Fr Averky
21-04-2003, 11:40 AM
Dear in the Lord, James
I wish I knew from which Christian traditon you had arrived to the Ortodox church from. I have been Orthodox many years, and was a Roman Catholic when it was closer in time to Orthodoxy-services in a "foreign" language, candles, incense, priestly vestments, and devotion to the Virgin Mary and the Saints. During the intervening 40 years, much has changed, and much of that is gone.
Perhaps you might ask yourselves what it was that attracted you to Orthodoxy in the first place? Was it some sense of something lacking in your former Church? Did you have personal issues with its general structure and discipline, the theology, moral views, teaching authority, or world view and belief system? Did you have personal issues with your local pastor or congregation or did you feel simply uncomfortable?
In the United States, people are able to move from Church to Church almost at ease. Most congregations are quite open to newcomers,giving them time and space to adjust to the belief, form of worship and religious atmosphere that they have to offer.The "mainstream churches," Methodist, Lutherans, Presbyterians and Episcoplians have over the years generally blurred the lines of distinction between them, in some smaller towns sharing conregations, church structures, pastors, social and communion services. Baptists are more singularly structured, although they do have some divisions. Pentecostals and Evangelicals, generally are some form or other of Calvinists have a greater variety of congregants, "theologies," ministries, and so on, loosely united in the reliance on "Sola Scriptura," generally condemning the idea of Holy Tradition, liturgies, the cultus of Mary and the Saints, for they have dangerous overtones of the dread Papism, that "Whore of Babylon."
The striking difference with all of these groups James is that they, along with Roman Catholicism, have no clear idea and vision of the "Spiritual Life, or spiritual struggle. On the one hand, with Protestantism you have the church made up of millions of individuals, each with his or her free intepretation of Holy Scriptures, as can be thought up, and on the other hand Roman Catholicism, a ponderous and monolithic entity in which one man, who is "Christ on Earth, is the entire Church, holding all unto himself being not only "infallible" in matters of "Faith and Morals", but since the early 1950's, inspired by the Holy Spirit even in his theologicl "opinions." One of the dociments of Vaticn II states that he thoughts and ideas of the Holy Father are inspired by the Holy Spirit.
The Orthodox Church does not fall into either of these catagories. Divinely founded by Jesus Christ, continued by the Holy Apostles and spread throughout the world by their successors, defined by the Holy Seven Ecumenical Councils, which the inspiration of the Holy Spirit inspired and clarifed, the Canon of the Holy Scriptures, the Holy Apostolic Canons, and, as equally important - Sacred Tradition, and the Church's Teachings and Dogmas.
For the most part, most part in the United States, the majority of Christian groups have no knowledge of the Early Church, imagining, as it were that Christianity was founded in a Revival tent in rural Nebraska in the 1860's. Although every word in the Bible, especially the words of Jesus are considered to be inspired and true, they overlook the fact that God commanded that the Ark of the Convenant be guarded by two gold Cherubs, that when the Philistines lowered the body of a sick (or dead) man to touch the bones (relics) of one of the Prophets he was healed, that when Job was suffering, but never lost faith in God, God commanded his doubting friends to "pray to Job," and that when Abraham 'bargained with God to spare the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah if so many were found to be just - these were early examples of intercession by the Saints. How many times had God decided to utterly destroy the people of Israel when he was convinced to do other wise by those who loved Him?
St. James said that if anyone was sick, they should call in the elders to pray over him and anoint him with oil, and he would be healed (the Mystery of Holy Unction) St. James also adjures the Early Christians to confess to their sins to one another, and Christ Himself gave the Apostles the authority to bind loose sins, both on earth and in heaven. ( Priestly authority to hear confessions and forgive sins or to put someone under ban) St. James also pointed out that faith withoutworks is basically of no use. When the Archangel Gabriel announced the Good News to Mary that she would be the Mother of the Messiah, she said "henceforth, all generations will called me Blessed." A young girl, the fiancee of a yoing mean I know, soon to be received into Orthodoxy, asked her Evangelical minister brother, who scoffed at the Virgin Mother of God, asked him "Do you believe that Jesus Christ is God and the Son of God? "Of course, "Her brother answered, "without a doubt! His sister replied, "Then if this true, and you believe it to be true, then does it not follow that the Woman who would be Christ's Mother would have to be a very a pure, spiritual, special and holy woman, not just any woman out of the street?" Her brother remained silent.
James, do you not recall how the woman was healed of her infirmity of simply being in the shadow of St Peter, and how St Paul travelled and witnessed and brought many to Christ? St John of Kronstadt, St. Nektarios of Pentapolis, and St. John of Shanghai and San Franciso did not live in the first centuries of the Church -St. John of Kronstadt died in 1908, St. Nektarios died in 1920, and St, John of Shanghai in l966. All of these men were living, loving, highly visible and approachable people -they did not live in some spiritually high plane - they witnessed and comforted the suffering of every day people, the poor, the homeless, the neglected, They made the most wretched people realize that they too were created in the image and likeness of God, worthy of dignity and respect. All three of these men worked countless and yet visible, known and recorded miracles not only after their deaths, but during their entire lives, hearing all who came to them and coming to their aid. The Elders of the Optina Hermatag looked into the hearts of tens of thouasnds of people, giving them comfort and solace, seeing to their spiritual and physical needs. The Holy New Martyrs of Russia, in the tens of millions, did not die in the 1st to 3rd centuries - they died during the first decades of the twentieth .In one year, 1937, an estimated 275,00 bishops, monks, priests and nuns were brutally tortured and murderd. The vast majority of them were simple servants of God, living their lives quietly and in obscurity, praying for their souls and the souls of fallen Mankind.
The Orthodox Church is not some exotic religion, with wafting incense and solemn saints looking down from their places on the wall. The Orthodox is not some fanciful relic of antiquity, preserving itself as some sort of a quaint museum piece, peopled by quixotic foreigners and eccentric conveerts. Nor is it some neo-gnostic institution, bearing strange secrets known only to the elect. No James, Jesus Christ, who is the Truth, which is the the Holy Scriptures, which is the Holy Orthodox Church which is that which was Given to us by Jesus Christ Himself when He said to His disciples to "Go baptize all nations in the name of the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit."
Othodoxy is not a "feel good" religion, we are not possessed of fat cat televangelists, stuffed into expensive suits wearing gaudy diamond rings or velvet dresses with far too many bows and ribbons looking like an old Barbie dolls proudly giggling about wonderful lives, and asking for prayer requests and "love' offerings, never speaking of sin or repentance, or sorrows, or loneliness. We do not call people up to a stage before a stadium-sized audience, throwing people on the floor who shout out about their healings.Nor do we have church service in which people roll on the floor laughing uncontrallably or oinking like pigs..If you listen to these people carefully James, you will see that in a most subtle manner, the majority of these people are actually Arians, taling about "Jesus is the only son of God, never that He is God, and they have no notion whatsoever who the Holy Spirit.
James, our Divine Services are all based on the truths of the Holy Scripture -the words of the Prophets, the Laws of God given to Moses, man's anguish as seen in the Psalms. The Holy Gospels and Epistles are read, and the verses of the Divines clearly articulate the teachings of the Church by men inspired by the Holy Spirit, not composers for Gospels hymns written for drivers of eighteeen wheelers. I am not demeaning these good people, but there are those who give them more credence than the Early Fathers of the Church.Once I was giving a tour of my church to a group of Pentacostal ministers, one of which asked me if I believed in the bible. I politley asked him by whose authority was the bible assembled, when was it assembled, and where? No one could answer.
Protestantism grew out of Western Europeans being fed up with the excesses and abuses of the Papcy eagerly selling induglgences in order to raise cash for the Papal coffers and to build a sumptuous new St. Peter'sbasilica on Rome and its various groups grew out of the opinion of men; Zwingli and Luther condemned the Papacy, Calvin and Luther then argued and Calvin taught the salvation of only the Elect and "irresitable grace." Henry VIII wanted to get married again, John Knox, made prior of an abbey at 13, murdered a cardinal, and pushed Scotland into Protestantism. The French Catholics murdered Cathars, Huegenots, and Albignesians. Catholics in Spain murdered Jews, Muslims and supposed heretics. In Hungary, Catholic city councilmen were tossed out of the window. In the new world, Joseph Smith received a history of Jesus's life in America, the Millerites sat around in white robes, waiting to ascend to heaven, and Mary Baker Eddy was buried with a telephone in her coffin, so she could "call in," when she was ready to return to earth. In the South, "Snake Handlers," played with venemous snakes, proving their sancticty by not being bitten. (sometimes, they were..) James, do these beliefs make more sense to you than you idea of Orthodoxy as being too "lofty," "foreign," or "exotic? James. all of hese are the teachings of men, far from the Truth of the Gospel.
When you came into the Orthodox Church, you "put on Christ," dying to the "old man," desiring to be the new. Christ said that if we are to follow Him, we must take up our cross -we must struggle against sin and the passions, but we have the firm assurance of a loving and merciful God, who "desires not the death of a sinner, but that he be converted and live." How can it be that a person can be saved wheter he will or not, that no matter what sins he might have, or whatever lack of faith he shows, or whatever heresy he holds, he has no choice but to be "Saved." Does that make sense to you? If you want to be all warm and fuzzy, and be lulled into the cozy feeling that you are already saved, that you can go to your large mass congregtion with its musical spectaculars, with rock bands for the youth and slick pastors who went to a Bible College. Or if you want to have a lesbian bishop or a gay pastor or a same -sex marriage ceremony, or bishop or priest who does not believe that Jesus was Divine or bodily rose from the dead or if you want to believe communion is a piece of bread and grape juice, then all of America is open to you. But if you wish to be a partaker of Christ's Divine nature, and be fed with the bread of the Life, if you want to counted with the Prophets and Martyrs, Fathers, Mothers and Saints and simple folk of Christ's Holy Church, then Orthodoxy is for you -the choice is yours, you are free
In Christ,
Hieromonk Averky...
Richard Leigh
21-04-2003, 06:00 PM
Hi James,
I think first and foremost is for you and your wife to recognize where these negative debiltating influences you describe are coming from.
I believe that others will coroborate that they can be coming either from what we call "the flesh", society, or the world in which we live (but are no longer "of")or from the evil one, the father of lies, or any two or three of the above, since our enemies are the world, the flesh and the devil.
Remember that the devil is never so bothersome as when he perceives he needs to be, that is, when a sinner gets nearer to Christ and the truth.
With regard to "the rules" which are sounding louder now than the original sound of grace and love you heard that attracted you to the church, it is well to realize that they are not meant in the way "church rules" are meant when given in our worldly western context. The frailty of the human condition is an undergirding given in the wisdom of the fathers. "Economy" is the term that denotes "flexibility" in the application of those rules. Everything is arranged to facilitate growth and healing in the church, it is as unwise to take on more than you have trained for in spiritual matters as it is in gymnastic ones.
In the meantime, the feeling of accusation you and/or your wife experience should be taken to the cross. Let the Accuser of the bretheren make his accusations of Christ Himself, in whom you live and breath and have your being!
BTW, if you haven't already, you might get a copy of "The Illness and Cure of the Soul" by Vlachos.
Richard
Clark Carlton
24-04-2003, 01:32 AM
Dear James,
I sympathize with your predicament, and I want to add a couple of observations to the comments you have already received.
First of all, the fact that you are bothered by "going through the motions" is a GOOD thing. It shows that you are serious about your spiritual life. Do you realize how many thousands of Orthodox "go through the motions" every Sunday and are not bothered by it in the least? It is a great tragedy. Remember, indifference is the opposite of faith, not doubt and struggle.
Second, as others have posted. The author of the feelings you are having is the father of lies. Satan wants nothing more that to keep us from the Holy Eucharist, which is the "medicine of immortality." Satan doesn't have to bother, however, with people who are unconcerned about their salvation. So, the fact that you are struggling is a sign that you are alive!
Third, as far as the sermons about the saints are concerned, I know exactly how you feel. They often feel so distant, mythic. I would suggest you read the biographies of some contemporary saints such as St. Nectarius, Elder Porphyrios of Greece, etc. I esp. like "Man of God", about St. John of San Francisco. When you read these, don't dwell on the miracle accounts (of which there are many). Focus instead on the personality of these saints. You will notice that they ALL have at least two things in common: a profound humility that issues in an unconditional love for all people and all things. THAT is what we are called to strive for: not miracles, but saving humility. "Acquire inner peace," says St. Seraphim, "and thousands around you will be saved."
Fourth, as others have mentioned, the "rules" of the Church are not ends in and of themselves, they are therapies and guides for our spiritual develoment so that we might obtain purity of heart. Life for me was much easier as a baptist: no fasting, no confession, no 4hr services. But I can tell you in all honesty, that if I were not Orthodox, I would have long ago and unapologetically given in to my passions. Without the "rules" of the church I would have nothing with which to fight the passions, and having lost that battle I would be unable to see Jesus. Remember, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." The rules don't keep us from Christ, our passions do.
Finally, I am curious why you haven't spoken about this to your parish priest. I cannot emphasize strongly enough that it is ESSENTIAL that you have a spiritul father (or even mother). If a man who has himself for a lawyer has a fool for a client, then the man who has himself as his own spiritual guide is the biggest fool in the world. If for some reason your parish priest cannot fulfill this role for you, then you need to find someone to fill it. (your spiritual father does not have to be your parish priest, or even in your jurisdiction. I'm technically in the OCA, attend an Antiochian parish, and my spiritual father is the abbot of a ROCOR monastery). I don't know what part of the country you are from, but you might try contacting Fr. Joseph Morris of Ss. Constantine and Helen church in Indianapolis (OCA). You can get his # and email from the oca website. He might can give you the names of people in your area that can help you. I mention him because I have heard him speak before and have even gone to confession to him once at a conference. He has a very good pastoral sense.
I hope this helps, and pray that you will recover some of your lost joy as we ascend Golgotha and participate in Christ's holy Passover.
Fr Averky
26-04-2003, 07:02 AM
Dear James,
Sometimes we try to look at our spiritual problems with worldy eyes. Pascha is here - the time of triumph over Death. As in the hymn of the Cherubs, let us put away all worldy cares. Like with any problems we face in our lives, if we concentrate on them too much , they begin to take on a life of their own, overwhelming us and keeping us from focusing on the many blessings and mercies we receive fom God on a daily basis. He has taken upon Himself all of our sins, trials and fears, He says, "Come unto Me all you who are weary.. and I will will give you rest. Put your doubts and fears to rest now - let Our God take care of it, for if we truly believe that He can and Will, then why should we lose time fretting, when we should be praying, and rejoicing in our salvation, thanking God for all that He has done for us. It is the Bright Pascha of the Lord -Rejoice!
In the Risen Christ,
Father Averky
Martha Columba
24-11-2004, 07:55 PM
Hello all,
Thought I would let this thread bubble to the top -- so many wonderful posts above.
I am writing to ask for prayer for my husband and me. Because of some tough life experiences, I feel called to become Orthodox, and have spoken with our local priest. Luckily we live in a major city, and there are many Orthodox parishes (though we live closest to the GO Cathedral). I have been praying in the words of the Fathers during the sad times for my family over the years, and attending Divine Liturgy when I could/participating online via goach.org.
I'd like us both to become inquirers, but husband comes from a more evangelical background than me (same denomination, 180 degrees apart liturgically) and is caught up on veneration of icons, etc., and the fact that people dress modestly for Liturgy (he sees this as dressing up/doing it for parishoners' approval, not as being respectful during Liturgy).
We'll attend a nearby parish church this Sunday instead of the Cathedral. I think the increased use of English and more suburban, less-formal feel of things may move his heart during Divine Liturgy.
Please pray for us as we are expecting our first child, and having disagreements about Baptism. I would hope to continue being an inquirer until Father thinks the time is right for the whole family, which could be May 2005 onwards. My patron is Martha, and my husband's name is Brian.
Many thanks for reading this and for your kind prayers.
In Christ
Martha
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