The Catalog of Good Deeds

Q: Fr. Andrew, could you give me some advice? I have registered on a dating site (an Orthodox one, as it was stated there). A year has passed since that time. Could it be possible that it is a wrong place to meet in my case?

A: Everyone chooses a place to meet on his own. Some people seek a meeting in certain life situations, while others can do this on special sites. If you want to meet a person to love them and create a family, then it may be it is possible do use such a site as well. You see, there is no result yet. It seems to me that a real meeting is more reliable than a virtual one. You have an opportunity to see a person as he or she is, but not in terms of a network. You can hear a person and feel what they are thinking.

Many beautiful young women and men come to church. I think if you are a faithful person, then you do not need any dating site. You just need to pray that one of them will notice you and that your heart feels the beauty of the other person. Those of us who ask and those who knock will get what they are asking for.

Q: Can one marry a divorced person?

A: We cannot speak about such things in general terms. We need to consider each case separately. Look, a person is left alone, they are lonely now and it is difficult for him or her to live alone. For example, a woman is left alone with her children. Of course, she needs support, she wants to find a husband. If she manages to find such a person, and they love each other and fight for their unity, then it is a God’s blessing. I think we should not state something categorically if we speak about our spiritual life.

The Church teaches that we should be loyal to each other, that we should fight for God’s blessing which He gives for creating a family, that we should learn how to bear the burdens of each other. We should be patient and humble – this is the school of humility. It is tragic, when it does not work out and a family falls apart, especially if this family has received God’s blessing in the Sacrament of Marriage. How can we fix this? How to keep living? Perhaps, there can be different circumstances and options, but need to remember that we should seek God’s will.

Q: Is it true that if my husband becomes a priest he will have little time for family?

A: After all, a Matushka has to help his husband in his service. You will lose nothing if you devote all your energy to serving God. The whole life is a fight. Of course, one can have a lot of free time and just waste it. One can sit at home all the time and quarrel, sorting things out and trying to find out who loves whom. On the other hand, you can join this fight and help your future husband in his serving God Himself, in serving other people. This will enrich your life with real problems and will help you to see the depth and the beauty of your neighbor.

So be not afraid. If you love this person, if he is precious to you and you cannot imagine your life without him, will you really think about how much time he will spend at home and how he will spent it with you? You must desire to be with him! Even if he is not at home, you should support him with your prayers in his difficult pastoral service.

St. Elisabeth Convent

September 21, 2017

St. Romanos the Melodist

O mystery brought about on earth! After the birth, Anna prayed to our God and Maker Who knows all things in advance: "You have heard me, O Lord, as you have heard Hannah who was accused before Eli of being drunk" [1 Sam. 1:14]. She promised Samuel, after his birth, to the Lord to become priest. Just as formerly you have given me too a gift, the barren woman gives birth to the Mother of God and the nurse of our life.

In your holy birth, Immaculate One, Joachim and Anna were rid of the shame of childlessness; Adam and Eve of the corruption of death. And so your people, free of the guilt of their sins, celebrate crying: "The barren one gives birth to the Theotokos, who nourishes our life."

Consequently, the tribes of Israel heard that Anna had given birth to the pure Virgin, and they all rejoiced with great gladness. Joachim held a great feast and celebrated splendidly the miraculous birth. And when he had summoned to prayer the priests and the Levites, he placed Mary in the midst of all, in order that she be magnified.

St. Andrew of Crete

O Bride of the Father, immaculate Mother of the Son, and holy and resplendent temple of the Holy Spirit; O most chaste of all creation, most suitable to His ultimate purpose, on this account the universe was created and, by thy birth, was the eternal will of the Creator fulfilled.

O Lord, you have opened the womb of Sarah, giving her Isaac as fruit in her old age. Today, O Savior, you have likewise given to godly Anna a fruit born from her womb, even your own Mother without spot.

St. Sergios of Constantinople

She is the treasure of virginity, the rod of Aaron springing from the root of Jesse, the preaching of the prophets, offshoot of the righteous Joachim and Anna. She is born, and with her is the world become new again. She is born, and the Church clothes herself in majesty. She is the holy temple, the receiver of the Godhead: the instrument of virginity, the bridal chamber of the King, wherein was accomplished the marvelous mystery of the ineffable union of the natures which come together in Christ.

St. Germanos of Constantinople

As foretold by the angel, today have you come forth, O Virgin, the all-holy offspring of righteous Joachim and Anna...you did destroy the curse and give blessing in its place.

No more are the gifts of Joachim turned away: for the lament of Anna is changed to joy. "Let all the chosen of Israel rejoice with me," she says, "for behold, the Lord has given me the living Pavilion of His divine glory, unto the joy and gladness of us all and the salvation of our souls.

St. John of Damascus

The day of the Nativity of the Theotokos is the feast of joy for the whole world, because through the Theotokos the entire human race was renewed and the grief of the first mother Eve was changed into joy. For whereas the latter heard the divine statement, “In pain you shall bring forth children” [Gen. 3:16] the former heard, “Rejoice favoured one!” [Luke 1:28]. The latter heard, “Your recourse shall be towards your husband!” and the former, “The Lord is with you!"

The holy parents of the Mother of God received from heaven a gift worthy of God, a throne higher than the very cherubim [Is. 6:1; Ez. 1:4] -- she who in childbirth would bear the Word of the Creator.

The Mother of God was born to us at the holy Sheep Gate. Rejoice, O Sheep Gate, the most holy temple of God's Mother. Rejoice O Sheep Gate, the wall of Joachim's sheep.

St. Stephen the Hymnographer

Eve declares her daughter and descendent blessed, "for unto me is born deliverance, through which I shall be set free from the bonds of hell."

St. Photios the Great

The present feast honoring the birth of the Virgin Mother of God easily carries off the glittering prize of seniority against every competitor...for without the Virgin's feast none of those that sprang out would appear...The Virgin's feast, in fulfilling the function of the root, the source, the foundation...takes on with good reason the ornament of all those other feasts, and it is conspicuous with many great boons, and is recognized as the day of universal salvation.

After God had bestowed on man the enjoyment and mastery over everything in the Garden, it was meet for him who was entrusted with so great authority to be disciplined and trained with some command. However, after transgressing this command, the Creator did not overlook His creatures though they had plunged themselves into such great error. It was needful, therefore, that one Person of the Trinity become man, to make it manifest that the recreation too, like the creation, was their own work. Incarnation entailed a pregnancy and a mother. So it was needful that a mother should be prepared down below for the Creator, for the recreation of shattered humanity. She was to be a virgin, just as the first man had been formed of virgin earth; so the recreation too should be carried out through a virgin womb, and that no transitory pleasure, even lawful, should be as much as imagined in the Creator's birth; for the Lord suffered to be born for the deliverance of him who was a captive of pleasure.

Who then was worthy? Clearly it was she who this day strangely issued from Joachim and Anna, the barren root. It was needful, yea needful, that she who from the very cradle had by a superior reason preserved her body pure, her soul pure, her thoughts pure, should be marked out to be the Creator's Mother.

It was needful that she who had been brought to the temple as an infant, who had trodden the untrodden places, should appear as a living temple for Him Who gave her life. It was needful that she who had been born in a wondrous manner from a sterile womb, and had removed her parents' reproach, should also make good the failure of her forefathers; for she, the descendent, was able to repair the ancestral defeat, who brought forth the Savior of our race by a husbandless birth, and molded His body.

The Lord's throne (Mary) is being prepared on earth, earthly things are sanctified, the heavenly hosts are mingled with us, and the wicked one, who first deceived us, has his power crushed, as his wiles and devices rot away.

St. Neophytos of Cyprus

Anna, delivered by the Creator of nature from the bonds of sterility, conceives by her spouse, Mary, a daughter of God. Anna, today gave birth to Mary, the first-fruits of our salvation, the immaculate Mother of God the Word, and the first-fruits of the renewal of our nature that had been aged and tarnished by transgression of the divine precepts.

St. Gregory Palamas

For her sake, the God-possessed prophets pronounced prophecies, and miracles are wrought to foretell that future great miracle of the world, the Ever-Virgin Mother of God. Generation after generation of vicissitudes and historical events, make a path to their ultimate destination, to the new ministry that will be wrought in her. The rites and laws had provided beforehand a type of the future truth of the Spirit. The end, or rather the beginning and root of those earlier events and wonders of God, is the annunciation to Joachim and Anna, who were accomplished in the virtues, of what was to be accomplished (in their daughter).

All divinely-inspired Scripture was written for the sake of the Virgin who begat God.

Source: johnsanidopoulos.com/2009/09/on-nativity-of-theotokos-various-church.html

What sort of knowledge does the modern information age impart? Does it in any way approach Wisdom? Or does it rather primarily impart "anti-wisdom?" From what we have said before, it certainly provides us with a wealth of information. Yet all these mega-bites of information amount to very little knowledge and even less, if any, wisdom. As a matter of fact, the over-abundance of information actually hinders knowledge. We cannot see the forest for the trees, as it were. Thus, at best the cumulative result of all the information we receive is a very superficial knowledge. Remember: what can superficial knowledge do to us? It has the potential to draw us away from God.

Even secular sociologists are coming to similar conclusions. In his book The Future Does Not Compute, Stephen Talbot points out the following:

It is hardly novel to comment on the personal scattering so readily induced by modern culture. Daily newspapers present my sweeping glance with a collage of the most dissonant images and stories imaginable, each allocated a few inches of space, a few moments of my time. The suffering in some African war immediately yields to an overjoyed lottery winner, who in turn gives way to a dispute in the city council, followed by survey results on American [physical] habits. The weather, comics, sports, book reviews scanning—all this is how I prepare to meet the day ahead. My attention, rather than engaging problems at hand in a deepening meditation, is casually, almost unnoticeably dispersed.

In a similar way, the television sound bite has become notorious; so, too, the dizzying succession of images in movie and music video. Magazines and billboards, the chatter of boom-boxes and the endless miles of retail aisle-ways heaped with a fiendishly beguiling array of merchandise all compete for a moment's subliminal notice from an otherwise absent subject, so that someone else's intentions can have their way with me. Everything is calculated to prevent my standing firmly within myself, choosing my own way in conscious self-possession. Left helpless to digest much of anything in particular, I have no choice but to go and move with the flow, allowing it to carry me wherever it will.

The critical law at work here is that whatever I take in without having fully digested it, whatever I receive in less than full consciousness does not therefore lose its ability to act upon me. It simply acts from beyond the margins of my awareness. Nothing is forgotten; it is only neglected. This is as true of Muzak as of the film image, as true of sound bites as of retail advertisements. To open myself inattentively to a chaotic world, superficially taking in "one thing after another," is to guarantee a haphazard behavior controlled by that world rather than by my own wide-awake choices.

The correlate of scattered (mental) "input," then is scattered "output." Car, telephone, computer, fax, television, VCR collaborate in this scattering by affording "freedom" of action that tends to enslave me. It becomes so easy to go somewhere else, whether via screen, phone lines, or gasoline-powered engine that the whirl of ceaseless goings substitutes for the hard work of inner attention to the fully dimensioned present. Encouraged to veer off wherever I wish with scarcely so much as a moment's forethought, I am never fully here or there, or anywhere.

But, someone will say, "Fr. Gregory, you are overlapping my different activities. I have a time for prayer, a time for contemplation, and there is a different time for my other pursuits: the newspaper, the computer, the television and so on."

But can we really compartmentalize our spiritual life to such a degree? Can we say our morning prayers and then forget about God, about spirituality, totally transform ourself into a completely secular being, like some Jekyll and Hyde, to become spiritually active once again only when it is time to say our evening prayers? Or conversely, can we possibly stop our scattered brain which has been subjected all day to Informational Sensory Overload from trying to make sense of it all, as we futilely attempt to concentrate on our evening prayers? I am sure that the Fathers here present will all confirm that the most common complaint heard in confession is the total inability to concentrate while praying.

This is, of course, not at all surprising: after a day of hustle and bustle, when we stand in front of our icons in the evening, this may be the very first time we have stopped rushing about, since that morning. Physically we have stopped for the moment, but mentally the wheels keep spinning. We would all do much better if we were to follow what Apostle Paul entreats us to do: Pray without ceasing (I Thess. 5:17). This means that after the completion of our morning prayers, we continue being conscious the entire day of being in the presence of the Lord.

A good way to practically accomplish this is to say the Jesus Prayer at every possible moment that our mind and lips are free: O Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have mercy on me a sinner, or, as Theophan the Recluse advises, to simply remember in our thoughts that God is always present with us. Even at the times when our mind is intently busy with the tasks of the day, if we constantly realize ourselves to be in God's presence, then it will be easier for us to attain virtue, harder for us to sin, and when the day is done and we are before our icons at home, we will not feel so alien, so far away from God. We, after all, would have been conversing with Him all day.

An excerpt from the following article:

http://orthodoxinfo.com/praxis/infoage.aspx

“Thy womb has offered to Christ, the Lamb of God, our substance to be His fleece; therefore in our hymns we all honour thee on this day of thy nativity from Anna.” (Canticle one, second canon, 4th verse, from Matins for the Birth of the Mother of God, by St. Andrew of Crete)

Many converts to Holy Orthodoxy have trouble making a personal connection with Mary, the Theotokos. They understand and accept the theology and the reasons why she is venerated and called upon for intercession, but on a personal, intimate or emotional level, there is not much connection. Part of the problem, I think, is that many have not come to an Orthodox understanding of nature/substance and person.

In the western theological tradition, substance is something that exists, and from which persons are derived. That is, substance precedes person. For example, it could be imagined that the substance of man existed before the first man was created. It is as if the existence of “humanness” necessitated the creation of humans, who are manifestations or examples of human substance. (May all philosophers please forgive my imprecise wording, but I think this catches the general western tendency of thought.)

In the Orthodox Tradition, you might say person precedes nature (nature and substance are synonyms in this context: nature coming from Greek works and substance in works derived from Latin), although this is not quite correct either.There is no person without nature, nor nature without person: There is no humanness without actual human beings. And so you might well ask, “What has this to do with my relationship with Mary?”

Take a look again at the verse above from Matins of the feast for the Birth of the Mother of God. In the Incarnation, Christ takes on human nature/substance to be his “fleece” from the womb of a person: Mary, the daughter of Joachim and Anna.Christ didn’t pull human nature out of the air. He didn’t take on “general” humanity (as though such a thing could be imagined). He took the humanity of a particular, specific person: He clothed himself in the fleece that Mary’s womb offered. Notice that it was offered.

Mary participated in the incarnation not only in her biology but also in her intention. She offered herself to God and thus became worthy to bear God. God comes and dwells in those who invite Him, who offer their whole lives to Him. That is, God’s works among men are synergistic, works of cooperation: man’s (or woman’s) “yes” makes possible the works of God among men. Most especially the great work of salvation, the incarnation of the Word of God, was possible only through the “yes” of the daughter of Anne.

And this woman, Mary the Theotokos, whose birth we celebrate today now stands at the right hand of Christ as his Mother and Bride where she continues to offer herself to her Son and Lord (see Psalm 44 LXX). And here is a great mystery, in as much as each of us is in Christ, she too is our mother.

Heaven is a crowded place. Somehow many western people imagine a heaven where they alone commune with God alone. This is more a description of hell than heaven (for hell is always described as a lonely place). Certainly the Bible and Church Tradition know of no such lonely heaven. The biblical language always likens heaven to a crowded place, like an imperial court, with ranks of angles and seas of people led by elders who are likened to judges and (especially in Old Testament images) to gods.But this heavenly court is not presented as a modern court of law, where impersonal law is supposed to reign supreme. Rather this is the court of the King of kings, the Son of God and the Son of Mary, a human and divine person who asks for advice (although he doesn’t need it—see 3 Kingdoms 22: 19-23, for example) and is moved by the intercessions of His fiends (Abraham and Moses, for example) and especially the intercessions of His Mother (see John 2, the wedding in Cana).

When we pray, we do well to remember that we are presenting our selves before the heavenly court, not just the King, but the whole “cloud of witnesses” who have gone before us. And since this is not a court of law (except in the sense that the King is the Law), but the court of the King of kings who is willing to be entreated by His friends, we do well to get to know His friends, the Saints and most particularly his Mother, whose “yes” opened the door for the world’s salvation.

Source: http://www.pravmir.com/getting-know-mother/

Question: In the antiphons of the feast of the Transfiguration I was struck by a reference to unicorns. What does that mean?

Answer: In the second antiphon of the feast, there are three stichoi:

Stichos 1: The mountains of Zion on the side of the north, the city of the Great King (Psalm 47:3 LXX, 48:2 KJV)

Stichos 2: And He brought them unto the mountain of His sanctuary, this mountain which His right hand had gained as a possession (Psalm 77[78]:54).

Stichos 3: Mount Zion which He loved, and He built His sanctuary like that of a unicorn (Psalm 77[78]:68-69).

Each stichos is followed by the refrain:

“O Son of God Who wast transfigured upon the mountain, save us who sing to Thee: Alleluia.”

The Psalm verses, which reference the mountain of God’s sanctuary are obviously being tied to the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor. But before we get into the meaning of this particular passage, let’s consider the wider meaning of “unicorn” in the Scriptures.

The Hebrew words for this creature are riem, rieym, reym, or rem, and its root is related to the word “rise” râ’am.

Unlike the gentle unicorns we tend to think of when we hear that word, unicorns in Scripture are used as symbols of strength. For example, in Numbers 23:22, it states:

“God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn.”

In Psalm Psalm 21[22]:22, it refers to unicorns in a parallelism with lions:

“Save me from the mouth of the lion, and my lowliness from the horns of the unicorns.”

In the Greek Septuagint, this words is consistently translated as “monokerotos“, which literally means “single-horn”, which is also what the word “unicorn” means. What is interesting is that in St. Jerome’s translation of the Vulgate, he often uses the Latin word “unicornis“, which is where we get the English word, but at other times he uses the Latin word “rinoceros” (rhinoceros), and this is reflected in the Douay-Rheims translation of Numbers 23:22:

“God hath brought him out of Egypt, whose strength is like to the rhinoceros.”

There are several species of Rhinos still in existence. Some of them have two horns, though one is large and the other one is smaller, and both are on the nose. Others have one horn only. In fact, the scientific name for a single horn Rhino is “Rhinoceros unicornis“.

It is also interesting to note that in some passages in Hebrew, a singular “unicorn” (re’em) is spoken of as having plural horns

“His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of a unicorn…” (Deuteronomy 33:17),

which St. Jerome’s texts has as “his horns as the horns of a rhinoceros”). However, in other places, it is clear that it refers to an animal with only one horn (“But my horn shall be exalted like that of the unicorn” (Psalm 91:11 LXX, (92:10 KJV).

If various types of Rhinos are in view, single-horned and double-horned varieties exist. These animals also cannot be domesticated, which is consistent with the description found in Job 39:9-10:

“Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib? Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee?”

Also, in the instance in Deuteronomy 33:17, when plural horns are spoken of, the horns are compared to the half-tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh:

“His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of a rhinoceros: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh.”

The tribe of Ephraim was much larger than the tribe of Manasseh, which fits the analogy of the horns of a two-horned Rhino.

There were also some now extinct relatives of the Rhino, the Elasmotherium, that was much larger than a rhino, and had a huge single-horns — and based on cave drawings, there is good reason to believe that ancient humans had some interaction with some of them.

So these references are not to a fairy-tale animal that flies through the air, and leaves a trail of pixie dust in its wake — it refers to an animal that people recognized as very strong, fierce, and a creature who could not be tamed by men.

Now, getting back to the psalm verses used in the second Antiphon. The full psalm verses quoted in part in stichos three read:

“And He chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which He loved. And He built His sanctuary like that of a unicorn, on the earth He established it for ever” (Psalm 77[78]:68-69).

Here is what the Fathers say about these verses:

Blessed Theodoret: “”He built His sanctuary like a unicorn” (v. 69). They say the unicorn is equipped with one horn, and the Law gave instruction for the adoring of one God; and so it was right for him to liken the one Temple, dedicated to the one God, to a unicorn”(Theodoret of Cyrus: Commentary on the Psalms, 73-150), trans. Robet C. Hill (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2001), p. 39).

St. Augustine: “Lastly there followeth, “and He builded like as of unicorns His sanctification” (ver. 70): or, as some interpreters have made thereof a new word, “His sanctifying.” The unicorns are rightly understood to be those, whose firm hope is uplifted unto that one thing, concerning which another Psalm saith, “One thing I have sought of the Lord, this I will require”” (NPNF1, p. 379).

Cassiodorus: “”Unicorns”” signifies those who posses a single hope in the most holy Trinity, towards which the consecrated hearts of the faithful are humbly raised, and they rely on the constancy of faith as the strongest of horns” (Cassiodorus: Explanation of the Psalms, Vol. 2, trans. P. G. Walsh, (New York: Paulist Press,1991), p. 273).

Source: https://preachersinstitute.com/2013/08/27/what-about-the-unicorns/

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