tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17736371094368812632024-03-05T03:35:59.144-05:00Jordanville JournalThe personal blog of an Russian Orthodox seminarian from Hawaii.John Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09245365635360011009noreply@blogger.comBlogger161125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773637109436881263.post-87772483248440564492015-07-18T20:03:00.002-04:002015-07-19T08:05:09.343-04:00A Comprehensive Post<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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To sum up five years of theological education in a single commencement speech is a difficult endeavor. To sum up five years of blogging in one post is even harder. So, I will simply fill in the gaps and write about the final days of my years at Holy Trinity Seminary.<br />
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In order to graduate, I needed to leap over several hurdles and jump through several rings of fire. The first hurdle was completing my thesis. Having gone through several drafts and a continued back-and-forth with my adviser, I finally had a final draft to bind and submit. I bound two copies: one for me, and one for the library, or rather, for the dark recesses of the archives, into which nary a student enters. Alas, once I got my personal copy back, I realized that I had numbered the chapters all wrong, and so I had to reprint my thesis before the official copy could be bound with the same error.</div>
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Another hurdle comprised my final exams. As in every other semester, I needed to write about eight or so exams, but juggling this with my thesis research (which had I started perhaps a bit late) was somewhat taxing to me mentally. Plus, I kept being distracted by <a href="http://www.reddit.com/">Reddit</a>.</div>
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The final and most menacing obstacles of all were the comprehensives, or so it seemed to me at the time. We had to pass four comprehensive exams in order to graduate. The first exam consisted of short answers such as labeling the areas of a church, writing down who said what biblical quotation, etc. The second exam was multiple choice, and had questions covering nearly every single class we took over the past five years. The third exam was an essay, and the fourth was an oral examination in front of a panel of three people, including the rector, Fr. Luke. Thankfully, the comprehensives were pretty easy, and the panel rather lenient, so I ended up passing.</div>
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And so, I walked the path from the monastery cathedral to the seminary hall for the last time. We sang the American (“The Star-Spangled Banner”) and Russian (“God Save the Tsar”) national hymns, people got awarded books, and I got my degree in a crimson folder. Near the end, I stood up and delivered a <a href="http://www.hts.edu/news_150525_1.html">short valedictory address</a>.</div>
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I am no longer “Seminarian John,” but simply “Reader John,” or “Ex-seminarian John.” Being a seminarian shaped my identity and way of life for half a decade, but now I must move on and begin life anew, in what the Orthodox know as “the world.” I am also, God willing, going to be married in a few months.</div>
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Thus, this is the last post of “Jordanville Journal.” I always intended this blog to last only as long as would my time as a seminarian, and that time has now come and gone, like a flower in the field. However, this does not mean that I am finished as a blogger. For posts on sundry topics, you can find my writing on the <a href="http://bookstore.jordanville.org/blog">Holy Trinity Bookstore blog</a>. And for a continuation of my adventures in Orthodoxy, you can take a look at my new blog, aptly titled <a href="http://afterjordanville.blogspot.com/">“John After Jordanville.”</a> I enjoyed having you as readers, and hope you will join me there.<br />
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Конец, и Богу нашему слава!</div>
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John Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09245365635360011009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773637109436881263.post-17326822308514786372015-06-29T22:58:00.000-04:002015-06-29T22:58:43.313-04:00Hymns at the end of Compline<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Here at the monastery, we sing the following at the end of Compline (both Great and Small Compline) while venerating the icons in the church. It begins with three verses to the Cross, followed by a long litany to the saints. Finally, we sing three troparia: 1) Pentecost, 2) St. Job of Pochaev, and 3) Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God. Since it is useful to memorize, I have posted it here on the blog.<br />
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Иже Крестом ограждаеми, врагу противляемся, не боящеся того коварства, ни ловительства: яко бо гордый упразднися и попран бысть на древе силою распятого Христа.<br />
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Крест Твой Господи освятися: Тем бо бывают исцеления немощствующим грехми сего ради к Тебе припадаем, помилуй нас.<br />
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Господи, оружие на диавола Крест Твой дал еси нам трепещет бо и трясется, не терпя взирати на силу его яко мертвыя восставляет, и смерть упраздни. Сего ради покланяемся погребению Твоему и востанию.<br />
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Пресвятая Троице, Боже наш, слава Тебе.<br />
Слава, Господи, Кресту Твоему честному и Воскресению.<br />
Пресвятая Богородице, спаси нас.<br />
Вся небесныя силы святых ангел и архангел, молите Бога о нас.<br />
Святый великий Иоанне, Предтече Господень, моли Бога о нас.<br />
Святый апостоле Андрее, моли Бога о нас.<br />
Святый апостоле и евангелисте Луко, моли Бога о нас.<br />
Святителю отче Аверкие, моли Бога о нас.<br />
Святителю отче Николае, моли Бога о нас.<br />
Святителю отче Афанасие, моли Бога о нас.<br />
Святителие Христовы Василие Великий, Григорие Богослове, и Иоанне Златоусте, молите Бога о нас.<br />
Святителю отче Марко (Ефесс.), моли Бога о нас.<br />
Святителю отче Арсение, моли Бога о нас.<br />
Святителие Христовы Митрофане, Феодосие, и Иоасафе, молите Бога о нас.<br />
Священномученницы Дионисий и Харалампие, молите Бога о нас.<br />
Святый великомучениче и победоносче Георгий, моли Бога о нас.<br />
Святый великомучениче Димитрие, моли Бога о нас.<br />
Святый великомучениче и целителю Пантелеимоне, моли Бога о нас.<br />
Святый мучениче Трифоне, моли Бога о нас.<br />
Святый мучениче Виталие, моли Бога о нас.<br />
Святый мучениче Фанурие, моли Бога о нас.<br />
Преподобномученицы Зографстии, молите Бога о нас.<br />
Святая великомученице Варваро, моли Бога о нас.<br />
Святая мученице Параскево, моли Бога о нас.<br />
Преподобне отче наш Иове, моли Бога о нас.<br />
Преподобнии отцы наши Антоние и Феодосие, и прочии чудотвроцы Печерстии, молите Бога о нас.<br />
Преподобне отче Сергие, моли Бога о нас.<br />
Преподобне отче Серафиме, моли Бога о нас.<br />
Преподобне отче Иоанне (Рыльск.), моли Бога о нас.<br />
Святый праведный Кесарие, моли Бога о нас.<br />
Святы равноапостолный княже Владимире, моли Бога о нас.<br />
Святы праведны отче Иоанне, моли Бога о нас.<br />
Преподобне отче Германе, моли Бога о нас.<br />
Преподобне отче Паисие, моли Бога о нас.<br />
Преподобнии отцы Оптинстии, молите Бога о нас.<br />
Святая блаженная Ксение, моли Бога о нас.<br />
Святителю отче Иоанне, моли Бога о нас.<br />
Святии новомученицы и исповедницы Российстии, молите Бога о нас.<br />
Вси святии Земли Русския молите Бога о нас.<br />
Вси святии, молите Бога о нас.<br />
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Благословен еси, Христе Боже наш, Иже премудры ловцы явлей, низпослав им Духа Святаго, и теми уловлей вселенную, Человеколюбче, слава Тебе.<br />
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Многострадальнаго праотца долготерпение стяжав, Крестителеву воздержанию уподобляяся, Божественныя же ревности обою приобщаяся, тех имена достойно прияти сподобился еси и истинныя веры был еси проповедник безбоязнен; темже монахов множества ко Христу привел еси, и вся люди в Православии утвердил еси, Иове преподобне отче наш, моли спастися душам нашим.<br />
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Пред святою Твоею иконою, Владычице, молящиися исцелений сподобляются, веры истинныя познание приемлют, и агарянская нашествия отражают. Темже и нам, к Тебе припадающим, грехов оставление испроси, помыслы благочестия сердца наша просвети, и к Сыну Твоему молитву вознеси о спасении душ наших.</div>
John Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09245365635360011009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773637109436881263.post-77072675846432343522015-05-24T17:26:00.000-04:002015-05-25T10:40:14.389-04:00Graduation Speech<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Your Beatitude, reverend fathers, fellow students, brothers and sisters: it is a great honor and a blessing to be here with you today. Out of the many people who have given me their support, I would like to thank Fr. Luke and Fr. Ephraim, my instructors and fellow seminarians, friends in Hawaii and San Francisco, and, of course, my family: my parents, Keith and Maria Martin, my younger brother, Christian, and my sisters, Po‘okela and Isabella. They unfortunately were not able to be here to celebrate with me, but will be watching this on video later.<br />
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The first time I visited Jordanville was nearly six years ago for the Summer Liturgical Music Program. The trees were a verdant green, just like they are today, and I almost felt that I was in the Shire and that I was going to run into a hobbit at any moment. Fr. Luke, who had heard that I was interested in seminary, took me by the elbow and led me to his office, where he gave me a seminary catalog. It took a year for me to finally decide to go to seminary, because it was such a big step to live for five years somewhere in the middle of upstate New York.<br />
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I entered Jordanville with a great deal of expectations and fears, mostly involving getting up at five-thirty in the morning. My original intention was actually just to stay for two years and move on to whatever came next. Well, five years later, here I am! Whatever the case, my entire life seemed to be shifting gears and changing course. I experienced many things for the first time. My first experience in the altar was here, and I was quite awkward and clumsy as a first-year. At one time, while I was trying to balance a candle in one hand and an analogion in the other, my hair caught fire. The other altar-server, who knew little English, would for quite a while afterward point at me and say, “John, fire!” Another new experience was my taste of fish <i>holodets</i>. For those of you who have not had the pleasure of trying this Jordanville delicacy, it consists of pureed fish suspended in savory gelatin. We have it every Pascha and Christmas. To put it lightly, it was an acquired taste, but for some strange reason it seemed to get better and better with each passing year. Finally, two years ago I went to Russia for the first time with a youth choir. Since I was a part of the seminary choir, I had the opportunity to take part in this all-expenses-paid trip. We had a whirlwind tour of Russia, going to Moscow, then St. Petersburg, and then Moscow again, all in the course of a week.<br />
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After the initial excitement of novelty wore off, I began to realize that coming here had not automatically changed me, and that the Uncreated Light didn't suddenly burst from my face the day I stepped into my dorm room. The same thing applied to my schoolmates: everyone was here with their own strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes they got on my nerves, and sometimes I got on theirs. But in the end, I thought of my fellow seminarians as “a happy few,” a band of brothers. There were five people in my first-year class: David from Texas, Jason from Walla Walla, Washington, Srdjan the Serb from Chicago, Stojanche from Macedonia, and me. We each had our own opinions and personalities, and we oftentimes clashed with one another, but in so doing we became more well-rounded people. We were like potatoes being poured into the potato-peeling machine; we bounced off each other, but in the end came out washed and neatly peeled. Now there are only three of us left: Stojanche, me, and Ilija, who started a year later but put in the valiant effort to catch up with us. David and Jason went on to become monastics at Holy Cross Monastery in West Virginia. Fr. David is a rassophore monk, and Jason is now known as Hierodeacon Paisios. As for Srdjan, his bishop sent him to Moscow Theological Seminary, where he was also tonsured a monk. When he told me of his decision to become a monk, I said to him, “What, are we all going to become monks now!?” Now he’s Hieromonk Sergius. Even though we are separated by great distances, I still think of them as my fellow seminarians and brothers in Christ.<br />
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For those of you who are continuing on your seminary journey, I would like to say: hang on. I know that sometimes you’ll have your bad days. There were many days when I felt frustrated and longed for the beaches of Waikīkī. But with God’s help, you’ll make it, and years from now, when you look back at your time here, I hope you will remember the valuable lessons you learned, in class, in school, and among yourselves. I myself will treasure the memories I made here for the tomorrows to come. Thank you.</div>
John Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09245365635360011009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773637109436881263.post-13888109849144367102015-04-21T21:27:00.000-04:002015-04-21T21:28:26.184-04:00Ss. Benedict and Sergius Paper (Video)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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John Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09245365635360011009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773637109436881263.post-87458488650967136172015-04-05T12:00:00.000-04:002015-04-05T21:26:06.385-04:00Homily for Palm Sunday<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: large;">In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest (Mt. 21:9)!”</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">Dear brothers and sisters, yesterday we commemorated the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Today, with palm branches in hand, let us lay aside all earthly cares and receive the King of All, the Son of David, “mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden (Zech. 9:9).” Why did the Lord come into Jerusalem like this? Why did He come riding on such a lowly animal?</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">First, the donkey is a humble animal. When a king rides triumphantly into a city, he is accompanied by many armed men and strikes fear into the hearts of the inhabitants. The King of All comes riding on a simple animal, in simple clothing, accompanied by men of no renown. This is the opposite of the wisdom of the world, for as the Holy Apostle Paul says, “God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty (1 Cor. 1:27).” See how the young and innocent children gather around Him, praising Him from their hearts, waving the palm branches? They did not see a poor man riding upon a donkey. Rather, as a hymn from last night’s vigil tells us: “They saw the Master of all riding upon a colt, as though upon the cherubim!”</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">Second, the donkey is an animal of peace. Our Lord is not like a conquering king on a horse; He has no desire to force us to become His slaves. Rather, He is depicted as entering into Jerusalem, meek and unarmed. As He says to St. John in the Book of Revelation: “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me (Rev. 3:20).” Christ does not capture us with an irresistible grace, but allows us the choice to reject Him.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">Instead of forcing the Jews to accept Him as their Messiah, He laments over their hard-heartedness, and says: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not (Mt. 23:27)!” Indeed, although the multitudes shouted “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they will soon cry out “Crucify Him!”</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">Finally, the donkey is a beast of burden. When an earthly king conquers a city, he imposes harsh laws, compels men to labor for him, and exacts tribute. Our Lord did not come into Jerusalem in order to burden His subjects, but rather to take up their burdens upon Himself. For as the Prophet Isaiah said: “He took our infirmities, and bore our diseases (Is. 53:4).” Instead of imposing harsh laws, Our Lord came to loose them from the curse of the Law. Instead of forced labor, Our Lord came to free them from the slavery to sin. Instead of exacting tribute, Our Lord came to pay their ancestral debt, to free them from the tyranny of the devil.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">Indeed, Our Lord came to conquer, but not an earthly kingdom, for His kingdom is “not of this world (Jn. 18:36).” Rather, He came to conquer the empire of sin and death ruled by the devil. However, the Jews did not want the heavenly kingdom. They wanted an earthly kingdom; or rather earthly power, for they were willing to bow to Caesar if they received some kind of benefit. They did not want to have anything to do with Christ. They attributed His miracles to the devil and even wanted to kill Lazarus because the miracle of his return from the grave inspired the people.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">The Jewish leaders thus had a childish mentality, and hearts harder than stones. In their hands they bore staves, to arrest and beat their Messiah. In their mouths they bore evil tongues, to blaspheme and mock their God. Finally, they bore him to the Romans, to be given the death of a common criminal.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">The Jews did many wicked things to Our Lord, but what about us? Will we be accounted more worthy? Or rather, will we not be held more accountable, because we received more than they did? They had Moses and the Prophets, but we have Christ. They received the Law, but we received the Gospel and the Holy Spirit. They ate manna in the wilderness and died, but we will eat the Bread of Life, the medicine of immortality, the Holy Eucharist.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Let us be more watchful over our thoughts and actions. How many of us commit the same sins over and over again? How many of us praise God with our lips but curse our brother in our heart? Let us not receive Christ at one moment and crucify Him in the next. Rather than imitating the Jews whor , let us imitate the Hebrew children who carried branches and praised the Son of David. Let us also consider the lowly donkey, bearing the Savior, peaceable and humble, and thus bear one another’s burdens. In so doing, we will enter the great procession of saints into the New Jerusalem, the eternal kingdom of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, to Whom be all glory, honor, and worship unto the ages of ages. Amen.</span></div>
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John Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09245365635360011009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773637109436881263.post-26026537769508377502015-04-04T07:46:00.002-04:002015-04-04T07:51:26.999-04:00Homily for Lazarus Saturday<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: large;">In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Dear brothers and sisters, today we commemorate the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus lay in the tomb for four days. His body, bound in the grave clothes, began to decompose and stink. Outside the tomb, his sisters Martha and Mary wept and lamented, while Death, that all-devouring wolf, licked his chops and exulted with Hades.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">The joy of Death and Hades turned into lamentation when they heard the voice of the Son of Man saying, “Lazarus, come forth!” A hymn written by St. Romanos the Melodist depicts Death and Hades screaming in terror when they saw the divine power of Christ permeating the body of Lazarus, </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">“making his body ready for the summons of the giver of life, arranging his hair, weaving his membranes, and putting together his viscera, extending all his veins, sending blood into them again, mending his arteries, so that Lazarus, ready when he is called, will arise.”</span></span></blockquote>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">The gospels tell us that Christ restored to life two other people: the son of the widow from Naïn, and the daughter of Jairus. However, these two had just died; their bodies were still fresh when Jesus called them back to life. Lazarus, on the other hand, was already dead for four days, and his body succumbed to the law of nature and began to return to the elements from whence they came. For when Adam fell into sin and turned against the Giver of Life, the Lord told him: “dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return (Gen. 3:19).” Our Lord came to annul that ancient curse, to return Adam to his former estate. He overcame the stronghold of death, and reversed the course of nature. He restored Lazarus to life and called him from the grave, in anticipation of His own resurrection from the dead eight days later.</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">Our Lord Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life, and whosoever believes in Him, even if he dies, will live. At the same time, Our Lord is also a man like us, having assumed human nature in its fullness, yet without sin. We see this when, as man, He asked where Lazarus is buried, though as God He knew all things. As man, He was grieved by His friend’s death, and wept, but as God He raised him from the dead.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">The friends of Jesus, Martha and Mary, had great faith in Him. Martha confessed that He was “the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world (Jn. 11:27).” And because of their great faith, the Lord, out of His compassion and love for them raised Lazarus from the dead.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">What does this teach us? First, as St. Gregory the Theologian tells us, it teaches us of the power of intercession. Lazarus was dead, and he could not do anything for himself, but because of the great faith and love of his sisters, Christ heard their supplications and restored him to life. Of course, they did not expect Him to raise their brother from the dead, and we should not expect such miracles either, for as it is written, “An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign (Mt. 12:39).” But we should remember that the dead need our prayers, because they cannot do anything for themselves, the time for repentance having ended for them.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">A second mystery revealed by the raising of Lazarus is that of friendship with Christ. It is strange to think that the Lord, who is “no respecter of persons (Rom. 2:11),” should have friends, especially such close friends as Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. However, the gospel tells us that He loved them very much. It is not because He had some kind of partiality towards them, but that they responded to His love to a much greater extent than did others.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">Our Lord loves each of us as much as he loves Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, and desires that we enter into communion with Him, a communion of deep friendship. Sadly, we do not listen to the words of our Shepherd, but instead seek other pastures. We go astray in our thoughts, our words, and our deeds. We seek comfort and security not in the Lord, but in ourselves. Little by little, we bind ourselves with our passions, until we cannot break free from them, and we enclose ourselves in a tomb of our own making. Who can save us from this predicament, from this “body of death (Rom. 7:24)?”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">Christ is calling us to come out of ourselves, out of our selfishness, our desires for lust and power, to be loosed from our passions. Many of us despair that it is too late, that we cannot turn back from our way, but Christ, who is able to bring Lazarus from the tomb after his body began to stink, can bring you back from the decay of sin.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">Come forth! And be loosed from the bands of sin!</span></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">Come forth! And be loosed from the bands of corruption!</span></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">Come forth! And be loosed from the bands of death!</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">Let us receive Christ’s gift of forgiveness purchased for us through His Cross and Resurrection, a miracle greater than the raising of the dead, and not squander it. Let us instead be mindful of our end and live according to the Gospel, so that we may be raised with Lazarus on the last day and glorify the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit unto the ages of ages. Amen.</span></span></div>
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John Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09245365635360011009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773637109436881263.post-49095830092245568782015-04-03T08:46:00.001-04:002015-04-03T08:46:07.273-04:00St. Gregory the Theologian (First Oration on Pascha)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="s1"><i><span style="font-size: large;">This is the first oration of St. Gregory the Theologian (†390), given when he was a newly-ordained priest in his home town of Nazianzus. St. Gregory was ordained against his will by his father, St. Gregory of Nazianzus the Elder, to assist him and eventually take over his bishopric. Out of a sense of humility and a desire to lead a contemplative life, St. Gregory fled to Pontus, but soon returned to Nazianzus to deliver this sermon.</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1"><i></i></span><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i><span style="font-size: large;">I adapted the translation from the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers to give it more of an Orthodox flavor (since the original translators were Protestants) and with comparison with the <a href="http://users.uoa.gr/~nektar/orthodoxy/paterikon/grhgorios_8eologos_logoi.htm#1">original Greek</a>. Most of the changes are contained in the first paragraph, which now match the translations of the paschal liturgical texts, which were inspired by this oration. I also have adapted notes from the 1912 Russian edition of St. Gregory’s works.</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">Our Father among the Saints Gregory the Theologian, Archbishop of Constantinople</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">Oration I</span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">On the Holy Pascha and His Tardiness</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">1. It is the day of Resurrection, and an auspicious beginning. Let us be radiant for the feast, and let us embrace one another. Let us say, Brethren, even to them who hate us (Is. 66:5); much more to those who have done or suffered aught out of love for us. Let us forgive all things on the Resurrection: let us give one another pardon, I for the noble tyranny which I have suffered (for I can now call it thus); and you who exercised it, if you had cause to blame my tardiness; for perhaps this tardiness may be more precious in God’s sight than the haste of others. For it is a good thing even to hold back from God for a little while, as did the great Moses of old (Ex. 4:10), and Jeremiah later on (Jer. 1:6); and then to run readily to Him when He calls, as did Aaron (Ex. 4:27) and Isaiah (Is. 1:6), so only both be done in a dutiful spirit;—the former because of his own want of strength; the latter because of the might of Him that calleth.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">2. A Mystery anointed me; I withdrew for a little while at a Mystery, as much as was needful to examine myself; now I come in with a Mystery, [1] bringing with me the day as a good defender of my cowardice and weakness; that He Who today rose again from the dead may renew me also by His Spirit; and, clothing me with the new man, may give me to His new creation, to those who are begotten after God, as a good modeller and teacher for Christ, willingly both dying with Him and rising again with Him.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">3. Yesterday the Lamb was slain and the door-posts were anointed (Ex. 12), and Egypt bewailed her firstborn, and the destroyer passed us over, and the Seal was dreadful and reverend, and we were walled in with the precious blood. Today we have clean escaped from Egypt, from Pharaoh the bitter despot and the armed charioteers, and from clay and brick-making; there will be none to hinder us from keeping a feast to the Lord our God—the feast of our exodus—or from celebrating that feast, not in the old leaven of malice and wickedness, but in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (1 Cor. 5:8), carrying with us nothing of ungodly and Egyptian leaven.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">4. Yesterday I was crucified with Christ, today I am glorified with Him; yesterday I died with Him, today I am quickened with Him; yesterday I was buried with Him, today I rise with Him. But let us bring forth fruit to Him Who suffered and rose again for us. You will think perhaps that I am going to say gold, or silver, or woven work or transparent and costly stones, the mere passing material of earth, that remains here below, and is for the most part always possessed by bad men, slaves of the world and of the lord of the world. Let us bring forth ourselves, the possession most precious to God, and most fitting; let us give back to the image what is made according to the image. Let us recognize our dignity, let us honour our archetype, let us know the power of the Mystery [2], and for what Christ died.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">5. Let us become like Christ, since Christ became like us. Let us become gods for His sake, since He for ours became man. He assumed the worse that He might give us the better; He became poor that we through His poverty might be rich (2 Cor. 8:9); He took upon Him the form of a servant that we might receive back our liberty; He came down that we might be exalted; He was tempted that we might conquer; He was dishonoured that He might glorify us; He died that He might save us; He ascended that He might draw to Himself us, who were lying low in the calamity of sin. Let us give all, bring forth all, to Him Who gave Himself a ransom and a reconciliation for us. But one can give nothing like oneself, understanding the Mystery, and becoming for His sake all that He became for ours.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">6. As you see, He offers you a Shepherd; for this is what your Good Shepherd [3], who lays down his life for his sheep, is hoping and praying for, and he asks from you his subjects; and he gives you himself double instead of single, and makes the staff of his old age a staff for your spirit. And he adds to the inanimate temple a living one [4]; to that exceedingly beautiful and heavenly shrine, this poor and small one, yet to him of great value, and built too with much sweat and many labours. Would that I could say it is worthy of his labours. And he places at your disposal all that belongs to him (O great generosity! —or it would be truer to say, O fatherly love!) his hoar hairs, his youth, the temple, the high priest, the testator, the heir, the discourses which you were longing for; and of these not such as are vain and poured out into the air, and which reach no further than the outward ear; but those which the Spirit writes and engraves on tables of stone, or of flesh, not merely superficially graven, nor easily to be rubbed off, but marked very deep, not with ink, but with grace.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">7. These are the gifts given you by this august Abraham, this patriarch, this honourable and reverend head, this repository of all good, this standard of virtue, this perfection of the priesthood, who today is bringing to the Lord his willing sacrifice, his only son, him of the promise. Do you on your side offer to God and to us obedience to your Pastors, dwelling in a place of herbage, and being fed by water of refreshment (Ps. 23:2); knowing your Shepherd well, and being known by him (Jn. 10:14); and following when he calls you as a Shepherd frankly through the door; but not following a stranger climbing up into the fold like a robber and a traitor; nor listening to a strange voice when such would take you away by stealth and scatter you from the truth on mountains (Ez. 34:6), and in deserts, and pitfalls, and places which the Lord does not visit; and would lead you away from the sound faith in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the one power and Godhead, Whose voice my sheep always heard (and may they always hear it), but with deceitful and corrupt words would tear them from their true Shepherd. From which may we all be kept, shepherd and flock, as from a poisoned and deadly pasture; guiding and being guided far away from it, that we may all be one in Christ Jesus, now and unto the heavenly rest. To Whom be the glory and the might unto the ages. Amen.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">Notes:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">1. St. Gregory here uses the word <i>mystery</i> to refer to a feast. Thus, according to the 1912 SP edition, he was ordained on Nativity, fled on Theophany, and returned for Pascha. However, this interpretation is anachronistic, since Nativity (as a separate feast from Theophany) was not a separate holiday at this point, having been introduced to the Eastern church nearly twenty years after this oration took place.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">2. This feast, Pascha.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">3. Meaning his father, St. Gregory of Nazianzus the Elder.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
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</div>
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<span class="s1"><span style="font-size: large;">4. Referring to himself.</span></span></div>
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John Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09245365635360011009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773637109436881263.post-73428418695031886772015-03-26T19:50:00.001-04:002015-03-27T09:56:11.697-04:00St. Benedict of Nursia and St. Sergius of Radonezh: A Comparison of Lives<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/St._Benedict_delivering_his_rule_to_the_monks_of_his_order.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/St._Benedict_delivering_his_rule_to_the_monks_of_his_order.jpg" width="308" /></a></div>
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<i>This is a conference paper given last October on the occasion of the St. Sergius Conference held at Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary. Since today (technically tomorrow, but liturgically it’s already his feast day) is the feast of St. Benedict of Nursia, I am publishing these remarks.
These might be published some day, in which event I will take this paper offline, but until then, I hope you find it edifying.</i><br />
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Today, we are commemorating the 700th anniversary of the birth of St. Sergius. The theme of this conference made me wonder: who would the monks of St. Sergius’ time regard as their monastic forefathers? If they met together, perhaps they would have spoken of the fathers of the Kiev Caves, the Desert Fathers, or any of the other great fathers of the East. I think they would have lauded the feats of a father of the West, St. Benedict of Nursia, whose biography was available to them in Slavonic translation. This saint was born in 5th century Italy, nine hundred years before St. Sergius blessed Prince Dimitry to fight Khan Mamay at Kulikovo. His parents, of distinguished birth, sent him to Rome for a liberal education, but Benedict saw the sinful exploits of his classmates and left everything to serve God in the wilderness. There, he lived as a hermit, battled demonic temptations, and gained many followers. He founded over a dozen monasteries in Italy, including the famous monastery of Monte Cassino which stands to this day. He had gifts of clairvoyance and wonderworking, and was able to foretell the day of his death.<br />
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As we can see from this brief summary, both St. Benedict and St. Sergius led very similar lives. In this paper, I would like to compare the two saints based on the record left by their hagiographers. St. Benedict’s life forms part of the Dialogues of St. Gregory the Great, the Pope of Rome. St. Gregory wrote his Dialogues in the 6th century in order to demonstrate that the saints of Italy were just as grace-filled as the ascetics of the East. Thus, he patterned his accounts after the lives of ascetics such as St. Anthony the Great. The Dialogues were so popular that they were translated into many languages including Greek and Slavonic. In the Orthodox Church, St. Gregory is known as “the Dialogist” and is credited with the composition of the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. The life of St. Sergius was first recorded by Epiphanius the Wise and revised by Pachomius the Serb; it follows the Byzantine hagiographical tradition. Although Epiphanius and Gregory used common tropes of hagiography, they wrote while their subjects were still in living memory, and used the testimonies of their disciples. Thus, when we read the lives of Benedict and Sergius in tandem, the individual personalities of both saints come through. In addition to hagiography, I will also reference the famous monastic rule which St. Benedict introduced in his monastery. According to St. Gregory, “Anyone who wishes to know more about his life and character can discover in his Rule exactly what he was like as an abbot, for his life could not have differed from his teaching.” This rule is still in use today in hundreds of monastic communities around the world, including Benedictine monastic houses in our own Russian Church Abroad.<br />
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I will compare the two saints in four areas. First, I will examine each saint’s response to temptations. Second, I will compare how each saint lead his monastic community. Third, I will look at how each saint’s interacted with the secular authorities. Finally, I will recount the mystical experiences of each saint, and how these experiences are interpreted in Eastern and Western theology.<br />
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When Benedict and Sergius turned to the monastic life, they followed the example of the Desert Fathers and went into the wilderness. There was no desert in Italy or Northern Russia; Benedict instead settled in a cave, Sergius in the deep forest. Neither man was completely alone. Benedict had a visitor, the monk Romanus, who clothed him with the monastic habit and fed him with bread from a nearby monastery. Sergius (or as he was then called, Bartholomew) found his forest habitation with his older brother Stefan, but Stefan could not get used to life in the wilderness and soon went back to his monastery in Moscow. Later, a monk named Mitrofan came and tonsured the young Bartholomew into the angelic life, and became his spiritual father. Despite this occasional company, Sergius and Benedict were mostly alone, and fought alone against both the demons and their own passions. Each saint had his own “fighting style.”<br />
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St. Benedict used the common ascetic practices of prayer, fasting, and vigils. However, when he was faced with strong temptation, he was nearly willing to destroy his own body in order to win against the passions. Once, the demon appeared to him in a form of a woman whom the saint had seen in Rome. Inflamed with passion, he fought it by flinging himself into a brier patch and rolling in the thorns and nettles. St. Gregory writes: “Before long, the pain that was burning his whole body had put out the fires of evil in his heart.” As he became more spiritually mature, St. Benedict stuck to the middle path and introduced the spirit of moderation into his monasteries, requiring “nothing harsh or burdensome” and allowing for concessions to the young, the weak, and the elderly. Nevertheless, he was a man of his time, and was not above using physical force when necessary. When the saint had already established many monasteries, one of his abbots told him that he was having problems with a monk who would always leave the common prayers. The saint rebuked the wayward monk several times, but without success. St. Benedict then saw with his spiritual eyes a small black demon leading the monk away from prayer. The saint defeated the demon by beating the monk with his staff. The corrected monk never left his prayers again. Benedict did not beat his monk out of cruelty, but in order to wake him up. The Rule of St. Benedict also prescribes corporal punishment in many cases. It seems that the saint believed that the kingdom of God is literally taken by force.<br />
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St. Sergius faced similar temptations, but he did not resort to such extreme measures. In praising him, we sing at Little Vespers: “O venerable father, with great abstinence, pure supplications and the sweat of ascetic toil thou didst extinguish the burning coals of the body…” After the hegumen Mitrofan left him in the wilderness, Sergius faced many attacks from demons and wild beasts. Hordes of demons—depicted as Lithuanians in the hagiography—pounced upon him and threatened him with many violent words. The saint responded to the demonic attacks through prayer and the sign of the cross. The demon fired the arrows of carnal temptation, but the saint shielded himself from them through prayer. Wild beasts also roamed the forest, howling, roaring, and surrounding the saint, even sniffing at him! Throughout these temptations Sergius remained undisturbed. He was even friendly with one of the beasts, a hungry bear. This bear would come to the saint’s hermitage nearly every day, and the saint would give him some of his bread to eat. Sergius would even go hungry so the bear would not go away with an empty stomach. Whereas St. Benedict violently killed the passions, St. Sergius “lulled them to sleep” through prayer, fasting, and manual labor. Instead of standing in a mosquito-infested swamp or living on a pillar, he let the harsh elements of his environment become the source of his podvig. His feeding of the bear also symbolizes a different approach to the passions. Instead of trying to crush the passions like St. Benedict did, St. Sergius transformed the passions and made them submit to the needs of his spirit, just as he tamed the wild bear.<br />
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Saints Sergius and Benedict also lead their monastic communities in different ways. Generally speaking, St. Benedict was an institutional leader who focused on enforcing law and order, and St. Sergius was a transformational leader who lead through both example and personal charisma. We must be wary of oversimplifying: St. Benedict was very charismatic, and St. Sergius introduced a strict rule for his monastery. We can still say that each saint had a particular tendency.<br />
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St. Benedict’s first experience as a leader came when a group of monks begged him to leave his hermitage and become their abbot. He relented, but he implemented strict policies which irritated the monks, who by that time had grown accustomed to laxity. They regretted choosing Benedict as their abbot and decided to kill him with a poisoned flask of wine. At dinner, they placed the tainted flask in front of their (soon-to-be former) abbot, but when the saint made the sign of the cross over it, the flask broke apart, as if it were hit by a stone. Benedict then rebuked his would-be murderers and left them in peace.<br />
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St. Benedict then established twelve monasteries, each featuring twelve monks and an abbot. He also built a monastery for himself on a mountain formerly used for pagan worship. There, he created the spiritual regulations which would be later codified into the Rule of St. Benedict. In the Rule, Benedict addresses his monks as a kind father:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“Listen, my son, to your master’s precepts, and incline the ear of your heart. Receive willingly and carry out effectively your loving father’s advice, that by the labor of obedience you may return to Him from Whom you had departed by the sloth of disobedience.” </blockquote>
The Rule of Benedict is summed up in the motto Ora et Labora (Prayer and Work). The monastic schedule was divided between work, prayer, and spiritual study. The abbot provided everything necessary, and monks could not own any property, including personal objects. For example, St. Benedict once beheld through clairvoyance a monk that took some handkerchiefs from some nuns whom he was visiting. The saint then upbraided the monk, who by that time had forgotten that he even had the forbidden items on his person. There are many similar scenes in St. Benedict’s hagiography in which the saint clairvoyantly sees a monk break a rule. The saint then rebukes the erring brother and gives him a penance. Thus, the saint’s charismatic gift is used to strictly enforce the order of the monastery.<br />
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St. Sergius also clairvoyantly saw the wrongdoing of others, and he once rebuked a messenger for secretly eating some of the food he was delivering to the monastery. For the most part, however, Sergius chose to lead through his own personal example. When fellow ascetics began to live around the hermit and form a brotherhood, St. Sergius got to work serving them, and his hagiography describes him as being like “a slave who was bought by them.” He cut the wood, ground the flour, cooked the meals, and worked with the strength of many men for the sake of his brotherhood. Although it was in his right to become the leader of the community, he asked his old spiritual father, Mitrophan, to become their abbot. It was only after Mitrofan’s death that Sergius was willing to take upon himself the role of hegumen. Even as the abbot, Sergius never ceased from his labors. During a famine, when there was hardly any bread left in the monastery, the saint discouraged his brethren from begging, but to rely on God to provide them with sustenance. He himself went to one of the other monks, named Daniel, and offered to build him an entrance hall for his cell in exchange for a bowl of moldy bread. He worked from morning until night and refused to even taste a morsel of his wages until he was finished. Sergius was the consummate servant-leader, so much so that at least one pilgrim, upon seeing him, refused to believe that this poor monk, standing in front of them in ragged clothes, was the great Abbot Sergius! Nevertheless, St. Sergius, as we have mentioned, implemented a cenobitic rule in his monastery, after some prompting from Metropolitan Alexis of Moscow and the Ecumenical Patriarch himself, Philotheos Kokkinos. This rule was based on strict obedience to the abbot, common prayer, and manual labor—something very much akin to the spirit of Ora et Labora that we find in St. Benedict’s Rule! Moreover, by Benedictine standards, St. Sergius would be a very good abbot. In the second chapter, we read:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“...when anyone receives the name of abbot, he should govern his disciples with a twofold teaching. That is to say, he should show them all that is good and holy by his deeds even more than his words, expounding the Lord’s commandments in his words to the intelligent among his disciples, but demonstrating the divine precepts by his actions for those of harder hearts and ruder minds.”</blockquote>
The most significant difference between the venerable fathers was in how they interacted with the secular authorities. This was mainly conditioned by each saint’s historical context. St. Benedict was born four years after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. All his life, he was under the rule of barbarians who claimed fealty to the Emperor in Constantinople but in reality ruled in their own right. Roman institutions and ways of life continued, but the Ostrogothic kings of Italy were Arians, hostile to the Orthodox faith. St. Benedict confronted the Ostrogothic leaders several times and overcame them through his spiritual strength. Once, Totila, their king, attempted to trick the holy man by disguising his sword-bearer in his royal robes. The saint, as expected, saw right through this subterfuge. The awestruck king came and prostrated himself before the saint. Benedict rebuked him for his mistreatment, and predicted his eventual defeat. Benedict made no mention of the Orthodox emperor who would defeat Totila—Justinian—and seems to have been generally indifferent to politics. He saw his ideal society, as it were, within the walls of the cloister. A monastery, according to Benedict, “should be so established that all the necessary things, such as water, mill, garden and various workshops, may be within the enclosure, so that there is no necessity for the monks to go about outside it, since that is not at all profitable for their souls.”<br />
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St. Sergius, who had implemented the Studite cenobitic rule in his monastery, would have agreed with St. Benedict. On the other hand, St. Sergius also had a high level of involvement in the establishment of Muscovite Russia. Unlike Benedict, his rulers were Orthodox Christians. Although the invading Tatars forced the Russian princes to kowtow to them, the Tatar khan let the princes handle their own internal affairs. With the princes and the leaders of the Church being able to work relatively freely, they eventually grew strong enough to throw off the Tatar yoke, although this took centuries.<br />
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Sergius is well-known for blessing Prince Dimitry of Moscow to fight Khan Mamay in 1380. The saint also used his spiritual authority to benefit Moscow in several other ways. First, in the year 1365, Sergius acted as an agent of Metropolitan Alexis of Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod. The prince there, Boris, resisted the authority of the prince of Moscow and was friendly to the Lithuanians. Sergius placed an interdict upon the city, something common in the medieval West. This meant that all the churches in the city were shut down. As a result, Boris was forced into submission and yielded. Sergius also served as an ambassador and brokered a peace between Oleg of Ryazan and Prince Dimitry, who were bitter enemies. Through the holy man’s gentle words, Oleg was convinced to make peace with Moscow and even marry his son to Dimitry’s daughter. It was precisely because this holy man was so highly regarded that he was entrusted with such diplomatic missions. However, Sergius was not a politician. For the most part he stayed in his monastery and put his trust in God rather than in the sons of men. Nevertheless, because of his reputation, the Monastery of the Holy Trinity gained many secular patrons, and became a place of pilgrimage and burial for the Russian tsars.<br />
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Saints Benedict and Sergius may have had different conceptions of the monastic life, but as saints, they were each enlightened by the same Holy Spirit. They both mystical experiences involving an awesome vision of divine light.<br />
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Benedict received his vision while praying in the middle of the night. According to St. Gregory, he “beheld a flood of light shining down from above more brilliant than the sun, and with it every trace of darkness cleared away.” The saint then saw the entire world enveloped in a single beam of light, and the soul of a bishop he knew being carried up to heaven. Benedict cried out to his guest, the deacon Servandus, who came up in time to see the last of the vision. St. Gregory, in explaining the vision, states: “All creation is bound to appear small to a soul that sees the Creator. Once it beholds a little of His light, it finds all creatures small indeed.” St. Benedict’s vision of light presented a theological problem for Western theologians, who equated seeing God with seeing the divine essence. St. Gregory himself taught in his Homilies on Ezekiel that no mortal man could ever see God in Himself: “...with whatever effort the human mind strains...while placed in mortal flesh [it] is not able to see the glory of God as it is. But whatever of that is which shines in the mind, is a likeness, and not itself.” St. Augustine thought that God could be seen in this life, but it required a kind of ecstatic state in which the mind is practically separated from the body. Based on this teaching, the Latin theologian Thomas Aquinas wrote that St. Benedict could not have seen God because he was not in a full ecstasy, but was aware enough of his surroundings to be able to call out to Servandus. It was not a vision of God Himself, but “a light derived from God.”<br />
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St. Sergius also had visions of the divine light. While praying in the dead of night, the saint heard a voice call out his name. Surprised, he looked out his window and saw that “a great light appeared from heaven and drove away all darkness of the night, and the night was illumined by this light which excelled by its brightness the light of day.” The saint then saw a vision of a flock of many beautiful birds, and a voice from heaven said to him, “As you saw these birds, in a like manner the flock of your disciples will be multiplied and even after you they will not diminish if they choose to follow in your footsteps.”<br />
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Sergius had a second vision of light which accompanied a visitation by the Mother of God. After the saint finished his prayer rule in front of the Icon of the Virgin, he told his disciple Mikhei: “My child, be temperate and vigilant, for there will be to us a wonderful and awesome visit right now.” At once, light filled the place where they were standing, and the Virgin appeared to them alongside the Apostles Peter and John. The Mother of God spoke to St. Sergius, and assured him that his monastery would always be under her protection.<br />
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In Orthodox theology, these visions of light experienced by both saints are not a likeness or simulacrum of the divine light, but were a foretaste of the glory of God in which both saints now dwell. Orthodox theologians would agree with Aquinas that St. Benedict did not see the divine essence—and in fact, we believe that no creature can—but would affirm that he did see God through His energies. St. Gregory Palamas, who defended the doctrine of uncreated light and the distinction between essence and energies, was a contemporary of St. Sergius, but we are not certain whether he knew of the hesychast controversies, but we know that he participated in the same ascetic tradition of the hesychasts, whose roots can be traced to the most ancient fathers and, indeed, Holy Scripture itself—the same roots from which St. Benedict drew his inspiration. As for St. Benedict, St. Gregory mentions him in his work in defense of hesychasm, The Triads, as an example of someone who experienced the uncreated light.<br />
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Despite some differences in ascetic practice, monastic governance, and interaction with the outside world, Sts. Benedict and Sergius were both inspired by the same gospel and lived the same faith. This is why was held up as an example by the monks of St. Sergius’ time, and why we should also look to him as an example like that of St. Sergius. I will close this paper with his troparion:<br />
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<i>By thine ascetical struggles, O Godbearing Benedict, thou didst prove true to thy name. For thou wast the son of benediction, and didst become a model and rule to all who emulate thy life and cry: Glory to Him Who has strengthened thee; glory to Him Who has crowned thee; glory to Him Who through thee works healings for all.</i></div>
John Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09245365635360011009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773637109436881263.post-33820598884382139622015-03-23T20:31:00.001-04:002015-03-27T09:51:32.402-04:00What is a Metropolitan?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
What do we think of when we hear the word “metropolitan”? Besides an opera house and a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_%281990_film%29">pretty good movie</a>, we think of a rank of bishop. In the Russian tradition, he wears a white hat. Has some kind of authority.<br />
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In fact, the role of the metropolitan is a very ancient one which predates the existence of patriarchates. The metropolitan was the bishop of the capital of a Roman province (a metropolis). The bishop of the metropolis is seen as first among equals, since, according to Canon IX of the Council of Antioch, “all men of business come together from every quarter to the metropolis.”</div>
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Let’s pretend that America is an Orthodox country and that the Church is organized like it was in the fourth century. The Church in America would be more or less divided according to political subdivisions. Thus, each state would have its own metropolitan. Of course, perhaps some sees, due to ancient custom, have authority over other provinces, as did Rome and Alexandria. Thus, maybe the Metropolitan of Boston had authority over the entirety of New England. For the most part, however, each state would be a independent and <i>autocephalous</i> ecclesiastical province. Let’s take New York for an example, and assume that the Metropolis is actually New York City (instead of Albany).</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.dot.ny.gov/divisions/engineering/technical-services/highway-data-services/hdsb/repository/map.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="306" src="https://www.dot.ny.gov/divisions/engineering/technical-services/highway-data-services/hdsb/repository/map.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The various counties/diocese of our theoretical Metropolia of New York</td></tr>
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<i>How would bishops be chosen?</i></div>
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According to Canon IV of the First Ecumenical Council, all the bishops in a province should get together to appoint a new bishop, but if that is impossible due to circumstances, three bishops should come to consecrate the new bishop, and the other bishops give their assent in writing. So, if there needed to be a new bishop of Herkimer, at least three bishops (e.g. Utica, Rochester, Oneonta) would have to come to consecrate the new bishop. Moreover, the a bishop is only consecrated with the ratification of the metropolitan. Incidentally, according to Fr. John Erickson, this means that for any part of the Church to be autocephalous it needs to have <i>at least</i> four dioceses.<br />
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This is a marked contrast with how bishops are appointed today in the Roman Catholic Church, which reserves the appointment or confirmation of bishops to the Pope, with the local metropolitan having a merely advisory role: “The Supreme Pontiff freely appoints Bishops or confirms those lawfully elected (Can. 377 §1, 1983).” The same applies to Eastern Catholic churches (Canon 182, CCEO).</div>
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<i>Relationship of the Metropolitan and the Diocesan Bishops</i></div>
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The relationship between the metropolitan bishops and the other bishops of a province is enshrined in Apostolic Canon 34, which states:</div>
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The bishops of every nation must acknowledge him who is first among them and account him as their head, and do nothing of consequence without his consent; but each may do those things only which concern his own parish, and the country places which belong to it. But neither let him (who is the first) do anything without the consent of all; for so there will be unanimity, and God will be glorified through the Lord in the Holy Spirit.</blockquote>
The word “nation” (ἔθνος) here is interpreted as meaning “province” (ἐπαρχία) by canonists.<br />
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The metropolitan is not an absolute monarch but a <i>primus inter pares</i>. If a metropolitan becomes a heretic he has no authority (Canon 1, Council of Ephesus). However, the bishops cannot “go rogue” and act independently; they are obliged to act in one accord with the metropolitan and their fellow bishops. If there is a disagreement between the bishop and his metropolitan, the bishop can appeal to the Patriarch of Constantinople (Canon 9, Fourth Ecumenical Council).<br />
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According to the canons the bishops of the province also need to meet twice a year, and this synod is presided over by the metropolitan.<br />
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<i>Titular Metropolitans</i><br />
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Sometimes a province would be split in two (like West Virginia split off from Virginia during the Civil War). The bishop of the new metropolis has the rank of metropolitan but not the authority, the original metropolitan retaining his rights (Canon 12, Fourth Ecumenical Council).<br />
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<i>Relationship of Provinces with Each Other</i><br />
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According to the second canon of the Second Ecumenical Council, each province was independent of the others:<br />
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The bishops are not to go beyond their dioceses to churches lying outside of their bounds, nor bring confusion on the churches; but let the Bishop of Alexandria, according to the canons, alone administer the affairs of Egypt; and let the bishops of the East manage the East alone, the privileges of the Church in Antioch, which are mentioned in the canons of Nice, being preserved; and let the bishops of the Asian Diocese administer the Asian affairs only; and the Pontic bishops only Pontic matters; and the Thracian bishops only Thracian affairs.</blockquote>
On the other hand, if a metropolitan becomes a heretic he is subject to neighboring Orthodox metropolitans and his own bishops, who will deprive him of episcopal rank (Canon 1, Council of Ephesus).<br />
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<i>Rise of Patriarchates</i><br />
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The authority of metropolitans was severely curtailed after the Fourth Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon, which subordinated the metropolitans of Asia, Pontus, and Thrace to the Patriarch of Constantinople (Canon 28), and set up the Pentarchy (Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem) which lasted up until the Schism of 1054. Moreover, title inflation resulted in many titular metropolitans. Metropolitans still retain authority, especially in autonomous or semi-autonomous hierarchies such as in ROCOR.</div>
John Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09245365635360011009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773637109436881263.post-34761616927334229292015-03-16T08:18:00.000-04:002015-03-17T10:36:11.398-04:00John’s Guide to Seminary Life: What to Bring<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Congratulations! You got into seminary! If you already went to college and experienced dorm life, you have a good idea of what to bring, but if (like many new seminarians these days) you’re fresh out of high school or never experienced dorm life, here is a guide for you:<br />
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First of all, be advised that your rooms are going to be relatively small, and moreover you’re going to naturally accumulate more stuff over the years. Pack no more than a couple of boxes.</div>
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1. Books</div>
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Nearly all the rooms are equipped with three-tier bookshelves, so you can bring a few books. I’ll give book recommendations in a subsequent post.</div>
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2. Clothing</div>
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It gets very cold in the winter and hot and humid in the summer. You need to layer appropriately. Here’s a basic starter list:</div>
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<li>a few t-shirts and pairs of underwear</li>
<li>2-3 nice collared shirts</li>
<li>2-3 pairs of pants (dark colors)</li>
<li>2-3 dress shirts</li>
<li>at least one matching tie and a sport coat/blazer (for those times you want to impress your future matushka)</li>
<li>a cassock, or if you can afford it, two cassocks: one made of wool for colder months and one of cotton for warm weather</li>
<li>an overcoat or jacket</li>
<li>winter hat, scarf, gloves</li>
<li>several pairs of shoes, black</li>
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3. School supplies</div>
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4. Food supplies, etc.</div>
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<li>A small refrigerator. There is a common refrigerator in the kitchenette, but it is better and more convenient to store your food items in your own mini-fridge. </li>
<li>Snacks, tea, etc. This is good for when you have friends in your room, so you can offer them something to eat or drink. Hospitality is a good virtue to cultivate in dorm life.</li>
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5. Electronics, etc. We have wi-fi, so bring your laptop. Don’t forget to bring a camera to capture all of those precious moments.<br />
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6. Basic medical supplies: band-aids, pain relief, etc.</div>
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John Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09245365635360011009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773637109436881263.post-57327035040910393192015-02-15T11:40:00.001-05:002015-02-15T11:40:14.669-05:00Homily for the Meeting of the Lord and the Sunday of the Last Judgment<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.<br />
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Dear brothers and sisters, one of the wonderful aspects of the liturgy is timelessness. Normally we think of time as like a line: past, present, and future. The past is consigned to oblivion and we hope or worry for the future. However, in the Church, in Christ, the divisions of time are overcome, and the past, present, and future come to dwell in one another, not as a closed circle, but morel ike an endlessly ascending spiral. Today both the past and the present come to us in the celebrations of the Meeting of the Lord and the Sunday of the Last Judgment. We are celebrating two meetings of the Lord: one in Jerusalem two millennia ago, and one at the end of time.<br />
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Let us first go to Jerusalem, to see with the eyes of faith what happened there. The temple is full of crowds coming and going, unaware that One who is greater than the temple is present. Christ was brought to the temple in accordance with the divine command to Moses: “Sanctify unto Me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast: it is Mine.” His holy Mother also presented two turtle-doves in order to purify herself, for the Law of Moses also stated that a woman is considered ritually impure for forty days after giving birth. Thus, this feast is often called the “Purification of the Virgin,” which is why we are wearing blue vestments.<br />
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Although the Child and His Mother followed the Law, they did not have to submit themselves to it. Just as the Son out of His own free will humbled Himself and took the form of a man, He also submitted Himself to the Law which He Himself had issued. As for the Mother, she conceived and gave birth to her Son in a miraculous way, through the Holy Spirit, and had no need for purification. Tradition tells us that the High Priest, sensing the purity of the Theotokos, put her in the court reserved for virgins, which enraged the Pharisees.<br />
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At the Temple, there was a holy elder named Simeon who knew that this little infant was indeed the Christ, the Lord of all. He took up the child into his frail arms, and said: “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.”<br />
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There came another woman, a prophetess named Anna, who stayed in the Temple and prayed to God night and day. She also recognized the Christ-child, and preached of Him to everyone in earshot. Why were these two, Simeon and Anna, able to recognize Christ? It was through the Holy Spirit. It was the Holy Spirit who was with Simeon, and which told Him that he would not see death until he saw the Christ. Simeon waited patiently, faithfully, never losing hope that he would see the promised Messiah. Likewise, the prophetess Anna also had the Holy Spirit and prayed constantly. Without the Holy Spirit, we fail to recognize Christ and become like the Pharisees, who were so blind that they could not acknowledge the miracles of Christ as the work of the Spirit and instead said it was the work of the devil.<br />
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When Simeon blessed the Mother of God, he told her: “Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against; (yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” This prophecy was partially fulfilled in the Crucifixion of Christ, which indeed pierced the heart of His Mother. Moreover, this prophecy will be fully fulfilled at the Second Coming. Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead, and the thoughts and deeds of all will be revealed.<br />
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Thus, coming from Jerusalem, let us now stand with fear and trembling at the Dread Judgment Seat. A hymn from yesterday evening’s Vespers tells us: “The trumpet shall sound and the graves be opened: all mankind will arise in trembling; the righteous will rejoice, as they receive their reward, but the wicked will depart to eternal fire with wailing and horror.”<br />
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And as we stand before the Judge, what will He say to us? In today’s Gospel, the Lord presents a parable which describes the Last Judgment. To the righteous He will say: “I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in . . .” When asked by the righteous where and how He was fed, and given drink, the Son of Man answers: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” The unrighteous, on the other hand, did the opposite, thus Christ says to them: “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels . . . Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.”<br />
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My brothers and sisters, the image of Christ is not only seen in the Holy Icons, for we—human beings—are all created according to His Image. In this church we rightly venerate the holy icons, which are made of wood and paint. We should also venerate the living icons of Christ, especially the poor, for Christ was born and lived in poverty. Rich or poor, great or humble, nice or annoying—we are all cut from the same cloth and go to the same end. Why, then, do we complain about each other, do evil to one another, or fail to recognize the divine image in one another?<br />
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During the Great Fast, let us also, alongside prayer and fasting, do good to one other, and overcome the divisions between us. Through loving our neighbor we will rejoice and reign forever with Christ the Lord, Who with the Father and the Holy Spirit is due all honor, glory, and dominion, unto the ages of ages.</div>
John Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09245365635360011009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773637109436881263.post-46508245415300889682014-09-25T11:45:00.000-04:002014-09-25T11:45:08.673-04:00Early Monastics (Today in Class)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Saint_Anthony_The_Great.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Saint_Anthony_The_Great.jpg" width="273" /></a></div>
<span id="goog_5321527"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_5321528"></span>Today in Patrology class, we discussed monasticism in the early centuries of the Church, focusing on St. Anthony the Great and St. Ammon.<br />
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<b>St. Anthony</b> (ca. 251 – 356) was born in Egypt, and he and St. Ammon are considered the fathers of Egyptian monasticism. Although ascetic practice is as old as the Church, St. Anthony is regarded as the first prominent monk. <a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf204.xvi.ii.i.html">His life</a> was written by St. Athanasius of Alexandria, also known for the work <i>On the Incarnation</i>.<br />
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As a young person, St. Anthony loved attending church services and hearing the Scriptures; although he could not read or write, he knew the Scriptures by heart. While in church, he heard the words, “If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me” (Matthew 19:21). He left his sister in the care of a group of Virgins (like proto-nuns) and became an ascetic.<br />
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At first he was under the tutelage of a hermit, but around 285, he moved to the banks of the Nile, and found a tower half in ruins, where he took up cloistered residence for twenty years. Soon enough, people sought him out for spiritual counsel. At the end of twenty years, he finally left his enclosure. They expected to see some kind of emaciated mummy, but amazingly enough, his physical appearance was perfectly healthy, neither fat nor thin. He passed through the crowds as if no one was there, focused completely on God.<br />
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While cloistered, St. Anthony faced great temptations, including being actually physically accosted by demons. After this attack, the saint saw a vision of heaven, and asked God, “Where were You?” and the answer came: “I was here but I would see and abide to see thy battle, and because
thou hast manly fought and well maintained thy battle, I shall make thy
name to be spread through all the world.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_the_Great#cite_note-11"><span></span></a>” This incident has been famously depicted in numerous scary-looking paintings which I don’t feel like posting on this blog; you can Google them yourselves!<br />
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In 311, St. Anthony left the desert and went to Alexandria, one of two times when he left seclusion. He visited the Christians (still being persecuted) in prison, and himself sought martyrdom, but he did not receive the crown of martyrdom, and returned to the desert.<br />
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He did not organize a monastery, but there he had many, many disciples who lived around him. He and his disciples engaged in both manual work and prayer, “<a href="http://www.osb.org/rb/">Ora et Labora</a>,” so to speak. The most common form of manual labor was weaving baskets, mats and the like out of rushes.<br />
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In 338, he went again, this time to a Christian Alexandria, in order to confront the menace of Arianism. Despite his lack of formal education he was able through his spiritual authority and knowledge of the Holy Scriptures to refute the Arians and confirm the Orthodox in their faith. When the local governor sought him to stay in the city longer, St. Anthony answered, “Fish die if they
are taken from the water; so does a monk wither away if he forsakes his
solitude.”<br />
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He died around 356, at the age of 105. His many disciples contributed to the flourishing of monasticism in the Egyptian desert and the world.<br />
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The words of St. Anthony are full of practical wisdom. As Christians we need to strive to know ourselves; from there we will be able to know the virtues, which are the kingdom of God inside our hearts. Love for God comes from keeping ourselves from unclean thoughts, which come through constant inner vigilance. The main goal in life is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit. The characteristics of his teachings are asceticism (forming the soul), morality, and some dogma (against Arianism). Compared to other Fathers, St. Anthony is quite easy to read. He did not make up a monastic rule like St. Benedict, but he did speak much about the monastic spirit. For an example of his teaching, please see his <a href="http://ishmaelite.blogspot.com/2010/04/thirty-eight-sayings-of-st-anthony.html">Thirty-Eight Sayings</a>, found in the most popular collection of the sayings of the Desert Fathers.<br />
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<b>St. Ammon</b> (or Ammoun) was a contemporary/disciple of St. Anthony. When he married his wife (out of pressure from his uncle), they lived as brother and sister, and later separated to each life the monastic life. He lived in the desert of Nitria, where he established a monastery known as Kellia (The Cells). It was not like modern cenobitic monasteries, but the cells were placed far apart from each other, and the monks only gathered for common meals on Saturday and Sunday, as well as the common prayer, known as the Synaxis.<br />
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We have fourteen surviving letters of Abba* Ammon, which focused on moral asceticism. He stressed the importance of obtaining and maintaining the gifts of the Holy Spirit in order to share with the people around you. By the gifts of the Holy Spirit he did not mean what televangelists mean today, but as St. Paul writes, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law” (Galatians 5:22–23). These gifts of the Holy Spirit are obtained by giving yourself entirely over to God. We also need to love our neighbor, which begins with not holding evil in our hearts, but letting it go. Asceticism is not crushing the body, but making the body work for God.<br />
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*<i>Abba</i>, from the Aramaic אבא, meaning father, is commonly applied to the Desert Fathers, eg. Abba Anthony, Abba Moses, etc.</div>
John Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09245365635360011009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773637109436881263.post-86873188106039316892014-09-24T11:46:00.002-04:002014-09-24T16:59:11.464-04:00Divorce in Canon Law (Today in Class)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Highest_authority_of_Russian_Orthodox_Church_in_1917.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Highest_authority_of_Russian_Orthodox_Church_in_1917.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The All-Russian Council of 1917–1918, presided by St. Tikhon of Moscow</td></tr>
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<i>This is the first in a new blog post series called “Today in Class,” which will be an overview of what I learned today in class. This is a way for me to reorganize my class notes into a coherent form to share with the world.</i><br />
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Today in Canon Law class, we briefly went over our assigned readings, which was about what a canon was, various different collections of church canons, and important canonists.<br />
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A canon (Gk. κανών) is not like a civil law, but is more like a rule or standard which is interpreted and applied by the bishops of the Orthodox Church. There are canons applicable to only one local church (Russian, Greek, Antiochian, etc.) and canons applicable to the entire Church. These canons are basically those which have been accepted by the Seven Ecumenical Councils, both the canons formulated at the councils, and those canons of local councils which were accepted by the Council Fathers, thus granting them ecumenical status. All of these canons were put together in various compilations. The earliest we know of is the <i>Nomocanon</i> <i>in 14 Chapters</i> attributed to St. Photius the Great (9th c.). A <i>Nomocanon</i> is a collection of both canons and (Byzantine) civil law (nomoi). In the English-speaking world, the most famous collection of canons is <i>The Rudder</i> or <i>Pedalion</i> of St. Nicodemus the Hagiorite (18th c.).<br />
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In the second hour of the class, a visiting scholar from Finland discussed the change in divorce law in the Russian Orthodox Church as a result of the very important <a href="http://orthodoxwiki.org/All-Russian_Church_Council_of_1917-1918">All-Russian Church Council of 1917–1918</a>. Before, divorce was only allowed in both civil and church law under four specific cases. The Council expanded these guidelines, which are <a href="http://eadiocese.org/Court/en.reasonsdissolution.htm">followed in our own Church Abroad</a>. Although it was a local council which decided marriage laws, the same guidelines are generally followed in other churches.<br />
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Conservative Roman Catholics, who believe that a valid sacramental marriage cannot be dissolved in any way, would be scandalized by the Orthodox view on divorce and remarriage. However, the Orthodox view has <a href="http://www.stgeorgegoc.org/divorceChurchHistory.html">always</a> <a href="http://www.orthodoxresearchinstitute.org/articles/liturgics/athenagoras_remarriage.htm">been</a> that there are legitimate reasons for the dissolution of a marriage. As our Pastoral Theology instructor put it, “the Church is not giving a divorce, but acknowledging that the marriage has dissolved.” Nonetheless, the Church by no means supports divorce and remarriage, seeing them as deviations from the Gospel ideal which are only allowed out of condescension. The Church “blesses the first marriage, performs the second, tolerates the third, and forbids the fourth.”<br />
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Also discussed at the All-Russian Council was the question of the remarriage of priests. In the Russian Church at the time, there were many widowed young priests who wanted to remarry. Normally a priest who is widowed has to either leave the priesthood if he wanted to remarry or else become a monk. The vast majority of the widowed priests at the time were in favor of changing the laws. The canonists were also divided on the issue. The Serbian bishop Nikodim Milaš supported a more liberal view, whereas the Russian canonist S. Troitsky <a href="http://www.holy-trinity.org/morality/troitsky.html">favored the strict view</a>. Ultimately, priests were <a href="http://www.holy-trinity.org/morality/synod-remarriage.html">not allowed</a> to remarry based on the scriptures (I Tim. 3:2, 12; Titus 1:6) and precedence of the canons. However, the council made provisions to try to help widowed priests in difficult situations because of their status.</div>
John Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09245365635360011009noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773637109436881263.post-53370080853976029912014-09-21T15:40:00.002-04:002014-09-24T12:40:38.560-04:00Four states in four days<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Today I would like to congratulate you all with the feast of Our Lady’s Nativity, especially the parishioners of the parish in Albany which is celebrating its patronal feast day.<br />
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It’s been a while since my last post, which recounted Holy Saturday, with a promise of Paschal joy; sadly, I never managed to get around to it! Since then, much has happened. Fourth year ended, I went to San Francisco to seek my fortune, and I managed to get a decent summer job in the city. I came back to Jordanville several weeks before the beginning of the school year. My last year.<br />
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The Thursday before the school year started, I took a trip down to Lakewood, New Jersey for the <a href="http://www.eadiocese.org/News/2014/sept/lkwd.en.htm">feast day</a> of St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. In addition, it was the official retirement celebration for Protopresbyter Valery Lukianov and the opening of the new Diocesan Center for the Eastern American Diocese.<br />
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I drove down with Fr. Ephraim, who was going there both to sing and to act as representative for the Seminary. He said that he had to make a speech for the banquet accepting the St. Alexander Nevsky Scholarship.<br />
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“Oh…so, who’s getting the scholarship?” I nonchalantly asked.<br />
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“Well, you are,” he said. It was quite an unexpected relief, especially since I would have otherwise had to use my summer money to pay for tuition! In addition, I am merely one of the many recipients of the scholarship. Apparently, the organizers of the scholarship are planning to expand it to help out up to twenty seminarians each year, so hopefully this will allow for more to come to the seminary.<br />
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We managed to get to the church in time to practice a little for the vigil. The choir director was the formidable <a href="http://gavaisky.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-maestro.html">Maestro Vladimir Gorbik</a>. Although he was very strict with us, the high caliber of the singers allowed us to proceed at a quicker pace. For my part, I barely managed to hang on!<br />
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Vigil was long and festive. After vigil, Fr. Ephraim and I tried to find a place to eat, but it was already ten and many places were closed. We settled on Applebee’s, not known for its Lenten food. We ordered onion rings, fried shrimp, and other heavy food. I don’t recommend going to Applebee’s on a fasting day. After dinner, we went to our lodgings. Our host was a long-time parishioner, a very friendly and hospitable woman, who gave us an impromptu tour of her curio-filled house.<br />
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On Friday, the next morning, we drove to church, which took longer than usual because apparently Lakewood is infamous for its bad drivers. There’s even a popular bumper sticker which says “Pray for me—I drive in Lakewood.” Nonetheless, we managed to make it to the church on time.<br />
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Liturgy happened, followed by long announcements and awards, and then a cross procession round the church. By the time we had the banquet it was already two o’clock. I was a little worried, because I was planning on meeting Sophia in Albany; we were to go to Massachusetts for the weekend. When all was said and done, it was almost five when we got back on the road. Fr. Ephraim dropped me off in Albany at half past eight, where I met a long-suffering Sophia, who had spent the past few hours in Albany going stir-crazy.<br />
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<i>“I hadn’t gone stir-crazy! I helped out at the church, listened to podcasts, and stretched,” said Sophia, who is currently sitting next to me while I type out this blog post.</i><br />
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Sophia and I went to Massachusetts in her grey Honda Odyssey (the “mom van” as she calls it) and arrived in Springfield, where gracious Matushka was awaiting us at Fr. Brendan Crowley’s.<br />
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On Saturday, we went to Amherst and Northampton, north of Springfield, where the knuckle-shaped mountains of the Pioneer Valley protruded from the horizon. We also went shopping for a sweater, because I was chilly. After scouring the Salvation Army racks and finding only badly-fitting, ugly sweaters, Sophia settled on a few gardening books, and was standing in line for the cashier when she spotted a brand-new grey sweater, with the sticker still on it, hanging practically in front of her. It was my size! I immediately accepted this turn of fate.<br />
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That evening, we went to <a href="http://www.saintnicholasorthodox.com/">St. Nicholas Church</a> for vigil. Though the parish is said to be based in the Springfield, MA area, its new physical location happens to be across the state line in Enfield, CT. After a half-century of having their church life centered in a former store building with a spooky basement (and a pretty flower garden), the parishioners at St. Nicholas prayed and raised enough money to relocate to a newer building. Because she had been farming in Central New York all summer, this was Sophia's first visit to her childhood parish's new home.<br />
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After the morning liturgy, we joined in for coffee hour, where the parishioners had realized that the new building’s kitchen was adjacent to the yard and that food could be simply passed out through the window. Sophia and I then went to meet up with her parents, and we had a delightful time munching on Chinese food and visiting Forest Park, which had a lot of stuff in it.<br />
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<i>Sophia: “No!!!</i> <i>There’s a zoo and waterfalls and ducks, and—”</i><br />
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<i>Me: “A lot of stuff.”</i><br />
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<i>Sophia: “Imagine if I was in Hawaii and I wrote a blog entry saying there was a lot of stuff there!”</i><br />
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Thus, I had been in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Connecticut over the course of four days. I am very grateful for the kind hospitality, not to mention the convivial company I enjoyed.</div>
John Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09245365635360011009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773637109436881263.post-36295875531203295402014-04-19T15:59:00.001-04:002014-04-19T18:48:56.463-04:00Great and Holy Friday and Saturday<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
On Thursday night, we celebrated the matins for Holy Friday. This service is very old, and can be traced as far back as Jerusalem in the 4th century. The structure of the service also follows the older pattern of matins, which was a series of sung antiphons interspersed with prayers. Here we have fifteen antiphons on the theme of the Crucifixion, as well as twelve selections from the Gospels telling of Our Lord’s Passion.<br />
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The most well-known and poignant antiphon is the fifteenth:<br />
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<i>Today is suspended upon the Tree, He who suspended the land upon waters.</i><br />
<i>A crown of thorns crowns Him, who is the King of the angels.</i><br />
<i>He is wrapped in the purple robe of mockery, who wraps the heavens with clouds.
He receives smitings, who freed Adam in the Jordan.</i><br />
<i>He is transfixed with nails, Who is the Son of the Virgin.</i><br />
<i>We worship Thy passion, O Christ.</i><br />
<i>We worship Thy passion, O Christ.</i><br />
<i>We worship Thy passion, O Christ.</i><br />
<i>Show us also Thy glorious resurrection!
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The next morning, after the Royal Hours, I finished cleaning up the restrooms across from the bookstore, which was part of my assigned pre-paschal cleaning. Sophia, who is of course here for the weekend, volunteered to help with the eggs. One of the women asked Fr. Cyprian how many eggs they were doing. “A little less than last year,” he said, “only nine hundred.”</div>
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On Friday afternoon, we had vespers, with the removal of the winding-sheet or “burial shroud” of the Lord, which was put in the middle of the church. After that, we had a light repast in the trapeza; otherwise there was no eating or drinking.</div>
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In the middle of the night we did matins for Holy Saturday, which essentially was a funeral service. Like during a funeral, we chanted the 118th psalm, which was interspersed with verses known as the Lamentations. The service began at two o’clock in the morning and lasted until a little after five. The church was completely dark, lit only by candles. I was honestly getting so tired I was afraid that I was going to light my hair on fire!</div>
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We got enough sleep to have yet another service this morning, which is the Holy Saturday vesperal liturgy! This liturgy was originally the ancient paschal vigil; in fact, it’s technically supposed to be served much later in the day, before the traditional reading of the Acts of the Apostles and the paschal matins. This is why the vestments in the church turn white today. There are many readings from the Old Testament (15 in all) which originally served to “cover” the baptizing which went on during this time. Although we served the liturgy much earlier than prescribed in the typikon, we did follow ancient custom by serving bread and wine at the end of the service, which was quite refreshing after long days of fasting.</div>
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I got assigned to set tables for the paschal breakfast that takes place after the midnight liturgy. Putting the milk chocolate eggs and other goodies on the table made me feel sorely tempted!</div>
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But it’s just a few more hours! Tonight we will have the reading from the Acts of the Apostles, the Midnight Office, and then…Pascha!</div>
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John Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09245365635360011009noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773637109436881263.post-38381090074974800582014-04-17T16:59:00.001-04:002014-04-17T17:04:17.501-04:00Do this in remembrance of Me...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Well, it looks like the snow’s mostly gone:<br />
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Today we had a vesperal liturgy of St. Basil the Great for Holy Thursday. This day commemorates the institution of Holy Communion at the Mystical (Last) Supper. Everyone in the monastic community was expected to commune today, so yesterday and today we had preparation prayers, and at the end of Liturgy everyone heard the prayers of thanksgiving after Holy Communion. The practice of the abbot/bishop washing the feet of twelve men, common in cathedrals, was not done here.<br />
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Also of note is that as of last night we stopped reading the long sections from the Psalter known as <i>kathismata</i>, which are usually done at vespers and matins (as well as the hours) in the Orthodox Church. Less psalter reading means more festivity, and when we get to Pascha we won’t have any Psalter reading at all, but everything will be sung.<br />
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The myrrh-streaming icon of the Mother of God, “<a href="http://iconreader.wordpress.com/2012/06/09/miracle-working-softener-of-evil-hearts-icon/">The Softener of Evil Hearts</a>” is also here at the monastery through Pascha.<br />
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Since this is a great feast, it’s also an oil/wine day. In the trapeza we had some tasty pasta drenched in olive oil. No wine, though!<br />
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The rest of the day I’ve been resting. I’ve had on average about nine hours a sleep every night this week, repaying all the sleep debt accumulated over the past semester. Also, even though the snow’s melted, it’s still cold and I don’t feel like turning on the radiator in my room because it turns it into a furnace. There’s nothing much for me to do except spend my hours under the covers and blog away…<br />
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John Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09245365635360011009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773637109436881263.post-91659671018335063842014-04-16T15:17:00.002-04:002014-04-16T15:20:38.331-04:00I'm dreaming of a white...Pascha?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The first three days of Holy Week repeat themselves to such an extent that I lose track of time. On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning, the serving priest reads all four gospels, symbolizing Christ's preaching in the Temple. At ten in the morning, we serve Presanctified Liturgy. And in the evening, we have the Bridegroom Matins, which takes its name from one of the hymns we sing:<br />
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<i>Behold, the Bridegroom comes at midnight, and blessed is that servant whom He shall find watching, </i><i>and again, unworthy is the servant whom He shall find heedless. Beware, therefore, O my soul, do not be weighed down with sleep, lest you be given up to death, and lest you be shut out of the Kingdom. But rouse yourself crying: Holy, Holy, Holy, art Thou, O our God, through the Theotokos have mercy on us.</i></blockquote>
There are differences on certain days. On Tuesday evening, we had the service of Holy Unction, which is commonly done during Holy Week. Seven priests anointed everyone gathered with a mixture of oil and wine, recalling both the the parable of the Good Samaritan and the epistle of St. James: “Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord”. By the end, our faces and hands were covered in holy oil; we wiped off the excess with paper napkins, which we disposed in a special container for “holy trash”.<br />
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Somewhere in all this, Nature greeted us with this sight:<br />
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Alas, the poor buds of Spring were swallowed up in an inverse Indian Summer (or should I say Indian Winter?). Thankfully, it looks like the snow’s melting…for now!<br />
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This morning, we gathered in church again for the rite of forgiveness. We lined up and prostrated to each other, saying, “Forgive me, a sinner!” and answering, “God forgives, forgive me!” This rite is also done at the very beginning of Great Lent. After making many prostrations to each other, it’s hard not to feel a sense of Christian brotherhood.<br />
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And after today’s Presanctified Liturgy, we did the last Prayer of St. Ephraim. The blue lights above the Royal Doors lit up, signaling the end of prostrations in church (for the most part).<br />
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It’s the home stretch!</div>
John Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09245365635360011009noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773637109436881263.post-4460659677577528702014-04-14T16:28:00.003-04:002014-04-14T16:28:51.214-04:00Palm Sunday<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Palm Sunday at Jordanville is like the first hints of light just before dawn. We formally end the forty days and begin the last week before the Bright Resurrection.<br />
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I spent most of Palm Sunday in the dormitory lounge working on yesterday’s blog post. Sophia, who was visiting, did some journaling about her farm work. Our intellectual work was fed by the Omega-3 fatty acids provided by some smoked salmon I had bought some time ago. We finished the pound of smoked salmon trim with the help of some other passing seminarians.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The trim of the trim.</td></tr>
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Then, at half past four, we had combined Vespers and Compline for Palm Sunday, followed by dinner. After dinner we then started Bridegroom Matins for Great and Holy Monday. A hieromonk reminded us that we should keep the lights off on kliros for this service, so we sang in the dark, our pages of music illuminated by our lit tapers.<br />
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Holy Week is quiet here at seminary. The internet is on only at certain times of day (like during the first week of Lent) so we have more time for reading, reflection, and prayer. During this week we also do a general cleaning of the monastery. Since I knocked out my portion last week, I can use the extra hours to study and write papers.<br />
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To my fellow strugglers, I wish you all a blessed Holy Week and a beautiful Pascha!</div>
John Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09245365635360011009noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773637109436881263.post-43066780548790827322014-04-13T15:15:00.003-04:002014-04-13T22:17:04.559-04:00Spring Ramblings<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="text-align: left;">Spring is here!</span><br />
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As the snow melts, I awaken from my blog hibernation. As the peregrinating birds return, I return from my Lenten slumber (hopefully permanently!). The time afforded on this beautiful Palm Sunday, along with some gentle encouragement by ardent readers, inspired this post.<br />
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Recently, my girlfriend Sophia moved not too far from here to work at an organic farm for the growing season. She visits the monastery every weekend, and so on the weekends we’ve gone exploring the countryside.<br />
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Yesterday, we visited the nearby <a href="http://blog.syracuse.com/opinion/2011/07/ancestors_gather_today_in_herk.html">Hoyer Hill Cemetery</a>, which served as the final resting place for locals in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the temporary resting place for someone we found napping there. Some of the gravestones are so worn down that it is impossible to tell who was buried. Others were fixed by metal ties. From the cemetery there’s a gorgeous view of the surrounding countryside, including the monastery.<br />
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We then went south to Richfield Springs to get some supplies, and continued wandering. Between Richfield Springs and Jordanville, on Rt. 28, there’s a small maple sugar bush, <a href="http://inglesmapleproducts.com/">Ingles Maple Products</a>. We poked our heads into the gift shop just long enough to sample some delicious maple BBQ sauce. However, as we were about to leave, one of the owners came out and invited us into the sugar shack, where the maple sap gets turned into sweet, sweet syrup.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A sap line running from the woods to the sugar shack.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This equipment turns the sap into syrup!</td></tr>
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Bill and Ruth Ingles, the owners of the sugar shack, have nobody to take over the business, but their passion for maple syrup keeps them going. They have some state of the art equipment which evaporates out much of the water from the sap, saving much of the energy required to boil the sap down into syrup. Bill poured us some samples into tiny cups; it was pretty good.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cooperstown, seen from Three Mile Point</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Glimmerglass</td></tr>
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Finally, we spent some time down near Cooperstown, on Lake Otsego. The lake, also known as the Glimmerglass, was frozen over during the winter, but now was almost completely thawed out. The floating sheets of melting ice had a sapphire tint in the afternoon sun. Over at Three Mile Point, we had a closer look at the ice, which turned out not to be solid sheets, but agglomerations of multiform ice crystals.<br />
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On the way back, we saw some cattle grazing under the big blue sky:<br />
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I’m looking forward to more exploration in the coming weeks!</div>
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John Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09245365635360011009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773637109436881263.post-13238122261819341262014-01-24T19:00:00.001-05:002014-04-13T22:14:21.336-04:00An UnTypical Blog<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I’m come briefly out of hibernation to highly recommend my friend Liza’s blog, <a href="http://typikondays.wordpress.com/">Typikon Days</a>. She probably knows more about Liturgics than…well, most people I know, including me. Check it out!</div>
John Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09245365635360011009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773637109436881263.post-54984193846848624562013-11-23T14:42:00.002-05:002013-11-23T14:44:29.775-05:00A Brief Return<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Hi everybody! It's been a while, but I'm back—or rather I'm in the same place I have been all semester, that is, Jordanville. As many of you may know, I'm in my fourth year. As some of you who have been seminarians in Jordanville may know, the fourth year is considered by some to be the year of искушение—temptation. It is said that this is the year in which seminarians have the most work to do, in which they feel the most emotional pressure, and in which they might even wish to leave the seminary, though they are so near the end of their student careers here. I have not been exempt from the infamous troubles which haunt those seminarians in my year.<br />
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The first of my искушение seemed harmless but ultimately could have made life very different for me now, and for you, as my readers. During the <a href="http://www.russianorthodoxchurch.ws/english/pages/news/summermusicsch.html">summer music school</a> this year, I learned of a position in Chicago chanting at a certain parish. I was drawn to this opportunity to make some money to pay back my student loans (from when I attended the University of Hawaii), but ultimately I realized that I had better finish what I'd started here at the seminary before moving on to other, very different occupations in life.<br />
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Moreover, there are all the regular temptations to be found around the seminary: the urge to gorge oneself on meat, which develops after protracted periods of deprivation from such fare, the desire to sleep in past <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_1761458203" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">5:30</span></span> in the morning (my snooze alarm and I have become well acquainted), and the wish to read through the prayers in the cathedral so fast, at times, that "Gospodi pomiluy" begins to sound like "GOS-pmph, GOS-pmph, GOS-pmph..." But these are the types of challenges that can easily be faced when a person takes the days one at a time, and tries to act sincerely in every part of a daily routine.<br />
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So though the fourth year is bound to present me with more challenges and its own unique brand of temptations, I am sure that with your prayers and with the help of my fellow seminarians here I will make it through—and I will be able to lay back and enjoy my senioritis next year in peace!<br />
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<i>Ghostwritten by Sophia Urusova, girlfriend. :) Mwahahahaha!</i></div>
John Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09245365635360011009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773637109436881263.post-37732670188518690462013-08-14T21:00:00.002-04:002013-08-18T05:37:48.782-04:00Catching Up<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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After an interval of 15 months, I am finally back in my native land. I was sitting in the lawn of my family home, sheltered by the shade of the <a href="http://wildlifeofhawaii.com/flowers/603/schefflera-actinophylla-octopus-tree/">octopus tree</a>, when I realized that I had not updated my blog since June. Of course, that needs to be rectified.<br />
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I spent most of my summer working part-time in the bookstore. I was in the bookstore for only about twenty hours a week, so I wanted to do something more with my time. I ended up helping Fr. Cyprian reorganize the many, many, MANY keys he has to hundreds of doors in the monastery and seminary. I also started to cook the monastery dinners on Tuesdays and Thursdays, a task which was mostly stress-free because dinner at Jordanville usually involves reheating lunch and maybe making a little bit more salad. I've been using my time in the kitchen to experiment with cooking. After all, one has few opportunities to have at one's fingertips a professional-grade kitchen (complete with a giant stick blender) and a group of diners who are willing to eat almost anything.</div>
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Meanwhile, I interacted with both the summer boys and the students of the <a href="http://sslm.hts.edu/">Summer School of Liturgical Music</a>. There were fewer summer boys this year so I hardly noticed them, but I saw the music people every day for the space of about two weeks since I was auditing typikon classes at the music school. I learned quite a bit about the order of divine services, including more about the Biblical Odes than most people need to know.</div>
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I also went to a couple of weddings. My friends Anthony and Bridget married each other in late July, a pleasant wedding with catered barbecue and country music. I got seated with some old Jville friends and had a great time. Three weeks later, I went to the wedding of my friends Alex and Juliana Cooley. But that deserves another blog post. In between the weddings I went to St. Vladimir's Memorial Church in Jackson, NJ for the 1025th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus. It was a business trip, just like the one we took <a href="http://gavaisky.blogspot.com/2012/08/a-summer-tradition.html">last year</a>, but we sold quite a bit more due to the increased number of people.</div>
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Last weekend's activities were packed like sardines. First I went to Boston for a meeting with my editor, an event very cleverly disguised as a date. It helped that my editor is also my girlfriend. I then took a bus to Albany for the Cooliana wedding, and went back to Jordanville Sunday night. On Monday morning, I went to Syracuse for my trip to Hawaii. I hope to write about my trip in the several weeks to come, since I plan to be doing more than just sitting around and eating pineapples all day.</div>
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John Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09245365635360011009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773637109436881263.post-87080951637521572762013-08-14T18:53:00.000-04:002013-08-14T22:31:41.425-04:00A Muddy Liturgy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I woke up on top of my bed in a bright room; I had fallen asleep without turning off the light. I fell unconscious again.<br />
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It was a little before six. Groggily I dragged myself out, got dressed, and walked out the door. Fr. Ephraim was standing in the lounge with the summer boys. "John, do you want to come with us to the woods for an English liturgy?" I figured, what the hey.</div>
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The Summer Youth Program is a great opportunity for young men to spend three weeks at Jordanville to get a taste of the quiet life of the monastery, do fun things and have spiritual discussions, and also <strike>do hard labor</strike> build character. It was a small group of five teenage boys. We piled into the big white van and drove up to the lakeside chapel, only to get stuck in the mud. We had to walk the rest of the way to the chapel.</div>
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It had been raining hard the past few days. Thankfully we're on high ground, but the people in Herkimer and Utica have had a tough time with flooding. It has gotten so bad that during the liturgy prayers are offered beseeching an end to the rain.<br />
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We walked about a third of a mile in the mud and wet grass, to the small stone chapel, with a grayish, weather-beaten wooden roof. A score of people filled the interior. Fr. Luke was serving at the tiny altar. The interior of the chapel is partially frescoed, with prominent icons of both St. John of Rila and St. John of Kronstadt, after whom the chapel is named. The singing was mostly in English, and was sung by some local women and a novice nun. The nun in question was dubbed "the coolest nun ever" by one of the boys because of the bright red galoshes she wore.<br />
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The English liturgies at the chapel are done on average once a week, but the schedule is erratic and is known only through word of mouth. But I highly recommend it, especially to English-speaking pilgrims.</div>
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John Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09245365635360011009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773637109436881263.post-90104404771893822992013-08-14T18:42:00.001-04:002013-08-21T07:15:44.297-04:00Pierre Bezukhov (Part III)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
After Pierre introduces Andrei and Natasha, they quickly fall in love and get engaged. However, Andrei’s strict father, Prince Nikolai, is suspicious of the union and makes Andrei wait a whole year until the wedding (they did things quicker in 19th century Russia). Andrei also made the engagement secret, so Natasha would be free to break it off without social repercussions. Andrei then went abroad to recuperate from his old war wounds.<br />
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Natasha, who was staying in Moscow with her family, then encounters Anatole, Pierre’s brother-in-law. Although Anatole got secretly hitched in a shotgun wedding to a Polish woman, he didn’t consider it an impediment and tried to seduce Natasha, convincing her to elope with him. Natasha fell in love with Andrei, but she fell in lust with Anatole. Pierre’s wife Hélène, knowing that Natasha was engaged, encouraged Anatole’s depravation, and the plan nearly succeeded until the very last minute when Anatole and his lackey were found out. The damage was already done: Natasha had already sent a letter to Andrei breaking off their engagement, and blinded by her feelings for Anatole became hostile to everyone. She finally became heartbroken when she found out that Anatole was married all along.<br />
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Pierre then comes into the picture. Before he left, Prince Andrei told Natasha to go to Pierre just in case anything was wrong, because “he’s absent-minded, but he has a heart of gold.” Pierre comforts Natasha, who thinks of herself as a ruined woman, despite not having yet done anything. Having lost both Andrei and Anatole, she feels unworthy of love. Pierre says differently. He declares to her: “If I were not myself, but the handsomest, cleverest, and best man in the world, and were free, I would this moment ask on my knees for your hand and your love!” From those words feelings awoke in Pierre which he did not realize before. Going home, he sees a comet in the sky—a portent of the coming chaos of 1812. The peace-loving Pierre was about to be enveloped in the horrors of war.Natasha, though relieved by Pierre’s words, still struggled through a long illness and depression. As for Pierre, he gradually fell in love with her, though because of his marriage did not act on his feelings. Nevertheless, he still thought things like: “Well, supposing N. N. swindled the country and the Tsar, and the country and the Tsar confer honors upon him, what does that matter? She smiled at me yesterday and asked me to come again, and I love her, and no one will ever know it.”<br />
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His love for Natasha, the coming war with Napoleon, and his Freemasonry all converge together in a rather humorous passage in which he works out the meaning of the number of the beast in the Book of Revelation. L’Empereur Napoleon, if the French alphabet had numerical values like the Hebrew, adds up to 666. Pierre calculates using various names, like L’Empereur Alexandre and La nation russe, before using his own name in various combinations, such as Comte Pierre Besouhoff, Le russe Besuhof and so forth, before finally fudging his own name (and French grammar) to get L’russe Besuhof, which also added up to 666 and made him feel like he, like Napoleon, was predestined for some kind of great act, which would “lift him out of that spellbound, petty sphere of Moscow habits in which he felt himself held captive and lead him to a great achievement and great happiness.”<br />
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This Pierre, in the summer of 1812, is very different from when we first encountered him in 1805. As a young man Pierre led a dissipated life in which he had no idea what to do in life and ended up being turned this way and that by the people around him. When he got married and went through the sufferings of a cheating wife and a brush with death, he got a little serious and committed himself to the causes of Freemasonry and philanthropy. Though he still leads a dissipated life, he has a burgeoning love for Natasha. He’s a little better than the beginning, in terms of being an active rather than a passive character. But he has to learn his last, painful lessons through the horrors of the war to come. In the summer of 1812, Napoleon invades Russia and “war began, an act opposed to human reason and to human nature.” The French take Smolensk (which ends up getting burnt down) and threaten Moscow, leading to the great battle of Borodino. Pierre visits the battlefield out of curiosity, but ends up getting caught up in the conflict. Before the battle, he meets up with his old friend, Prince Andrei, and has one last meeting, which both knew would be their last; Andrei is wounded in battle, and dies after a long struggle. When the battle begins, Pierre is at first observing, but soon begins to participate, starting with carrying ammo for the troops. His fancy hat and coat and his demeanor amuse the rank-and-file soldiers, but his persistence in the heat of battle win their admiration and respect for “the master,” as they call him at first mockingly, then endearingly.<br />
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Borodino soon turned into a slaughterhouse for both the Russians and the French. Pierre sees his new compatriots die violent deaths one by one. The French keep sending in troops and cannonballs, but the Russians hold their position despite the heavy bombardment. In the chaos he ends up in a desperate altercation with a French officer. “Am I taken prisoner or have I taken him prisoner?” both the Frenchman and Pierre thought to themselves as they gripped each other, the stalemate broken by a closely-fired cannonball. Pierre manages to escape, but not without becoming traumatized by what transpired that day. The French move to capture Moscow, but their wounds at Borodino would prove fatal.<br />
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Upon his return to Moscow, Pierre starts acting erratically, and he becomes convinced based on his obsessions with fate and numerology that he, L’russe Besuhof, was destined to end the evil of the Antichrist, Napoleon. He hides out in the house of his old mentor, Osip, and acquires a peasant’s outfit and a pistol. His plan was to assassinate Napoleon as soon as he entered Moscow in triumph.<br />
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Several incidents weaken Pierre’s resolve. First, he inadvertently saves the life of French captain from getting shot by a madman. Second, in his wanderings through the deserted and burning city of Moscow, he ends up saving the life of a small child and defends an Armenian woman from a French soldier-turned-robber. For his pains, he is arrested by the French, and having found the pistol on him, is almost executed. He witnesses the brutal execution of suspected “arsonists” accused of setting fire to buildings in Moscow. He is locked up in pitiful circumstances. He is forced to march a long time and is subjected to all kinds of deprivations.<br />
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Yet far from breaking his spirit, these difficulties served to purify Pierre’s soul, giving him a new sort of freedom, the freedom that comes from having inner peace, which he had sought in so many ways: “He had sought it in philanthropy, in Freemasonry, in the dissipations of town life, in wine, in heroic feats of self-sacrifice, and in romantic love for Natasha; he had sought it by reasoning—and all these quests and experiments had failed him.” By suffering deprivation, Pierre learned that the simple pleasures of life, such as having good food and basic hygiene, were the most essential elements of earthly happiness, with anything in excess often becoming a hindrance. Like the author of Ecclesiastes, who realized that pursuit of wealth, glory, and pleasure were in the end paths to vanity. Pierre realizes through his time as a prisoner of war that the freedom that he had was precisely what prevented him from achieving happiness.<br />
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Pierre also has a second mentor, after Osip: a simple peasant-soldier named Platon Karataev, whom he met as a fellow prisoner. Platon’s words mainly consist of old folk sayings and stories. His prayers are simple: for example, each night he would ask God to “lay me down like a stone, and raise me up like a loaf.” It was Platon’s simplicity and love in the midst of imprisonment which had a great impact on Pierre. For Platon, life “ had meaning only as part of a whole of which he was always conscious. His words and actions flowed from him as evenly, inevitably, and spontaneously as fragrance exhales from a flower.” Thus, Pierre reaches an epiphany. After a long march, he starts laughing:<br />
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“Ha-ha-ha!” laughed Pierre. And he said aloud to himself: “The soldier did not let me pass. They took me and shut me up. They hold me captive. What, me? Me? My immortal soul? Ha-ha-ha! Ha-ha-ha!…” and he laughed till tears started to his eyes.</blockquote>
Pierre realizes here that true freedom comes from within, and what’s more, everything is connected with everything else in a mysterious way, and somehow a man encompasses all of it. Looking up to the stars, he says: “And all that is me, all that is within me, and it is all I!” Through this he—and Tolstoy—come close to the Patristic teaching that Man is a kind of microcosm of all creation; indeed, St. Nicodemos the Hagiorite states paradoxically that Man is indeed a macrocosm within the microcosm of creation, because of the superiority of the human being created in the image of God.<br />
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Platon dies on the way, being shot by the French because he was too ill to go further. Pierre is freed by some partisan fighters, and when he gained his new found freedom he became a different person. Though he remained the same absent-minded intellectual, he became overcome with a kind of “happy insanity” in which he would love others not for any reason, but merely because they existed. Through this experience of love, Pierre had “grown so clean, smooth, and fresh—as if he came out of a Russian bath [banya]…out of a moral bath…” as Natasha put it after she reunited with Pierre. In the end, Pierre marries Natasha, his wife having died because of mysterious circumstances. His life begins anew, and he becomes tied down—happily—with his new wife, who will not even let him look at another woman without flying into a jealous rage. Like the biblical Job, he is rewarded for his endurance in patience, and achieves external happiness as well as—most importantly—inner tranquility. As Plato once said, “Call no man a hero unless he has conquered himself.”</div>
John Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09245365635360011009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1773637109436881263.post-33369696356382844602013-06-19T09:37:00.002-04:002013-08-14T18:27:48.400-04:00What I Saw in Russia: Postscript<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I left Russia nearly three weeks ago. The whole experience almost feels like a dream to me. It’s hard to put into words what one feels during a trip to a strange land—all the unexpected sights and sounds, the novelty of travel—and I tried my best to describe what I saw in this series of posts.<br />
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The Russia trip has affected me on multiple levels.<br />
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First, as a singer, I realized that I had to step up my game; I was one of only two basses in our small choral group, so our mistakes stood out. I have a long way to go, but the trip has taught me what it means to be a confident singer able to lead in one’s vocal part.<br />
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Second, as a pilgrim, all the holy sites and especially the many crowds amazed me. Orthodoxy is <i>thriving</i> in Russia, despite the many decades of persecution. I can’t say that the situation in the Russian Church is perfect, but as long as there are devoted laymen and at least a few good shepherds, whatever problems may come up can be overcome.<br />
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Third, as a traveler, I mostly learned what <i>not</i> to do (turn in all of one’s papers before going abroad, for example). Also, I traveled with a very good group. We were all friends, but I got to know everyone a bit better, quirks and all. I’m sure that they learned a lot more about “Seminarian John” than they ever wanted to!<br />
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I hope you enjoyed reading these posts as much as I enjoyed writing them. The summer here in Jordanville is long, but it will be well-spent. A new post will not be long in coming!<br />
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Update: <i>I guess I lied.</i></div>
John Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09245365635360011009noreply@blogger.com