THE THREE HIERARCHS: SAINT BASIL THE GREAT, SAINT GREGORY THE THEOLOGIAN AND SAINT JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

Each of these saints have their own feast day. St. Basil the Great, January 1; St. Gregory the Theologian, January 25; and St. John Chrysostom, January 27. This combined feast day, January 30, was instituted in the eleventh century during the reign of Emperor Alexius Comnenus. At one time a debate arose among the people concerning who of the three is the greatest? Some extolled Basil because of his purity and courage; others extolled Gregory for his unequaled depth and lofty mind in theology; still others extolled Chrysostom because of his eloquence and clarity in expounding the Faith. Thus some were called Basilians, others Gregorgians, and the third were called Johannites. This debate was settled by Divine Providence to the benefit of the Church and to an even greater glory of the three saints. Bishop John of Euchaita (June 14) had a vision in a dream: At first, all three of these saints appeared to him separately in great glory and indescribable beauty, and after that all three appeared together. They said to him, “As you see, we are one in God and there is nothing contradictory in us; neither is there a first or a second among us.” The saints also advised Bishop John that he write a common service for them and to order a common feast day of celebration. Following this wonderful vision, the debate was settled in this manner: January 30 would be designated as the common feast of these three hierarchs. The Greeks consider this feast not only an ecclesiastical feast but their greatest national school holiday.- Prologue of Ohrid

Abba Moses

The goal of our profession is the Kingdom of God. Its immediate purpose, however, is purity of heart, for without this we cannot reach our goal. We should therefore always have this purpose in mind; and, should it ever happen that for a short time our heart turns side from the direct path, we must bring it back again at once, guiding our lives with reference to our purpose as if it were a carpenter’s rule.
—Abba Moses

Verbosity

The more a man’s tongue flees verbosity, the more his intellect is illumined so as to be able to discern deep thoughts; for the rational intellect is befuddled by verbosity.
—St Isaac of Syria

A Word From The Fathers

It is not only passion-charged thoughts that sully the heart and defile the soul. To be elated about one’s many achievements, to be puffed up about one’s virtue, to have a high idea of one’s wisdom and spiritual knowledge, and to criticize those who are lazy and negligent – all this has the same effect, as is clear from the parable of the Publican and the Pharisee.
—Nikitas Stithatos

Pontifications

One blog that helped me deal with my Anglican doubts and struggles was Pontifications. Pontifications is a blog written by Fr. Al Kimel who is a former Episcopal priest who has recently converted to Roman Catholicism and has since been ordained a RC priest. In the early days of Pontification, Fr. Al shared his growing doubts of Anglican catholicity and his thoughts on Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism. This blog attracted very talented thinkers from Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism which made for some good discussions on catholicity. Fr. Al went to Rome and I went to Orthodoxy, but we both share the same concerns and critique of Anglican catholicity. His blog no longer allows for the great discussions that it was so well known for, but he still has a page dedicated to his thoughts on Anglicanism which can be read at Pontifications.

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The Greatest Kind OF Love

“Suppose you came to me, a priest at church and I kept glancing at my watch, worrying about my next appointment. You would be deeply hurt by this, because I would not be giving you my full attention. You would be less open than if you had my complete attention. You would be less open than if you had my complete attention that moment. You experienced my nervousness, my being ina hurry, my lack of attentiveness as a lack of interest in you. And this turns you off completely. So, almost automatically, by being completely present to people, by behaving as if the person who is with us at the moment is the only person who exists, by giving them our undivided attention when we are with them, a relationship can become more real, more loving, and more life-changing.

Being completely present to people may be the greatest kind of love we can give them. For in a strange way, we are giving them our whole attention. Perhaps this is the most real way to value a person as a human being- to really be with him and take him seriously as he is. A single such contact may change the whole direction of a life. So, descend with the mind into the heart to be completely present not only to God but also to people. It is a great act of love.”- From Confronting and Controlling Thoughts by Fr. Anthony Coniaris

You Are Where Your Mind Is

“The Fathers of the Philokalia keep emphasizing the importantance of guarding the mind so that it is completely present to the task at hand. They keep saying that wherever our mind is not, there is where we are not. A person, for example, may be in church or at home praying, but if his mind is not in his prayer,if, in his mind he is lounging on a beach in Tahiti, 6,000 miles away, then he is not present to God. He is not praying. Wherever our mind is, there is where we are. This happens often in life. Here are a few examples.

The middle-aged businessman seated at the family dinner table is concerned about his need for an operation, about the expenses involved, about the deadlines he must meet before he can take time off from his work, about possible complications following surgery, etc. These concerns pass through his mind to the extent that he is barely conscious of his food or of his loved ones sitting at the same table with him.

His son, eating at the same table, might be thinking about the girl he met between classes. Preoccupied with her, he is completely oblivious of his father and mother eating with him.

His mother sitting next to him at the table, might be worrying about something else that keeeps her attention from the family dinner and causes her anxiety.

None of these persons, although they are members of the same family and sitting at the same table, is present to each other. They are miles away from each other, wrapped up in their own thoughts and fears about tomorrow. Not being really present, they are complete strangers to each other….

Thus, we are to descend with the mind into heart not only when speaking to God but also when relating to our loved ones in order to be completely present to them, mind, heart and soul.”- From Confronting and Controlling Thoughts by Fr. Anthony Coniaris

Venerable and God-bearing Father Anthony the Great

“Anthony was an Egyptian and was born about the year 250 A.D. in the village of Koman near Herculea. Following the demise of his noble and wealthy parents, he divided the inherited estate with his sister, who was a minor, and provided for her with some relatives. Anthony distributed his half of the estate to the poor and, he, in his twentieth year, dedicated himself to the ascetical life for which he yearned from his childhood. In the beginning Anthony lived a life of asceticism in the proximity of his village but, in order to flee the disturbances of people, he withdrew into the wilderness on the shore of the Red Sea, where he spent twenty years as a recluse not associating with anyone except with God through constant prayer, reflection and contemplation, patiently enduring unspeakable temptations from the devil. His fame spread throughout the entire world and many disciples gathered around him whom he placed on the path of salvation by his example and words. During the eighty-five years of his ascetical life, only twice did he go to Alexandria. The first time to seek martyrdom during the time of the persecution of the Church and, the second time at the invitation of St. Athanasius, in order to refute the accusation of the Arians: supposedly that he, too, was an adherent of the Arian heresy. Anthony died in the one-hundred fifth year of his life, leaving behind an entire army of his disciples and imitators. Even though Anthony was not a scholar, nevertheless, he was a counselor and teacher of the most learned men of that time, as was St. Athanasius the Great. When certain Greek philosophers tempted him with literary wisdom, Anthony shamed them with the question: “Which is older, the understanding or the book? Which of these two was the cause of the other?” Ashamed, the philosophers dispersed for they perceived that they only had literary knowledge without understanding and Anthony had understanding. Here is a man who attained perfection in as far as man, in general, can attain on earth. Here is an instructor to instructors and a teacher to teachers, who, for a full eighty five years perfected himself and only in that way was he able to perfect many others. Filled with many years of life and great works, Anthony died in the Lord in the year 335 A.D.”- The Prologue of Orhid

O Father Anthony,
By your zeal you equaled Elijah;
You imitated the life of John the Baptist;
You founded a city in the wilderness;
You established the Church on the firm foundation of your prayers.
Pray to Christ our God
That our souls may be saved!

A Brief Description of My Journey to Orthodoxy

The following is a recent article I wrote for the parish news letter at Holy Trinity Orthodox Church in Santa Fe.

I grew up in an evangelical family who attended the local Methodist church where I was taught that the Bible and prayer are necessary parts of one’s daily life. The spiritual grounding that I received from my evangelical spirituality gave me a good foundation to build on in order to grow into a deeper Christianity. What I found troublesome about the evangelical Christianity of my youth was the watered down theology and the sentimental thread that seemed to run through its spirituality. The evangelical Methodist church that I grew up in taught me absolutely nothing about church history.

When I went off to college, I met some friends who were learning about Reformed theology in a Presbyterian church. Reformed theology is the theology that has been built on the theology of the Protestant Reformer John Calvin and is found today in conservative Presbyterian churches. Reformed theology is very logically rigorous and deeply rational, which I found as an improvement considering the watered down sentimental theology of my youth. I also learned about 500 years of church history that I had heard nothing about in my evangelical days. While my theology seemed to be deeper my spirituality became cold and dry. I also longed for a more historic and liturgical form of worship.

I went to a Reformed seminary in California where my wife and I started attending a Reformed Episcopal Church. It seemed to have some of the things that had been lacking in the Presbyterian Church. The theology was not sentimental and the worship was liturgical and reverent, which was something that was lacking in the Presbyterian Church. They also quoted the church fathers like St. John Chrysostom more than John Calvin. The spirituality seemed to be more alive than the cold Presbyterian spirituality. We really thought we had found our home so I transferred to a Reformed Episcopal Seminary in Louisiana where I graduated. I served an Episcopal parish in El Paso, Texas for one year and a Reformed Episcopal parish in Alpine, TX for 5 years.

Over time I began to realize that there is a plurality of theologies in the Anglican Church and what I believed to be true was not the core of Anglican belief but merely one of many options. I was basically teaching Orthodox theology in an Anglican parish and the more I grew to appreciate Orthodox theology the more I felt like a hypocrite in the Anglican Church. (The high church school of Anglican theology is very close to Orthodox theology, but it is only one of many schools in Anglicanism).

I began to think about the future of my parish in Alpine and thought that the next priest that followed me could be an evangelical Anglican and tear down everything that I had built at Holy Cross in Alpine. I then understood that the parish’s theology was dependent on me rather than the Church and Christ, so I asked the vestry (parish council) if they might consider becoming a western rite Orthodox parish. I also was concerned about the faith of my three children. If they moved away from my little Anglican parish would they find an Anglican parish somewhere else with the same high church theology? I also was dissatisfied with all Anglican attempts at defining the church as One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic in a way that was consistent with the Nicene Creed. The filioque clause in the Nicene Creed (and the Son) did not sit well with me either as well as many other things. In the end the vestry decided not to pursue Orthodoxy and so I resigned as their priest and Cathy and I left Alpine to pursue Orthodoxy in Alabama where we grew up.

Our family has found the fullness of the Faith that has been “once and for all delivered” in Orthodoxy. Orthodoxy has the best of all worlds without the extremes of evangelical sentimentalism or the cold rationalistic theology of the Reformed world. We have found the proper balance of spirituality connected with deep theology which is expressed in Orthodoxy as a faith of the “mind in the heart”. We have discovered a faith that treats Tradition and the Saints as alive rather than dead ideas that existed only in the past. We have been blessed with a Church which believes the best things that we believed as High Church Anglicans but now these beliefs exist at the heart of the Orthodox Church. We now have a faith that we can pass on to our children and hopefully they will pass that same faith down to their children. On February 18, 2006 we were baptized and chrismated as Orthodox Christians at St. Symeon’s Orthodox Church (OCA) in Birmingham, AL.

“We have seen the true light, we have received the heavenly Spirit; we have found the true faith, worshipping the undivided Trinity: for He hath saved us. “

The Holy Mountain Athos Responds To The Visit Of The Pope

Karyae, 30 December 2006.
The recent visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the Ecumenical Patriarchate on the occasion of the feast-day of Saint Andrew (30th November 2006) and thereafter the visit by His Beatitude the Archbishop of Athens Christodoulos (14th December 2006) gave rise to a multitude of impressions, evaluations and reactions. We shall bypass those things that the secular Press had evaluated as positive or negative, to focus on those things that pertain to our salvation, for the sake of which we abandoned the world to live in the barrenness of the Holy Mountain.
As Monks of the Holy Mountain, we respect the Ecumenical Patriarchate, under whose jurisdiction we fall. We honor and venerate the Most Holy Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and we rejoice in all that he has achieved and so diligently labored for, in his love of God, for the Church. We particularly commemorate the stolid and untiring defence of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, amid the many unfavorable conditions that exist, as well as the impoverished local Orthodox Churches and the care that is taken to project the message of the Orthodox Church throughout the world. Furthermore, we the Monks of the Holy Mountain honor the Most Holy Church of Greece, from which most of us originate, and we respect His Beatitude the Primate.
However, the events that took place during the recent visits of the Pope to Fanarion and of His Beatitude the Archbishop to the Vatican brought immense sorrow to our hearts.
We desire and we struggle all of our life to safeguard the trust of the Holy Fathers, which was bequeathed to us by the holy Founders of our sacred Monasteries and the blessed reposed fathers before us. We strive to the best of our ability to live the sacrament of the Church and the unblemished Orthodox Faith, according to what we are daily taught by the divine Services, the sacred readings, and the teachings in general of the Holy Fathers which are set out in their writings and in the decisions of the Ecumenical Synods. We guard our dogmatic awareness ?like the pupil of our eye?, and we reinforce it, by applying ourselves to God-pleasing labours and the meticulous study of the achievements of the holy Confessor Fathers when they confronted the miscellaneous heresies, and especially of our father among the saints, Gregory of Palamas, the Holy Martyrs of the Holy Mountain and the Holy Martyr Kosmas the First, whose sacred relics we venerate with every honor and whose sacred memory we incessantly celebrate. We are afraid to remain silent, whenever issues arise that pertain to the trust that our Fathers left us. Our responsibility, towards the most venerable fathers and brothers of the overall brotherhood of the Holy Mountain and towards the pious faithful of the Church who regard Athonite Monasticism as their non-negotiable guardian of sacred Tradition, weighs heavily upon our conscience,
The visits of the Pope at Fanarion and the Archbishops visit at the Vatican may have secured certain benefits of a secular nature, however, during those visits, various other events took place which were not according to the customs of Orthodox Ecclesiology, or commitments were made that would neither benefit the Orthodox Church, nor any other heterodox Christians.
First of all, the Pope was received as though he were a canonical (proper) bishop of Rome. During the service, the Pope wore an omophoron; he was addressed by the Ecumenical Patriarch with the greeting blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord as though it were Christ the Lord; he blessed the congregation and he was commemorated as most holy and His Beatitude the Bishop of Rome. Furthermore, all of the Popes officiating clergy wore an omophoron during the Orthodox Divine Liturgy; also, the reciting of the Lord’s Prayer, his liturgical embrace with the Patriarch, were displays of something more than common prayer. And all of this, when the papist institution has not budged at all from its heretical teachings and its policy; on the contrary, the Pope is in fact visibly promoting and trying to reinforce Unia along with the Papist dogmas on primacy and infallibility, and is going even further, with inter-faith common prayers and the pan-religious hegemony of the Pope of Rome that is discerned therein.
As for the reception of the Pope in Fanarion, we are especially grieved by the fact that all of the Media kept repeating the same, incorrect information, that the psalms that were (unduly) sung at the time had been composed by Monks of the Holy Mountain. We take this opportunity to responsibly inform all pious Christians that their composer was not, and could never be, a monk of the Holy Mountain.
Then there is the matter of the attempt by His Beatitude the Archbishop of Athens to commence relations with the Vatican on social, cultural and bio-ethical issues, as well as the objective to mutually defend the Christian roots of Europe (positions which are also found in the Common Declaration of the Pope and the Patriarch in Fanarion), both of which may seem innocuous or even positive, given that their aim is to cultivate peaceful human relations. Nevertheless, it is important that all these do not give the impression that the West and Orthodoxy continue to have the same bases, or lead one into forgetting the distance that separates the Orthodox Tradition from that which is usually presented as the European spirit. (Western) Europe is burdened with a series of anti-Christian institutions and acts, such as the Crusades, the Holy Inquisition, slave trading and colonization. It is burdened with the tragic division which took on the form of the schism of Protestantism; the devastating world wars, also the man-centered humanism and its atheist view. All of these are the consequence of Rome?s theological deviations from Orthodoxy. One after the other, the Papist and the Protestant heresies gradually removed the humble Christ of Orthodoxy and in His place, they enthroned haughty Man. The holy bishop Nicholas of Ochrid and Zitsa wrote the following from Dahau: What, then, is Europe The Pope and Luther…. This is what Europe is, at its core, ontologically and historically. The blessed Elder Justin Popovitch supplements the above:’The 2nd Vatican Synod comprises the rebirth of every kind of European humanism…. because the Synod persistently adhered to the dogma on the Pope’s infallibility» and he surmises: Undoubtedly, the authorities and the powers of (western) European culture and civilization are Christ-expellers. This is why it is so important to project the humble morality of Orthodoxy and to support the truly Christian roots of the united Europe; the roots that Europe had during the first Christian centuries, during the time of the catacombs and of the seven holy Ecumenical Synods. It is advisable for Orthodoxy to not tax itself with foreign sins, and furthermore, the impression should not be given to those who became de-Christianized in reaction to the sidetracking of Western-style Christianity, that Orthodoxy is related to it, thus ceasing to testify that it is the only authentic Faith in Christ, and the only hope of the peoples of Europe.
The Roman Catholics inability to disentangle themselves from the decisions of their pursuant (and according to them, Ecumenical) Synods, which had legitimized the Filioque, the Primacy, the Infallibility, the secular authority of the Roman Pontiff, created Grace, the immaculate conception of the Holy Mother, Unia. Despite all these, we Orthodox continue the so-called traditional exchanges of visits, bestowing honors befitting an Orthodox Bishop on the Pope and totally disregarding a series of Sacred Canons which forbid common prayers, while the theological dialogue repeatedly flounders, and, after being dredged from the depths, it again sinks down.
All indications lead to the conclusion that the Vatican is not orienting itself to discard its heretical teachings, but only to re-interpret them in other words, to veil them.
Roman Catholic ecclesiology varies, from one circular to the other; from the so-called open ecclesiology of the Encyclical “Ut Unum Sint”, to the ecclesiological exclusivity of the Encyclical “Dominus Jesus”. It should be noted that both of the aforementioned views are contrary to Orthodox Ecclesiology. The self-awareness of the holy Orthodox Church as the only One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church does not allow for the recognition of other, heterodox churches and confessions as sister churches. Sister Churches are only the local Orthodox Churches of the same faith. No other homonymous reference to sister churches other than the Orthodox one is theologically permissible.
The Filioque is promoted by the roman catholic side as yet another legal expression of the teaching regarding the procession of the Holy Spirit, and theologically equivalent to the Orthodox teaching that procession is only from the Father a view that is unfortunately supported by some of our own theologians.
Besides, the Pontiff is maintaining the Primacy as an inalienable privilege, as one can tell from the recent erasure of the title Patriarch of the West by the current Pope Benedict XVI; also from his reference to the worldwide mission of the Apostle Peter and his successors during his homily in the Patriarchal Temple, as well as from his also recent speech, which included the following: “…within the society, with the Successors of the Apostles, whose visible unity is guaranteed by the Successor of the Apostle Peter, the Ukrainian Catholic Community managed to preserve the Sacred Tradition alive, in its integrity” (Catholic Newspaper, No.3046/18-4-2006) .
Unia is being reinforced and reassured in many and various ways, despite the proclamations by the Pope to the contrary. This dishonest stance is witnessed, apart from other instances, by the provocative intervention of the previous Pope, John-Paul II, which led the Orthodox-roman catholic dialogue in Baltimore into a disaster, as well as by the letter sent by the current Pope to the Cardinal Ljubomir Husar, the Uniate Archbishop of Ukraine. In this letter dated 22/2/2006, the following is emphatically stressed: “It is imperative to secure the presence of the two great carriers of the only Tradition (the Latin and the Eastern)…. The mission that the Greek Catholic Church has undertaken, being in full communion with the Successor of the Apostle Peter, is two-fold: on one side, it must visibly preserve the eastern Tradition inside the Catholic Church; on the other, it must favour the merging of the two traditions, testifying that they not only can coordinate between themselves, but that they also constitute a profound union amid their variety”.
Seen in this light, polite exchanges such as the visits of the Pope to Fanarion and the Archbishop of Athens to the Vatican, without the prerequisite of a unity in the Faith, may on the one hand create false impressions of unity and thus turn away the heterodox who could have looked towards Orthodoxy as being the true Church, and on the other hand, blunt the dogmatic sensor of many Orthodox. Even more, they may push some of the faithful and pious Orthodox, who are deeply concerned over what is taking place inopportunely and against the Sacred Canons, to detach themselves from the corpus of the Church and create new schisms.
Thus, out of love for our Orthodoxy, but with pain as regards the unity of the Church, and with a view to preserve the Orthodox Faith free of all innovations, we proclaim in every direction that which was proclaimed by the Extraordinary, Double, Holy Assembly of our Sacred Community of the Holy Mountain on the 9th / 22nd of April 1980:
“We believe that our Holy Orthodox Church is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ, having the fullness of Grace and the Truth, and for this reason, an uninterrupted Apostolic Succession. On the contrary, the churche and the confessions of the West, having distorted the faith of the Gospel, the Apostles and the Fathers on many points, are deprived of the hallowing Grace, the true Sacraments and the Apostolic Succession.. .
Dialogues with the heterodox – if they are intended to inform them about the Orthodox Faith so that when they become receptive of divine enlightenment and their eyes are opened they might return to the Orthodox Faith are not condemned.
In no way should a theological dialogue be accompanied by common prayers, participation in liturgical assemblies and worship by either side and any other activities that might give the impression that our Orthodox Church acknowledges the Roman Catholics as a complete Church and the Pope as a canonical (proper) Bishop of Rome. Such acts mislead the Orthodox as well as the Roman Catholic faithful, who are given a false impression of what Orthodoxy thinks of them….
With the Grace of God, the Holy Mountain remains faithful – as do the Orthodox people of the Lord – to the Faith of the Holy Apostles and the Holy Fathers, and also out of love for the heterodox, who are essentially helped, when the Orthodox with their steadfast Orthodox stance point out the extent of their spiritual ailment and the way they can be cured.
The failed attempts for union during the past teach us that for a permanent union, according to the will of God, within the Truth of the Church, the prerequisite is a different kind of preparation and course, than those which were followed in the past and appear to be followed to this day”.

By all of the Representatives and Superiors of the common Assembly of the twenty Sacred Monasteries of the Holy Mountain Athos.