The Catalog of Good Deeds

Archpriest Andrew Lemeshonok, the spiritual father of St. Elisabeth Convent answers various questions of the parishioners.

How can I help my neighbor?

Desire is the beginning of any change. The most horrible thing is when we begin to justify our sin. When we look around and say, “Well, it seems I am not so lazy. There are many people worse than me”. This is why the fact you blame yourself and see your problem and spiritual disease is half the battle.

Now you have to compel yourself a bit. Do not start any big deal, but start small instead and try to bring to a conclusion what you do. We need certain rules in prayer and spiritual life, which we will follow regularly. In housework, it can be cleaning, for example. With time, you will begin to overcome the feeling of exhaustion, laziness, lack of focus and dispersion of your desires, thoughts and feelings. I think you should find a business which you will like and to which you will devote all your time and effort. Then you should learn it and work a lot because we all are called upon to serve God and our neighbor. Of course, lazy people do not inherit the Kingdom of God. They will just oversleep It. So, go to a church, partake of the Holy Communion and confess your laziness, feeling sorry for yourself and grumble which comes when we say, “It is so difficult, it is far beyond my strength, I am so weak and poor!..” This all is nonsense one can believe in to justify his sins. So go ahead.

What should I do if I have cheated on my wife?

If you have fallen down, you must stand up.

You need to understand the reason why that sin occured. That was not a chance. Perhaps, you have allowed certain thoughts or dreams. Maybe you have not appreciated what you had or just have used to what you have; you have not been sober and attentive. Therefore, the enemy used your condition against you. What can I say you now? You should go to confession and repent your sin. You should do it not only with words: knowing your guilt, try to serve your wife and your family and prove yourself. You should redeem yourself with your life and attitude towards your family.

Perhaps, your wife also has certain infirmities and character weaknesses and you should cover them with your love too. Of course, you must restrain yourself in future. Do not fantasize and do not free your imagination. It can show you any pictures, but these will be the work of the devil. May the Lord prevent you from committing this sin in future, and may the Lord help you to bear the burdens of your close ones and thank God for there is the One Who forgives all our sins and gives us strength to fight with our “old self”.

Should I make my son attend the church?

Of course, it is difficult to make a 17-year-old person - most likely, the result will be the opposite. What can you do now? You can be very attentive to your son, communicate with him more, learn about his interests, help him to understand this world so that he can find right guide for his future life and, of course, you can pray for him. If it is possible, persuade him that he should come to church sometimes. Perhaps, he will meet a priest whom he can trust and with whom he will manage to establish spiritual connection. It would be good if he partakes of the Holy Communion. Of course, not always it can happen at once. But you should set a goal for yourself and go calm and steadily towards it. The upbringing is ongoing. If we can make a little child to do what we say, then in this case, you can only persuade him, patiently accept the infirmity of your son and hope for God’s love, which heals and purifies our sinful hearts. May the Lord help you.

December 6, 2017

St. Elisabeth Convent

The miracle of the Icon

The miraculous Icon is traditionally known as one of the seventy images painted by the Evangelist St. Luke. The icon was brought by residents of Mount Athos to the first monastery in the Canal.

Following the tragic end of the monks who died due to the extreme cold and the roaring winds, it was left alone and came to the place it is today. It repeatedly was found in some local bushes, and was constantely found illumined by a divine light. Three attempts were made to move the Icon to no avail, so a church was built at that location in 1116, and in the year 1362 the silver covering was added to the Icon.

How the Holy Myrrh was revealed

I have profound emotions and my soul is brought to heaven when I ponder the divine Myrrh, which flows from this miraculous Icon. How many were left speechless trying to tell and explain it. The Myrrh is unlike anything on earth. The Myrrh is not similar to the Myrrh which flows from various Saints. It is unprecedented Myrrh that our sweetest Jesus graced us with as a very precious gift to His Ever-Virgin Mother.

And hear how it was revealed. In 1964 before the Holy Myrrh ran down the Icon of the Theotokos, for twenty days an indescribable aroma was present around the monastery. The Icon smelled beautifully, but initially it was not understood to be a miracle and people asked one another «Are they putting perfumes on the icons?» But no one knew anything. A Father Stilianos asked «What kind of perfume are you using?» and the nuns replied «We aren’t putting anything on, Father».

A Dimitrios Kalitsis, who had come from Agio Petro said «the aroma is coming from the Panagia». The aroma was still so strong that at night on the terace I said, «My Panagia, what is this that you open a river and drown us.»

The Friday of the Final Chairetismoi [Salutations Service to the Theotokos in Great Lent] on the 17th of April, 1964, pilgrims had come for the Vigil. The first drops appeared. Sister Theonymphi saw them first, and then the Pilgrims ran to see them.

On the Fifth Sunday of Great Lent, Sister Theodouli came after Vespers quite troubled and said «Sister Mariam, go to the church of the Panagia. Something like a mirage appeared and see that it is.»

I had not gone to the Vespers service. I ran to the church, I took a candle and gazed at the Icon and saw the Panagia open and closing her mouth and something like a fountain running out. When she opened her mouth, as much as a running tap would flow up, and it would stop when her mouth was closed. And when she would reopen her mouth the fountain would run again, but upwards. And the water that filled the frame was clear. The stand [proskinitari, stand that holds up an icon for veneration] was full, and that which flowed outside was as the color of milk.

We were shaken and afraid, and no one slept that night. On Monday morning Panagiotis Kolovos came from Agio Petro. He went to venerate the Panagia, and came to tell us that there were drops outside of the frame. The Sisters went and saw a few drops from outside of the glass and the color was the color of the sky, blue, and the aroma was very strong.

That afternoon, the Gerontissa [Abbess] Parthenia returned and we related to her what we saw and she remained speechless; she didn’t know what to tell us. Was this a miracle? Because we have never heard of the miracles of the Panagia like the one we’d seen.

The next day we saw again a few drops from the center towards the outside. The frame did not hinder it, and it ran out of the frame and down the stand. The color was all-pure like a diamond, and had an aroma. On the next day, Wednesday, they subsequently ran at intervals several times a day. The color was a golden yellow like lemons or yellow oil, and it ran so many times that we filled half a bottle, we sealed it, and the next day the vial was empty.

To us who witnessed this first, the miracle was traumatizing, and we cried. I did not know what kind of sign this was and what was its meaning. Would it signify a catastrophe? What could we say?

The sixth week of the Great Fast, the week of the Palms, was for us days of lament and weeping.

One day we rang the bells throughout the day but nobody came. They heard the bells as they told us later but did not come. We were alone. We notified the Diocese, and Priests of Metropolis came, took the Icon from the stand, wiped it, and inspected it to confirm themselves with their eyes the miracle of the Panagia.

The Police came, the people came from their villages, some by motorcycles, other with animals, others walking to venerate the Panagia.

The police put everyone outside, and locked themselves into the church by themselves. We could not see what they were doing. The Policeman said that when he wiped the Myrrh, more would flow from the face of the Panagia, and he said «I believe, Panagia». The icons smelled beautiful, the stasidia [seats along the periphery of the church], the the whole church, the whole monastery. Even the cars of those that took pieces of cotton dipped in the Holy Myrrh smelled.

The aroma was so strong that it reached the lower road, so strong it was. The Myrrh would run down the stand several times a day and reached the floor, and we gathered it with cotton and gave it to everyone. There were so many people, and we would read Chairetismous [the Salutations to the Theotokos] continuously. Even when Holy Week came, and it is said «we don’t Salute the Panagia in Holy Week», but so great was the crowd that we read it throughout Holy Week. The Myrrh would run from the Icon at intervals several times a day. On Holy Pascha, it stopped running. During Renewal Week [the week after Pascha] it did not run, but it resumed during the week of Thomas in the same way.

The color would change between four forms, as I said earlier, like a milky color, the color blue, a diamond color, and a yellow color that remained stable and did not change. Once I saw myself at the Midnight service that the Myrrh coming from the Panagia was blood red, and passed outside of the frame and stayed there. In the morning I woke up before the other Sisters and went to see the Icon and it was dry. After this it appeared as dried blood, but the aroma was always the same. When the icon would flow and hit the floor, it was like my sword poking my side, and I would go run to venerate the Panagia. I would gather the Myrrh from the floor. Sometimes the aroma of the Myrrh would permeate as waves, something that I perceived as something beyond nature. The aroma was not like a natural scent which would smell and then stop. The Aroma of the Myrrh of the Panagia is not like them, but is not held back going in or out, just as the Lord was not hindered by the seals or the stone at the Tomb [at His Divine Resurrection]. Thus nothing hindered the aroma and the Myrrh to flow inside or outside the frame, and it would come not in a physical manner, but in waves, and would not leave the slightest doubt in the unbelieving.

No one was left untouched, and prayers and supplications and tears to the Panagia were made by all the Pilgrims, by everyone.

The Bishop of Navplion was Chrysostomos after the death of Bishop [Despotis, literally Master, the traditional Orthodox greeting to the Bishop] Germanos Roumpani. He had just come, so instead the Bishop of Sparta, Kyprianos, came. He came here to our monastery, inspected the Icon, asked himself about the miracle and said «Blessed be the name of the Theotokos. May the miracle of the Theotokos spread».

Policemen and Chemists attempt to identify the source of the Holy Myrrh

In 1969, the chief commander in Tripoli gendarmerie commander of the Astros, came and inspected the icon, and as he told the residents of Agios Petros, he found no hint at all of fraud, and that previously he was not God-fearing, but when he saw the miracle with his own eyes, he said: «A Great God exists ».

And a Chemist from Tripoli took some Myrrh of the Panagia to perform a chemical analysis on it, and he beheld miraculous power, but he did not seen anything natural [or physical], and he cried out «A Great God exists».

The Myrrh of the Panagia was for a few years as the way I said above. Though it appeared all-clean in the frame it gathered as large drops and came outside of the frame, it dripped, and we saw when it came out and ran down. We gathered it with cotton and gave it as a blessing to the world. A few years later, there was a great earthquake, and since that time it runs continuously in the frame, it is continuously drenched, it does not slow down, we wipe it up and in a few hours, again it is filled.

The miracle of the Panagia was not known very far away. The local region and a little beyond only knew about it. After 6 years, Dimitrios Panagopoulos came in 1970, in the month of July from Athens, a pious man and a preacher of the divine word. Many people know him from his sermons and from his modest life. This preacher of the Divine Word spread the miracle of the Theotokos around the world in his monthly brochure called «Agia Marina». From then began to come pilgrims from the Capital, from all over Greece, and from the outside, and those who couldn’t come would send us a letter seeking the Holy Myrrh of the Panagia. The Holy Myrrh works miracles, many sick people have been healed.

The Gerontissa Parthenia

Since 1960 when she was made Abbess, she has built six churches. St. Neilos the Myrrhflowing, where the first cell of the Saint was. St. George at the cemetery. St. Charalampos in the metochion [dependency] of the Monastery at Korakovouni. St. Nektarios. And recently she finished the large Church, which celebrates the Dormition of the Theotokos, the Holy Transfiguration of Christ, and the Entrance of the Theotokos to the Temple. And the lower church also has three dedications.

The feast of our Panagia

On the Feast of the Panagia, like every year, we do a vigil service in the small church. This year, 1994, on August 15th the vigil took place in the Large Church, a beautiful, all-radiant and decorated church. The wonderworking Icon of Panagia was moved to the veneration stand in the great church and it was venerated by all the people, the Christians. At 6 o'clock in the afternoon was the small Vespers, and at 9:30 at night the bells run harmoniously. There was chanting, ringing of bells at short intervals, and soon began Great Vespers, and after Vespers was Holy Unction. After the Holy Unction began Matins, the liti, the Six-psalms, the Polyeleos of Panagia, the kathismata, canons, and finishing the minologio we chanted the Engomia [lamentations] of the Panagia, katavasies, and the 9th ode, the Praises, and after the Doxology, we chanted “Holy God…” very slowly, and had the procession with the Epitaphio of the Panagia outside of the great church, all holding lit candles.

And when the bells of the great church and the simandron of the small one rang festally, the large procession around the church began. The small epitaphio was preceded by the Precious Cross and the gold banner of the Dormition of the Theotokos. The small candles and Sisters with Priests all chanted “Holy God…” in a festal manner while the bell-ringer rang during the procession of the Epitafio. Truly moving are these moments in the infinite silence of the night. At 5 in the morning the Divine Liturgy finished which was followed by a sermon for the feast of our Panagia. The Sisters and the Faithful will commune, and will go rest after the Divine Liturgy. At 7 o'clock we have a second Divine Liturgy because many Christians come from afar and can't make the Vigil that we follow, so there is another priest and they receive Holy Communion at the second Divine Liturgy.

That same evening we have Vespers early, and after Vespers, we take the Icon of the Dormition which we have below the Myrrhflowing Panagia, the censer, the candles, the talanto, the simandron, and the bells ringing, we exit from the church and procede up the stair to the salon and we the Sisters and those who happen to be there at this moment chant “In giving birth…” [the Apolytikion for the Dormition of the Theotokos] and the bells chant “In giving birth you retained your Virginity”, and other hymns. We will stop at the salon and wish many years of virtue for those who celebrate the feast of our Panagia, the Gerontissa Parthenia and other Sisters who celebrate, and we chant more hymns.”

Source: http://full-of-grace-and-truth.blogspot.com.by/2009/01/miraculous-myrrh-flowing-icon-of.html

Effective prayer can be a struggle. So often when I approach my prayer time I find my mind distracted so that I simply go though a routine without any feelings. Usually, I memorize many of the prayers I say daily in addition to my intercessory prayers. Memorization etches the prayer in my mind making it available to me at any time.

What happens frequently, though, is that my mind takes control and begins to pray automatically This is not a good sign. Why? Because our prayers need to come from the heart with feeling and an awareness that we are engaged in a dialogue with God. We need to have the awe of His presence as we pray. An automatic prayer is not really a prayer. A prayer must come from the heart with feeling and understanding. I find I must continually remind myself of this. Too often I fall into the trap of just putting in my time to fulfill my prayer rule. It is not about the time we spend in prayer, but the sincerity with which we pray that is of the most importance.

Saint Theophan says,

When you are at prayer, recite your prayer or psalm from memory, and embrace each word, not just with thought, but with feeling. If during this your own prayerful cries arise from some word of the psalm or prayer, do not cut them off, but let them come.

We are taught to have a prayer rule and to stick with each day. We are told to memorize our routine prayers. But the danger is that our prayer time becomes too routine and we do not "embrace each word, not just with thought but with feeling." We can easily fly through our prayer rule, like we are on automatic pilot, and never allow for those precious moments of spontaneous prayer where our heart is fully open realizing God's mercy and help.

We do not need to have a complex set of prayers for effective prayer. We can have an effective prayer time with only one simple prayer such as the Jesus Prayer or the Lord's Prayer. But, we must be attentive to each word as we repeat the prayer over and over for our allotted prayer time. The words must drop into our heart and penetrate it deeply with feeling. With such attention, our hearts are opened and God's grace reaches out to embrace us with His mercy.

Saint Theophan says,

Labor, for nothing will come from you otherwise. If you are not successful in prayer, do not expect success in anything else. It is the root off everything.

Source: http://orthodoxwayoflife.blogspot.com.by/2011/10/my-struggle-in-prayer.html

Do we cooperate in our salvation? Do our efforts make a difference?

These questions lie at the heart of a centuries-old religious debate in Christianity. Classically, the Protestant reformers said, “No,” to these questions, arguing that we are saved solely and utterly by God’s grace, His unmerited favor. The Catholic Church replied that “faith without works” is dead and that faith alone is insufficient.

This debate, with various twists and turns, has continued down through the centuries of Christian culture. At one point, there were complaints of “cheap grace,” where the exaltation of pure grace over works led to a very complacent and lazy Christianity. There were also periods of extreme reaction, with guilt-driven excesses of devotion.

Eastern Orthodoxy is a late-comer to this debate, but it is not a stranger. Contemporary Orthodox are quick to latch on to the doctrine of “synergy” and take sides against the cheap grace of Protestant Evangelicalism. Classically, Orthodox thought holds both that we are saved through the action of God (grace), but that we necessarily cooperated in that work (synergy=cooperation). For many converts, this balance has seemed attractive and a needed corrective to the feel-good theology of contemporary Christian culture. But it has a dark side.

That dark side is found in the echoes of the guilt-ridden specters of works-righteousness. How much cooperation is enough? For it is obvious that we do not pray as we should or give as we should – or do anything as we should. If our cooperation is required, are we failing? For many in our culture the answer is inevitably, “Yes.” They never do enough, anywhere at any time. Their lives are haunted with disapproval and shame, well-worn paths that rarely let them venture into joy.

But it is a mistake to embrace synergy as part of the classical Protestant/Catholic debate. It was an answer to a question asked in a very different context and in centuries that long-predated the modern conversation. Synergy is not a talking-point within the grace-versus-works debate.

Synergy is certainly an affirmation of the human role in salvation. Its most famous example is found in the ‘yes’ of the Mother of God in the Incarnation of Christ. Her acceptance and embrace of the heavenly announcement are seen as necessary components in God-becoming-man. God does not impose Himself upon human freedom. Our free response is required for the life of true Personhood that is the hallmark of salvation.

Synergy is properly seen as response rather than work. The whole life of salvation is marked by grace and is gracious in all its aspects. Consider this statement in St. Paul:

Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness…(Rom 4:4-5).

There is a kind of work that has no wages and does not belong to the world of debt described by St. Paul. And it is this sort of work that is encompassed in the term synergy. That work can be described as gracious response. It is worth noting two instances in which the work of our spiritual lives is described:

Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?”

Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.” (Joh 6:28-29)

and

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1Th 5:16-18)

In the first case, “work” is equated with believing. It means that the work we do is to love Christ and to keep His commandments. In the second case, the “will of God” is fulfilled in giving thanks for all things. The dynamic of saving grace in our lives is marked by becoming like God. God gives graciously and freely. We receive graciously and freely by giving thanks for all things.

In this manner, our own “work” is itself marked by a kind of grace. We cannot hear the meaning of grace in English, but in the Greek, it also carries the meaning of “gift” (it’s the same word). Gifts are never given with an expectation of return – they are gracious and free. But they are only rightly received with thanksgiving. This is true of the life of grace in the believer.

There is a highly moralized version of synergy, in which God is seen to give us grace, but we must do something in our lives to make it effective. In this model we are always judging the “results” of our “cooperation” with grace, and assuming that the lousy outcomes we see are simply our fault. This experience becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure and remorse. It is a distortion of grace-filled synergy.

I have written (and been criticized for it) about the “unmoral Christian.” My intention has been to unmask and disarm this false notion of synergy. We indeed are not saved through the “works” that Protestants tend to criticize. The “work” we do is largely a state of heart from which all subsequent grace-empowered actions flow. That state of heart is best described as “grateful thanksgiving.” The Eucharistic life is the true existence of the Christian. The giving of thanks is the first of all works and the sine qua non of the spiritual life. Everything that proceeds from the giving of thanks works to our salvation. That which does not proceed from the giving of thanks tends to work to our destruction.

There has grown up a virtual cottage industry of Orthodox commentary (particularly on the internet where all of us can self-publish). This commentary (including that by some priests) is often marked by poor theological training or understanding, by argument and debate, and by an extreme lack of experience in the actual guidance of souls towards healing and salvation. That is to say – much of it is worthless and some of it is actually damaging.

This can especially be true in discussions of synergy. The wrong treatment of such pastoral matters can produce despair and distrust in naive readers whose expectations have been raised through the reading of the lives of the saints and yet whose experience is marked by the same repeated moral failures that they have always known. Well-intentioned but ignorant writers argue that what is needed is yet more moral goading. I have been criticized for possibly lightening the moral load or suggesting that all moral effort is of no use.

One form of moral effort (the most common) is indeed of no use. It belongs to the same category as the works criticized by Protestant theology. We pray, with no understanding, laboring to complete a prayer rule that amounts to little more than “going through the motions.” We fast as though every slip were a matter of sin in need of confession. Some go so far as to carefully search through the labels on every grocery product, seeking for tale-tell signs of “milk products,” having invented for themselves a new yoke of bondage that turns Orthodox fasting into a new version of kosher. In short, there is a form of asceticism that is ill-taught and ill-practiced and produces either despairing Christians or oppressive Pharisees (sometimes in one and the same person).

The grounding of the Christian life is thanksgiving. If you cannot fast with thanksgiving, your fast will be of little use. The same extends to all Christian practices and commandments. The essential work of the Christian life is grateful thanksgiving. It is for this reason that Fr. Alexander Schmemann wrote: “Anyone capable of thanksgiving is capable of salvation.”

There are very deep forms of asceticism, but even these are rightly rooted in the giving of thanks. In the 20th century, perhaps no saint is better known for his ascetical achievements than St. Silouan of Athos. He is known to have endured some 15 years of the experience of hell in his prayers. At its depth, he heard Christ say, “Keep your mind in hell and despair not.” His interpreter and biographer, the Elder Sophrony of Essex, however, is reported to have said, “If you will give God thanks always and for all things, you will fulfill the saying, ‘Keep your mind in hell and despair not.’”

The first duty of a spiritual father is to lead a soul into the practice of giving thanks. In this manner they will acquire the Spirit of Peace and be able to sustain the Christian life. But without thanksgiving, they will only fall into despair or delusion. Thanksgiving is the foundation of the Christian life. When this is understood and in place, other things can be properly understood.

For example, it is common to read in the spiritual writings of Orthodoxy (and to hear in the services) terms such as “self-loathing.” This is quite common, for example, in the Elder Sophrony’s work. It is very easily taken in the wrong way and those without a proper foundation will likely come away with a terrible distortion.

“Self-loathing,” in the sense that it is used, is not brought about by the contemplation of our sins (a moral condemnation and disgust with the self). It is rather brought about by the contemplation of God’s love and His fullness of being. It is only as we see ourselves in the light of God Himself, that we can “achieve” the “self-loathing” that Sophrony describes. But even this is joyful, because it takes place in the gracious presence of the grace-giving God.

Thanksgiving, as gracious gift, draws us into the very life of the Trinity. For it is that Life that is described by St. John Chrysostom in his Liturgy:

The priest prays: “…but account me, Your sinful and unworthy servant, worthy to offer gifts to You. For You are the Offerer and the Offered, the Receiver and the Received, O Christ our God, and to You we ascribe glory, together with Your Father, Who is without beginning, and Your all-holy, good, and life-creating Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages.”

It is this gifting life of the Offerer and the Offered, the Receiver and the Received that we enter as we rightly give thanks always for all things. This is our work, our true synergy, without which we cannot be saved.

By Fr. Stephen Freeman

Source: https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/glory2godforallthings/2015/04/17/the-work-that-saves/

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