Tips from the Monastery: What I Learned about Obedience

Obedience is a central virtue in Orthodox monasticism. The sisters practice what is called “cutting off of the will”. They do complete obedience to the abbess who is their spiritual mother. They also do obedience to one another, especially to older nuns. And this is all done in the context of learning how to live the words, “Not my will, but Thy will be done” (Lk. 22:42).

“One who climbs a mountain for the first time needs to follow a known route; and he needs to have with him, as companion and guide, someone who has been up before and is familiar with the way. To serve as such a companion and guide is precisely the role of the ‘Abba’ or spiritual father—whom the Greeks call ‘Geron’ and the Russians ‘Starets’.” - Bishop Kallistos Ware

If we are able to entrust ourselves to our spiritual mother or father, in a relationship that we can see, we learn how to do the same in our relationship with God, Whom we do not see. And in this way we learn to be obedient to God, and really abandon our will and do His will, and learn His will. By doing obedience to our spiritual parent, like the sisters do to their abbess, we cut off our own will. This allows us to do obedience to God, because it tames and calms our will for ourselves, freeing us to see what is good for us as opposed to blindly doing what we want. It quiets us and our strong feelings and opinions for ourselves and helps us to hear the voice of God.

I remember an abbess telling me, at the beginning of my Christian struggle, to “Ask your spiritual father about everything. Over time you will learn what to do, what is best, and what you should do. But until then ask him about everything!”

“[I]f you endure obedience without murmuring, God will send down upon you the Grace of the Holy Spirit, and the humble prayers which you also make are received by Divine Goodness.” - Elder Doonysius (Ignat) of the St. George Kellion, Kolitsou Skete, Mt. Athos, Greece

I’m sure it isn’t always easy for the sisters to do obedience, just like it isn’t easy for us in the world to do the little obediences we’ve been given by our spiritual parents. But those who are able to bow their head under the “light burden” of obedience, inherit a great reward, for the Lord tells us, “He who endures to the end will be saved” (Mt. 24:13).

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Simple Gifts :: Potamitis Publishing

Reblogged from The Woman and the Wheat:

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Fly yourself all the way over to Greece and you'll find, in a small town, a family who has gone gangbusters making books. In the last few years, Dionysios and his wife Egle-Ekaterine have produced so many books that I'd be hard-pressed to count them all. It's astonishing, really, the time and effort that they've poured into their work. Scroll down and learn a wee bit about them, and keep scrolling to see the AMAZING giveaway at the bottom.

Read more… 641 more words

Head on over to Jane's blog to check out all the wonderful books Potamitis Publishing puts out. I read these books to my friend's children all the time (here in Greece), and we use the colouring books too. They are awesome! Leave a comment on Jane's post and enter to win!

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From Conception to Birth: Capturing the Miracle of a Pre-Born Baby on Camera

I strongly recommend viewing this incredible video.  I originally saw it on BBC. Alexander Tsiaras speaks of the marvel of the creation of the human being in the womb. He acknowledges that such an existence indicates divinity. Similarly, my mother, who is a nurse, was convicted of the existence of God and His creation of man when she studied biology.

(Source)

“Even though I am a mathematician, I look at [fetal development] with marvel: How do these instruction sets not make mistakes as they build what is us?”

-Alexander Tsiaras

Using art and technology, Alexander Tsiaras visualizes the unseen human body. Alexander Tsiaras is an artist and technologist whose work explores the unseen human body, developing scientific visualization software to enable him to “paint” the human anatomy using volume data. He’s the author of Body Voyage and co-author of Information Architects. Most recently, he is the author of From Conception to Birth: A Life Unfolds and The Architecture and Design of Man and Woman: The Marvel of the Human Body, Revealed.

His latest project is The Visual MD, an online compendium of health visualizations.

 

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In Memory of the Slain Monks of Optina 1993+

In light of the tragedy that occurred at St. Anthony’s Monastery on June 11, and especially knowing the poor young man went to the monastery with the plan to kill Geronda Ephraim (the Monastery’s spiritual father) and Geronda Paisios (the Abbott), I wanted to post this folk song in memory of the slain fathers of Optina. I will also take this opportunity to ask your private prayers for the young man, Scott (John) Nevins, and for the fathers at St. Anthony’s who lived with him for six years and cared for him very much.

About Heiromonk Vasily, Monk Ferapont, and Monk Trophim who were martyred by a satanist on the evening of Pascha, 1993 at the Optina Hermitage (taken from Orthodoxwiki):

Heiromonk Vasily:

Father Basil [Vasily] had a large wooden cross that he’d been given as a gift, featuring an image of the Savior, a cross he preciously guarded. Russian pilgrims had carried this cross when entering Jerusalem, walking along the Calvary to the Lord’s Tomb, where they had it sanctified. It is often recalled how Father Basil would say that the most important thing in life was to carry one’s cross to the end, never stumbling on the rise upwards before meeting our Maker. This is why this cross, that had been carried through Jerusalem, along the Calvary, and sanctified at the Lord’s Tomb, had so special a significance for him, occupying pride of place in his small cell.

Not long before his death, Father Basil took this cross and went with it to the icon workshop, where two monks — icon-painters were working. One of them was celebrating his Name day. Father Basil congratulated him, and presented him with his cross, saying: “I should like you to keep it with you for a while. Let’s go find a place for it together.” The cross was hung on the wall near the Icon corner. Later it transpired that Father Basil had brought this Calvary cross to the place of his own private Calvary: he was killed near the icon workshop, falling down right opposite the cross.

On August 9, 1993, holy chrism was seen to appear on this cross, on the left side, under the Savior’s ribs. The drops were large and didn’t dry for two weeks. It seemed as if the cross was miracle-working!

Monk Ferapont:

Now, looking back, one can see that monk Ferapont saw the approach of his own death. Not long before he died, he started to give away his warm clothes with the words: “I shall not be needing this any more.” Right on the eve of Easter, he distributed his carpentry tools among the brethren.

On the eve of Easter, monk Ferapont was in a state of radiant joy, obviously having received from the Lord the gift of enlightenment and foresight. In any case, some of the monks testified that he could read their minds, while one young lay-brother admitted Ferapont had told him his future.

On Easter night, before the murder, monk Ferapont was standing in church, not in his usual place, but near the table, where services for the repose of the souls are usually conducted. He stood, as if immobile, head bowed in prayer and sorrow. There were a great many people in the church. He was being shoved and crowded, yet he seemed to notice nothing. Then, he set off for the last confession of his life. A satanist struck him with a ritual knife when, together with monk Trofim, he was chiming the bells.

Monk Trophim:

Trofim had been ringing the bells, summoning all for Easter midnight service when the satanist by the name of Nikolay Averin struck him in the back with a ritual knife. Thus ended the almost three-year-long monkhood of Trofim.

May God grant us the resolve to life and die as heroically as the Fathers did, and may we have their blessing!

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OCA women write about faith, family and culture on Orthodox Christian Network’s blog, The Sounding

(This article was originally posted on the OCA’s website.)

Matushka Constantina Palmer is a Canadian living in Thessaloniki, Greece; Kelly Lardin hails from Chicago; Jan Bear and Bev Cooke live in the Northwest (Portland and Victoria, BC). Katherine Johnson is a Texan and Heather Zydek resides in Wisconsin.

This geographically diverse group of women have something in common, however. They all attend parishes within the Orthodox Church in America (OCA), and they are all bloggers for the Orthodox Christian Network (OCN) blog, The Sounding.

Explains The Sounding’s blog chief, Melinda Johnson, “our mission is to support the spiritual and natural well-being of our readers by providing well-written, positive, and thought-provoking Orthodox Christian content…our goal is to take Orthodoxy into the real world around us, to probe the depths, and to write about what we find. Our bloggers were already finding ways to contribute before they came to us, as published authors, bloggers, teachers, and in many other ways.”

Continues Melinda, “what’s beautiful to me about The Sounding is how much love goes into it. We publish new content every weekday and often over the weekend as well. It takes hours of concentrated effort and reflection to write well, and our bloggers are busy people with jobs and families. When you are given a real gift, you find a way to share it.”

The gifted women in the OCA are finding ways to share their writing. Matushka Constantina Palmer is married to an OCA deacon. “We are originally from the Maritimes (Atlantic Canada),” she explains, “but my husband and I are currently living in Thessaloniki, Greece, where I am in the process of finishing my Master’s degree.” In addition to her studies in theology and her iconography work, while in Greece Matushka also wrote The Scent of Holiness: Lessons from a Women’s Monastery, slated to be published by Conciliar Press later this year. Matushka blogs about spirituality, the Orthodox heritage of Greece, and the lives of saints.

Kelly Lardin has been a member of Holy Trinity Cathedral Parish in Chicago since 2004, where she serves on the Parish Council and as the Sisterhood secretary. “We were impressed by the beauty and holiness of the Cathedral when we visited one weekend while we were searching for an apartment. When we actually found an apartment just a few blocks from the Cathedral, we knew it would be our home. The parish has a rich Russian history, having been built by Louis Sullivan under the leadership of St. John Kochurov of Chicago, and consecrated by St. Tikhon of Moscow in 1903. Despite our lack of Russian ancestry, we were welcomed by the other parishioners and consider them our family.”

Continues Kelly, “I enjoy having a venue to share my creative endeavors and thoughts on a multitude of subjects, including faith issues.” A children’s author, Kelly’s board book Josiah and Julia go to Church was published by Conciliar Press, and Kelly also writes for her personal blog, A Day’s Journey.

Author Jan Bear attends St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Portland. “It’s a warm and friendly parish,” she notes, “made up mostly of converts but with immigrant parishioners from around the world. The parish puts a high value on aesthetics, from the very Northwest style of the new church building, to our choir, to the stunning frescoes and icons by Heather MacKean. We’ve got a more-than-representative number of writers in the parish. I’ve also recently taken on the task of revamping the parish website, but there’s nothing visible above ground yet.”

Jan is the author of Daily Prayer for Orthodox Christians, a handbook of the Hours of the Church for ordinary Christians in everyday prayer. She also helps authors and small-business owners meet their audience and express their message effectively through website creation, writing, and other methods, at MarketYourBookBlog.com.

Author and The Sounding blogger Bev Cooke has been writing for publication since 1989. She has three young adults books on the market: Keeper of the Light, about St. Macrina the Elder (Conciliar Press), Royal Monastic, a biography of Mother Alexandra of Romania (also Conciliar), and Feral, a mainstream novel (Orca Book Publishers). Her latest publication, a departure from her regular work, was an Akathist to St. Mary of Egypt published by Alexander Press. She wrote this partly as a response to the case of seventy missing women from downtown Vancouver’s east side, in a plea to St. Mary of Egypt to pray for those women and all street men and women.

Bev attends All Saints of Alaska parish in Victoria. “It really is like a family,” she says. “Like a family, we don’t get along all the time, but the bonds of our commitment to Christ and our love for each other, help us get past the difficulties. As a founding member, I was really busy in the parish for a number of years.” Among other things, Bev ended up as leader of “Sandwich Saturday.” “We prepare and give out bag lunches to people on the street on Saturday afternoons, hence the title.”

About her writing impulse, Bev notes, “there is so much richness in our faith, and I want to share that with people – both my brothers and sisters in the faith who haven’t maybe yet found some of the treasures I’ve stumbled across, and people in the secular world who don’t understand Eastern Christianity and are perhaps looking for exactly what we’ve got. Even if they’re not, if I can extend their understanding and tolerance of religion and religious people, then I think that’s a good and worthwhile goal.”

Authors Katherine Johnson and Heather Zydek round out the stable of OCA The Sounding bloggers. Katherine Johnson is a homeschool mother of seven who is in the midst of writing an Orthodox homeschool curriculum, first through twelfth grade, called Ages of Grace. Over two hundred families are using the curriculum in its first year and all sales of the curriculum benefit the building of an Orthodox mission in North Texas.

Heather Zydek is a writer, teacher, and Master Gardener who hails from the Midwest. She writes about the themes of environmental sustainability and caring for creation, as well as social justice. “If we look carefully enough,” writes Heather in her recent blogpost, “we can see God all around us. Of course, it’s easy to see God in the beautiful: in flowers, in the ocean, in the eyes of a newborn child. It can be harder to see God in a heaping pile of compost. And yet, there He is, demonstrating His Paschal gift to us in the most beautiful way.” Heather’s articles have appeared in numerous publications and on her website. She has also written two youth novels, Basil’s Search for Miracles and Stranger Moon.

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Orthodox Woman Resigns after being Banned from Wearing Her Cross

I can honestly say I can hardly believe it has come to this. And to think it happened the week before we celebrated the Life-giving and Saving Cross of our Lord. May God grant her eternal rewards for her confession of faith! Looks like it may be back to the catacombs here soon folks…

“Before Thy cross we fall down in worship, O Master”

(Source: Interfax)

London, March 19, Interfax – A parishioner of the Russian Assumption Cathedral in London had to resign after being prohibited from wearing a cross.

“This morning I talked to a woman who was forced to take off her cross at work a week ago. She preferred to resign. And the cross was not even visible! The woman asked to be allowed to wear it, promising to attach it to the body with duct tape to keep it from accidentally slipping from under her clothes, but they said it’s not allowed,” Archpriest Mikhail Dudko, the cathedral’s sacristan, said on Facebook.

He said the position of the British government, which opposes freedom to openly wear crosses, is understood by local authorities as “a total ban” and people with poor knowledge of the language and life in the UK “have virtually no chance of defending their rights.”

According to earlier reports, the British authorities intend to defend the legality of the ban on public wearing of crosses in the UK in the European Court of Human Rights.

The Strasbourg court will try lawsuits involving the religious discrimination against four Christians from the UK, who have lost their cases in British courts.

The Russian Church earlier expressed surprise about the loyalty of the British authorities, who have banned wearing crosses at work, to other symbols, for example, gay symbols.

“This decision made by the British parliament is certainly alarming, especially given the existence in modern European society of other tendencies aimed at liberating human instincts,” Vladimir Legoyda, the head of the Synodal Information Department, told reporters. He said he was surprised by the fact that public demonstration of affiliation with gay culture is considered normal in the UK while the wearing of crosses is not. Among the examples of double standards Legoyda named the British authorities’ stance on Sikhs, saying that even London police officers are officially allowed to wear turbans, which are Sikh symbols.

Among the four cases to be tried in Strasbourg is a claim filed by a woman who was suspended from her job with British Airways several years ago for refusing to take off her cross, which she wore on top of her uniform.

The other claimants are Shirley Chaplin, who had worked as a nurse for 30 years before being fired for wearing a cross at work, Lillian Leidel, an official with a London civil registry office, who was subjected to disciplinary punishment for refusing to register a gay marriage for religious reasons, and Garry McFarlane, a resident of Bristol, a former employee of a firm providing confidential consultations to gay couples, who was fired because he had difficulty working because of his religious beliefs.

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South Korea

Agape Vespers, St. Nicholas Cathedral, Seoul, South Korea 2006

A photo from our days working in South Korea. Sometimes we really miss it. God willing, we’ll return someday.

On the far left is Archimandrite Feophan, now Bishop Feophan of Tyva.

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Why We Left Home and Came to the Land God Showed Us: Greece

(Originally posted on OCN’s The Sounding)

The divine Psalmist petitions, “Hearken O daughter, and see, incline thine ear; and forget thine own people and thy father’s house,” and in moving to Greece we did just that. We left all those comforts behind, moved half-way around the world, and subjected ourselves to whatever this foreign country would throw at us. From the moment we encountered Orthodoxy all we wanted was to learn the Orthodox faith. And so, we came to Greece to study and learn as much as possible about living as Orthodox Christians.

It wasn’t the first time we had moved away; in fact we moved to Greece from South Korea. Having already made one move half-way around the world, we thought we might as well do it again, this time in the other direction, and in a country which has Orthodox churches on every corner. We had returned home to Canada for only a short one-month visit between the continents. But the adventure of living in Korea wasn’t for nearly as noble reasons as those for coming to Greece; but that’s another story.

Since my husband wanted to continue his education, and we had heard of a Greek Language program offered in Thessaloniki that enables its students to enter the University after successful completion of exams, we decided to move here for studies.

Now I’ll be honest, I had a romantic view of Greece, despite the advice of others. One older Greek nun I met before I left Canada even advised: “Don’t look anywhere in Greece! Don’t listen to anyone! Things aren’t the way they used to be.” But I couldn’t help myself. Every crazy person I encountered on the street I took to be a fool-for-Christ. I believed every housewife ceaselessly said the Jesus Prayer. I considered every priest to have attained illumination, and I expected to just soak it all in while studying Modern Greek – a language I only knew the alphabet of before moving here. I thought this way, that is, until the first time I attempted to receive Holy Communion alongside a large crowd of Greek women.

When the priest came out of the altar with the chalice all the women decided to huddle in front of the church, blocking the path to Holy Communion. I realized afterward they were waiting for antidoron (blessed bread); but I didn’t know that while patiently awaiting my turn to receive. And I never thought – nor knew the language – to ask whether or not they planned to receive. Once the priest went back into the altar, however, I realized I had missed my chance to commune! At that moment all of my unfounded, high opinions of the average Greek just flew out the blue and red stain-glassed windows. I should never have been so quick to judge others – yes, even thinking highly of a person is judging them; it’s forming a judgment on their character without cause. Needless to say, although I was very upset, my feet touched down on real Greek soil for the first time, and I began taking with sobriety what Greece had to offer.

Countless blessings have come as a result of sticking it out in Greece, facing the unknown, and putting ourselves in humiliating situations (read: learning a second language when I spent twelve years attempting to learn French only to remember Je m’appelle - and that only to say, not spell).

We have made countless pilgrimages to holy monasteries, crawled into holy caves, walked through forests to reach holy springs, and each time we have marvelled that we walked on holy ground. We live in Thessaloniki – the city St. Paul wrote to, visited, wept over. The city St. Demetrios has fought for, even after his martyric death. The city that St. Gregory Palamas, as Archbishop, guided, instructed, reprimanded, and loved.

We have been to places where saints, both old and new, living and reposed, have dwelt. We have kissed fragrant relics, and taken the blessing of more than one living saint. We have attended services in churches older than anything one can find in North America, and listened to contemporary homilies that made us think we were hearing St. John Chrysostom preach about the hippodrome. We strive to take in all the blessings Greece offers, knowing we will long for these days when we return home. But, we also strive to take them in because we know that being able to share all the blessings we receive is an added bonus.

Having said all that, actually settling down in Greece was about as difficult as writing about the good aspects of Greece is easy. Our years spent here have been anything but trouble-free, but they have also been filled with the benefits that come from suffering.

We moved away from home, forgot our people, our language, our “father’s house,” all because we wanted to inherit the mindset of Orthodoxy. I don’t know if we have attained it. But we sure hope our continually renewed attempt will one day bear fruit, and on returning home we will be able to offer to our people the beauty we have received from this Orthodox country, Greece.

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Outline: “Following the Holy Fathers: Essays on the Patristic Tradition by Protopresbyter Theodoros Zisis”

Here is the outline for the upcoming book, Following the Holy Fathers: Essays on the Patristic Tradition by Protopresbyter Theodoros Zisis, translated and edited by Fr Deacon John Palmer (my husband), MA Durham University, PhD candidate at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. It consists of seventeen translations of Fr. Theodoros’ work, as well as an Introduction written by Fr. John. God willing, the book will be published by Orthodox Research Institute before the end of 2012.

Mosaic of St. Hierotheos the spiritual father of St. Dionysius, St. Dionysius church, Athens

A.        Introduction.

The Significance of the Holy Fathers.

B.         The Early Church.

Monasticism:  The Imitation of Christ and the Apostles.

The Apostle Paul as Archetypal Shepherd in the Patristic Works on the Priesthood.

Justin the Philosopher and Martyr:  One who tirelessly sought the Truth.

C.        The Age of the Three Hierarchs.

Consoling those who Mourn:  Saint Basil the Great’s letters of Consolation.

Marriage and Celibacy according to Saint Gregory of Nyssa.

The Raising of Children according to Saint John Chrysostom.

D.        The Age of the Christological Controversies.

The Interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer according to Saint Maximos the Confessor.

The Teachings of Abba Isaac the Syrian.

Passions and Virtues in the Teaching of Saint John Damascus.

E.         The Schism of the West.

Was Saint Photios the Great a Humanist?

The Social Teaching of Saint Gregory Palamas.

Saint Symeon of Thessaloniki:  Life, Writings, and Teaching.

The Authority of the Scriptures and Councils according to Gennadios II Scholarios.

 F.         The Kollyvades.

Basic Theological and Moral Themes in the ‘Teachings’ of Saint Kosmas the Aitolian.

 The Timelessness of the Teaching of Saint Athanasios of Paros.

 ’Western Influence’ and the Works of Saint Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain.

 G.        ‘The Saint of our Century’.

 The Character and Work of Saint Nekratios.

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OCN Blog: The Sounding

I’ve been a  bit more silent than usual the last few days because my husband and I were staying at a monastery outside of Thessaloniki since Wednesday. The sisters needed help replenishing their stock of incense so we volunteered to help them out. We had a wonderful time. We especially loved the vigil Wednesday night for the feast of Christ’s Presentation. And the snow that fell all over Greece on Thursday stayed for a whole two days!!! I was so happy. Growing up with nearly six months of winter in Canada makes a girl miss snow!

As I announced the other day, OCN has a new and improved list of contributors for its blog The Sounding. My post was published today. To read it go here. To read the other articles, see here.

P.S. Today begins the Triodion. I love the Triodion season, so full of zeal and anticipation of the Great Fast. Only Orthodxy has a three-week period of preparation for a 40-day preparation for Christ’s death and resurrection. I wish you all a good and fruitful Triodion season!

Receive us, Savior, in repentance as the Publican and have mercy on us!

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