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Punks to Monks: Effects of the Last True Rebellion (Video)
In this engaging video, Fr. John Valadez speaks of the soul-destroying pitfalls of the punk culture he once found himself wrapped up in, and how the zine Death to the World, founded by former punks turned monks, helped him and many others to find the light of Christ in the Orthodox Church. Source: Fr Anthony Tandilyan’s YouTube Chanel
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The Cedar of Lebanon: St Jacob the Martyr
As a cedar of Lebanon groweth without fear of martyrdom or death. Thou didst become a victor O Father Jacob. Thou didst conquer death in thy body when by humility thou didst control the passions and when thou wast burnt like incense as a sacrifice. Intercede with Christ to grant us great mercy. +Apolytikion in the Third Mode Above the Kadeesha River sits a pearl of ascetic struggle unworthy of the world. Burrowed in the caves of Mount Hamatoura exists the Monastery of the Dormition of the Theotokos, overlooking a land that once flourished with monastic fervor. Until the late 90’s this monastery was in ruins, uninhabited, and forgotten since times…
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Stillness, Kinship, and Self-Mutilation: The Lost Art of Philoxenia
Mankind longs for affection and the affection of kin is beyond compare. Kinship is the most natural object of our longing. Even the great ascetics, the monks of the desert, have longed for true spiritual love – although the Greek monachos refers to being alone it does not necessitate or even imply permanence. Instead, inner contemplation and prayer lead one to restoration of the deepest and most profound of all connections – that of our full and complete humanity. Gregory of Palamas taught the practice of hesychasm, an intentional inner silence and prayer, a methodical contemplation, which leads to absorption of the energies of God Himself. The first step towards…
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A Paradoxical Wonder: The Double One
…A double man, made from two natures In an inexpressible wonder… O paradoxical wonder [You are] among… the creatures, Both immaterial and material: The material are the things that you see, And the immaterial are angels. Thus, among them are you The living man, the double one: Immaterial among the sensible [creatures] And sensible among the immaterial ones. +St Symeon the New Theologian, Hymn 53 As he looked on the vastness of the sky, contemplated the night stars and beheld the moon, the psalmist asked, “What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?” The question of the human person is an ancient itch that continues to gnaw away…
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Strangers in a Foreign Land: Nationalism and the Orthodox Church
In calling the Church ‘catholic,’ Orthodox Christians confess belief in a Church for all ages, nations, and races. The Catholic Church is whole, complete, and lacking nothing—for this is what ‘catholic’ truly means. It is a calling for all, and Christ our God is sacrificed ‘on behalf of all, and for all.’ There is often confusion—especially for those either outside or unfamiliar with the Orthodox Church—in viewing our local, autonomous churches as ‘ethnic’ churches. Nevertheless, such a perspective was condemned as heresy (termed ‘ethno-phyletism’) by an ecumenical council in Constantinople (August 10, 1872).1 In that context, the concern was the uncanonical creation of an ethnic church for Bulgarians—a church sharing essentially the same ‘space’ as the…
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God Never Leaves
From the evergetinos: A brother was beset by the demon of lust. It so happened that the brother once passed by a village in Egypt and saw a beautiful woman, who was the daughter of a pagan priest. On seeing her, he was wildly aroused and, under the influence of his passions, went to the father of the girl and said: “Give me your daughter as my wife.” “I cannot give her to you,” the pagan priest answered, “without asking my god. Wait a bit.” Indeed, the pagan priest went to his god’s oracle (through which, as we know, the Devil speaks) and asked: “A monk came to my home and…
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Impulsivity, Addiction, and the Passions
It should come as no surprise to those familiar with individuals struggling with addiction that impulsivity is a core issue. In technical terms, there is a certain fundamental correlation between addiction and impulsivity. People who are impulsive are more vulnerable to developing addictive behavior, because they give little regard to adverse consequences (Impulse Control Disorders and Co-Occurring Disorders, Potenza, p. 51) or to be more precise, they prefer immediate reinforcers to delayed ones, instant gratification to long-term satisfaction. Being impulsive means acting without forethought. And although those struggling to be free of an addiction know full well that not acting on impulse is in the long run more beneficial than…
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‘FATHER, BLESS ME TO HANG MYSELF!’
Over ten years ago there was the following incident at our parish. I was an altar attendant at the time, serving with the rector of the Church of the Mother of God “of the Don” in the town of Mytischi (just north of Moscow), Fr. Anatoly (Proskurin). A man came to him and said, “Father, life is hard. Bless me to hang myself.” You can imagine father’s surprise. However, Fr. Anatoly listened to him, heard him out, and explained to him that taking one’s own life by suicide is a terrible sin, and that human life is a priceless gift of God. But the man would not hear it, and…
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Holy Women of the Northern Thebaid (Part I)
“Let women keep silence in the churches.” 1 Cor. 14:34 Away from the tumult and noise of this world, in quiet monastic refuges, in deserted landscapes which evoke thoughts of eternity, women of Holy Russia worked out their salvation for a thousand years, striving to acquire first of all humility of wisdom. The spiritual fragrance of this key virtue in Patristic Orthodoxy, that of humility of wisdom, which is the joining together of humility and wisdom, has always been very close to true Orthodox women, and especially to the women Saints. Behind them there always shines forth the humble image of Her Who is the first Abbess of all monastics,…
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Spoken At the Grave
A homily spoken at the grave of Elder Hilarion of Sarov, 1841. And so, pilgrim on the earth, you have finished your journey; you have crossed the sea of temptations and misfortunes and found repose for yourself! But what kind of choirs surround you? Behold, our father and instructor: Your children have come to you from the wast and the north and the sea and the east not to behold your end, but to hear from your honey-flowing lips the words of eternal life; but you sleep, your eyes and lips are closed. Arise! Arise! Bless! Alas, he is without breath… Father! Where are your promises given constantly to everyone?…
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The Self-Liquidation of Christianity
The striking phrase, “God is dead,” is the poetical expression of modern unbelief. Much is expressed in this phrase that is not to be found in the more prosaic expressions of modern atheism and agnosticism. A vivid contrast is established between a previous age when men believed in God and based their life and institutions upon Him, and a new age for whose inhabitants, supposedly, this once all-illuminating sun has been blotted out, and life and society must be given a new orientation. The phrase, itself apparently coined by Nietzsche almost a century ago, was for long used to express the views of a comparatively few enemies of Christianity, chiefly…
