Holy Seven Youths (the "Seven Sleepers") of Ephesus: Maximilian, Jamblicus, Martinian, John, Dionysius, Exacustodian (Constantine) and Antoninus 4/17 August

These saints lived in the third century. Saint Maximilian was the son of the Ephesian city governor; the remaining six youths were the sons of other notable Ephesian citizens. The youths were friends from childhood, and all were in military service. When the Emperor Decius (249-251) arrived in Ephesus, he commanded all the citizens to appear for the offering of sacrifice to the pagan deities; but torments and the death penalty awaited the recalcitrant. Upon denunciation by those who sought the Emperor's favor, the seven Ephesian youths were also called to account. While standing before the Emperor, the holy youths confessed their faith in Christ. Immediately, their military insignia - their military belts - were taken from them. However, Decius set them free, hoping that they would change their minds while he was on a campaign. The youths left the city and hid in a cave on Mount Ochlon, where they passed the time in prayers, preparing for the martyric struggle. The youngest of them - Saint Jamblicus - clothing himself in pauper's rags, would go to the city and buy bread. During one such excursion to the city, he heard that the Emperor had returned and that they were being sought in order to be put on trial.

Saint Maximilian inspired his friends to leave the cave and appear voluntarily in court. But the Emperor, having learned where the youths were hiding, ordered that the entrance to the cave be blocked up with stones so that the youths would die therein from hunger and thirst. Two of the officials present at the blocking up of the entrance to the cave were secret Christians. Desiring to preserve the memory of the saints, they placed among the stones a sealed coffer in which were two tin plaques. Written thereon were the names of the seven youths and the circumstances of their passion and death.

But the Lord brought upon the youths a miraculous sleep, which lasted nearly two centuries. By that time, the persecutions against the Christians had ceased, although under the holy, right-believing Theodosius the Younger (408-450), heretics appeared, who rejected the resurrection of the dead at the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Some of them said: "How can there be a resurrection of the dead, when there will be neither body nor soul, since they will be annihilated?" Others asserted: "Only souls will have a recompense, since it is impossible for bodies to rise and come to life after a thousand years, when even dust from them does not remain. It was then that the Lord revealed the mystery of the awaited resurrection of the dead and the future life through His seven youths.

The owner of the parcel of land on which Mount Ochlon was situated began a stone building, and the workers took the entrance to the cave to pieces. The Lord revived the youths, and they awoke literally from ordinary sleep, not suspecting that nearly two hundred years had passed. Their bodies and clothes were completely incorrupt. Preparing to receive torments, the youths charged Saint Jamblicus once more to buy them bread in the city to fortify their strength. On approaching the city, the youth was astounded to see the holy Cross on the gates. On hearing the Name of Jesus Christ freely pronounced, he began to doubt that he had come to his own city.

When paying for the bread, the holy youth gave to the merchant a coin with the depiction of the Emperor Decius and was detained as one who had hidden a treasure of old coins. Saint Jamblicus was brought to the city governor, whom the Ephesian bishop was with at that time. Listening to the youth's perplexed answers, the bishop understood that God was revealing through him some mystery, and he himself set out for the cave together with the people. At the entrance to the cave, the bishop drew the sealed coffer out from the pile of stones and opened it. He read the names of the seven youths on the tin plaques and the circumstances of their immurement in the cave at the command of the Emperor Decius. On entering the cave and seeing the youths alive therein, everyone re-joiced and understood that the Lord, through their waking up from a long sleep, was reveal-ing to the Church the mystery of the resur-rection of the dead. Soon the Emperor ar-rived in Ephesus and conversed with the youths in the cave. And then the holy youths, before everyone's eyes, laid their heads on the ground and again fell asleep, this time until the general resurrection. The Emperor wanted to place each of the youths in a precious reliquary, but the holy youths, appearing to him in a dream, said that their bodies were to be left in the cave on the ground. In the twelfth century, the Russian pilgrim, Abbot Daniel, saw these holy relics of the seven youths in the cave.

The memory of the seven youths is celebrated a second time on the 22nd of October. (According to one tradition, which entered into the Russian Prologue, the youths fell asleep the second time on this day; according to a note in the Greek Menaion of 1870, they fell asleep the first time on the 4th of August, and awoke on the 22nd of October. The holy youths are also remembered in the service of the ecclesiastical new year - the 1st of September.)

Kefalonia: Miracle Serpents of the Theotokos

Saint John Maximovitch on the Little Things in Life

St. John Maximovitch

Many people believe that to live according to the faith and to fulfill the will of God is very difficult. Actually — it’s very easy. One needs only attend to details, to trifles, and try to avoid evil in the slightest and most trivial things. This is the simplest and surest way to enter the world of the spirit and draw near to God. A man often thinks that the Creator demands great things of him, that the Gospel insists on complete self-sacrifice, the abolition of one’s person hood, etc., as a condition of faith. A man is so frightened by this that he begins to be afraid of becoming acquainted with God, of drawing near to God, and hides himself from God, not even wishing to look into God’s Word. “If I can’t do anything important for God, then I’d just better stay away from things spiritual, stop thinking about eternity, and live ‘in a normal way’.”

There exists at the entrance to the spiritual realm a “hypnosis of great deeds”: one must either do some big thing or do nothing. And so people do nothing at all for God or for their souls! It is very strange — the more a man is devoted to the little things of life, the less he wishes to be honest or pure or faithful to God in those same little things. And, moreover, each one must adopt a correct attitude toward little things if one wishes to come near to the kingdom of heaven.

“Wishes to come near”… In this is summed up all the difficulties of the religious life. Often one wishes to enter into the kingdom of heaven quite unexpectedly, in some miraculous and magical way, or, by right — through some kind of great feat. But neither the one nor the other is the right way to find the higher world. One does not enter God’s presence in some wondrous manner while remaining indifferent on earth to the needs of the kingdom of God and its bright eternity, nor can one purchase the treasures of the kingdom of God by some kind of eternal act, however great that act might be. Yet good deeds, holy deeds are necessary for one to grow into a higher life, a bright will, a good desire, a heavenly psychology, a heart that is both pure and fair…

“…Verily, verily I say unto you that whosoever offers one of the least of these but a cup of cold water, in the name of a disciple, shall not lose his reward.” In this saying of the Lord is the highest expression of the smallness of the good. “A glass of water” — this is not much…

…In every communication between people there must without fail be a good spirit. This spirit is Christ, openly manifest or hidden.

“In the name of a disciple” — this is the first step in communicating with another person in the name of Jesus Christ Himself. Many people, not as yet knowing the Lord and the wondrous fellowship in His Name still have among themselves an unselfish, pure and human fellowship which brings them ever closer to the Spirit of Christ…

…As a matter of fact, the lesser good is more necessary for mankind than the greater. People can get along with their lives without the greater good; without the lesser they can not exist. Mankind perishes not from a lack of the greater good, but from an insufficiency of just this lesser good. The greater good is no more than a roof, erected on the brick walls of the lesser good.

The lesser, easier good was left on this earth for man by the Creator Himself, who took all the greater good upon Himself. Whosoever does the lesser, the same creates — and through him the Creator Himself creates — the greater good. Of our little good the Creator makes His Own great good. For as our Lord is the Creator who formed all things from nothingness, so is He more able to create the greater good from the lesser…

Through such lesser, easy work, done with the greatest simplicity, a man is accustomed to the good and begins to serve it with his whole heart, sincerely, and in this way enters into an atmosphere of good, lets down the roots of his life into new soil, the soil of the good. The roots of human life quickly accommodate themselves to this good earth, and soon cannot live without it… Thus is a man saved: from the small comes the great. “Faithful in little things” turns out to be “faithful in the greater.”

Lay aside all theoretical considerations that it is forbidden to slaughter millions, women, children, and elderly; be content to manifest your moral sense by in no way killing the human dignity of your neighbor, neither by word, nor by innuendo, nor by gesture.

Do not be angry over trifles “against your brother vainly” (Matthew 5:22) or in the daily contacts of life speak untruth to your neighbor. These are trifles, small change, of no account; but just try to do this and you will see what comes of it.

It is hard to pray at night. But try in the morning. If you can’t manage to pray at home than at least as you ride to your place of employment attempt with a clear head the “Our Father” and let the words of this short prayer resound in your heart. And at night commend yourself with complete sincerity into the hands of the Heavenly Father. This indeed is very easy.

And give, give a glass of cold water to everyone who has need of it; give a glass filled to the brim with simple human companionship to everyone that lack it, the very simplest companionship…

O wondrous path of little things, I sing thee a hymn! Surround yourselves, O people, gird up yourselves with little works of good — with a chain of little, simple, easy and good feelings which cost us naught, a chain of bright thoughts, words and deeds. Let us abandon the big and the difficult. That is for them that love it and not for us for whom the Lord in His Mercy, for us who have not yet learned to love the greater, has poured forth the lesser love everywhere, free as water and air.

Source: http://theburningbush.wordpress.com/2010/04/13/saint-john-maximovitch-on-the-little-things-in-life/

St. John Maximovitch of Shanghai and San Francisco

"Holiness is not simply righteousness, for which the righteous merit the enjoyment of blessedness in the Kingdom of God, but rather 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 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."

St. John Maximovitch

What better description could be found to portray the essence of a man whose love for Christ drew him to such heights of spiritual perfection that he enkindled the faith of thousands from East to West? The life of St. John Maximovitch demonstrates more vividly than any words that true Christianity far exceeds the bounds of human “goodness”. Here is a shining reflection of the supernatural love of God which works miracles, a living proof that the burning faith of the early Christian saints still warms the earth at a time when the love of many has grown cold.

St. John did not isolate himself from the world, but he was not of this world. First and foremost he was a man of prayer. He completely surrendered himself to God, presenting himself as a “living sacrifice” and he became a true vessel of the Holy Spirit. His work as an apostle, missionary and miracle worker continues even now.

This saint of the latter times was born June 4, 1896 in the province of Kharkov. At baptism he was given the name Michael. As a child he was serious for his years and he later wrote: “From the first days when I began to become aware of myself, I wished to serve righteousness and truth. My parents kindled in me a striving to stand unwaveringly for the truth, and my soul was captivated by the example of those who had given their lives for it.”

Following the desire of his parents, he entered law school in Kharkov. He was a naturally gifted student but spent more time reading the Lives of Saints than attending academic lectures. “While studying the worldly sciences,” he wrote, “I went all the more deeply into the study of the science of sciences, into the study of the spiritual life.”

After the Revolution, he was evacuated together with his family to Belgrade where he entered the faculty of theology at the University. In 1926, a year after his graduation, he was tonsured a monk and given the name John, after his own distant relative, St. John of Tobolsk. In November of that same year, he was ordained hieromonk. Soon he became a teacher at the Serbian Seminary of St. John the Theologian at Bitol. More than once the bishop there, St. Nikolai Velimirovich, would say, “If you wish to see a living saint, go to Fr. John.”

Ascetic

It was his own students who first became aware of Vladika’s great feat of asceticism. At night they noticed that Vladika would stay up, making the rounds of the dormitories and praying over the sleeping students. 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. This ascetic feat he continued for the rest of his life.

At the age of 38 he was elevated to the episcopate of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, and was sent to Shanghai, China. There he restored Church unity, took an active interest in the religious education of youth, encouraged and participated in various charitable organizations founded an orphanage, and himself gathered sick and starving children off the streets. He always wore clothing of the cheapest Chinese fabric and often went barefoot, sometimes having given his sandals away to some poor man. Vladika celebrated Divine Liturgy and received Holy Communion daily, as he did for the rest of his life.

Wonderworker

In Shanghai it became evident that Vladika was not only a righteous man, but a true ascetic, a man of prayer and a wonderworker. Once in Shanghai Vladika John was asked to the bed of a dying child, whose case had been called hopeless by the physicians. Entering the apartment, Vladika John went straight to the room in which the sick boy lay, although no one had managed yet to show him where this was. Without examining the child. Vladika immediately fell down in front of the icon in the corner, which was very characteristic of him and prayed for a long time. Then, assuring the relatives that the child would recover, he quickly left. And in fact the child became better towards morning and he soon recovered, so that a physician was no longer needed.

Vladika loved to visit the sick and if the condition of a patient would become critical, he would go to him at any hour of the day or night to pray at his bedside. There were cases when patients would cry out to Vladika in the middle of the night from their hospital beds, and from the other end of the city Vladika would come.

Man of Prayer

With the coming of the communists, the Russians in China were forced once again to flee, most through the Philippines. At one time 5,000 of the refugees were living in an International Refugee Organization camp on the island of Tubabao, located in the path of the seasonal typhoons.

When the fear of typhoons was mentioned by one Russian to the Filipinos, they replied that there was no reason to worry, because “your holy man blesses your camp from four directions every night.” They referred to Vladika John, for no typhoon struck the island while he was there.

In trying to resettle his flock, Vladika went to Washington, and through his intervention, almost the whole camp was miraculously able to come to America - including his orphanage.

In 1951 Vladika was sent to Western Europe. Here too his reputation for holiness spread - and not only among the Orthodox. In one of the Catholic churches of Paris, a priest strove to inspire his young people with these words: “you demand proofs, you say that now there are neither miracles nor saints. Why should I give you theoretical proofs, when today there walks in the streets of Paris a saint - Saint Jean Nu-Pieds (St. John the Barefoot)”.

Finally, in 1962, Vladika was sent to San Francisco in response to the urgent request of thousands of Russians who had known him in Shanghai. The Russian community was bitterly divided over the building of a new cathedral. Vladika became embroiled in this dispute and this eventually led to his persecution. But the Truth finally won out and a measure of peace was restored, the paralysis of the community ended, and the cathedral was finished.

Alive after Death

On June 19/July 2, 1966, during a visit to Seattle with the wonderworking Kursk Icon of the Mother of God, Vladika peacefully gave his soul to the Lord Whom he had served so faithfully during his earthly life. His unembalmed body was flown to San Francisco where for six days it lay in the cathedral in an open coffin, while thousands of the faithful came to say their last farewell to the beloved archpastor. Even after the sixth day it was noticed that there was no sign of decay.

Archbishop John was laid to rest in a small basement chapel under the altar of the cathedral after the San Francisco Board of Supervisors amended the City law to permit the burial of prelates in their cathedrals. His sepulchre became a place of pilgrimage for hundreds of people in need of his strong intercession before the throne of God. The many cases of answered prayer only confirm Vladika’s words to one of his devoted servants when, after his death, he appeared to her in a dream and said: “Tell the people: although I have died, I am alive!”

On June 19/July 2, 1994 St. John Maximovitch was canonized in San Francisco and his relics rest today in the Joy of All Who Sorrow Cathedral for all the faithful to venerate. 

Source: http://www.orthodoxphotos.com/Holy_Fathers/St._John_Maximovitch/

The martyr of Christ Nun Heruvima from Petru Voda Monastery, Romania

"The holy comemoration of the Martyrs sanctifies with the Holy Spirit all those who sanctifies it with Orthodoxy" (Octoich, tone 6, Monday at Matins)

Because I read recently in one of the central newspapers that at the Central University of Europe from Budapesta, founded in 1990, the largest number of students from a single country was of romanians, 145 students from 1990 since now, I have decided to write this material about what I have seen and heard.

In the Petru Voda cemetary rests, since more than 5 years, nun Heruvima, whose name as a laywoman was Svetlana Mihaela Tanasa. Nun Heruvima was born in 1969 and graduated the university of classical languages from Iasi, and received in 1995 a scholarship from Soros Foundation, for a mater in medieval history at CEU, Budapesta. Her thesis for master was the research of a manuscript of the Explanation to the Genesis wrote by St. John Chrysostom, and she proved, in that thesis, that the text printed by the jesuits and assumed by J.P. Migne in Patrologia Graeca has many interpolations and changes from the manuscript used in research, which contained a truly chrysostomic text, full of spirit. The conclusion was that a future critical edition of Explanation of Genesis will find the ballast introduced with bad-will by the Jesuits. (...)

Her teachers appreciated her work and proposed her to do apply for a doctor degree. Her thesis was focused also on Genesis: she was supposed to prove that the Holy Fathers followed in their explanation to Genesis the heretic Origene. Svetlana started to work with trust, not being aware of the fact she was actually asked to do. But, since she was reading from the Holy Fathers in cause, she were realising the blasphemy she was asked to prove. I still have here, from her, the Explanation of the Genesis of Blessed Augustine (in latin), the one of Origene (in greek), the one of Blessed Theodoret of Kir (in greek), and the one of St. Ephraim of Syria (in english), and even the commentary of the jew philosopher Phylon of Alexandria (in greek), works she read in Budapesta, in original. But as much she read, that much she understood that the Holy Fathers didn't followed the heretic Origene in their works, but one of the reasons for their works was to fight the heretic, and this could be seen from the way they approached to the every single question.

Svetlana Mihaela Tanasa

It happend that, being there, she asked herself some questions about her teachers and to find out that their vast majority are jews, and to see their disdain for Orthodoxy and for Tradition, with all the universitary degrees. And when she told them her conclusion from above, concerning the Holy Fathers, they told her: "No, it's not like this. Think it over. We pay you to prove something, and you must do it."

It followed several days of arguings and argumentations.

Returning  to Romania to get more stuff, she felt ill and go to doctor for an examination. So she find out that she has a skin cancer with a quick evolution, in the area of the left shoulder. The explanation was only one: she was irradiated. The doctor told her she has only a few months to live. She came back to Budapeste to take her luggage. She argued with everyone, who told her: "Why are you leaving? We have cures for your disease. There is nothing serious, we can give you healing. Just be obedient and you'll stay alive" (It seems they were right, because the doctors confirmed that it is practiced a method of cancer induction which can be cured if it you don't wait too long, but with very high medical expenses). She refused to abandon the Saints of God, so the Divine grace didn't abandoned her, which strenghtened her until the end. She took all that she could (although a great part of her books remained there) and she returned here. She came to Father Justin and told him all the story, and the Father told her to remain in our monastery (this was in august 1997).

It followed nearly a year and a half of sufferings. The disease evolved quickly into metastasis. Slowly, slowly, she was melting as it could be seen with the eyes. She accepted to be made a rassophore-nun, and a few weeks before her leaving from us, she was made a nun by Father Justin. She refused to take morphine, to purify through sufferings all her sins commited in this world. Her passions gave word for what says the Octoich: "Your Saints, O Lord, wearing the shield of faith, and strenghtening themselves with the sign of the Cross, to the labours boldly they run, and the pride and the wile of the devil they crumble". Her screams of pain announce until today, to the ears of those who heard them, the torments of the hell she've been through.

Fr. Justin Parvu

Nun Heruvima

God listened to her last will, that is to live until the feast of the Holy Archangels. After the vigil of the patronage of our monastery, in the night of 7 to 8 november 1998, about 3 hours in the morning, Holy Martyr Heruvima left us with her soul in peace, with a shiny face, to confess before the Holy Trinity the fight of the Orthodox against the rulers of this age and to intercede for the lovers of the Truth. If the world in which we live in it's, in totality, the face of the Babylon, the great whore, the Saint Heruvima stands for what it is written in the Book of Revelation: "And it was found in her the blood of the Prophets and of the Saints and of all who were sacrificed on earth". Coming here, nun Heruvima told us about the fact that from ECU, before her, leaved for the same reason - skin cancer - a student from Bulgaria, a woman-student from Georgia and another one from USA. I am sorry because I can't give you their names. Maybe someone will find them out, sometime. The greatest mockery was that after the leaving of nun Heruvima, her former teachers established at CEU Svetlana Tanasa's Prize, for the best thesis of the year..

The devil wanted to crumble in Gehena this pure soul, but God's mercy took her out of his claws, for her love for the truth, because the Truth is Christ our God. The Orthodoxy is alive and it flourishes into Truth, and the seed of the faith is the blood of the martyrs. "Soon come to us before we are enslaved by the enemies who blaspheme You and terrifies us, Christ our God. Waste with Your Cross those who fight us, to know how powerful is the faith of the Orthodox, for the prayers of the Holy Martyrs and of Theotokos, You One Lover of people". By Filotheu the monk, Petru Voda Monastery, Romania Source: www.orthodoxphotos.com/readings/martyrs/heruvima.shtml

Nun Heruvima

Fr Maxim: Georgian Monk Builds Stairway to Heaven

The towering Katskhi Pillar is about 10 kilometers from the mining town of Chiatura.

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Come summertime, getting away from it all is the dream that haunts everyone. One Georgian Orthodox monk, though, has come up with a plan for a lifetime of escape atop a 40-meter-high rock column in central Georgia’s Imereti region.

In pagan times, the towering Katskhi Pillar, located about 10 kilometers from the mining town of Chiatura, was thought to represent a local god of fertility. With the arrival of Christianity in Georgia in the 4th century, it came to represent seclusion from the hurly-burly of ordinary life.

A church was first built atop the rock between the 6th and 8th centuries -- no one knows exactly how or why. Stylites, early Christian ascetics who prayed and fasted on top of pillars, used Katskhi for their devotions until some time in the 15th century, when Georgia was struck by domestic upheaval and invasions by Ottoman Turkey. The remains of one unknown practitioner today lay buried beneath the church.

Father Maxim, a 55-year-old native of Chiatura, says that he has dreamed of living atop the Pillar, like the Stylites, since he was young. “When my friends and I used to come up here to drink outdoors, I always envied that monk who used to live there when I looked at the pillar,” he recalled.

In 1993, Father Maxim took monastic vows, and two years later decided to move to Katskhi. After spending one winter in a grotto beneath the rock column, he received money from a “friend from Tbilisi” to build a new church on its top. The Georgian Orthodox Church’s local eparchy, or regional administration, allegedly granted Father Maxim permission to erect the structure on the site.

Amidst an ongoing religious revival in Georgia, Father Maxim’s mission easily found supporters. More and more people now come to Katskhi to donate money or building materials for the church’s construction -- a generosity that makes the overall cost of the project difficult to estimate, he claims. Many local villagers also volunteer to work on the site for free.

The labor involved, though, can require a head for heights, as well as for matters spiritual. Scaffolding runs halfway up the column; an iron ladder reaches to the top. Builders use ropes to lift heavy construction materials from the ground.

Following the example of the first Stylite, Simeon, Father Maxim does not allow women on the site -- a ban also practiced at pagan shrines in Georgia’s mountain regions of Tusheti and Khevsureti.

Work on the project should be largely finished by the summer of 2011.

Before that date, Father Maxim hopes to secure a blessing from Georgian Orthodox Patriarch Ilia II that would allow the monk to live on top of Katskhi alongside his newly built church. “They told me they allowed me to come here, but not to live up there,” he recounted, laughing. “They told me I was too young then. Now they’ll probably tell me I’m too old.”

The Patriarch’s office could not be reached for comment.

But if the blessing ever comes, Father Maxim knows what he will do -- climb up Katskhi, pull the ladder up after him and live apart from the world’s tumult, once and for all.

Source: http://www.eurasianet.org/node/61812

Writtings Of Saint Nectarios Of Aegina

CHRISTIANITY Christian religion is not a certain philosophic system, about which learned men, trained in metaphysical studies, argue and then either espouse or reject, according to the opinion each one has formed. It is faith, established in the souls of men, which ought to be spread to the many and be maintained in their consciousnesses. There are truths in Christianity that are above out intellectual comprehension, incapable of being grasped by the finite mind of man. Our intellect takes cognizance of them, becomes convinced of their reality, and testifies about their supernatural existence. Christianity is a religion of revelation. The Divine reveals its glory only to those who have been perfected through virtue. Christianity teaches perfection through virtue and demands that its followers become holy and perfect. It disapproves of and opposes those who are under the influence of the imagination. He who is truly perfect in virtue becomes through Divine help outside the flesh and the world, and truly enters another, spiritual world; not, however, through the imagination, but through the effulgence of Divine grace. Without grace, without revelation, no man, even the most virtuous, can transcend the flesh and the world. God reveals Himself to the humble, who live in accordance with virtue. Those who take up the wings of the imgination attempt the flight of Ikaros and have same end. Those who harbor fantasies do not pray; for he that prays lifts his mind and heart towrds God, whereas he that turns to fantasies diverts himself. Those who are addicted to the imagination have withdrawn from God's grace and from the realm of Divine revelation. They have abandoned the heart in which grace is revealed and have surrendered themselves to the imagination, which is devoid of all grace. It is only the heart that receives knowledge about things that are not apprehended by the senses, because God, Who dwells and moves within it, speaks within it and reveals to it the substance of things hoped for. SEEK GOD daily. But seek Him in your heart, not outside it. And when you find Him, stand with fear and trembling, like the Cherubim and the Seraphim, for your heart has become a throne of God. But in order to find God, become humble as dust before the Lord, for the Lord abhors the proud, whereas He visits those that are humble in heart, wherefor He says: "To whom will I look, but to him that is meek and humble in heart?" THE DIVINE LIGHT illumines the pure heart and the pure intellect, because these are susceptible to receiving light; whereas impure hearts and intellects, not being susceptible to receiving illumination, have an aversion to the light of knowledge, the light of truth; they like darkness... God loves those who have a pure heart, listens to their prayers, grants them their requests that lead to salvation, reveals Himself to them and teaches the mysteries of the Divine nature. THE CHURCH The term CHURCH, according to the strict Orthodox view, has two meanings, one of them expressing its doctrinal and religious character, that is, its inner, peculiarly spiritual essence, and the other expressing its external character. Thus, according to the Orthodox confession, the Church is defined in a twofold manner: as a religious institution, and as a religious community (koinonia). The definition of the CHURCH as a religious institution may be formulated thus: The Church is a divine religious institution of the New Testament, built by our Savior Jesus Christ through His incarnate Dispensation, established upon faith on the day of holy Pentecost by the descent of the All-Holy Spirit upon the holy Disciples and Apostles of the Savior Christ, whom He rendered instruments of Divine grace for the perpetuation of His work of redemption. In this institution is entrusted the totality of revealed truths; in it operates Divine grace through the Mysteries; in it are regenerated those, who with faith, approach Christ the Savior; in it has been preserved both the written and the unwritten Apostolic teaching and tradition. The definition of the CHURCH as a religious community may be formulated thus: The CHURCH is a society of men united in the unity of the Spirit, in the bond of peace. The right view of the CHURCH is that the CHURCH is distinguished into the Militant and the Triumphant; and that it is Militant so long as it struggles against wickedness for the prevalence of the good, the Triumphant in the heavens, where there dwells the choir of the Righteous, who struggled and were made perfect in the faith in God and in virtue. TRADITION Sacred TRADITION is the very CHURCH; without the Sacred TRADITION the CHURCH does not exist. Those who deny the Sacred TRADITON deny the Church and the preaching of the Apostles.  Before the writing of the Holy Scriptures, that is, of the sacred texts of the Gospels, the Acts and the Epistles of the Apostles, and before they were spread to the churches of the world, the CHURCH was based on Sacred Tradition....The holy texts are in relation to Sacred Tradition what the part is to the whole.  The CHURCH Fathers regard Sacred Tradition as the safe guide in the interpretation of Holy Scripture and absolutely necessary for understanding the truths contained in the Holy Scripture. The CHURCH received many traditions from the Apostles... The constitution of the church services, especially of the Divine Liturgy, the holy Mysteria themselves and the manner of performing them, certain prayers and other institutions of the Church go back to the Sacred Tradition of the Apostles.  In their conferences, the Holy Synods draw not only from Holy Scriptures, but also from Sacred Tradition as from a pure fount. Thus, the Seventh Ecumenical Synod says in the 8th Decree: "If one violates any part of the CHURCH Tradition, either written or unwritten, let him be anathema." DISCOVERING GOD It is evident that unbelief is an evil offspring of an evil heart; for the guileless and pure heart everywhere discovers God, everywhere discerns Him, and always unhesitatingly believes in His existence. When the man of pure heart looks at the World of Nature, that is, at the sky, the earth, and the sea and at all things in them, and observes the systems constituting them, the infinite multitude of stars of heaven, the innumerable multitudes of birds and quadrupeds and every kind of animal of the earth, the variety of plants on it, the abundance of fish in the sea, he is immediately amazed and exclaims with the Prophet David: "How great are Thy works, O Lord! In wisdom Thou made them all." Such a man, impelled by his pure heart, discovers God also in the World of Grace of the Church, from which the evil man is far removed. The man of pure heart believes in the Church, admires her spiritual system, discovers God in the Mysteria, in the heights of the theology, in the light of the Divine revelations, in the truths of the teachings, in the commandments of the Law, in the achievements of the Saints, in the very good deed, in every perfect gift, and in general in the whole of the creation. Justly then did the Lord say in His Beatitudes of those possessing purity of the heart: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." SELF-KNOWLEDGE He who does not know himself does not know God, either. And he who does not know God does not know the truth and the nature of things in general... He who does not know himself continually sins against God and continually moves farther away from Him. He who does not know the nature of things and what they truly are in themselves is powerless to evaluate them according to their worth and to discriminate between the mean and the precious, the worthless and the valuable. Wherefore, such a person wears himself out in the pursuit of vain and trivial things, and is unconcerned about and indifferent to the things that are eternal and most precious. Man ought to will to know himself, to know God, and to understand the nature of things as they are in themselves, and this becomes an image and likeness of God. MAN Man is a composite being, made up of an earthly body and celestial soul... The soul is closely united with the body, yet wholly independent of it. Man is not only reason but also heart. The powers of these two centers, mutually assisting one another, render man perfect and teach him what he could never learn through reason alone. If reason teaches about the natural world, the heart teaches us about the supernatural world... Man is perfect when he has developed both his heart and his intellect. Now the heart is developed through revealed religion IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL The rational soul of man has supernatural, infinite aspirations. If the rational soul were dependent upon the body and died together with the body, it should necessarily submit to the body and follow it in all its appetites. Independence would have been contrary both to the laws of nature and to reason, because it disturbs the harmony between the body and the soul. As dependent upon the body it should submit to the body and follow in all its appetites and desires, whereas, on the contrary, the soul masters the body, imposes its will upon the body. The soul subjugates and curbs the appetites and passions of the body, and directs them as it (the soul) wills. This phenomenon comes to the attention of every rational man; and whoever is conscious of his own rational soul is conscious of the souls's mastery over the body. The mastery of the soul over the body is proved by the obedience of the body when it is being led with self-denial to sacrifice for the sake of the abstract ideas of the soul. The domination by the soul for prevalence of its principles, ideas, and views would have been entirely incomprehensible if the soul died together with the body. But a mortal soul would never have risen to such a height, would never have condemned itself to death along with the body for the prevalence of abstract ideas that lacked meaning, since no noble idea, no noble and courageous thought has any meaning for a mortal soul. A soul, therefore, which is capable of such things,must be immortal. LIFE AFTER DEATH The Teachers of the Eastern Orthodox Church, having Holy Scripture as their foundation, teach that those who die in the Lord go to a place of rest, according to the statement in the Apocalypse: "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them" (Revelation 14:13). This place of rest is viewed as spiritual Paradise, where the souls of those who have died in the Lord, the souls of the righteous, enjoy the blessings of rest, while awaiting the day of rewarding and the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus... About the sinners, they teach that their souls go down to Hades, where there is suffering, sorrow, and groaning, awaiting the dreadful day of the Judgment. The Fathers of the Orthodox Church do not admit the existence of another place, intermediate between Paradise and Hades, as such a place is not mentioned in Holy Scripture. After the end of the General Judgment, the Righteous Judge (God) will declare the decision both to the righteous and to the sinners. To the righteous He will say: "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;" while to the sinners He will say: "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." And these will go away to enternal hades, while the righteous will go to enternal life. This retribution after the General Judgment will be complete, final, and definitive. It will complete, because it is not the soul alone, as the Partial Judgment of man after death, but the soul together with the body, that will receive what is deserved. It will be final, because it will be enduring and not temporary like that at Partial Judgment. And it will be definitive, because both for the righteous and for the sinners it will be unalterable and eternal. SAINTS Our Church honors saints not as gods, but as faithful servants, as holy men and friends of God. It extols the struggles they engaged in and the deeds they performed for the glory of God with the action of His grace, in such a way that all the honor that the Church gives them refers to the Supreme Being, Who has viewed their life on earth with gratification. The Church honors them by commemorating them annually through public celebrations and through the erection of Churches in honor of their name. The holy men of God, who were magnified on earth by the Lord, have been honored by God's holy Church from the very time it was founded by the Savior Christ. REPENTANCE Two factors are involved in man's salvation: the grace of God and the will of man. Both must work together, if salvation is to be attained. Repentance is a Mysterion through which he who repents for his sins confesses before a Spiritual Father who has been appointed by the Church and has received the authority to forgive sins, and receives from this Spiritual Father the remission of his sins and is reconciled with the Deity, against Whom he sinned. Repentance signifies regret, change of mind. The distinguishing marks of repentance are contrition, tears, aversion towards sin, and love of the good. VIRTUE We ought to do everything we can for the acquisition of virtue and moral wisdom (phronesis), for the prize is beautiful and the hope great. The path of virtue is a path of effort and toil: "Straight is the gate, and narrow is the way, leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it;" whereas the gate of vice is wide and the way spacious, but lead to perdition. SPIRITUAL TRAINING Spiritual training (pneumatike gymnasia) is askesis for peity. It is most valuable, "having promise for the life that now is, and for that which is to come." The efforts made for the sake of piety bring spiritual gladness. Theophylaktos says: "Train yourself for piety, that is, for pure faith and the right life. Training, then, and continual efforts are necessary; for he who trains exercises until he perspires, even when there is no contest." Training accustoms one to be lenient, temperate, capable of controlling his anger, subduing his desires, doing works of charity, showing love for his fellow men, practicing virtue. Training is virtuous askesis, rendering one's way of life admirable. Askesis is practice, meditation, training, self-control, love of labor. FASTING Fasting is an ordinance of the Church, obliging the Christian to observe it on sepecific days. Concerning fasting, our Savior teaches: "When thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father Who is in secret: and thy Father, Who seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly." From what the Savior teaches we learn (a) that fasting is pleasing to God, and (b) that he who fasts for the uplifting of his mind and heart towards God shall be rewarded by God, Who is a most liberal bestower of Divine gifts, for his devotion. In the New Testament fasting is recommended as a means of preparing the mind and the heart for divine worship, for long prayer, for rising from the earthly, and for spiritualization. INNER ATTENTION ATTENTION is the first teacher of truth and consequently absolutely necessary. Attention rouses the soul to study itself and its longings, to learn their true character and repulse those that are unholy. Attention is the guardian angel of the intellect, always counseling it this : be attentive. Attention awakens the soul, rouses it from sleep... Attention examines every thought, every desire, every memory. Thoughts, desires, and memories are engendered by various causes, and often appear masked and with splendid garb, in order to deceive the inattentive intellect and enter into the soul and dominate it. Only attention can reveal their hidden form. Often their dissimulation is so perfect that the discerrnment of their true nature is very difficult and requires the greatest attention. One must remember the saving words of the Lord: "Be wakeful and pray that ye enter not into temptation." He who is wakeful does not enter into temptation, because he is vigilant and attentive. PRAYER TRUE PRAYER is undistracted, prolonged, performed with a contrite heart an alert intellect. The vehicle of prayer is everywhere humility, and prayer is a manifestation of humility. For being conscious of our own weakness, we invoke the power of GOD. PRAYER unites one with GOD, being a divine conversation and spiritual communion with the Being that is most beautiful and highest. PRAYER IS FORGETTING EARTHLY THINGS, AN ASCENT TO HEAVEN. THROUGH PRAYER WE FLEE TO GOD. PRAYER is truly a heavenly armor, and is alone can keep safe those who have dedicated themselves to God. Prayer is the common medicine for purifying ourselves from the passions, for hindering sin and curing our faults. Prayer is an inexhaustible treasure, an unruffled harbor, the foundation of serenity,the root and mother of myriads of blessings. HOLY COMMUNION The MYSTERION of the Divine Eucharist that has been handed down by the Lord is the hightest of all the MYSTERIA; it is the most wondrous of all the miracles which the power of God has performed; it is the highest which the wisdom of God has conceived; it is the most precious of all the gifts which the love of God has bestowed upon men. For all the other miracles result through a transcendence of certain laws of Nature, but the MYSTERION of the DIVINE EUCHARIST transcends all these laws. Hence it may justly be called, and be viewed as, the miracle of miracles and the MYSTERION of MYSTERIA. DO YOU WANT TO BECOME A PARTAKER OF THE BLESSINGS CONFERRED BY DIVINE COMMUNION? DO YOU WANT YOUR SALVATION? BECOME A TRUE CHRISTIAN,  HAVE FEAR OF GOD, FAITH IN THE MYSTERION OF DIVINE COMMUNION, AND LOVE FOR GOD AND FOR YOUR NEIGHBOR. MIRACLES MIRACLES are not impossible from a logical standpoint, and right reason does not deny them. Natural laws do not have the claim to be the only ones, nor are they threatened with being overturned by the appearance of other laws, supernatural ones, which also are conducive to the development and furtherance of creation... Miracles are consequence of the Creator's love for his creatures. Source: "Modern Orthodox Saints, St. Nectarios of Aegina", by (Dr.) Constantine Cavarnos, Insititute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, Belmont, Massachusetts., 1981., pp. 154-187. A Brief Life Of Saint NECTARIOS Metropolitan Of Pentapolis, Wonderworker Of AEGINA t. Nectarios, earthly name was Anastasios, as he was called, was from a very poor family in nineteenth century Selybria, in Thrace. He attempted to board a ship to Constantinople to find work, but he had no money for a ticket. The engines of the ship roared, yet it would not move until young Anastasios was permitted aboard. En route, the sea once raged, but Anastasios dipped his cross, which contained a piece of the True Cross, into the water three times, praying "Silence! Be still." The waters became still, but he lost his cross. As the ship continued, a loud continuous knocking was heard from beneath the ship. When they arrived at their destination, the sailors found the cross stuck to the bottom of the ship, as if the holy Cross of our Lord led the ship... When he was 29 years of age, he became a monk on the island of Chios. The patriarch sent him to study theology in Athens, and he was ordained Priest Nektarios (when you become a monk your name is changed), and later the Bishop of Pentapolis. However, owing to jealousy and alleged improprieties, he was removed from office, only to be rejected again in Athens and island of Euboiea. He suffered as a pauper, but he persevered, and his integrity and his wisdom shone through. The people of Euboiea embraced him. He became the Dean of the School of Theology in Athens in 1910 and helped begin a convent and became a spiritual father with healing powers for many throughout Greece. Ten years later, he was taken from Aegina to a hospital ward in Athens for the poor and incurable. He gave up his spirit there, and they prepared him for burial. His sweater was placed on the nearby bed of a paralytic, who suddenly regained his strength and walked. The room, which has since become a chapel, was filled with a beautiful fragrance for many days after his repose in the Lord our God. Healings are seen throughout the world to this day by the saint's holy prayers. He is considered the patron saint of those with cancer, heart trouble, arthritis, for those who are seeking a job, and epilepsy. St. Nectarios lived from 1846 until 1920. On November 9th, (1920) St. Nectarios reposed in the Lord. The Feast day for St. Nectarios is 9 November. Professor John E. Rexine, of Colgate University wrote the following:  "Widely known among the Orthodox as a great miracle-worker, particularly as a healer of every sort of disease, St. Nectarios was a many-sided personality. He was a prolific writer, theologian, philosopher, moralist, educator, poet, ascetic and mystic." The above source on the lifeSaint Nectarios is from "THE ORTHODOX CALENDAR," Copyright 1995 HOLY SAINT NECTARIOS, PRAY UNTO GOD FOR US! Source: http://www.serfes.org/writtings/stnectarios.htm