Life of St Anastasia the Great Martyr (+304)

 

Saint Anastasia was born in the renowned city of Rome. She was distinguished by her nobility, spiritual and physical beauty, good character, and meekness. Her father, Praetextatus, was a senator and professed the Hellenic pagan faith. Her mother, Fausta, believed in Christ. As a girl, Anastasia was entrusted by her mother to be educated by a worthy man renowned for his learning and, even more so, his piety. His name was Chrysogonus. He was a Christian, well versed in the divine teachings of Christ, and later became a martyr. From this holy man, Anastasia learned more than just letters; she also learned to know Him Who is the origin of all things visible and invisible, the goal of all pious desires of the heart, the One True God, the Creator and Perfecter of all things. And she began to diligently read Christian books, studying the law of the Lord day and night, and strengthening her heart in love for God.

St Seraphim Rose and Fyodor Dostoyevsky on hell

 

It is the great and invincible truth of Christianity that there is no annihilation; all Nihilism is in vain. God may be fought: that is one of the meanings of the modern age; but He may not be conquered, and He may not be escaped: His Kingdom shall endure eternally, and all who reject the call to His Kingdom must burn in the flames of Hell forever.

It has, of course, been a primary intention of Nihilism to abolish Hell and the fear of Hell from men's minds, and no one can doubt their success; Hell has become, for most people today, a folly and a superstition, if not a "sadistic" fantasy. Even those who still believe in the Liberal "heaven" have no room in their universe for any kind of Hell.

Yet, strangely, modern men have an understanding of Hell that they do have not of Heaven; the word and the concept have a prominent place in contemporary art and thought. No sensitive observer is unaware that men, in the Nihilist era more than ever before, have made of earth an image of Hell; and those who are aware of dwelling in the Abyss do not hesitate to call their state Hell. The torture and miseries of this life are indeed a foretaste of Hell, even as the joys of a Christian life--joys which the Nihilist cannot even imagine, so remote are they from his experience-are a foretaste of Heaven.

On Idealism (St Seraphim Rose)

A Letter to Thomas Merton, 1962

by Eugene [Fr. Seraphim] Rose

I am a young American convert to Russian Orthodoxy—not the vague "liberal" spirituality of too many modern Russian "religious thinkers," but the full ascetic and contemplative Orthodoxy of the Fathers and Saints—who have for some years been studying the spiritual "crisis" of our time, and am at present writing a book on the subject. [1] In the course of my study I have had occasion to read the works of a great number of Roman Catholic authors, some of which (those, for example, of Pieper, Picard, Gilson, P. Danielou, P. de Lubac) I have found quite helpful and not, after all, too distant from the Orthodox perspective, but others of which I have found quite disturbing in the light of what seems to me the plain teaching of the universal Church. I have read several of your works, and especially in some recent articles of yours I seem to find signs of one of the tendencies in contemporary Roman thought (it exists in Orthodoxy too, to be sure) that has most disturbed me. Since you are a Roman monk, I turn to you as to someone likely to clarify the ambiguities I have found in this trend of thought. What I would like to discuss chiefly concerns what might be called the "social mission" of the Church.

A word on the vanity of the world and the resurrection of the dead (St Anthony the Great)

This present life, beloved, is given to us so that we may be prepared for eternal life, for unchangeable glory. This present life ends in death , and worldly glory is unstable and passes away. For many of the mighty of the earth have been unexpectedly brought down to hell, many of the judges of the earth have been handed over to the judgment of those whom they once judged, the rich have become poor, those who were thought wise have been found foolish, the strong have become weak, the healthy have fallen into sickness, those who had power have lost it.

There is nothing firm and permanent in the world, because there is nothing good. Children despise and insult their parents; parents fear their children. Wives leave their husbands, husbands do not remain faithful to their wives. Young men and old men lose their minds; old men and young men indulge in wicked amusements. There is no fidelity between friends, and no love between brothers. People show love for each other in conversation, but in their hearts they harbor hatred for each other. Treachery and malice are visible everywhere, deception reigns everywhere.

No one thinks about God, no one imagines that after death he must give God an account of his life. From forgetting God, evil multiplies among us.

On suffering (St Seraphim Rose)

 

"Why do men learn through pain and suffering, and not through pleasure and happiness? Quite simply, because pleasure and happiness accustom us to satisfaction with the things given in this world, while pain and suffering urge us to seek a deeper happiness beyond the limits of this world.

The moment I feel a little pain, and I call upon the Name of Jesus - not necessarily to relieve the pain, but that Jesus, He by whom we can transcend this world, may be with me during this time, and His will be done in me.

But in pleasure I do not call upon Him; therefore I am content with what I have, and think I need no more. And why is a philosophy of pleasure untenable? Because pleasure is impermanent and unreliable, and pain is inevitable.

In pain and suffering, Christ speaks to us, and therefore God is kind to give them to us, yes, and evil too - because in all these things we glimpse something of what must lie beyond, if there is such a thing as that. that our hearts desire most deeply...

You, just try a little harder. Carry your cross without complaining. Do not think that you are something special. Do not justify your sins and weaknesses, but see yourself as you really are. And, above all, love one another.”

Against those who assert that the human race had to multiply through carnal intercourse/sex and birth, even though the forefathers had not sinned (St Maximus the Greek)

I have heard some assert that even if our forefathers had observed the commandment given to them at the beginning by the Creator and Master of all things, the propagation of the human race would nevertheless have been carried on in the same bestial manner as it is now, only without lust, without passion, and without female diseases. They say this without any confirmation from divine scriptures, but are guided only by human thoughts and following great external learning. Therefore I thought it fair to reason a little and converse with them, not in the sense of positive proofs and establishments, but hypothetically and simply offering against their opinion the reasoning of sound reason. Tell us, my best ones, what do you think: were our forefathers created incorruptible and immortal in the beginning, or subject to corruption and death? If they assert the second, they will be clearly exposed as false by that divine voice which said to the first-created: In the day that you eat of it , that is, of the forbidden tree, you shall surely die ( Gen. 2:17 ). Having said this, the Creator clearly taught us that He created them immortal and that they would remain immortal forever if they had kept His holy commandment, as is also testified by that divine voice which says: I said: You are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High , that is, you are above all mortal things, and then adds: But you die like men, and so on ( Ps. 81:6-7 ). And again: Man, who was in honor , that is, in incorruptibility and equal to the angels, did not understand, was added to the senseless beasts, and became like them ( Ps. 48:21 ), that is, he fell into corruption and death and submitted to speechless passions, not understanding his honor, that is, the dignity of incorruptibility and immortality. Also the wise Solomon said: God did not create death, but through the envy of the devil death entered the world ( Wis. 1:13, 2:24). But if, being conquered by Holy Scripture, they confess, even against their own will, that the first-created were created incorruptible and immortal, and that they would have been preserved forever in incorruptibility, if they had not transgressed the commandment of God, then how do they maintain that the propagation of our race would have been in the same bestial way as is now accomplished, only without lust, passions, and female diseases? It is known that the reproductive organs were given to both sexes at creation for two reasons: that by means of them the human race might be preserved and not disappear completely, and that through them the excess of digested food would always be thrown out. The Creator, knowing everything before existence, knew, of course, the future falling away of the first-created from God, and knew also the reason for this falling away, namely, that they would want to be equal to God. For this reason the all-wise Creator gave them such bestial members and put into them a strong passion for bestial lust, so that they would copulate with each other against their will and bring forth children. Otherwise we would not want to copulate with each other, considering, of each sex, the many unbearable sufferings of childbirth and the upbringing of those born - the female sex, considering the nine months' burdensome gestation in the womb and the nastiness and grief that subsequently, after birth, one must endure, and the urgent cares for the infant until it reaches a certain age; the father also, considering the many concerns about the upbringing of his children, how best to bring them up and teach them piety, and then to marry off his sons and give his daughters in marriage. This proves that the all-wise Creator had in mind the multiplication of our race by some other, higher and more transcendental method, befitting a being created in the image and likeness of God, if man had kept the commandment of God and had not forced Him Who is not subject to any compulsion to adopt such a shameful and bestial ugliness and vile mixture into His image. It is therefore wrong to understand and assert that man, created in the image and likeness of God, that is, immortal, impassible and incorruptible, even if he had kept inviolably the commandment of Him Who created him, should have multiplied by means of such a vile and bestial copulation. For in bestial copulation there must necessarily be a vile discharge, without which conception cannot take place. But if there is a discharge, then there is also corruption and hidden passion; Therefore, what is conceived and born and brought up is no longer immortal, but corruptible and mortal and of short duration. For everything that has a beginning from corruption is necessarily subject to corruption and death. Therefore, the human race had to multiply in another way, most wonderful and incomprehensible to our minds, and not through bestial copulation, as some think, reasoning unworthy of the divine image.

Regarding the perplexities concerning the Sacrament of Marriage (St Pavel Kratirov)

The lively and lengthy debates recently raised in the "Religious and Philosophical Society" concerning the Christian teaching on the Sacrament of Marriage, and the various views expressed here by supporters and defenders of the various views on this subject, testify to two indisputable facts: 1) that the question raised is not an idle and accidental question, but one of essential importance in its moral and practical significance for a Christian, and 2) that in the consciousness of a believing Christian, two apparently mutually exclusive teachings of the Church cannot be accommodated - on married life, sanctified by the grace of God in a special Sacrament, on the one hand, and on perfect virginity, on the dominion of the spiritual nature over the sensual, as the ultimate goal of human life, on the other. The modernity and importance of the question raised prompts us to contribute to its clarification to the extent of our understanding. We do not undertake the task of answering all the perplexities that have arisen and may arise concerning this subject. The purpose of this article is to clarify the marriage union of a man and a woman from the point of view of a holistic Christian worldview and to answer only those questions that are of particular importance in our eyes.

St Theophan the Recluse and St Philaret of New York on the importance and meaning of Baptism.

St Theophan the Recluse (+1894)☦️:

Word one

The Holy Apostle Paul, speaking about the Holy Sacrament of Baptism, compares its hidden power with the death and resurrection of the Lord. He says that when we are immersed in the font, we die; when we come out of the font, we are resurrected. We die in the font to a carnal and sinful life, but we are resurrected from the font to a spiritual, holy, God-pleasing life. “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death ? We were buried with Him by baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also might begin to walk in newness of life... our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer serve sin” ( Rom. 6:3, 4, 6 ).

Is it possible, and how can Orthodox Christians pray for non-Orthodox Christians? (St Joseph of Optina)

(Response to a letter received from abroad from a Russian Orthodox woman married to a Protestant, and regarding the excommunication of Count Leo Tolstoy)

All of us, children of the One Holy Catholic Apostolic Universal Church, in perplexed cases concerning doctrine should not be guided by our own understandings, which may be erroneous, but should have guiding rules for this. And these rules are contained first of all in the book called "The Helmsman". This is a collection of the rules of the holy apostles, the Holy Ecumenical and Local Councils and some holy fathers.

At the end of this book, in the chapter "On the Roman apostasy, how they departed from the Orthodox faith and from the Holy Eastern Church," the Pope of Rome and his followers, who wrongly call themselves Catholics, are called heretics. There is nothing to say about other Christian Protestant denominations, since they have deviated even further from Orthodoxy.

In the same “Kormchaya kniga”, in the 10th chapter, in the 6th rule of the Local Council of Laodicea, the following judgment of the Holy Church is pronounced on heretics in general: “It is not fitting for heretics to enter the Church of God.” And in the 33rd rule of the same Council of Laodicea it is said: “Let no one pray with heretics and those who have rejected the Catholic Church.”

But here is the question: what is the view of the Holy Fathers of our Orthodox Church on heresy? In the "Patericon" of Bishop Ignatius (Brianchaninov) 1 it is said about the Venerable Agathon. Once some brethren visited him and wanted to test his humility and patience. They reproached him for pride, slander and dissolute life. The elder recognized all these vices in himself and tearfully asked his visitors to pray for him. When they called him a heretic, the elder said that he was not a heretic at all. When the brethren asked why the accusation of heresy alarmed him, he answered: "Because heresy is alienation from God. The heretic is separated from the living and true God and becomes partaker of the devil and his angels. “One who is excommunicated from Christ (of course, through the false teaching about Christ that he professes) no longer has God to Whom he could pray for his sins, and in all respects he is lost.”

Orthodox position towards the non-orthodox

St Seraphim Rose and St Philaret of New York

St Seraphim Rose (+1982)☦️:

How to Treat the Heterodox

A Small Compilation in Support of Charity and Compassion

A few years before he died, Fr. Seraphim received a letter from an African-American woman who, as a catechumen learning about Orthodoxy, was struggling to understand the uncharitable attitude that some Orthodox Christians showed to those outside the Church, an attitude which reminded her of how her own people had been treated. “I am deeply troubled,” this woman wrote, “as to how Orthodoxy views what the world would call Western Christians, i.e., Protestants and Roman Catholics. I have read many articles by many Orthodox writers, and a few use words like ‘Papists,’ etc., which I find deeply disturbing and quite offensive. I find them offensive because as a person of a race which has been subjected to much name-calling I despise and do not wish to adopt the habit of name-calling myself. Even ‘heretic’ disturbs me….

“Where do I stand with my friends and relatives? They do not know about Orthodoxy or they do not understand it. Yet they believe in and worship Christ.… Am I to treat my friends and relatives as if they have no God, no Christ?… Or can I call them Christians, but just ones who do not know the true Church?

“When I ask this question, I cannot help but think of St. Innocent of Alaska as he visited the Franciscan monasteries in California. He remained thoroughly Orthodox yet he treated the priests he met there with kindness and charity and not name-calling. This, I hope, is what Orthodoxy says about how one should treat other Christians.”

This woman’s quandary was actually fairly common to people coming into the Orthodox Faith. Now nearing the end of his short life and having thrown off his youthful bitterness, Fr. Seraphim answered as follows:

I was happy to receive your letter—happy not because you are confused about the question that troubles you, but because your attitude reveals that in the truth of Orthodoxy to which you are drawn you wish to find room also for a loving, compassionate attitude to those outside the Orthodox Faith.

I firmly believe that this is indeed what Orthodoxy teaches….