The Catalog of Good Deeds

By Fr. Andrew Lemeshonok

We are accustomed to being guided solely by our personal experience. We do not have the courage to speak about the struggle and the triumph over the sin because it is beyond human power.

Notwithstanding this fact, we see that there is God and there is the grace of the Holy Spirit that empowers and restores every person who repents. We hear the words of St Symeon the New Theologian that genuine repentance can bring back one’s chastity.

Indeed, it’s a miracle when someone rejects the sin and goes on to subject himself to God completely. It is a miracle that can happen in everyone’s life. Currently, we see the opposite. People tend to quarrel and say mean words to each other. They offend and criticise one another. They indulge in self-pity. People just won’t admit that they are guilty before God. When we come to confess, we see a priest who is a human being like us, not Jesus Christ. We utter some words which don’t contain the treasure of repentance. In fact, repentance is a radical change — a transformation that the Lord does to us.

It would be great if we learned to stand in church and take part in worship, in the Sacraments of Christ that bring renewal to our souls. Our souls must constantly receive the aid of grace to be able to wage war against the world of sin and lures.

May God help us not to lose that droplet of the Spirit that we now have. May we preserve it till Easter. It is extremely easy to lose the Spirit. One can lose the connection with God for just a single word, a single thought, for taking offence or passing judgement. That’s terrible. We must stay awake and remain attentive: how we look, how we speak, and how we walk — it does matter. Everything must be graceful and filled with God’s Spirit. We came to church not only to look at the images of saints and enjoy them because the light of Christ shines through all the saints. We must become holy, too. We must be able to maintain in our hearts the holiness that we have partaken of and share it with our neighbours.

God bestows so much love, care, and mercy upon each one of us! We have touched the immortal Fountain of Life — the Chalice — so many times! Why are we still the leaking vessels, unable to hold that grace? Passions, despondence, desperation, and resentment besiege us, blocking our neighbours and God from our sight like walls. We must keep breaking that wall at all times. St Seraphim of Sarov would carry heavy rocks on his back and say, “I torture him who tortures me.” We must always remember that the enemy is near. We must not rely on ourselves. Instead, we should seek God’s help and God’s blessing for every moment of our lives.

March 10, 2018

St. Elisabeth Convent

The Great Lent is the best time to get down to the battle against passions. Sin, passion, vice, and addiction are related concepts. Alcohol, drug, and gambling addictions are arguably the most antisocial passions that change a person’s lifestyle rapidly and radically.

It has long been evident that dependency is not just a healthcare problem. It is a spiritual problem, too. Luckily, the Church has an effective treatment method grounded in the teachings of the Holy Fathers. Thus, St Elisabeth Convent has organised the Orthodox Temperance Society. Archpriest Eugene Pavelchuk supervised a similar organisation in Hrodna for six years. Today, he puts his experience to use in our Convent, too.

– Father Eugene, could you please tell us what the main idea behind the Orthodox Temperance Society is?

– The Orthodox Temperance Society in Hrodna was established six years ago when I served in the Holy Protection Cathedral of that city. Those who suffer from alcohol, drug, gambling, and other dependencies, receive therapy based on the prescriptions of the Holy Fathers. With the blessing of Archpriest Andrew Lemeshonok, the spiritual father of St Elisabeth Convent, an Orthodox Temperance Society has been established in our Convent, too.

Any passion is first and foremost an illness of the soul, even if it is linked to certain chemical substances. Alcohol and drugs are merely means of the subjugation of one’s soul. An individual drinks alcohol not because he likes its taste but because he likes the altered state of mind, the fake happiness and imaginary joy that ensues. This is what passion means: it’s a spoof, a devil’s trap.

You can get rid of dependency only by changing your heart. You can break free only if you stop loving vice and direct your steps to God. This road is incredibly thorny and cumbersome. However, we have patristic instructions how to fight passions; hence, we possess all the necessary tools and resources at hand. Of course, it is achievable only with that person’s active engagement and with God’s help. You cannot defeat sin without God and his grace.

The first step towards recovery is to admit that you are ill and to recognise that you cannot crush the dependency on your own. When you are humbled by your powerlessness, you become humble before God. Let’s recall the parable of the prodigal son. He enjoyed his life drinking wine and partying with harlots. As long as he had the fake sensation of happiness, he was okay and did not want to change anything. Only when, a son of a king that he was, he started herding pigs in exchange for eating their food with them — it should be noted that even this promise was broken: And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him (Luke 15:16) — did he finally acknowledge his desperate situation. Only after hitting rock bottom the prodigal son finally came to his senses and repented.

The devil is a liar. He never gives anything for free to a human being. He just promises: “You’ll have fun! Your life will be flashy!” In reality, the person’s life turns grey, hollow, and disappointing.

The purpose of the Temperance Society is to open up the way for a person to start healing his soul. Our Society is the starting point which can spur one’s improvement, provided that he is willing to participate in it. Being healed does not mean “being able to drink like everyone else.” No! Being healed means living a sober life with God, which is completely on a different level. As soon as a person tastes a God-filled life, the direction of his life changes.

It’s a long and challenging road but there’s no way around. The quick and dirty ways that various organisations offer, are bogus. The devil also suggested a quick and dirty way, didn’t he? As soon as you eat that fruit, you’ll become like God (…in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Cf. Genesis 3:5). God had prepared a long and rugged but the only possible path to becoming like God — the path of self-discipline, humility, and submission. The Lord Jesus Christ did not assure us that this road would be easy. He showed the way of carrying one’s own cross: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. (Matthew 16: 24). If someone promises to make a person free from alcohol or drug abuse, he is a liar who leads that person astray…

– You say that the starting point for a person to be healed is when he realises his dependency and his illness. What if someone refuses to accept the fact of dependency? What can his relatives do? What should they do to motivate their ill family member to start fighting his addiction?

– One will admit that he is ill and make proper conclusions only when he is completely disappointed in his passion. The disappointment comes only when one feels the consequences of his sin. Passions attract people. People like their passions because they have turned into habits. If one doesn’t get hurt after falling, will he come to the right conclusions? No, he won’t. God loves us much stronger than we love our own children. Nevertheless, he lets us fall down, although he supports us invisibly to prevent us from being hurt too badly. The Lord allows an individual to suffer precisely as much as he can handle: If the suffering is too mild, the person won’t learn, but if it’s too harsh, the person can become angry or restless. This is how the great God’s love is made manifest.

As far as the immediate family of the addicts are concerned, they face the tricky challenge. They have to love the unfortunate person but do it the right way, i.e., with a clear view of the situation. The most vital part of our work with the addicts’ relatives is to help them to allow the sharp God’s love into their hearts by knowing God and to extend this love to their relatives. The love that they should learn to communicate is not the excessive love but the right kind of love when you feel where you should let that person fall and not to safeguard him, not to live his life for him. The point is not to help the addict to get rid of his passion temporarily. The point is to help him to change his soul, to help his heart to feel God, accept God’s love, which will then set everything straight. It’s hardly possible for our human reasoning to find the precise level of affection and engagement. It’s possible with God, though.

Relatives and friends of the addicts find the new reality of addiction hard to put up with. They become infuriated with the sick family member. There are cases when a woman goes to a mutual-aid group and then suddenly makes a disastrous decision, “Why do I stand that husband for so long? I want a divorce!” And she gets a divorce. Sure, if a man wastes a long time drinking heavily and clearly does not want to change anything, his wife is entitled to a church divorce. However, I am afraid of extreme actions like these… How much time should a woman spend waiting patiently? Six months, a year, three, five years, a decade — how do we find out? Right now, her husband doesn’t want to admit that he is ill. Half a year later, God will open his heart. Then what? Sometimes the man abandons his sin but his wife has been so frustrated and embittered that she doesn’t want and cannot stay with him any longer. “I loathe you,” she says. Is it a Christian approach? How do you explain the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife (1 Cor. 7:14) then? It’s genuinely elusive. That’s why dealing with the co-dependent is much harder than dealing with the dependent.

– Where can one go and who can one ask if one wants to participate in the Temperance Society and start his way out of addiction? Where and when do you meet?

– Our Temperance Society works with the addicts systematically in accordance with the teachings of the Holy Fathers. We meet twice a week. We read an Akathist to the Inexhaustible Chalice icon of the Mother of God on Sundays at 6 PM in St John of Shanghai Church followed by a meeting. Additionally, we meet for a friendly discussion in that church every Thursday at 6.30 PM.

Of course, we are in the very beginning of our journey. We have a lot to do together. When the participants of our Society gain enough love to be able to empathise with one another openly, the Society will transform into a real community. Little by little we are getting closer to it. Recently, one of our brothers had a breakdown. I said, “Dear brothers, let’s pray because one of our brothers feels bad and it can be devastating.” All the brothers prayed together, and the brother could feel it. He returned to our group saying, “Forgive me brothers.” He was sincere. Gradually, God willing, we plan to reach a new level where we will have the genuine Divine love among us.

Interview by Maria Kotova

March 2, 2018

“One can climb – at once – to the 30th step by practicing humility and love. Because, love and humility surpass any virtue”.

(Metropolitan Anthonie Plamadeala)

Found mostly in older churches and monasteries, “The Ladder to Heaven” is the iconographic image of St. John Climacus book called “The Ladder of Divine Ascent”. The book and the icon are also known as “Leastvita,” in Slavonic “the ladder”.

St. John Climacus lived between 579-649 in the monastic community of St. Catherine of Mount Sinai; for many struggles he took on in this monastery, he is also called “St. John of Sinai”.

St. John entered the Sinai community at the age of 16, after having been instructed in many sciences of the time. For about nineteen years, the saint had as holy confessor, the Blessed Martyrios of Sinai. After the passing away of his elder, St. John withdraws into the desert, in the cell called Thola(s), few kilometers from the monastery of Sinai. In this solitary place, Saint John will continue his ascetic struggle for forty years.

At the request of the monastic community of Mt. Sinai, St. John became the abbot and spiritual instructor of the convent. Later, at the request of Blessed John form Raitt, saint John will write “The Latter of Divine Ascent”, a book divided into thirty chapters or steps necessary for salvation. This work was translated into many languages and became an important part of the Philokalia.

The Ladder of Divine Ascent in iconography

According to the writings of Dionysius of Furnas, recorded in his book “The Erminia of Byzantine painting”, the icon often called “The ladder of/to Heaven” is closely related to the work of St. John of the Ladder. It should be noted that the ladder of salvation does not pertain only to the monastics, but also to the Christians in the world, whether married or not (see commentaries of St. Theophan the Recluse on The Ladder, Instructions for the layman).

A monastic community is depicted at the bottom of the icon, on both the right and the left sides. Monks of different ages are represented standing at the gate of the monastery and looking towards the ladder. The Ladder of Divine Ascent, shows thirty steps by the number of chapters (stages) written in St. John Climacus’ book. In some iconographic representations, the Ladder has 33 steps according to the number of years Christ lived on earth.

The Ladder is placed in an inclined position with its lower-end supported on the ground and its upper-end touching the Heaven. Monks are represented on the entire length of the ladder, climbing towards Heaven. These monks are an imagine of the spiritual life: some are just reflecting, others set foot on the first step, some are climbing slowly, others rise more quickly, some other fall off the ladder (from all levels), while others reach its end where Christ awaits them.

The top of the ladder depicts many angelic figures, each helping one monk on his way to salvation; while some monks are just guided by the angels, others are taken by the hands. At the bottom of the ladder, we can see more or less creepy figures, which represent the devils, each striving to pull down a soul. Some monks look unhindered towards Christ, while others barely keep one foot on every single step. Few angels are working to remove the demons with long spears.

At the last portion of the ladder, our Savior is portrayed in a bright medallion/ light. The monk on the last rung of the ladder is depicted as being old and wise, clothed in humility and looking towards Christ. In return, our Savior catches him by the hand, while crowing his head with the crown of victory.

At the bottom of the icon, a terrifying dragon with its mouth wide open imagines hell. Between the sharp teeth of the dragon is a fallen monk, while others are about to fall.

In some iconographic representations, St. John Climacus himself is painted directing the monks towards salvation, while holding a paper roll in his hands that reads: “My brother struggle with all thy power so you may be pardoned from your many wretched sins. With many hard labors and good deeds on those steps rise up, awaking your mind with exhausting vigils.”

Source: https://orthodoxword.wordpress.com/2013/04/14/the-ladder-of-divine-ascent-in-iconography/

Archaeologists announced they found the first physical evidence of the existence of Prophet Isaiah, The Daily Beast says with the reference to the recent article in Biblical Archaeology Review magazine. The evidence itself comes in the form of a small piece of clay (an impression left by a seal), a mere 0.4 inches long, which appears to bear the inscription “Isaiah the prophet.”

The item was found during the excavations of the trash heap in Jerusalem. The debris contained figurines, pottery fragments, pieces of ivory, and some clay seal impressions, known as bullae. These impressions were created when the owners of the seals stamped their seals into the soft clay and include the mark of King Hezekiah.

According to Eliat Mazar, an Israel archaeologist, “alongside the bullae of Hezekiah there were 22 additional bullae, among these was the bulla of “Yesha‘yah[u] Nvy[?],” which is most straightforwardly translated as “Isaiah the Prophet.” Given the importance of Isaiah to religious history, this seal impression is of great significance to Jews and Christians alike.

According to the Book of Isaiah, Isaiah was an 8 century BC prophet during the reign of King Hezekiah. Isaiah began prophesying during the reign of King Ussiah and appears to have lived through the reigns of Kings Jotham, Ahaz, and the first 14 years of the reign of Hezekiah. “People loved him so much that they even wrote “The Ascend of Isaiah” – a story about his martyrdom and ascend to Heaven”.

“Now, for the first time, we have an example of what might be his “signature”. Not only is this proof that Isaiah existed (not something scholars truly disputed), but also the evidence of his role in 8 century BC Jerusalem society. Not everyone who had a seal was of elevated high status (as they were a means of solidifying identity), but the Bible does describe Isaiah as a counselor of the king to whom the monarch would turn for advice. The discovery of his seal impressions in close proximity to that of King Hezekiah confirms the picture of a court prophet that we get from the Bible” – the article says.

Mazar acknowledges in her article that there are some problems with the seal. Some of the letters that appear to have broken off. Additionally, most seals identify their owner with reference to their father “X, the son of Y.” The inscription on the Isaiah’s seal does not correspond to this format. According to Mazar, the inscription on the seal states his profession – prophet.

Robert Cargill, the editor of Biblical Archaeology Review, told The Daily Beast that this was a “carefully written, responsible article” and that the magazine was careful not to claim definitively to have found the seal of Isaiah. He added that he personally believes that Mazar found the seal of Isaiah and said that it was “the first archaeological and non-biblical reference to the prophet”.

Source: http://www.bogoslov.ru/text/5741693/index.html

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An Icon Based on a Book: The Ladder of Divine Ascent in Iconography

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Archaeologists Found Physical Evidence of the Existence of Prophet Isaiah

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