The Catalog of Good Deeds

By Fr. Andrew Lemeshonok

The Gospel invites us to examine ourselves, scrutinize our own sins, and notice the beams sticking out of our own eyes. Elder Ambrose of Optina said, “Know yourself, and that’s enough”. Of course, you can see a whole lot of bad things and turn away from them in disgust but that’s the reality: we live in a world that isn’t sterile—in a world that lost its original beauty. The whole world lieth in wickedness (cf. 1 John 5:19), and in the world ye shall have tribulation (cf. John 16:33). That is why our struggle against judgement, against the sinful attitude to others, when we look at them superficially and venture to tag them without love in our hearts, is the struggle for our souls, for our future because if our souls remain judgemental, embittered, and feel disgust of our neighbours, they will not be able to enter the Heavenly Kingdom. Our souls need to be purified. That is the reason why the Church exists: it is the place where one’s soul melts down in the Sacraments of Repentance and Communion and where one learns to understand and accept his neighbours, feel sympathetic and compassionate, and refrain from judging them (which is so common among people who live as they please). God is our only Judge, and we all shall be judged by him sooner or later.

I think both parties are to blame. Who is more at fault… is probably the person who bears the grudge longer, or the one who provokes the other. In fact, we are all guilty, and whoever is more aware of that fact, that person is closer to the truth. Of course, we must call a spade a spade: we mustn’t say that everything is all right if someone commits a sin. How do we separate the sin from the sinner? How do we hate the sin and sympathise with the person? The Holy Spirit has answers to these dilemmas. The closer to God you are, the more guilty you feel. That’s the unmistakable criterion of who’s to blame.

There are cases when someone’s actions literally border on crimes, and you’ve got to stop them. You are supposed to do everything you can to prevent the other person’s sin. However, as long as you feel your own guilt and don’t insulate yourself from that person, you will manage to retain the godly, the genuinely Christian attitude. We often say the right words, stop other people, look down on them with contempt, and put some unfavourable labels on them — that’s what happens when we don’t inspect our own hearts. For instance, there is a person who spent his entire life in jail. He has never seen his mum or dad: he stayed in an orphanage, and then a camp for juvenile delinquents, and on and on… How can we judge that person and claim that we’re any better? What if you didn’t have what you happen to have? What if you didn’t have your family, your parents? What if you didn’t feel loved, ever? Could you guarantee that you’d still be better? No way. We can’t see the full picture of what’s going on inside and outside in that person’s life. We don’t see his hesitations and struggles. Therefore, we are defendants, just like all other people. Jesus Christ is our only Judge.

If you can stop the sin, if you can help that person to see that his actions are bad, you shouldn’t miss that opportunity. If we miss it, we will be guilty of indifference and passivity in the face of the sin. Narrow is the way, which leadeth unto the Kingdom of Heaven (cf. Matthew 7:14). If you diverge from that way just a little, you’ll eventually find yourself in the wrong place. That’s how our life goes on.

Friends sometimes come together to gossip about someone else but they feel that they’re right because they gossip together. That’s what usually happens when good but spiritually weak people meet. They start talking and discussing various topics, and they often end up judging others. If there was someone who would have the guts to say, “Our discussion has taken the wrong direction. Who are we to pass judgement?” that discussion would break up. Unfortunately, people are often too shy or too scared to do anything that might threaten their relationships, and they keep quiet and nod, “Yes-yes-yes, that’s right, that person is bad.” That’s a collective sin, which affects us all.

What’s especially bad is that in the meantime we tend to repeat the sins that we used to condemn so fiercely. If you pay attention, you’ll notice it and learn from it. If you don’t care, you’ll ignore it. That’s how our life goes on: we condemn and rebuke others, then fall into the same trap and justify ourselves by finding faults with others. The merry-go-round of sin keeps turning…

September 26, 2018

St. Elisabeth Convent

Before his conversion to Christianity, St. Cyprian was a pagan sorcerer who had direct contact with demons. Many people payed him to use his magic in order to get something they wanted, and Cyprian would use his authority among the evil spirits to fulfill these godless requests. One such client was a young man named Aglaias, who desired the virgin Justina, the daughter of a Christian priest.

The sorcerer invoked an evil spirit with a long resume of successful seductions, and this boastful spirit gave him some powder for the youth to sprinkle around Justina's home. Once he had done this, the chaste girl was attacked by lustful thoughts and feelings, but she valiantly fought them off with prayer and dedication to the Lord. When Cyprian saw that all the power of the devil was useless against a young girl who had faith in Jesus Christ, he too repented and was baptized, later even becoming a bishop. Both Cyprian and Justina were martyred by their pagan ruler. Now Christians pray to these saints to protect themselves from sorcery and satanism, which has always lurked around in the dark corners of society but is now showing its disgusting face nearly everywhere we look — television, cinema, and even public parades.

When people want their desires fulfilled without God, because these desires are ungodly, they have in times turned to the devil through magicians and sorcerers. Here are examples of help against witchcraft and sorcery from Sts. Cyprian and Justina in nineteen century Russia and twentieth century Greece.

The devout maiden R. was subjected to the same temptation as was once the holy Martyr Justina: she was pursued by a certain man who, seeing that all his efforts to arouse in her a mutual love for him remained futile, turned to a sorcerer, and with his help began to direct magic spells against her. Being forewarned about this through a faithful servant-woman, and beginning to feel in herself the action of the enemy's power, this maiden had no one from whom to seek help except God, for she had no acquaintance with anyone of spiritual life. One night the above-mentioned servant-woman saw a dream wherein a tall monk entered her lady's room and led her out in a monastic garment. Soon after this, Elder Anthony of Optina visited this family, although he had not known them before. In this important visit was clearly expressed the providence of God for this family, as well as the manifest activity of demons ... When he entered the house (as he later wrote this maiden), "at first I encountered a whole crowd of demons who with abusive language forbade me to enter, but the Lord drove them away ... Even though I did not know the history of your last two years, it was not for nothing that I advised you to pray to the holy Martyr Justina the virgin, for your situation then was very similar to hers, as I recently found out, and with my whole soul I thank God with tears that your holy soul has been delivered from the nets which had caught it!" The servant-woman, when she saw Father Anthony, recognized that it was precisely he that she had seen in her dream.

The Elder understood that the only salvation for this maiden was to go to a convent. But her relatives did not wish even to hear of this, and Father Anthony did not find it possible or profitable to persuade them; and therefore he only prayed for her deliverance from the enemy's nets that surrounded her, and by his letters strengthened her in her torment from the invisible power of demons, which had been brought against her by the sorcerer ... By the prayers of Father Anthony, R's mother unexpectedly gave her consent for her to enter a convent ... However, the sorcerer boasted that he would drag her even out of the convent. And indeed, the young novice continued to feel within herself the action of the enemy's power, having repose neither day nor night; and again she found strength in the prayers and counsel of Father Anthony. The young sufferer received final deliverance from the temptation of the enemy that tormented her through the prayers of the great contemporary hierarch, now reposed, Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow. Once he appeared to her in a dream, read the 60th Psalm, ordered her to repeat after him all the verses of it, and then gave her the command to read this Psalm daily. On awakening, she felt that the temptation which had been tormenting her for many years had completely departed from her.

(Elder Anthony concludes his letter to this maiden, who was then still suffering the effects of her experience:) "Be full of hope. You and I, even lying flat in bed, will be saved by the prayers of the saints for us; for if the prayer of even a single saint can give much help, then when all the saints start to pray for us, without any doubt the Kingdom of Heaven will be ours!" (Translated from Hieromonk Clement Sederholm, Optina Elder Anthony, St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1973, pp. 100-103, and The Letters of Abbot Anthony, Optina edition, 1869, pp. 381-2.)

In twentieth century Greece

From the time when, by the grace of God, our monastery was founded in 1961, our protectors, Saints Cyprian and Justina, have worked many miracles through their intercession, especially for those suffering from satanic influence or the effects of black magic.

A few years ago, after the Sunday Liturgy, while the abbot was still in the altar taking off his vestments, a young man, about 30 years old, came to one of the side doors of the iconostasis and in tears said: "Father, save me, help, my home is falling apart. I have been married 25 days now, but they have done something to me and I can't get close to my wife. We live as brother and sister, and now we're so much in the hold of nerves and quarrelling, that if it continues, we will separate."

The abbot tried to calm him, and advised him that when he and his wife had repented of their sins, they should confess, and after fasting three days, they should come to the monastery so that a Vigil and Divine Liturgy could be served in their name.

They did as instructed, prepared and came; the Vigil was celebrated and prayers of exorcism were read over them, and in the morning they left for home. Next Sunday the young man came to the monastery again, but this time full of joy, and he told with great emotion what had happened. "When we left here on Thursday morning, we returned home and found my father very disturbed. When I asked him what was wrong, he said: 'Something fearful happened last night. While I was sleeping, there appeared before me a tall old man with gray hair and beard, who woke me up and said: "Get up, my child, and dig there (he showed me the exact place) to find your son's magic charm." After that he disappeared. I was so frightened that I stayed in bed waiting for it to get light.'" (It is evident that the tall old man who appeared was St. Cyprian, who went, while the Vigil was being celebrated and the prayers being read, to the couple's house to reveal to his father this demonic business.)

The young man continued: "I asked my father where the old man told him to dig. He showed me, and forty centimeters down I found these strange things." He gave the abbot a white handkerchief with a large knot, which proved when opened to contain the dust of a dead body and the couple's initials. Exorcisms were read over it, and the young man left again. Two days later the abbot saw an old woman kneeling and weeping before the icon of St. Cyprian and St. Justina. When asked what had happened, she replied that she was the mother of the young man from Aspopyrgo, and from the day they had come to the monastery, they had been completely well, and were living in great happiness. She had come to thank the Saints, full of gratitude for the great gift they had given. (By Archimandrite [now Metropolitan] Cyprian of the Monastery of Sts. Cyprian and Justina; translation first published in The Old Calendarist, monthly publication of the St. George Information Service, London, England, June, 1975.)

From The Orthodox Word, Vol. 12, No. 5 (70) (September-October, 1976),

pp. 135-142, 167-176.

Source: http://orthochristian.com/97839.html

The Rehabilitation Centre of St Elisabeth Convent is a place where labour and prayer help people to build their new life — different from the life in a prison cell or a hospital ward. Many of those who come to the rehab have a dark past. Their new life calls for a different attitude to themselves, to their neighbours, and to God. The old self has to die to give way to the new self in the eternal life.

There are former athletes and previously successful businessmen, as well as those who have never had a home or a family since childhood, among those who come to the Rehabilitation Centre. What can those people possibly have in common, you might ask? Of course, they could never meet and make friends in the past. Today, they are united by the love of Christ who came to bring the scattered ones together.

There remains some good even in the hearts of the most cruel and violent people. You just have to recognise and feel it. When a person is loved, his heart opens up and springs back to life. Many brothers finally learn to trust Father Andrew and the nuns and share their emotions with them.

Nun Martha and Nun Irina have a diary where they write down the brothers’ narratives about their lives before they came to the Rehabilitation Centre. Here are some fragments of this diary.

“He finished school with good grades and played basketball well. He lost his mother when he was 7. She poisoned herself because of unrequited love. When he was 14, his father was sentenced to 8 years in jail for the murder of his mistress. The young man married his classmate upon leaving school. They had a daughter and lived happily until she went to her grandmother who lived in Riga. The grandmother was a Romani, and she promised his wife that if she breaks up with him and marries a Romani man instead, her grandmother would make her the heir to everything she had. The couple broke up. The wife married another man — not a Romani but a wealthy businessman — two months later. After she left, our brother never saw her and his daughter again…”

“He excelled at school. However, when he was in the ninth grade, he made friends with a guy who sniffed glue and taught him to do the same. His mother learned about it and sent her son to a hospital. Then he was admitted to a college where he learned to drink alcohol with his fellow students. During his second year at college, he was expelled for drinking. He returned home and shared the flat with his older sister. She drank heavily, and he joined her. They spent four years living like that. He would earn some money from time to time working as a handyman. He was treated in a psychiatric hospital four times: when he sniffed glue, when he attempted suicide and drank too many pills, and twice for alcoholism.”

“He is a veteran of the war in Afghanistan. He has PTSD and cannot sleep. This brother is very good at working with his hands. He takes after his father who was a well-known artist and carver. He can paint very well. He can sing and play the guitar, too. When he was sent to a hospital, he didn’t want to go and came back to the Rehabilitation Centre…”

“He was married and had two sons. Both his sons were sent to fight in Afghanistan and died there. His wife couldn’t survive it: she became insane and died, too…”

“He had a family: a wife and two kids. They had a car accident. Everyone died in the crash except him…”

Sometimes it’s painful and heartbreaking to read this diary.

When brothers come to the Rehabilitation Centre, they change their positions with regard to many things. The history of the Centre contains a lot of vivid examples of God’s victory in human hearts.

Brother Nikolai. He smoked for 30 years. Before his baptism he said, “Something has changed in my heart, and I don’t want to smoke any longer.” He quit smoking from that moment.

Brother Igor spent many years in the Rehabilitation Centre. Currently, he is a novice in our Convent and the head of the Candle Workshop.

Brother Roman was homeless for a long time. Now he works in the Rehabilitation Centre and has a wife and a small child.

Brother Oleg suffered from alcohol addiction for a number of years. He doesn’t drink for several years already. He managed to find a good job.

Brother Nikolai used to be a drug addict. He is HIV-positive. He has grown strong in his faith after spending a long time in the rehab. His faith has helped him to quit the drugs and performed a miracle: in spite of the doctors’ predictions, his blood tests have shown an improvement of his health. He lives in Svetlogorsk with his new family.

Of course, we are happy to witness how the brothers’ succeed. However, their final victory will be determined by the end of their worldly path…

September 20, 2018

St. Elisabeth Convent

This is one of the most beloved feasts of the Russian people, one of the most pleasing. When I have occasion to speak about how the All-Pure Virgin covered the worshippers in the Blachernae Church with her omophorion, I always point out that there were, of course, different people in this church: the pious and godly; the not very pious; perhaps some who had grown cold; and perhaps even the very sinful. But did the Mother of God inquire into this? Did she separate the good from the bad?

No, she covered everyone with her omophorion! That is why we all firmly trust that, although we often prove ourselves unworthy of God’s mercy – and, on the contrary, worthy of God’s wrath, judgment, and righteous and well-deserved punishment – nonetheless the Mother of God stands with her omophorion between us and the Lord, Whom we anger with our sins. We are capable of provoking God.

The Holy Hierarch Theophan the Recluse once wrote sorrowfully: “What a wonderful Lord we have: long-suffering and abundant in mercy; Who never grows angry to the end; Who does not remain at enmity unto the ages; Who forgets His wrath as soon as we turn to Him with repentance! But we are capable of bringing even such a Merciful and Long-Suffering One to wrath, so as to oblige Him to take up the rod of vengeance, although He is endless mercy and compassion.”

But it often happens that when the Lord turns His wrathful gaze upon us sinners, He does not see us – for the Mother of God has covered us with her omophorion and prays to Him for us all: for the good and for the evil; for the righteous and for sinners; for the pious and for the impious. For everyone! So always remember, when you come here to the Church of the Protection of the Mother of God, that here you are safeguarded as nowhere else in the world. Therefore you should always pray to the Mother of God with faith and trust.

If an earthly mother said about her children that she had some who were good and obedient, and others who were disobedient, she might say: “For a mother they are all equal: whichever finger you cut from a hand, it is all equally painful.” It is the same thing with us. To the Heavenly Mother, to whom the Lord gave to adopt the entire human race – and that means all of us – everyone is equally dear.

How she grieves for the disobedient and ungodly and, for her part, prays to the Lord, that He might put aside His avenging sword and might still have mercy upon those who can be set aright! Do not forget about this and always pray to her with trust, that she might cover us with her Almighty Omophorion! Amen.

By Metropolitan Philaret (Voznesensky)

Source: http://orthochristian.com/97825.html

1) A well-known phrase was mentioned in the Gospel of Mark: “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). This statement helps us to understand the Lord’s idea that a person’s need can be more important than formal religious rules and rites.

2) Only in the Gospel of Mark we can find and read the parable about a growing seed: “And He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come” (Mark 4:26-29).

3) Apostle Mark was the only evangelist who told in his Gospel about the large number of pigs, into which the demons entered – there were more then two thousands of them: “Then the unclean spirits went out and entered the swine (there were about two thousand); and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and drowned in the sea” (Mark 5:13).

4) Telling about the healings performed by the Lord, only Evangelist Mark states the words of Christ in the very language He Spoke, which was Aramaic: “Talitha, cumi,” which is translated, “Little girl, I say to you, arise” (Mark 5:41) and “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened” (Mark 7:34).

5) Mark’s Gospel is the only book of the New Testament in which Jesus is called “the Son of Mary” (Mark 6:3).

6) The Gospel of Mark is the only Book of Gospel in which the Lord is called a “carpenter” (Mark 6:3), while the Gospel of Matthew states that He was “the son of a carpenter” (Matthew 13:55).

7) Mark writes that it was permitted to take a stick and a pair of simple shoes when going to preach for other peoples. “He commanded them to take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bag, no bread, no copper in their money belts — but to wear sandals, and not to put on two tunics” (Mark 6:8-9). At the same time, other evangelists state that sticks and sandals were not allowed (ref. Matthew 10:10, Luke 9:3).

8) The longest and the most full story about the dance of Herodias’ daughter and the beheading of John the Baptist is represented in the Gospel of Mark (ref. Mark 6:14-29).

9) In his Gospel, Apostle Mark explains some ancient Hebrew traditions since his book was addressed to the Christians who were former pagans (ref. Mark 7:3-4).

10) In the episode of the arrest of Jesus Christ, only Evangelist Mark mentions a young man, who was almost captured by the soldiers but managed to escape, leaving his tunic: “Now a certain young man followed Him, having a linen cloth thrown around his naked body. And the young men laid hold of him, and he left the linen cloth and fled from them naked” (Mark 14:51-52). According to the Tradition, that young man was Apostle and Evangelist Mark himself – a loyal disciple of Christ and tireless follower of apostles Peter and Paul.

By John Nichiporuk,

a Bachelor of Theology, a student of

the Minsk Theological Academy .

The Catalog Of Good Deeds

The Distracted Life

Having promised us a technological utopia, our ubiquitous and intrusive cyber-culture has instead precipitated a spiritual crisis in which human experience has been systematically fragmented and the coherence of the self increasingly threatened. Living in a culture of organized distractions, our thoughts are isolated and disconnected, preventing us from seeing and experiencing the wholeness of life. Distraction and fragmentation have negative consequences for the organization of knowledge; they prevent us from engaging our spiritual depth, and render us incapable of engaging the spiritual depth of others, for having lost touch with our own personhood, we can receive neither the personhood of our neighbor nor of God.

Beginning in 2009, the New York Times ran a series of articles called "Driven to Distraction," reporting on accidents and fatalities involving distracted drivers. The series expanded to include "Distracted Doctoring," reporting on the large number of surgeons who are placing personal calls during surgery; on medical technicians who are texting while running cardio-pulmonary bypass machines; and anesthesiologists who are shopping online for airline tickets...

"...The World Beyond Your Head," Matthew Crawford has referred to this situation as a "crisis of self-ownership," arguing that we are now living in an "attentional economy" in which "our attention is not simply ours to direct where we will," making "the effort to be fully present" an intractable struggle... According to Crawford, we have become "agnostic" on the question of what to pay attention to, which means we no longer know what to value. As a result, our inner lives become "shapeless," and we become susceptible to what is presented to us by powerful commercial forces that have taken the place of traditional cultural authorities.

To be attentive, on the other hand, is the first step in claiming our humanity, our agency and self-determination as human beings. We choose what to pay attention to, and, in a very real sense, this determines what is real for us; what is actually present to our consciousness. By contrast, distraction and fragmentation reveal an ethical void at the center of our existence, prompting Crawford to call for an "ethics" and "ascetics" of attention for out time, grounded in a realistic account of the human mind.

Being Attentive

Without wishing to minimize the importance of skilled craftsmanship (which the Holy Mountain has been practicing and supporting throughout its long history), I would like to focus on the logically prior moment of "attentiveness" itself, independent of any (logically sequent) activity for which it might be deemed necessary or useful. As we shall see, attentiveness offers us a profound and effective response to our modern culture of organized distractions. To be sure, the "ethics and ascetics of attention" that Crawford is seeking are central to Orthodox anthropology and moral psychology, namely: the practice of "attentiveness" (προσοχή) or "attending (or giving heed) to thyself" (προσέχειν σεαυτώ).

This phrase - which is only superficially related to the Socratic injunction to "know thyself" (γνώθι σαυτόν) occurs in various forms in the New Testament, but is in fact derived from the Book of Deuteronomy (Old Testament) 4:9: "Attend (or Give heed) to thyself, and keep thy heart diligently" (πρόσεχε σεαυτώ και φύλαξον τήν ψυχήν σου σφόδρα), or, alternately, from Deuteronomy 15:9 "Attend to thyself, that there be no hidden, iniquitous word in your heart" (πρόσεχε σεαυτώ μή γένηται ρήμα κρυπτόν έν τή καρδία σου ανόμημα). The phrase, which is an ethical imperative, has a long and rich history, from which only a few examples can be cited here.

"...Although the Life of Saint Anthony does not describe the practice of attentiveness in any detail, Saint Basil the Great describes it at length. Far from mere external "self-observation," and having nothing to do with any kind of solipsistic self-absorption, "attentiveness" is comprehensive in scope, being at once:

(1) the awakening of the rational principles that God has placed in the soul;

(2) vigilant stewardship over the movements of the mind, which governs the movements of the body and society as a whole;

(3) the awareness of the mind's (or soul's) priority over the body, and of the beauty of God over sensory pleasure;

(4) an engagement with reality and a rejection of mental fantasies;

(5) self-examination and the refusal to meddle in the affairs of others;

(6) and least, the very knowledge of God, insofar as the "self" is the image of God, a connection with which Basil concludes the entire sermon: "Give heed, therefore, to thyself, that you may give heed to God" (πρόσεχε ούν σεαυτώ, ίνα προσέχης Θεώ").

The practice of attending to the self, firmly established by the 4th century, remained central to Christian anthropology and ethics. Subsequent generations of writers and practitioners developed the concept, generally aligning attentiveness with cognate practice such as "stillness" (ησυχία) and "vigilance" (νήψις). In this more comprehensive form–already suggested by Saint Basil–it was given a foundational role in Christian life, and was ultimately considered a necessary presumption or pre-condition for salvation.

The extraordinary emphasis given to attentiveness is explained, not simply because the human mind is prone to distraction, but because the disintegration of our inner life began precisely with the fall, when humanity separated itself from God. "Distraction," from this point of view, has rightly been called "the original sin of the mind." (Source: Orthodox Heritage)

By Protopresbyter George D. Konstantopoulos

Source: http://saintandrewgoc.org/home/2018/7/30/attentiveness-and-digital-culture

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Anatomy of the Soul. Virtues and Vices: Judgement

The Help against Evil Forces: the Miracles of St. Cyprian and St. Justina

The Brothers’ Lives: Diaries of the Rehabilitation Centre of St. Elisabeth Convent

Feast Day Sermon: "Under the Protection of Our Heavenly Mother"

A List of 10 Unique Features of the Gospel of Mark

Are We Attentive Enough to Reach Salvation in Digital Culture?

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