An Icon from Dachau

This is from my good friend, Ted Bobosh, who recently returned from a trip to Europe that focused on both famous and infamous sites of WWII. As he writes:

This beautiful icon is in the Russian Chapel in Dachau

https://www.flickr.com/photos/frted/54584994798/in/album-72177720326805830

It shows Christ leading the prisoners out of Dachau. Dachau was liberated during Orthodox Holy week in 1945. There were many Orthodox prisoners there including a number of priests and bishops. They celebrated the Paschal Liturgy on the Sunday after being liberated. The icon commemorates that. It is patterned on Christ's harrowing of Hades icons.

'Precious Vessels' #3: Elder Porphyrios

Dear Parish Faithful,

I thought to share a few more of the "Counsels" of yet another 20th c. elder, in this case the Elder Porphyrios (1906-1991). Here was a man who lived in very impoverished conditions and who therefore only had a few years of formal education, but who was wise in the Spirit. And he reached this high level of spiritual virtue, though struggling with many illnesses - kidney problems, a hernia, a heart attack, stomach hemorrhaging, and eventually blindness - throughout his life. He lived his life in many diverse places in Greece, and spent the last six months of his life on Mount Athos. 

It was said of him: "Elder Porphyrios taught that Christ's greatest desire was for the unity of the faithful, for each member of the Orthodox Church to identify with the struggle and pain of his brothers and sisters, to carry one another's burdens and to live our lives as though we are one body." (Precious Vessels of the Holy Spirit, p. 105)

It was also said of him that he repeated over and over again the words of Christ's that we find in His "High Priestly Prayer" in the Gospel According to St. John: "That they may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me" (JN. 17:21).  We spent some time discussing these words of Christ in this Summer's Bible Study. Be that as it may, there is a good deal to reflect upon in the wisdom offered below.

Counsels of the Elder Porphyrios

• Christ is our Friend, our Brother; He is whatever is beautiful and good. He is everything. In Christ there is no gloom, melancholy or introversion, whereas man suffers from various temptations and situations which make him suffer. Christ is joy, life, light, the true  light, which makes man glad, makes him fly, makes him see all things, see all people, suffer for all people, and want all people to be with him, close to him.

• Our love in Christ must reach all places, even to the hippies in Crete. I very much wanted to go there, not to preach to  them, or to condemn them, but to live with them, without sin of course, and leave the love of Christ to speak of itself, which transfigures life.

• There is an electric generator and in the room is a lamp. If, however, we don't flip the switch, we will remain in darkness. Similarly, there is Christ and there is the soul. If, however, we don't flip the switch of prayer, our soul will not see the light of Christ and will remain in the darkness of the devil.

• I am not afraid of hell and I do not think about Paradise. I only ask God to have mercy on the entire world as well as on me.

• What is the spiritual battle? Well, the soul is a garden divided into two parts. On one half are planted thorny bushes, and on the other half, flowers. We also have a water pump with two taps and two channels. The one guides the water to the thorns and the other to the flowers. I always have the choice to open one or the other tap. I leave the thorns without water and they dry up, I water the flowers and they blossom.

Elder Porphyrios is now recognized by the Church as a saint. He was glorified and entered into the calendar of saints in November 2013 by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

• Continue along your path. The devil will come with his tempting thoughts and will tug at your sleeve, so as to disorient you. Don't turn to him, don't start a conversation with him, and don't oppose him. In this way the devil will get bored and will leave you alone.

• When I became a monk I felt better. Even my health improved. Although previously I had been sickly, afterwards I became healthier, with the ability to bear labors with psychical courage. Above all, however, I felt eternal. The Church is a mystery. Whoever enters the Church doesn't die, he is saved, is eternal. Thus I always feel eternal, as though immortal. Having become a monk I believe that death does not exist. This thought captivates me.

• Orthodox asceticism is not just for the monasteries, but also for the world.

• When asked how one should vote, the Elder responded in parable. The Orthodox Church is like a brooding hen. Under Her wings she covers black chicks and white chicks, yellow chicks and chicks of every different color.

• What can politicians do for you? They are confused by their psychical passions. When a person is unable to help himself, how can he help others? We are also to blame for this situation. If we were Christians, we would be able to send to parliament, not a Christian political party of course, but Christian politicians, and these things would be different.

• Today people want to be loved and for this reason  they are unsuccessful. The correct way is to not be interested in whether or not people love you, but whether or not you love Christ and people. This is the only way that the soul is fulfilled.

'Precious Vessels' #2: The Elder Epiphanios of Athens

Dear Parish Faithful,

"I am not afraid of death. Not, of course, because of my works, but because I believe in God's mercy."  - The Elder Epiphanios of Athens

I would like to continue with sharing some of the wonderful "Counsels" of the elders found in the book I am currently reading: Precious Vessels of the Holy Spirit. (I initially wrote about this book and the practice of eldership on July 5). 

The second (Greek) elder covered in the book is Elder Epiphanios of Athens (1930-1989). 

It was said of him: "As a child of  two he would tell people of his desire to become a priest, and donning a sheet, would play priest. From the tender age of five he attended all the services of the local church, fasting and preparing for Holy Communion in the same way as the Church prescribes for adults" (p. 63). 

The elder was indeed ordained as a priest later in life, and for the most part served the faithful in the city of Athens.  He wrote twenty-two books and numerous articles during his ministry. He founded a monastery later in life a few hours away from Athens. Having prepared for his funeral he died in 1989 at the age of 58.

Here are some of his Counsels:

• "When I study the Holy Scripture and the patristic books, I leave the earth and go to Heaven.... I don't manage to write my thoughts in time, for I am flooded as with flakes of snow. I feel as though my pen has wings."

• "I want whoever is near me to feel that he has room to breathe, not that he is suffocated. I don't call anyone to me. I don't hold onto to anyone. I don't chase anyone away. Whoever wants comes, whoever wants stays, whoever wants leaves. I don't consider anyone a supporter or a follower."

• "True love is like the flame of a candle. However many candles you light from the flame, the initial flame remains unaffected. It doesn't lessen at all. And every freshly lit candle has as much flame as the others do."

• "Parents should love their children as their children and not as their idols. That is to say, they should love their children as they are and not how they would like them to be - to be like them."

• "Whoever fears God doesn't fear anything else."

• "God appointed the salvation of the world to His Son and not to us.... We must first look at our soul and if we can, let's help five or six people around us."

• "Don't sit glued to the television ... Guard yourselves from the means of mass blinding."

• "I have made an agreement with God: I will empty my pockets in almsgiving and He will fill them. He has never violated our agreement. Will I violate it? May it never happen!"

• "When someone is free, he has rights and responsibilities. When he marries, he has few rights and very many responsibilities. When, however, he has children, he doesn't have any right at all, but only responsibilities."

• "My heart only has entrances. It doesn't have exits. Whoever enters remains there. Whatever he may do, I love him the same as I loved him when he first entered into my heart. I pray for him and seek his salvation."

• "My worst hell is to realize that I have saddened a beloved person."

Elders and Eldresses - Precious Vessels of the Holy Spirit

Dear Parish Faithful,

"Forget your sins; our Christ has blotted them out from the Book of Life."  (Elder Amphilochios of Patmos)

I am currently reading the book Precious Vessels of the Holy Spirit - The Lives & Counsels of Contemporary Elders of Greece (2003). In this case. the title pretty well conveys the contents of the book. A further notation informs us that the material in this book has been "compiled, written, translated from the Greek, and edited with a preface, introduction, notes, and glossary," by H. Middleton.

There are eight such elders of Greece covered in the book, with each elder's life described in the form of a short biography. All of the elders lived primarily in the 20th c. Following the biography, there is an appended section to each chapter under the heading of  'Counsels'.  In this section, we hear the voice of each elder through a short sampling of their more memorable sayings. And this might be the heart of the book.

The elder (fem. eldress) are key figures in Orthodox spirituality.  Either male or female, these are great guides of the spiritual life known for the depth of their faith, the wisdom of their teaching, the perspicacity of their discernment, in addition to being living icons of the great virtues of humility, patience and love. All of the elders covered in this book had an air of sanctity and holiness about them.

In his famous novel The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky has an artistic version of an elder - Zosima by name - as a key character of the novel, whose presence pervades much of the novel's drama as a beacon of light and inspiration. In the process of developing his literary elder, Dostoevsky includes the chapter "Elders" in which he provides some background to this figure in Orthodox history and spirituality (he had occasion to visit and speak with the prominent 19th c. Russian elder Ambrose of Optina).  In attempting to capture the role of the elder, Dostoevsky wrote the following:

What is an elder? An elder is  one who takes your soul, your will into his soul and into his will. Having chosen an elder, you renounce your will and give it to him under total obedience and  with total self-renunciation.

A man who dooms himself to this trial, this terrible school of life, does so voluntarily, in the hope that after the long trial he will achieve self-conquest, self-mastery to such a degree that he will, finally, through a whole life's obedience, attain to perfect freedom - that is, freedom from himself - and avoid the lot of those who live their whole lives without finding themselves in themselves.

In the 20th c., we have a passage from Archbishop Kallistos Ware, who spent some time at the Monastery of St. John the Theologian on the island of Patmos. While there, in his early years of spiritual formation as an Orthodox Christian, he was blessed with having met the first elder covered in this book, Amphilochios of Patmos (+1970). Archbishop Kallistos has left us a fine sketch of this living elder that is included in Precious Vessels:

What most distinguished his character was his gentleness, his humor, the warmth of his affection, and his sense of tranquil yet triumphant joy. His smile was full of love, but devoid of all sentimentality. Life in Christ, as he understood it, is not a heavy yoke, a burden to be carried with sullen resignation, but a personal relationship to be pursued with eagerness of heart. He was firmly opposed to all spiritual violence and cruelty.

It was typical that, as he lay dying and took leave of the nuns under his care, he should urge the abbess not to be too severe on them: "They have left everything to come here, they must not be unhappy."

Two things in particular I recall about him. The first was his love of nature  and, more especially, of trees... 

A second thing that stands out in my memory is the counsel which he gave when, as a newly-ordained priest, the time had come for me to return from Patmos to Oxford, where I was to begin teaching in the university. He himself had never visited the west, but he had a shrewd perception of the situation of Orthodoxy in the Diaspora. 

"Do not be afraid," he insisted. Do not be afraid because of your Orthodoxy, he told me; do not be afraid because as an Orthodox in the west, you will be often isolated and always in a small minority. Do not make compromises but do not attack other Christians; do not be either defensive or aggressive, simply be yourself." 

(Precious Vessels of the Holy Spirit, p. 48-49).

Together with some of you reading this meditation, I had the blessed opportunity to meet and speak (and serve Liturgy together with) another contemporary elder, Fr. Roman Braga of the Monastery of the Dormition in Rives Junction, MI.  His funeral a couple of years ago was a memorable experience.

Be that as it may, I would like to include a few choice "counsels" from Amphilochios of Patmos, as compiled in this book. Hopefully, these few words will pass on something of the great love of Christ the elder had within his heart and how this love had a profound effect on every other aspect of the elder's life, from creation to human persons - saints and sinners alike. Hopefully, everyone will find something here worthy of meditation and application.

From the "Counsels" of the Elder Amphilochios of Patmos

• Consider all people to be greater than yourself, though they may have many weaknesses. Don't act with hardness, but always think that each person has the same destination as we do. Through the grace of God I consider all people to be saintly and greater than myself.

• I was born to love people. It doesn't concern me if he is a Turk, black, or white. I see in the face of each person the image of God. And for this image of God I am willing to sacrifice everything.

• When a person partakes of Holy Communion he receives  power and is enlightened, his horizons widen and he feels joy. Each person experiences something different, analogous to his disposition and the flame of his soul. One person feels joy and rest, another peace, another a spirit of devotion and another an inexpressible sympathy towards all things. Personally, I have often felt tired, but after Holy Communion I felt myself completely renewed.

• Love Christ, have humility, prayer and patience. These are the four points of your spiritual compass. May the magnetic needle be your youthful Christian heart.

• We must love Christ; this is necessary for the life of our soul. We also need to love God's creation: animals, trees, flowers, birds, and above all, the most perfect of God's creation, men and women.

• Whoever plants a tree, plants hope, peace, and love, and has the blessings of God.

• When someone opens your heart, I'd like him to find nothing there but Christ.

• An egotistic person doesn't attract anyone. And if someone is attracted, that person will soon distance himself. The spiritual bond becomes indissoluble only when it meets a child-like spirit of innocence and holiness.

• He who is without love cannot be called a Christian, lest we mock Christianity.

• My children, I don't want Paradise without you.

From Precious Vessels of the Holy Spirit, p. 51-61.

'We Offer Thee Incense, O Christ our God...'

Dear Parish Faithful,

The prevailing theme on the First Sunday of Great Lent - The Sunday of Orthodoxy - is that of the image:  "We venerate Thy most pure Image, O Good One ... "  The specific basis for this emphasis is, of course, the Orthodox victory over the iconoclasts - "icon-smashers" - of the 8th - 9th centuries.  This victory is dated to the year 843 when a Synod of Constantinople definitively reject the Iconoclast heresy that denied the legitimacy of the Icon of Christ, and by implication, of the saints. The icon was restored to its proper place within the liturgical and personal lives of the faithful after being banned for over a century.  And the theological basis for the icon is the Incarnation - the enfleshment of the Son of God as our Lord Jesus Christ.  The invisible God is made visible when the eternal Son of God "becomes flesh."  (JN. 1:1-18)  As St. John of Damascus put it:

Of old God the incorporeal and uncircumscribed was not depicted at all. Now that God has appeared in the flesh and lived among humans, I make an image of the God who can be seen. 

I do not worship matter but I worship the Creator of matter, who for my sake became material and deigned to dwell in matter, who through matter effected my salvation.  I will not cease from worshipping the matter through which my salvation has been effected.  

(The Orthodox Faith)

If there was no Incarnation there could be no icon, for God is invisible and intangible.  That is why no images of God were allowed during the time of the Old Testament as St. John so eloquently explained.

Since we are made "according to the image of God," each human person is actually an "image of the Image," for the Son of God is the eternal Image/Icon of the eternal Father; and we are created according to His Image.  If we grow more Christ-like during or earthly lives, then we are transformed into the very likeness of God.  That is our true human vocation.  This has practical and liturgical implications that I would like to remind everyone of.  It is precisely because we are "images of the Image" that we are censed more than once during the Liturgy and other liturgical services. In my booklet, The Divine Liturgy - Meaning, Preparation and Practice, I wrote the following by way of explanation of why the censing is done during the Liturgy:

The people gathered are members of the Body of Christ.  The laity (from laos, "people of God") are worshippers "in spirit and in truth" (JN. 4:24) - not spectators to be passively edified. As the people of God, we are reverently censed by the bishop, priest or deacon at various moments of the Liturgy, just as are the altar table, the sanctuary, and all the icons.  Whenever censed, we respond with a humble bow of acknowledgment to the celebrant.  As the holy ones and the holy things of the Church are censed, so are we. To thus bow in acknowledgement is to accept the truth that we are created "in the image and likeness of God" (GEN. 1:26-27), and therefore called to the same holiness as are the saints, the Mother of God, and of our Lord Himself - the true "Holy One of God" (JN. 6:69). 

Thus, the act of censing is not a mere "liturgical prop" or "ancient" (and perhaps by implication, irrelevant) tradition.  For this reason, when the nave is being censed by the celebrant (or deacon), we should patiently and attentively wait until the censing is completed before coming forward to venerate the icons and light our candles. In so doing, we acknowledge the importance of this liturgical action and we will not grow indifferent to its significance in our worship.

In the Church we are treated with the dignity, honor and respect that is befitting our human nature. Certainly not the case in the world! And that dignity, honor and respect is found in the fact that we are created by God with an eternal destiny. It is our task to live up to this high calling.