In the Orthodox Church

Lent – Ascent to Resurrection

We entered the Great Lent. As we know, the Lent is a time of inner cleansing, of purification. I would even call the Lent a time of forgiveness, a time of return, of retrieval. Through fast, we return to God (2^nd Chron. 20:3, Isaiah 58:6, Joel 2:12) and through the Sacrament of Holy Confession we receive forgiveness of our sins. But we often mistake the fast for a diet or for the healthiest nutrition possible.

We are not aware of the actual signification of fasting and nor do we think about its consequences.

‘Old people fast, well, why should we do the same? Isn’t youth too beautiful? So many dainties…’ Indeed, when we are young we are tempted by the worldly dainties – and not by the spiritual ones. Can the fast be a path to the heavenly dainties? Yes, it can. When we fast, first of all we fast for Him. He feeds us, we accept his consummate nourishment. The nourishment being God’s Will itself and not our own. Secondly, the fast can also be an act of praise, that is a deed of worship to the Lord, because it is a sacrifice – cause ‘Love is a sacrament that God planted in the human soul, which is based on sacrifice. There is no sacrifice without love and there is no love without sacrifice.’ At the same time it is a voluntary relinquishment of something that is permitted to us – sprung from our love and respect for God – as Father Cleopa used to say.

     Why ‘flight of the soul’? Here is what Saint John Chrysostom says: ‘Fasting holds the body under restraint, checks its unruly movements, renders the soul transparent, gives it wings, raises it on high and makes it light.’ What does giving wings to the soul means? For the prayer be able to raise to Heavens, it needs two wings: fasting and alms deeds.  Fasting gives our souls wings crowning them with the Real and Eternal Joy. Fasting cannot lack prayer. Likewise, nor prayer without fasting can fly to God.

‘It raises it on high and makes it light’. How wonderful these words are…  Just by reading them, we should discover within ourselves the desire to search, to meditate and to prepare unceasingly for fasting.  For the ‘raising of our souls’. But for this we need to fast not only with our body, but we also must confess Christ through our deeds, let the work of God be shown through them. How can our deeds be pleasant to God?

Saint John Chrysostom tells us: ‘Do you fast? Give me proof of it by your good deeds. How? If you see a poor man, take pity on him; an enemy, be reconciled to him; a friend receiving honor, don’t envy him; an alluring woman, pass her by. Don’t just fast with your mouth and stomach, but also with your eyes, and your ears, and your feet, and your hands, and all the members of your body. Let the hands fast by being cleansed of plunder and greed. Let the feet fast by ceasing to run to immoral shows. Let the eyes fast by refusing to stare lewdly at lovely faces. The mouth must fast from disgraceful speech and other shameful words.’ Our Saviour says: ‘When you fast, do not look somber like the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting’ (Matthew 6:16). In the Saviour’s time, there were the teachers of the law and the Pharisees and other people that wanted to be praised for fasting. They used to paint themselves with pitch, to appear thin, sad or miserable. But what do we gain if we follow their example? Shall we receive the unwithering crown if people appreciate us or praise us for fasting?  Shall we gain anything if we look sad in front of the others? ‘But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face’; appear joyful to others, so that they can’t know you are fasting.

Therefore, let us rejoice of the Lord’s things serving and thanking Him for the Heavenly Nourishment. Let us give our souls wings through fasting and let the prayer be ‘mother’ to us upon the ladder of salvation.

(Georgiana)

Translated by Claudia Iancu

Open your eyes! Repent!

The title of this article  does certainly not  thrill anyone and that is only for a single reason: because of the exhortation:”Repent!”.  After the 1990’s  there have been many Christian groups (churches) in our country, that had one  purpose in corrupting of a large number of followers. Those who had been in these churches discovered a very strict regime of life: no drinking, no secular music, no TV,  no radio,  with head-kerchiefs,  no jokes,  no laughter,  no parties, no restaurants,  no bars, as humble and quiet as possible etc.

People have noticed their behavior in society and have called them ”penitents”. Rooted in  the everyday language,  the term “penitent” means  a strange man who lives out of time. In the  Romanian consciousness is a person who doesn’t want to integrate in society, a man who show faith by extreme behavior and  gestures, actually a well indoctrinated man. The  “penitent” appellation means in the first place: a man of another religion than the Orthodox faith, and hence all the prejudices that accompany that status, in our people consciousness.

To cut a long story short, if someone told you that you are a penitent then well, you’re already in a strange area in his mind and he will try to avoid you. This is the first great obstacle over which  we, Romanians, should pass to understand what exactly the repentance is. Other Orthodox people do not have this problem.

In the Orthodox Church  repentance means changing your mind, changing the way of perceiving things at sensory, rational and spiritual level. Perhaps you’ve wondered: ”Why as soon as we go into fasting we talk about repentance? Why do not talk  about it throughout the year?  Why should I repent once the fasting begins? Actually, what does it means to repent?”

Maybe some of us believe that repentance means lamenting ourselves  before God and telling Him what sinners we are, although sometimes we don’t feel it. Maybe sometimes we must  think like Saint Paul the Apostle did; He said: “I am the chief of sinners”, but do we really belive that?
That is not repentance. The man must remember his sins not only  in fasting but day by day, hour by hour, asking God’s forgiveness second by  second: ”Lord  Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” What does repentance  means for us, Christians?

To repent is to acknowledge that the vision that I have about the world it’s not true and complete, but it is a subjectively perception in my limited and fragile mind.  Although I think I know the truth (the reality) and everything that happens around me, yet the  decisions that I take which are  based on my perception, are really built on untruth, lack of information, on lies. Therefore I  perceive the reality around me in a distorted manner, often wrong, based on my life  experience and on what others have said, not knowing what really happened and which were the motivations of each event.

Wrongly perceiving reality (at least distorted), as being  free, I still  take wrong decisions and  I make  those around me suffer. So, wrong perceptions will influence me and I will form a wrong perception about the world and people around. So my actions will have negative and more significant consequences to my neighbor and to me. When I see that actions and choices in my life bring suffering around me, I notice that that is the first warning of conscience:

What happens? Why do I suffer? Why doesn’t anything good ever happen to me? Why don’t I do things right?Where am I going wrong here?

All these questions can help you realize your limitations and infirmities. Looking at yourself , you will see many passionate  habits  and sins   into your soul  that have mastered   you for so long.
The Holy Fathers say that only God and His saints perceive the world as it actually is, without any prejudice.

To repent means to ask God to illuminate your mind to perceive the world truely as it is. To repent means to have greater confidence in the words of God than in  your own thoughts when you need to make a decision, and that it is because He has all the information and you only have a very small part of it.

To repent means a humble confession that you are sinful  man and that only God through His grace can  rise you above your sins in order to see the world as it really is. Seeing reality as it is, the decisions you will take will be without sin, having positive effects on others.

Mantzaridis Georgios said:
“Repentance is necessary not only to receive the divine grace, but also to keep it or  to regain it, because man sins every day,  he is bound to repent daily. No matter how spiritually advanced he is,  it requires repentance. This is not exhausted in certain facts, not limited to certain periods of time. Its work never ends. Repentance is the work of Christian life, and its exercise  is  the only way to keep himself member of the Body of Christ.

The more man repents, the fuller  knowns himself,  he is aware of his nothingness, he deplores his affliction and trust in God’s mercy. So the repentance becomes  the path of self knowledge, but  the knowledge of God too, because it approaches man to God and makes him more receptive to His grace. Moreover,  this process of repentance already is not only something  human, but also the  fruit of  the gift of  God’s  work.

 Located in the state of spiritual death, man  dosn’t feel his sin, nor can’t see inside of him. Feeling or, more precisely, ”seeing”  the sin is an important gift from God. Christian life is a life of repentance, that  it means awareness of sin and God’s grace full custody. Therefore it is accompanied by crying and tears.  This crying is not  a sterile or negative condition , but creative and it  brings joy. And  this tears do not express emotional sensitivity, but deep existential changes, caused by human repentance and the grace of God.  Crying rises joy .

Insisting on  repentance is not a  tacit acceptance or tolerance of  the sinful life, but it is the  awareness of the sinful state we are in.

Repentance is not  a moral act, but existential. It belongs not to the psychology level or to the social behavior, but  to the spiritual life. As the  sin does not lay in breaking of moral commandments, but in removing  from the source of life, of God,  so the repentance lays not so easy in  straighten morals, but in returning  to God and inside of your spiritual life. Repentance  breaks the mind of sin and it  sticks on the remembrance of God, it takes it to the grace  and  to the  union  with God, which  it is accomplished mysteriously in the  human heart, on the ”throne of grace”, and it unifies God and man.”

(Claudius)

Translated by Blendea Elena

I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me

“I have been crucified with Christ;and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)

We have become so cold regarding the words of Scripture, the teachings of the Fathers, regarding spirituality; there are questions over questions… not that the questions would be something bad, but one can only ‘taste’ the grace through faith, through altruism, through prayer or fasting; living and not theory, philosophy, or subjective critique.

The biblical verse from the beginning is given as a motto of what the faith, the living, and the spiritualization really mean; without applying this urge it is hard for us to understand it, to know Him, to receive His Grace.

We live in a secularized world, irrational, in my opinion, because it is irrational as the human beings are, a nothing when compared with the universe to believe that only that which fits their own rationality is true and good to be followed; a society like a graveyard of dead ideas, lacking spirituality and being exclusively processed by a biological organ called brain, stifling the inner longing after spirituality; all these determine us to become more and more alienated from the true sense, from the calling that we have been called to, and to become gods, without knowing from our own ideas and concepts which govern us, and that we worship, without being aware of it.

But despite all these Christ is present; He waits for us to become conscious of our own state and to unite with Him! So much stress, so many needs, problems, troubles and questions; only Christ can offer us the answer, the tranquility, the spiritual peace… and these words are not philosophy, are not theory, they are… findings of life experiences lived by people who searched for peace, tranquility, in a word – for the meaning of life.

There are too many conjunctions between Christ and peace so that one could consider them the product of hazard.

In the fight of your faith you can find support in St. Paul’s encouragement: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (Romans 8:35); abide in the first love, in the love of Christ, and with it take courage, you will conquer the world (its sins) as He conquered it; abide in His peace, abide in His Body and you will taste the true joy, one that, as the saints affirmed, the world cannot offer.

I will conclude with the biblical exhortation: “And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful.” (Colossians 3:15).

(Dan Ciorca)

Translated by Radu Iacob

I’m Christian so I smile

Make me to hear joy and gladness, Let the bones which You have broken rejoice.( Psalms 50: 9)

In this chaotic, foreign and quite stiff world, every day I see how sadness is born easily in our inner blanket. Blanket covered by states and noble feelings, by infected memories and melancholy. In reality, we can’t be otherwise than sad. Someone once told me with great conviction that we cannot be happy all the time because when we will be elated, we’ll find out that everything was just in our imagination, an ephemeral illusion. This statement rose many thoughts in me. Thirsty thoughts that still haunt me.

Let’s start from the previous premise, that we can’t be happy in this society. Let’s see… what things, facts or events had generated this sadness in our hearts?

It’s been a long time since the crisis became an exhaustible topic, so there’s no point to exhaust it once more with my idle words. Otherwise, the same daily dish is consisting of rapes, murders, thefts, accidents, losses, kidnappings…all are known. Why are you sad? Teenagers are increasingly sad because of the poor results obtained at school-leaving exam, prospective students because of the failure, teachers because of the exams, unemployed due to lack of jobs, elders because of incapacities and diseases and the list goes on.

But Christians… wait, what does this have in common with our sadness? Are not Christians those mentioned above? Or, to be “a Christian” has become, recently, a job?

At the very beginning, when I entered in the Church, I asked a single question: “why do people smile?”. Well, don’t imagine that everyone was laughing, on no account. On the most of the faces around me could be read a single word: happiness. I didn’t understand too much at that time. I thought it is fashionable to be happy in the House of the Lord and to show this to everybody.

But the truth wasn’t in my dull thinking. To be Christian means to smile no matter the difficulties of life that gradually push us, no matter the amount of sorrow, bitterness and anguish. In the Church, the Holy Spirit is the one who gladdens the heart and lights the faces, so smile is a result of the state of calm and peace.

“I am Christian so I smile”. Christ loves me, I smile! The essence of Orthodoxy is love, and love spreads happiness. How can we be so sad when we have all this? We should rather grieve because of our sins, crimes and because of the darkness in which our souls stay even by now, from early life. But in no case because of the events we encounter in life.

If we grieve for our own mistakes and sins, the grief will turn later in happiness and rivers of relief. As the Apostle says: “You will grieve, but your sorrow will be turned into joy”( John 16: 20)

Nobody says it’s easy, on the contrary, the struggle with ourselves is the hardest fight, the hardest possible war. But if we win, the results will be as we had expected. In fact, there is no measure, because Kingdom of Heaven has no measure and no limits. Some say that to overcome your fear is a mighty thing; I think that to defeat your sadness and to put off this dirty clothes forever is something unbeatable.

To sum up, I remind you a phrase full of wisdom of Ecclesiastes; by reading this, I hope that God will flow into your souls, His immeasurable grace, His unsurpassed joy, His infinite and eternal love. Amen.

„Don’t grieve your heart, remove the sadness from it. Because from sadness comes death and sorrow of the heart weakens the virtue”.

In Philokalia, Taisie the Libyan and African says: „Lack of pleasure arises sorrow and the pleasure is bond with passion”.

(Ionela-Georgiana Tofoleanu)

Translated by Badea Patricia Elena

“Believe and do not question”. Really?

When I first heard saying “What kind of God is the one who says believe and do not question ? That is blind faith! That means constraint”, I tell you frankly that I did not feel well. I felt between hammer and anvil because in my mind a bitter struggle started. On one hand I was saying that if Lord said that it means that He knew better why He had said so, but still I felt that the liberty of thought and knowledge was taken away from me. I felt this situation as a noose around the neck. On the other hand I wanted to know why God had said so. But from the reason to investigate everything, I still thought to look in the Bible where it is written that statement and especially in what context the word had been given.

After looking through the Holy Scripture, I found the expression “believe and do not question” nowhere. I was puzzled and eager to find out the cause of the dispute that the atheists and those lazy by nature find as an excuse for their unbelief, but also as a charge against faith of believers. Thus, I prayed the Lord to show me the truth about it and to know what to do. One day I found the answer to my unrest by buying Faith World magazine where I finally found an article that delt the matter  “believe and don’t question”.

Atheists and Free-thinkers assert that the quatation “believe and do not question” would be found in Holy Scripture. Of course if we ask them to show us the passage they will not find it anywhere, because this term does not exist in the Bible, but this expression had been deeply rooted among ignorant people at Marxist courses against religion. However, we find a passage in Scripture with this urge, but given in another spirit than the one raised by atheists and free-thinkers:

“Seek not what is too difficult for you, nor investigate what is beyond your power.  Reflect upon what has been assigned to you, for you do not need what is hidden. Do not meddle in what is beyond your tasks,
for matters too great for human understanding have been shown you. For their hasty judgment has led many astray, and wrong opinion has caused their thoughts to slip. “(Wisdom of Jesus Sirach, III, 20-23)

Because we didn’t respect these human limitations shown by Jesus Sirach, today exist a lot of atheists, heretics and philosophers which don’t distinguish truth from lies and speculation from reality. They believed that human reason is unfailing and self-sufficient, when only true knowledge about the world comes when you connect your will to the absolute truth of things: God, the omnipresent rational being, timeless and incorruptible.

Even St. John Chrysostom reminds us that there is a limited extent in human capacity for knowledge, beyond which there is only failure:

“It is with much gratitude we receive words of Scripture, not to exceed our measure, nor pry into those above us, as enemies of truth experienced and wanted to explore everything with their own thought. They did not thought that for a human is impossible to know completely the creation of God…”

This is the reason why Hellenes were lost, they allowed all their mind and did not want to know that the human mind is weak, they thought of things beyond their powers, exceeded their own measures abroad and fell from their proper dignity … And once they strayed from the right path, went to the cliff and they rolled in the depths of evil …”

Moreover, knowing that we are limited in knowledge and naive, St. John the Theologian tells us to test the spirits, the essence of all things, putting them in the light of truth: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are  from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” (I John 4:1)

So, the urge “Believe and do not question” does not belong to the Church, but on the contrary, Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition together contain many exhortations designed to draw us closer to God and to increase faith, thorough research and real knowledge.

Even saints gave the example of researching not only the Holy Scripture, but also human sciences. St. Gregory Palamas tells us so: “It is better to deal less with the study of languages, rhetoric, history, the secrets of nature, the science of logic and geometric figures. And this, not only to use the knowledge gained for something, but for training the eye of the soul to discern things. But to remain attached them all the time is bad “.

Now I ask myself … how could I doubt in all that time, for even the faith comes through knowledge.

Did God put in us the thirst for knowledge to torment us or to reveal to us with all his works?

Is it from thirst for knowledge that is not observed human desire to seek the origin and sense of his existence?

God didn’t make man passive, apathetic, uninterested, but left this thirst for knowledge in his nature to investigate, to search, always to want to know more about him and everything that surrounds him, to know where he comes from and where he goes, to polish himself, but not in cold knowledge, without help, but to increase in faith and love.

A man without knowledge and research would be totally blind but their expression often saves even from unbelief. One of the most striking examples is the Apostle Thomas, who after so many wonders which were seen in the presence of the Savior, also doubted the testimony of the other ten apostles that Saviour resurrected, and says:

“Unless I see in His hands, the nails, and do not put my finger where the nails were, and if I don’t  put my hand into His rib, I will not believe.”

So he wanted to investigate to make sure that so is. To his disbelief was scold, but at least he got rid of it.

But we know that Christ the Lord said:

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you, for everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened .” (Heb. Matthew 7:7-8)

So let’s not hesitate, and get out of the darkness of ignorance into the light of faith, following the advice of our Saviour to investigate things, but with right count:

“Search the Scriptures; in them ye think ye have eternal life. And those are which testify of me.”

(Dan)

Kissy Orthodox people

I’ve heard talk of people seemingly upset, on hearing that the priest uses the same spoon when giving the holy communion, or because people take turns in kissing an icon, and they’re not cleaning it afterwards, or because thousands of people kiss the relics of a saint and might orally contract diseases

I believe those people are not part of the church, because in these six years I’ve been attending services, worshiping icons, holy relics, and receiving the holy communion, nothing has ever happened to me, I never contracted any form of herpes, or contagious disease, and moreover, I have never heard any of the christians coming to churc saying otherwise.

It’s easy to notice how thousands of people kiss the relics of Saint Parascheva, one after another, day and night, and nothing happens, and everyone is happy to receive her help and Gods blessing. If something would have happened, the TV reporters are always participating in religious events, and believe me they would had speculated any kind of evil that could be broadcasted as sensational, so they would have heard something.

Why are some people mocking those lined up, waiting for hours to worship the relics of a saint, to ask for help, to feel the joy of closeness, to feel closer to God? Are they doing something wrong? Is anyone living in that city or country disturbed by the fact that those people stand quietly, peacefully waiting for their turn? I believe not.

Yet, why is no one laughing at those people who line up in endless traffic queues instead of taking the tram or the subway?

Have you ever heard of anyone getting sick because they have communed with the Holy Body and Blood of Christ in Liturgy? I haven’t. How can God, the source of holiness, spread disease? He, who is always inviting us in Church to transmit His holiness through priests, so as to heal us, forgive us, give us power, do you think He would pass illness down on us?

I guarantee you that if ten people drank water from the same bottle, one of them would surely have herpes the following day. I know this from experience.

Yet, how many thousands of people have been given the Eucharist with the same spoon, in a church, over one year, and there are no bad rumors, on the contrary, people are leaving with great joy, they are empowered, they change, become better, emanate happiness, because they are receiving God.

How can the Holy Body and Blood of Christ be contaminated by the abomination of disease? How can the source of joy, become a source of disease? How can bodies of saints full of the Holy Spirit (relics) be outbreaks of infection?

Just as the transfer of temperature is made, according to the laws of physics, from hot to cold (and never vice versa), the Body and Blood of Christ transfers holiness upon disease (healing it, eliminating it) and never the other way around.

It’s as if you threw a cup of cold water into a lake full of hot water and expected the lake to get cooler. The same happens with God’s holiness. The holiness and power of God are infinitely greater than our sins and diseases.

Bălan Claudiu