A Hymn to the Theotokos

Thy wonders, O pure Theotokos, surpass the power of words. For in thee I see something beyond speech: a body that was never subject to the taint of sin. Therefore in thanksgiving I cry to thee: O pure Virgin, thou art truly high above all.—from the 9th Ode of the canon for the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos, translation is from The Festal Menaion, St. Tikhon’s Seminary Press

Book Review:

Introducing the Orthodox Church  

Its Faith and Life

Anthony M. Coniaris

This review is the result of my involvement with a number of inquirers to our Orthodox Church. The aforementioned book has been recommended for their reading and as Rev. Stanley S. Harakas notes in his introduction: “It is written to inspire as well as inform, a special charisma of the author”. Nevertheless I feel a responsibility to do some critiquing. In this review I want to speak about what is expressed in the Chapter: “What we believe about the Saints and the Theotokos”. In particular it is what is written concerning Theotokos that will be commented on.

While speaking of the Annunciation the author finds it necessary to differentiate between the Orthodox Church and belief of Roman Catholicism as follows:

The immaculate Conception of Mary is not recognized as a dogma (official teaching) by the Orthodox Church. According to this Roman Catholic dogma, Mary was cleansed of original sin by God while still in her mother’s womb in order that the All-Pure Son of God might be born through her. Since such a teaching denies the free response of man to God, the Orthodox Church believes that Mary was cleansed of all sin at the Annunciation after she had agreed to accept God’s offer. It was at that point that the Holy Spirit came upon her to make her fit to receive the Word in her womb. At that moment she became “blessed” and “full of grace”. (p. 132)

There are several flaws in the above that I would like to address, they are:

1. The concept of so-called, “original sin”, what is the Orthodox response?

2. The comment: “The Orthodox Church believes that Mary was cleansed of all sin at the Annunciation after she had agreed to accept God’s offer”.  Is this really what the Orthodox Church believes?

3. Again the comment, “At that moment”—that is, after the Theotokos submitted to the will of God—“she became ‘blessed’ and ‘full of grace’”.

“Original sin”—what is our Orthodox response to this?

“Original sin” is Roman Catholic terminology which the Orthodox in the English speaking world have sometimes borrowed.  It is best to stay away from this term but if it is used one should define it in an Orthodox manner; otherwise it could be misleading.  In using the term “original sin” the author did not inform his readers that the Orthodox and Roman Catholic concepts of “original sin” are quite different so let us do this.  In order to illustrate our proper response to the idea of “original sin” I would like to quote a book on the Theotokos, “O Full of Grace, Glory to Thee”.

The sin of our forefathers or first-parents – as “ancestral” is literally translated from the Greek – of course, had an effect upon all mankind. The Blessed Augustine, who set the pace for Roman Catholic doctrine on this subject, clung to the erroneous opinion that Adam’s personal guilt is inherited by all his descendants and therefore, so also is the responsibility and punishment for his sin. It was in reaction to an error on the other extreme, which came to be called Pelagianism, that he expressed this opinion in his preaching and writing. Pelagius was a British theologian who taught in Rome in the late 4th and early 5th centuries. Pelagianism reduced the effects of the fall by saying that the sin of Adam had no effect on his descendants, and the more extreme Pelagians denied any transmission of ancestral sin.

In both of these errors there is a confusion of person and nature in the human being. If while examining ancestral sin, we build the foundation of our theology on human nature alone, we shall have the Augustinian conclusion. This makes the human nature, which is common to all mankind, the bearer of Adam’s guilt and a co-participant in the responsibility for his sin. The Pelagians rightly teach that only the person effects sin and that each particular person shall be accountable for the guilt of his own sins. However, in overlooking human nature, and focusing solely upon person, they incorrectly conclude that the sin of Adam had no effect on the human nature in which all his descendants share.

So what is the Orthodox teaching on this subject? Namely, that we inherit the effect of the personal sin of Adam upon his human nature, a nature that is common to all of us. This results in a distortion of man’s being, since there is a certain hierarchy in man, in which the reasoning power of the soul should rule over the other powers, the desiring and incensive. However, with the fall, this hierarchy is turned upsidedown, and the reasoning power is enslaved to the other two powers of the soul; thus, the soul becomes a slave to the passions. This state is a state of separation from God and therefore a state of sin, a condition in which we are all born.  So it is this, along with the death of the body that we inherit from Adam. (pp. 74-75)

Now and then we do see an Augustinian concept of original sin in books on the Orthodox Faith.  One could question: How did this happen?  In responding I would like to tell a story of something that occurred when I was a novice at St. Tikhon’s Monastery.   I asked my spiritual father a question about some matter of faith and he told me to read a particular section in a book that was written in Greek and translated into English: “Orthodox Dogmatic Theology”.  He continued to say, “Read the whole book if you like.”  This book answered my question but in reading the whole I found it explained “ancestral” or “original” sin from an Augustinian standpoint.  This disturbed me and after speaking to the librarian I complained to my spiritual father about this he smiled, acknowledged the flaw in this book, and said he expected me to be able to make such distinctions.  Afterwards in speaking of this whole matter with an older monk he smiled and said:  “The problem is that because of the Turkish yoke and impoverished state of the Church of Greece many theologians in the earlier part of the 20^th century received higher education inWestern Europe.  And so, such ideas have crept into the Orthodox Church.”

Next to comment: “The Orthodox Church believes that Mary was cleansed of all sin at the Annunciation after she had agreed to accept God’s offer”.

Before responding to this erroneous statement I would like to say something about its roots.  Again it is the same as the aforementioned, “original sin”.  I know of a seminary professor who gave an opinion on how this idea has entered the Church as follows: “It is from Germany and Lutheranism.  Because of the lack of higher education in Greece as a result of the Turkish yoke many theologians of the Greek Church in the earlier half of the 20^th century were educated in Germany.”

In going on with critiquing the aforesaid comment we must combine with it the idea that the Theotokos became “blessed” and “full of grace” at the point when the Holy Spirit came upon her after her obedience to God at the time of the Annunciation.  The critique of these two comments must be addressed together since these are inseparably intertwined in the writings of the Holy Fathers.

Let us now continue.  To say that the Theotokos was cleansed of all sin at the Annunciation certainly implies she was guilty of personal sin and is a tangent from our Orthodox Faith. One flaw in this conclusion is that the author gave no support by any of the saints or reputable theologians of our Church.  This is an unhappy conclusion and is not in harmony with our Orthodox Faith!  On the contrary the holy fathers of our Orthodox Church teach that the Theotokos was free from personal sin.  So let us look at what of some of our saints say in reference to the spiritual state of the Theotokos at the time of the Annunciation and her sinlessness.

St. Gregory Palamas is the foremost who speaks of this.  In his homilies on the entry of the Theotokos into the temple (see Homily 53, Saint Gregory Palamas the Homilies, Mount Thabor Press).  He writes of the Virgin finding a new way to heaven, previous unknown, which is silence of mind and unceasing prayer to God.  He says that she reached such a spiritual height that she saw the glory of God greater than Moses.  And many other saints speak of the greatly exalted life she led in the Temple, instance, Sts. Jerome, George of Nicomedia and Theopylact of Bulgaria (see The Great Collection of the Lives of Saints compiled by St. Demetrius of Rostov, November 21^st , Chrysostom Press).    And so, we can be sure that by the time she left theTemple to live in the house of Joseph she was indeed blessed and had acquired much grace.

And concerning the spiritual state of the Theotokos at time of the Annunciation St. Gregory Palamas writes:

“And the Virgin’s name”, it says, “was Mary” (Luke 1:27), which means, “Lady”.  This shows the Virgin’s dignity, how certain was her virginity and set apart was her life, exact in every respect and completely blameless.  She properly bore the name of Virgin, and possessed to the full all the attributes of purity.  She was a virgin both in body and soul, and kept all the powers of her soul and bodily senses far above any defilement (emphasis mine). This she did authoritatively, steadfastly, decisively and altogether inviolably at all times, as a closed gate preserves the treasures within. (Saint Gregory Palamas the Homilies, p. 103)

And St. Gregory the Wonderworker of Neoceasarea writes of this:

The angel said to Mary the holy virgin first of all, “Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee;” inasmuch as with her was laid up the full treasure of grace. For of all generations she alone has risen as a virgin pure in body and in spirit; and she alone bears Him who bears all things on His word. Nor is it only the beauty of this holy one in body that calls forth our admiration, but also the innate virtue of her soul. Wherefore also the angels addressed her first with the salutation, “Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee, and no spouse of earth.

And she was perplexed by this word; for she was inexperienced in all the addresses of men, and welcomed quiet, as the mother of prudence and purity; (yet) being a pure, and immaculate, and stainless image herself (each emphasis is mine). (see First Homily on the Annunciation to the Holy Virgin Mary—Gregory Thaumaturgus, The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. VI, WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company)

Then St. Gregory continues in first quoting the archangel:

“The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also   that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” For what He is, that also shall He be called by all means.  Meekly, then, did grace make election of the pure Mary alone out of all generations. For she proved herself prudent truly in all things; neither has any woman been born like her in all generations. (ibid.)

Again in The Great Collection of the Lives of the Saints compiled St. Demetrius of Rostov there is a homily on the Annunciation (see March 25^th) speaks of the state of grace the Theotokos had already acquired at that time.  In the person of the Archangel Gabriel the homilist thus writes:

You have found favor with God on account of your innumerable virtues, of which three are chief.  Firstly, you have obtained grace because of your profound humility.  “God giveth grace to the humble” (Jas. Ch. 4; Prov. Ch. 3), and He asks, “Unto whom shall I look down, save upon the meek and the humble?” (Is.Ch.66)  Secondly you have obtained grace because of your virginal purity.  God, Who is supreme pure by nature, wishes to be born of an immaculate virgin.  Thirdly, you have obtained grace because of your flaming love for God.  The Lord says, “I love them that love Me, and those that seek me find grace” (Prov. Ch.8).

A little later the homilist comments on Mary’s question, “How shall this be seeing I know not a man?”

So saying the immaculate Virgin did not express disbelief in the angel’s words, for by the grace of God, with which she was filled [emphasis mine], she knew she would bear the One heralded.  The Lord Himself had revealed this to her while she was still in the Temple.

And one widely revered contemporary Greek theologian, Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos, affirms that the Theotokos reached a state of deification during her life in the temple.  And she was brought to a yet even higher state after the Annunciation (see The Feasts of the Lord, Chapter 1, The Annunciation).  Another contemporary patristics scholar and professor has commented: “As I recall, some fathers do speak of a cleansing of the Theotokos at the Annunciation, but this is understood in terms of her receiving an addition of grace.  So not a cleansing of sin as such, but an increase of perfection—perfection is a dynamic state, not a static one”.

So then, is it proper for an Orthodox Christian to say that the Theotokos was cleansed of all sin at the time of the Annunciation and full of grace* only after her submission to God’s offer?  Of course not, for she abounded with grace through her ascetic life in the Temple, and was sinless as our Church teaches.  And this latter was confirmed directly by the Holy Spirit in a revelation He had given to St. Silouan the Athonite as he thus testifies:

In church I was listening to a reading from the Prophet Isaiah, and at the words, “ Wash you, make you clean,” I reflected, “Maybe the Mother of God sinned at one time or another, if only in thought.”  And marvelous to relate, in unison with my prayer a voice sounded in my heart, saying clearly, “The Mother of God never sinned even in thought.”  Thus did the Holy Spirit bear witness in my heart to her purity. (St.Silouan the Athonite, St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, pp. 391-2)

May our Lord Jesus Christ grant His grace to those who honor His mother in an Orthodox manner.  Amen.

*It should also be taken into consideration that the Greek word which is translated into English as either “highly favored” or “full of grace” is a past participle.

A Hymn to the Theotokos

The following is the Theotokion of the Aposticha at Small Vespers of the Resurrection in the 1^st Tone:

The prophet called thee the Cloud of the ever-existing Light; for the Word of the Father descended upon thee as rain upon the fleece [cf. Ps. 71:6].  And dawning from thee, Christ our God, enlightened the world and abolished delusion.  We pray thee, fervently pray to Him unceasingly for us who proclaim thee to be truly the Birth-giver of God.

Community and Friendship in an Orthodox Sense

This again is something of a follow up of the first two posts in which there were articles on “Concerning converts entering the Church” and “Integrating Converts into the Church”.  Today is Lazarus Saturday and since it is at this time or Holy Saturday that we often see many receptions into the Church it seems to be a good time to continue to reflect on this issue.  So then, we are going to first speak about the Church as a community and then about true friendship in Christ.  These topics will inevitably arise in the consideration of the subject heading of converts.  The reason being is that we do happen see those who come to the Church looking for a community, or looking for a social life and friendships or looking for some type of humanitarian social activity in which they can offer of themselves.  Although these things are good in themselves yet they are not the right reason for coming to Orthodoxy and they will not bind one to the Church.  We come to the Orthodox Church for the healing and salvation of our soul, and because it embodies the fullness of truth.

Part I: The Church as Community

It is a very natural thing for man to desire to be a part of a family or community. As a result of his knowledge of the love of God which was taught directly by the Holy Spirit St. Silouan the Athonite understood man to be a community of being.  And St. Basil the Great says that man by nature is a creature meant to live in community and not alone.  For an Orthodox Christian the family or community to which we belong to is the Church, which is the body of Christ. which is made up of the faithful who are alive and struggling in this world and also the saints who have triumphed in this world and have become our intercessors in the heavenly kingdom. But what is meant by the Church being a community and the body of Christ, and that we are members of one another? And how in a living way can we integrate ourselves into God’s family, His community?

Once Bishop Basil Rozdianko was asked to speak at St. Tikhon’s Seminary on the subject of Russian spirituality. In expounding the Orthodox response to the concept of spirituality he also explained how the Church functions as a community as follows:

What is the Orthodox tradition on the subject of “spirituality?” In order to find the answer we should go to the saints. To do this I have chosen one of the very first saints and one of the very last ones: St. Clement of Rome of the second century and what he writes in his famous epistle to the Corinthians and St. Theophan the Recluse. There is a term which was used by St. Clement and which probably will be the real term for us, the Orthodox today, as it was at that time in the beginning. It is in Greek sumponia which is a combination of two words: sum, which means together, like we say co, coexistent and the other comes from the word pneuma which means spirit. It. is interesting that that term was used in the ancient Greek world by the medical profession in speaking about the breathing together of the body which gives life and is the source of life for an organism, because the word pneuma means not only spirit but also air and breathing. And St. Clement took that medical word and said for us Christians this is precisely what we are and should be, that is, we have to breath the same Spirit together and this actually brings us into complete unity and the way to salvation, But this means that this is always together, in togetherness; not everyone individually, not everyone in his own way only, not according to his own understanding or teaching or interpretation of the scriptures, No! In togetherness!

Now St. Theophan explains it and speaks about it in a very profound way which is very easily understandable today and that is he says when you want to achieve salvation and when you go on your way to salvation do not try to have something in separation from the others or in separation from other methods, Do not think that you can be saved only by good deeds or only by faith or only by this or that way of life, No! take everything together and everyone together so that you are really a part of the Church—the Church’s teaching.  This means not only what you read in the Scriptures or what you hear from sermons or some catechism or anything like that but the whole life of the Church must be taken together so that you are not only learning and studying but also living, experiencing, going to services and doing everything that the Church does. Try not to be outside of the Church at all and then you will attain salvation. In the Church and through the Church and through that unity, through that common breathing of the one Spirit of God.

And here comes another Greek term which, of course is well known and that goes together very well with this one and that is catholiki, The Catholic Church, Catholos comes from a Platonic term used in his philosophy and the idea of it is that everything is in accordance with the whole. Holos is the same root as whole, cata is according, in other words everyone is not on his own or her own, not in separation from the whole but according to the whole. And this was used for the first time also by a very early saint, that was St. Ignatius of Antioch who for the first, time applied that to the Church: Catholiki Ekklesia. So if we put together these two saints and these two terms we will see the idea: Together breathing the same Spirit of God according to the whole body of Christ.  And that is the way to salvation and that is the true and genuine spirituality in a real and proper sense. This is the Orthodox tradition on how to live in the spirit of God.

So then, as members of the Church our calling is to “breath the same Spirit of God together according to the whole body of Christ”.  The Holy Apostle Paul writes of this, for instance, he says, “For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:  So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another” (Rom.12:4-5).  And again: “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.  For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.

For the body is not one member, but many.  But now are they many members, yet but one body” (ICor. 12: 12-4,20).

Therefore we must, with one accord, breathe the one Spirit of God into Whom we were baptized.  We must keep before our minds the concept that we are one body in Christ and so realize the ascetic precept and cliché: our brother is our life.  And we must “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 1:3)—for this is to be in accordance with the whole body of Christ—the Church.  May our Lord Jesus Christ,  grant us this, that we may thus have “our hearts knit together in love” (Col. 2:2).  And so, in this way, His prayer to the Father at the Mystical Supper for us all to be one, shall find its fulfillment in us.  Amen.

Part II: True Friendship in Christ

In writing on this subject I believe it is best to turn to a sermon on friendship which is based on the Conferences of St. John Cassian.  It is Conference XVI, The first conference with Abba Joseph, that is being referenced.  His writings are found in the Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers Series II Volume XI, published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan.  This sermon is on the Gospel and Epistle readings of the 8^th Sunday after Pentecost—Matthew 14:14-22 and I Corinthians 1:10-17.

Beloved of God, with the epistle reading of today in mind, I would like to speak a little about the topic of friendship or maybe I should say the various ways in which people can be united to one another.  And to do this I would like to refer to the writings of one of our early fathers, St. John Cassian, and his conferences with the early Egyptian desert fathers.  So one of the fathers he visited spoke of friendship in the following manner:

There are many kinds of friendship and companionship which unite men in very different ways in the bonds of love.  First there is one kind of love, where the union is from the instincts and laws of nature, by which those of the same ethnic background, or blood relations are naturally preferred to others, a thing which we find is the case not only with mankind but also with animals.  Sometimes some bargain or an agreement to give and take something has joined men in the bonds of love. With others a similarity and union of business or science or art or study has united them in friendship.  These are some of the positive causes by which men enter into bonds of friendship.  However, it is sad to say that there are even negative and sinful causes which unite men in friendship by which even fierce souls become kindly disposed towards one another, so that thieves or murders or drunkards embrace and cherish the partners of their crimes or sin.—freely quoted

There are a few other things along these lines that we often see in the Church which ruins many souls and is hard to detect, first is a common dislike for a third party and secondly sectarianism.  For we sometimes see clans develop who either group themselves under a spiritual figure, or are zealous for a particular cause, and are at variance with others in the Church. We usually find that such are highly critical of those who are outside their group.  So these are errors we especially need to watch out for and this leads us to the scripture readings of the day

In the epistle we heard the Apostle Paul express a desire for the unity of the Christians in Corinth by saying, “ Now I beseech you brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you, but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.”  So the Apostle wants them to be united according to Christ, to be untied by being of one mind in Christ.  And in the gospel we see that there were crowds who in their zeal for God were following our Lord Jesus Christ in order to learn from Him about thekingdomofGodand how to live a righteous life.  This united then in the bonds of friendship. They were so drawn to Christ that they did not care about their need for food.

But on the other hand, in many places in the gospel, we see something quite contrary, we see the Jewish leaders united in another way—they were united in friendship by a common rejection of our Lord and hatred for Him.  So again this is the type of friendship we must avoid and rather seek to live in Christ and we shall be united in Him and we will then naturally join ourselves in companionship with those who are doing likewise.  So let us again turn to this father quoted earlier, St. John Cassian, and see what he says about true friendship in Christ.  So he writes:

Among all the kinds of love which unite men there is one that is indissoluble, where the union is owing not to the some favor, or some great kindness or gifts, or the reason of some bargain, or the necessities of nature by being of the same race or family, but simply by the similarity of virtue. This, I say, is what is broken by no chances, what no interval of time or space can sever or destroy, and what even death itself cannot part. This true and unbroken love which grows by means of the common seeking of perfection in Christ cannot be broken by any difference of liking or which no opposition of wishes can sever.  For such are joined together in companionship out of their love for Christ and zeal for keeping His commandments. 

However,St. Johngoes on to mention that among them who have had such a friendship in Christ there are those who could not maintain it continually and unbroken.  So he continues to instruct us how to keep friendship in Christ unbroken by saying: “If you also wish to keep this unbroken, you must be careful to first get rid of your faults, and you must mortify your own will and desires; for it is such things that will cause disturbance within us and then in our relationships with others”.   Then he concludes by insisting that love can only continue undisturbed in those in whom there is but one purpose of overcoming one’s faults through keeping the Gospel commandments and who have one mind in following our Lord Jesus Christ.

So let us follow our Lord Jesus Christ by keeping His life-giving commandments which will heal our souls of sin.  This is a great miracle: for our souls to be healed of the disease of sin.  Let us strive for this together, as the crowds who followed Christ, let us struggle against sin within us, let us support each other in what is good, let us be ready to empty ourselves for each other, let us avoid being a stumbling block to others, and so be united with one mind in Christ  And as the Apostle says let us be of one mind and so hope for the unity that we pray for in the Divine Liturgy:  Grant that with one mouth and one heart we may praise Thine all honorable and majestic Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, both now and ever and unto the ages of ages.  Amen.

In the original post the Dogmatic of the first tone at Great Vespers was placed on the about page.  I am hoping to continue along these lines of honoring the Mother of God and to begin every post with a hymn to our most pure Lady the Birth-giver of God.  The hymns of our Church for the Theotokos are not only songs of praise to her but they often also express the Christology of the Church.  It is first the Sunday cycle that I would like to delve into and look at the Dogmatics and Apostika  Theotokions at both Great and Small Vespers. So then, what follows is the Dogmatic of Small Vespers in Tone One:

Today, O Brethren, let us keep the feast of Virginity!  Let creation leap for joy, and let the nature of man exult; for the holy Birth-giver of God has called us together.  She is the undefiled treasury of Virginity, the noetic paradise of the second Adam, the storehouse of the unity of the two natures; the saving triumph of reconciliation, the chamber in which the Word was truly espoused to flesh.  She is the light cloud, within her body she carried Him Who exists over the Cherubim: through her prayers, O Christ God save our souls.

Integrating Converts into the Church

This is something of a follow up of the article in the first post “Concerning converts entering the Church”.   It is certain that many of us have had the sad experience of knowing someone who has been received into the Church yet has turned elsewhere.  This is quite a distressing thing for we know that the Orthodox Church is the Church; and it is the “Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth”(ITim. 3:15).  And there are not many valid Churches but one, as the apostle Paul indicates in writing to the Ephesians: “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith” (Eph. 4:4-5).  Therefore to leave the Church is to be an apostate against the truth.  So then, one can’t help but thinking: Why does this occur?   They have turned from the fullness of the truth, so then, what was lacking in their said conversion?   Did they really ever convert?

We could speculate and come up with a number of reasons as to why, but rather than do this let us consider how each of us—and not only converts—are integrated into the Church.  How can we be bound to the Church?  We should desire to be indissolubly bound to the Church.  How is this possible?

So let us consider the question: When someone comes to the Church what is it that they have come to?   The Holy Apostle Paul writes to the Hebrews:

“Ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect” (Heb. 12:22-3).

So to where have we all come?  To Mount Zion.  Mount Zion is a hill in Jerusalem and is often figuratively used for the Church.   The Church is not only a structure here on earth but it is the city of the living God, the Heavenly Jerusalem where there is an innumerable company of angels, the general assembly of the firstborn, which are written in heaven and the spirits of just men made perfect—all this indicates the Church triumphant in heaven.  And I would like to add here a few words about the term: “general assembly”.  Unfortunately it is lacking in conveying the original Greek.  It is more accurate it express it as “a public festal assembly” (see www.e-sword.net, Thayer Greek Dictionary).  The Greek word is panegurei and in Church usage it is the tern employed for an all-night vigil.

Now back to the main subject.  The Apostle Paul also calls the Church the household of God.  As he writes in to the Ephesians: and specifically to the Gentile converts:

Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. (Eph. 3:19-22)

So when one comes to the Church one becomes a fellow citizen of the household of  God—the heavenly Jerusalem—with all the saints built upon the foundation of the prophets and apostles.  God has given us a potential place in His kingdom together with them.  This is potential because we need to make some effort for this to be realized.  And so, it is to this family of the saints of God into which we need to become integrated.  In reference to the Church Triumphant as our family St John of Kronstadt writes: “The holy angels and God’s saints are our best, kindest and truest brothers and friends, so often helping us in various circumstances in which no human being can help us”.  And he says of us Orthodox Christians, “After God there is no one more reverenced by them than His Most Pure Mother” (My Life in Christ, p. 398).

To speak about all this is comforting but we should put it into practice and how to do this should be obvious.  But let me quote a monk of Iveron Monastery on the Holy Mountain who once spoke about this in a very simple, pleasant way when he spoke of a healthy self esteem:

I think we can have self-esteem when we sense that God, and Christ, and all the saints; that they love us and we sense this love of theirs and comfort and consolation.  And that we are able to establish this communication or link with Christ and all the saints and basically we look to them for comfort and consolation.  So if a person has faith and trust in Christ and the Mother of God and all the saints, in a sense that person lives in another world, the world of the Church.  Such a person exists in unison with the icons or the relics or the services.   Like the services of Christ and the Mother of God and all the different saints and the reading of the lives of the saints and their writings. So in this way, in this sense, one actually has some contact or communication with them.  And so. The Church is the place where we can transcend the barriers of time and space.  This is what our services and icons and literature means for us:  We can have this contact with people who lived in another time and place, that is, Christ, the Mother of God and all the saints.

And this is how we become integrated into the Church and become indissolubly bound to the Church which is the body of believers and the body of Christ.

The Struggle of Prayer

Great Lent is a time of increased Church services and to remain attentive in prayer whether at Church or at home is a difficult struggle.  One struggle while praying is that the mind is often captivated by thoughts of things that have occurred during the passing day.  Therefore we shall pass on some words about this struggle from contemporary Athonite elders.

The Elder Parthenius of the Monastery of St. Paul:

It is a very difficult thing once a recollection has come in that is why the Lord has said, “Enter into your closet and shut the door”—leave everything.  But once you start having recollections it is very difficult.  And when we are in that state we can only again call upon the Lord to deliver us once more to deliver us again because with God nothing is impossible.  Deliverance comes of itself by God’s power, we do not know how.  It is something very mysterious.  If we have much love for the Lord we can cast these things from us and then we can be completely delivered.

We must also take into account the activity of the devil.  Someone once inquired how does one pray?  And it was revealed to him: He saw a monk on a Cross and demons were around him throwing spears at him and he just endured.  He bore this, but imagine what all that means, all the thoughts and whatever else was there.  Sometimes we have not only innocent recollections but also thoughts such as revenge and wickedness.  How does this board on and compromise your prayer?  You must ask the Lord for good thoughts in prayer.

A monk of the Monastery of St. Gregory

A young father of this monastery was told by his Elder: If, at the end of the day, one has a lot of thoughts and is taken captive, then all you can do is continue praying until Jesus will give you help.  This is like a test from Jesus and you are expected to work.  It is a test from Him to see how you will work.  Help comes by itself to show you that it is not your own efforts, but that it is rather Christ’s help.

Father Marcarius of the kelli (a small monastic dwelling, usually more secluded and less busy than a monastery) dedicated to the Entry of the Theotokos into the Temple

Prayer is a mirror of a monk’s life and the things that happen during the day do return to us in the evening at the time of prayer. What one must do is be watchful during the day.  It could be that you have passed the day with a lot of work, talking to visitors, and doing different things, but if you have been watchful   these things would not take hold of you.  But if you go into converse with the thoughts that go through your mind throughout the day and become mingled with them and couple with them in a union with them—then these are the things that can return to you and seize you at the time of prayer

The Elder Ephraim of Arizona

In general, concerning the struggle in prayer, the Elder Ephraim once said: Abba Pimen says that prayer is the most difficult of all virtues to acquire.  It is in prayer that we touch God, that with our mind we are united to God.  This is our direct contact with God, our communication with Him.  The devil hates this and it is at this time more than any other time that he fights against us.  In prayer we must struggle to keep our minds pure and clear from all distractions and totally concentrated on God and immersed in Him.

     The missionary effort of the early Church was not like that of today’s Orthodox Church, which sometimes consists of advertising our beautiful beliefs and traditional form of worship as though they were nothing but products for sale.  For example we talk like this: “Take a look, folks! We have the most beautiful doctrines, the most beautiful worship, the most beautiful chanting, and the most beautiful vestments”….We try to dazzle them with our staffs, our robes, and our head coverings so that we can carry out our missionary work.  Of course, there is some sense and some success in doing missionary work this way, but it is not genuine missionary work like that of the early Church.

     Today’s missionary work consists mainly of this: we enlighten superstitious people and make them Orthodox Christians. without trying to heal them.  By doing this, however, we are just replacing or exchanging their former beliefs with a new set of beliefs.  We are replacing one superstition with another.  And I say this because when Orthodoxy is presented in this way and is offered in this way how is it different from superstition? ( Patristic Theology, pp.34-5)

The chief concern of the Orthodox Church is the healing of the human soul.  The Church has always considered the soul as a part of the human being that needs healing. (ibid., p.19)          

     The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. (Luke 4:18)

     For Orthodoxy today repentance is identified merely with the acceptance of Christ.  That is to say, we accept Christ.  And because we accept Him, we go to Church, we light a candle or two, and become good little boys and girls.  If we are young we go to Sunday school.  If we are adults, we go to a religious meeting now and then.  And supposedly we are living repentance; supposedly we are repentant.  Or else, if we have done something bad in our life, we show some regret and ask forgiveness and call what we are doing repentance.  However this is not repentance.  It is simply regret.  Regret is the beginning of repentance, but the human soul is not purified by mere regret.  In order for one’s soul to be purified of the passions, the fear of God and repentance must first be present and continue throughout the stage of purification until it is completed with divine illumination.  (Patristc Theology, pp. 35-6)

     I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. (Rom. 12:1-2)

    But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. (IICor. 3:18)