The Catalog of Good Deeds

On 11 December Russian Orthodox Church commemorates Holy Hieromartyr Seraphim (Chichagov) of Petrograd. To honor his memory, we offer you an excerpt from Fr. Yves Dubois’ sermon on this not very known, but yet great saint, originally published on Ancient Faith Radio.

Leonid Chichagov born in 1856 and martyred in 1937 was born 25 years after the death of St. Seraphim of Sarov who was the most important influence on his life.

The orphan son of a builder, St. Seraphim of Sarov was raised by an energetic and warmhearted mother who took on and looked after many orphan girls. This motherly care of orphan girls was to be the model for St. Seraphim’s dealings with the convent he guided from a distance for much of his life. From his childhood till his death St. Seraphim was the beloved of the Mother of God who appear to him 12 times and healed him several times. For many years he lived by himself in a tiny hermitage in the deep forest. For 1000 days and nights he prayed kneeling on a stone. He saw almost no one. If people came he would hide in the tall grass. Almost beaten to death by thieves, he made sure they were pardoned. This most humble and sober saint was unusually aware of the closeness of Paradise. In his old age he was seen transfigured like Christ on Mount Thabor shining with a light brighter than the sun. He has left important teachings saying that the goal of human life is to acquire the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is received in exchange for good deeds done for the love of Christ. Prayer and kind actions are the means by which we make it possible for the Holy Spirit to come and abide in us. St. Seraphim is a sure guide in Orthodoxy, and many of his disciples, all of them women, have been glorified as saints by the Orthodox Church. I shall come back later to the role of St Seraphim in the life of Leonid Chichagov.

The second influence on him was St. John of Kronstadt, his confessor for 30 years. Together with St. Seraphim, St. John of Kronstadt is known as one of the two greatest pillars of Orthodox holiness in the last two centuries.

A married parish priest in the military harbour of St. Petersburg, St. John of Kronstadt healed thousands of people by his prayers, converted vast numbers of lapsed Christians and warned his country about the imminent catastrophe and long period of terror. God worked mightily through the faith and prayer of St. John of Kronstadt because his soul was nourished daily by the Bible and the Divine Liturgy. He said he had to celebrate the Liturgy every single day, otherwise he would not be able to breathe, he would choke to death. St. John of Kronstadt is one of the most powerful

examples of Christian life we can meet.

The third saint who was close to Leonid Chichagov was Patriarch Tikhon who had been Orthodox Archbishop of New York before he guided the Russian Church during the first eight years of Communist persecution. While in America he asked Isabel Hapgood to translate the main services of our church into English and her book is still in use. At is Cathedral in New York, he served in English every other week. He is the pioneer of English language Orthodoxy. Wise, gentle and firm, he defeated the Soviet government’s attempt to set up a pseudo-church: the people remained faithful to the Patriarch whom they trusted.

The fourth saint who was close to both Patriarch Tikhon and Leonid Chichagov, Ilarion Troitsky, Abbot then Archbishop, was a brilliant young theologian and a powerful orator who convinced the Council of 1917 to elect Patriarch Tikhon. His teaching was that Orthodoxy is a community held together by the Holy Spirit, not just a set of notions about God. What matters for the Christian life is the fullness of the Church’s life, a real community of love. The Christian life cannot be fully contained in books but only in a living community. St. Ilarion Troitsky was martyred in 1929 at the age of 42 in Leningrad. Leonid Chichagov organised a magnificent funeral for him.

Four great saints surrounded Leonid Chichagov. Let us now look at his own life which started brilliantly: a happy marriage and a successful career in the Army. At 34 he was already a colonel. He had taken part in a battle and had seen the appalling lack of appropriate medical care for the wounded on the battlefield. He took some courses in medicine and wrote two books on what should be provided medically on battlefields. Those books are still in print. At 34 he left the Army, trained for the priesthood and was ordained three years later. Steadily for nearly half a century, from the day he became a priest, he began to share Christ’s descent into tragedy, rejection, suffering and death for the redemption of the world. His first task as a priest was to rebuild a ruined church with no congregation and no money.

Nine months later the church was built and had a congregation, but his wife was ill and soon died. At the age of 40 he became a monk. From that time he was no longer known as Leonid but as Seraphim Chichagov after the saint of Sarov. He became a historian, sifted fax from legends about St. Seraphim and wrote two volumes about him which reveal the nature of Orthodox holiness. He rebuilt monasteries, renovated their communities and many monks were jealous of him. He was made a Bishop not long before the Russian Revolution and had difficulties with anti-Church people in the civil service. Then the revolution came. He was jailed for two years. Released, the Patriarch appointed him as Metropolitan of Leningrad. His health declined. He witnessed the barbaric bloodbath which engulfed Russia under Stalin. He saw churches desecrated and destroyed, often by people who had previously worked for the Orthodox Church.

The enemy, the persecutors, were former Orthodox Christians turned atheists. He did not know during his earthly life that the persecution would ever end, and yet the certainty of his faith and the vigour of his prayer were never damaged. Ill and worn out at 75 he retired and went to live in the small house assigned to the Metropolitan Sergius who was head of the Russian Church at that time. Every humiliation was inflicted on the old bishops. At 81, bedridden and gravely ill he was dragged to prison, given a summary trial then shot at Butovo in the south of Moscow, where the Soviet authorities had 500 people shot daily for 30 years. At the time of his martyrdom, since Seraphim Chichagov did not know that less than 60 years later the churches would be rebuilt and that the place of his execution will be marked by a huge church in honour of all the New Martyrs.

Saint Seraphim Chichagov and all the New Martyrs of the Orthodox Church, pray to God for us. Amen.

By Fr. Yves Dubois

Source: http://www.pravmir.com/holy-martyr-seraphim-chichagov-colonel-doctor-bishop-martyr/

The first to be healed was my wife (at that time she was not yet my wife). It happened thus: Gallia Alexandrovna, with her mother, Vera Dionysiyevna, came to live in our DP camp, Purshen, near Mulldorf (80 km from Munich) in the spring of 1949. She was a healthy, young, energetic woman, but in the middle of the summer she fell ill, severe pains began and she had to enter the DP hospital. There the causes of her sickness could not be discovered and so she was treated by guesswork; basically she was given pain killers. The sickness, however, continued to develop, the pains kept growing more severe, and her body quickly weakened.

Within a month and a half, upon our demand, she was transferred to a German hospital in the small city of Mulldorf, not far from the camp hospital. The doctors there could not establish the cause of her sickness either; according to all the symptoms, the cause was gallstones, but repeated X-ray tests did not confirm this.

September ended and G.A. had become a skin-covered skeleton (exactly as in Turgenev's Living Relics). At the beginning of October she could not even sit up, let alone walk; the nurses (Catholic nuns) had to feed her with a spoon. During the last weeks her temperature was very high. It was impossible to perform an operation because of the complete weakening of her body and her high temperature. The German doctors (perhaps to "wash their hands") decided to send her to the DP hospital in Munich. We knew that she would not be able to endure the trip, and it was doubtful that she would make it there alive.

At that time, the feast of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos was approaching our camp's patronal feast. A visitation by the miraculous Hodigitria icon (icon of Kursk) was expected, accompanied by the First Hierarch Metropolitan Anastassy, Fr. George Grabbe and a protodeacon. I was a member of the parish council and was entrusted with the duty of meeting the icon, Vladyka and the clergy upon their arrival in the city of Mulldorf (they were traveling by automobile), and accompanying them to the guest house, previously prepared.

On the eve of the feast I left the camp for town early, intending to make one more check on the readiness of the suite in the guest house, and to visit the patient. By 10 a.m., having completed my business, I came to G.A. I told her of the preparations for the feast, of how the wonder-working icon and Vladyka Anastassy were coming, and how I would go at two in the afternoon to the agreed place and meet them there. Because of her weakness she could barely speak. She lay there with her eyes closed. At times I even thought that she did not hear everything that I was saying. Then suddenly she opened her eyes, somehow looked at me very attentively, and we said at the same time, "What if the icon could be brought here!" (to the hospital). I said, naturally, that I would ask Vladyka about this, but I myself deeply doubted the possibility, for shortly after their arrival the icon and clergy were to depart for the camp. There was time for only a brief rest after the long trip.

At twelve o'clock I left the hospital. I had still two hours until the arrival of the icon, but somehow I automatically went quietly to the meeting-place. Suddenly, when I had not even gone three blocks, someone called me, and I saw Father George who was waving to me from the automobile. I ran to them, received a blessing, and shortly we were already in the guest-house. Two feelings crowded inside of me: first, how good it was that I had come early and met the visitors on time, and secondly, that they had arrived two hours earlier than scheduled, meaning that there was hope of serving a moleben at the sick woman's bedside

As soon as the guests were accommodated in the guest-house, I expressed my request to Fr. George, and he passed it on to Vladyka. Vladyka immediately gave a blessing to Fr. George and the protodeacon, and we at once drove to the hospital.

At first G.A. greeted the icon with only a joyful, clear gaze. The moleben began and the sick woman crossed herself several times. Then again. When Fr. George blessed her with the icon, she raised herself from the bed without any help, and on her knees venerated the icon, and this at a time when, for ten days already, she had not only been unable to lift her head from her pillow, but also the nurses had been wiping perspiration from her face — she had been so weak.

After the moleben Fr. George encouraged her with a good word, and having said good-bye, we left. The next day, the feast of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos, after the liturgy and festal dinner, I went to the hospital. The nurses told me that the sick woman had slept well the whole night, her temperature was normal, and that she felt much better. When I entered the room I was amazed by the significant change in G.A.'s condition. She looked decidedly better than she did the day before, and conversed with me freely. Due to the late hour I stayed for a very short time and went home. The next day, Saturday, the hospital's main doctor, Dr. Loucks, confirmed the significant improvement in the patient's condition and, having canceled her transfer to Munich, scheduled an operation for the following Monday.

During the operation it was discovered that the gallbladder was so filled with stones that it was beginning to rupture. In view of this condition the journey to Munich might well have ended fatally.

In this whole story it is especially miraculous that: 1) the crisis came just when the icon was scheduled to arrive at our camp; 2) in spite of the previously established time of arrival, Vladyka Anastassy arrived with the icon two hours early, which gave us an opportunity to visit the patient; 3) without any particular reason I went to the meeting-place two hours earlier than scheduled and, fortunately, met the visitors; 4) G.A.'s sick body, without any physical reasons, battled the fever and strengthened significantly at first so much that, although she had already lain immobile for a long time, she was able to rise up on her knees and venerate the icon, and then, within three days, she gained so much strength that she was able to endure a long and difficult operation. But at the time of the visit of the icon the stones were still present. She ate nothing after the moleben, and, as a result of complete weakening, she had no internal "reserves." Of course, only the inexplicable power of God, through the intercession of the Holy Virgin, could have restored the sick woman's strength. 5) The experienced doctor believed in the reality of such an improvement and decided to perform the operation — of course, only by inspiration from above. All this, by the mercy of God and the miraculous help of our Sovereign Lady through her holy icon, led to a fortunate ending — the complete recovery of the sick woman. After the operation she recovered quickly; soon, she checked out of the hospital. In December, together with her mother, she left for Munich for the emigration committee, and in March of the next year, 1950, departed for the U.S.

In the beginning of 1950, when G.A. was before the emigration committee, I also was called before the same committee. At the preliminary medical checkup, spots were discovered on my lungs, and I was sent to the Gauting sanitarium for a detailed examination, and, if necessary, for treatment. I was very disappointed. I did not wish to remain in Germany, nor did I wish to take leave of G.A., as during the time of her illness we became close friends, and after her recovery we considered marriage after arriving in the U.S. G.A. often visited me in the sanitarium, which was located near Munich. Now we had switched roles, and here, not long before her departure for the U. S ., she brought me a prosphora and said that she had been in the Synodal church and asked that a moleben for my health be chanted before the miracle-working icon. During those days the final examination of my lungs began. Many X-rays and bacteriological examinations were made. As a result, the doctors came to the following conclusion: my lungs were normal and there were no obstacles to me entering the U.S.A. After an appropriate waiting period I left for the Funk armory — the emigration center in Munich — from where I departed for the U.S.A. in the month of August. Thus did our Most Holy Lady aid me.

Having met with G.A. in the U.S.A., we were married in the beginning of 1951. As at this time I was thirty-eight years old and G.A. thirty-five; we wanted very much to have children and considered that at our age it was not yet too late. On the other hand, the years were going by and we remained childless. More than three years had passed, and we had lost hope (I had even stopped paying for the "Blue Cross Maternity Plan"). In the autumn of 1954, on the feast day of our church, "The Joy of All That Sorrow." as was customary, the miracle-working icon came to us. Vladyka Anastassy and you, dear Vladyka, were with us then; at that time you recorded from my wife's words, the miracle which had occurred with her.

We did not arrange it, but, on our own (as much as our strength would allow), both of us prayed fervently before the holy image that we would be granted a child. Now the Most Holy Theotokos, having heard our prayers, granted us her favor a third time: in nine and a half months, in August of 1955, God gave us our daughter Marina. In spite of our age, all the illnesses we had undergone, and all the adversities of the terrible years past, the child was born completely healthy, and today, glory to God, is growing strong and healthy, and studies very well.

Glory to God! Glory to His Most Holy Mother — our Protectress! Glory to her honorable miracle-working icon!

By Sergei Shenuk

Source: http://www.kurskroot.com/miracles-series-of-miracles.html

By Fr. Andrew Lemeshonok

I’m a priest, right? A spiritual father, if you like. To be honest, I’m nobody. I know that but I also know that there is the devil who sneers at me gleefully, “Aha! You’re done!” I say, “No, I’ve only just begun. I want to change. I want to be different. I want to serve God.” I clearly feel during the ensuing battle that God is near. When I feel despondent and start wailing that everything is bad, everything is lost, I remain alone in the void, face to face with my sins.

I have to talk about my own experience, not about something that I’ve read in books. Our life is the only real book. Everyone has his own book and his own problems that he has to tackle. God is the one who resolves all problems.

All our problems have been solved already: Christ is risen, the door to the paradise is wide open. Sadly, we rely on this world and on the sin that dwells inside our hearts. We pretend to be soldiers but we don’t know how to fight. It isn’t because we aren’t educated enough. It’s because we are lazy, idle, and proud. What can you be proud of, honestly? But you are proud nonetheless. One can be a beggar and sit on a church porch with a stretched hand and judge everyone. Or one can drive a Mercedes Benz and not judge anyone. A criminal can find God in prison and be free. That same criminal can lose God once he gets out of jail and finds himself in a different setting. That’s abhorrent. When that guy was in prison, he prayed. It was marvellous. His eyes shone forth the light of faith. When he got released, worldly temptations tied him up and he lost his freedom…

The sin mutates so well! It attempts to attack us from all sides and under all kinds of masks, so we have to be alert and stay awake at all times. If we aren’t awake, if we lead a relaxed life, sin will deceive us and the devil will lead us into dead-ends. Our lack of trust in God and the laziness that leads us to wrong actions over and over again is the dead-end.

We can correct our errors because we are still here on earth. We can change our lives. We can repent. Repentance isn’t just a word. It’s life. Repentance means changing our lives. It’s proof that we will not sin any longer: “At least, I’ve made up my mind not to sin. I know I can’t do that on my own, so help me Lord!” If one is resolute in doing so, he won’t sin, of course. When an individual says, “Well, I’d like to quit smoking—all residents of our rehabilitation centre want to quit smoking—but I can’t, you know,” it’s self-deception. You’d better admit, “I don’t want to stop, at least for now.” It’s honest. People deceive themselves when they say they can’t. They can do everything. They can do everything if they really need it and if they ask for God’s help.

November 12, 2018

St. Elisabeth Convent

A Mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife opening a package. He wondered with great curiosity, “What food might this contain?” He was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap. Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning. “There is a mousetrap in the house; there is a mousetrap in the house!”

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said “Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it.”

The mouse turned to the pig and told him, “There is a mousetrap in the house!” The pig sympathized but said, “I am so very sorry Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured that you are in my prayers.”

The mouse turned to the cow. She said, “Wow, Mr. Mouse. I’m sorry for you. But it’s no skin off my nose.”

So the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer’s mousetrap alone. That very night a sound was heard throughout the house like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey. The farmer’s wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness she did not see that it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer’s wife.

The farmer rushed her to the hospital and she returned home with a fever. Now everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup’s main ingredient.

But his wife’s sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.

The farmer’s wife did not get well. She died and so many people came for her funeral the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.

And so it was that the mouse’s problem was in reality a problem for the others. Many times in history seemingly good people turned a blind eye to some evil going on around them, thinking “This doesn’t concern me!” They were left to find out later just how wrong they were. Some good folks watched as the Nazi’s began to lock-up Jews for no reason other than their ethnicity. Later, many of them faced the same atrocities and all of them faced a world war. In our world today, there are many similar issues that we hear about and it is easy to say, “That doesn’t concern me!”

The world is getting smaller and smaller as our technology grows. Atrocities in the Sudan, where certain tribes are being sold as slaves by militants of a different religion; atrocities in Southeast Asia, where children are being kidnaped and sold into prostitution; travelers are being killed to sell their organs on the black market…etc.…etc. Perhaps such things will come back to eventually impact us directly. If something bad or unjust is going on with someone else, it could easily happen to us and those we love.

This story of the mouse wasn’t about the whole world…just a farm. So it is that we should also focus on our little piece of the world. It can be so very easy to simply focus on “ME” and my needs…my concerns. It is so very possible that the problems of others could easily impact us down the road. When one of our family members, our friends, our neighbors, or our co-workers is going through some difficult problems…instead of “This doesn’t concern me!” perhaps all of us should be thinking…”How can I help!” “Love your neighbor as yourself” takes on a whole different meaning when one considers what might happen when we don’t do that. “This doesn’t concern me!”… Well, it just might! As the old commercial said: “You can pay me now or you can pay me later!”

In case someone might be saying: ”Well just who is my neighbor?” It might be good for that person to read Luke 10 again. I say again because most everyone knows the story of the Good Samaritan. Someone asked Jesus that very question and He told him that story. A man was left for dead by thieves and two very respectable and religious people ignored his plight completely. Then the Samaritan (a group of people hated and despised by the Jews of Jesus’ day came. Here’s the end of that story:

^“And when he (the Samaritan) saw him, he had compassion. So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.’ So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?”

With love in Christ,

Fr. Stephen Powley

Source: https://upwordglance.com/2016/01/27/76/

“If we desire to be in good things after the death of this body, let us take every care that our soul does not become glued to the body, nor mingled with it, staggering around as if drunk with the passions of the body, trusting itself to bodily pleasures.”

Saint Ambrose of Milan

I sometimes picture the soul covering itself with velcro hooks, which are the passions, so that the soul tends to stick to stuff. In conversation or when walking down the street, we see or remember someone’s mean actions, or their shapely body, and ZIP our attention is stuck on that image or word. We walk around, even into church or daily prayers, our souls completely covered in velcro-stuck food, drugs, nice houses, sexy people, and imaginary arguments that we won.

It’s like showing up for a sprint race wearing a scuba mask, tanks and fins, plus a parachute and a hazmat suit over it all, our arms full of kettle-bells and bags of candy corn. “Let us lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race…” (Heb. 12:1).

In a few hours or decades you and I will step out of this body… how easily? I’m afraid of finding myself in that life, awaiting the future resurrection, with my soul starving for all the connections it has learned to crave. Where is my pizza? Where is the new Game of Thrones episode? Where is my sex-partner? Where is my Facebook? I have hungered and thirsted for these things, and for a while I was filled, but now I am only hungry and thirsty and nothing will ever fill me!

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for *they* shall be filled” (Mt 5:6).

It is easy enough to diagnose the human problem of compulsion and distraction with stuff; the Buddha figured out as much 2500 years ago.

But together with the diagnosis, the Church offers a prescription.

Our first response when we see how controlled, compelled, and obsessed we are with stuff is to try and reduce the amount of stuff. Cut down on TV and gadget time, quit drinking or using, move out of the girlfriend’s house… And these are good, maybe necessary things.

But the thing to note is that these are not only habits, but passions. That word comes from the same root that gives us pathology, psychopath, and pathetic — it means a suffering or infirmity. (That’s also why we call Christ’s suffering The Passion.) The passions are spiritual illnesses. And that is good news, because illnesses can be treated and even healed.

Along with changing our behavior, by our own willpower with God’s help — perhaps avoiding buffet restaurants or liquor stores, or biting our tongue when unhelpful words want to come out — we have the possibility of uprooting and healing these “sticky” places in our soul.

That healing therapy is twofold. First, on a moral level, we can’t simply fight our impulses and programmed behaviors by white-knuckled denial. We have to plant new behaviors with which to displace the old. If we are prone to judge and condemn, then we need to learn mercy by giving alms and serving others. If we are compelled to use alcohol and other drugs, then we need to write new scripts for our stress to follow: patterns of behavior that include meaningful conversation, forming non-dependent relationships, confession and absolution, and healthy ways to identify and calm stress before it takes the wheel. Others outside the Church know this: Twelve-step programs and counselors say the same thing.

What is unique in the Church is the healing of the soul, which begins to straighten the inward brokenness underlying our passions.

Remember your basic Orthodox Catechumen 101? At the very beginning, your priest probably introduced you to daily prayer, a rule of fasting, frequent confession and communion, reading scripture, almsgiving. These things are not regulations; nobody will deduct points from your score for failing to do them, and Christ will not judge you based on your merit badges. These things are therapy and discipline.

If you’ve got a broken ankle, you need more than ice bags: Your doctor will prescribe some exercises. If you don’t do the exercises, you won’t go to hell… but you won’t get well, either. If you want to walk then you’ll follow the therapeutic prescription.

If you’re a mediocre pianist or athlete or martial artist, and you ask an Olympic coach or master musician or sensei to help you, he may prescribe some specific ways of eating, times for sleeping, and a lot of inconvenient, repetitive exercises that cut into your TV and party schedule. These are called “disciplines” (and if you don’t have disciplines you aren’t a “disciple.”) The Olympic coach or sensei sees potential in you, and all his rules and corrections are there to form in you the image that he sees you can become.

We Orthodox often want to talk about theoria or miracles or why we are smart for having picked the Right Church. We are quick to post memes and quotes from the Fathers. And we have so many opinions about ecumenism, tollhouses, and canons.

Now if we could all just go back to Catechumen Basics 101, review the part about simple weekly fasting, daily prayers, almsgiving, guarding our lips and eyes… and do these things… then Orthodox Facebook might be a less septic environment; and more importantly we would begin to be healed.

Imagine, not only having fewer distractions for our shattered attention, fewer compulsions driving us into unthinking scripted behaviors — but beyond this, having a firsthand, personal, here-and-now experience of the mercy and peace of God that makes us less “sticky,” and more ready to cooperate with the action of God in us.

At Gethsemane, the Lord said, “The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me” (Jn 14:30). The tempter owned no territory in Him. There were no passions in Christ for a temptation to stick to.

That is what all our disciplines and canons are for. That’s the Olympian gold-medalist that the coach sees in us. The Church will continue pointing us all back to these basics – which are practiced daily by monks, nuns, and every Christian being perfected through faith — “till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man [completely-grown adult], to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”

Talk to your priest?

By Fr. Silouan Thompson

Source: http://silouanthompson.net/2018/10/sticky/

There is a remarkable story in the book Everyday Saints related to fasting. Russian monks came to the Caucasus during the Chechen War to hear confessions of the local Orthodox flock and to give them communion. The organizers of the trip decided to arrange a thank-you meal for the priests. They cooked a fabulous meal with smoking hot heaps of roasted lamb meat and other delicious dishes. When the monks learned about the “surprise”, they were shocked. First, monks don’t eat meat at all. Secondly, it happened during the Great Lent, or more precisely, during the stringent days of the Holy Week. What could they do? The author writes that the monks immediately realized that their refusal would be a horrendous insult for the hosts. So they ate meat and drank wine, and that meal was the most joyful feast of love in their lives.

This story is totally fine both spiritually and from the point of view of common sense. The physical side of fasting can be disregarded even by monks if adherence to it can hurt anybody’s feelings. There are quite a few cases like those in the lives of the saints. We also face similar situation in our lives. However, the principle of “not hurting” our neighbor is often misused. That’s what I would like to delve into.

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Sometimes I happen to hear that if a person is surrounded by people who don’t fast, he should give up fasting. The main argument in favor of this position is that you mustn’t make a show of your fasting. Indeed, our Lord teaches, “Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.” (Matthew 6:16-18)

The prohibition to show off your fasting does not by any means imply that you should be bashful of the physical side of the fast and observe it only when no one can see you. Jesus says that it is wrong to appear fasting but He does not call us to stop fasting arbitrarily every time we meet an unbeliever. “Not showing off” and “concealing” are two different things. You mustn’t show off but it’s also wrong to “masquerade” as someone who doesn’t fast. Otherwise, it will appear as if we are lying. It sounds like, In fact, I don’t eat meat during the fast but I’ll pretend that I do when I meet my non-Christian colleagues. Why? It’s unclear.

It is also unclear how we will hurt our neighbor if we eat Lenten foods or abstain from non-Lenten dishes. With the sole exception of the case when our refusal to eat something will actually offend a certain person, why can’t we simply say that we are Orthodox and that we fast together with the entire Church? If the person you deal with is a normal sane person, they will respect your decision. It is wrong to break church commandments, even if they apply to a less important side of fasting, i.e., physical abstinence.

The Lord lays out the same principle with regard to alms-giving and prayer. Sure, you mustn’t show off your charity and prayer. It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t make the sign of the cross when you pass by a church or that you shouldn’t give a coin to a beggar even if someone else can see you, does it? The Lord can see our intentions. Likewise, showing off and boasting about your fasting achievements is one thing, while obedience to the Church not only at home but also elsewhere is another thing. Naturally, we have to examine any given situation wisely in the spirit of Gospel-driven love.

***

The visibility and matter-of-factness of our fasting is our mission and apostolate in the today’s world. Many people regard mockery of the Church and Her rules as the norm nowadays. Our testimony of staying loyal to the regulations of the Church can be a living sermon and apology of Christianity. Of course, it is significantly less convenient than hiding the fact of our fasting from the unbelievers and pretending to be a person who does not fast. Perhaps, we choose the more convenient model because we are afraid of defending our faith and don’t know how to talk about it?

If we aren’t Christians in name only, then our choice of a Lenten meal might prompt a conversation about spiritual issues. Even if it doesn’t yield any tangible result, at least the person you talked with will know that their colleague believes in God and honors church fasts. If they have any questions related to the Church and spiritual living in the future, they will contact us again.

***

We often forget about the sin of people pleasing when we talk about fasting. However, the Scripture tells us that God hath scattered the bones of those who please people (Ps. 53:5), and, We ought to obey God rather than men. (Acts 5:29). Don’t we cross the red line that divides our desire to be at peace with our neighbor and the sin of pleasing people, if we choose “not to fast openly”?

“The desire to maintain friendly relations with our neighbors sometimes turns to us its ugly side, i.e., the sin of people pleasing. As a matter of fact, the issue isn’t about friendly ties and the like. The issue is our own halfheartedness and reliance on someone else’s opinion. It is during the Great Lent that this passion manifests itself most vividly,” Nun Eugenia (Senchukova) writes.

Interestingly enough, a Jew or a Muslim wouldn’t even care what other people think about his fasting. You won’t be able to talk an Orthodox Jew or a Muslim into breaking the fast that millions of his brothers observe at the moment. They will never think that their fasting can hurt anyone. Granted, we Christians have a slightly different attitude to the fast but even in the Gospel, there is not a hint at fasting privately and stopping the fast when we’re in a public place. Apostle James warns us, “[K]now ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” (James 4:4)

***

The proponents of giving up the fast to foreclose any discontentment of an unbelieving neighbor also put forth the danger of vainglory. There is an even trickier passion, though: being proud of not fasting. A publican who is proud that he isn’t a Pharisee… Have you thought about the danger of this kind of vainglory?

Generally, conceit and pride mingle with all virtues. St. John Climacus wrote, “Vainglory sticks to everything: I’m proud of myself when I fast but I am proud of my wisdom when I stop fasting to conceal my asceticism from other people; I am conquered by vanity when I wear fancy clothes but I am equally proud of myself when I wear bad clothes; when I open my mouth to talk, I am seized by pride, when I keep silent, I am proud, too. Whichever way you throw this trident, its sharp point will always look up.”

It doesn’t mean, however, that we should stop exercising our virtues. No, we should continue doing good but be extremely attentive to our inner disposition and repent of any symptoms of vainglory.

***

The Orthodox understanding of fast incorporates numerous components. For instance, it is meaningless to fast without prayer. Fasting is also void without alms-giving. It is no accident that the Sermon on the Mount lists three main Christian virtues: charity, prayer, and fast. They go hand in hand. Of course, we must remember the words of Prophet Isaiah, “Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord? Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?” (Is. 58:5-7). We’ve got to remember all that. However, an attempt to take physical fasting away from this scheme is like causing a wall to collapse by taking a cornerstone out of it.

Certainly, physical abstinence is merely a means to an end. It provides a background that facilitates the acquisition of spiritual virtues. And yet, this practice is essential for any kind of spiritual struggle. That is why the list of passions compiled by the Holy Fathers mentions physical transgressions, namely gluttony and fornication, first. How do we fight these passions if we don’t follow the fasting rules prescribed by the Church, albeit abridged for lay folks?

“There is no repentance without fasting,” St. John Chrysostom used to say. He meant the simplest form of fasting, that is, abstaining from food. If we continue to adapt our lifestyle to that of the unbelievers, what will remain of our fasts? Jesus Christ fasted when necessary. The apostles fasted after the Ascension, too. We won’t find any saint (apart from some martyrs) who didn’t observe Church fasts. Do we expect to get saved by using a different approach?

***

I’m easily triggered by all kinds of legalism and hypocrisy, and I’ve written a lot about these issues. Unfortunately, I feel obliged to defend the physical side of the fast in view of several articles I’ve read during the last couple of years, especially by Greek authors. It seems to me that we often go too far in our attempts to “not offend” our neighbors. I keep hearing the following words: “Don’t pretend that you’re ascetics. Remember that you’re not monks; eat everything that people offer you. Orthodoxy isn’t a food-centric religion. ‘The kingdom of God is not meat and drink’ (Romans 14:17). Don’t be like Pharisees,” etc.

Don’t even dare mention the issue of sexual abstinence during the Great Lent, for heaven’s sake! Ridiculing and sneering at people who observe fast is considered good manners even in Christian circles. “Look at that simpleton who doesn’t know that fast is mainly about not devouring people.” Some Orthodox websites openly preach that physical asceticism was invented by monks and isn’t grounded in the Gospel. Well, and of course, they talk volumes about love and stuff. You can’t argue with that because you find yourself on an uneven playing field: what are you, a legalist?

How far can we go in our desire to excuse ourselves for being lazy and pleasing our bodies? We turn our backs to the simplest pledge for God’s sake—physical abstinence—and work hard to make it a thing of the past. As Saint Anatoly of Optina pointed out, “Practice… tells us, Spill your blood and receive the Spirit. Our reason tries to find a workaround so as to get the Spirit without spilling blood.” He nailed it, didn’t he?

We should work to find the perfect balance, always remembering the rule Spill your blood and receive the Spirit. May the Lord help everyone who fasts to understand and follow the commandment expressed by the following simple words that we find in the Gospel, “These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.” (Matthew 23:23).

By Sergei Komarov

Translated by The Catalog of Good Deeds

Source: https://pravoslavie.fm/articles/postitsya-li-nahodyas-ryadom-s-neveruyushhimi/

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