Elder Sophrony on Holy Oil

In this portion of a letter, Elder Sophrony writes regarding holy oil and how to use it. Specifically, he refers to Holy Unction, but this could apply to all holy oil as well:

"I am glad that your cheek is better. You should anoint it with the oil that you have now. And you should do so in the following way:

You should take some oil on the tip of your finger, and make the sign of the Cross on the sick body part and say:

'In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit…O Lord, heal my spiritual and bodily afflictions, and save me, in the manner that You know.'

Then, you should rub it into the sick body part. This you should do to every bodily member that is suffering. Regardless of whether you are healed or not, you should do this to be sanctified.

I have experienced, however, a multitude of cases of astonishing healing. This holy oil [i.e. the Sacrament of Holy Unction] is especially sanctified. It is sanctified on Wednesday or Thursday of Holy Week…"

From the book: Letters from Russia, by Archimandrite Sophrony Sacharov, published by the Holy Monastery of the Precious Forerunner, Essex, England.

Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us! Amen!

http://full-of-grace-and-truth.blogspot.ca/2015/07/elder-sophrony-on-holy-oil.html

The Mission of the Divine Liturgy ( Elder Sophrony of Essex )

The greatest missionary activity occurs with the Divine Liturgy.
When the Fathers came to any place or city, they set up an Altar. And this is because, when in the Divine Liturgy the heart is sweetened, then one seeks God, and begins to desire to live the Orthodox ecclesiastical life, whose center is the divine Eucharist.
I told the brotherhood to keep in the Monastery first and foremost the Divine Liturgy.
The prayers in the Divine Liturgy should not be said in a personal tone, because at that hour the Priests speak for all those who are praying, and because of this, the Priests should not pray with personal emotions.
They do not serve as individuals.

Elder Sophrony of Essex 

http://full-of-grace-and-truth.blogspot.ca/search/label/Elder%20Sophrony%20of%20Essex

Our Goal ( Elder Sophrony of Essex )

Our sole care will be to continue in the word of Christ, to become His disciples and cease to be servants of sin......


Elder Sophrony of Essex

Following the Spiritual Path ( Elder Sophrony of Essex )

Our sole care will be to continue in the world of Christ, to become His disciples and cease to be servants of sin.


Elder Sophrony of Essex

Eastern Religions ( Elder Sophrony )

- For a Muslim to become a Christian, he must wait until he receives great Grace, so that he is prepared to be martyred for Christ. If he does not receive this Grace, let him wait.


- Someone passed sequentially through Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and black magic. In all these religions at the same time he did magic. As soon as he became Orthodox, he wanted to practice along with this magic, but he was unable to do it. From this he realized that magic is the foundation of all religions and that religions are dead, their leaders are dead, but Christ is the living God.


- For many years exorcisms must be read for those who came from doing magic. This is what the early Church did.


- Buddhism has some truths, but it has one human truth, which reaches to "zero", that is, with concentration-meditation man reaches the non-being from which we came from. It is an existential suicide. Christ leads us to theosis, to communion with the Triune God.


- Some say that Buddhism has nothing to do with demonism. However, those who speak thus know Buddhism only from books and speak theoretically. Action is different.


- Some say that meditation brings them a certain peace. Externally this appears good, but these people are possessed by conceit and this results in carnal warfare. Even if they leave Buddhism, they again have carnal warfare. This shows the satanism of this method.


- There is a difference between Buddhist and Orthodox asceticism. In Buddhism they try to make a disclaimer and they reach nirvana. They confuse a reflection with mystical vision. They see created light with their mind. This was best done with Plotinus, in Neo-Platonism. The Fathers know this, and we can call it the "cloud of unknowing", but they went beyond this and reached the vision of the uncreated Light. Then they experience that the Light comes from a Person and not from an idea, and they feel a personal relationship with God and, at the same time, there develops a great love for God and the whole world until martyrdom and "self-hatred".


Elder Sophrony

From I Knew A Man In Christ: The Life and Times of Elder Sophrony, the Hesychast and Theologian

Every Divine Liturgy is Theophany ( Elder Sophrony of Essex )

  

Every Divine Liturgy is Theophany by Elder Sophrony of Essex 

We Orthodox live Christ in the Divine Liturgy, or better yet, Christ lives within us in through the duration of the Divine Liturgy. The Divine Liturgy is a work of God. We say: “It is the time for the Lord to act” (Psalm 119:126). Among other things, this means that now is the time for God to work. Christ liturgizes, we live together with Christ.

The Divine Liturgy is the way that we come to know God, and the way that God comes to know us.

Christ accomplished the Divine Liturgy once, and this has passed unto eternity. He overcame corrupted human nature in the Divine Liturgy. We come to know Christ specifically in the Divine Liturgy. The Divine Liturgy that we celebrate is the same Divine Liturgy which Christ worked on Holy Thursday at the Mystical Supper.

Chapters 14-17 of the Gospel of St. John are a Divine Liturgy. Thus we understand the Holy Scriptures in the Divine Liturgy.

The first Church lived without the New Testament, however, not without the Divine Liturgy. The first forms, hymns, scriptures exist within the Divine Liturgy.

In the Divine Liturgy we live Christ, and we understand His word.

As Christ cleansed His Disciples with His work and told them: “Now you are clean by the word that I have spoken to you” (John 15:3), and He cleansed the feet of the Disciples with water during the Holy Niptir, thus the first part of the Divine Liturgy cleanses us that we might later sit at the Table of love. The purpose of the Divine Liturgy is for us to partake of Christ.

The Divine Liturgy teaches us an ethos, the ethos of humility. As Christ was sacrificed, thus we must sacrifice. The form of the Divine Liturgy is the form of He Who became poor for us. In the Divine Liturgy we try to humble ourselves, because we have the sense that there exists a humble God.

Every Divine Liturgy is Theophany [The Revealing of God]. The Body of Christ is revealed. Every member of the Church is an icon of the Kingdom of God.

After the Divine Liturgy we must try to continue to depict the Kingdom of God, keeping His commandments. The glory of Christ is that every one of His members might bear fruit. Thus His word explains: “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” (John 15:8)
 http://full-of-grace-and-truth.blogspot.ca/2012/08/every-divine-liturgy-is-theophany.html