Ἡ πνευματικὴ διαθήκη τοῦ Γέροντος Πορφυρίου

 

Ἀγαπητὰ πνευματικά μου παιδιά,
Τώρα ποὺ ἀκόμη ἔχω τὰ φρένας μου σώας θέλω νὰ σᾶς πῶ μερικὲς συμβουλές. Ἀπὸ μικρὸ παιδὶ ὅλο στὶς ἁμαρτίες ἤμουνα. Καὶ ὅταν μὲ ἔστελνε ἡ μητέρα μου νὰ φυλάω τὰ ζῶα στὸ βουνό, γιατί ὁ πατέρας μου, ἐπειδὴ ἤμασταν πτωχοὶ εἶχε πάει στὴν Ἀμερική, γιὰ νὰ ἐργαστεῖ στὴ διώρυγα τοῦ Παναμᾶ γιὰ ἐμᾶς τὰ παιδιά του, ἐκεῖ ποὺ ἔβοσκα τὰ ζῶα, συλλαβιστὰ διάβαζα τὸ βίο τοῦ Ἁγίου Ἰωάννου τοῦ Καλυβίτου καὶ πάρα πολὺ ἀγάπησα τὸν Ἅγιο Ἰωάννη καὶ ἔκανα πάρα πολλὲς προσευχὲς σὰν μικρὸ παιδὶ ποὺ ἤμουν 12 – 15 χρονῶν, δὲν θυμᾶμαι ἀκριβῶς καλά, καὶ θέλοντας νὰ τὸν μιμηθῶ μὲ πολὺ ἀγώνα ἔφυγα ἀπὸ τοὺς γονεῖς μου κρυφὰ καὶ ἦλθα στὰ Καυσοκαλύβια τοῦ Ἁγίου Ὄρους καὶ ὑποτάχτηκα σὲ δύο γέροντες αὐταδέλφους, Παντελεήμονα καὶ Ἰωαννίκιο. Μοῦ ἔτυχε νὰ εἶναι πολὺ εὐσεβεῖς καὶ ἐνάρετοι καὶ τοὺς ἀγάπησα πάρα πολὺ καὶ γι’ αὐτό, μὲ τὴν εὐχή τους, τοὺς ἔκανα ἄκρα ὑπακοή. Αὐτὸ μὲ βοήθησε πάρα πολύ, αἰσθάνθηκα καὶ μεγάλη ἀγάπη καὶ πρὸς τὸν Θεό, καὶ πέρασα πάρα πολὺ καλά. Ἀλλά, κατὰ παραχώρηση Θεοῦ, γιὰ τὶς ἁμαρτίες μου, ἀρρώστησα πολὺ καὶ οἱ Γέροντές μου μοῦ εἶπαν νὰ πάω στοὺς γονεῖς μου στὸ χωριό μου εἰς τὸν ἅγιο Ἰωάννη Εὐβοίας. Καὶ ἐνῶ ἀπὸ μικρὸ παιδὶ εἶχα κάνει πολλὲς ἁμαρτίες, ὅταν ξαναπῆγα στὸν κόσμο, συνέχισα τὶς ἁμαρτίες, οἱ ὁποῖες μέχρι σήμερα ἔγιναν πάρα πολλές.
Ὁ κόσμος ὅμως μὲ πῆρε ἀπὸ καλὸ καὶ ὅλοι φωνάζουνε ὅτι εἶμαι ἅγιος. Ἐγὼ ὅμως αἰσθάνομαι ὅτι εἶμαι ὁ πιὸ ἁμαρτωλὸς ἄνθρωπος τοῦ κόσμου. Ὅσα ἐνθυμόμουνα βεβαίως τὰ ἐξομολογήθηκα, ἀλλὰ γνωρίζω ὅτι γιὰ αὐτὰ ποὺ ἐξομολογήθηκα μὲ συγχώρησε ὁ Θεός, ἀλλὰ ὅμως τώρα ἔχω ἕνα συναίσθημα ὅτι καὶ τὰ πνευματικά μου ἁμαρτήματα εἶναι πάρα πολλὰ καὶ παρακαλῶ ὅσοι μὲ ἔχετε γνωρίσει νὰ κάνετε προσευχὴ γιὰ μένα, διότι καὶ ἐγώ, ὅταν ζοῦσα, πολὺ ταπεινὰ ἔκανα προσευχὴ γιὰ σᾶς, ἀλλὰ ὅμως τώρα ποὺ θὰ πάω γιὰ τὸν οὐρανὸ ἔχω τὸ συναίσθημα ὅτι ὁ Θεὸς θὰ μοῦ πεῖ: Τί θέλεις ἐσὺ ἐδῶ; Ἐγὼ ἕνα ἔχω νὰ τοῦ πῶ. Δὲν εἶμαι ἄξιος, Κύριε, γιὰ ἐδῶ, ἀλλὰ ὅτι θέλει ἡ ἀγάπη σου ἂς κάμει γιὰ μένα. Ἀπὸ ἐκεῖ καὶ πέρα δὲν ξέρω τί θὰ γίνει. Ἐπιθυμῶ ὅμως νὰ ἐνεργήσει ἡ ἀγάπη τοῦ Θεοῦ. Καὶ πάντα εὔχομαι τὰ πνευματικά μου παιδιὰ νὰ ἀγαπήσουν τὸν Θεό, ποὺ εἶναι τὸ πᾶν, γιὰ νὰ μᾶς ἀξιώσει νὰ μποῦμε στὴν ἐπίγειο ἄκτιστο ἐκκλησία Του. Γιατὶ ἀπὸ ἐδῶ πρέπει νὰ ἀρχίσουμε. Ἐγὼ πάντα εἶχα τὴν προσπάθεια νὰ προσεύχομαι καὶ νὰ διαβάζω τοὺς Ὕμνους τῆς Ἐκκλησίας, τὴν Ἁγία Γραφὴ καὶ τοὺς βίους τῶν Ἁγίων μας καὶ εὔχομαι καὶ ἐσεῖς νὰ κάνετε τὸ ἴδιο. Ἐγὼ προσπάθησα μὲ τὴ Χάρη τοῦ Θεοῦ νὰ τὸν πλησιάσω τὸ Θεὸ καὶ εὔχομαι καὶ σεῖς νὰ κάνετε τὸ ἴδιο.
Παρακαλῶ ὅλους σας νὰ μὲ συγχωρέσετε γιὰ ὅ,τι σᾶς στεναχώρησα.

Ἱερομόναχος Πορφύριος

Ἐν Καυσοκαλυβίοις τῇ 4/7 Ἰουνίου 1991

Love of Christ is Love of the Church

Christ created the Church on earth as His body with Him as the head. To love Christ is to love His Church. Elder Porphyrios says the Church is “exactly the same as Paradise in heaven.” All souls are one in His Church.

Elder Porphyrios says

Love, worship of and craving for God, the union with Christ and with the Church is Paradise on earth. The services of the Church are the way we can express our love for Him and He His love for us.

He says,

The divine services of the Church are words in which we converse and speak to God with our worship and with our love. The hours spent closest to paradise are the hours spent in the church together with all our brethren when we celebrate the divine Liturgy, when we sin and when we receive Holy communion. How do we show our passion for Him? When we love Christ we enthusiastically observe the formal aspects of the church, the services, and are eager to participate in the sacraments especially the sacrament of Holy Communion. We enthusiastically come to church to express our love for our lover.

He says,

The divine services are a very great affair. The precondition is for everything to be done with eros, with interest and with a sincere disposition to worship Christ--not as a chore and not perfunctorily, but with eros and divine enthusiasm. Worship must spring from the whole soul and whole heart. What does this mean? Your only thought must be God… It is not something that is done under duress. You feel a spiritual delight and pleasure. It’s not like the homework a child does for school. It is like the passionate love between people, but higher and spiritual.

Above all, the sacrament of Holy Communion is an act of Divine Love. This is an act of joining in ecstatic union with Him.

Elder Ephriam of Arizona writes about the splendor of the Divine Liturgy.

The Divine Liturgy, what a splendor indeed! Man has been honored by God in such a way that He Himself comes down to earth with His Angelic Orders every time there is a Liturgy, in order to nurture man with His Most Holy Body and His Most Precious Blood! For He has given us everything. Is there anything physical or spiritual, perishable or everlasting, that has not been offered to us? None! Is there anything superior to His Most Holy Body and Blood, which is given to us on a daily basis? There is certainly not. God has enabled man, who is full of soil and dirt, to serve the Divine Liturgy. So priceless is the Divine Love that just a tiny drop exceeds any earthly, physical and secular love. The Orthodox faith is all about Love.

Elder Porphyrios says,

Our religion is love, it is eros, it is enthusiasm, it is madness, it is longing for the divine. All these things are within us. Our soul demands that we attain them.

Reference: Wounded by Love, pp 90, 92, 165, 166

When Christ Enters Our Heart Life Changes

The Way of Love is the simplest and most direct way to join in union with Christ. Through our love of Him we are sanctified.

Elder Porphyrios says, 

Whoever experiences Christ within himself, experiences ineffable things––holy and sacred things. He lives in exultation. 

With Christ as our lover there is no loneliness. We find peace and joy. The thought of Christ permeates everything. We find patience and have endurance of everything.

Elder Porphyrios says that with our love of Christ even our passions disappear. There is no longer possibility for hatred, dislikes, anxieties or depressions. Not even death concerns us. He says this longing we have for Christ makes even death seem like a bridge what we can cross in an instant to continue our life in Christ We find ourselves in Christ and Him in us.

With our Love of Him there is no longer pain or suffering. Our craving for God, our passionate love for Him, overcomes all pain.

He says 

Divine craving defeats every pain, and so every pain is transformed and becomes love of Christ. Love Christ and He will love you All pains will pass away, they will be defeated and transformed. 

Everything is transformed by this love. 

The love of God transforms everything; it sanctifies, amends and changes the nature of everything. 

Reference: Wounded by Love, pp 99-100



Elder Porphyrios

Major Steps of the Spiritual LIfe

 



There are two basic phases in our path of spiritual growth described by Fr. Dimitru Staniloae.

The first is the practical phase of doing things.
The practicle phase, that of doing things, is intended to raise the beiever's nature from the state subject to the passions and to elevate it to and by, the steps of virtues, until it reaches love.... The purpose of this phase is the liberation of man from the passions.The scond is the contemplative phase.
The contemplative pahase represents it reintegration, unity and simplicity, and its exclusive focus on God, the One and Infinite. ...
Only he who has cleansed the mind through dispassion can go on to knowledge or contemplation.... Only a clean soul is a shinny mirror, unspotted by passionate attachment to the things of the world, capable of receiving divine knowledge. We can identify a third phase of mystical knowledge.
The holy Fathers strictly distinguish this gnosis or contemplation, from the spiritual knowledge of the world aided by divine grace, which itself is distinguished from profane knowledge.Saint Maximus the Confessor described these phases in this way:
Of the three steps, the first is that of beginners, who must strive to become proficient in the virtues. The virtues are seven in number*. At the beginning stands faith; at the end love, immediately preceded by dispassion. Love concentrates all the virtues in it and carries man to the knowledge or contemplation. The final step is mystical knowledge, no longer concerned with the reasons of things but with God Himself... this knowledge of God is an ecstasy of love, which persists unmoved in a concentration on God. It is reached in the state of the deification of man, or of his union with God.


Dionysius the Areopagite described the phases as Purification, Illumination and Perfection. For most of us we are most concerned about the first stage of purification. It's important to recognize our level in our spiritual development. Many writings are aimed at aspirants at the highest levels of spirtual development. Following advice intended for one at a higher level can be detrimental to your progress. It is essential to have a spiritual Father to guide you.

* Faith, fear of God, self-restraint, patience, hope, dispassion, and love.
Reference: Orthodox Spirituality pp 69 - 73.


 Fr. Dimitru Staniloae

Η εμφάνιση της Παναγίας στον Όσιο Αθανάσιο τον Αθωνίτη

κατά το έτος 963, συνέβη λιμός στην του διάσταση, κατάκτησε την αρετή και Αυτοκρατορία, ένεκα του οποίου εδημιουργήθη έλλειψη τροφών και στο Άγιον Όρος. Επειδή είχε αρχίσει η οικοδομή της Λαύρας και να εξαντλούνται τα υλικά και τα τρόφιμα, ο Όσιος απεφάσισεν να μεταβεί στις Κα­ρυές για να συμβουλευθεί τον Πρώτο και τους γέροντες επί του πρακτέου. Ενώ λοιπόν επορεύετο προς τις Καρυές, σε αρκετή απόστα­ση από τη Μονή, συναντά μια σεμνοτάτην και ωραιωτάτην γυναίκα. Από την θέα της εταράχθη. Αλλά πρώτη η γυνή ερώτα τον Αθανάσιον «Πόθεν έρχεσαί, Αθανάσιε, και που πο­ρεύεσαι;».
Έκπληκτος ο Όσιος απάντη­σε «Ποία είσαι εσύ, η οποία μου ομιλείς και γνωρίζεις το όνομά μου;».
«Εγώ είμαι η Μήτηρ του Κυ­ρίου και προστάτις σου» απα­ντά εκείνη, και συνεχίζει «Αλλ' είπε μοι, διατί εγκατέλιπες την Λαύραν, και που μεταβαίνεις;»
Και ο Όσιος: «Δεν πιστεύω ότι είσαι η Κεχαριτωμένη, εάν δεν ιδώ κάποιο σημείον».
«Δίκαιον έχεις, Αθανάσιε δια να πιστεύσεις, ιδού» απάντησε. «Χτύπησε σταυροειδώς με την ράβδο σου αυτήν την πέτρα επικαλούμενος το όνομα της Παναγίας Τριάδος και θα ιδείς ευθύς να αναβλύζει άφθονον και αστείρευτον ύδωρ».
Πεισθείς ο Όσιος, εκτύπησε την ενώ­πιον του πέτρα και αμέσως ανέβλυσεν ύδωρ, και το σημείον εκείνο έκτοτε ονομάσθηκε ύδωρ του αγιάσματος, έν­θα εκτίσθη ναϋδριον της Ζωοδόχου Πηγής.
Μετά το γεγονός τούτο, προσέπεσε ενώπιον της Παναγίας και εζήτησε συγγνώμη. Τότε η Παναγία υποσχέθηκε στον Όσιο να αναλάβει την τροφοδοσία της Μονής και των άλλων αναγκαίων, και τον προέτρεψε να επιστρέψει στην Λαύρα, και έγινε ευθύς άφαντος.
Ο Αθανάσιος επέστρεψε στη Μονή. Μόλις διέβη την κεντρικήν πύλη και εισήλθεν στην αυλή, βλέπει ενώπιον του και πάλι την Υπεραγίαν θεοτόκον, η οποία τον οδήγησε στην αποθήκη της Μονής, η οποία ήταν πλέον πλήρης τροφίμων. Δεικνύουσα δε η Παναγία την ευλο­γία εκείνη του θεού, λέγει στον Όσιο «θέλω, τέκνον μου Αθανάσιε, εις το εξής να μη ορίσης εσύ και οι διάδοχοί σουΟικονόμον εις την Μονήν, διότι εγώ θα είμαι η Οικονόμισσα της Λαύρας μέχρι της συντέλειας των αιώνων» και έγινε πάλι άφαντος. Πράγματι, ο Όσιος κατόπιν αυτών συνέχισε την ολοκλήρωση της Λαύρας, μέχρι συντελέσεως της οποίας επήρκεσεν η ευλογία εκείνη των τροφίμων. Στο σημείο όπου ενεφανίσθη η Πα­ναγία ανηγέρθη ύστερα, και υπάρχει έως σήμερον το Προσκυνητάριον τηςΠαναγίας της Οικονομίσσης, μετ' ακοιμήτου κανδήλας.



Όσιο Αθανάσιο τον Αθωνίτη

ΕΙΝΑΙ ΚΑΛΟ ΝΑ ΕΧΟΥΜΕ ΜΟΝΟ ΕΝΑ ΠΝΕΥΜΑΤΙΚΟ, Η ΕΝΑ ΚΟΝΤΑ ΜΑΣ ΚΑΙ ΕΝΑ ΜΑΚΡΙΑ ΜΑΣ, ΣΤΗΝ ΥΠΗΡΕΣΙΑ ΜΑΣ;

 

Ο πατέρας Αρσένιος Αγιορείτης υπογραμμίζει...
Αγαπητέ μου, καλά είναι, όπου και να εξομολογείσαι, να εξομολογείσαι με ειλικρίνεια. Στον μακρινό Πνευματικό, άλλοτε μπορείς και άλλοτε δεν ημπορείς να φτάσεις. Να μην εξομολογείσαι όμως στον ένα τα ελαφρά και επιεική και στον άλλον τα βαρέα αμαρτήματα σου.
Σ' οποίον εξομολογείσαι να τα λέγεις όλα, όσα έκανες. Δεν έχει σημασία στην εξομολόγηση σου η φήμη Του Πνευματικού, η ηλικία του, διότι η δύναμης του δεσμείν και λύειν είναι σε όλους η ίδια. Ούτε ένας Πνευματικός έχει ισχυρότερη εξουσία από τον άλλο στη συγχώρηση των αμαρτιών. Ίσως να μην έχει πολλή εμπειρία ή το πνεύμα της αγάπης, αλλά η εξουσία από το Θεό είναι σε όλους η ίδια.
Η εξομολόγηση αποφασίζεται και γίνεται από σένα και όχι από μένα τον Πνευματικό σου. Εγώ ερωτώ, αλλά αύτη η ερώτηση εμένα μου κοστίζει.
Εξομολογήσου, κυρία μου. Γι` αυτό το έργο ήλθες.

Μα, ρωτήστε με, πάτερ, μου λέγει.
Πρέπει ο κάθε εξομολογούμενος να ετοιμάζεται από πριν, γράφοντας σ` ένα χαρτί, όσα έχει να πει. Και ο Πνευματικός θα βοηθήσει όσο του επιτρέπεται. Τα όσα γράφονται, δεν ξεφεύγουν και θα περάσουν από το πλυντήριο της Ιεράς Εξομολογήσεως και θα καθαρισθούν για πάντα. Μια χώρα είναι δυνατή και καλή εάν έχει καλούς Πνευματικούς. Εάν προετοιμάσθηκες με τον τρόπο που σου είπα, αλλά ξέχασες μερικές αμαρτίες, είσαι συγχωρημένος, αν όμως δεν ετοιμάσθηκες και στηρίχθηκες στον Πνευματικό και παρέλειψες μια ολόκληρη σειρά πραγμάτων, τα οποία δεν είπες, αυτά δεν συγχωρούνται.

Το Μυστήριο της Μετανοίας περιέχει τέσσερα στοιχεία:

Πρώτα απ' όλα να προσπαθείς να μην επαναλάβεις την αμαρτία.
Να την εξομολογηθείς αν την επαναλάβεις.
Να λάβεις την άφεση από τον Πνευματικό.
Να εφαρμόσεις τον κανόνα (επιτίμιο) που θα σου βάλει επακριβώς.
Όταν πηγαίνεις στην εξομολόγηση, να πηγαίνεις με την απόφαση να μην αμαρτήσεις πάλι. Όμως είναι δυνατόν να επαναληφθούν τα ίδια. Δεν είσαι ένοχος όταν δεν τη κάνης εκ κακής προθέσεως. Αμαρτίες που γίνονται με κακή πρόθεση δεν τις λύνω.

Αυτοί που συζούν πριν από τον γάμο τους, δεν τους συγχωρώ, ούτε τους διαβάζω συγχωρητική ευχή. Τους εξηγώ για να καταλάβουν ότι θα τύχουν συγχωρήσεως, εάν διακόψουν την αμαρτία τους.

Ο αγώνας για θεραπεία του πάθους είναι και των δύο: και του Πνευματικού και του εξομολογούμενου. Ο πρώτος βοηθεί τον δεύτερο κι αυτός θεραπευμένος από την αμαρτία του προοδεύει όλο και περισσότερο και γίνεται καλύτερος. Σ' αυτή την περίπτωση της μετανοίας και θεραπείας του πάθους οι αμαρτίες αφήνουν ένα μεγάλο καλό: την ταπείνωση. «Κοίταξε σε τι κατάσταση ήμουν εγώ ο παλιάνθρωπος και τώρα που ευρίσκομαι! Πως τόλμησα να στενοχωρήσω τόσο πολύ τον Θεό με τις αμαρτίες μου»!

Ο παράδεισος είναι γεμάτος από αμαρτωλούς μετανοημένους. Όλοι αμάρτησαν, αλλά η μετάνοια τους άρεσε στον Θεό. Η αμαρτία προκαλεί την ταπείνωση. Από που καταλαβαίνουμε ότι ο διάβολος παίζει ένα ρόλο για εμάς ψυχοσωτήριο; Μας δείχνει αμέσως τις αδυναμίες μας. Μας βοηθεί να στεφανωθούμε. Αν ήξερε πόσο μας βοηθεί στην σωτηρία μας θα απέφευγε τόσο πολύ να μας πειράζει.

Λέγω συχνά στην εξομολόγηση σε μερικούς χριστιανούς: «Να ξέρης ότι θα συναντηθώ μαζί σου στην έσχατη Κρίση και δεν θα λυπάσαι τότε που δεν τα είπες όλα; Θα είμαι παρών και δεν θα μπορώ τότε να σε συγχωρήσω. Τότε κι εγώ θα σε καταδικάζω. Διότι μπορούσες με μια λέξη να πεις κι εγώ να σε λύσω και κανείς δεν θα σου έλεγε τίποτε.
Θα σε έβγαζα από τα βαθιά νερά και δεν θα σε μάλωνα, διότι ήσουν βρεγμένος.

Πρέπει να ξέρετε αδελφοί μου, ότι τίποτε δεν γίνεται χωρίς θυσία. Όπου κι αν είσαι, στην έγγαμη ή στην μοναχική ζωή, παντού χρειάζεται θυσία. Και από την άποψη αυτή της σωματικής θυσίας, πιο εύκολο είναι το μοναστήρι από τον κόσμο.

Γεροντα Εφραιμ ψαλλει Χριστος Ανεστη- Elder Ephraim chants Xristos Anesti

Μες'της ερημιάς τα βάθη... (μοναστηριακό άσμα).

Δεν άφησε το δαίμονα να κάψει την εκκλησία

π.Νεκταρίου Αντωνοπούλου «Ταχύς εις βοήθειαν…»

Στον Ιερό Ναό των Αγίων Αποστόλων Πέτρου και Παύλου στα Γιαννιτσά την Κυριακή της Ορθοδοξίας 2008 συνέβη και το εξής περιστατικό :

«Το παρεκκλήσι του Αγίου Λουκά βρίσκεται στη νότια πλευρά του Ναού κι επικοινωνεί με μία πόρτα.

Την ώρα της θείας Λειτουργίας κά­ποιος ενορίτης προσκύνησε τα ιερά λείψανα του Αγίου Λουκά που βρί­σκονται στο παρεκκλήσι, έκανε μία υπόκλιση και κοίταξε μέσα από το κουρτινάκι στο Ιερό Βήμα.

Βλέπει τότε έκπληκτος μπροστά στην αγία Τράπεζα έναν Αρχιερέα ντυμένο την αρχιερατική του στολή, σκυφτό, με τα χέρια του λίγο υψωμένα σε στάση δέησης. Του έκανε εντύπωση πώς δεν κοιτούσε μπροστά, άλλα κάπως λοξά στραμμένος προς τον κυρίως ναό. Δεν είδε τη φυσιογνωμία του, αλλά σκέφτηκε «τί να ζητά εδώ αυτός ό Αρχιερέας;», την ώρα που οι υπόλοιποι κληρικοί λειτουργούσαν στον κυρίως Ναό. Περίμενε ως το τέλος της θείας Λειτουργίας, για να βγει από το Ιερό, αλλά προς έκπληξη του δεν βγήκε κανείς. Δεν υπήρχε άλλη πόρ­τα και ό άγνωστος αρχιερέας είχε γίνει άφαντος.



Την ίδια μέρα το μεσημέρι, για άγνωστους ως σήμερα λόγους, στο Ναό εκδηλώθηκε πυρκαγιά στο δυτικό μέρος και σχεδόν το ένα τέταρτο του Ναού τυλίχτηκε στις φλόγες. Κάηκαν εικονοστάσια, παγκάρια, στα­σίδια, προσκυνητάρια, καρέκλες, κεριά, απόκερα κ.λπ. Στο ίδιο σημείο υπήρχε και προσκυνητάρι με εικόνα του Αγίου Λουκά, το όποιο κάηκε κι αυτό. Παραδόξως, μέσα από την όλη καταστροφή και μέσα στις στάχτες βρέθηκε άθικτη ή εικόνα του Αγίου Λουκά.

Λίγες μέρες αργότερα, σ’ ένα γειτονικό μοναστήρι, στον Άγιο Γεώρ­γιο Ανύδρου, 15 χιλιόμετρα βορείως των Γιαννιτσών, κάποιος κληρικός διάβαζε εξορκισμούς σε μια δαιμονισμένη. Δίπλα οι μοναχές της μονής προσεύχονταν σιωπηλά προς θεία βοήθεια της βασανισμένης αυτής ψυχής. Κάποια στιγμή το δαιμόνιο άρχισε να φωνάζει:

- Σταματήστε! Σταματήστε! Με καίτε, με καίτε! Σταματήστε! Αλλά… κι εγώ σας καίω. Εγώ έκαψα εκείνη την Εκκλησία του Πέτρου και Παύλου εκεί στα Γιαννιτσά. Κι αν δεν ήταν εκείνος ό… Λουκάς, θα την είχα κάψει ολόκληρη!».

Battling Pride

We continually hear that pride is at the root of our sinfulness.  In God's eyes it is the the penitent sinner that is preferred to the proud person.  The remedy to pride is humility, but how does one develop humility?
Here is what Elder Macarius has to say,

Well, acquire this art through reading the Fathers; pitiless self-examination and self-accusation help too; also, making clear to ourselves how much worse we are than others; and refraining from all condemnation of them while we accept all their condemnation of us, as sent by God to cure our hideous spiritual sores.

This battle for humility is not an easy one or one that is quickly won.  It is not easy to refrain from condemning others while accepting the condemnation that is given to us.  We are constantly being tripped up by our passions.  A high degree of discipline in life is required.  We must always be on the alert. As we progress along this narrow and difficult path we will be tempted to have pride in our progress.  When this occurs our progress ends.  Our success in life, our well-being at work or in the home, can also hinder us by stroking our pride. Our successes make us feel as if we are in control.  The more successful we are in a worldly life it is all the harder to develop humility.


The Elder says,

Humility is the only weapon that wards off all attacks, but it is difficult to fashion, and the art of using it iis often misunderstood, particularly by those who live an active life.... Remember always that the whole of human misery is the consequence of pride.  Humility alone is the path to joy, the gate to the blessed nearness––the intimacy of God.

The Place of Lives of Saints in the Spiritual Life

1. The Significance of the Lives of the Saints


St. Justin Popovic

In order to begin to understand the importance of the Lives of the Saints for our spiritual lives, I believe we can turn to no better or more thorough source than St. Justin Popovich's Introduction to his own compilation of the Lives of the Saints. A theologian, St. Justin saw no dichotomy between the Lives of the Saints and the theological writings of the Church. For him, as for the Church, theology and the Lives of the Saints form one whole. He called the Lives of the Saints "experiential theology" or "applied dogmatic theology," and he viewed them and wrote about them in a theological manner. Likewise, he viewed theological writings as an expression of the experience of the life of Grace in the Church, and not just an intellectual, abstract or polemical exercise.
How does St. Justin view the Lives of the Saints theologically? At the center of all of St. Justin's thought is the Theanthropic vision: the fact that God became man in Jesus Christ, uniting human nature with Divine Nature. The fact of the God-man, the Theanthropos, is the axis of the universe: it is the reality according to which everything else must be viewed, whether it be the nature of the Church or the problems and issues of everyday life.
Thus, when St. Justin looks at the Lives of the Saints, he does so in the light of the God-man. Real and true life—eternal life in God—became possible only with the Incarnation, death and Resurrection of the Saviour, and this life is the Life of the Saints. St. Justin saw the Lives of the Saints as bearing witness to one life: the Life in Christ.
St. Justin wrote: "What are Christians? Christians are Christ-bearers, and, by virtue of this, they are bearers and possessors of eternal life.... The Saints are the most perfect Christians, for they have been sanctified to the highest degree with the podvigs of holy faith in the risen and eternally living Christ, and no death has power over them. Their life is entirely Christ's life; and their thought is entirely Christ's thought; and their perception is Christ's perception. All that they have is first Christ's and then theirs.... In them is nothing of themselves but rather wholly and in everything the Lord Christ."[1]
The Saints live in Christ, but Christ also lives in them through His Divine Energies, His Grace. And where Christ is, there is the Father and the Holy Spirit also. Christ says, Abide in Me, and I in you; and elsewhere He says, If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him (John 15:4; 14:23).
Thus, St. Justin makes bold to say that the Lives of the Saints not only bear witness to the Life in Christ: they may even be said to be the continuation of the Life of Christ on earth. "The Lives of the Saints," says St. Justin, "are nothing else but the life of the Lord Christ, repeated in every Saint to a greater or lesser degree in this or that form. More precisely, it is the life of the Lord Christ continued through the Saints, the life of the incarnate God the Logos, the God-man Jesus Christ Who became man."[2]
This is an amazing thing that St. Justin is saying: when we read the Lives of the Saints, we are reading the Life of our Lord Jesus Christ. This in itself should be enough to convince us of the importance of filling our souls with the Lives of the Saints.
St. Justin also says that the Lives of the Saints are a continuation of the Acts of the Apostles. "What are the 'Acts of the Apostles'?" he asks. "They are the acts of Christ, which the Holy Apostles do by the power of Christ, or better still: they do them by Christ Who is in them and acts through them. "And what are the 'Lives of the Saints'? They are nothing else but a certain kind of continuation of the 'Acts of the Apostles.' In them is found the same Gospel, the same life, the same truth, the same righteousness, the same love, the same faith, the same eternity, the same 'power from on high,' the same God and Lord. For the Lord Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever (Heb. 13:8): the same for all peoples of all times, distributing the same gifts and the same Divine Energies to all who believe in Him."[3]
With these words of St. Justin before us, we might well ask ourselves if Orthodox spiritual life is even possible without the testimony of the Lives of the Saints. The answer to this, I believe, must be "no." True spiritual life begins when we live in Christ and Christ lives in us, right here on this earth. And the Lives of the Saints bear witness to us that the Life of Christ on earth did not end with His Ascension into Heaven, nor with the martyrdom of His Apostles. His Life continues to this day in His Church, and is seen most brilliantly in His Saints. And we, too, in our own spiritual lives, are to enter into that continuing, never-ending Life.
I spoke recently to an Orthodox priest who had converted to Orthodoxy from Protestantism. He told me that, when he was received into the Church, the officiating priest told him: "You will never be truly Orthodox without reading the Lives of the Saints." Later, when he himself became a priest, he found that the most pious people in the churches are those who read the Lives of the Saints, and that those who make the most progress in the spiritual life are those who read the Saints' Lives.
The Orthodox Faith is not, first of all, of the head. First of all, it is of the heart: it is felt
and believed by the heart. Through the Lives of the Saints, we develop an Orthodox heart. Our monastery's co-founder, Fr. Seraphim Rose, emphasized constantly this "Orthodoxy of the heart," especially in his writings and talks at the end of his life; and he frequently referred to Lives of the Saints as a means of developing this.
2. How to Make Use of the Lives of the Saints
Having looked at the importance and meaning of the Lives of the Saints, let us look now at the various ways we can make use of them in our spiritual lives.
First, we look to the Saints as our examples. Be ye imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ (I Cor. 11:1), the Saints say to us along with the Holy Apostle Paul. As Christians, we want to grow in the likeness of Christ, to have that likeness shine in us. For this to occur, we need to look often to the Saints to see that shining likeness: we must look to them for real, practical examples of how to live. St. Basil the Great gives this analogy:
"Just as painters, in working from models, constantly gaze at their exemplar and thus strive to transfer the expression of the original to their own artistry, so too he who is eager to make himself perfect in all kinds of virtue must gaze upon the Lives of the Saints as upon statues, so to speak, that move and act, and must make their excellence his own by imitation."[4]
Secondly, we must look to the Saints as our heavenly friends, as our brothers and sisters in the Faith, and as our preceptors. We read about them not as people who are dead, but as people who are living. And this is even more immediate than just reading a biography about someone who is still alive. Let's say we are reading the biography of some famous living person. As we read it, we may dream of perhaps one day meeting this person, or perhaps of writing him a letter and having it actually reach him, and even of receiving a reply from him, despite the fact that he is so famous that thousands of people are probably writing to him. Reading the Lives of the Saints offers us much more than this, because the Saints are alive in God, and are not bound by time and space in the same way we are. We can address them in prayer immediately and at any time, even right in the middle of reading their Lives. And they will hear us. Besides our private prayers to them, the Church offers us many other ways of communing with them as our friends and honoring them as our preceptors. We sing their troparia, we venerate their icons, we perform services to them, and with a blessing from our Bishop we can even compose services in their honor.
As we read the Lives of the Saints each day, we will discover little by little those Saints whom our hearts go out to. They will become our close friends, those whom we pray to most of all, those in whom we confide our joys and sorrows. As Archimandrite Aimilianos, the present Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Simonos Petras on Mount Athos, writes: "These close friends will be the guides of our choice and a great comfort to us along the strait and narrow way that leads to Christ. We are not alone on the road or in the struggle. We have with us our Mother, the All-Holy Mother of God, our Guardian Angel, the Saint whose name we bear, and those close friends we have chosen out of the Great Multitude of Saints who stand before the Lamb (Rev. 7:9). When we stumble through sin, they will raise us up again; when we are tempted to give up hope, they will remind us that they have suffered for Christ before us, and more than us; and that they are now the possessors of unending joy. So, upon the stony road of the present life, these holy companions will enable us to glimpse the light of the Resurrection. Let us search, then, in the Lives of the Saints, for these close friends, and with all the Saints let us make our way to Christ."[5]
St. Justin Popovich, as we have said, called the Lives of the Saints "applied dogmatic theology." The Saints are proofs and illustrations of the reality of Christ, of His saving work of redemption. The Saints are transformed human beings, proof positive that people are redeemed, purified, illumined, transformed and recreated by Jesus Christ.
St. Justin also calls the Lives of the Saints "applied ethics." They are embodiments of the life of Divine virtue that is possible only in Jesus Christ. They are embodiments of the life of Grace in the Church, through the Holy Sacraments, through the life-giving Body and Blood of the Lord.
Fr. Seraphim Rose once counseled a budding Orthodox writer to make use of the Lives of the Saints as "applied dogmatic theology" and as "applied ethics." Fr. Seraphim said that, when one is writing on a spiritual subject, one should try to not only discuss it in the abstract, but to give living examples from the Lives of the Saints. Fr. Seraphim wrote to his fellow Orthodox writer: "If I have any suggestion for your future articles, it would simply be to keep in mind the Lives of the Saints. In your article, there is a point that would be more forceful by references to the life of the author of the citations, who is a Saint. You quote St. John of Kronstadt on 'love'—but he is not merely a great Orthodox Saint of this century, he is a very incarnation of the love he talks about, and there is scarcely to be found a parallel in the Lives of other Saints to his absolute self-crucifying love and service to others, blessed by God in the manifestation of an abundance of miracles that can only be compared to those of St. Nicholas."[6]
3. An Example of How to Make Use of the Lives of the Saints
I will now attempt to implement Fr. Seraphim's advice here. In speaking about how to make use of the Lives of the Saints, I will give the example of a Saint who made use of them to an astounding degree. This is Fr. Seraphim's mentor, and the Bishop who blessed the establishment of our Brotherhood: St. John Maximovitch, Archbishop of Shanghai and San Francisco.
Archbishop John was born Michael Maximovitch in the city of Kharkov in southern Russia in 1896. As a boy he collected religious and historical books, and loved above all to read the Lives of the Saints. Being the oldest child, he had a great influence on his four brothers and one sister, who knew the Lives of the Saints through him.
When he was eleven years old Michael was sent to the Poltava Cadet Corps (military academy). When he graduated in 1914, he wished to attend the Kiev Theological Academy. His parents insisted, however, that he attend Law School in Kharkov, and out of obedience to them he put away his own desire and began to prepare for a career in law.
It was during his university years that the Orthodox education and outlook which Michael had received in his childhood came to maturity. Young Michael saw the point of this upbringing. He saw that the Lives of the Saints, in particular, contain a profound wisdom which is not seen by those who read them superficially, and that the proper knowledge of the Lives of the Saints is more important than any university course. And so it was, as his classmates noticed, that Michael spent more time reading the Lives of the Saints than attending academic lectures, although he did very well in his university studies also. One could say that he studied the Orthodox Saints precisely "on the university level': he assimilated their world-outlook and their orientation toward life, and studied the variety of their activity and ascetic labors and practice of prayer. He came to love them with all his heart, was thoroughly penetrated by their spirit—and began to live like them. Many years later, during the sermon he gave when he was consecrated a Bishop, he said: "While studying the worldly sciences, I went all the more deeply into the study of the science of sciences, into the study of the spiritual life."
In 1921, as the Russian Civil War was raging, Michael—then twenty-four years old—was evacuated with his entire family to Belgrade. There he entered the University of Belgrade, from which he graduated in 1925 in the faculty of theology. A year later he was tonsured a monk in Serbia and was given the name John, after his own distant relative, St. John Maximovitch of Tobolsk. During the same year he was ordained a hieromonk.
For five years Hieromonk John was a teacher and tutor at the Seminary of St. John the Theologian in Bitol, Serbia. The city of Bitol was in the diocese of Ohrid, and at that time the ruling bishop of this diocese was another future Saint: St. Nikolai Velimirovich. St. Nikolai valued and loved the young Hieromonk John, and exerted a beneficial influence on him. More than once he was heard to say, "If you wish to see a living Saint, go to Bitol to Father John."
One of the seminarians who was at the Bitol Seminary at that time recalls: "Bishop Nikolai often visited the seminary and spoke with the teachers and students. For us his meeting with Fr. John was unusual. After mutual prostrations, there was an unusually cordial, loving conversation. Once, before parting, Bishop Nikolai turned to a small group of students (of whom I was one) with these words: 'Children, listen to Fr. John; he is an angel of God in human form.' We ourselves became convinced that this was the correct characterization of him. His life was angelic. One can rightly say that he belonged more to Heaven than to earth. His meekness and humility were like that recorded in the Lives of the greatest ascetics and desert-dwellers."
By this time, it had indeed become evident that Fr. John was an entirely extraordinary man. It was his own students who first discovered what was perhaps his greatest feat of asceticism. They noticed at first that he stayed up long after everyone else had gone to bed; he would go through the dormitories at night and pick up blankets that had fallen down and cover the unsuspecting sleepers, making the sign of the Cross over them. Finally it was discovered that he scarcely slept at all, and never in a bed, allowing himself only an hour or two each night of uncomfortable rest in a sitting position, or bent over on the floor praying before icons. Years afterward he himself admitted that since taking the monastic vows he had not slept lying in a bed. Such an ascetic practice is a very rare one; yet it is not unknown in the Orthodox tradition of the Lives of the Saints. In the fourth century, St. Pachomius the Great of Egypt was told by an angel to have his monks follow this practice.
In 1934, Fr. John was consecrated a Bishop in the Russian Church in Belgrade, and he was assigned to the diocese of Shanghai in China. The first thing he did in Shanghai was to restore Church unity, establishing contact with the Serbs, Greeks, and Ukrainians. He paid special attention to religious education. He actively participated in charitable activities, especially after seeing the needy circumstances in which the majority of his flock, refugees from the Soviet Union, were placed. He organized a home for orphans and the children of needy parents. He himself gathered sick and starving children off the streets and dark alleys of Shanghai's slums: Russian children, Chinese children, and others. The orphanage housed up to a hundred children at a time, and some 3,500 in all.
It soon became apparent to his new flock that Archbishop John was a great ascetic. The core of his asceticism was prayer and fasting. He ate once a day at 11 p.m. During the first and last weeks of Great Lent he did not eat at all, and for the rest of this and the Christmas Lent he ate only bread from the altar. His nights he spent usually in prayer, and when he finally became exhausted he would put his head on the floor and steal a few hours of sleep near dawn.
Then it became known that Archbishop John not only was a righteous man and an ascetic, but was also so close to God that he was endowed with the gift of clairvoyance, and was a great miracle-worker. There are many, many firsthand accounts of both his clairvoyance and his miracle-working, which show him to be equal to the great Saints of ancient times. On more than one occasion, he was seen surrounded in the Uncreated Light of deification while praying.
In 1949, the Communists took over China. Archbishop John was forced to evacuate his flock, including his entire orphanage. He brought 5,000 refugees to camps in the Philippines. He himself went to Washington, D.C. to get his people to America. Legislation was changed and almost the whole camp came to the New World—thanks to St. John. Later he was assigned to Western Europe, and then to San Francisco, where reposed in 1966.[7]
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about St. John's life is that he manifested in himself so many different kinds of sanctity. It was as if, through the intense study of the Lives of the Saints that he had undertaken in his early years, he had internalized and made his own the whole realm of Orthodox sanctity, in all its varied forms. He was a true student of the Saints, one who sought to follow in their footsteps, and thus to follow in the footsteps of Christ. By living like the Saints, he became one of them.
Let's look at some of the varied forms of sanctity that could be seen in Archbishop John:
1. He was first of all a great ascetic in the tradition of the ascetic, monastic Saints of old, such as St. Macarius the Great, St. Pachomius the Great, and others.
2. He was a clairvoyant reader of hearts, and one who could identify and name people he had never seen before. Enlightened by the Grace of God, he could hear and answer people's thoughts before they would express them. He also foretold the future, including the time of his own death. In this way, he was very much in the tradition of the great monastic elders of the past, especially the clairvoyant Russian elders such as those of Optina Monastery.
3. He was an almsgiver in the tradition of St. Philaret the Almsgiver, St. John the Almsgiver, etc. We have seen how he sacrificed himself for orphaned children, going himself into dangerous slums and houses of prostitution in order to rescue children from starvation or unhealthy environments. He was constantly giving to and working to help the needy. He himself wore clothing of the cheapest Chinese fabric. He often went barefoot, sometimes after having given away his sandals to some poor man.
4. He was a hierarch and theologian, a Church writer and apologist who defended the Church against error, much in the tradition of St. Athanasius the Great, St. Gregory the Theologian, and others. Besides his many published sermons, rich in theological content, he wrote valuable theological treatises in order to defend traditional Orthodox teachings which were being undermined in modern times. One of these works, in which he presents the Orthodox teaching on the Mother of God in contrast to Protestant and Roman Catholic distortions, has been published in English.[8] He also wrote an extensive essay pointing out the fallacies of the modern teaching of Sophiology.
5. He was an apostle, evangelist and missionary to new lands, in the tradition of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, St. Nahum of Ohrid and others. When he was in Western Europe, he worked hard to establish indigenous Orthodox Churches in France and the Netherlands: churches made up of the native peoples of these lands who had converted to the Orthodox Faith. He understood that the Orthodox Church is universal, and he said that the Orthodox Gospel of Christ must be spread throughout the world. Later, when he came to America, he instituted English Liturgies in addition to Slavonic Liturgies, in a Cathedral that had only known Slavonic Liturgies. He helped and supported our newly begun St. Herman Brotherhood, which was dedicated to bringing Orthodoxy to the English-speaking world.
6. He was a healer and miracle-worker, in the tradition of St. Martin of Tours, St. Nicholas of Myra in Lycia, and others. Through his prayers, he healed people of almost every imaginable malady; and he continues to do so after his repose.
7. He was a loving and self-sacrificing pastor, in the tradition of St. John of Kronstadt and all the other hierarch and priest Saints of ages past. So great was his love that everyone felt that he or she was his "favorite." He was overflowing with self-sacrificing love for his flock, and for those outside of his flock as well, such as a dying Jewish woman whom he suddenly healed with the words "Christ is Risen."
8. He was a deliverer of his people from captivity, in the tradition of St. Moses the God-seer. As we have seen, he brought 5,000 Orthodox believers out of Communist China and into freedom in America.
9. Finally, he was to a limited degree a fool-for-Christ in the tradition of St. Andrew the fool-for-Christ and others. He could not be a fool-for-Christ in the full sense of the term, since this would compromise the dignity of his hierarchical office. And yet at many times he did things which were at odds with the ideas of the world, and thus he evoked censure from people who did not see him for what he was: a man of God. He was criticized, for example, for serving barefoot, and for wearing a collapsible cardboard mitre that had been lovingly made for him by his orphans.
We have now looked at nine different types of sanctity manifested in this one Saint, St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco. Nine types which he had learned about through his study of the Lives of the Saints.
What the contemporary hagiographer Constantine Cavarnos says of modern Saints in general applies perfectly to St. John: "Modern Saints admire and imitate the older ones: they follow closely their example, study their teaching carefully, and—what is extremely significant—they confirm it. Those of the modern Saints who write or preach amplify and illustrate the teaching of the older Saints, and relate it to modern realities."[9]
4. "Remember the Saints of God"
It should not be thought that, after his formative years at the Cadet Corps and at the University of Belgrade, St. John finished his profound study of the Lives of the Saints. Quite the contrary: he continued to learn about the Saints right up until the time of his repose.
St. John believed that, in whatever land an Orthodox Christian found himself, it was his responsibility to venerate and pray to its national and local Saints. Wherever St. John went—Russia, Serbia, China, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Tunisia, America—he researched the Lives of the local Orthodox Saints. He went to the churches housing their relics, performed services in their honor, and asked the Orthodox priests there to do likewise. By the end of his life, his knowledge of Orthodox Saints, both Western and Eastern, was seemingly limitless.
Here is a story which illustrates St. John's love for the Saints, and how he went out of his way to learn about them and venerate them:
One of St. John's spiritual children was Archimandrite Spyridon, who later became the father confessor of our monastery in the 1970s. Like St. John, Fr. Spyridon was born in Russia, but went to Serbia following the Russian Revolution. He knew St. John from a young age, when St. John was still studying at the University of Belgrade.
When Serbia fell to the Communists, Fr. Spyridon and many of his fellow Russians settled on the border of Italy and Serbia, in a refugee camp in the Italian city of Trieste. Fr. Spyridon was ordained to the priesthood in 1951 and was assigned as a pastor of the camp church in Trieste.
At this time, St. John had just been assigned as the Bishop of Western Europe, and so he would visit Fr. Spyridon and his flock in the refugee camp in Trieste. When St. John came to the place where Fr. Spyridon served, he was already fully informed about the early Western Saints of Trieste—such as Justus the Martyr, after whom the city had originally been called Justinopolis, St. Sergio the Martyr, and St. Frugifer, the first bishop of Trieste. Finding that nothing had been done to venerate the local Saints, Archbishop John was disappointed. Fr. Spyridon later said how he regretted not having thought of it before. No one had done such a thing: the Saints of Trieste had largely been forgotten, and it was St. John who restored their local veneration. Before doing anything else in Trieste, he took Fr. Spyridon to the relics of the Saints, vested in an epitrachelion and a small omophorion. With a censer and a cross in his hand he would descend into the crypts under cathedrals where, according to his long lists of information, the Saints had been buried. He would sing troparia and kontakia written on pieces of paper which he would pull out his pockets, imploring the Saints to intercede for the city. And only then would he go to celebrate the services in Fr. Spyridon's camp church.
As Fr. Spyridon recalled, St. John acted as if the ancient local Saints were present wherever he walked. Before leaving Trieste, he contacted local Roman Catholic clergy, acquiring from them various permits so that the Orthodox church in Trieste would have free access to the relics and sites of the Saints. Then he gave Fr. Spyridon strict instructions on how to commemorate the Saints, how he should take his parishioners to the shrines of all local Saints on their feast-days, venerate them, sing services to them, and so on. St. John said that no services should be conducted without first addressing these local Saints, and no Liturgies performed without first commemorating them at the proskomedia.[10]
While in Western Europe, St. John collected the Lives and icons of Orthodox Saints from many different Western European countries, who lived before the time of the schism of the Latin Church. Since most of these Saints were included in no Orthodox Calendar of Saints, St. John compiled a list of these Saints with information about their lives, and submitted this to his Synod of Bishops for inclusion in the Orthodox Calendar.
Since he was an Apostle of Christ, St. John called upon each local Saint he learned about to provide heavenly help in evangelizing new lands. As Archbishop of San Francisco, he called upon all the Saints of America, including the most local of all Saints, the Native American St. Peter the Aleut, who was martyred in California.
Archbishop John had an especially great devotion to St. Herman of Alaska as a patron of the American Orthodox mission. He sought to have St. Herman canonized, and this occurred four years after St. John's repose, in 1970.
On June 28, 1966, St. John came to the Orthodox bookshop in San Francisco that had been started with his blessing by our St. Herman Brotherhood. After he had blessed the shop and printing room with the icon, he proceeded to talk to the brothers about Saints of various lands. As Fr. Seraphim Rose later recalled: "He promised to give us a list of canonized Romanian Saints and disciples of Paisius VelichkovskyPaisius Velichkovsky, Elder. He mentioned having compiled (when in FrancFrancee) a list of Western pre-schism Saints, which he presented to the Holy Synod."[11]
In particular, St. John Maximovitch, Archbp talked to the brothers in the shop about St. Alban, St.n, the first martyr of Britain. Out of his little portfolio he pulled a short life of the Saint, together with a picture postcard of a Gothic cathedral in the town of St. Albans, England. St. Albans near, London in which he had been buried. St. John looked into the brothers' eyes to see if they got the point. St. Alban, like most of the Saints of Western Europe, was not in the Orthodox Calendar; and St. John was letting them know that he should be venerated by Orthodox Christians, especially in English-speaking lands.
This turned out to be St. John's last contact with the shop and our Brotherhood while he was alive on this earth. Four days later he reposed in Seattle.
Right after St. John's repose, Fr. Seraphim Rose wrote in his Chronicle of our Brotherhood: "Amid the talk of the 'testament of Vladika John,' what has our Brotherhood to offer? This seems to be clearly indicated both by our very nature and by Vladika John Maximovitch, Archbp's instructions to us. On his last visit to us especially, he talked of nothing but Saints—Romanian, English, French, Russian. Is it not therefore our duty to remember the Saints of God, following as closely as possible Vladika's example? I.e., to know their lives, nourish our spiritual lives by constantly reading of them, making them known to others by speaking of them and printing them—and by praying to the Saints."[12]
This, then, is St. John's testament to our Brotherhood, and I believe to all Orthodox Christians: To remember the Saints of God.
St. John himself wrote beautiful words about the Saints. These words well express what he saw as the essence of sanctity, as well as the blueprint of his own life. "Holiness is not simply righteousness," St. John wrote, "for which the righteous merit the enjoyment of blessedness in the Kingdom of God, but rather it is such a height of righteousness that men are filled with the Grace of God to the extent that it flows from them upon those who associate with them. Great is their blessedness; it proceeds from personal experience of the Glory of God. Being filled also with love for men, which proceeds from the love of God, they are responsive to men's needs, and upon their supplication they appear also as intercessors and defenders for them before God."[13]
5. The Call to Sanctity
In remembering the Saints of God according to the testament of St. John, we must always remember, as he did, that each one of us is called to be a Saint.
The Saints, says St. Justin Popovich, are the most perfect Christians, who have been sanctified to the highest degree. The Saints, says St. John Maximovitch, are those who show forth in themselves a height of righteousness and are filled with the Grace of God to such an extent that it flows from them upon those around them. Both St. Justin and St. John are saying the same thing. The Saints are deified human beings, who are filled with the Grace, the Uncreated Energies of God, and who live the Divine-human life of Christ in the Church.
Every Orthodox Christian partakes to some extent of this Divine-human life. St. Justin Popovich writes: "Christ's life is continued through all the ages; every Christian is of the same body with Christ, and he is a Christian because he lives the Divine-human life of this Body of Christ as Its organic cell.
"Life according to the Gospel, holy life, Divine life, that is the natural and normal life for Christians. For Christians, according to their vocation, are holy." To become completely holy, both in soul and in body—that is our vocation. This is not a miracle, but rather the norm, the rule of faith. "Having united themselves spiritually and by Grace to the Holy One—the Lord Christ—with the help of faith, Christians themselves receive from Him the Holy Energies that they may lead a holy life."[14]
It is our task as Christians, then, to acquire more and more of this Divine-human life, to go deeper and deeper into it, to grow more and more in the likeness of Christ, to be filled with more and more of his Grace. Perhaps we will never acquire such Grace as was seen in St. Nicholas the of Myra in Lycia, St. Sava of Serbia, St. Seraphim of Sarov, St. Nektarios of Pentapolis, or St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco, but we are called to be growing toward such an overflowing measure of Grace.
If we have much further to go in the spiritual life, we are not alone: even the greatest Saints had further to go. "Sanctification admits of degrees," explains Constantine Cavarnos. "The sanctification or perfection of a human being attained even in theosis [deification] is not complete during this life. It is an 'unfinished perfection,' as it is called in the Ladder of Divine Ascent by St. John Climacus."[15]
Furthermore, spiritual perfection or holiness is not even complete in the other world; it grows endlessly in the life to come. St. Symeon the New Theologian, himself a deified human being, writes concerning this: "Through a clear revelation from Above, the Saints know that in fact their perfection is endless, that their progress in glory will be eternal, that in them there will be a continual increase in Divine radiance, and that an end to their progress will never occur."[16]
6. Overcoming Doubt and Discouragement
The Saints of God—the martyrs and ascetics, miracle-workers and apostles—truly did accomplish those great feats which we read about in their Lives. If we have underlying doubts regarding the veracity of these accounts, we should acquaint ourselves more thoroughly with the Lives of Saints who lived in times close to our own—Saints like Archbishop John of Shanghai and San Francisco—so that by seeing what is possible in our own times through the power of Christ, we may believe in what occurred through that same power in the remote past. St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain, in his Introduction to The New Martyrologion, discusses this in connection with the New Martyrs of the Church: "The antiquity of the period during which the early Saints lived, the long time that has intervened from then to the present, can cause in some, if not unbelief, at least some doubt and hesitation. One may, that is, wonder how humans, who by nature are weak and timid, endured so many and frightful tortures. But these New Martyrs of Christ, having acted boldly on the recent scene of the world, uproot from the hearts of Christians all doubt and hesitation, and implant or renew in them unhesitating faith in the old Martyrs. Just as new food strengthens all those bodies that are weak from starvation, and just as new rain causes trees that are dried from drought to bloom again, so these New Martyrs strengthen and renew the weak, the withered, the old faith of present-day Christians."[17]
What St. Nicodemus says about the relevance of the New Martyrs to contemporary Orthodox Christians can, of course, be applied to all the other orders of modern Saints: hierarchs, missionaries, monastics, etc.
Even if we do not have doubts concerning the veracity of the Lives of the Saints, we may come up against another stumbling block: discouragement that their feats of asceticism and faith are beyond us. If we ever experience this, we must pray for more humility. As Archimandrite Aimilianos of Simonos Petras says, "Reading about the exploits of the Saints discourages only the proud who rely on their own strength. For the humble it is a chance to see their own weaknesses, to weep over their insufficiency and to implore God's help."[18]
St. John Climacus tells us: "The man who despairs of himself when he hears of the supernatural virtues of the Saints is most unreasonable. On the contrary, the Saints teach you supremely one of two things: Either they arouse you to emulation by their holy courage, or they lead you by way of thrice-holy humility to deep self-contempt and the realization of your inherent weakness."[19]
As we study the Lives of the Saints, humility must be our safeguard. We need to soberly apply what we read to our own conditions and circumstances, realizing our own infirmity, not thinking too much of ourselves, not dreaming of ascetic feats that truly are beyond us. As Fr. Seraphim Rose used to say, we must take spiritual life step by step, and not expect to make one great leap into sanctity.
At the same time, however, we must not make excuses for ourselves, as if we are somehow separated from the Saints by some eternally unbridgeable gulf. The Saints are our fellow Orthodox Christians. The Saints have lived, and still live, the same life in the Church that we live. They are sinners like we are, but they have borne the fruits of repentance and have been transfigured by Christ. They are more perfect than we are, but we are called to seek their "unfinished perfection" as God gives us strength.
May St. Justin Popovich be a guide to us in understanding the theological significance of the Lives of the Saints, and may St. John Maximovitch be an example to us of how to make us of the Lives of the Saints in our own spiritual lives. The Saints are called stars in the spiritual firmament. May we, by remembering the Saints of God, also begin shine in that firmament. And by making the Saints our friends and preceptors now, may we have them as our heavenly companions in the never-ending Kingdom of Light. Amen.


From The Orthodox Word, Vol. 37, No. 6 (221, Nov.–Dec. 2001), pp. 261-281. Copyright 2001 by the St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, Platina, California. Used with permission.

Τά εἴδη τῆς μαγείας

Τα είδη της μαγείας είναι πάρα πολλά και το καθένα έχει τον αντικειμενικό σκοπό του. Τα βασικά όμως είδη είναι η λευκή μαγεία και η μαύρη μαγεία.
Σε αυτό το σημείο θα πρέπει να τονιστεί ότι και τα δύο βασικά είδη της μαγείας προέρχονται από τον σατανά και έχουν στόχο τον άνθρωπο και την Δημιουργία. Τα παρακλάδια των βασικών ειδών της μαγείας είναι πολλά και το κάθε ένα κάνει κάτι το διαφορετικό.


Τα κυριότερα παρακλάδια της μαγείας είναι:


1. Γητεία, 2. Μελλοντολογία, 3. Επαοιδία, 4. Γοητεία, 5. Οιωνοσκοπεία, 6.Φαρμακεία, 7. Δαιμονικά Φυλακτά, 8. Νεφοδιωκτική, 9. Νεκρομαντεία, 10. Υποχθονιωτική ή Αντικειμενοποιητική.
Το χειρότερο από τα ανωτέρω είδη είναι αυτό της " αντικειμενοποιητικής" το οποίο μάλιστα είναι καί ευρέως διαδεδομένο στην Ελλάδα.
1. ΓΗΤΕΙΑ: Οι μάγοι που ασχολούνται με αυτό το είδος της μαγείας ονομάζονται γητευτές. Γνωρίζουν μυστικές δαιμονικές επικλήσεις τις οποίες ανακατεύουν με διάφορους ψαλμούς του Δαυίδ διαβάζοντάς τους αντίστροφα. Κατά την διάρκεια των επικλήσεων χασμουριούνται συνεχώς και ενίοτε τα μάτια τους κοκκινίζουν.
Μερικές φορές μέσα στις ακατανόητες για τους προστρεχάμενους σε αυτούς επικλήσεις τους, ανακατεύουν ονόματα Αγίων του Χριστού και της Παναγίας. Πριν όμως από την εκφώνηση κάποιου ονόματος Αγίου ή του Χριστού ή της Παναγίας υπάρχει μια ακαταλαβίστικη έκφραση που είναι βρισιά ή χλευασμός. 2. ΜΕΛΛΟΝΤΟΛΟΓΙΑ ή ΜΑΝΤΕΙΑ: Αυτοί που ασχολούνται με αυτό το είδος της μαγείας ονομάζονται μελλοντολόγοι ή μάντεις. Αυτοί έχουν στην σκοτεινή υπηρεσία τους ένα τελώνιο που είναι δαίμονας κατώτερης βαθμίδας ή ένα δαίμονα μεσαίας βαθμίδας. Βλέποντας λοιπόν την παλάμη κάποιου ανθρώπου ή το φλυτζάνι ενός καταναλωμένου καφέ ή τα χαρτιά της τράπουλας καλούν το υπηρετούν δαιμόνιο και μαζί προσπαθούν να προβλέψουν το μέλλον.
Επειδή όμως τα δαιμόνια γνωρίζουν μόνο το παρόν και όχι το μέλλον και επειδή είναι ταγμένα να υπηρετούν τον μάγο για να λεει τα μέλλοντα τι κάνουν τα πονηρά: Εισέρχονται στο υποσυνείδητο του πελάτη του μάγου από όπου αντλούν διάφορες πληροφορίες, τις συγκρίνουν και κατά προσέγγιση δίνουν πληροφορίες στον μάγο για τον πελάτη.


3. ΕΠΑΟΙΔΙΑ: Οι ενασχολούμενοι με αυτό το είδος της μαγείας ονομάζονται επαοιδοί. Οι κατέχοντες την μαγική τέχνη της επαοιδίας χρησιμοποιούν διάφορες μαγικές ωδές (άσματα) μέσο των οποίων καλούν τους δαίμονες προς επιτέλεση καταχθόνιων σκοπών. Με τη βοήθεια των καλουμένων δαιμόνων προκαλούν το φόβο στους ανθρώπους, δένουν τα αγρίμια για να μην κατασπαράζουν τα κατοικίδια, προκαλούν συμφορές στα ανδρόγυνα, δαιμονίζουν τους ανθρώπους και τους στέλνουν στα ψυχιατρεία και τέλος προξενούν καταστροφές στα σπαρτά (ξεραίνουν τα φυτά).


4. ΓΟΗΤΕΙΑ: Οσοι ασχολούνται με αυτό το είδος της μαγείας ονομάζονται γόητες. Αυτοί χρησιμοποιώντας επικλητικούς θρήνους μαζί με άναρθρες κραυγές, κυρίως πάνω σε τάφους και μετά την δωδεκάτη νυκτερινή, καλούν τους δαίμονες για να επιφέρουν στους ανθρώπους ανίατες αρρώστιες. Πολλές φορές με τα τελετουργικά τους βασανίζουν τις ψυχές των νεκρών, ενώ παράλληλα δεν διστάζουν να μαγαρίσουν ιερούς χώρους.
Παίρνουν χώμα από τάφους και οστά από τα οστεοφυλάκια τα οποία κονιορτοποιούν, τα ανακατεύουν και τα ρίχνουν στο κατώφλι αυτού που θέλουν να προξενήσουν ζημία. Πολλές φορές ανακατεύουν τα χώματα του τάφου με βρομόνερα από βυρσοδεψεία ή με λάδι που παίρνουν από τα κανδήλια των τάφων και έπειτα ραντίζουν τα κατώφλια αυτών που θέλουν να βλάψουν.


5. ΟΙΩΝΟΣΚΟΠΙΑ: Αυτοί που ασχολούνται με αυτό το είδος της μαγείας ονομάζονται οιωνιστές ή οιωνοσκόποι. Κατά την αρχαιότητα ο οιωνός ήταν ένα μαντικό όρνεο που από την πτήση του ή τις κραυγές του οι αρχαίοι Ελληνες μάντευαν το μέλλον. Σήμερα η λέξη οιωνός σημαίνει προφητικό σημάδι.
Οι οιωνοσκόποι λοιπόν προσπαθούν να μαντέψουν το μέλλον από διάφορα σημάδια που παρατηρούν όπως π.χ. ανάλογα με το πέταγμα των πουλιών λένε θα βρέξει ή δεν θα βρέξει. Παράλληλα πολλοί άνθρωποι οι αποκαλούμενοι προληπτικοί, πιστεύουν πως θα τους συμβούν διάφορες καταστάσεις ανάλογες με τους οιωνούς που θα συναντήσουν. 'Ετσι ορισμένοι όταν δούνε να περνάει από μπροστά τους μαύρη γάτα πιστεύουν πως θα τους συμβεί κάποιο κακό.
'Αλλοι όταν συναντήσουν κάποιον άνθρωπο που τον θεωρούν γρουσούζη πιστεύουν πως θα τους βρει κάποια κακοτυχία. 'Ολα αυτά όμως είναι προλήψεις και τίποτα περισσότερο. Ελάχιστοι έχουν μείνει που συνεργάζονται με δαίμονες προσπαθώντας να ανιχνεύσουν τα μέλλοντα με οιωνούς και αυτά τα άτομα είναι κυρίως αθίγγανες γυναίκες οι οποίες παρατηρώντας τις γραμμές κάποιας παλάμης ανθρώπου προσπαθούν να πούνε τα μέλλοντα.


6. ΦΑΡΜΑΚΕΙΑ: Αυτό το είδος της μαγείας κάνει κυριολεκτικά θραύση στις μέρες μας και οι ενασχολούμενοι μάγοι ονομάζονται φαρμακοί ή θολωτές. Αυτοί κατασκευάζουν κάποια υγρά χρησιμοποιώντας ακάθαρτα νερά, λάδια από κανδήλια τάφων, περίοδο γυναικών και ανθρώπινα ούρα.
Μουρμουρίζουν διάφορες επικλήσεις προς τον σατανά για να ενεργήσει, ώστε τα κατασκευάσματά τους να έχουν επίδραση στο άτομο που θα τα πιει. Ανάλογα με το κατασκεύασμα και την επίκληση μπορεί να επέλθει ο θάνατος, να σαλευτεί κάποιος, να προκληθεί σφοδρός έρωτας, να επέλθει στείρωση σε ανδρόγυνα και πολλές φορές να χωρίσουν ανδρόγυνα.
Οι κανονικοί μάγοι αυτού του είδους είναι αρκετοί και οι συμφορές που προκαλούν είναι αμέτρητες. Υπάρχει βέβαια και ένας μεγάλος αριθμός που ασχολούνται με την φαρμακεία χωρίς να είναι κανονικοί μάγοι και οι οποίοι χειριζόμενοι κάποια βιβλία που κυκλοφορούν στην αγορά κατασκευάζουν διάφορα σκευάσματα άνευ σημασίας. Αυτοί οι δεύτεροι χαρακτηρίζονται τσαρλατάνοι.


7. ΔΑΙΜΟΝΙΚΑ ΦΥΛΑΚΤΑ: Και αυτό το είδος της μαγείας βρίσκεται σε έξαρση στις μέρες μας, ενώ όσοι ασχολούνται με αυτό το είδος της μαγείας ονομάζονται φυλακτήριοι. Αυτοί γράφουν σε κάποιο χαρτί ή δέρμα μικρού μεγέθους διάφορες δαιμονικές επικλήσεις και σχηματίζουν διάφορα δαιμονικά σύμβολα και κατόπιν τα ράβουν μέσα σε άλλο ύφασμα με μεταξωτή κυρίως κλωστή και τα δίνουν στους ανυποψίαστους για να τους «προστατεύει» ο δαίμονας.
Σε αυτή την κατηγορία κατατάσσονται και αυτοί που κατασκευάζουν ματόχαντρες αλλά και αυτοί που διαβάζουν τα σκόρδα για να κρεμαστούν μετά στους τοίχους για να μην πιάνει το μάτι.


8. ΝΕΦΟΔΙΩΚΤΙΚΗ: Οι ασχολούμενοι με αυτό το είδος της μαγείας ονομάζονται νεφοδιώκτες ή νεφομάντεις. Αυτοί παρατηρούν τις κινήσεις και τα σχήματα των νεφών και βάση αυτών προλέγουν τα μέλλοντα. Επίσης με διάφορες επικλήσεις καλούν τους δαίμονες και προξενούν βροχή ή αποτρέπουν αυτή. Στις μέρες μας αυτό το είδος της μαγείας τείνει να εξαφανιστεί.


9. ΝΕΚΡΟΜΑΝΤΕΙΑ: 'Αλλο ένα διαδεδομένο είδος μαγείας στις μέρες μας και οι ενασχολούμενοι με αυτό καλούνται νεκρομάντεις. Υπάρχουν αρκετοί μάγοι που χρησιμοποιούν την νεκρομαντεία σπέρνοντας την πλάνη και τη συμφορά στους ανθρώπους. Οι ανίδεοι πιστεύουν πως οι νεκρομάντεις έρχονται σε επαφή με αγαπημένους τους νεκρούς ενώ στην πραγματικότητα επικοινωνούν με τον διάβολο. Σε αυτή την περίπτωση ο διάβολος παίρνει τη θέση του νεκρού και για να πείσει μιμείται τη φωνή του νεκρού και μιλάει για διάφορα πραγματικά περιστατικά της εγκόσμιας ζωής του νεκρού.
Πολλοί άνθρωποι έχουν πέσει θύματα των νεκρομαντών και έκαναν πράγματα που δήθεν ζητούσαν οι νεκροί τους με αποτέλεσμα να χάσουν την ψυχική τους ηρεμία αλλά πολλές φορές και την περιουσία τους. Δεν θα πρέπει να παραλείψω να τονίσω πως υπάρχουν και πολλοί απατεώνες οι οποίοι με διάφορα τεχνάσματα πείθουν τους αφελείς πως επικοινωνούν με τους νεκρούς αποσπώντας από την αφέλειά τους σημαντικά χρηματικά ποσά.


10. ΥΠΟΧΘΟΝΙΩΤΙΚΗ:
Η υποχθονιωτική είναι ένα από τα χειρότερα είδη μαγείας που υπάρχουν. Οι μάγοι που ασχολούνται με αυτό το είδος ονομάζονται υποχθόνιοι ή αντικειμενοποιοί. Η πλειονότητα των κανονικών μάγων που υπάρχουν γνωρίζουν αυτό το είδος της μαγείας μέσο της οποίας προξενούν στους ανθρώπους τις χειρότερες καταστροφές.
Σε αυτό το είδος της μαγείας χρησιμοποιούνται διάφορα αντικείμενα όπως καρφιά, καρφίτσες, σαπούνια, τρίχες, νύχια, διάφορα προσωπικά είδη, κεριά, κομμάτια από ύφασμα, οστά νεκρών, διάφορες σκόνες και ένα πλήθος από άλλα.
Οι μάγοι κατασκευάζουν το αντικείμενο ανάλογα με το αποτέλεσμα που θέλουν να πετύχουν. Οι διαστάσεις του αντικειμένου, όταν πρόκειται για σφαιρικό μέγεθος, έχει διάμετρο από 2cm έως 5cm ή αν έχει μακρόστενο σχήμα οι διαστάσεις του είναι από 3cm x 1,5cm έως 7cm x 2cm ή πολύ ελάχιστα μεγαλύτερο. Το αντικείμενο για να κατασκευαστεί χρειάζονται σαράντα μέρες.
Ο μάγος επί σαράντα μέρες κάνει επικλήσεις στο σατανά και συγχρόνως ονοματίζει το αντικείμενο με το όνομα του ανθρώπου ή των ανθρώπων που θέλει να βλάψει. Μετά κερώνει το αντικείμενο με λειωμένο κερί που έχει πάρει από τάφο. Κατόπιν ρίχνει το αντικείμενο στο χώρο του ατόμου που θέλει να βλάψει σε σημείο που να μη φαίνεται. Τις περισσότερες φορές το θάβει για περισσότερη ασφάλεια. Το αντικείμενο είναι το σημάδι που καλεί το δαίμονα ο οποίος προξενεί τη συμφορά.
Αυτό το είδος της μαγείας είναι πολύ διαδιδόμενο στην Ελλάδα, σε όλη σχεδόν την Ευρώπη, Βόρειο Αφρική, Τουρκία και Μέση Ανατολή.
Πηγή: Ελληνορθόδοξο Πατριαρχείο Ιεροσολύμων
Ἄς νήφουμε καί ἄς ἐξομολογούμαστε- κοινωνοῦμε συνεχῶς ὁπότε τίποτε ἀπό τά εἴδη αὐτά τῆς μαγείας δέν μπορεῖ νά μᾶς βλάψει.
Ἱερ. Σάββας