St. Symeon the New Theologian Orthodox Church

Through the Blood of His Cross

"The Logos has made men equal to the angels. Not only did He 'make peace through the blood of His Cross; between things on earth and things in heaven' (Col. 1:20), and reduce to impotence the hostile powers that fill the intermediary region between heaven and earth, thereby making the festal assembly of earthly and heavenly powers a single gathering for His distribution of divine gifts, with humankind joining joyfully with the powers on high in unanimous praise of God's glory, but also, after fulfilling the divine purpose undertaken on our behalf, when He was taken up with the body which He had assumed, He united heaven and earth in Himself. "

- St. Maximus the Confessor

Let us not sadden Him in Anything

"God is full of love and compassion. Let us not sadden Him in anything! He endured the Cross for us; His head was pricked by the crown of thorns; His side was pierced by the spear; His feet were nailed; His back was scourged; His all-holy mouth was given gall and vinegar; His heart ached from the insolence and ingratitude; He was naked up on the Cross in front of such a demonic mob. This, my children, is Whom we should not sadden with our carelessness, which intensifies His suffering. The Jews were His enemies, whereas we have been baptized in His holy Name—we are His disciples who are devoted to serving Him!
His disciples abandoned Him out of fear of the Jews, and how much He was grieved is beyond description! And now, how will all who deny Him, all who abandon Him, all who promise Him one thing and do another, find themselves before Him at the hour of Judgment? What shall they say when our Christ begins to enumerate His sufferings one by one, while they will have only their denial and a multitude of evils to present? "

- Elder Ephraim

The Precious and Life-giving Cross

"On September 14th, the Church commemorates two events in connection with the Honorable Cross of Christ: first, the finding of the Honorable Cross on Golgotha and second, the return of the Honorable Cross from Persia to Jerusalem.
Visiting the Holy Land, the holy Empress Helena decided to find the Honorable Cross of Christ. An old Jewish man named Judah was the only one who knew where the Cross was located, and, constrained by the empress, he revealed that the Cross was buried under the temple of Venus that Emperor Hadrian had built on Golgotha. The empress ordered that' this idolatrous temple be razed and, having dug deep below it, found three crosses. While the empress pondered on how to recognize which of these was the Cross of Christ, a funeral procession passed by. Patriarch Macarius told them to place the crosses, one by one, on the dead man. When they placed the first and second cross on the dead man, the dead man lay unchanged. When they placed the third cross on him, the dead man came back to life. By this they knew that this was the Precious and Life-giving Cross of Christ. They then placed the Cross on a sick woman, and she became well. The patriarch elevated the Cross for all the people to see, and the people sang with tears: "Lord, have mercy!" Empress Helena had a silver case made and set the Honorable Cross in it.
Later, the Persian Emperor Chozroes conquered Jerusalem, enslaved many people, and took the Lord's Cross to Persia. The Cross remained in Persia for fourteen years. In the year 628 the Greek Emperor Heraclius defeated Chozroes and, with much ceremony, returned the Cross to Jerusalem. As he entered the city Emperor Heraclius carried the Cross on his back, but suddenly was unable to take another step. Patriarch Zacharias saw an angel preventing the emperor from bearing the Cross on the same path that the Lord had walked barefoot and humiliated. The patriarch communicated this vision to the emperor. The emperor removed his raiment and, in ragged attire and barefoot, took up the Cross, carried it to Golgotha, and placed it in the Church of the Resurrection, to the joy and consolation of the whole Christian world. "

- From the Prologue of Ochrid by Saint Nikolai of Zicha

From the Councels of Elder Paisios

"If you want to grab God's attention so He'll hear you during prayer, turn the dial to humility, for God always works in this frequency; then humbly ask for His mercy. "

"If we haven't got control of our mind during the hour of spiritual study we are not benefited at all. We simply yawn and tire ourselves without a goal, for we cannot remember anything. In the same way, when the printer doesn't have his mind on his work and forgets to put ink in, the printing presses work without printing anything. "

"There are no people more blessed than those who have made contact with the 'heavenly television station' and who are piously connected to God. In the same way, no people are more wretched than those who have cut contact with God and wander, dizzy, around the world, flipping through the world's many television stations so as to forget, if only for a short time, the anguish of the derailment of their lives. "

"In the hour of prayer, when our mind wanders to thoughts of bad things, of if these thoughts come without our wanting them, we shouldn't wage an offensive war against the enemy; because, even if all the lawyers in the world joined together, they wouldn't make any headway with a little demon. Only through ignoring these thoughts can one chase them away. The same holds true for blasphemous thoughts. "

Redemption and Deification

"I give glory to Jesus Christ the God Who bestowed such wisdom upon you; for I have perceived that you are established on faith immovable, being as it were nailed on the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, in flesh and in spirit, and firmly grounded in love in the blood of Christ, fully persuaded as touching our Lord that He is truly of the race of David according to the flesh, but Son of God by the Divine will and power, truly bom of a virgin and baptized by John that all righteousness might be fulfilled by Him, truly nailed up in the flesh for our sakes under Pontius Pilate and Herod the Tetrarch (of which fruit we are - that is, of His most blessed passion); that He might set up an ensign unto all the ages through His resurrection, for His saints and faithful people, whether among Jews or among Gentiles, in one body of His Church.
For He suffered all these things for our sakes (that we might be saved); and He suffered truly, as also He raised Himself truly; not as certain unbelievers say, that He suffered in semblance, being themselves mere semblance. And according as their opinions are, so shall it happen to them, for they are without body and demon-like. For I know and believe that He was in the flesh even the resurrection; and when He came to Peter and his company, He said to them, lay hold and handle me, and see that I am not a demon without body. And straightway they touched Him, and they believed, being joined unto His flesh and His blood. Wherefore they also despised death, nay they were found superior to death. And after His resurrection He both ate with them and drank with them as one in the flesh, though spiritually He was united with the Father. Let no man be deceived. Even the heavenly beings and the glory of the angels and rulers visible and invisible, if they believe not in the blood of Christ (Who is God), judgment awaits them also. He that receives let him receive. Let not office puff up any man; for faith and love are all in all, and nothing is preferred before them. But mark ye those who hold strange doctrine touching the grace of Jesus Christ which have come to us, how they are contrary to the mind of God. They have no care for love, none for the widow, none for the orphan, none for the afflicted, none for the prisoner, none for the hungry or thirsty. They abstain from Eucharist (thanksgiving) and prayer/because they allow not that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, which flesh suffered for our sins, and which the Father of His goodness raised up.
But shun divisions, as the beginning of evils. Do ye all follow your bishop, as Jesus Christ followed the Father, and the presbytery as the Apostles; and to the deacons pay respect, as to God's commandment. Let no man do aught of things pertaining to the Church apart from the bishop. Let that be held a valid Eucharist, which is under the bishop or one to whom he shall have committed it. Wheresoever the bishop shall appear, there let the people be, even as where Jesus may be, there is the Catholic Church. It is not lawful apart from the bishop either to baptize or hold a love feast; but whatsoever he shall approve, this is well pleasing to God; that everything, which ye do, may be sure and valid. "

- From the Letter to Smymaeans by St. Ignatius of Antioch

What are Christians?

"What are Christians? Christians are Christ-bearers, and by virtue of this bearers and possessors of eternal life, and this according to the measure of faith and according to the measure of holiness which is from faith. 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 Lord Christ and no death has power over them. Their life is entirely from the Lord Christ, and for this reason it 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. If the soul, it is first Christ's and then theirs: if life, it is first Christ's and then theirs. In them is nothing of themselves but rather wholly and in everything the Lord Christ. "

- St. Justin Popovich

Monastics and the rest of us...

"One crucial function and ministry monasticism is called to exercise in the Church is that of being living models of ascesis as a way of encouraging others to embrace greater ascesis in their own role in life. (You get the idea: If the monastics can abstain from meat all year long, surely I can do it on Wednesdays and Fridays, and during the lenten seasons... If the monastics can spend somewhere between four and eight hours in church every day, surely I can take time for properly saying and praying morning and evening prayers...If monastics can live in nonacquisitiveness, surely I can be more sensible in my spending and do without that 57-inch flat screen TV... etc.)
1Monastic life is, after all, ordinary Christian life, just kicked up a notch or two. The health of the Church as a whole is tied rather closely to the health (or lack of it) in monasticism, precisely because monastics are supposed to be both models of everyday ascesis leading to that 'peace with all and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord' (Heb.12:14) and those who pray for the Church and the world even (yea, especially!) when the Church and the world aren't praying for themselves. The 'either-or' proposition that it's either monasticism or ascesis for everybody, is a false dichotomy and, at best, very fuzzy thinking that's completely out of sync with the 'both-and' mind of the Church. "

- Fr. Phillip Speranza (Canada)

Reflection from the Prologue

"Although the Holy Fathers praised monasticism as the angelic state, and although many of the greatest Saints lived their lives and attained perfection in the deaf and lifeless desert, nevertheless, the Orthodox Church does not recommend tonsuring to all the faithful. 'Neither all those in the desert were saved nor all those in the world were lost,' said one saint.
To a city dweller who, with no inclination for monasticism, desired to enter the monastery, St. Niphon said: 'My child, a place neither saves nor destroys a man, but deeds save or destroy. For him who does not fulfill all the Commandments of the Lord, there is no benefit from a sacred place or from a sacred rank. King Saul lived in the midst of royal luxury and he perished. King David lived in the same kind of luxury and he received a wreath. Lot lived among the lawless Sodomites and he was saved. Judas was numbered among the apostles and he went to Hades. Whoever says that it is impossible to be saved with a wife and children deceives himself. Abraham had a wife and children, three-hundred-eighteen servants and handmaidens, much gold and silver but, nevertheless, he was called the Friend of God. Oh, how many servants of the Church and lovers of the desert have been saved! How many aristocrats and soldiers! How many artisans and field-workers! Be pious and be a lover of men and you will be saved!' "

On Thoughts

"If we keep remembering the wrongs which men have done us, we destroy the power of the remembrance of God. But if we remind ourselves of the evil deeds of the demons, we shall be invulnerable. "

- St. Macarius the Great