The Catalog of Good Deeds

Cloudy weather did not disrupt the Open Air project at the boarding home for children with special needs. It seemed as if no one noticed the absence of the sun as it was replaced by the positive energy surrounding the event that warmed and brightened all of the surroundings. On this day, everything had a unique sound, everything was dancing, and everything was bright and resembled a fairy tale. It is a good thing because we do not have enough fairy tales.

Everyone including the workers of the boarding home, volunteers as well as sister and brother from St. Elisabeth Convent do as much as they can for the children with special needs who permanently live at the boarding home. Within just one festive week, they children had several trips into the city to see a theatrical performance. What more impressive is that the children held their own performance when they debuted with a new play during a festival called “A world without boundaries” in the Belarussian city of Vitebsk.

The boarding home is considered to be a closed facility but people who spend time with these special children often say that there is much more understanding and openness as opposed to similar facilities in other countries.

Since it is important to share the joy, there were many mothers who brought their children from the city to the board home. Here is what they had to say:

These children are like angels, they are given to parents in kindness, and to humble the world – tells Victoria, a mother of five of which one has Down’s Syndrome – You know all the drool and drivel and diapers will be had to cope with until you change the way you look at things. I told one mother to love the drool because its your child! Wipe it as if you were to kiss the child! And soon afterward the drooling stopped. The child just needed more attention and the warmth of love.

At that moment, her son who’s name is Jan-David runs up to her and asked to have his picture taken in a bright yellow-green car. The car in which the clown arrived in to entrain the children. The clown is quite memorable. He carried instruments in his hands and behind his back and made it seem that he carried them inside his head as well. The musical instruments were there to uplift the spirit. And judging by the was treated the children it truly seemed that everyone was having a good time.

In real life the clowns name is Andrius Praga who is part of a dues performance group called the “Buttons”. Andrius admitted that he can never stay in one place and together with his counterpart of the traveling theatre nelly as well as other artist and musicians constantly travel in their colorful car.

“Everyone has their own world and everyone is unique in their own way and it is always interesting to explore this world. The most difficult part of today for me was to establish a relationship with the children In order to do so I tries to play along with them, attended to their needs. It was very important for me to understand them and establish communication on their level. The girls who work here and ding a truly amazing job – they have dedicated their live to this journey.

Along with the clown, a musical theatre group called “Surprise” also entertained the children with special needs. They were dressed as characters from children’s cartoons. This was the first time this group performed in the boarding home for children with special needs but member of the group were no strangers to working with children who have disabilities.

Many will remember this day because of the house back rides. Nun Vera together with Brother Dimitry carefully helped the very young, well as older children get on the horses, and ensured the safety of the ride. The sisters of mercy from St. Elisabeth Convent were nearby together with the workers of the boarding home, parents and another horse trainer.

Moreover, while the parents discussed the benefits of therapeutic horse riding the children were truly overjoyed with the opportunity to ride a horse and to pet a lovely donkey. Meanwhile Nun Vera is glad that with God help and kindhearted people a long awaited dream became a reality – to have therapeutic horseback rides at the boarding home for children.

The doctors of the facility welcome this initiative as well. Currently, the boarding home houses 111 children and such activities can create a positive emotional background for many of them and help them physically. A personal approach and consistency play a very important role in this.

These children just like all children need to experience something new, – said brother Dimitri. – Animal therapy, a sensory garden, constant trips and visits, outdoor holidays such as this one – all of it helps them to get a taste of life. And of course for the spiritual development we have akathists every Friday.

Such a holiday marks the diversity of the ministry that is constantly growing and finding new ways to serve others. Here, it is important to combine the spirituality with all other aspect of life so that the children who life inside the walls of the boarding home can experience the joy, the love and everything that make all of us human.

St. Elisabeth Convent

June 10, 2017

I was originally baptised and brought up in the Church of England, (born and baptised in Zimbabwe, but came to England at 8 months old. My mother’s family being Church of England, in fact my Grandfather was a Canon in Westminster Abbey, for quite some time my Mothers family lived inside the Abbey. Later my Grandfather became the Vicar of Leeds where I grew up so my family had a long tradition of being Anglican.

In the first years of my life, my parents, (by the way I was adopted at birth), divorced. After the divorce, my mother, brother, and myself lived with my grandmother until she died, when I was about 5 years old. After the death of my grandmother, my mother bought her own house, and brought my brother and myself up as a single parent.From the earliest days I can remember, I was taken to Church every Sunday, and also went to Sunday School. Later I went to a Church of England high school.

As I grew and started to form my own opinions, I found that I could not believe in God, and that there was no proof of His existence. My mother always said there is no proof “just believe.” Eventually I completely rejected religion, and was convinced that I would never become a believer, in fact I was very anti-Christian (may God forgive me) and rubbished all religion.

Three years ago, my mother died and I remember feeling very apprehensive about attending the funeral in Church, although in reality I was too involved in grieving to notice the surroundings.

In the September of that year, 1998, I took my first holiday after my mother’s death, on the Greek island of Skiathos. I was still very emotional, and often found myself in tears because I could not send postcards etc. to my mother. I couldn’t understand why at the time, but although I had no interest in churches of any description, I found myself going into Orthodox Churches to light candles in memory of my mother. Now I know something drew me to these Churches.

In September 1999, I decided to return to Skiathos, but could not find a holiday that I could afford, (I do not work because of illness). I asked the travel agent what else was available and inexpensive, he said Zakynthos, (an island I had vowed I would never visit, because I heard it was full of drunken U.K tourists, not true apart from one resort). I reluctantly agreed to go to Zakynthos, and yes I got put in the resort from hell (Laganas).

However, I usually don’t go to tour reps’ meetings, but this time I did, although she got much of the story wrong I learned that the Holy body of Saint Dionysios was in a Church/Monastery in the main town.

As the days went by, something made me want to go and kiss the feet of the Saint. Eventually, after talking to a local car hire man, (now my godfather), who told me much about the Saint, I went to the Church and kissed his feet.

What happened after this, I cannot fully describe because I don’t have the words. First I started to shake and cry and couldn’t stop, also I had feelings inside that I can’t describe, but I knew that something very powerful yet gentle had touched me. The following day I started to get messages in my head, that I knew were from the Saint. My memory is getting somewhat vague now about all that happened, but I knew that the Saint had a very great power, I also realised that if there was no God then Saint would not have this power, indeed there would be no Saint.

I have since witnessed many miracles, often small, which some people would say were coincidence, but too many have happened to be all coincidences.

Before I came home from Zakynthos, I was given many small pieces of material from the Saints’ slippers (they are changed 2-3 times a year) to give to others. At first I didn’t know who to give them to except for a few friends and family, they are too Sacred to give to people who may throw them away. However I soon found myself meeting people, mostly strangers, and something in my head said give a piece to this person.

Whenever this happens, it always has some very deep affect on the recipient, the Saint is never wrong. Even this week I gave a piece to someone I knew, thinking it was my choice to give it to her, but she immediately burst into tears and I know from experience, that is because the power of the Saint/God touched her.

I always carry some of these holy items, as I never know when I am going to be asked to give them, or who to. I feel greatly privileged that Saint Dionysios is using me in this way, he is also using me to tell my story. Many people after hearing this story have told me, God sent you to tell me to go to Zakynthos, or they say that there faith has been strengthened.

Again I find this a great privilege, and can only ask, why me? People have said I have power and thank me for what I have done for them, I am always very careful and quick to point out that, I have no power and have done nothing, the power is from God through the Saint. I thank God for allowing me to be an instrument of his.

I was baptised on 13 May 2001 at the Monastery of Saint Dionysios. I took Petros as a second name (not usual in Orthodoxy I know), because that was my original Christian name, I changed it more than twenty years ago, and hurt my mother very deeply. I took it back in the Greek form for her sake.

By Dionysios Petros

Source: http://journeytoorthodoxy.com/2010/06/the-atheist-who-venerated-a-saint-dionysios-petros/

The Lord Jesus Christ said, "...I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." (St. Matthew 16:18). What do the gates of hell signify?

The Jews had the custom of gathering under the leadership of their elders, by the city gates, for the discussion of political, legal and social questions. These meetings were the last appeal of all litigation, and here all divine commandments were announced. They were vested with a definite authority among the people. This Jewish custom of meeting at the city gates is mentioned in the Book of Ruth (IV:1,11). A description of an active wife in the Book of Proverbs (31: 23) says that, "Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land." He is invested with the trust of society and takes an active part in important meetings. (Prof. V.V. Bolotoff).

The "gates" of hell" signifies not only the forces of hell, but in general staff of Hell's power. Their most important meeting is dedicated to developing a plan for a general battle with the Church. The Church and Hell are represented as two warring powers. And in this war with Hell, according to Christ's words, the Church will remain invincible.

Hell's war plan with the Church is called the "Mystery of Iniquity" in the Holy Scriptures (2 Thessalonians 2:8). The iniquity has been working for centuries and will have its culmination in the appearance of the Antichrist (2 Thessalonians 2:8). The Antichrist can come only as a result of universal Apostasy, that is, the abjuration of the people from God and His paths, when God's grace will withdraw from the people.

"And in the latter times of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up." (Daniel 8:23)

"Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders..." (2 Thessalonians 2:9)

All of the evil in its fullest strength which human nature can accept and endure will be concentrated in the person of the Antichrist. Thousands of years were required to develop and perfect the kind of human seed that was required to receive the purest most perfect Fruit of the human tree in the person of the Most Blessed Virgin. Comparably, for the appearance of the most depraved fruit, capable of containing within itself all Satanic malice, an entire line of human generations will be demanded in the direction of greatest corruption and defilement of human nature, based upon mad hatred towards Christ and war against His Church. "It can be admitted," says Pro. Belyaeff, "that innate and acquired evil, gradually accumulating in a long line of ancestors of the Antichrist, transmitted with each new generation, will reach such a degree of force in the Antichrist himself, which human nature is capable of containing, revealing and enduring. The evil which lives in mankind, will reach the highest limit of its development in him." (Godlessness And The Antichrist, Vol. 1. p. 193).

Of course, to the degree that evil strengthens in man's will, diabolic activity within man will increase also, as the devil thus receives greater access to man's soul. Inasmuch as the Antichrist's personal evil will and its corruption will reach the limit of its greatest growth, the relationship of the devil to him will reach the limit of maximum nearness, which will be expressed in the devil himself continuously acting in the person of the Antichrist, "God", says St. John of Damascus, "Foreseeing future depravity of his will (the Antichrist's) will allow the devil to inhabit him." ("The Exact Exposition Of The Orthodox Faith", Book IV, Chapter 26) St. Cyril of Jerusalem teaches the same. (Teaching, V. 14). St. Andrew of Kessary says that the Antichrist "will come out of the gloomiest and remotest lands of the earth to which the devil is banished." (Interpretation of the 11th chapter of the Apocalypse, 30th chapter.) Blessed Theodore writes, "Man's enemy, clothed in human nature, God's adversary, the demon, usurping God's Name, will appear in the world before Christ's coming." ("An Exact Exposition Of Divine Dogma", chapter 23, printed in "Christian Readings", 1844, Chapter IV, page 355.) Laktancy, Gezihy of Jerusalem and Blessed Heronim, call the Antichrist the son of Satan.

In agreement with such teachings of the Holy Fathers, the life of the Antichrist cannot admit one moment free from satanic action. It must already appear in the very birth and even in his conception, peculiar and exceptional in its depravity. "From a defiled virgin will actually be born his (the devil's) weapon." says St. Ephrem the Syrian. This is also confirmed by St. John of Damascus. "A man (the Antichrist) will be born from fornication."

The Holy Fathers Iriney ("Against Heresy", Book V, chapter 30), Ippolit (Legends about Christ and the Antichrist), and also Ilariy, Ambrose, Ieronim and Augustus, remark that the Antichrist will be of Jewish ancestry, from the tribe of Dan.

In the Synaksare, stated in the Week of Lent without meat, we read that, "The Antichrist will come and be born, as St. Ippolit of Rome declares, from a depraved wife and self-styled virgin, which is from the Jews, from the tribe of Dan." (Lenten Triod) Such indications in God's Word have several foundations:

In the prophecies of Patriarch Jacob about each of his sons becoming the progenitors of the tribes of Israel, the fate of Dan's ancestors is depicted in such a way that can only be ascribed to the Antichrist. "Dan shall be a serpent on the way, an adder in the path..." (Genesis 49, 17)

In the prophecies of Ierenim: "From Dan himself... (Ierenim VIII,16)

In the prophecies of the Apocalypse, enumerating the remainder of all the tribes of Israel, marked by the Angel for salvation, the tribe of Dan is absolutely excluded. (Revelations VII, 4-8).

According to the teachings of the Holy Fathers, the devil, exalting the Antichrist, will try to vest his coming with all the signs of the coming of the Son of God to earth. (See St. Cyril of Jerusalem, the 150th catechistic word; St. Ephrem the Syrian, the 39th word, in the Russian translation Blessed Theodore, "A Short Exposition of Divine Dogma", Chapter 23, St. Ippolit, "The Legends of Christ and the Antichrist")

Of course, some resemblance of the Antichrist to Christ will only be external and in essence deceitful, for the whole life and all the deeds of the Antichrist will be an incensed and blasphemous revolt against Christ and His Church. This false external resemblance to Christ will appear in the very birth of the Antichrist. Keeping in mind that Christ was born a Virgin, the devil will produce his weapon from a virgin, not from a pure virgin, however, but from one filled with every vice and satanic filth. Then, as the Lord until he was thirty years old remained in obscurity, so the Antichrist, we assume, will, until the age of 30, remain in clandestine solitude and obscurity. As Christ began His saving service with sermons of His Divine teaching and miracles, so will the Antichrist begin his completely destructive service with the delusion of the people with his false teaching and incredibly shameful, deceitful miracles. As it was pleasing for the Lord to reveal Himself to all the people as the Messiah by solemnly entering Jerusalem and into its Temple, so the Antichrist will reveal himself as the false Jewish Messiah, the international monarch, in him solemn ceremonial entrance into Jerusalem and his enthronement in the temple of Jerusalem, which will by that time be restored.

The Lord's entry into Jerusalem, says Archbishop Innokenty of Herson, was "for all Jews a national declaration that Jesus Christ was veritably the Messiah. Indisputable proof of this are His own words, proclaimed before the gates of Jerusalem, saying: "If thou hadst known, even now, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace: But now they are hid from thine eyes." (Luke XIX, 42.) "With this day, with the rejection of the Messiah, the fate of the Israelite nation was decided for eternity." (The Last Days on Earth of Jesus Christ")

On the day when the Antichrist shall enter into Jerusalem as the false Messiah, forever and irrevocably the fate of his contemporaries will be decided. Blessed are those who, on the last day given by God for the conclusive self-determination of the people, will see the Antichrist as Satan's servant and the inescapable peril of all mankind which recognized him. Finally, as the Lord revealed Himself to the world and fulfilled His service as a Prophet, as King and as High Priest, so will the Antichrist concentrate all this triple power in his hands and complete his destructive service as the teacher of all mankind, as the monarch of an international monarchy and as the highest primate of all religions, demanding reverence for himself as God.

The entire life and activity of the Antichrist may be examined in three periods:

The FIRST PERIOD of the Antichrist from the day of birth to the moment of his social appearance will pass in clandestine obscurity. St. John of Damascus says that, "Antichrist will be raised secretly." (The Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith", Book IV, Chapter 26.)

The SECOND PERIOD of the Antichrist's life will be opened by his thunderous entry (on the world stage - my addition) in the role of a universal teacher or "prophet". It is very possible that he will begin his activity during a world war, when people, enduring all its horrors, will not see any way out of the calamitous dead end. All the concealed levers for the solution will be in the hands of a secret society assisting the Antichrist.

The Antichrist will offer the most successful project for solving the world crisis from the perspective of political and social wisdom, which would establish a uniform political and social order in the whole world. Exhausted from the shock of war, spiritually blinded humanity will not only by unaware that this project is a cowardly trap, enticing it into the most degrading and merciless slavery, but on the contrary, will recognize it as a manifestation of scholarship and genius.

Universal advertisement about the Antichrist as a brilliant thinker, new leader, and savior of mankind, will thunder over all nations in the shortest possible period of time. "Evil spirits dispersed in the universe, will awaken a general, inflated opinion about the Antichrist in man, a general enthusiasm and an irresistible attraction for him." (St. Ephraim the Syrian, 16th word.)

In this period of his activity, the Antichrist will not use any force and will try to win men's trust and affection with his deceitful and hypocritical public mask of virtue. He, according to the expression of Vladimir Soloviev, "will throw a gleaming veil of kindness and truth over the mystery of iniquity." "He will come," said St. Ephrem the Syrian, "in an image which will seduce everyone. He will come as a humble, kind, hater of falsehood (as he will say about himself), rejecting idols, preferring piety and kindness, loving the poor, bearing extremely handsome features, constant, sweet to everyone, respecting especially the Jewish nation because they will be awaiting his coming...He will take sly measures to please everyone, will not accept gifts nor speak in anger, will not show an overcast countenance, but will entice the world with a decorous exterior until he is enthroned." (See previous citation.)

From the great wealth of ascetical experience from our great men of podvig, it is known that when the black devil cannot overcome an ascetic, encountering unswerving opposition from him, a stronger devil comes as an "angel of light" (II Corinthians, XI, 14), attempting to awaken sympathy and trust towards himself in the ascetic, and easily charming him away to destruction. Thus, we can imagine how easily and quickly the bright image of the Antichrist will attract general sympathy towards itself after the filthy devil of Bolshevism.

As a result of such deceit, "the need to invite the Antichrist will arise" within the very temperament of man's spirit. "A beckoning voice will resound in man's society, expressing urgent need for a genius of geniuses, who would raise material development and prosperity to the highest degree and establish affluence on earth". (Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninoff. Vol IV, page 313.)

The hypocrisy of the Antichrist in this period will reach the point that he, even in his relationship to Christians, will not oppose them, but will appear ready to be their benefactor. He will try to imitate Christ in the external, showy side of his life. The majority of Christians, not guided by the spiritual wisdom of the Church, but by worldly wisdom, will not see this deceit, recognizing the Antichrist as Christ who has come to earth a second time. The monks of the Solovetsky monastery pass on the answer given by Righteous Zosima to his disciples when he was asked how the Antichrist could be recognized. Righteous Zosima said, "When you will hear that Christ has appeared on earth, know then that this is the Antichrist." This answer is most precise. "The world or mankind will not recognize the Antichrist, it will recognize him as Christ, it will proclaim him Christ... "

("Antichrist", by Very Reverend Boris Moltchanoff published in 1976, by Archpriest George Grabbe, Department of Foregin Relations Synod of Bishops, New York., pp. 1-4.)

Through Prayers Of Our Holy Fathers,

Lord Jesus Christ Son Of God,

Have Mercy On Us And Save Us!

Glory Be To God For All Things!

By Archpriest Father Boris Molchanoff

Excerpt from: http://www.serfes.org/orthodox/theantichrist.htm

The Theotokos is considered by Orthodox Christians to be the Abbess of all the monasteries on Mount Athos. She oversees the welfare of the monasteries as well as the monks who have dedicated their lives to imitating her through humility, obedience and purity. One way she has manifested her divine protection throughout the Holy Mountain is through her many wonderworking icons in the various monasteries and churches. The most famous and celebrated icon of the Theotokos on the Holy Mountain is without a doubt the icon known as "Axion Estin".

The church that houses the icon of Axion Estin is in Karyes, the capital of Mount Athos, in a church called Protaton. It is called Protaton because it was the first church built on the Holy Mountain in 843 AD by Saint Athanasios the Athonite ["Protaton" means "the first"]. The iconography of the church seen today was done in the 13th century by the renowned iconographer Emmanuel Panselinos.

To show that the Theotokos is the head of the monasteries of Athos, the icon of Axion Estin is seated on a throne of the church. It is named after the hymn we chant following the communing of the faithful of the Holy Gifts in the Divine Liturgy, but the initial lines of the hymn itself has an angelic origin that was revealed to a monk in the tenth century by the Archangel Gabriel himself. The miracle took place near the Skete of Protaton, in the vicinity of the Sacred Monastery of Pantokrator in the cell of a monk and his novice. (The rest of this wondrous tale can be read here.)

It was after this miraculous occurrence that the icon of the Theotokos was transferred to the church in Protaton. The cell where the miracle happened is known today by the name "Axion Estin" as well. The miracle took place on June 11, 982 on a Sunday. The miraculous brick on which was transcribed the hymn of Axion Esti was transferred to the Patriarchate of Constantinople and displayed for veneration by the faithful in the imperial palace Church of Saint Stephen. From then on the hymn Axion Estin became a staple within the Divine Liturgy and other services of the Church. The icon is especially celebrated with festivities and a procession on Bright Monday after Pascha and many miracles take place on this day.

The icon itself is a bit faded, but covered in a silver sheath to protect it. It has been recently restored and is now in good condition. It bears the inscription "Μήτηρ Θεού Καρυώτισσα" or "Mother of God Kariotissa". Its origins are probably from Constantinople and is of the Panagia Eleousa type first painted by the Apostle Luke.

On October 3, 1913 after an all-night vigil in the Protaton church, the self-governed region of the Holy Mountain became part of the Greek state after a decree was signed by the Abbots of the monasteries in the presence of and after doing a prostration before the miraculous icon of Axion Estin. This was done according to the international treaties of London (1913), Bucharest (1913), Neuilly (1919), Sèvres (1920) and Lausanne (1923). The Decree, "made in the presence of the Holy Icon of Axion Estin", stated that the Holy Mountain recognised the Kings of Greece as the lawful sovereigns and "successors on the Mountain" of the Roman "Emperors who built" the monasteries and declared its territory as belonging to the then Kingdom of Greece.

On the one thousand year anniversary of Mount Athos in 1963, the icon of Axion Estin left the Holy Mountain for the first time to be venerated in Athens by thousands of faithful. In 1985 it was brought to Thessaloniki aboard a military ship and received there with the same honors as a Head of State.

During the Greek Revolution of 1821, before the great catastrophe that took place on the island of Chios, the Turks pillaged the monasteries of the island of their wealth. One day a Turk happened upon two Greeks who were trying to save the treasures as he was holding an icon of the Theotokos. He told the Greeks: "Take this Mariam" (the Turks call the Virgin "Mariam"). The Greeks didn't understand why the Turk was giving them the icon. He went on to say: "I tried with my sword to cut this icon in pieces so as to throw it in the fire, but every time I went to chop it nothing would happen to the icon. I looked carefully at the icon and I noticed it smiled at me. I understood your faith is great and this icon should not be destroyed. Take the icon and put it in your church."

In tears the two Greeks signed themselves with the sign of the Cross and they took the icon and hid it in a bag taking it to their homeland in Reizdere, Asia Minor. They placed the icon in the Monastery of Saint Nicholas and it soon became known for its miraculous properties.

Of its many miracles, the following is told:

There was a sick woman who sought healing from the Holy Virgin and vowed an offering of her bracelets in return. She was healed. But she lived a distance from Reizdere and it made it difficult to go and make her promised offering. This thought occupied her conscience after the miracle.

One day the healed woman noticed her bracelets were missing. She thought someone stole them. At that time she left for the monastery and meant to give an offering of money for the worth of the bracelets. She told the abbess of all that happened and she lead the woman to the icon of the Holy Virgin. With amazement and tears she looked up at the icon and saw her two bracelets which were found in front of the icon a few days before. The Holy Virgin helped fulfill the vow on behalf of the woman.

The faithful Greeks did not abandon this icon neither during the exile of 1914 when they brought the icon with them to Chios, or even during the genocide of the Greeks in 1922 when they were permanently exiled to Greece.

During the Genocide of 1922 a man by the name of Barouma hid the icon in his furnace after he risked his life trying to save it. This Barouma became a monk on Mount Athos where he lived the rest of his life with the icon. Eventually the icon was brought to Chios and then Lemnos. Eventually the Greeks who had come from Reizdere wanted to bring it with them to Crete so they boarded the boat with their beloved icon. As they passed the Holy Mountain the monks requested that the icon stay with them, but the citizens of Reizdere could not part with their icon. It was brought with them to Ierapetra, Crete.

In Ierapetra the icon continued to work miracles for the inhabitants. Eventually a church was built in its honor named Panagia Eleousa. The story of this icon demonstrates the great faith of the Greeks of Asia Minor, the grace of holy icons, and the care the Theotokos shows to the needs of her beloved faithful.

Axion Estin (Greek)

Άξιον εστίν ως αληθώς μακαρίζειν σε την Θεοτόκον, την αειμακάριστον και παναμώμητον και μητέρα του Θεού ημών. Την τιμιωτέραν των Χερουβείμ και ενδοξοτέραν ασυγκρίτως των Σεραφείμ την αδιαφθόρως Θεόν Λόγον τεκούσαν, την όντως Θεοτόκον, Σε μεγαλύνομεν.

Axion Estin (English)

It is truly meet to bless thee, O Theotokos, ever blessed, and most pure, and the Mother of our God. More honorable than the cherubim, and beyond compare more glorious than the seraphim. Without corruption thou gavest birth to God the Word. the true Theotokos, we magnify thee.

Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone

Ye hosts of the Fathers of Mount Athos, gather today, and shout with a voice of jubilation, leaping for joy, and faithfully keeping feast: For, behold, the praise of the most pure Theotokos wondrously and awesomely is sung by the Angel; and therefore, as the Mother of God, we glorify her name.

Kontakion in the Fourth Tone

All of Athos keepeth feast this day in gladness; for it wondrously received from an Archangel's holy hand the hymn whereby thou hast ever been praised as the Mother of God, as is truly meet.

Source: johnsanidopoulos.com/2009/06/miracles-of-icon-of-axion-estin.html

The priest can serve Matins and Vespers without readers and singers, but only when the priest of the house or church is found alone, without anyone else coming and wishing to participate in prayer. They inform them about the lives of many saints pleasing to God that being in the desert or a recluse, they sang Vespers, Compline, Matins, the Hours and so forth by themselves, and even this was delivered to them as a special merit before God. Also in the moral sense it is possible to tell about reading the named services by priests without churchmen. For thus the priest himself personally should find everything, prescribed by the Ustav [Typikon], - both the Kathisma and the stichera, the canons and so forth, - not how it happens, when the priest serves with churchmen who reads the one, and the priest the other.

One priest alone cannot and should not do thus, - to say the Litanies; for in them it directly says: "Let us pray to the Lord", or: "Again let us pray", i.e. the priest or a deacon invites the forthcoming to take part in the general prayer, for what they, i.e. those who come, or instead of their choir, should also respond: "Lord, have mercy". When the priest reads this or that service alone, at home, even if it was in church he has nobody to invite to participate in the prayer with himself, there is nobody to respond to his invitation, but that is why even the litany is composed as an essential common part of the Divine service, it should be dropped in that case. If there are people together in church with the priest, wishing to listen to this or that service as the common Divine service, then, it should be understood by this, that he should serve together with the psalm reader, properly, according to the church Ustav [Typikon].

For without this very service this will have character of private instead of public prayer, and consequently cannot have that meaning it should have for those present, by the established order and custom of the church. Especially, of course, not otherwise, as soon as there is a psalm reader, the priest can and should serve a divine liturgy because 1) in itself it is one of the greatest public Divine services of our Church as its name is "public business" also shows by its name, "public service", and 2) in the Liturgy it is impossible to pass any word, and there, as it is known, it relies not only on Litanies, but on many other exclamations, to which it cannot be differently said, by the response of the singer, in the kind, e.g., of an exclamation: "Let us love one another, that with one mind we may confess"; - the answer: "Father, Son and Holy Spirit...", or: "Let us stand aright, Let us stand with fear", - the answer: "A mercy of peace! A sacrifice of praise!" and so forth. We already do not say that since ancient times the established order of our Orthodox Church the liturgy should always be accompanied by singing... Who begins to sing without the singer? (Rukovodstvo dlia Selskikh Pastyrei [Manual for Village Pastors] 1885, 35; Voronezhskiia Eparkh. ved. [Voronezh Diocesan News] 1887, 20). In the Polotsk diocese it has been made an indispensable duty of the church clergy to attend to the training of pupils in the local schools of boys to read and sing in the kliros so that the latter, in case of illness or absence of the psalm reader, could fulfill for them their obligation of completing the Divine services (Polotskiia Eparkh. ved. [Polotsk Diocesan News] 1879, 11).

S. V. Bulgakov, Handbook for Church Servers

Translated by Archpriest Eugene D. Tarris

Seek and you shall find... A couple's journey to Orthodoxy

My wife, Styliana, grew up in a family of non-denominational Protestant missionaries. When she was five, she and her family moved to Colombia, where they began working as missionaries among the Kogi Indians. Her childhood years were spent divided between living in a mud and thatch hut, washing clothes in a river and cooking over a fire, and living with other missionary families at the mission station, complete with a school, a store and a clinic.

As the years went by, her father began questioning Evangelical Protestant theology. He realized that salvation meant growing in holiness and not just a one-time emotional experience. But while he was able to diagnose the problems of Protestantism, he was not able to adequately formulate a solution. He still maintained the Protestant view of an "in-visible Church," composed of individual believers struggling on their own, equipped only with a Bible. Left to her own, without any church and without any practical way to pursue holiness, Styliana found herself falling into sin and becoming angry at God. The holiness required by God was simply impossible to attain.

Once, on a visit to the U.S., she spied a beautiful church from the window of her grandmother's car and commented on it. "But that's a Greek Orthodox church," her grandmother responded. "What's that?" "Ah, they're worse than the Catholics." Still later, as a teenager, she read The Brothers Karamazov and was struck by the glimpse it gave of Holy Russia. "What a wonderful kind of Christianity they had," she thought. "Too bad I didn't live in 19th-century Russia." As a young woman, working as a nurse in Dallas, she began to visit every church she could find, hoping to find one that could help her. Where was true sanctity to be found, and where were God's people? As she searched for a church that could help her, she felt God reassure her that He still had his "7000 who had not bowed their knee to Baal." But where were they?

I was brought up Baptist and, later, Presby-terian, though my father insisted that denominations did not matter, as long as a church "preached from the Bible." Even as a child I wondered then, why it was that there were so many different churches, if everyone was claiming to be Christian. When I was eight or so, I was urged to "accept Jesus" at a Bible camp, and I began reading the Bible on my own. In junior high I attended the church youth group on Wednesday evenings. The part I enjoyed most were the question-and-answer sessions, although sometimes the pastor's answers seemed too pat and unconvincing. At one session someone asked why we didn't include the Apocrypha in our Bibles. To convince us that these books are just "fairy tales," the pastor cited the passage from Tobit where Raphael advises Tobias to burn the innards of a fish in order to get rid of a demon. This kind of argument did not convince me. There are other parts of Scripture far stranger than this that Protestants have no difficulty accepting.

One Wednesday the pastor told us that we were not too young to ask God to show us what He wanted us to do with our lives. I sincerely wanted to serve the Lord, and I began praying in earnest that if He had a plan for me He would make it known. That very Sunday a family of missionaries visited our church. They shared about their work of translating the Scriptures for an Indian tribe in Colombia. They spoke of the thousands of people who do not have a Bible in their own language, whose language does not even have a written form. It struck me how much I took the Bible for granted. What if no one had ever translated it into English? I had always been fascinated with languages, and felt strongly that here was a speedy answer to my prayer: God was calling me to be a Bible translator.

In my high school years I did whatever I could to serve the Lord and prepare myself for mission work. Besides singing in the choir and helping in the church library, during vacations I helped with children's Bible classes in the inner city and with Hispanic communities in the countryside. One summer I went to Mississippi to help restore houses for a local Christian ministry. As my world grew larger and I met different kinds of Christians, my questions persisted. Why were there so many forms of Christianity? What was a Presbyterian, anyway? I searched the library for answers, but to my surprise there was very little information on church history, and no one around appeared to know much about it either.

My questions seemed only to multiply. Another memory I have of this time is of sitting in church and looking at the bulletin that read "Worship Service" at the top. I asked myself, "Why do they call this worship? We're singing about God. The preacher is talking to us about God. I hear plenty of jokes and announcements. The choir is entertaining us. But where is the worship?" Once I could drive, I visited different churches with friends from school, but none of them had the answers I was seeking, nor did they worship. Some, like the Charismatics, made a show of worshiping, but it never struck me as true worship. I never visited an Orthodox church simply because I didn't know anyone who was Orthodox. And I assumed that Orthodoxy was basically an exotic form of Roman Catholicism.

After college I moved to Dallas to begin my training with Wycliffe Bible Translators. Their philosophy was that since the Bible was all that one needed, the best method of evangelism was simply to give people that Bible in their own language. Whether the people then wanted to join a church, or form their own, was up to them. I was also taught the principles of "dynamic equivalence" translation. In this view, the language of the Bible needed to be "clarified," since the meaning was often "obscured" by poetry, metaphor and symbolism. Since "Son of man" was too exotic a turn of phrase to be readily understood, it was better to translate it as "Jesus." Since the blood of Christ was a metonym for His death (just as one can say "head" and mean "cattle"), it was better to say "death of Christ" rather than mention His blood. And if a culture knew nothing of sheep, but sacrificed pigs, then it was legitimate to change "Lamb of God" to... well, you can guess.

While in Dallas I met Styliana, who was there working as a nurse. Her parents were shaken by the recent kidnapping of her brother - held by Marxist terrorists for four and a half months - and had sent her to live in the U.S. for a while. After we were married, we moved to Colombia to resume the Bible translation work that her parents had set aside ten years before. Her family had raised a Kogi youth named Alfonso, and had him help them translate some New Testament portions into Kogi (the Kogi do not speak Spanish), although he complained that he was too young for such a responsibility. When he was grown, he returned to the Kogi area, and Styliana's family lost contact with him.

When we arrived in Colombia, I was not sure what work I was going to do. I had no way to learn the Kogi language - I didn't even know any Spanish yet - and there was no one to assist me in the task of translating the Scriptures into Kogi. God's Providence soon rescued me from this quandary. Shortly after we arrived in Colombia, a Kogi came down from the mountains bearing a letter from Alfonso-the first anyone had heard from him in ten years-announcing that he was now ready to resume work on the Bible translation. He had no idea that I had just arrived in Colombia with that very intention.

After a few years I knew Kogi well enough to begin the task of translating the Scriptures with Alfonso. This work was challenging not just because of the complexity of the language, but also because it made me realize how superficial my understanding of Scripture was. When you are forced to render something into another language, you have to have a good understanding of just what that something means. I suddenly found that I wasn't sure what many key terms really meant: justification, grace, blessing, holiness, even salvation. How could these be expressed in Kogi? How could I get Alfonso to understand them if I didn't understand them myself? It took eight years to translate the entire New Testament and the book of Genesis. Those eight years were also a time of intense study in the Greek and Hebrew texts. In the process I discovered that the Christianity that I was raised on bore little resemblance to what I was finding for myself in the original Scriptures.

I began to study church history, which I had never been encouraged to read before. I had been raised to understand that between the Apostles and Martin Luther, nothing important happened. It was understood that the Church had "apostatized" at an early date and that no one really understood what Christianity was about until the Reformation. Now I was seeing that I had been deprived. I also realized that the West, both Roman and Protestant, had been unduly influenced by Augustine without being balanced by the more ancient, Eastern Fathers, who, unlike Augustine, read the Scriptures in Greek. I shared all of this with Styliana. Her response was, "Well, if the Greek Fathers had everything right, then maybe we should check out the Greek Church." "You mean, like Greek Orthodox?" I asked. That seemed out of the question. I figured that since they looked so Roman Catholic, whatever truth they once might have had was now lost.

Our convictions, however, were becoming more and more Orthodox, which puzzled our friends. The church we attended put me in charge of the adult Sunday school class. I began it with the idea of just holding a round-table discussion on Gospel passages, where the Holy Spirit would lead us to the Truth. But soon I found that each of us had our own slant on the Truth; in a group of ten there could be eleven opinions. Each class ended with us more divided and more convinced of our own views. There was no final court of appeals, so where was the Truth? When I was invited to preach, my sermons tended to be on topics such as fasting, the struggle for holiness and the danger of apostasizing. Such non-Evangelical ideas were coldly received.

When Styliana was asked to head the Sunday school department, she decided to replace the materials which typically spoke of Jesus as our "buddy" and contained a page where the child could sign his name on a dotted line to "receive salvation." She ordered materials from every Protestant Sunday school publisher she could find. To her dismay, they were all the same. "If this is Protestantism," we decided, "then we're not Protestants." But we knew we were not Roman Catholics, either. So what were we? Finally we had to pull our sons out of the Bible club at the Baptist church. They would get points for memorizing Bible verses, which were invariably taken out of context and twisted. At one point they were to learn: In the beginning was the Word... All things were made through Him... The passage itself was intact, but the accompanying drawing depicted a giant, glowing Bible moving over the primordial waters. The message was clear: the Bible is the Word, therefore the Bible created the universe. That was the last straw. We withdrew our boys from the club, which scandalized the missionary community.

Soon thereafter, we went to spend some time in the U.S. We were staying in Minneapolis, when one day Styliana came home from a garage sale with a book that she thought might interest me. It was The Orthodox Church by Bishop Kallistos (Ware). It hit me like a bolt of lightning. I found that the Church of the Greek Fathers still existed after all. Why had I never looked in this direction before? On the very first page he quoted Khomiakov as saying that all the West knows is a single datum a. "Whether it is +a in the case of the Roman Catholics, or -a in the case of the Protestants, it is still the same a." It blew my mind to see that there was a Christian tradition that saw Catholics and Protestants as merely two sides of the same coin! Here was a whole terra incognita, so new and yet so old. Here were theosis and synergy, the Seven Ecumenical Councils, hesychasm, Mt Athos, and two thousand years of saints I had never heard of. All week Styliana heard me "oohing" and "aahing" over the book and saying, "This could be it!" "It?" she asked. "What it?" "The Church," I said. "But you don't believe there is a Church," she reminded me. "Well, maybe there is after all."

The next Sunday, Styliana asked where we were going to church. "Oh, the same church we've been attending, I guess." "But why? All week you've been saying, 'The Orthodox Church, this'; 'The Orthodox Church, that'; and now you want to go back to the same old church?" "But you don't understand," I tried to explain. "You can't just show up. They might not let us in. Besides, they might not even speak English." "Well, call one and ask," she suggested. At random I chose the OCA cathedral (it turned out to be the one where Fr. Alexis Toth had served). The deacon reassured me that we were certainly welcome, and when he met us at the door, he said, "You've come on a special day. It's Pentecost."

The moment we walked in we felt God's presence in a way we never had before. What was different? We couldn't put our finger on it. When Styliana saw the icons her first reaction was, "This is Roman Catholic." But then she thought, "No, this is different." Having grown up in Latin America, where the Roman Church is especially corrupt and paganized, she had been around many Catholic churches and always felt an aversion and a spiritual oppression around their images. I had had the same experience in the Philippines. Yet these icons, far from repulsing us, attracted us. Rather than a heaviness, there was a particular lightness to the atmosphere. It was a hot day, our sons were restless, the service was mostly in Slavonic, yet it was wonderful. Styliana said afterwards, "I don't know what that was, but I know I will never be the same for having been there." With only a few weeks left before returning to Colombia, we visited different parishes to learn as much as we could. The next Sunday we went to an English-speaking parish. As Styliana read the words, she cried and cried. They were saying everything that should be said: "Lord have mercy... That the whole day may be perfect, holy, peaceful, and sinless... a good defense before the dread judgment seat of Christ... grant this, O Lord." One priest was especially kind, giving us a whole Orthodox library and offering to visit us in Colombia. At his parish, Styliana had an experience that made her take a big step forward. At Vespers, she felt frustrated at all the bowing and formality, so unfamiliar to her experience. At the end of the service I asked if she wanted to venerate the cross. "Ah, they just do the hokey-pokey and turn themselves around," she muttered. "I'm not kissing anything." The next morning at Matins she walked in and saw Christ in the apse frowning at her. She felt convicted and vowed to venerate whatever they offered. At the veneration of the Gospel, she kissed the icon of the Crucifixion in the center, and as she did so she had a vision that to this day she cannot put into words.

On our return to Bogota, we began reading through all the books we had acquired, and many of our questions and doubts were finally resolved. One issue in particular that had been difficult for us as Protestants had been the role of the Theotokos. We had seen so much error in the Roman Church. Howdid the Orthodox understanding differ? The book that set this matter straight for us was The Orthodox Veneration of the Mother of God, by Saint John of San Francisco. We finally reached the point where we knew we had to become Orthodox. It was everything we had been seeking all our lives. We searched for an Orthodox church in Bogota and eventually learned that there was only a small, non-functioning Greek parish under Constantinople. It would be a full year before we met any clergy serving this parish. During this time we shared about our new-found Faith with everyone we knew and were pleased to find that there was a good deal of interest. But since there was no functioning church, all we could do was have informal reader services in our home. I was ambivalent about this since I knew that what we were doing bore no resemblance to an Orthodox service. We had no icons, we didn't know how to chant, and I was afraid that we were giving people the idea that Orthodoxy was just some form of Protestantism. We gradually made contact with some of the Greek community, but they were not interested in lay services. "Just wait for the priest," was their advice.

We wanted not only to become Orthodox ourselves, but we felt a need to start up an Orthodox mission. We began looking for whatever Orthodox materials we could find in Spanish, but there was (and still is) little available. I had to translate materials myself to share with Colombian friends. The most help we received was from Christ of the Hills Monastery in Texas. They sent us Spanish materials that we found had originally been published by the Russian Church Abroad in Chile. We were pleased to find that there was already an Orthodox presence in South America, and that an attempt was being made to reach out to Spanish-speaking non-Orthodox. We also gradually realized that of the Orthodox materials that we owned, the ones that were most instructive, most serious, and most in line with what we understood Orthodoxy to be were those that were published by Old Calendarists. Eventually I wrote to Holy Trinity Monastery for direction, and we received letters from Fr. Luke of Jordanville and from Bishop (now Archbishop) Hilarion. They also sent materials explaining more about ecumenism and modernism, issues that had disturbed us, as had the involvement of so many Orthodox jurisdictions in the WCC. After a period of trying to be Orthodox "by correspondence," we came to the understanding that we had to live in an Orthodox community. We sold our car and furniture, handed over our house, and, with Vladika Hilarion's blessing, we moved to Jordanville, where I am now attending Holy Trinity Seminary.

We feel strongly that we must return to Colombia and establish a mission there. It is the only South American country without a single functioning parish. There are a number of Orthodox living there with no opportunity to worship. In the last two years we spent there, we told many people about Orthodoxy, and a surprising number showed interest. When they would ask to visit our parish, it broke our hearts to tell them there was none. We even met a young man, Javier, who had dropped out of Roman Catholic seminary. From his study of church history he realized that Rome had apostatized, and so he began seeking the Orthodox Church. He finally tracked us down just before we left the country. For his sake alone, Orthodoxy must be planted there, but we know there are many more like Javier, disillusioned with Rome. Please join with us in praying to all the saints of America to intercede not only for North America, but for the other America as well.

Source: http://www.roca.org/OA/149/149i.htm

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