the real meaning of Lent is to learn to love ourselves more. It forced me to realize how completely sick I was of bourgeois, feel-good American Christianity."

A convert priest says that men are drawn to the dangerous element of Orthodoxy, which involves "the self-denial of a warrior, the terrifying risk of loving one's enemies, the unknown frontiers to which a commitment to humility might call us. Lose any of those dangerous qualities and we become the 'JoAnn Fabric Store' of churches: nice colors and a very subdued clientele."

"Men get pretty cynical when they sense someone's attempting to manipulate their emotions, especially when it's in the name of religion. They appreciate the objectivity of Orthodox worship. It's not aimed at prompting religious feelings but at performing an objective duty."

Yet there is something in Orthodoxy that offers "a deep masculine romance. Do you understand what I mean by that? Most romance in our age is pink, but this is a romance of swords and gallantry."

From a deacon: "Evangelical churches call men to be passive and nice (think 'Mr. Rogers'). Orthodox churches call men to be courageous and act (think 'Braveheart').

Jesus Christ. What draws men to Orthodoxy is not simply that it's challenging or mysterious. What draws them is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the center of everything the Church does or says.

In contrast to some other churches, "Orthodoxy offers a robust Jesus" (and even a robust Virgin Mary, for that matter, hailed in one hymn as "our Captain, Queen of War"). Several used the term "martial" or referred to Orthodoxy as the "Marine Corps" of Christianity. (The warfare is against self-destructive sin and the unseen spiritual powers, not other people, of course.)

One contrasted this "robust" quality with "the feminized pictures of Jesus I grew up with. I've never had a male friend who would not have expended serious effort to avoid meeting someone who looked like that." Though drawn to Jesus Christ as a teen, "I felt ashamed of this attraction, as if it were something a red-blooded American boy shouldn't take that seriously, almost akin to playing with dolls."

A priest writes: "Christ in Orthodoxy is a militant, butt-kicking Jesus who takes Hell captive. Orthodox Jesus came to cast fire on the earth. (Males can relate to butt-kicking and fire-casting.) In Holy Baptism we pray for the newly-enlisted warriors of Christ, male and female, that they may 'be kept ever warriors invincible.'"

After several years in Orthodoxy, one man found a service of Christmas carols in a Protestant church "shocking, even appalling." Compared to the Orthodox hymns of Christ's Nativity, "'the little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay' has almost nothing to do with the Eternal Logos entering inexorably, silently yet heroically, into the fabric of created reality."

Continuity. Many intellectually-inclined Orthodox converts began by reading Church history and the early Christian writers, and found it increasingly compelling. Eventually they faced the question of which of the two most ancient churches, the Roman Catholic or the Orthodox, makes the most convincing claim of being the original Church of the Apostles.

A lifelong Orthodox says that what men like is "stability: men find they can trust the Orthodox Church because of the consistent and continuous tradition of faith it has maintained over the centuries." A convert says, "The Orthodox Church offers what others do not: continuity with the first followers of Christ." This is continuity, not archeology; the early church still exists, and you can join it.

"What drew me was Christ's promises to the Church about the gates of hell not prevailing, and the Holy Spirit leading into all truth—and then seeing in Orthodoxy a unity of faith, worship, and doctrine with continuity throughout history."

Another word for continuity is "tradition." A catechumen writes that he had tried to learn everything necessary to interpret Scripture correctly, including ancient languages. "I expected to dig my way down to the foundation and confirm everything I'd been taught. Instead, the further down I went, the weaker everything seemed. I realized I had only acquired the ability to manipulate the Bible to say pretty much anything I wanted it to. The only alternative to cynicism was tradition. If the Bible was meant to say anything, it was meant to say it within a community, with a tradition to guide the reading. In Orthodoxy I found what I was looking for."

Men in Balance. A priest writes: "There are only two models for men: be 'manly' and strong, rude, crude, macho, and probably abusive; or be sensitive, kind, repressed and wimpy. But in Orthodoxy, masculine is held together with feminine; it's real and down to earth, 'neither male nor female,' but Christ who 'unites things in heaven and things on earth.'"

Another priest comments that, if one spouse is originally more insistent about the family converting to Orthodoxy than the other, "when both spouses are making confessions, over time they both become deepened and neither one is as dominant in the spiritual relationship."

Men in Leadership. Like it or not, men simply prefer to be led by men. In Orthodoxy, lay women do everything lay men do, including preach, teach, and chair the parish council. But behind the iconostasis, around the altar, it's all guys. One respondent summarized what men like in Orthodoxy this way: "Beards!"

"It's the last place in the world men aren't told they're evil simply for being men." Instead of negativity, they are constantly surrounded by positive role models in the saints, in icons and in the daily round of hymns and stories about saints' lives. This is another concrete element that men appreciate—there are other real human beings to look to, rather than a blur of ethereal terms. "The glory of God is a man fully alive," said St. Irenaeus. One writer adds that "The best way to attract a man to the Orthodox Church is to show him an Orthodox man."

But no secondary thing, no matter how good, can supplant first place. "A dangerous life is not the goal. Christ is the goal. A free spirit is not the goal. Christ is the goal. He is the towering figure of history around whom all men and women will eventually gather, to whom every knee will bow, and whom every tongue will confess."

Source: http://www.beliefnet.com/faiths/christianity/orthodox/2007/09/why-orthodox-men-love-church.aspx

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