‘Below are some excerpts from St. John Chrysostom, found throughout his writings, that deal with the relationship between Faith and Reason. For St. John, there is not a contradiction between Faith and Reason when used for their own purpose, since both are gifts of God, but he does demonstrate and drive home strongly that Faith is far superior to Reason. Moreover he continuously warns against misusing Reason to be an enemy of Faith.

Reasoning should not interfere in matters of Faith, because Reason cannot even hope to comprehend the transcendent nature of Faith.

Reason cannot enlighten Faith, but Faith can enlighten Reason. Reason diminishes Faith because it limits it and does not allow it to grow. And Faith that does not increase eventually withers and dies. At the same time Reason unenlightened by Faith is like being born and raised in a dark prison cell, confined and unaware of the world beyond your limited experience. Reason can never move us beyond its own ignorance and it serves its purpose only when it drives a person to deeper Faith.’ – John Sanidopoulos.

“In that God has bestowed upon us benefits that surpass man’s reasoning, suitably enough He has brought in faith. It is not possible to be steadfast when demanding reasons. For behold all of our noble doctrines – how destitute they are of reasoning, and dependent upon faith alone. For example, God is not anywhere, and is everywhere. What has less reason in it than this? Each – by itself – is full of difficulty. … He was not made, He made not Himself, He never began to be. What reasoning will receive this, if there be not faith?”

“If any one should tell you descend into the deep, and trace out things at the bottom of the sea, you would not tolerate the command. Therefore, when no one compels you, why do you willingly seek to comprehend the unsearchable abyss [of our divine dogma with your reasoning]? I beseech you, do not do this. Instead, let us sail upwards — not floating, for we shall soon be weary and sink; but using the divine Scriptures, as some vessel, let us unfurl the sails of faith. If we sail in them, then the Word of God will be present with us as our Navigator….”

“This is the work of faith: If you believe, suffer all things; if you do not suffer, you do not believe. For are not the things promised [so great], that he who believes would choose to suffer even ten thousand deaths? The kingdom of heaven is set before him — and immortality, and eternal life. Therefore, whoever believes will suffer all things. Then faith is shown through his works. In truth, one might have said: Not merely did you believe, but through your works you manifested it — through your steadfastness, through your zeal.”

“Where faith exists, there is no need of question. Where there is no room for curiosity, questions are superfluous. Questioning is the subversion of faith. For he that seeks, has not yet found. He who questions cannot believe. Therefore, it is [St. Paul's] advice that we should not be occupied with questions; since, if we question, it is not faith. For faith sets reasoning at rest. …”

“But why then does Christ say, ‘Keep on seeking and ye shall find, keep on knocking and it shall be opened unto you’ (Matt. vii. 7); and, ‘Keep on searching the Scriptures, for in them you think to have eternal life (John 5:39)? With regards to ’seeking’, it refers to prayer and vehement desire. And He invites us to, ‘Keep on searching the Scriptures,’ not in order to introduce the labors of questioning, but to end them — so that we may ascertain and settle their true meaning; not that we may be always questioning, but that we may be done with it. …”

“And [St. Paul] rightly said, ‘Command some not to teach different doctrines, nor to give heed to fables, and endless genealogies, which produce questions rather than the dispensation of God, which is in faith’ (I Timothy 1:4). Justly has he said, ‘the dispensation of God.’ For great are the blessings, which God is willing to dispense; but the greatness of them is not conceived by reasoning. This must, then, be the work of faith, which is the best medicine of our souls. This questioning, therefore, is opposed to the dispensation of God. For [this is] what is dispensed by faith: To receive His mercies and become better men; to doubt and dispute of nothing; but to repose in confidence.”

“It is not faith merely to profess belief, but to do works worthy of faith; … for sound doctrines avail nothing towards our salvation, if our life is corrupt. … For even though we have all faith and all knowledge of the Scriptures, yet if we are naked and destitute of the protection derived from (holy) living, there is nothing to hinder us from being hurried into the fire of hell; and burning for ever in the unquenchable flame. For as they who have done good shall rise to life everlasting, so they who have dared the contrary shall rise to everlasting punishment; which never has an end. Let us, therefore, manifest all eagerness not to waste the gain, which accrues to us from a right faith, by our vile actions; but becoming well-pleasing to Him by these [i.e., our actions] also, boldly to look upon Christ. No happiness can be equal to this.”

“Some, who seek out everything by reasoning, turn aside from the faith; but reasoning produces shipwreck, while faith is as a safe ship. For where there is no faith, there is no knowledge; when anything springs from our reasonings, it is not [true] knowledge.”

“What the wisdom of men cannot discover, faith abundantly comprehends and achieves. Therefore, let us cling to this; and not commit to reasonings what concerns ourselves. For tell me, why have not the Greeks been able to find out anything? Did they not know all the wisdom of the heathen? Why then could they not prevail against fishermen and tentmakers, and unlearned persons? Was it not because the one committed all to argument, the others to faith?”

“Therefore, [St. Paul] shows that the greatest things are attained through faith; and not through reasonings. And how does he show this, tell me? It is manifest, he says, that God made: the things which are, out of things which are not; things which appear, out of things which appear not; things which subsist, out of things which subsist not. … For reason suggests nothing of this kind; but on the contrary, that the things which appear are [formed] out of things which appear.”`

“Where is the proof … that God made these things [i.e., all of the visible and invisible creation]? Reason does not suggest it; no one was present when it was done. [Therefore], how is it shown? It is plainly the result of faith. “Through faith,” [St. Paul exclaims], we understand that the worlds were made. Why “through faith”? Because “the things which are seen have not come into being out of things which appear.” (Hebrews 11:3) For this is Faith.”

“Moved with fear,[Noah] prepared an ark” (Hebrews 11:7). Reason indeed suggested nothing of this sort; for “they were marrying and being given in marriage” (Luke 17:27); the air was clear, there were no signs [of change], but nevertheless he feared: “By faith”[St. Paul says], “Noah being warned by God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house” (Hebrews 11:7).” … Faith is all. If [faith] stabilizes the heart, then it stands in security. It follows that Faith gives stability, consequently reasonings shake. For Faith is contrary to reasoning.”

“Faith needs: a generous and vigorous soul; and one rising above all things of sense; and passing beyond the weakness of human reasonings. For it is not possible to become a believer, other than by raising one’s self above the common customs [of the world].”

“Everywhere, beloved, we have need of faith — the mother of blessings, the medicine of salvation; and without this, it is impossible to possess any one of the great doctrines. Without this, men are like those who attempt to cross the open sea without a ship; who – for a little while – hold out by swimming, using both bands and feet. However, when they have advanced farther, they are quickly swamped by the waves. In like manner, those who use their own reasonings, before they have learned anything, suffer shipwreck; as also Paul says, “Who concerning faith have made shipwreck.” (1 Tim. i. 19.) In order that this not be the case with us, let us hold fast to the sacred anchor [of faith]…”

“This is what we [should] learn: rather to raise questions, not to solve the questions that are raised. For even if we do solve them, we have not solved them altogether; but (only) as far as man’s reasoning goes. The proper solution of such questions is faith — knowing: that God does all things justly and mercifully, and for the best; that to comprehend the reason of them is impossible. This is the one solution, and no better one exists… This is a chief characteristic of faith: to leave all the consequences of this lower world, and [thereby] seek that which is above nature; … cast out the feebleness of forethought; and accept everything from the Power of God.”

“Faith requires obedience, and not curiosity; and when God commands, one ought to be obedient, not curious.”

“There is need not only of faith, but also of a spiritual way of life — that we may keep the Spirit that was given once for all.”

“Faith is – indeed – great, and brings salvation; and without it, never is it possible to be saved.”

“For the wonderful qualities of faith are two: that it both accomplishes great things, and suffers great things; and regards the suffering as nothing.”

“Wherefore I entreat you: let us use much diligence — both to stand in the right faith, and to show forth an excellent life.”

And a few by Saint Basil the Great…

“We must neither doubt nor hesitate respecting the words of the Lord, but be fully persuaded that every word of God is true and possible — even if nature rebels; for therein is the test of faith.”

“Let the simplicity of Faith be stronger than the deduction of reason.”

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Our venerable and God-bearing Father Maximus the Confessor (ca. 580-662) was an Orthodox Christian monk and ascetical writer known especially for his courageous fight against the heresy of Monothelitism. His feast days in the Church are celebrated on January 21 and, for the translation of his relics, on August 13.

“If you bear a grudge against anyone, pray for him and you will stop the passion in its tracks.

By prayer you separate the hurt from the memory of the evil which he did you and in becoming loving and kind you completely obliterate passion from the soul.

On the other hand, if someone else bears you a grudge, be generous and humble with him, treat him fairly, and you will deliver him from the passion.”

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Our father among the saints Gregory of Nyssa was bishop of Nyssa and a prominent theologian of the fourth century. He was the younger brother of Basil the Great and friend of Gregory the Theologian. He is one of the “Cappadocian Fathers,” a title which reveals at once his birthplace in Asia Minor and the magnitude of his intellect.

He is commemorated on January 10.

But the spiritual Lawgiver, our Lord Jesus Christ, strips the Law of its external coverings.

He discloses for us the inner meaning of the symbolic riddles.

First of all, He does not separate one man from everyone else in order to lead only him to spiritual converse with God.

He grants this privilege equally to all, presenting the grace of priesthood as common to those who aspire to it.

[…] The spiritual Lawgiver then leads the priest into the Holy of Holies, the innermost part of the sanctuary.

But this Holy of Holies is neither lifeless nor handmade. It symbolizes the hidden treasury of the heart, that is, if the heart is truly inaccessible to evil and impenetrable to wicked thoughts.

And the head He adorns with a heavenly mind, not engraving the form of letters on golden leaf (Ex 28:36) but imprinting the image of God Himself on the ruling faculty of reason.

On the hair He pours myrrh produced inwardly by the soul itself through the virtues. By means of the mystical liturgy He prepares a victim and sacrifice for the priest to offer to God, which is none other than Himself.

He who is thus led to this priesthood by the Lord puts to death the carnal mind by means of

“the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Eph 6:17).

He then enters the Holy of Holies and appeases God, offering himself as sacrifice and

“presenting his body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God” (Rom 12:1).

However, is this the obvious meaning of the Lord’s Prayer which we are interpreting? Someone will perhaps object that we are contriving these ideas and do not connect the text of the prayer to familiar things.

Let us remember, therefore, what the Lord’s Prayer has already taught us about approaching God.

Who has prepared himself to name God as his own Father with confidence? It is precisely he who is vested with such a spiritual robe described above.

[…] He enters into the Holy of Holies above the heavens which are truly in accessible and impenetrable to all profane thought.

Source: Gregory of Nyssa (c 335 – after 394): Third Homily on The Lord’s Prayer.

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Our father among the saints Ambrose of Milan came to be bishop of Milan as the only competent candidate to succeed Auxentius, a bishop of Arian persuasion, in 374. A catechumen and trained as a lawyer, he learned his theology through intense study of subject as he was successively baptized and then consecrated as Bishop of Milan. He held to the Nicene belief and through the eloquence of his arguments he persuaded Emperor Gratian to the Nicene confession.

He was known for his sermons which greatly influenced the conversion of St. Augustine of Hippo.

“Where a man’s heart is, there is his treasure also.”

God is not accustomed to refusing a good gift to those who ask for one.

Since he is good, and especially to those who are faithful to him, let us hold fast to him with all our soul, our heart, our strength, and so enjoy his light and see his glory and possess the grace of supernatural joy.

Let us reach out with our hearts to possess that good, let us exist in it and live in it, let us hold fast to it, that good which is beyond all we can know or see and is marked by perpetual peace and tranquillity, a peace which is beyond all we can know or understand.

[...] We have died with Christ. We carry about in our bodies the sign of his death, so that the living Christ may also be revealed in us.

The life we live is not now our ordinary life but the life of Christ: a life of sinlessness, of chastity, of simplicity and every other virtue.

We have risen with Christ. Let us live in Christ, let us ascend in Christ, so that the serpent may not have the power here below to wound us in the heel.

Let us take refuge from this world. You can do this in spirit, even if you are kept here in the body. You can at the same time be here and present to the Lord.

Your soul must hold fast to him, you must follow after him in your thoughts, you must tread his ways by faith, not in outward show. You must take refuge in him.

He is your refuge and your strength. David addresses him in these words:

“I fled to you for refuge, and I was not disappointed”.

Since God is our refuge, God who is in heaven and above the heavens, we must take refuge from this world in that place where there is peace, where there is rest from toil, where we can celebrate the great sabbath, as Moses said:

“The sabbaths of the land will provide you with food”.

To rest in the Lord and to see his joy is like a banquet, and full of gladness and tranquillity.

Let us take refuge like deer beside the fountain of waters. Let our soul thirst, as David thirsted, for the fountain.

What is that fountain? Listen to David:

“With you is the fountain of life”

Let my soul say to this fountain:

“When shall I come and see you face to face?”

For the fountain is God himself.

Source: Ambrose of Milan (c. 337-397): from Flight From The World (Cap. 6, 36; 7,44; 8, 45; 9,52).

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St. Leo the Great was the bishop of Rome during difficult times. He was an eminent scholar of Scripture and rhetoric. During an invasion by Attila the Hun, St. Leo met him outside the gates of Rome. After some short words, to everyone’s surprise, Attila turned and left. Three years later, during an invasion by Genseric the Vandal, St. Leo’s intercession again saved the Eternal City from destruction.

On this day during Lent, we are reading from the Ladder of Divine Ascent, and are reading the chapter “On Avarice,” so in light of that, we offer this admonition from St. Leo.

For the man who loves God it is sufficient to please the one he loves; and there is no greater recompense to be sought than the loving itself; for love is from God by the very fact that God himself is love.

The good and chaste soul is so happy to be filled with him that it desires to take delight in nothing else. For what the Lord says is very true:

Where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.

What is a man’s treasure but the heaping up of profits and the fruit of his toil? For as a man sows, so will he reap, and each man’s gain matches his toil; and where delight and enjoyment are found, there the heart’s desire is attached.

Now there are many kinds of wealth and a variety of grounds for rejoicing; every man’s treasure is that which he desires. If it is based on earthly ambitions, its acquisition makes men not blessed but wretched.

But those who enjoy the things that are above and eternal rather than earthly and perishable, possess an incorruptible, hidden store of which the prophet speaks:

Our treasure and salvation have come, wisdom and instruction and piety from the Lord: these are the treasures of justice.

Through these, with the help of God’s grace, even earthly possessions are transformed into heavenly blessings; it is a fact that many people use the wealth which is either rightfully left to them or otherwise acquired, as a tool of devotion.

By distributing what might be superfluous to support the poor, they are amassing imperishable riches, so that what they have discreetly given cannot be subject to loss. They have properly placed those riches where their heart is; it is a most blessed thing to work to increase such riches rather than to fear that they may pass away.

Source: Leo the Great (c.400-461): Sermon 92,2-3; from Office of Readings.

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As a little change up from the normal Lenten fare, we thought was time for something completely different!

It was reported in November 2009 that the Vatican has called in experts to study the possibility of extraterrestrial alien life and its implication for the Catholic Church. The Director of the Vatican Observatory commented that the discovery of possible alien life would have “many philosophical and theological implications” for Catholics.

In 1965 Fr. John Romanides offered a valuable resource on this topic for a series run by the Boston Globe in which he gives the unique Orthodox perspective. Originally printed in the Boston Globe on April 8, 1965 (page 18), the full text of this reprinted article is below.

All Planets the Same: Religion’s Response to Space Life V

I can foresee no way in which the teachings of the Orthodox Christian tradition could be affected by the discovery of intelligent beings on another planet. Some of my colleagues feel that even a discussion of the consequences of such a possibility is in itself a waste of time for serious theology and borders on the fringes of foolishness.

I am tempted to agree with them for several reasons.

As I understand the problem, the discovery of intelligent life on another planet would raise questions concerning traditional Roman Catholic and Protestant teachings regarding creation, the fall, man as the image of God, redemption and Biblical inerrancy.

First one should point out that in contrast to the traditions deriving from Latin Christianity, Greek Christianity never had a fundamentalist or literalist understanding of Biblical inspiration and was never committed to the inerrancy of scripture in matters concerning the structure of the universe and life in it. In this regard some modern attempts at de-mything the Bible are interesting and at times amusing.

Since the very first centuries of Christianity, theologians of the Greek tradition did not believe, as did the Latins, that humanity was created in a state of perfection from which it fell. Rather the Orthodox always believed that man [was] created imperfect, or at a low level of perfection, with the destiny of evolving to higher levels of perfection.

The fall of each man, therefore, entails a failure to reach perfection, rather than any collective fall from perfection.

Also spiritual ‘evolution’ does not end in a static beatific vision. It is a never ending process which will go on even into eternity.

Also Orthodox Christianity, like Judaism, never knew the Latin and Protestant doctrine of original sin as an inherited Adamic guilt putting all humanity under a divine wrath which was supposedly satisfied by the death of Christ.

Thus the solidarity of the human race in Adamic guilt and the need for satisfaction of divine justice in order to avoid hell are unknown in the Greek Fathers.

This means that the interdependence and solidarity of creation and its need for redemption and perfection are seen in a different light.

The Orthodox believe that all creation is destined to share in the glory of God. Both damned and glorified will be saved. In other words both will have vision of God in his uncreated glory, with the difference that for the unjust this same uncreated glory of God will be the eternal fires of hell.

God is light for those who learn to love Him and a consuming fire for those who will not. God has no positive intent to punish.

For those not properly prepared, to see God is a cleansing experience, but one which does not move eternally toward higher reaches of perfection.

In contrast, hell is a static state of perfection somewhat similar to Platonic bliss.

In view of this the Orthodox never saw in the Bible any three story universe with a hell of created fire underneath the earth and a heaven beyond the stars.

For the Orthodox discovery of intelligent life on another planet would raise the question of how far advanced these beings are in their love and preparation for divine glory.

As on this planet, so on any other, the fact that one may have not as yet learned about the Lord of Glory of the Old and New Testament, does not mean that he is automatically condemned to hell, just as one who believes in Christ is not automatically destined to be involved in the eternal movement toward perfection.

It is also important to bear in mind that the Greek Fathers of the Church maintain that the soul of man is part of material creation, although a high form of it, and by nature mortal.

Only God is purely immaterial.

Life beyond death is not due to the nature of man but to the will of God. Thus man is not strictly speaking the image of God. Only the Lord of Glory, or the Angel of the Lord of Old and New Testament revelation is the image of God.

Man was created according to the image of God, which means that his destiny is to become like Christ who is the Incarnate Image of God.

Thus the possibility of intelligent beings on another planet being images of God as men on earth are supposed to be is not even a valid question from an Orthodox point of view.

Finally, one could point out that the Orthodox Fathers rejected the Platonic belief in immutable archetypes of which this world of change is a poor copy.

This universe and the forms in it are unique and change is of the very essence of creation and not a product of the fall.

Furthermore the categories of change, motion and history belong to the eternal dimensions of salvation-history and are not to be discarded in some kind of eternal bliss.

Thus the existence of intelligent life on another planet behind or way ahead of us in intellectual and spiritual attainment will change little in the traditional beliefs of Orthodox Christianity.

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The newly ordained priest Barnabas

Today, at the Annunciation Cathedral in Atlanta, Fr. Dcn. Barnabas is being elevated to the Holy Priesthood. Axios!

Fr. Barnabas is a gifted (and well formed) preacher, and we will be seeing and hearing more from him once he recovers somewhat from his oppressive schedule. Fr. Barnabas is not only a friend, he is one of us – a member of the Preachers Institute, and student at Holy Cross Theological School in Brookline, MA. At the recent Art of Speaking Workshop (you can see the Review here), he was one of the four presenters.

To the entire Powell family – congratulations and many, blessed years to you all!

More information about Fr. Barnabas.

Fr. Barnabas (Charles) Powell is a native of Atlanta, Georgia. Having been raised in a small Pentecostal church as a boy, Fr. Dcn. Barnabas grew to love the church, enjoy the music, and eventually came to be the youth pastor of his home church.

Fr. Barnabas attended Toccoa Falls College, an Evangelical Protestant school in North East Georgia, and received his theology degree there in 1988. He then went on to establish a new church in the Atlanta area that was an Evangelical congregation with Charismatic distinctives. While pastoring, Barnabas also was heavily involved with Evangelical Christian media.

He served Dr. Charles Stanley’s In Touch Ministries as Promotions and Public Relations coordinator, and also served as the Affiliates manager for Leading The Way Ministries with Dr. Michael Youssef.

He pastored for several years and saw the congregation grow from two families to over 200 in the space of a few years. During this time, Barnabas became interested in the history of the Church, and began a reading program that would eventually lead him to enter the Orthodox Christian Church. Several of the families that had been with him during his pastorate entered the Orthodox Christian Church together with Barnabas in November of 2001.

Fr. Barnabas joined the staff of Orthodox Christian Network, the producers of Come Receive The Light, in April of 2003, and now serves the media outreach as the director of development. Orthodox Christian Network is the SCOBA Agency commissioned to create and sustain a national media outreach for the Orthodox Christian Churches in the U.S.

In 2007 Fr. Barnabas was given the blessing of Metropolitan Alexios of Atlanta to enter Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology and he and his wife and daughter moved to Boston to pursue his Master of Divinity in preparation for ordained ministry in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, if God wills. He is currently finishing his senior year at Holy Cross while also serving as adjunct professor for Public Speaking/Communications at Hellenic College.

Of special interest to us, He also assists in the graduate school in teaching the Preaching course for senior seminarians.

Fr. Barnabas is married to Presvytera Connie (Demas) Powell and they have one daughter, Alexandra.

As I wrote in my review of the Art of Speaking Workshop, he’s a southern gentleman with a fire in his belly for the Gospel, and a clear vision of the future of the Orthodox Church in the USA.

He also writes the blog, Sober Joy. The article below is taken from his blog, and is a small example of his excellent work.

Axios! Priest Barnabas! Congratulations, and many, blessed years to you.

Here is an article from Fr. Barnabas’ blog, for your reading enjoyment. As for me, I never get tired of reading his writing!

“DRESS UP” ORTHODOXY

Monday, June 30, 2008

Dear Readers (both of you! )

Below is a response I recently wrote to an announcement about “two new Orthodox parishes” being established in the Baltimore area. It turns out that these are two Old Catholic groups wanting to advertise themselves as “Orthodox.”

The reality of our current situation here in America is that of religious “entrepreneurial” chaos. In other words, every man can do what is “right in his own eyes.” I prefer the chaos over government control, but that means that each of us must be diligent in knowing and living the fullness of the Faith. No automatic pilot allowed!

Here’s my response. I offer it to you for your critique, response, and correction:

Fr. XXXX, please forgive me, but I spent (I won’t say “wasted” but I want to) almost 10 years of my life playing “dress up” Orthodoxy in a group that desired the ancient faith without all that messy hard work of actually being in organic communion within the Orthodox Church.

I don’t say that is what’s happening here. How could I know? But I do know that any real and lasting work any of us do will have to be eventually brought to the Church in communion if it is ever going to be “fruit that remains.” This “we are going to do Orthodoxy right” mentality is absolutely a dead end. If you and your Old Catholic group have charisms and talents, bring them to the Church. Perhaps the Church can put them to use, but more than likely it will be as it has been for me, a time when my own foolish notions of my gifts and abilities will be put to the test in the fire of the hard work of communion within the Church.

I also don’t mean to engage in any lengthy discussion of the merits of this or that vision of communion and bringing America to Orthodoxy. I simply wish to share my own regrets for waiting so long to enter into the hard work of communion within the Orthodox Church. The fruit that this work has produced in my own life is worth much more than any of the perceived “gains” I thought I had outside of the organic and canonical communion within the Church. Please know that ever fear I had about the Orthodox Church was well founded.

There are many within the Church who see it as nothing more than a place to preserve yia yia’s recipes and a few colorful costumes and dance steps, or some ultimately futile attempt to pretend they don’t live where they live now. There are many within the Church, especially here in America, who are so narrow minded that you could put out both eyes with one bb! There are far too many who know so little about their faith that they resort to silly nationalistic (and sometimes racist) motivations for preserving the ancient traditions of the faith. The sad and overwhelmingly obvious results of these weaknesses is that these motivations will not preserve anything these folks want to preserve. These weak motivations are, after all, too small to preserve the timeless beauty of the Faith, and too irrelevant to keep any of the “old world” alive. All of these fears are well founded and certainly insist on an “eyes wide open” approach to entering the Church.

But in spite of these very real weaknesses, there is simply no substitute for the hard work of dealing with these shortcomings, especially with all the benefits that come.

Because, for every narrow-minded person I have encountered in the Orthodox Church, I have encountered a hundred sincere, faithful, and loving believers who, through patience, compassion, and love have guided me to a fuller understanding of the Faith. I have seen my initial impressions of some of the ethno-centric baggage of the Church as being too short sighted myself. I have found some of these cultural expressions (certainly not all) to be worthy bearers of deeper truths that have been helpful to me in deepening my own piety and faith. I have watched as so-called “cradle” Orthodox, grasping the deep healing given to them by the Faith, raise their children as committed believers and I’ve watched as so-called “converts” finally see the power of humility in living out a sense of gratitude for those who preserved the faith so they could receive it. I have watched as young men and women come to understand that if they first dwell deeply on the “sublime theology” of Orthodoxy, their children will want to keep alive those special cultural markers that allow them to display their Orthodox faith in a healthy and welcoming way. Their children want to learn the “language” not because of some foolish and shallow nationalism, but because that “language” best captures the precious nuances of the Faith they have come to love and has so transformed their lives. It has been worth the work.

My journey isn’t over, anymore than I’m sure yours is as well. Here at seminary I am learning more than I ever dreamed, and much of that education is occurring not in a classroom but in the daily living with so many different people from so many different places. I have found my worst fears and my greatest hopes both confirmed in my canonical communion within the Church,

and I wouldn’t go back to my “dress up” days for anything!

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Our Venerable and God-bearing Father Theodore the Studite was a hymnographer and theologian as well as the abbot of the Monastery of St. John the Baptist in Studios, outside of Constantinople, during the ninth century.

His great theological contribution, On the Holy Icons, was for the defense of icons during the Second Iconoclasm Period (814-842). He is also known for his writings and influence on monastic reform.

On our Accomplishing the Days of the Fast Gently and Readily in the Hope of Life Without End

Brethren and fathers, fasting is good if it possesses its own special characteristics, which are to be peaceable, meek, well-established, obedient, humble, sympathetic and all the other forms of virtue. But the devil hurries to suggest the opposite to fasters and to make them insolent, angry, bad-tempered, puffed up, so as to produce hurt more than gain.

But let us not be ignorant of his plans, but continue our path peaceably, gently, meekly and steadfastly bearing with one another in love, knowing that this is what is acceptable to God; for though you bend your neck double like a hoop and smother yourself with sackcloth and ashes, if these qualities are lacking to you, you would not be well-pleasing to him. Because while fasting batters and wastes the body, it clears the soul and makes it flourish.

“For as much as our outer nature is perishing,” it says, “by so much the inner is being renewed day by day.” And our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding weight of glory.

So that looking at the recompense, let us bear the toils of virtue with long-suffering, giving thanks to the God and Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love.

Do we not communicate each day of his immaculate body and blood?[1]

What could be sweeter and more filled with enjoyment than this, since those who partake with a pure conscience will obtain eternal life? Do we not converse each day with the godly David and the other Holy Fathers through taking in the readings? What could bring greater consolation to the soul? Have we not broken off contact with the world and with our relatives according to the flesh?

Again is anything more blessed or higher than this? For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to his glorious body, according to the working by which he is able even to subdue all things to Himself. And so, my brothers, let us rejoice and be glad as we repudiate every pleasure.

“All flesh is grass, and all human glory like the flower of the grass.”

The grass withered and the flower faded, but the work of virtue endures for ever.

“Is anyone among you suffering?” as the brother of God says, “Let him pray. Is anyone sad? Let him sing psalms.”

Is anyone tempted by evil passion? — since the tempter is always at work — let him endure patiently as he listens to the one who says,

“Blessed is the one who endures temptation; for when he has been proved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him.”

“If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them,” said the Lord,

to whom be glory and might, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and for ever and to the ages of ages. Amen.

1 This suggests that daily Communion was the norm for St Theodore’s monks. This would imply that during Lent the Liturgy of the Presanctified was celebrated every weekday, not just on Wednesdays and Fridays.

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by St. John of Krondstadt

“It is remarkable that however much we trouble about our health, however much care we take of ourselves, whatever wholesome and pleasant food and drink we take, however much we walk in the fresh air, still, notwithstanding all this, in the end we sicken and corrupt; whilst the saints, who despise the flesh, and mortify it by continual abstinence and fasting, by lying on the bare earth, by watchfulness, labors, unceasing prayer, make both their souls and bodies immortal. Our well-fed bodies decay and after death emit an offensive odor, whilst theirs remain fragrant and flourishing both in life and after death. It is a remarkable thing: we, by building up our body, destroy it, whilst they, by destroying theirs, built it up-by caring only for the fragrance of their souls before God, they obtain fragrance of the body also.”

- The Spiritual Counsel of Father John of Kronstadt

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This is a recording of our father, Archbishop Job of Chicago singing the 15th Antiphon at Matins for Great and Holy Friday 2009.

We include it for your own spiritual edification. Contemplate this worthy meditation on the Cross in anticipation of Holy Week.

May his memory be eternal!

If anyone has access to sheet music for this, please contact us here.

© 2010, Preachers Institute. All rights reserved. On republishing this, please provide a link to the original post.