St



St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church

67 Saratoga St. Cohoes, NY 12047

Church Basement: 235-7355



Church Bulletin

July/August 2013

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Venerable Pacho e Gounde r of Coenobitic Monasticism

Venerable Pachomius the Great, Founder of Coenobitic Monasticism

St. Olympias Deaconess of Constantinople

Celebrated July 25th

Archpriest Daniel Pavelchak, Pastor Emeritus, 238-4234

Priest Terenti Wasielewski, Assigned, 753-4958, 369-2430 (cell)

Mark Wolosen, Chantor/Choir Director, 753-6163

Greg Wolosen, President of the Church Board, 253-1509

Victoria Serbalik, 1st Vice President (social matters), 371-2776

David Oreshan, 2nd Vice President (cemetery matters), 785-8560

MEMORIALS:

Commemorations for the months of July/August include:

PTML: July: Jacob Jakymuk, Gus Prodanovich

August: Kathryn Jakymuk, Eva Piterniak, Andrew Piterniak, John Piterniak, Kuzma Hanchovsky, Rose Peplowski,

Annual: July: Helen, Peter, Dimitri Kondrat, Thomas Docous, Delores Docous

August: John, Anthony, Joseph, Philip, Anna Gydamshuk, Zigmund Peplowski, Lucrezia Francese

Newly departed: Protodeacon Basil Andruchow (brother-in-law of Stephanie Stroyen)

Jacob Oreshan

PRAYER REQUESTS (please remember these names in your prayers):

Archpriest Daniel, Archpriest Stephen, Archpriest Alvian, Archpriest Alexi, Michael, Helen, Helen, Stephen, Helen, Pauline, Richard, Nathan, Jessup, Wendy, Cynthia, David, Marjorie, Vladimir, Theodore, Alex, Mary, Vladimir, Mary, Donna, Natasha, Alexander

CONGRATULATIONS:

On Sunday June 16th Greg Wolosen replaced Michael Melin as director of the choir at St. Basil’s in Watervliet. He did an outstanding job directing. Many years!

FROM THE PASTOR’S DESK:

July 14th, Animal blessing

On Saturday, July 20th at 12:00 we will be celebrating the Feast of St. Seraphim of Sarov (transferred from July 19th) and blessing of all animals at the cemetery grounds.

July 21st , Semi-annual meeting, Sunday following the Divine Liturgy

If anyone wishes to have discussion items at the semi-annual meeting, please give them to Greg Walko or Vicky Serbalik by July 14th.

July 27th, Saturday 9:30 am, Divine Liturgy at Eddy Nursing Home Cohoes

We will be celebrating Divine Liturgy at the Marjorie Doyle Rockwell Center where Fr. Daniel Pavelchak is a resident.

August 18th – 31st, church painting

During the two week period, the Ladies Altar Guild will be funding the painting of the church. We will be renting a tent at the cemetery and having Divine Liturgy at the cemetery on Sunday August 25th and possibly the next Sunday as well. We will also be removing the paintings on the north and side walls due to condition. If anyone is interested in donating new icons for those walls, please see Fr. Terenti.

Sept. 9-11, carpeting

During the above days, new carpeting will be installed in the church.

IN THE NEWS

The Date of Orthodox Easter in Finland and Estonia

By John Sanidopoulos

Many Orthodox Christians are scandalized over the fact that some fellow Orthodox Christians in Finland and Estonia celebrate Easter according to the reckoning of the Gregorian Calendar rather than the Julian Calendar. The fact remains however that the reason these special cases exist are more complicated historically and canonically than is generally assumed.

The early 20th century Calendar issue in the Orthodox Church is a very complicated issue. The issue essentially rested on the case of whether or not the Church should have a separate official calendar from the State in which its people resided and worked. In some nations the issue was much more complicated than others. For example, with the separation of Church and State in Russia under the Bolsheviks, it was determined by the State to force the Russian Church into accepting the Gregorian Calendar which the Bosheviks accepted civilly in January of 1919. Patriarch Tikhon at that time in 1919 was against this because he considered the issue an ecclesiastical one and did not want to be forced by the State to accept a Calendar reform, and wrote a Letter (No. 464/21 January 1919) to the Mother Church under Ecumenical Patriarch Germanos V (1913-1918) to help settle the controversy. Patriarch Tikhon considered the change of calendar by any autocephalous Church should be on a Pan-ecclesiastical level. Ecumenical Patriarch Germanos determined that the Russian Church was not to change the calendar until a Synod determined whether or not this should be done and how it was to be done. Plus, it was viewed by all the Orthodox Churches at the time that the Gregorian Calendar was not as accurate as it should be, therefore a new determination by their own experts were to be consulted to form a new calendar. When the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and a Pan-Orthodox Congress did determine a more precise formulation in 1924, the Reformed Julian Calendar, Patriarch Tikhon, who had a disposition to change, did not move forward due to many factors. Among the factors as to why the Russian Church was unable to change calendars at the time were: the locking up of the churches and confiscation of Church property (Decree of January 23, 1918); the desecration of the Christian graves and the destruction of the relics of the saints (Encyclical Order of March 1, 1919); the famine of 1921; localization of Patriarch Tikhon (May 10, 1922), and the appearance of the "Living Church" and the schismatic movement (beginning of 1923).

Due to the pressures of the State and threats of schism, Patriarch Tikhon in his 1919 Letter to the Ecumenical Patriarch did desire a quick solution to the calendar issue. Among the issues he addressed in his letter was to end the affliction of Orthodox who were living in places where they were a minority and where the civil Law didn't take into consideration the Orthodox ecclesiastical order.

Patriarch Tikhon to this aspect of the calendar problem very correctly gives great importance. According to notes made in his Letter, they were in a difficult position because of the parallel daily use of the two calendars; the one for daily life and vital relations, and the other for the liturgical practices of the Church. For example, Patriarch Tikhon refers to the case of the Orthodox in Finland, where the majority were Lutherans, who had accepted the new calendar. A custom for celebrating the Divine Liturgy in the Orthodox Churches for the days of Christmas, Annunciation and other Christian feasts on the same day as the Lutherans was established to blunt the sharp difficulties the Orthodox had reached. Orthodox were going to Finnish churches to celebrate the feasts for these days.

The reason for which this measure was decided was to occupy the Orthodox population during this involuntary holiday with something which would produce a spiritual profit, but also to be protected from the "bait" of visiting a Lutheran mass. After the political alteration in 1917 when Finland was proclaimed an independent state (in July of 1919 it became a Republic), the Pan-Russian Synod, as Patriarch Tikhon states in his Letter, was obliged to allow to the Finish Orthodox parishes to celebrate according to the new calendar. Christians in other places could be found in the same or similar position, where new separate states were formed, for example Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and generally where the Orthodox constituted a minority.

The Orthodox Church of Finland

In November 1918 an edict by the Finnish government granted the Orthodox Church of Finland the status of the second national church of the country, after the Lutheran, with all attendant rights and privileges. However, due to the Russian Revolution in 1917, Finland sought to distance itself more and more from Russia, which forced Patriarch Tikhon to officially grant the Finnish Orthodox autonomy in 1921. Under the complex political circumstances, in order not to seem 'pro-Russian', the Finnish Church urged towards reforms allowed previously by Patriarch Tikhon, and in October of 1921 it adopted the Gregorian Calendar and began to celebrate Western Easter. The autonomy of the Finnish Orthodox proved to be difficult for them and they felt cut off from both Russia and Constantinople, therefore they chose their only option at the time, which was to become an autonomous archbishopric of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1923. For the sake of unity in Finland after the Soviets invaded part of the country and divided the faithful of Finland, it was urged in 1925 by Bishop German (Aav) for all Orthodox in Finland to adopt the Gregorian Calendar. Many refused, such as the fathers of Valaam Monastery, and therefore fled to countries where they could preserve the Julian Calendar, such as the Soviet Union or Serbia.

The Orthodox Church of Estonia

The issue of Calendar reform in Estonia has many similarities with that of Finland. It also was under the Russians with a majority German Lutheran population, and following the Russian Revolution of 1917 Estonia sought more and more to distance itself from the Bolsheviks. The General (clergy-laity) Assembly in 1919 sent the corresponding appeal for independence to the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. On June 15, 1920, the Synod decided to grant the Church of Estonia autonomy in economic, administrative and educational matters and the right to use the Gregorian Calendar. Because of the complicated situation in Russia, and like Finland they felt the need to be connected with either Russia or Constantinople, the Estonian Church appealed to the Ecumenical Patriarchate. So, in 1923, a delegation of Estonian and Finnish Churches went to Constantinople to ask for a correct canonical status for the Church in a newly independent country. On June 7th, 1923, the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate issued the tomos of autonomy for the Estonian Orthodox Church.

Conclusion

The Finnish and Estonian Churches were always considered a special case regarding their adoption of the Gregorian Calendar for very sensitive reasons. There was intense pressure by the Finnish government to have the Finnish Orthodox adopt the Gregorian Calendar and distance itself as much as possible from the Russians. At just under 2% of the population, because of their adoption they were able to have equal privileges with the local Lutheran Church in Finland and it allowed for the flourishing of the Church in a time of persecution. It further allows the Church to be supported by the State from tax revenues. Today in Finland and Estonia the Orthodox Church has a very favorable position in society and its reforms are seen to be a positive thing. It was meant to be temporary until the issue could be brought up in a Pan-Orthodox Synod, but that has not happened yet. This is why the Finnish and Estonian issue was never controversial except by those who refuse to understand the situation and use it as a way to justify bad attitudes against the Calendar reform.

Former Taliban From Afghanistan Baptized at Mount Athos

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Ahmed was born and raised in a village in Afghanistan in the middle of war. His childhood memories are dust, poverty, and compulsory Islamic education in the sacred writings and war. "I do not remember anymore who fought whom, however there was constant warfare." For years he worked for the Taliban doing various things. He was a fanatical Muslim who belonged to so-called radical Islam. At some point he could no longer bear this sort of life - misery, poverty, violence, pain, and death which he saw everywhere.

At 23 he journeyed through the impassable mountains into Pakistan and then to Iran. His only "passport" was the common language of Farsi. He worked for two years there "without documents" and eventually arrived at the coast of Asia Minor in Turkey, which for him was the gate to the paradise of the West. One winter evening nine years ago, with an inflatable that children play with on the beaches, two oars and four to five bottles of water, he along with a friend jumped into the sea across from Lesvos, which seemed so close.

In his own words:"The sea was pitch black, it was a moonless night in the winter and very windy. We did not know how to swim. The waves looked like mountains to us. Somewhere in the distance a red light was flashing. The boat was like a nutshell in the waves. I soon realized that the journey to paradise was neither near nor easy. After about ten hours we came to the steep coast with rocks. We were in despair because we did not know if we would be able to climb it, it was so sharp. Eventually we climbed and came to an unpaved road. Before long we came to an elderly woman in black with a head-covering - we thought she was a Muslim - and with a child. My friend spoke a little English, but she nothing. With hand signals she showed us the way to a paved road and gave us a few coins, which we knew was all she had, in order to take the bus into the city. We arrived at the port and took the first ferry to Piraeus. At the door they caught us. After three months in a small reception center for immigrants that had many people like us, they gave us a map and we drove to Athens. I learned Greek and worked various jobs until I found a regular job with a company that placed solar panels. They payed me well, they wrote me up with the Social Insurance Institute, and I did my papers to receive political asylum. I worked for the same company in Athens for six years. All these years after work I would go to the outside of the churches in the beginning - something was pulling me there - and afterwards I began to enter within. I would become calm. As my Greek was getting better, I wanted to know more about Christ. I found a New Testament, however it was in a language I did not understand [Koine Greek]. Eventually I found a blue one in the Greek I had learned. I began to read it. I decided that I wanted to become a Christian. I left Athens when the company closed and went to the provinces to find various rural jobs. Eventually I found a small basement apartment in the city nearby. It had a beach. I like the beaches very much in Greece. Shortly before Pascha in 2013, I decided to ask to become a Christian."

On Wednesday June 5th, in the evening, on Mid-Pentecost according to the Old Calendar, on the balcony of the Athonite Cell of Marouda over Karyes, looking towards the Skete of Saint Andrew and the endless blue Aegean, the same sea he crossed one night from the opposite direction, under a beautiful sky and brilliant sun, Ahmed became a Christian. He took the name Alexander.

The Myrrhgushing Icon of St. Ephraim the New in Romania

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The icon above can be found at the Holy Monastery of Sihastria Rarau in Romania. It performs many miracles and is myrrhgushing.

It began in 2010 when a priest, Father Onufrie Căruntu, visited the Monastery of Saint Ephraim in Nea Makri and purchased an icon of St. Ephraim there for 15 euros. Upon returning to Romania, he brought it to his home. On Easter day in 2010 it began to flow with myrrh. Soon after very many miracles began to follow.

The blog of the Monastery can be found here:



A Romanian website dedicated to St. Ephraim's miracles in Romania is here:



Two books have so far been published in Romania with dozens of testimonies of miracles attributed to St. Ephraim of Nea Makri.

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The Persecution of Christians in Syria

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By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos

We are following whatever comes to light from the war occurring in Syria. Whatever is going on there is presented as a civil war, but in actuality other external powers are involved, that want to have influence in the region. On one side is Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and on the other side is Russia, Iran and China. Clearly we have here a geopolitical crisis, because Syria is in a critical area where many nations have interests.

However, that which escapes the attention of many is that in Syria there is a massacre of the Christian population. Recently there came to light the disclosure of the fact of the abduction of the Orthodox Metropolitan Paul and the Syro-Jacobite Metropolitan John-Ibrahim. It is a sad fact that shows the savage face of war in the region and its consequences. Yet, the problems are even worse for Christians.

Stathis Efstathiades ("To Vima tis Kyriakis" 05/19/2013) gives us important information and I will quote it below:

From a bulletin of the Commission of the EU on April 16 we are informed that the number of Christians that have been killed, murdered or are missing "it is believed to have surpassed 1,220". A Syro-Orthodox Clergyman of Amman (Monophysite) told the Arabic CNN that "we have a persecution equivalent to the massacre of Diocletian". He continued: "Those who did not manage to leave will have the fate of our fellow Orthodox in Iraq".

And because there is mention of the Christians in Iraq, we should record the statements of Nina Sia who is the spokeswoman for the American Commission on Human Rights, according to whom that during the two-year period of 2012-2013 in Iraq "a total 2,310 Iraqis, members of religious minorities of which Christians are the majority, were murdered, strangled and disappeared". Also, on Christmas in 2012 "there was not one church to liturgize", since they had been burned and destroyed, while most of the Clergy fled Iraq or went into hiding "because they are and remain the main target of Islamists". And these things are happening in Iraq after May of 2005, when the war "officially" ended. It seems that "there has begun an organized, systematic persecution of Iraqi Christians".

This year, which is 1700 years since the Edict of Milan (313 A.D.), which established freedom of religion in the Roman Empire, there are occurring terrible persecutions against Christians (Orthodox, Monophysite), who are being decapitated and killed, religious freedoms are being overturned and violence and inhumanity have returned.

Whatever is happening in Syria, in Iraq and in the eastern Nations, unfortunately is being done with the assistance, tolerance and participation of western Christian Nations, because above all there are economic factors.

And what are we Orthodox Christians to do? How do we react? Are we moved by the plight of our brethren? Does their drama concern us? Are we praying for them? Pained?

Genuine and False Experiences of the Grace of God

A recorded speech of Archimandrite George of our Holy Monastery of Saint Gregory of the Holy Mountain at Stratoni of Halkidiki, on 14/27 January 1989, at the invitation of the Most Reverend Nikodemos, Metropolitan of Hierissou, of the Holy Mountain and Ardameri.

I am very pleased seeing at this evening's meeting, a holy and blessed gathering, the honorable presbytery led by the preacher of the Holy Metropolis, but also yourselves, a pious crowd, who through the blessing and invitation of your Most Reverend Metropolitan and Head Shepherd, you are gathered here this evening so that all of us confess our true faith to our God-man Lord. Your presence this evening is not only the attendance for a lecture but also the testimony of the Orthodox faith, which my humility will profess by mouth while you profess it with your presence. And as the Lord said in the Holy Bible: "Whoever confesses Me in front of men, I shall confess him in front of My Father in the Heavens".

The purpose of our life, as you know, is our union with God. As the Holy Bible says, man was created "in the image and likeness" of God, namely to unite with Him. The likeness of man with God, our holy Fathers call it "theosis". Can you see how great is the purpose of man's life? Not simply to become better, more virtuous, more courteous, but a god by grace. And what is the difference between the Holy God and deified man? That our Maker and Creator is God by nature and according to His nature, while we become gods by grace, for although by nature we remain men, with His grace we are deified.

When man unites with God by grace, he receives also the experience of God, he feels God. For otherwise how could we unite with God without feeling His grace? The first-created in Paradise, before they sinned, could converse with God, could feel divine grace. God created man to be a priest, prophet, king. Priest to accept His existence and the world as gifts of God, and to offer in return himself and the world to God eucharistically and doxologically. Prophet to understand the mysteries of God. King to reign in the material creation and himself, and to use nature not as a tyrant but as a ruler. Not to abuse creation, but to use it thankfully. Today man does not use nature logically but acts selfishly and foolishly, with the result of destroying his natural surrounding and within it destroying himself.

If man had not sinned and replaced his love and obedience to God with his selfishness, he would not have separated from God, but would have been king, priest and prophet. However, our Holy God who hurts for His creature, wishes to return man back to the state where he again can become a true priest, prophet and king. To be able to again receive the experience of God and to unite with Him. For this, in the history of the Old Testament we see God preparing slowly the salvation of man with the coming of His Only Son. He thus gives graces like those that man had before his fall, like the grace of prophesy. In the Old Testament there were men, like the prophet Elijah, the prophet Isaiah, the prophet Moses, who received the prophetic grace and saw the glory of God. Except this grace was not generally given to all, nor was it for the full period of their lives, but was a partial grace that God gave them for a specific purpose and for defined occasions. Namely, whenever God wished these just men to declare the coming of Christ to the world or to declare His Will, they were given the capacity to receive some experiences and revelations.

However, the prophet Joel prophesied that a time will come when God will give the grace of the Holy Spirit not only to select men and for a specific purpose, but to all people. Here is what the prophesy of Joel says: "I shall pour My Spirit upon all flesh", I shall give My Spirit to every person, "and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions" (Joel 2:28). Namely, my people will see spiritual visions, will see the mysteries of God. This pouring of the Holy Spirit happened during Pentecost. Then the grace of the Holy Spirit was given to the whole Church. This grace was not given during the period of the Old Testament because Christ was not yet incarnate. The communion of man with God had to first be restored for God to give the grace of the Holy Spirit to all the people. This communion our Saviour Christ achieved through His Incarnation

The first union that God had with man in Paradise was not hypostatic and for this it failed. The second union is hypostatic, namely personal. In the hypostatic person of Christ, human nature was united undisturbed, properly, indivisibly, inseparably, with the divine nature forever. No matter how much men sin, it is no more possible for human nature to separate from God, because in Jesus Christ, the God-man, it is united forever with the divine nature.

For man therefore to be able to receive the Holy Spirit, to become priest, king and prophet, to know the mysteries of God and to feel God, he must become a member of the Body of Christ, of the Church. Jesus Christ is the only one, true and perfect priest, king and prophet. What Adam and Eve were created to do, they failed due to sin and selfishness, but was done by Christ. Now all of us, united with Christ, can partake in the three offices of Christ - the royal, the prophetic and the priestly. At this juncture we must clarify that with Holy Baptism and Chrismation, the Christian receives the priesthood but not the special priesthood that is obtained through tonsuring and through which the liturgists of the Church receive the grace to perform in the Church and to shepherd the laity.

Laity, again, is not only the non-priestly but those who through Holy Baptism and Chrismation receive the right to be members of the people of God and the Body of Christ, to participate in the three offices of Christ. In fact the more healthy, conscious and active a Christian member of the people of God and of the Body of Christ is, that much more closely he participates in the priestly, prophetic and royal right of Christ, and that much greater experience and feeling of His grace he receives as we see in the lives of the Saints of our Faith.

Forms of experience of the grace of God

What are the experiences of grace that a Christian can receive so that his faith and Christian life not be for him something mental and external, but a true spiritual feeling of God, a communion with God, a habitation of God in which the complete man participates.

It is foremost an internal information that through faith in God he finds the true meaning of his life. He feels that his faith in Christ is a faith that comforts him internally, that gives meaning to his life, and guides him, that it is a strong light that illumines him. When he perceives the Christian faith within himself this way, he begins to live the grace of God. God is not something external to him.

Another experience of the grace of God man receives is when he hears in his heart the invitation of God to repent of his dark and sinful deeds, to return to the Christian life, to confess, to enter on the path of God. This voice of God he hears inside him is an early experience of the grace of God. All those years he lived away from God he could not understand anything. He starts to repent: he confesses to the Confessor for the first time in his life. After confession he feels a great peace and joy that he never felt before. And then he says: "I have been comforted". This comfort is the visit of divine grace in a soul that has repented and God wishes to comfort it.

The tears of a repenting Christian when he prays and asks to be forgiven by God or when he confesses are tears of repentance. Those tears are very comforting. They bring lots of peace to the soul of man. Then man feels that these are the gifts and experiences of divine grace. The deeper man repents and comes to a greater love of God and prays with godly eros, that much more those tears of repentance become tears of joy, tears of love and divine eros. Those tears that are higher than the tears of repentance, are also a higher visitation and experience of the grace of God.

We approach to commune the Body and Blood of Christ having repented, confessed, and fasting with spiritual preparation. After Holy Communion what do we feel? Deep peace in our soul, spiritual joy. This too is a visitation of Divine grace and an experience of God. There are however other higher experiences of God. The higher experience of God is the vision of the uncreated Light. This Light the disciples of the Lord saw on the Mount of Transfiguration. They saw Christ shine like the sun with heavenly and divine light, which is not material, created light, like the sun and the other created lights. It was the uncreated Light, namely the Light of God, the Light of the Holy Trinity. Those who are completely cleansed from their passions and sin, and pray with true and pure prayer, they are found worthy of this great experience to see the Light of God in this life. This Light is what will be shining in eternal life. Not only can we see eternity from now, but we can also see from now this Light. For this Light envelops the Saints. We do not see it, but the cpure of heart and saints do see it. The bright halo that is painted around the faces of the Saints is the Light of the Holy Trinity that has illumined and sanctified them.

In the life of Basil the Great we read that Basil, when he was praying in his cell, he could be seen entirely shining as well as his cell which was illumined by the uncreated Light. We see the same in the lives of many saints. So, therefore, for someone to be found worthy to see the uncreated Light is one of the highest experiences of God, which is not given to everyone but to very few, those who have progressed in spiritual life. According to Abba Isaac, in every generation almost one man manages to see lucidly the uncreated Light. There are however even today Christians who are worthy to have this unique experience of God.

Of course we should also say that everyone that sees light does not mean that he sees the uncreated Light. The devil deceives and shows them other lights, demonic or psychological, to believe that it is the uncreated Light, when it is not. For this every Christian that hears something or has a certain experience, must not accept it as if from God, because he could be deceived by the devil. He must however confess it to his Confessor who will then tell him whether it is from God or if it is a deceit of demons. A lot of caution is needed in such cases.

Determination of a pure experience of the grace of God

Let us now look at the conditions which ensure whether different experiences we have are genuine and not false.

The first condition is that we should be men of repentance. If we do not repent of our sins and cleanse ourselves of our passions we cannot see God. As the Lord says in His beatitudes, "Blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God". The more man cleanses himself from his passions, repents and returns to God, that much better he could feel and see God. To attempt to receive experiences of God with artificial ways and methods as is done in the heresies of Hinduism and in Yoga is false. Those experiences are not from God. Those are experiences that are derived from psychological ways.

The Holy Fathers tell us: "Give blood and receive the Spirit". In other words, if you do not give the blood of your heart with your repentance, prayer, fasting, and asceticism, you cannot receive the grace of the Holy Spirit. True spiritual experiences are given to those who through humility do not ask for spiritual experiences, but ask God for repentance and salvation. To those who are humble and say, "My God, I am not worthy to receive a visitation of Your grace, and divine and heavenly solace and spiritual pleasures". To those however who through pride ask God to give them experiences, He will not give them true and genuine experiences due to their pride. So therefore the second is humility. The third condition to receive a true spiritual experience is to be in the Church. Not outside the Church. For outside the Church the devil will deceive us. When a sheep becomes separated from the flock, it will be destroyed by the wolf. Within the flock there is security. The Christian inside the Church is secure. However, when he leaves the Church, he is exposed to the deceits of other people and of demons. We have many examples of many people who did not obey the Church and in their spiritual state they fell into deceits. And they believed that they saw God or that they were visited by God when in reality the experiences they had were demonic and destructive to them. Also it helps greatly to have pure and warm prayer. The truth is that at the time of prayer God gives most spiritual experiences to man. For this, those who pray with longing, zeal and patience, receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the feeling of the grace of God.

As you may know, there is a prayer we say at the Holy Mountain and which you may also be saying: "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, the sinner". This prayer which is characterized as noetic, heartfelt and unremitting when it is said with humility, with longing and persistence, brings in the heart of man the feeling of the grace of God.

False experiences of the grace of God

People have false experiences of God when they believe that by themselves, with their own powers, in heresies, in groups, in religious gatherings, outside the Church, they can receive the grace of the Holy Spirit. They gather and some new "prophet" acts the leader and they believe they are receiving the grace of God. It happened that I was present at a gathering of Pentecostals in the United States in 1966 while I was there. Their "church" was a hall of a school. First someone started to play some music with soft and gentle sounds, which as it went on it was becoming progressively more intensive, deafening and frantic so that it caused excitement. The music finished and the preacher started. He too started gently and as he continued he would scream louder. At the end he too created an excited atmosphere. And then when all the people suffered from auto-suggestion and hysteria, they started to scream and move their hands and give out unintelligible shouts. I felt that the Spirit of God was not there, which is a Spirit of peace and not of disturbance and excitement. The Spirit of God does not come with artificial and psychological ways. Instead I felt sorry for the children that were there with their parents for they could suffer the consequences of this mass neurosis.

A young man who became a monk at the Holy Mountain and who first went through the Hindu yoga (you should know that there are approximately 500 Hindu heresies in Greece), described to me what experiences they try to have there. When they wished to see light they would rub their eyes so that they could see little stars. When they again wished to hear unusual sounds they performed some sort of pressuring of the ears so that they would create sounds. Similar psychological experiences that are produced artificially, some heretics attribute them to the Holy Spirit. Other experiences in heretic gatherings are not only psychological. They could be demonic. The devil manipulates the seeking of such experiences by some people and presents them different signs which are not of God but theirs - diabolical. They cannot understand that they are victims of the devil.

They believe these signs are heavenly and from the Holy Spirit. The devil also can give them some prophetic capability as he gives to the "mediums". The Lord has however forewarned us, "There will rise false christs and false prophets and will give you great signs and wonders, insomuch that if it were possible they shall deceive the very elect (Matt. 24:24), They won't simply do miracles and wonders, scary signs. Like the Antichrist when he will come he will not do bad things. He will do benefactions, healing of the sick and other impressive things to deceive the people, if possible even the elect, to believe him as savior and follow him.

That is why we must be careful. Everyone who can do signs and prophesies is not always from God. Again as the Lord says: "Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord have we not prophesied in Your name? And in Your name cast out devils? And in Your name done many wonderful works? And then will I say unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me you that work iniquity" (Matt. 7:22-23). I knew a young man who was led astray by occult and Pentecostal heresies, who confessed that the different experiences he had when he was a members of these heresies, were diabolical.

A previous Pentecostal man for example confessed that at the Pentecostal gatherings, when some "prophetess" would prophesy, he felt a demonic disturbance and that when he tried to say the prayer, "Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me the sinner", the speaking in tongues would start and drown him, impeding him from saying the prayer. Because the devil transforms to an angel of light, we must be careful with experiences. The Apostle John advises us: "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God" (1 John 4:1). Not all the spirits are from God. Those who have the Apostle Paul's gift of discernment of spirits (1 Cor. 12:10) can discern the spirits if they are from God or if from the devil. The Confessors of the Church have this gift. That is why when we have such problems we must seek our Confessor and he will determine the source of every experience. Even the monastics can be deceived. We have cases at the Holy Mountain where monks were deceived by such experiences. For example, an angel appeared to a monk - while it was the devil - and told him: "Come to the peak of Athos to show you great miracles". He guided him there and he almost fell over the cliff, had he not invoked divine help. He made the mistake to believe the vision as if of God when he shouldn't have. The monastics know when they have a vision they must tell it to their Elder and he will tell them if it is from God or from the demons. Where there is pride, therefore, deceit is very possible.

About Pentecostals

The experiences of the Pentecostals are not from God. For this, not only are they not helped to come to Church but instead they are driven away from the Church. For only the devil is interested in driving people out of the Church.

Also their divisions in many heresies and groups is proof they do not comprise the true Church of God. Protestantism consists of thousands of heresies. One of the protestant heresies is Pentecostalism. Only in the USA there are over 39 different Pentecostals. Many of the Pentecostal heresies have no relationship between them. Here are some titles of some of the Pentecostal groups: "Congregation of the Church of God of the Mountain", "Integrated Congregation of the Church of God", "Theater Gar", "Sleepless Mission", "Church of Mother Horn", "Church of Mother Robertson", "Jesus and Sleepless Mission", "Remainder of the Church of God", "Fire born Church of God's sanctity of America", "Church of Mogara Cook", "National Spiritual Davidic Union Temple Church of God", "Church of the Square Bible".

If the Spirit of God existed in these groups, there would have been a union, there would have been one Church and not so many different and opposing groups. Also, some of the demonstrations that take place at their gatherings, such as trembling, dropping to the ground as if dead, screaming unrecognizable sounds, are not from the peaceful Spirit of God. Similar phenomena we find in idolatrous religions. There are also many similarities with the Spiritualist phenomena.

They also cultivate a spirit of pride believing that the whole Church of two thousand years is deceived, while they discovered the truth in 1900. The first one who created the group of Pentecostals is an American. The first Pentecostal in Greece, Michael Gounas, preached, "After so many centuries in the land of Greece the outset of the visitation of God happened like the day of the Pentecost". According to him, the visit of Christ started in Greece by him like in the day of the Pentecost! All these years there was nothing. Do you see the satanic egoism and pride?

What now with the sought after gift by them of "speaking in tongues"? In truth, in the New Testament there is reference to "speaking in tongues". The Holy Apostles on the day of Pentecost spoke the tongues of the people who had come for pilgrimage to Jerusalem, to teach them the Good News. The gift of speaking in tongues is a grace given by God to the Apostles for a specific purpose: To convert the non-Christians to the Christian faith. The Holy Apostles, when speaking in tongues, did not speak meaningless sounds like demoniacs. They spoke tongues, not any tongues, but the tongues of those who were in Jerusalem and could not speak the Jewish language, so that they could hear of the greatness of God and believe. So the meaningless cries have no relation to the gift of "speaking in tongues" which the Pentecostals maintain.

The Orthodox Church is the place of the genuine experience of the Grace of God

The Church of Pentecost is our Orthodox Church. And why is she? Because she is the Church of the Incarnation and Humanity of Christ, of His crucifixion death, His Resurrection, and of Pentecost. When from the complete work of Christ we isolate only one part, we overemphasize it and falsely explain it, this becomes one-sided and a heresy. Only the Church that accepts and lives the whole work of Christ, including Pentecost, is the true Church of Pentecost. Can there be a Resurrection without a Cross? Unless man crucifies himself with fasting, prayer, repentance, humility, asceticism, could he see God? The Cross precedes in the life of Christ and of the Christian and the Resurrection and Pentecost follows. They want a resurrection and spiritual gifts without crucifying themselves through repentance, asceticism, fasting and obedience to the Church. That is why they do not comprise the Church of Pentecost. At every Divine Liturgy of our Church we have Pentecost. How does the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ? Don't they become through the descent of the Holy Spirit? There is Pentecost! Every Holy Altar of the Orthodox Church is the table of Pentecost. At every baptism we have Pentecost. With the grace of the Holy Spirit, man becomes a Christian and becomes one with the Body of Christ. Every tonsuring of a Deacon, Priest, and of course a Hierarch is a new Pentecost. The Holy Spirit descends and makes a man a liturgist of God.

Every confession of a Christian is Pentecost. The moment the Christian kneels to his Confessor and with humility tells him his sins with repentance and the Confessor reads him the blessing of forgiveness, he is forgiven by the grace of the Holy Spirit. At every gathering and at every Mystery of the Church it is a continuation of Pentecost, because they are performed in the presence of the Holy Spirit. For this almost all Services, the prayers and the Mysteries of the Church, begin with a prayer: "Heavenly King, Comforter, the Spirit of truth... come and abide in us...." We ask the Paraklete to come, the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. And He comes. Wherever the Orthodox Church meets, the true Church of Christ, there also is the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Every Saint of our Church is a Spirit-bearing man, full of the gifts of the Holy Spirit - a man of Pentecost. The Lord's Prayer requests: "Thy Kingdom come" meaning: "May the grace of Thy Holy Spirit come". The kingdom of God is a grace of the Holy Spirit. So with the "Our Father" we seek the Holy Spirit.

The prayer "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner", this too is done through the grace of the Holy Spirit. For as the Apostle Paul says: "No one can say Lord Jesus, if not from the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3). No one can invoke Jesus Christ but only through the grace of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, only the Holy Water of the Orthodox remains unspoiled. Those who have Holy Water at your home, you know that no matter how old it is, it never spoils. This is our faith, the true and Orthodox one. To depart from this faith and follow some American recent "saviors" who believe that the Church starts with them, just imagine what demonic conceit they have! The Church exists for two thousand years and they say that from them, the Pentecostals and other heretics, begins the true faith.

When in the 14th century the western monk Barlaam fought the Orthodox teaching on the divine energies and the uncreated Light, as they lived it at the Holy Mountain, God brought forth the Hagiorite Hieromonk Gregory Palamas, a great theologian and teacher of the Orthodox Faith. As now, if the Pentecostal heresy did not exist we would not have gathered here. We would not have made our faith more profound. We would not have confessed our faith. Thus in the end it goes against the heresies and the devil what they set out to achieve against the Church. The Apostle Paul says: "For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be manifest among you" (1 Cor. 11:19). There must also exist heresies for the faith to appear in the persevering ones. Now that our holy Church is attacked by atheism, carnal pleasures, the heresies through the radio, television, newspapers and other means, this is the time that the faithful and true Orthodox Christians and fighters and witnesses of the Orthodox faith will appear.

In these very critical times, any Orthodox Christian who keeps his Orthodox faith in Christ, will receive great blessing and great reward from our Holy God. And this because in this evil and corrupt time he was not led astray by the contemporary idolatry and the false gods, he did not bend a knee to them but remained steadfast and immovable in our Orthodox Faith. We wish therefore that no Greek Orthodox become a traitor, a Judas and apostate of our holy Orthodox faith. May all those that were led astray by the evil one due to their ignorance, into deceits and heresies, be illumined by God and return to our holy Orthodox faith that they may have the hope of salvation.

We may all be sinners, but when we are within our holy Orthodox Church we have the hope of salvation. On the contrary, even if we were "righteous" outside the Church we have no hope of salvation. All of us who are within the Church, we shall repent, we shall confess, we shall be forgiven and God shall have mercy on us. Outside the Church who will save us? What Holy Spirit will forgive our sins and which Church will intercede after our death for our souls? Therefore, any Orthodox who dies Orthodox should know he/she has a hope of salvation. However, anyone who departs from the Church, even if he believes he has done good works, has no hope of salvation. For this, brethren, let us remain in our Orthodox Church faithful and immovable with a holy stubbornness to our end so that we may all have, with the grace of God and the blessing of the Theotokos, hope for our salvation.

Source: Magazine, "Saint Gregory" of the Holy Monastery of Saint Gregory. Edited by John Sanidopoulos.

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Statement Against A Pentecostal Sect in Greece

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The Holy Metropolis of Kifisia issued the following statement to counter the influence of a large gathering within the Metropolis of members from the Pentecostal sect of the Free Apostolic Church of Pentecost (Ελευθέρα Αποστολική Εκκλησία Πεντηκοστής) on Saturday 11 May 2013.

On Saturday 11 May 2013, within the geographical boundaries of our Holy Metropolis, there will take place a pan-hellenic gathering of the new heresy of Pentecostals (Free Apostolic Church of Pentecost or ΕΑΕΠ). We want to inform all the pious that this heresy fights against the Church of our Lord, teaching its followers a number of blasphemous cacodoxies. Specifically: They accept only the Bible, which they interpret any way they want. They do not accept what Christ and the Apostles delivered to us orally. They argue that the Panagia bore many children. They do not believe in the intercessions of Saints. They do not honor the Holy Icons or the Relics of the Saints. They do not believe that within the Church there is a special Priesthood which is founded on the existence of Apostolic Succession. They do not accept the Mystery of Holy Confession, nor of Memorial Services. They do not fast on Wednesdays and Fridays. They are against the virginal life of Monasticism.

THEY ARE FALSE PROPHETS AND FALSE TEACHERS: They have often prophesied the Second Coming of Christ! Even their founder has given us (till today) two different ages of the Antichrist who, according to him, has already been born. They teach the doctrine of the "rapture of the Church", according to which Christ before the Great Tribulation of the Antichrist will grab up His Church in order to escape the oncoming suffering. Their congregations claim to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit which the Apostles received on the day of Pentecost, but in fact they receive DEMONIC gifts which lead them to 1) Speak in incomprehensible tongues which they do not interpret, and 2) Falsely prophesy. They have used and continue to use DECEPTION to win over Orthodox Christians from our Church. They do this by claiming our Church apostatized in the fourth century and became pagan, as opposed to what the Lord Himself said: "The gates of Hades shall not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:18).

THEY CREATE PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS TO THEIR FOLLOWERS: They urge them to "speak in tongues" in order to be accepted by the community. If one does not receive this "gift", this faithful one will get finger-pointed by everyone and his faith will be questioned.

The Holy Metropolis calls on believers to not listen to the proclamations of the heretics and not participate in their events. If you come across proselytizing activities by them, immediately inform the Office of Heresies of the Holy Metropolis.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos

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An Apostate to Pentecostalism Who Returned To Orthodoxy

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A few days ago another brother returned to the Apostolic teaching of the Orthodox Church from the destructive sect of the Pentecostals. This brother was five years in their sect, long enough to come to tell me that he felt like it was 80 years! Before this he was Orthodox. He was married but soon after divorced. Unhappiness, frustration, sadness and the influence of some neighbors led him to heresy. There he was received with "love", they "embraced" him, and had him sing together with them, and finally they baptized him saying that his previous baptism in the Orthodox Church had no power.T hey particularly stressed that if he wanted to be born again he should be baptized in water AND in the Holy Spirit. But while he was considered unbaptized and needing rebaptism, at the same time they considered him already married, recognizing the power of the Orthodox Wedding!

I don't know if we should talk about their absurdity, their immature experiences or their sadistic interpretation of the Gospel. Let these things be analyzed by the experts. This brother, however, remained in this state for five years and changed four different Pentecostal congregations, without any help from the so-called "ministers", without anyone ever speaking to him or rather hearing his pain and his thoughts, despite being bombarded with sermons about "love" which caused him disgust.This brother did manage to leave. He returned to Orthodoxy and cautiously made his first steps back to the Church of Christ. I know he will stay and face the monster of coldness residing at the entrances of some Parishes.

He may not meet "love attacks", but he will meet the Lord Himself in the Eucharistic Table. You don't need anything else.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos

Scriptural and Patristic Conceptions of the Holy Spirit

By St. Basil the Great

Let us now investigate what are our common conceptions concerning the Spirit, as well those which have been gathered by us from Holy Scripture concerning It as those which we have received from the unwritten tradition of the Fathers. First of all we ask, who on hearing the titles of the Spirit is not lifted up in soul, who does not raise his conception to the supreme nature? It is called Spirit of God, Spirit of truth which proceeds from the Father, [John 15:26] right Spirit, a leading Spirit. Its proper and peculiar title is Holy Spirit; which is a name specially appropriate to everything that is incorporeal, purely immaterial, and indivisible. So our Lord, when teaching the woman who thought God to be an object of local worship that the incorporeal is incomprehensible, said God is a spirit. [John 4:24] On our hearing, then, of a spirit, it is impossible to form the idea of a nature circumscribed, subject to change and variation, or at all like the creature. We are compelled to advance in our conceptions to the highest, and to think of an intelligent essence, in power infinite, in magnitude unlimited, unmeasured by times or ages, generous of Its good gifts, to whom turn all things needing sanctification, after whom reach all things that live in virtue, as being watered by Its inspiration and helped on toward their natural and proper end; perfecting all other things, but Itself in nothing lacking; living not as needing restoration, but as Supplier of life; not growing by additions; but straightway full, self-established, omnipresent, origin of sanctification, light perceptible to the mind, supplying, as it were, through Itself, illumination to every faculty in the search for truth; by nature unapproachable, apprehended by reason of goodness, filling all things with Its power, but communicated only to the worthy; not shared in one measure, but distributing Its energy according to the proportion of faith; [Romans 12:6] in essence simple, in powers various, wholly present in each and being wholly everywhere; impassively divided, shared without loss of ceasing to be entire, after the likeness of the sunbeam, whose kindly light falls on him who enjoys it as though it shone for him alone, yet illumines land and sea and mingles with the air. So, too, is the Spirit to every one who receives it, as though given to him alone, and yet It sends forth grace sufficient and full for all mankind, and is enjoyed by all who share It, according to the capacity, not of Its power, but of their nature.

Now the Spirit is not brought into intimate association with the soul by local approximation. How indeed could there be a corporeal approach to the incorporeal? This association results from the withdrawal of the passions which, coming afterwards gradually on the soul from its friendship to the flesh, have alienated it from its close relationship with God. Only then after a man is purified from the shame whose stain he took through his wickedness, and has come back again to his natural beauty, and as it were cleaning the Royal Image and restoring its ancient form, only thus is it possible for him to draw near to the Paraclete. And He, like the sun, will by the aid of your purified eye show you in Himself the image of the invisible, and in the blessed spectacle of the image you shall behold the unspeakable beauty of the archetype. Through His aid hearts are lifted up, the weak are held by the hand, and they who are advancing are brought to perfection. Shining upon those that are cleansed from every spot, He makes them spiritual by fellowship with Himself. Just as when a sunbeam falls on bright and transparent bodies, they themselves become brilliant too, and shed forth a fresh brightness from themselves, so souls wherein the Spirit dwells, illuminated by the Spirit, themselves become spiritual, and send forth their grace to others. Hence comes foreknowledge of the future, understanding of mysteries, apprehension of what is hidden, distribution of good gifts, the heavenly citizenship, a place in the chorus of angels, joy without end, abiding in God, the being made like to God, and, highest of all, the being made God. Such, then, to instance a few out of many, are the conceptions concerning the Holy Spirit, which we have been taught to hold concerning His greatness, His dignity, and His operations, by the oracles of the Spirit themselves.

Source: From On the Holy Spirit, Ch. 9.

LIVES OF THE SAINTS

St. Olympias the Deaconess

Celebrated July 25th

Saint Olympias the Deaconess was the daughter of the senator Anicius Secundus, and by her mother she was the granddaughter of the noted eparch Eulalios (he is mentioned in the life of St Nicholas). Before her marriage to Anicius Secundus, Olympias’s mother had been married to the Armenian emperor Arsak and became widowed. When St Olympias was still very young, her parents betrothed her to a nobleman. The marriage was supposed to take place when St Olympias reached the age of maturity. The bridegroom soon died, however, and St Olympias did not wish to enter into another marriage, preferring a life of virginity. After the death of her parents she became the heir to great wealth, which she began to distribute to all the needy: the poor, the orphaned and the widowed. She also gave generously to the churches, monasteries, hospices and shelters for the downtrodden and the homeless. Holy Patriarch Nectarius (381-397) appointed St Olympias as a deaconess. The saint fulfilled her service honorably and without reproach. St Olympias provided great assistance to hierarchs coming to Constantinople: Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium, Onesimus of Pontum, Gregory the Theologian, St Basil the Great’s brother Peter of Sebaste, Epiphanius of Cyprus, and she attended to them all with great love. She did not regard her wealth as her own but rather God’s, and she distributed not only to good people, but also to their enemies. St John Chrysostom (November 13) had high regard for St Olympias, and he showed her good will and spiritual love. When this holy hierarch was unjustly banished, St Olympias and the other deaconesses were deeply upset. Leaving the church for the last time, St John Chrysostom called out to St Olympias and the other deaconesses Pentadia, Proklia and Salbina. He said that the matters incited against him would come to an end, but scarcely more would they see him. He asked them not to abandon the Church, but to continue serving it under his successor. The holy women, shedding tears, fell down before the saint. Patriarch Theophilus of Alexandria (385-412), had repeatedly benefited from the generosity of St Olympias, but turned against her for her devotion to St John Chrysostom. She had also taken in and fed monks, arriving in Constantinople, whom Patriarch Theophilus had banished from the Egyptian desert. He levelled unrighteous accusations against her and attempted to cast doubt on her holy life.After the banishment of St John Chrysostom, someone set fire to a large church, and after this a large part of the city burned down.All the supporters of St John Chrysostom came under suspicion of arson, and they were summoned for interrogation. They summoned St Olympias to trial, rigorously interrogating her. They fined her a large sum of money for the crime of arson, despite her innocence and a lack of evidence against her. After this the saint left Constantinople and set out to Kyzikos (on the Sea of Marmara). But her enemies did not cease their persecution. In the year 405 they sentenced her to prison at Nicomedia, where the saint underwent much grief and deprivation. St John Chrysostom wrote to her from his exile, consoling her in her sorrow. In the year 409 St Olympias entered into eternal rest. St Olympias appeared in a dream to the Bishop of Nicomedia and commanded that her body be placed in a wooden coffin and cast into the sea. “Wherever the waves carry the coffin, there let my body be buried,” said the saint. The coffin was brought by the waves to a place named Brokthoi near Constantinople. The inhabitants, informed of this by God, took the holy relics of St Olympias and placed them in the church of the holy Apostle Thomas.Afterwards, during an invasion of enemies, the church was burned, but the relics were preserved. Under the Patriarch Sergius (610-638), they were transferred to Constantinople and put in the women’s monastery founded by St Olympias. Miracles and healings occurred from her relics.

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