Η μετάφραση στα Αγγλλικά έγινε από τον ακούραστο εργάτη και αγωνιστή της Ορθοδοξίας πνευματικόν τέκνον του π. Αυγουστίνου, τον π. Αστέριο Γεροστέργιο.
Προσφέρεται ταπεινά καί μέ την έν Χριστώ αγάπη είς ψυχικήν ωφέλειαν Ορθοδόξων Χριστιανών απανταχού της γης καί επισκεπτών της ιστοσελίδας τού σεβαστού Γέροντος Αυγουστίνου, πρός δόξαν του Τριαδικού μας Θεού.

SUNDAY OF THE MYRRH-BEARING WOMEN

Mark 15:43-16:8

WOMEN

And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices so that they might come and anoint him.

Today’s Sunday is called the Sunday of the Myrrh-Bearing Women.  The Myrrh-Bearers are those women who, in spite of the fear spread by the enemies of Christ, dared to go to Golgotha before Sunday’s dawning, to anoint Christ’s body with myrrh.  Because of their ardent love and faith, they were the first to hear the glad news of Christ’s resurrection and to become the evangelists to the disciples who were terrified and hiding at a friend’s house.  The disciples were timid!  The myrrh-bearing women were brave.  In that situation, the women proved to be incomparably greater than the men.

God, as we all know, created Adam as the first human being.  He created him “according to His image and likeness” and put him in paradise.  But the all-wise and all-kind God didn’t want to leave Adam that way.  When he slept, God took one of his ribs and fashioned the first woman, Eve.  When Adam awoke, he was amazed.  Of all creation Eve appeared in Adam’s eyes to be the most beautiful.
God fashioned man and woman in such a way that the one fulfilled what was lacking in the other.  That which man had, the woman did not have; that which the woman had, the man did not have.  A man has certain abilities and talents, and a woman has others.  With their union, the one complete the other, and a human being is brought to perfection.

There is a story that when a certain young man married, he was filled with such joy and happiness that he wrote to his teacher, the famous Koraes, and told him: “Teacher, I am no longer alone.  I married and became two”.  Koraes supposedly answered him: “No, my boy, you didn’t become two, you became whole”.

A man and a woman are like two half people who, when they are joined, form a whole person; they are like two hemispheres which, when joined, make a whole sphere.  Man is more mind and woman is more heart, and in that holy union of marriage they complement each other.
It is impossible for a viable community made up only of men to exist, just as it is impossible for a community made up of only women.  The attraction God planted in the hearts of men and women is what brings the two races close to each other; it joins them, and from that joining, the new generation results.  Only in exceptional cases can men or women who are overwhelmed by divine love conquer, by the grace of God, the natural attraction of man toward woman and woman toward man;  only a few can succeed in living a kind of angelic life in a human body and present an image of that heavenly life we anticipate in which the genders will cease and all will live like angels in the Kingdom of Heaven.  For these people, the hymn might be said: “To the hermits life is blessed, because it is possessed by divine love”.

Man and woman.  Both are exceptional creations of God, with abilities and gifts to fulfill the high mission given to them by God – that is, to continue life by child-bearing.  God elevates man and woman and makes them co-workers in the making of new people.
Man and woman.  Equal members in the human community.  What does this mean?  Let’s remember St. Cosmas Aitolos who, speaking on the subject said: “Look and see how God created woman.  He didn’t take a piece from the head of the man because He didn’t want her to be superior to him.  But He didn’t take a piece from man’s foot, because He didn’t want her to be a slave to him.  He took one of man’s ribs, which is over his heart, to show that woman is dear to him – equal and beloved.”

God created one man and one woman.  This means that God is against polygamy of man and woman.  If God wanted them to have many wives, as the Koran teaches and the flesh-worshipers of our age practice – even though they are called Christians – God would have had to fashion one man and many women.  If God wanted woman to have many husbands, then He would have made few women and many men.
Christianity is against polygamy.  One man for one woman is proper, and one woman for one man.  One marriage is blessed, and only after special dispensation does the Church allow a second and a third marriage.  Even then, there are penances for those who marry a second and a third time.
Unfortunately, though Holy Writ orders these rules on marriage, the opposite takes place in societies that are governed by the Spirit of God.  At one time man became woman’s tyrant, and woman found herself in a miserable condition; she was treated like an animal and even worse than an animal.  At other times, the woman was the tyrant, and under her tyranny, men became degenerated beings, slaves and pack animals, led around by these corrupted women.

The Bible condemns both extremes.  The Bible wants man to be an affectionate husband and father, who behaves with love and courtesy toward his wife and children, not as a dictator.  The Bible also wants the woman to be at the height of her mission, a precious companion to her husband, a loving mother, the queen of her house who is dedicated to bringing up her children.  The Bible wants the woman to be a myrrh-bearer, like the myrrh-bearers of today’s scripture reading.  A woman like that can offer a great service to the world.  Such a woman surpasses man in heroic achievements of faith and virtue.  A woman like that appears to the world like an angel who spread the myrrh of love.

Myrrh-bearing women!  How few of them there are in this contemporary society of ours, which is rotted by unbelief and corruption.  If only those few and pious women who hear or read this homily could be all women.

This chapter was taken from the book
“DROPS FROM THE LIVING WATER”
by Bishop Augoustinos N. Kantiotes.

_______________

Translation by
Rev. Fr. Asterios Gerostergios
e-mail: ibmgs3@verizon.net
www.orthodoxinfo.com/ibmgs

«Είς τήν Θείαν Λειτουργίαν, Πρακτικαι Ομιλίαι»!

Ομιλία 7 – Ο ΥΙΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΘΕΟΥ

Η μετάφρασι ολόκληρου τού βιβλίου (δύο τόμους) στά Αγγλλικά έγινε από τόν ακούραστο εργάτη καί αγωνιστή της Ορθοδοξίας, πνευματικόν τέκνον του πατρός Αυγουστίνου, πατέρα Αστέριο Γεροστέργιο.  Προσφέρεται ταπεινά καί μέ τήν έν Χριστώ αγάπη είς ψυχικήν ωφέλειαν Ορθοδόξων Χριστιανών απνανταχού τής γής καί επισκεπτών της ιστοσελίδας τού σεβαστού Γέροντος Αυγουστίνου
πρός δόξαν του Τριαδικού μας Θεού.

THE SON OF GOD

(Ο ΥΙΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΘΕΟΥ)

In our last homily, we saw what the names, LORD, Jesus, and Christ mean.  In addition to these three names, the second article of the Symbol of Faith adds yet another name when it speaks about Christ.  The name is SON OF GOD.

Christ is the Son of God.  About this we will now speak.  The subject is very difficult, but very necessary for our salvation.  Let us invoke the Holy Spirit to enlighten us to sense and understand the truth contained in these few words.

Once, when Christ was alone with His disciples in a desolate place, He asked them a question: “Who do men say that I, the Son of man, am?” (Matt.16:13).  That is to say, when people hear my teaching and see my miracles, what is their opinion of me?  The disciples answered: Some say you are John the Baptist; others that you are Elijah the Prophet; others, that you are Jeremiah; and still others, that you are one of the prophets of the Old Testament returned from the dead.

As we can see from the disciples answers expressing the impression Christ gave to those who saw Him, everybody except His bitter enemies admired Him and considered Him an excellent person, a great personality, who, by what He said and did, was able to emulate historic persons of the Old Testament.  But they thought no further.  And this is still happening today.  People of our times, like the ancient Jews, admire Christ as a great man in world history, but they stop there.
After this answer, Christ asked a second question: “Who do you say that I am?” (Matt.16:16).  That is, people who hear me have this notion about me, thinking that I am one of the prophets, but you, who live with me, what do you think about me?

Peter, who was the most ardent of the disciples, answered the question: “Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God”. Upon hearing Peter’s confession, Christ said: Blessed are thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.”  He enlightened your mind and you said it.  This is a truth.  And on this truth, like on a firm, unshakable rock, I will build a Church, and no power of satan will ever be able to destroy it.

What Peter confessed in that desolate place the Church is still preaching and will continue to preach until the end of time.

O my Christ!  Your are the Son of God, living and reigning forever.

When Christ was arrested and brought before the Jewish Court and the High Priest asked Him, “Art thou the Son of the living God?” if Christ answered “no” to this question, the accusations would have been dissolved and Christ would not have been condemned to death; but Christ answered with a firm and unshakable “yes”, because his answer “Thou hast said” means “Yes”.  The High Priest understood it to mean “yes” and that is why, when he heard he was horrified, tore his clothes, and said that Christ had blasphemed because He made himself out to be the Son of God, adding “We do not have further need of witnesses” (Matt 22:63-65).

Now the question is put to us: What did Christ mean when He said He was the Son of the living God, for even we are called sons of God and raise our eye to heaven and call God “Father”.  We are children of God, but Christ’s name of Son of God differs greatly from our being called sons of God.  Christ is not the Son of God by calling, but by nature.  He is of the same essence, consubstantial.  He is not a creation, like us.  We are of a different essence, a different substance.

Are the things we discuss too difficult?  Let’s try to simplify them.

Our existence in this world is limited.  There was a time when we did not exist.  We were born and came into the world at a certain point in time.  We live in the world for a few year until the time comes to die, and we end our bodily life.  Our soul does not die, it’s immortal; however, we are speaking about bodily existence.  While we live but a short time, Christ, as Son of the living God, was born in a way beyond our understanding, before all ages, before Abraham and Noah, before Adam, before the creation of the angles and archangels.  There was not a moment in all of time when Christ did not exist, and to use theological language, we say, “As the Father exists, so exists the Son and the Holy Spirit: O Holy Trinity, glory to Thee!”

It is in this sense, which we in some way explained, that the Holy Scriptures refer to Christ as the Son of God, and this is declared as a truth of the Faith in the Symbol of the Faith.

Unfortunately, a man named Arius did not accept this fundamental truth of our Church.  He admired Christ as a man, preached His grandeur, confessed His miracles but did not accept Him as God.  He maintained that Christ is the first creation, superior to the angels and archangels, but lower than God.  He preached that there was a time when Christ did not exist.  This is the horrible heresy of Arius, and it is this heresy that the Jehovah’s witnesses teach today, and they blaspheme St.Athanasios the Great while honoring the arch-heretic Arius.

The heresy that Christ is not True God, but a creation of God, was condemned by the First Ecumenical Synod.  The Synod declared Christ to be consubstantial with (of the same essence as) the Father.  The followers of Arius fiercely fought against this “consubstantial”.  At one point they wanted to add one letter to the Greek word for consubstantial, “homo-ousios”, “i”, iota, in order to call Christ Homoi-ousios (of similar essence) instead of homo-ousios (of the same essence).

The Church did not want to add this iota and struggled greatly, and the Symbol of the Faith remained unchanged.  Together with the Saints and Confessors, let every one of us proclaim: “I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages.  Light of Light, True God of True God, begotten, not created, of one essence with the Father, through Whom all things were made”.

This chapter was taken from the book “ON THE DEVINE LITURGY – VOL.2” by Bishop Augoustinos N. Kantiotes.

Translation by
Rev. Fr. Asterios Gerostergios
e-mail: ibmgs3@verizon.net
www.orthodoxinfo.com/ibmgs

Απόσπασμα από τό βιβλίο του Μητροπολίτου Φλωρίνης πατρός Αυγουστίνου Καντιώτου
«Είς τήν Θείαν Λειτουργίαν, Πρακτικαι Ομιλίαι»!

Ομιλία 8

Ο ΥΙΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΑΝΘΡΩΠΟΥ

THE SON OF MAN

“Who for us and for our salvation came down from Heaven,
and was incarnated by the Holy Spirit and of the Virgin Mary…”

Our Lord is a sign that has been contradicted.  People have made war over his name.  This began on the day of His birth and continues to this day, and will go on until the end of the world.  No other person in history was fought over so much as Christ.  Unbelievers and atheists reject Him; heretics teach ideas which are contrary to the Holy Scriptures and our Sacred Tradition.  Heretics, egotists that they are, interpret the Holy Scripture as they wish and think they have discovered something new.  Some of them dispute the divinity of Christ, others question the humanity of Christ.  Who are they?

With Christ as a prototype, people again become truly human, with all the depth and breadth the word contains, while outside of Christ, man is dehumanized, losing every element of nobility, exhibiting not the image of Christ but that of Antichrist.

This chapter was taken from the book “ON THE DEVINE LITURGY – VOL.2” by Bishop Augoustinos N. Kantiotes.

Translation by
Rev. Fr. Asterios Gerostergios
e-mail: ibmgs3@verizon.net
www.orthodoxinfo.com/ibmgs

Απόσπασμα από τό βιβλίο του πατρός Αυγουστίνου

«Είς τήν Θείαν Λειτουργίαν, Πρακτικαι Ομιλίαι»!

Ομιλία 9

THE ALL HOLY VIRGIN

Η ΠΑΡΘΕΝΟΣ

“An was incarnated by the Holy Spirit and of the Virgin Mary and became man”

Dear friends, humanity is the summit of earthly creation, and if God created nothing else, mankind would be enough to testify that there is a God, an all-wise God, omnipotent and benevolent.  What an excellent creation man is!  We see a beautiful statue and admire it, and no one dares to say the statue created itself without the sculptor.  But, when compared to a human, what is a statue, even the most perfect one kept in a museum and considered a treasure of infinitive value?  The statue is dead, inanimate, idle.  It has eyes but does not see, ears but does not hear, feet but cannot walk.  Man, however, is alive, with soul, and active and creative statue, which when studied more and more gains more and more admiration.  Common sense says that, just as every statue was made by an artist, man was created by God.

Dear Christians, let us all fight to stop this blasphemy and save ourselves from God’s wrath.

This chapter was taken from the book “ON THE DEVINE LITURGY – VOL.2” by Bishop Augoustinos N. Kantiotes.

Translation by
Rev. Fr. Asterios Gerostergios
e-mail: ibmgs3@verizon.net
www.orthodoxinfo.com/ibmgs

Μετάφραση στα Αγγλλικά  – Απόσπασμα από τό βιβλίο «ΑΠΟΣΤΟΛΟΣ» του Μητροπολίτου π.Αυγουστίνου

PREACHING WILL NOT STOP

Go stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life

-Acts 5:20

Who should expect it, beloved!  People who were uneducated and who didn’t attend schools and universities – people to whom the world paid no attention – how does it happen that these people, poor and powerless, the Apostles, who hid in fear on Holy Friday and didn’t dare come out to visit the tomb of Christ, now appeared in public and preached Christ with power?  How did the timid become brave and fearless?  How these illiterate people become orators and wise men?  How did this change take place?  It cannot be explained unless we accept the fact that two great happenings affected their lives.  One was the resurrection of Christ, the other was the descent of the Holy Spirit.  The Apostles saw Christ, Who arose from the grave, with their own eyes.  They believed in Christ absolutely.  There was no doubt whatsoever in their souls.  Then, in fulfillment of Christ’s promise, they received “power from on high”, or the Holy Spirit, and the rabbits became lions.  “Such is the change at the right hand of God”.

We see today in the excerpt that was read how successfully the Apostles preached the Gospel of Christ.  The Gospel has never had as much success as it had during the days of the Apostles.  Don’t you see?  Those base and unbelieving people – the people who hated Christ and who got together on Holy Friday and shouted: “Crucify, crucify him” – they heard the Apostles who were preaching, they repented and were baptized by the hundreds and thousands.

The growth of the first Church is another miraculous event.  To what, we wonder, is the astonishing growth of the first Church attributed?  It is attributed to the preaching of the Apostles, the preaching that came out of their mouths like fire, illuminating and warming frozen hearts.  Those who heard them understood that the Apostles believed what they preached and were ready to shed their last drop of blood for Christ. Without the Apostle’s preaching, would the Church have grown?  Preaching is the life of the Church – not just any kind of preaching but the kind of preaching that the true preachers of Gospel, people who believe and are ready to make every sacrifice, do.
So now we know that the major reason that the first Church was able to progress and grow was the preaching of the Apostles.  But something else contributed to the growth and progress of the Church, and that was the miracles of the Apostles.  As today’s Epistle lesson says “By the hands of the Apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people”. (Acts 5:12).  What miracles?  Wherever the Apostles happened to pass in Jerusalem, the people brought the sick in their beds and waited in the streets and squares of the city.  They waited for the Apostles to pass.  The Apostles had so much power to cure the sick that it was only enough for Peter’s shadow to fall on them and they became well.  Even the sick who came from the neighboring cities and villages, and even those possessed by demons, were cured by the miraculous power of the Apostles.  Thus the preaching of the Apostles, in combination with the miracles they performed, took on an unprecedented brilliance and made the people believe and repent.  Oh, if only today’s preachers had the power to perform miracles!

The progress of the Gospel and the rapid expansion of the Church did cause considerable anxiety.  The Jewish authorities certainly were not pleased.  They had killed Christ, thinking that by doing so the troublesome preaching would stop.  But after Christ’s death, the preaching did not stop, but rather continued with great success.  The Jewish authorities did not expect this, and they became enraged.  They arrested the Apostles and threw them in jail.  They thought this action would silence the name of Christ.  But again they were mistaken.  A new miracle took place: God intervened.  An angel unlocked the door of the jail at night and told the Apostles: “Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life”. That is to say, the angel told them: “Go and stand there where you preached.  Stand fearlessly and courageously and preach the words that bring life to dead souls.  Preach to the people.”  Yes, to the people, the angel emphasizes, which means that, if the leaders who have the power and are full of egotism and pride don’t want to hear the preaching, don’t be influenced by their denial or be afraid of their persecutions.  Talk to the people, women and men, young and old people.  There are people out there who are not egotistical and who want to hear the preaching. The preaching of Christ, which the greatest of all the preaching of the world, can’t help but motivate people who are tired of hearing the dull preaching of the scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees.

“Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life”.  This voice of the angel crosses the centuries and reaches us.  It is also directed to today’s preachers and apostles of Christ because preaching can never stop.  No one can stop it, just as no one can stop the rushing waters of a river with fences.  The river will knock down the fences and continue on its way.  The purpose of the river is to run.  The word of God also has its purpose to run.  Yes, the word of God will run; it will be preached in all times and in all centuries.  It will bring divine blessings everywhere, and it will perform the greatest of miracles.  Spiritually uncultivated and waterless places will change into exceptional gardens of God’s grace.

Oh bishops, priests, theologians, and preachers of Orthodoxy: listen to the voice of the angel and with heroic conviction preach the Gospel to our people.

This chapter was taken from the book “SPARKS FROM THE APOSTLES” by Bishop Augoustinos N. Kantiotes.
Translation by Asterios Gerostergios
e-mail: ibmgs3@verizon.net
www.orthodoxinfo.com/ibmgs

Απόσπασμα από τό βιβλίο του πατρός Αυγουστίνου
«Απόστολος –Sparks from the Apostles».

ΚΥΡΙΑΚΗ ΤΟΥ ΠΑΣΧΑ

(ΟΙ ΠΡΑΞΕΙΣ ΤΩΝ ΑΠΟΣΤΟΛΩΝ)
Μετάφραση στά Αγγλικά από τόν π. Αστέριος Γεροστέργιο

EASTER SUNDAY

Acts of the Apostles 1:1-8

WORKS

The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all
that Jesus began both to do and teach.

-Acts 1:1

Christ, beloved, the founder of our Holy Church, was a teacher.  He taught things that no one before Him had ever taught, and you can be sure that on one, no matter how wise he may be, will ever say greater things than those which Christ has preached.  His teaching was the highest of all teaching.  There is none higher.  Those who read the Bible without prejudice will tell you that of all the other teachings heard both in ancient times and today, no matter how they may dazzle people, none can compare to the teachings of Christ an all are far below that very pinnacle of Christ’s divine teaching.  You, too, beloved, open you Bible and read just one page, any page.  Wherever you open the Bible, you will see that a river of pure gold runs before you.

Read, for example, the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32).  Read it carefully, and you will be convinced how right the philosopher was who said that if Christ had but told this one parable only, it would have been enough to prove that He was not a man but God.  God, who created man, knows man’s heart, knows how he thinks and acts.  Because of this, the teaching of Christ, in spite of the severity which it seems to have, corresponds to the noblest of desires and aspirations of man and offers to suffering humanity what all the philosophies of the world cannot offer.  Christ’s teaching offers joy and peace and comfort of the heart and mind.  The greatest teaching of Christ is love, a word that was totally unknown to the ancients.  Oh love, divine gift, angel with golden wings!  Oh love, divine flame, the flame that Christ ignited in the hearts of people!  Oh love that rises upward and reaches the stars, surpasses them, and touches God to sing hallelujah.  It comes downward to embrace all of God’s creatures, especially man, and creates sacred bonds of family, of brotherhood!  The God-man taught love for God and love for fellow man.  And in that love He enclosed all of the commandments.
Christ taught love.  He taught that we should love God, the Heavenly Father.  He taught that we should love our parents.  He taught that we should love other people like brothers.  He taught that we should love even those who are our enemies and pray for them.
But Christ did more that teach this greatest teaching.  His teaching isn’t the only miracle.  His life is a much greater miracle.  For someone to teach is an easy thing to do.  But to practice what he teaches is far more difficult.  Christ practiced what He taught.  Christ taught that we should love God.  But who loved God the Heavenly Father the way Christ did?  Who ever prayed to God with the fervor Christ prayed to Him?  Christ spent nights without sleep in ardent conversations with His Heavenly Father.  Christ taught that we should love our parents.  And He himself, while nailed to the Cross, did not forget His Holy Mother.  He took care of her.  Christ taught that we should love our enemies.  He himself loved His enemies, even though they hated Him with a passion.
Christ taught that we should forgive our enemies and pray for them.  He prayed for and forgave His own enemies.  “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing,”  He was heard saying a few moments before He gave up His spirit to the Heavenly Father.

We must follow Christ’s example.  We must also do what He taught and practiced.  But how can we practice what Christ taught, many of you will ask.  Christ practiced these virtues, but after all He was a man and a God, and as God-man He had the strength to carry our the most difficult commandments and to accomplish the greatest works.  And we are not Gods.  We’re people – people with weaknesses, people with faults and vices, people who want what’s good, people who marvel at what Christ said – how can we do it?  The morality that he taught is impossible to practice.  His teaching isn’t applicable, especially in present times.  So what do we do?

Most of us will ask this.  But what do you say, Oh people?  That Christ’s teaching isn’t feasible, is unrealizable?    But if history presents you with people who also had imperfections and shortcomings but practiced the teaching of Christ, what would you say?  If only one person in the world who practiced Christ’s teaching were found, he would be enough to prove that Christ’s teaching can be practiced.  But there is not just one person who did this.  Many people heard Christ’s words and then did wonderful and marvelous deeds.  And those who saw them marveled  and said that if a religion gives such power to people to overcome weaknesses and passions and to surpass human standards, then this is a religion that is divine in origin, and He Who established it is God.

Do you want to see people who believed in Christ and did everything He taught, beloved?  Open the book of the New Testament that is called the Acts of the Apostles.  Today, on this holy day, this great holy day of Christianity, the Sunday of Easter, we read the beginning of the Gospel according to John, and the Epistle reading is the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles in the Divine Liturgy.  The Bible is the story of the life of Christ.  The Acts, a continuation of the Bible, is the story of the Apostles of Christ and the first Christians.  It contains not only their teachings but also what they did.  The Apostles applied Christ’s teaching.  They loved God, and they loved their neighbor.  For this love they abandoned everything.  Poorly clothed and hungry, they traveled the world, preaching everywhere and performing miracles.  In some instances – don’t be surprised – they performed miracles that were even greater than those of Christ.  They performed them with His power and in this way proved that what He said was true when He said that “not only that which I do you shall do, but even greater things” (John 14:12).

My beloved! We must put Christ’s words, which we hear in Church, into practice and into works in the community in which we live.  We must show our children and future generations that faith is not dead in our times but alive – a faith that shines like the sun, shining with the brilliant teaching of Christ.  It shines even more so with good deeds, with the marvelous works of men and women, of clerics and laity.  Therefore, let us all go forward, beloved, to do good works.  Christian works, like the ones of the first Christians, like the works of the Apostles, like the works of Christ.  “Both to do and to teach.”

Απόσπασμα από τό βιβλίο του Μητροπολίτου Φλωρίνης π. Αυγουστίνου Καντιώτου «ΜΥΡΙΠΝΟΑ ΑΝΘΗ», μεταφρασμένο στα Αγγλικά. 6 ΦΕΒΡΟΥΑΡΙΟΥ, ΑΓΙΟΥ ΦΩΤΙΟΥ (Ο ΘHΣΑYΡΟΣ ΜΑΣ)

FEBRUARY 6

SAINT PHOTIOS THE GREAT, PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE

(OUR TREASURE)

My beloved, we are Orthodox Christians.  That is, we belong to the Church which keeps the true faith, that is Orthodoxy.  There is no falsehood in Orthodoxy – it is the whole truth.  It is like gold which is passed through many furnaces and is one hundred percent pure.  This is accepted (declared) by the foreigners, who do not belong to our Church.  The Orthodox Church possesses a brightness that draws towards it the man of good intention who wants to know the truth.  Therefore we must thank God for our being born Orthodox and ask him that we remain faithful and dedicated children of Orthodoxy.
In order, however, for us to arrive at Orthodoxy many contests were needed and much blood was shed by her chosen children.  With their wise teaching and efforts, great teachers and fathers strengthened the Orthodox faith.  There are two among the great fathers and teachers of the Church who distinguished themselves in their fight for strengthening Orthodoxy.  One is Saint Athanasios whose Feast is the 18th of January and the other is Saint Photios, whose feast we celebrate on the 6th of Februrary.

We will dedicate this homily to Saint Photios.  St. Photios was born in the ninth century in Constantinople from rich and glorious parents.  Some of his relatives had high positions in the state and Church.  One uncle on his father’s side became Patriarch and a saint; he was Saint Tarasios.  Photio’s father was a high officer in the Palace.

From his youth, Photios had an inclination toward education.  He studied day and night and became more educated than anybody else in his time.  The Emperor valued his talents and took him into his service, where he soon received a high position.  The palace gave him very difficult assignments.  Everyone admired Photios’ great wisdom and his abilities.  Photios, however, was not destined for politics.  God had predestined him one day to become one of the greatest fathers and teachers of the Church.  Photios, a humble soul, never had imagined that he would be elevated to church offices.  He did not pursue great glories.  He wanted to remain a layman and in this way offer great service to the Church.  Even a layman, without wearing the cassock, can also serve God and become a saint and martyr.  How many laymen were of greater benefit to the Church than priests and bishops who due to their indifference and unbelief buried in the earth and rendered useless the most precious gifts of the priesthood!

Saint Photios was a layman, whom the people loved and respected; a layman faithful and dedicated to the Church; a layman who was a fervent preacher of the Gospel.  However, he did not remain a layman forever.  Against his will, with the affection of the people and the respect of the officials, he was seized and made Patriarch.  In a few days he became monk, sub-deacon, deacon, priest, and on Christmas Day in 857 he was ordained a bishop and undertook the duties of Patriarch.
Photios a Patriarch.  Then the hatred of those who could not see his glory was ignited.  They fought against him and accused him everywhere.  They were saying among many other things, that it was unheard of for a layman to become patriarch in just a few days.  A great Synod was convened, in which representatives of the Pope also participated, examined the accusations of his enemies and affirmed him.  Photios remained on the throne.  He was teaching and catechizing the people and was taking care that Orthodoxy be spread to other peoples who were living in idolatry and error.  Such people were the Slavs, Serbs, Bulgarians, Croats, and Russians.  The preaching had good results in Bulgaria.  Two great missionaries preached there: Cyril and Methodios, whom Saint Photios had sent.  The king of the Bulgarians, Bogoris, was baptized first and receive the new name, Michael.  By now one thousand years have passed since this miracle took place when an entire nation left idolatry and became Orthodox.

Satan, however, envied this glory of the Church.  Another king was enthroned and removed Photios by fore, sending him into exile.  An unlawful Synod condemned him.  He suffered much in exile but he returned to the throne.  The people, seeing Photios on the throe again, rejoiced.  Photios began to preach Orthodxy with new vigor and enthusiasm.  Saint Photios took measures when the Pope sent men to Bulgaria to preach and turn the people away from Orthodoxy and to obey the Pope.  He asked the papists to leave Bulgaria and leave the people in peace.  They did not leave, however, and continued to plant weeds in the souls of the people with their heretic teachings.  Then Photios convened a great Synod, which condemned the heretical teachings and excommunicated the Pope.
This was the beginning of the schism of the Churches.  The Pope separated from Orthodoxy and continues to this day to be separated.  Even though almost 1,150 years have passed, the Pope still does not recognize his mistakes and remains unrepentant; trying with various treacherous ways to mislead the Orthodox to his side.
Unfortunately, there are Orthodox, clergymen and laymen, bishops and even Patriarch who do not want to understand that Orthodoxy is in danger from such satanic efforts of the Pope.
Let us come back, however, to Photios.  Even after his victory over the Pope, his enemies did not keep quiet, they dethroned him for a second time and sent him into exile.  He remained four years in exile.  All the while he was studying and praying.  Finally on the 6th of February in 891 he passed away.

***

What did I say?  Passed away? No, Photios did not die; he is living with all the martyrs and confessors and is waiting for the Second Coming of the Lord in order to receive the crown.  Also, Saint Photios lives on in the Orthodox Church because whatever Saint Photios preached we also preach and teach to this day.  As Saint Photios condemned the Pope, not only for his previous but also for his new heretical teachings, so too do we remain faithful to Orthodoxy.  Orthodoxy is our priceless treasure.
Orthodoxy, beloved, is our treasure!  As the Gospel teaches us, however, this treasure we must not hide, as the wicked servant hid his talent in the earth.  No!  Let us labor.  Let us use the talent.  Let us circulate this genuine coin called Orthodoxy to the whole world.  It is wealth and treasure.  It is a sin to hide it and bury it.  Imitators of Saint Photios let us preach Orthodoxy to East and West, and let us be ready for its protection and spreading and endure every labor, sorrow, and sacrifice.  In this way everyone of us will be worthy to hear from the Lord’s mouth: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord” (Matthew 25:21).

This chapter was taken from the book “FRAGRANT FLOWERS” by Bishop Augoustinos N. Kantiotes.

Translated by Fr. Asterios Gerostergios

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JANUARY 21

SAINT MAXIMOS THE CONFESSOR

ONE BRAVE CONFESSION

On the 21st of January, my beloved, we celebrate the feast of one of the most brave preachers and confessors of our Orthodox faith, Saint Maximos.  To him we dedicate this short sermon.

***

Saint Maximos lived in the seventh century A.D.  He was born in Constantinople.  He loved education from childhood.  He studied philosophy and theology and he was admired for his education.  Due to his talents he was received as a high administrator in the emperor’s court.  He quickly became the chief secretary, which was a great honor.  At that time the emperor was Heracleios – the one who defeated the Persians and took back the Holy Cross which the barbarians had seized.  During his reign the city was saved from the siege of the Avars and the people chanted for the first time the Akathist Hymn.  Heracleios was a faithful and pious king.  On the serious subject of heresy, however, he showed a degree of leniency which Maximos did not like at all.  Maximos considered the heretics very dangerous and he wanted the State to observe a strict stance in their relation to the Church.  The heretics were so audacious that, if they were left free, there was a danger that a great part of the population would fall prey to their heresy.  At that time the heresy of monotheletism was spreading.

Let us say a few words concerning what monotheletism means.  Christ, the Lord of our Faith and found of our religion is God and man.  He is God-man and He has two wills.  As a man He has will – pure, however, from the filth of the sin.  As God He has a holy and omnipotent will.  These two wills are united in Christ.  The human will is subject to the will of God, and there exists a harmony of the wills in the person of Christ.  There is no confrontation in Christ between the divine and the human will.  However, how the union of the two natures and the harmony of the two will occurs is a mystery.  As the fathers of our Church say, as an iron when put into the fire gets hot and becomes red – that is, it is united with the fire without losing anything from its nature – so also was Christ as a man united with the divine nature without losing anything in His human nature.  He received the brightness of Divinity, it sparkled, and His human nature likewise became glorious and ascended into heaven.  Man is called to reach this great height, which no human language can describe.  He reaches it with faith, which allows the weak man to become united with Christ and become himself, in some way, god-man; an imitation of the God-man.

This was the instruction of the Orthodox teachers concerning the two natures and the two wills of Christ.  The heretical montheletes argued that, if we say that Christ has two wills, divine and human, we undermine Him.  For the reason they were saying that there is only one will in Christ – the will of God which absorbed the human will.  These things we say here may appear to be complex.  This heretical teaching, however, left the Christian world shaken.  The monotheletes, with the toleration and support of the emperor, spread widely.  Heracleios was not a monothelete, but rather was trying to reconcile the parties and bring some kind of peace between the opposing groups.  In matters of faith, however, diplomacy is not needed; in matters of faith there is only the power of “yes” or the “no”; there is no middle ground. Because Maximos did not agree with the policy which Heracleios was following in this matter, he decided that he should resign from his duties to the emperor and to stop serving the emperor as chief secretary.  He sacrificed his important position, salaries and profits and retired to a monastery in a remote desert place.  He clothed himself in hardship in order to pray, study and be prepared for the hard fight for Orthodoxy.

It would have been pleasing for Maximos to remain forever in the monastery.  When he heard, however, that the heretics – horrible wolves – were rushing into the foal of the Church and were snatching the sheep of Christ, the could not remain idle.  He decided to leave the peaceful monastic life and throw himself into the great struggle for Orthodoxy.  He became, in his time, a second great Athanasios.  He fought with all the strength of his soul.  His weapons were his education, his wisdom, and foremost his ascetic and holy life.  He ran everywhere; not only to Constantinople, but also to Alexandria and to other regions of Africa and even to Italy and Rome, to help give support to other Orthodox bishops in their struggle against heretics.  He contributed much to the condemnation of the heresies of the monotheletes.

Emperor Constance, a supporter of heretics, was enraged against Maximos for his brave fight and ordered him to cease his speaking and disturbing the peace of his empire.  His silence, however, would be a betrayal of Orthodoxy.  Alas, if those who must speak and defend Orthodoxy keep silent.  The heretics, if they do not face opposition, will progress and expand.  Saint Maximos did not obey to the emperor’s order.  Now, with even more power he was preaching the grandeur of Orthodoxy.  The enemies of Orthodoxy persecuted him and exiled him to different regions of the Empire.  Wherever they sent him, though, Saint Maximos did not cease to preach the word of Orthodoxy.  Finally they brought him to Constantinople in order to judge him again.  They tried to change his mind, but it was impossible.  The emperor was enraged, became wild like a beast, and ordered his tongue and right hand to be cut off, so that he could neither speak nor write about Orthodoxy.  The cruel and the inhuman order was executed.  His tongue and right hand were cut off and Saint Maximos was no longer able to speak or write.  In this condition, however, he never stopped being a living protest against the heretics.  Finally, he was exiled to Laziki of Pontus and there in 662 Saint Maximos gave up his spirit to the Lord.

***

My beloved!  The Gospel says that, once when the lepers saw Christ from afar, they began calling him saying “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us” (Luke 17:13).  The Lord cured them.  Those of us who believe in Christ should not hide our feelings and our faith, but we must raise our voice and confess Christ.  No power should be able to close our mouths.  Everywhere and always we must preach and confess Christ and Orthodoxy.  In this way the world would be cured from the leprosy of sin and error.  The word of Christ is an omnipotent physician.  Saint Maximos preached this word of Christ with an indomitable courage.  He became one of the most indomitable preachers and confessors of Orthodoxy.  Le us also imitate him in this difficult time we are living.

This chapter was taken from the book “Fragrant Flowers”
by Bishop Augoustinos N. Kantiotes.

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TA ONOMATA (Ομιλία 6)

THE NAMES

“An in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God”

Christian friends, there are twelve articles in the Symbol of Faith.  One of them, the first, concerns God.  The following six concern Christ.  The Creed consists of 174 Greek words.  Most of them, 100, speak about Christ.  Why is this?  Because Christ was disputed by many unbelievers and heretics.

As we said in our previous homily, unbelievers questioned even Christ’s historical existence, and heretics questioned and interpreted His life and acts in different ways, introducing theories which do not agree with Gospel teaching, and for this reason they were condemned by Ecumenical Synods.

From the day of Her conception, the Church held faith in Christ to be of great importance.  Christ is the center, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.  When a man asked the Apostles “What must I do to be saved?” they answered: “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 16:31).

But, who is Christ?  The Symbol of the Faith answers this question.  My brief answer is rather comprehensive, with words having deep meaning and requiring some explanation and discussion.  Let us explain the first words of the second article: “And in Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God”.

As you see, Christ has four names.  The first name is LORD.  The second is JESUS, the third, CHRIST, and the forth, SON OF GOD.

These names are not simply words which have no relation to reality, like words without substance.  They are names that correspond to reality.  For example, someone has the name Anargyros.  To have content and correspond to reality, the man bearing this name should be free from the love of money, in the manner of the holy Unmercenaries (Anargyroi).  If he is miserly and greedy, however, then he bears this name in vain.  The names that the Holy Scripture give to Christ, however, do correspond to reality.

First, let us see what the name Lord means.  Every man today is called by the title MISTER, which in most languages is the same word as LORD, and it’s considered rude not to call him MISTER.  But the lordship of man called MISTEr, no matter how rich and powerful he is, is temporary and very limited, even if he holds command over many things.  Today, rich, tomorrow poor. Famous today, tomorrow unknown and despised.  Even if one owns many things and commands many people, this is not important.  What is important is commanding one’s own self, to rule and subjugate one’s passion.  If he lets his passions rule him, even though he is called LORD and SIR, he will in fact be a slave – a slave of passions and sin, a slave of satan.  O man! You are but called Lord, but you have yet to truly become a LORD.

Man’s lordship is limited.  Little, trivial is this lordship compared to God’s.  God’s power and dominion is limitless, and no one can find words to describe it sufficiently.  In the Old Testament, the Hebrews did not dare pronounce God’s name, but they used to say it by another symbolic word, Yahweh or Jehovah.  And as appears in many passages, Yahweh or Jehovah was seen and appeared to many people, and He was Christ.  St. Nektarios, Bishop of Pentapolis, wrote a book about this and recently, Nikolaos Sotiropoulos, a theologian, wrote a very important book with the title “Jesus-Yahweh” (Athens, 1975).  Christ as proved in a number of passages from the Old and New Testaments, is the Hebrew Yahweh and the Greek Kyrios (Lord) – they are one and the same.

Christ is LORD in an absolute sense.  His domain is all creation, and consists of angels and men.  Everyone is a subject of His domain, and even though some are wayward and do not obey Him, a time will come when even they will kneel before Christ.

Christ is LORD.  Open the Holy Scripture and read the seventh chapter of the prophet Samuel.  There you will see that the prophet Samuel saw a vision.  He saw all the powers falling down in worship before the son of man, the Christ.  The power, which appeared as an external power, had no end.  St. John the Evangelist in the last book of the New Testament, Revelation, also saw Christ in a vision.  He saw Christ seated on a white horse and crowned with many crowns, holding a sword.  He was dressed in bright red and was called “KING OF KINGS and LORD OF LORDS” (Rev. 19:16).

Christ is Lord with a capital L.  His other name is JESUS.  This is a Hebrew name which means savior.  Many people who offered the world a great service have been named saviors, but the salvation they offered is insignificant in comparison to the salvation that Christ offers.  The angel said to the Virgin Mary that the child born of her would save people from sin.  And the stories of millions of people who repented and were saved justifies the name given to the Child of Bethlehem at the angel’s command.  A lesser image of Jesus the Savior is a great man of the Old Testament, Joshua (Jesus son of Nun), a shadow of the great Savior.

The second Person of the Holy Trinity is also called by the name Christ.  Those who believe in His Gospel have been called Christians, after this dear name.  Why is Jesus called this?  Because those Old Testament men who were destined to become kings of Israel were ‘christened’ so with holy oil.  Jesus  was ‘christened’ the king of the New Israel.  He was ordained in the Jordan river as a man by the Holy Spirit and is now reigning over and governing His spiritual kingdom, the Church.

Christ the Messiah whom people were awaiting.  He is the Teacher.  His the High Priest and King of the Universe.  To Him belongs all honor and glory forever.

Say, then, my Christian friend: “I believe… in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God.”

This chapter was taken from the book “ON THE DEVINE LITURGY – VOL.2” by Bishop Augoustinos N. Kantiotes.

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ΠΙΣΤΕΥΕΙΣ; (Ομιλία 5)

Η μετάφρασι ολόκληρου του βιβλίου (δύο τόμους) στά Αγγλλικά έγινε από τον ακούραστο εργάτη και αγωνιστή της Ορθοδοξίας, πνευματικόν τέκνον του π.Αυγουστίνου, πατέρα Αστέριο Γεροστέργιο.  Προσφέρεται ταπεινά καί μέ τήν έν Χριστώ αγάπη εις ψυχικήν ωφέλειαν Ορθοδόξων Χριστιανών απνανταχού της γης καί επισκεπτών της ιστοσελίδας του σεβαστού Γέροντος Αυγουστίνου
πρός δόξαν του Τριαδικού μας Θεού.

DO YOU BELIEVE?

“And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God…”

The first article of the Symbol of Creed, speaks about God.  Continuing now, we will discuss the second article.  It reads, “And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages.  Light of Light, True God of True God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father, through Whom all things were made.”

The first word of this article is “and.” This “and” was not introduced unintentionally into the Symbol – none of the words of the Symbol are there by accident.  Every word has significance.  After much contemplation and by the illumination of the Holy Spirit, the fathers of the First and Second Ecumenical Synods composed the Symbol and placed each word properly.  The word “and” then has its own significance.  It connects the second article with the first.  It places the Father and the Son on the same level, the same plane.  God is the Father, and God is the Son, the Christ, as well.  The “and” means that we believe in God the Father and we believe in His Son our Lord Jesus Christ

Those fathers with all the martyrs and confessors believed in Christ.  They believed what the Symbol of the Faith proclaims about Him.  Twentieth-century people, however, even those who call themselves Christians, do they really believe in Christ?

If you ask poor people today, you will see that very few actually believe in Christ and strive to live in accordance with His holy will.  The rest?  If they went to universities and consider themselves scholars or scientists, some then say Christ was a wise man, the wisest of all; others say He was a friend of the poor; others, that He was a great orator and sociologist; others, that He was a great revolutionary figure, who came to overthrow the establishment.  None of them, however, in spite of the laudations they give Him, accepts what the Church believes.  They do not accept Him as God.  Others in our times go even further, into unbelief and atheism, and as they maintain that there is no God, they say and write that Christ never existed, except in people’s imagination.

What a horrible thing unbelief is!  If one begins to question his faith, without noticing it, he will begin to fall into greater and greater doubt, until he ends up an unbeliever.  Such a person is like a rock – once it begins rolling down a hill, it will never stop rolling, but will continue until it reaches the lowest place it can find.

The faithless cry: “There is no God.”  But no matter how much they cry out, they will never succeed in blowing out the Faith of Christ.  This faith has very deep roots in the human heart, and no satanic power is able to uproot it.  The “I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God” will continue being declared boldly by every pure and humble soul.  An old man once came from a neighboring village to the city of Florina and entered the diocesan office.  He brought a little girl with him, who was attending the second grade of the elementary school.  She was his granddaughter, and he had brought her to the office because she wanted to say the Creed before the Bishop.  And so, she recited it in a loud voice, and without error.  I asked her if she believed in Christ, and she answered, correctly making the sing of the Cross, saying “I believe in Christ and I love Him”.  I rejoiced and glorified God, because there are still pure, child-like souls.

Unbelievers continue to cry out and say that Christ never existed.  But, that Christ existed, that He was born in Bethlehem in the reign of Ceasar Augustus, that he lived and worked in Palestine, that he was crucified by Pontius Pilate, these events are actual and not imagined.  Christ was a historical person.  Historians of the First century attest to this:  Josephus, Tacitus, Suetonius, and Pliny.  Although the means of communication were primitive, although He came from a despised country, His fame as an extraordinary teacher, prophet and wonderworker spread far beyond the borders of Hi native Israel and reached Rome.

Foreign authorities speak of Christ’s existence.  His life and deeds.  These had no relations with Him, but they observed the events with an indifferent heart.  It is certain that Christ was born and lived in Palestine.  It is as certain as the fact that Alexander the Great was born in Macedonia, lived and was active there.  We believe the few historians who bore witness to the historical existence of Alexander, and no one questions his existence.  People, therefore, should not question the historical existence of Jesus Christ.  They should have more faith in the testimonies that credible people wrote about Christ with truthfulness and self-denial – the four Evangelists.

The four Evangelists testify to Christ.  Although there are some small discrepancies among the four in some points, these discrepancies show that the four Evangelists worked separately, without consulting one another.  These four witnesses are alike in describing the same event; although one might pay attention to some detail which the others overlook.

Christ’s existence is witnessed to by foreign writers, and mainly by the four Evangelists, the Apostle Paul, and the other Apostles.  It is witnessed to by countless martyrs and confessors, who shed their blood for the Faith of Christ.  It is witnessed to by God, the Heavenly Father, through a myriad of miracles that have taken place in the past and will continue to occur forever in His holy Name.

Dear friends, let us erase from our heart every question which satan puts there regarding Christ’s existence and life.  By studying the holy Gospels, our hearts will be filled with admiration for the unique Icon of Christ.  The questions and doubts will then be changed into exclamations of faith, and together, with child-like voices, we will say: “I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of God before all ages…”

This chapter was taken from the book “ON THE DEVINE LITURGY – VOL.2” by Bishop Augoustinos N. Kantiotes.

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ΤΙ ΕΙΝΑΙ Ο ΘΕΟΣ; (Ομιλία 4 )

(Η μετάφρασι ολόκληρου τού βιβλίου (δύο τόμους) στα Αγγλλικά έγινε από τον ακούραστο εργάτη και αγωνιστή της Ορθοδοξίας, πνευματικόν τέκνον του π.Αυγουστίνου, πατέρα Αστέριο Γεροστέργιο.  Προσφέρεται ταπεινά και με την εν Χριστώ αγάπη εις ψυχικήν ωφέλειαν Ορθοδόξων Χριστιανών απνανταχού της γης και επισκεπτών της ιστοσελίδας του σεβαστού Γέροντος Αυγουστίνου
προς δόξαν του Τριαδικού μας Θεού).

WHAT IS GOD?

“I believe in one God, the Father almighty, Maker of heaven and earth and of everything

visible and invisible.”

God exists, dear friends, God exists!  It is declared in the first article of our Symbol of Faith.  Millions of voices proclaim it.  Atheism, as we said, has no evidence; it merely dogmatizes.  And, as we have noted with atheists and unbelievers, there come certain moments even in their lives when they question their attitudes regarding this most relevant subject.  There are also examples old and new concerning people, who, in quiet and peaceful times made much noise, saying ‘there is no God’, but when the blue skies of their lifetime became clouded, when trials and tribulations shocked them and all their worldly foundations were shaken, when they faced catastrophe, then those unbelieving atheists where humbled and they knelt down to pray.

God exists, but what is He?  This is another question.  Human reason, proud, restless, and searching, directs itself also to the investigation of this topic.  What can we say?  We can answer only briefly:

We have said that the question of the existence of God is the highest and most important of all problems.  Every other subject is inferior to this lofty question.  I ask you, has anything been investigated to complete resolution?  Have answers been given to questions concerning, not only spiritual matters, but material things, things that we can perceive with our bodily senses?  Has science given answers even to questions like: “what is matter?” “What is light, electricity, magnetism, atomic energy?”

As we said some time before, science investigates various material phenomena, but it cannot explain them, it cannot give the final world concerning our existence, the creation, the energies and their sundry manifestations.  These matters are shrouded in mystery.  A philosopher once said, that in spite of all science has discovered, we are yet ignorant of many things and will continue to be so, because everything we know is a very small part of what we do not yet know.

We are ignorant, then, to a great degree concerning material things which we can perceive; how then we pretend to know those things that we cannot perceive, things that are above the material and constitute the spiritual world?

Human reason is not limitless, as some philosophers say; it has certain boundaries it cannot cross.  Beyond the natural world is another world, the spiritual, supernatural world.  We cannot perceive this world with our bodily senses, but we can do so with our spiritual senses – our faith, appropriately called the “sixth sense”.

Our minds are limited.  Let me cite an example.  Let us assume that an ant is crawling on a column of the Acropolis.  The ant has a mind, that is, it reacts instinctively.  We ask
you, is it possible for the ant to comprehend and explain the architectural wonder?  Certainly not.  Its thought processes are far too limited.  Humanity, like the ant, lives and walks, and even flies in space, seeing before it the expanse of the vast divinely-created kingdom.  But human thought, no matter how developed, cannot comprehend or explain divine creation in all its magnitude and profundity.  Man stands on a pinhead of the immense universe.  As an ant cannot comprehend the architectural plan of the Acropolis, so the little human being, with his limited reason, is incapable of understanding the details of the Divine Creator’s plans.  That is why the Apostle Paul, astounded by the mysteries of divine wisdom, says: “O depth and riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways beyond understanding!  For who hath known the mind of the Lord?  Or who hath become his counselor?” (Romans 11:33-34).

And in spite of this, humanity in its pride insists on investigating the Incomprehensible.  A lyric poet, Simonides, was once invited to the palace of an ancient king and was asked to answer a question: What is God?  The poet asked him to give him a day to think about it.  When the day had passed, the poet appeared before the king and asked him to give him another two days to think it over.  It was granted.  When the two days had passed, the poet requested that time to be doubled, four days.  The king grew impatient because of the delay, and when the poet asked twice the previous amount of time, the king asked why.  The poet answered, “The more I investigate the matter, the more difficult it appears to be”.

What is God?  A definition would be beyond the capabilities of the human mind.  One of the greatest fathers and teachers of the Church, St. Augustine, in discussing this topic, begins a moving dialogue with Creation.  Let us listen:

“I asked the earth, ‘What is God?’, and she answered: ‘I am not your God’.  Everything in Creation that I asked gave me the same answer.  I asked the sea and the depths and all that live and swim in the seas and oceans, and all in common answered: ‘I am not your God; search for Him higher.’  I asked the winds that blow and the air, and the creatures that live in it, and they answered me ‘I am not your God’.  I asked the sun, the moon and the stars.  ‘We are not the God you seek’.  Then I said to all that surrounded me: ‘You say you are not my God.  Tell me then what do you know about Him?  And all answered in a loud voice, ‘God made us.  God is our Maker, our Creator!’

In spite of all the wisdom our ancient forefathers had, the true God remained unknown to them, and for this reason, an altar was erected in Athens, the capital of arts and sciences, with the inscription: “TO THE UNKNOWN GOD” (Acts 17:23).  The unknown God was revealed to the world through the revelation of Jesus Christ, our Lord.  And the God that Jesus Christ revealed is the true God.  He is spirit.  He is light.  He is love.  We worship and adore Him, and this faith we proclaim by saying: “I believe in one God, the Father almighty, Maker of heaven and earth and of everything visible and invisible.”

This chapter was taken from the book “ON THE DEVINE LITURGY – VOL.2”

by Bishop Augoustinos N. Kantiotes.

e-mail: ibmgs3@verizon.net

www.orthodoxinfo.com/ibmgs

Απόσπασμα από το βιβλίο του πατρός Αυγουστίνου «Εις την Θεία Λειτουργία, Πρακτικαι Ομιλίαι»!

ΥΠΑΡΧΕΙ ΘΕΟΣ; (Ομιλία 3)

(Η μετάφρασι ολόκληρου του βιβλίου (δύο τόμους) στα Αγγλλικά έγινε από τόν ακούραστο εργάτη καί αγωνιστή της Ορθοδοξίας, πνευματικόν τέκνον του π. Αυγουστίνου, πατέρα Αστέριο Γεροστέργιο.  Προσφέρεται ταπεινά και με την έν Χριστώ αγάπη εις ψυχικήν ωφέλειαν Ορθοδόξων Χριστιανών απνανταχού της γης και επισκεπτών της ιστοσελίδας τού σεβαστού Γέροντος Αυγουστίνου
πρός δόξαν του Τριαδικού μας Θεού).

THERE IS A GOD!

“I believe in one God…”

Dear readers, there are many subjects which people busily discuss, wherever they live and whatever their education, but the one topic above all others is that pertaining to God’s existence.  People are never indifferent to this subject.  Even though some may appear indifferent, there come moments in their lives when this matter sets them off.  Is there a God, yes or no?  If there is not, then everything is permissible, even the most heinous crimes.  If He exists, however, then things are different, and everyone is responsible to the Creator for his actions.

God’s existence is bound together with the notion of divine justice, a justice that is free of the imperfections and weaknesses of human justice and is able to punish every crime and reward every virtue.  This is what St. Paul means when he says: “But without faith it is impossible to please Him; for He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him (Hb.11:6).

Faith in the existence of God constitutes the cornerstone of the Christian edifice.  That is why the first thing proclaimed in the symbol of the Faith is the existence of God: “I believe in one God”.  Unbelievers have multiplied in our century and fight brazenly against God, saying and writing in books and magazines that there is no God.  If you ask an unbeliever, however, what his arguments are against God’s existence, you will see that he does not have a serious argument.  He accuses the Church of dogmatism, that She tells us to believe without proof, but he himself presents as a dogma that there is no God, and the world must accept that!

While atheism, old or new, feels it does not have to present any proof of what it maintains, it feels that the Church, which preaches FAITH in God’s existence, must present many evidences with which to convince any impartial person.

God exists.  Countless voices cry this.  Let me give a few examples:

We are familiar with the camera.  You stand before this machine and it takes your picture.  If someone tells you the camera you are holding was not made in a factory, but created itself, would you believe in him?  Certainly not! And if your friend insists, you would begin to doubt his sanity, for only a person devoid of reason would say that cameras create themselves…

But there is a camera infinitely superior to any camera in the world.  It will function for years, without expense; it takes millions of photos.  What kind of camera is this?  It is our eye.  This is a perfect camera, a miracle.  Who made it?  If someone cannot accept that an ordinary camera is a work of chance, then how will he dare to say that eye is a work of chance?  No, the eyes are not products of chance.  Someone made them, and that someone is God.  An eye is enough to demonstrate God’s existence.

Do you know about the radar?  It is a huge artificial ear, which science took great pains to plan and produce.  It is placed high on mountains and receives the sounds that airplanes or other object produce, no matter how high they fly.  Let someone dare insist that radar invented itself.  No one would believe him.  Everyone accepts that radar apparatus is designed by men and made in factories.

Do you admire radar?  Then you must admire incomparable more human radar – the ears.  Its construction and function astonishes scientists called otorynolaryngologists.  Radar is created by man, the ears by whom?  Certainly by someone, and that someone is God.  An ear is enough to prove that God exists.

Yet another example.  A city is supplied with water by an aqueduct, which has its reservoir outside the city.  From there, the water flows through large and small pipes and reaches all the houses in the city.  Aqueducts are admirable, as is the Athenian aqueduct, having an enormous reservoir.  The network of pipes supplying the entire city has a total length of many thousands of miles.  I ask you, who would dare say that such a huge system is a work of chance?  No one with a sound mind would!

But let us look at another aqueduct which works day and night to supply not water, but blood to the human organism.  The heart collects blood like a small reservoir, but does not hold it.  It distributes it with absolute justice.  Instead of pipes it uses veins and arteries, which reach even the smallest parts of the body.  There are capillaries thinner than a hair: imagine a tiny pipe like a hair and through it blood is flowing, reaching the tiniest parts of the anatomy.  Do you admire the aqueduct? How much more should you admire the heart, which with an astonishing network of veins and arteries continuously distributes blood!  If the heart stops working, the man dies in a few minutes.  Engineers and technicians construct aqueducts, but who constructed the heart?  Certainly someone, and this someone is God.  A heart suffices – what am I saying – a hair-like capillary suffices to show that God exists!

We could present more examples, but there are so many, they would fill a whole book.  God exists!  Reason demands it.  God exists!  The universe proves it from the grandest to the humblest creations.  God exists!  History testifies it.  God exists!  Man’s conscience proves it.

Our faith is not without proofs and arguments.  Let everyone then, from the bottom of his heart declare his belief: “I believe in one God…”

This chapter was taken from the book “ON THE DEVINE LITURGY – VOL.2” by Bishop Augoustinos N. Kantiotes.

e-mail: ibmgs3@verizon.net

www.orthodoxinfo.com/ibmgs

Απόσπασμα από τό βιβλίο του πατρός Αυγουστίνου «Είς τήν Θείαν Λειτουργίαν, Πρακτικαι Ομιλίαι»!

ΠΙΣΤΕΥΩ…( Ομιλία 2)

Η μετάφρασι ολόκληρου τοu βιβλίου (δύο τόμους) στα Αγγλλικά έγινε από τον ακούραστο εργάτη καί αγωνιστή της Ορθοδοξίας, πνευματικόν τέκνον του π. Αυγουστίνου, πατέρα Αστέριο Γεροστέργιο.  Προσφέρεται ταπεινά καί με την έν Χριστώ αγάπη εις ψυχικήν ωφέλειαν Ορθοδόξων Χριστιανών απνανταχού της γης και επισκεπτών της ιστοσελίδας του σεβαστού Γέροντος Αυγουστίνου
πρός δόξαν του Τριαδικού μας Θεού.

THERE IS A GOD!

“I believe in one God…”

Dear readers, there are many subjects which people busily discuss, wherever they live and whatever their education, but the one topic above all others is that pertaining to God’s existence.  People are never indifferent to this subject.  Even though some may appear indifferent, there come moments in their lives when this matter sets them off.  Is there a God, yes or no?  If there is not, then everything is permissible, even the most heinous crimes.  If He exists, however, then things are different, and everyone is responsible to the Creator for his actions.

God’s existence is bound together with the notion of divine justice, a justice that is free of the imperfections and weaknesses of human justice and is able to punish every crime and reward every virtue.  This is what St. Paul means when he says: “But without faith it is impossible to please Him; for He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him (Hb.11:6).

Faith in the existence of God constitutes the cornerstone of the Christian edifice.  That is why the first thing proclaimed in the symbol of the Faith is the existence of God: “I believe in one God”.  Unbelievers have multiplied in our century and fight brazenly against God, saying and writing in books and magazines that there is no God.  If you ask an unbeliever, however, what his arguments are against God’s existence, you will see that he does not have a serious argument.  He accuses the Church of dogmatism, that She tells us to believe without proof, but he himself presents as a dogma that there is no God, and the world must accept that!

While atheism, old or new, feels it does not have to present any proof of what it maintains, it feels that the Church, which preaches FAITH in God’s existence, must present many evidences with which to convince any impartial person.

God exists.  Countless voices cry this.  Let me give a few examples:

We are familiar with the camera.  You stand before this machine and it takes your picture.  If someone tells you the camera you are holding was not made in a factory, but created itself, would you believe in him?  Certainly not! And if your friend insists, you would begin to doubt his sanity, for only a person devoid of reason would say that cameras create themselves…

But there is a camera infinitely superior to any camera in the world.  It will function for years, without expense; it takes millions of photos.  What kind of camera is this?  It is our eye.  This is a perfect camera, a miracle.  Who made it?  If someone cannot accept that an ordinary camera is a work of chance, then how will he dare to say that eye is a work of chance?  No, the eyes are not products of chance.  Someone made them, and that someone is God.  An eye is enough to demonstrate God’s existence.

Do you know about the radar?  It is a huge artificial ear, which science took great pains to plan and produce.  It is placed high on mountains and receives the sounds that airplanes or other object produce, no matter how high they fly.  Let someone dare insist that radar invented itself.  No one would believe him.  Everyone accepts that radar apparatus is designed by men and made in factories.

Do you admire radar?  Then you must admire incomparable more human radar – the ears.  Its construction and function astonishes scientists called otorynolaryngologists.  Radar is created by man, the ears by whom?  Certainly by someone, and that someone is God.  An ear is enough to prove that God exists.

Yet another example.  A city is supplied with water by an aqueduct, which has its reservoir outside the city.  From there, the water flows through large and small pipes and reaches all the houses in the city.  Aqueducts are admirable, as is the Athenian aqueduct, having an enormous reservoir.  The network of pipes supplying the entire city has a total length of many thousands of miles.  I ask you, who would dare say that such a huge system is a work of chance?  No one with a sound mind would!

But let us look at another aqueduct which works day and night to supply not water, but blood to the human organism.  The heart collects blood like a small reservoir, but does not hold it.  It distributes it with absolute justice.  Instead of pipes it uses veins and arteries, which reach even the smallest parts of the body.  There are capillaries thinner than a hair: imagine a tiny pipe like a hair and through it blood is flowing, reaching the tiniest parts of the anatomy.  Do you admire the aqueduct? How much more should you admire the heart, which with an astonishing network of veins and arteries continuously distributes blood!  If the heart stops working, the man dies in a few minutes.  Engineers and technicians construct aqueducts, but who constructed the heart?  Certainly someone, and this someone is God.  A heart suffices – what am I saying – a hair-like capillary suffices to show that God exists!

We could present more examples, but there are so many, they would fill a whole book.  God exists!  Reason demands it.  God exists!  The universe proves it from the grandest to the humblest creations.  God exists!  History testifies it.  God exists!  Man’s conscience proves it.

Our faith is not without proofs and arguments.  Let everyone then, from the bottom of his heart declare his belief: “I believe in one God…”

This chapter was taken from the book “ON THE DEVINE LITURGY – VOL.2” by Bishop Augoustinos N. Kantiotes.

e-mail: ibmgs3@verizon.net

www.orthodoxinfo.com/ibmgs

Απόσπασμα από τό βιβλίο του πατρός Αυγουστίνου «Είς τήν Θείαν Λειτουργίαν, Πρακτικαι Ομιλίαι»!

Ομιλία 2

ΠΙΣΤΕΥΩ…

Η μετάφραση του βιβλίου «Είς τήν Θείαν Λειτουργίαν»,  (δύο τόμους) στα Αγγλλικά έγινε από τον ακούραστο εργάτη και αγωνιστή της Ορθοδοξίας, πνευματικόν τέκνον του π. Αυγουστίνου, πατέρα Αστέριο Γεροστέργιο.
Προσφέρεται ταπεινά με την έν Χριστώ αγάπη εις ψυχικήν ωφέλειαν των απανταχού της γής Ορθοδόξων Χριστιανών καί των επισκεπτών της ιστοσελίδας του σεβαστού Γέροντος Αυγουστίνου πρός δόξαν του Τριαδικού μας Θεού.

I BELIEVE…

In our last homily, we spoke generally about the Symbol of our Faith, the creed, which is recited at every Divine Liturgy. The Creed is a short statement of the truths that every pious Christian should believe. Because it is short, even those with little formal education can learn and recite it by heart.

In the past, when faith was alive, not only educated people, but even shepherds and peasants listened to the Creed with great reverence, and considered it an honor to recite it in Church. They enjoyed hearing or saying the Creed, that sweet melody of the Holy Spirit. Children took pride in learning and reciting it by heart. Christians attending the Devine Liturgy blessed the parents of those children, who like angels, recited the sacred Symbol in their clear, unaffected voices.

That was then – but what about now? A pious priest once told me that some time ago in his parish, a scandal occurred because a man wanted to become a godparent of a child who was about to be baptized. The priest asked the godfather to recite the Creed, but the man said that he did not know it. So the priest gave him the book so he could read it, but he refused to do this. He was ashamed to read the Creed, and audaciously told the priest he didn’t want to read the Creed. See what we are reduced to! Unbelieving people want to become god-parents in sacramental services…

In our diocese, we issued an encyclical ordering priests to advise parents not to accept as godparents people who do not believe, or have cause scandal. Only people who truly believe and live according to God’s commandments are to be godparents for people who themselves believe and live the Creed and try to convey it to the children they baptize. Priests and parents who accept non-church goers as godparents commit a big sin, because they make a mockery out of the Mysteries and allow pearls to be thrown to swine.

The Creed is a short statement of our Orthodox Faith, as we have said. It consists of 714 words in Greek, and each word has its own deep significance. An attempt to discuss the entire content of the Creed would result in many homilies. It would end up as another whole book. A brilliant preacher and author, Konstantinos Kallinikos, of blessed memory, wrote a very important book with the title “The Foundations of the Faith”, which in 31 lessons interprets and analyzes each article of the Creed. This book we recommend especially to teachers, professors, and scientists. They will find in it an excellent apology of the truths of our Faith. But here, we will endeavor to explain the content of the Creed in a few sermons.

The first words of the sacred Symbol of Faith are “I believe”. Let’s take a few everyday examples to help us understand what “belief” is, because belief (faith) is not only necessary for religious life, but even for daily worldly existence itself.

You are a stranger in a city. Noontime comes, and you are hungry. You enter one of the many restaurants and are given a meal, cooked by a cook you do not know. You eat it with pleasure, but also with faith, that is with confidence, because you yourself didn’t see the materials with which the cook prepared the meal, and you didn’t watch its preparation from beginning to end. You eat the food, however, having faith – confidence – in the restaurant’s owner. If you didn’t have faith in him then you would never have sat down to eat in his restaurant.

You walk somewhere by yourself. You want to go to a place some distance away, but you don’t know the way. You meet a stranger and ask him, and in a kindly manner he shows you the way. You have faith, confidence in what the stranger tells you, and you go as he directed you.

Now, you want to travel by car, train, or airplane. You don’t know who the drivers or pilots are. Yet in spite of that, you enter the vehicle without investigating their capabilities, believing in them.

Another example. You fall sick and call the physician. He gives you a prescription to buy some medicines. And you, having faith in the doctor, follow his instructions; again, having faith in the pharmacist, you buy some his medicines.

These examples, and many more, show that even in worldly matters, nothing can be done without faith. If faith were removed, all human activity would cease. Even the sciences would come to a halt: based on experiment, they will not be able to make any progress, since they begin their research on certain principles not yet proven, and they build the rest of their scientific investigations on these.

We live by faith. We believe in bakers and cooks. We believe in drivers of trains and airplanes. We believe in teachers and professors. We believe in scientists, diplomats and politicians. We believe in everything and everybody, only we do not want to believe in God.

Credulous to all, faithless and unbelieving in God!

O Disbelief! A philosopher of the ancient world, discussing the strangeness of human behavior, said that we believe in those people and things we should not believe in, and disbelieve in the people and things we should believe in, thereby bringing great calamity to the world. How right he was! It would be enough to show the horrible state to which entire nations fell when they put their trust in persons and thing that, in the end, deceived them and led them into great catastrophes.

The faith of the Christians, however, is not like faith of worldly men, who put their trust in people and worship idols and fantasies. The Christian knows in whom he believes. An out of the mire of unbelief, he cries aloud his belief: “I believe in one God, the Father almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of everything visible and invisible…”

This chapter was taken from the book “ON THE DEVINE LITURGY – VOL.2” by Bishop Augoustinos N. Kantiotes.

e-mail: ibmgs3@verizon.net

www.orthodoxinfo.com/ibmgs

THE GLORIOUS FLAG – THE SYMBOL OF FAITH

Απόσπσμα από το βιβλίο του πατρός Αυγουστίνου «Εις την Θείαν Λειτουργίαν, Πρακτικαί Ομιλίαι»!

[Η μετάφραση ολόκληρου τού βιβλίου (δύο τόμους) στα Αγγλλικά έγινε από τον ακούραστο εργάτη και αγωνιστή της Ορθοδοξίας, πνευματικόν τέκνον του πατρός Αυγουστίνου, πατέρα Αστέριο Γεροστέργιο.  Προσφέρεται ταπεινά και με την εν Χριστώ αγάπη εις ψυχικήν ωφέλειαν Ορθοδόξων Χριστιανών απανταχού της γης και επισκεπτών της ιστοσελίδας του σεβαστού Γέροντος Αυγουστίνου
προς δόξαν του Τριαδικού μας Θεού].

In our previous homily, we explained the expression “The doors, the doors, in wisdom let us attend.  We spoke of the meaning this exhortation has.  Heretics and unbelievers are not permitted to remain in church, and the faithful who remain should listen reverently and fix their thoughts on what is being said and done in the Liturgy.  We said before and we repeat, that it is a sin when the celebrating priest recites the beautiful prayers and petition, read the Gospel and offers up the awesome Mystery, and the cantors chant: it is a sin to be there in body, but absent in spirit.

After “The doors, the doors…”, complete silence should prevail in the house of worship.  Everyone is waiting for something important to be said – and that wich is heard immediately afterward is the Creed.

The Creed today is said by the reader.  In the Russian and American Orthodox Churches, the entire congregation says it.  This is not an innovation, but an ancient tradition.  It would be good if this ancient custom were revived throughout the entire Church.  In our Diocese, we ordered the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer to be said by the entire congregation.  That way, the whole service of the Liturgy comes to life, and even the cold and indifferent person awakens when he hears the Creed being said aloud and feels that something worthy of attention is taking place.
And truly, the Creed is of great importance.  It is called the sacred Symbol of our Faith.  But what is a symbol?  A symbol is something that gives us an immediate understanding of something accepted or believed.  For example, the eagle in ancient times was a symbol, which when seen depicted on a flag, was understood to mean that the state which had such a flag was the most powerful in the world, the Roman Empire.  Another symbol was the double-headed eagle, depicted mainly on the flags of the Byzantine Empire.  Today, the two superpowers, Russia and United States, have respectively hammer and sickle, and 50 stars on their flags, while the Greek flag is the symbol of the Cross.

As the various countries of the world are distinguished from one another by the special symbol representing them on their flags, our Church, the Orthodox Church, is distinguished from all other religions and heresies by Her Creed, heard during the Liturgy.  The Creed is the sacred Symbol of the Orthodox Church.  The Creed is our glorious “flag”, a flag under which all the faithful have fought and will continue to fight.

It is common practice that when the people recite the Creed, the priest in the Sanctuary, also reciting it, shakes the Aer above the Precious Gifts.  The Aer is a rectangular piece of cloth, usually red in color, with which the Precious Gifts are covered until this point in the service.  Therefore, since whatever is said or done during the Divine Liturgy has its own special meaning, let us briefly see what this act represents.

Certain interpreters of the Divine Liturgy say that the priest fans the Aer to keep insects out of the Chalice.  One of the more recent commentators says that once a lizard fell into the holy Chalice from the ceiling of the Sanctuary, and the pious priest ate the lizard because the body was soaked with the Blood of the God-Man.  What faith and piety our priests had years ago!  And what cold-heartedness and indifference exists today!  The holy Chalice is considered an ordinary cup…

But there is another interpretation: the priest fans the Aer over the Precious Gifts to show that our Creed is not a false one, like the others humanity follows, but the true Creed.  It is, as we have said, our sacred symbol, the glorious flag of Christendom, which always defeats its enemies.  And just as soldiers, when they conquer a high hill, raise their flag on the summit, letting it wave as if shivering with emotion, so our Church, which is like an army that fights and defeats unbelievers and heretics with the blood of the Sanctified Lamb, raises the Aer symbolically like a flag.  This moment is like proclaiming Her victories and triumphs.  It is like repeating the God-inspired saying of St. John the Evangelist: “This is the victory that overcometh the world, our faith” (I John 5:4).

The Creed has its history.  It was composed by two Ecumenical Synods, the First and Second.  The First convened in 325 A.D. at Nicea of Bithynia, Asia Minor, during the reign of Constantine the Great.  Three hundred and eighteen fathers and teachers of our Church, martyrs and confessors who suffered when the persecutions were still going on, condemned the heresy of the Arians.  The latter taught that there were a time when Christ, the Son of God, did not exist.  Arius, their leader, denied the Divinity of Christ, as do contemporary Jehovah’s Witnesses, the “spiritual” grandchildren of Arius.

The Second Ecumenical Synod took place in 381 A.D. at Constantinople during the reign of Theodosios the Great, with one hundred and fifty fathers and teachers in attendance.  St. Gregory the Theologian acted as president of the Synod and condemned and excommunicated another heretic, Macedonios, who denied that the Holy Spirit was God.

The fathers and teachers of the First and Second Synods did not teach their own doctrines, but interpreted rightly the various passages of the Holy Scripture which the heretics distorted and misinterpreted.  The fathers formulated a short statement of the most fundamental of all dogma (teachings), the Holy Trinity.  It is to these fathers and teachers of the Church that we owe eternal gratitude.  The heretics of every century blaspheme them, but the Orthodox Church glorifies them, and on the day of the commemoration chants the following hymn of praise:

“When the choir of holy Fathers assembled from the ends of the inhabited world, it formulated the doctrine that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are of one essence and nature; and it transmitted clearly to the Church the mystery of Theology.  Honoring them faithfully by praise, let us pronounce them blessed saying: O divine army, o soldiers of the camp of the Lord, who speak of God, o most radiant stars of the spiritual firmament, o invincible towers of the mystical Sion, o fragrant flowers of Paradise, o all-golden mouths of the Logos, o boast of Nicaea, and ornament of the inhabited world, intercede fervently for our souls.”

This chapter was taken from the book “ON THE DEVINE LITURGY – VOL.2” by Bishop Augoustinos N. Kantiotes.

e-mail: ibmgs3@verizon.net

www.orthodoxinfo.com/ibmgs

Kyriaki no. 821 – November 25^th

ST. CATHERINE THE GREAT AND MARTYR

We shall speak about saint Catherine whose feast day is today.

Saint Catherine lived in the third century after Christ. She was born in Alexandria. Her father Constas, a representative of the emperor, and her mother were idolaters. Thus she too was an idolater. Now the small daughter had a great inclination for learning. She studied all the sciences and read the writings of the Greeks and Latins. At the age of 18 she was the most educated daughter of Alexandria.

In her demeanor she was a beautiful woman full of grace. With such gifts, physical and intellectual, she was the most sought after bride. Prominent young men proposed to her. But she would say that she didn’t want to marry, despite all the pressures of her own people.

If someone wants to marry, it is a sin to obstruct him. But if this is a sin once, it is a sin a hundred-fold to obstruct a person, man or woman, who wants to give his or her heart to God. Marriage is silver; virginity is gold. Choose and take. In all the years that I have served the Lord, I never, ever obstructed a person from entering marriage. But I also supported women and men who wanted to devote themselves to God and to become missionary and monastic persons. God gave freedom; compulsion is prohibited, especially when it comes to these issues.

So they pressured, badly so, saint Catherine. She didn’t hate marriage, but as a superior intellect she wanted to be without distraction. And there is not only this marriage, the usual one. Others marry the fatherland, others science, others religion.

St. Catherine, in order to escape the pressures, used an ingenious pretext. For the Christian is smart; he must have intelligence not of this world but of God. So she says to her parents: – since you pressure me so much, I accept marriage, but on one condition. – What condition, my child? – If a young man is found to be superior to me in beauty, in riches, in knowledge and science, I’ll take him.

They began to search; and many presented themselves. Others were rich, but not handsome. Others were rich and handsome, but not cultivated. It is a rare thing for wealth and beauty and cultivation to be found in a single person. Thus not a single (alert spiritual barbarian alien interpolation quarantine:- [men]) man could be found, and the parents were inconsolable.

They sent her to some philosopher ascetic, who lived in a cave outside of Alexandria. She went and sought his advice. He said to her: – My daughter, I now a young man. There is no other like him in the world. Handsome, rich, powerful, wise as no one else. Catherine got enthused and said: – I would like to see him. The ascetic tells her: – Will you do whatever I tell you? – I’ll do it. – Listen then (said the ascetic, and he took out from his chest pocket an icon of our All-Holy Mary with our Lord Jesus Christ). Take this icon, go to your home, close yourself in your room, and pray. And the All-Holy Mary will reveal to you what you will do.

Truly Catherine took the icon, closed herself in her [in her] [sic] house, and prayed a great deal, beyond midnight. Tired, she fell asleep. She sees then a vision. She saw the All-holy Mary shining like the moon and the Divine infant in her bosom shining like the sun; but the face of Christ was turned away so as not to see Catherine. Says the All-holy Mary:

–         My child, look at this young girl. She came from so far away; she is looking for someone who will love her and be devoted to her.

–         The Divine infant responded in anger:

–         I don’t want to look at her.

–         Why not, my child? She is the most beautiful daughter of Alexandria.

–         No Mother of God: she’s ugly (she was ugly because she was not yet baptized).

Catherine left weeping. She went to the ascetic and told him the vision.

–         He spoke correctly, he says. That’s why, if you want to see Christ, believe in him and be [Alien capatilazation: Baptized.] baptized.

In a few days that great figure of Alexandria was baptized and finally became Christian. Then she saw a vision again. This time the Divine child looked at her and heaven came into her heart. From that moment on, Catherine became completely devoted to Christ. She became a missionary.

The king Maximinus learned of this and called her to dialogue. In the end, he was forced to say: I can’t compete with you, but I’ll call the wise men and scientists, the mathematicians and physicists and astronomers, so you can converse with them.

The next day, 150 wise 9alien rep [wise]) men were at the palace of Maximinus. Opposite them was saint Catherine standing alone. The conversation began and lasted all day. The proofs of the sages were toppled. The holy Spirit enlightened saint Catherine and she reduced them to silence. Each of them, one after the other, said: I agree with Catherine, I believe in Catherine’s God. The king? He became wilder and ordered all the heads of the wise men to be cut off. Thus those 150 wise men confessed Christ and martyred.

After this, Maximinus threw saint Catherine in jail. And even when she was jailed, she had new victories. There she brought to the faith many who came to visit her. Among them was the wife of Maximinus, the queen Faustina, and her bodyguard Porphyrios together with 200 of his soldiers. All these people, upon hearing her words, believed in Christ. But Maximinus, with a satanic stubbornness, not only remained unpersuaded, but even ordered that all these people, too, be decapitated. He didn’t even feel sorry for his wife! 150 plus 200, plus two: 352 souls were caught by the preaching of Saint Catherine!

After a short while finally her end approached. I won’t narrate the details to you. The series of tortures she suffered was long, of which the most fearful was her being tied to a wheel. And if you’re even a rock, you will be moved if you read the end of saint Catherine. Having kneeled down, she raised her hands and prayed for the whole world. Then she bent her head and was decapitated. Thus she gave up her holy soul, which like a white dove flew to the heavens.

Her holy relic is saved incorrupted. Those who don’t believe, let them go and see it. It is at Mount Sinai. This nest of Christ through the centuries is held by Greek monks. Let’s thank God for that. Perhaps these are the last monks; for the children of Greece no longer go to become monks at Sinai or at Mount Athos: they prefer other pursuits…

Israelies, Egyptians, Venoudies, Germans and Russians as pilgrims go there to venerate the sacred relic of the saint, whom God crowned with three crowns: that of virginity, of martyrdom, and of wisdom and science.

If we look at her icon, she has a ring. What does this mean? In the second vision that she saw, Christ gave her a ring, that is, became engaged. An engagement that differs from earthly engagements. The moment that a girl becomes devoted to God, she now already becomes devoted to Christ, who is the “bridegroom who is the most beautiful among men.” (From aposticha hymns of Great Tuesday).

***

Saint Catherine, my beloved, is a rebuke of our generation. A rebuke, in the first place, to women, because they have their mind only on physical beauty and are indifferent towards psychical beauty, or beauty of the soul. In the second place she a rebuke to men, because they are shown to be inferior to woman. AND THIRD, SHE IS A CENSURE AND REBUKE TO US CLERICS BECAUSE WE DO NOT BRING SOULS TO CHRIST LIKE SHE DID, BUT INSTEAD WE CHASE THEM AWAY!

I finish and wish that from women there may come mothers who will raise their heroes, and from men may come martyrs. This miracle I hope to be realized by the mother, from woman. Amen.

+ Bishop Augustine

«Θαυματός ό Θεός έν τοίς αγίοις αυτού» (Ψαλμ.67:36)

24 AUGUST

SAINT COSMAS AITOLOS

A MISSIONARY OF THE BALKANS

My beloved, when the world hears the word martyrs, their thoughts go to the first centuries of Christianity.  Of course it is true that in the first centuries the pressure was tremendous; pagans, unbelievers and atheists, tyrants and emperors greatly persecuted the Christians in order to exterminate Christianity completely – so that the name Christ could not be heard anywhere.  At that time, thousand of men and women and even small children preferred martyrdom rather than deny the faith of Christ.  They are the martyrs of the first century of Christianity.  It would be erroneous, however, for someone to maintain that the martyrs of Christ existed only during the first centuries.  There are martyrs in all centuries and there are today as well.
Certain periods, however, are distinguished from other by the multitude of martyrs. These are periods of harsh persecutions against Christians.  The persecutions of these eras do not differ from the persecution of the first centuries, and in some instances these persecutions surpass in cruelty even the persecution of the ancient times.
The period of Turkish domination is such a period of cruel persecution against the Orthodox Christian faith.  The Christians suffered much at that time, particularly in the Balkans.  The Turks in these places were pressing Christians to change religion and, in that time, many Christians – even whole villages and whole districts – were succumbing to the force and pressure.  They left the true religion and began worshipping Mohammed.  For example, the whole of Albania, after Christ was inhabited by Orthodox Christians.  This country was filled with churches, monasteries, parishes, and dioceses.  The pressure in these places was so great, however, that the inhabitants changed religion, denied Christ, and embraced Moslem religion.  Only a small minority of them, those who were living in the districts of Heimarra, Korytsa, and Argyrokastron, namely southern Albania, remained steadfast.  Even these areas would have succumbed, if it were not for Saint Cosmas Aitolos, a fervent preacher of the Gospel who passed through this region.  With his preaching and martyrdom he succeeded in keeping the people of Northern Epirus, and of other districts, from changing their faith.  He became a missionary of Greece and of other Balkan lands.  The memory of this missionary is celebrated on the twenty-fourth of August.  To Saint Cosmas we will dedicate this homily.
Shall we speak about Saint Cosmas?  We have written a special book about Saint Cosmas and in this book one may read his sermons, his miracles, and his prophecies.  Many were benefited by reading this book.  The words which Saint Cosmas said are so strong that even today the Christian who reads them is illuminated, moved, feels his sins; repenting and becoming once again a living Christian and thanking God, for sending such a zealot preacher of His Gospel into the world.  He is a preacher who continues to teach the people, even after two centuries.

Saint Cosmas was born in a village of Acarnania.  After he learned there his first letters, he left and went to the Holy Mountain where he was instructed by a famous teacher of the Church, Eugenios Voulgaris.  He lived a strict monastic life fasting, at the Holy Mountain, praying and studying Holy Scripture and the fathers of the Church.  He did not, however, remain forever on the Holy Mountain because, within himself, he was hearing a voice which was telling him that he must go and preach and console the suffering people.  He could not find peace while he was thinking that, down in the villages and cities, Christians were suffering and being tortured for Christ’s faith.  Saint Cosmas finally left the Holy Mountain and went to Constantinople. He expressed his desire to the patriarch and thus, with the blessing of the patriarch, at the age of 45, Saint Cosmas began his great mission.  He became a second Apostle Paul.  He made four great journeys, as Paul did.  He went to many places but in particular he went to Thessaly, Western Macedonia (Hellenic Macedonia), Epirus, and Albania; namely, to the places which were suffering greatly from the Turks.
He preached the word of God everywhere.  In the places where he would preach he would place a cross and under the Cross he would put a stand which served as a temporary pulpit from which he would preach the word of God.  Many people congregated.  His words came out of his mouth like fire.  The Holy Spirit was speaking with the fiery tongue of Saint Cosmas.  Such was the grace of his teaching, that women who lived in prodigality and in luxury repented and left at his feet their jewelry.  With them, Saint Cosmas bought baptismal fonts and books for the poor churches and built schools for the children of the slaves to be educated.  Robbers, who lived in the mountains, after they heard the preaching of Cosmas repented and left thievery.  Even the Turks who heard and saw the miracles of Saint Cosmas, were moved and said that this man was a saint.

Finally some evil people defamed him to the Turks and the Pasha of Beration ordered that he be arrested and hanged.  They brought him to Aoos River and on its bank, on August 24, 1779 hanged him from a tree.  Before they hanged him, the saint prayed.  He thanked God who enabled him to suffer martyrdom for His glory.  His holy soul flew to heaven.  In heaven, he never ceases praying for us and teaching us with his holy teachings, which he has left us.

Let us end this homily with the following words of Saint Cosmas: “Finally, I am telling you this now; to rejoice and be thankful that you were blessed to be pious Orthodox Christians.  Also, again, cry and lament for the impious, unbelievers, and heretics who walk in darkness in the hands of the Devil.  Be careful, my brothers, no to be proud, not to kill, not to steal, not to take oaths, no to lie, not to hate each-other, no to slander, not to adorn this filthy body, which tomorrow will be consumed by the worms, but to adorn your soul which is more precious than the whole world.  Quickly, as much as you can, pray as you are able and have always death in front of you eyes for there is no other teacher greater than death.
I am not worthy, my brothers, to teach you and counsel you; however, I dare to do it and obey the sweetest Jesus Christ and God to send you from heaven His grace and blessing; to bless also this land and all the villages of the Christians, to bless your homes and property and the works of your hands.  First, my brothers, might the hand of His compassion forgive your sins and enable you to live well here, peacefully, and in love while in this vain life, and afterwards to go to paradise, to our true country, to rejoice, and be happy, to glorify and worship the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit, the Trinity on in essence and undivided.  Amen.

“FRAGRANT FLOWERS” – BY BISHOP AUGOUSTINOS KONTIOTES
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(Απόσπασμα από τό βιβλίο του πατρός Αυγουστίνου «ΜΥΡΙΠΝΟΑ ΑΝΘΗ»! Η μετάφραση ολόκληρου του βιβλίου στα Αγγλλικά έγινε από τόν ακούραστο εργάτη καί αγωνιστή της Ορθοδοξίας, πνευματικόν τέκνον του π.Αυγουστίνου, πατέρα Αστέριο Γεροστέργιο. Προσφέρεται ταπεινά με την εν Χριστώ αγάπη εις ψυχικήν ωφέλειαν Ορθοδόξων Χριστιανών απανταχού της γης και επισκεπτών της ιστοσελίδας του σεβαστού Γέροντος Αυγουστίνου προς δόξαν του Τριαδικού μας Θεού).