The Orthodox Kite
ISSUED EVERY TWO MONTHS
JANUARY 1950 FEBRUARY.
Holy Trinity Monastery, Jordanville, N. Y.2
CONTENTS:
The Great cannon, called also the King of ca:
The Vision of Christ
by Bis
op Ignatius Briantchaninoy
The Prayer of Optina elders
The Orthodox \ eneration of the Most Holy
Mother of God by Prof, I Andreev
The Russian Martyrs by M. G.
The Children’s Section dream
by Galina Deinitzine ..
Father John of Cronstadt. My life in Christ
a
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Subscription price $2 yearly.
Single issue 35 cents.THE GREAT CANON, CALLED ALSO
THE KING OF CANONS. *)
(Fifth thursday in lent).
Whence shall my tears begin?
What first-fruits shall I bear
Of earnest sorrow for my sin?
Or how my woes declare?
O Thou! the Merciful and Gracious One!
Forgive the foul transgressions I have done.
With Adam I have vied,
Yea, pass’d him, in my fall;
And I am naked now. by pride
And lust made bare of all;
Of Thee, O God, and that Celestial Band,
And all the glory of the Promis’d Land.
No earthly Eve beguil’d
My body into sin:
A spiritual temptress smil’d,
Concupisence within:
Unbridled passion grasp’d th’ unhallow’d sweet:
Most bitter — ever bitter — was the meat.
*) Translated from the Greek by The Rev. J. M. Neale, D, D.
Hymns of the Eastern Church. London.ag
If Adam’s righteous doom,
Because he dar’d transgress
Thy one decree, lost Eden’s bloom
And Eden’s loveliness:
What recompense, O Lord, must I expect,
Who all my life Thy quick’ning laws neglect?
By mine own act, like Cain,
A murd’rer was I made:
By mine own act my soul was slain,
When Thou wast disobey’d:
And lusts each day are quicken’d, warring still
Against Thy grace with many a deed of ill,
Thou formedst me of clay,
O Heav’nly Potter! Thou
In fleshly vesture didst array
With life and breath endow.
Thou Who didst make, didst ransom, and dost know,
To Thy repentant creature pity show!
My guilt for vengence cries;
But yet Thou pard’nest all,
And whom Thou lov’s Thou dost chastise,
And mourn’st for them that fall:
Thou, as a Father, mark’st our tears and pain,
And welcomest the prodigal again.
I lie before Thy door,
O turn me not away!
Nor in mine old age give me o’er
To Satan for a prey!
But ere the end of life and term of grace,
Thou Merciful! my many sins efface!
The Priest beheld, and pass’d
The way he had to go:
A careless glance the Levite cast,
And left me to my woe:pi
But Thou, O Jesu, Mary’s Son, console,
Draw nigh, and succour me, and make me whole!
Thou spotless Lamb Divine,
Who takest sins away,
Remove, remove the load than mine
Upon my concience lay:
And, of Thy tender mercy, grant Thou me
To find remission of iniquity!
——> ¢ 6) eee
THE VISION OF CHRIST.
by
Bishop Ignatius Briantchaninov.
Do you wish to see the Lord Jesus Christ? Come and see.
says His Apostle (Jn. 1, 46).
Our Lord Jesus Christ has promised to be with His Disciples
till the end cf the world (Mat. 28, 20). He is with them, in the Ho
ly Gospel and in the Sacraments of the Church. *) He is not for
those who do not believe in the Gospel; they do not see Him,
being blinded by unbelief.
Do you wish to hear Christ? He speaks to you by the Gospel.
Do not despise His saving voice. Turn from the life of sin, and
listen attentively to the teaching of Christ, which is eternal life.
Do you want Christ to manifest Himself to you? He teaches
you to merit it. He who has My commandments and keeps them,
he it is who loves Me; and who loves Me will be loved by My
Father, and I will love him and will manifest Myself to him (Jn.
14, 21).
‘You were made a child of God by the Sacrament of Holy
Baptism; you were brought into union with God by the Sacra-
*) St. Peter of Damascus says: “Christ is hidden in the Gospel. He who
wishes to find Him must sell all his possessions and buy the Gospel, so as not
seck Him not without but within oneself, that is, he should seek to be in body
only to find Christ by reading, but so as to receive Him within oneself by
imitating His life in the world. He who seeks Christ, says St. Maximus, should
end soul like Christ, sinless far as humanly possible.”= 6 —
ment of Holy Communion. Maintain your sonship, maintain your
union. Renew the purity given by Holy Baptism by repentance,
and strengthen your union with God by receiving the Holy Mys-
teries as frequently as possible. He who eats My flesh and drinks
My blood, says the Lord, dwells in Me and I in him (Jn. 6, 56).
Beware of reveries and day-dreaming, which can make you
think that you see the Lord Jesus Christ, that you touch and
embrace Him. This is an empty display of puffed up, proud self-
opinion! This is perilous self-deception! Fulfil the commandments
of the Lord, and in a wonderful way you will see the Lord within
you, in your character and conduct. That is how the holy Apostle
Paul saw the Lord within him. And he required this vision of all
Christians. Those who had not got it, he called people who had
not reached the state proper to Christians. (ep. Gal. 6, 2-4; Ephes.
4; 5, 1-6).
If you like a sinful life and indulge your passions, and at
the same time think that you love the Lord Jesus Christ, then
His intimate disciple who lay on His breast during the mystical
supper convicts you of self-deception. He says: He who says, “I
know Him,” and does not keep His commandmenis, is a liar, and
the truth is not in Him. But who ever keeps His word, in him the
love of God has really reached perfection. (1 Jn. 2, 4-5).
If you do your sinful will, and so break the commandments
of the Gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ will number you among these
who do not love him. He who does not love Me. He says, will not
keep My words (Jn. 14, 24).
Do not rush thoughtlessly to the marriage of the Son of God
and to union with Him in old, stinking rags, without looking
carefully to your garments, even though you are called to this
marriage, to which every Christian is called. The Master of the
house has servants who will bind you hand and foot, and will
cast you into the outer darkness, away from the presence of God
(Mat. 22, 11-13). :
The servants to whose power the daring seeker of love is
delivered are demons, fallen angels; the outer darkness is the
gloom or blindness of the soul; the binding of the hands and feet
denotes the loss of interior life and capacity for spiritual progress.
All self-deluded people are in this state.
Can one who is in a state of self-delusion, in the realm of
falsehood and deception, be a deer of Christ’s commandmentsSos
Such will be your state, wretched dreamers, who imagine
that you are living your earthly life in the divine embraces, when
the Saviour’s word strikes you: I never knew you; depart from
Me, you workers of iniquity (Mat. 7, 23).
My true friend in the Lord! Go to the Lord Jesus Christ,
draw near to Him by way of the commandments of the Gospel;
know Him by them; show and prove your love for the Lord Jesus
by putting them into practice. He Himself will manifest Himself
to you, and with this manifestation He will pour into your heart
unutterable love for Himself which is something which does not
properly belong to fallen man; it is the gift of the Holy Spirit,
sent by God solely to vessels of humility and chastity (Rom. 5, 5).
Entrust yourself to the Lord, and not to yourself — that is
far safer! He is your Creator. When you were subjected to the
bitter fall, He took humanity for you, He gave you His Divinity.
And what else has He not done for you? Prepare yourself for His
gifts by purifying yourself; *) that is your business. Amen.
*) IL Cor. 7. 1.
THE PRAYER OF OPTINA ELDERS.
Grant unto me, my Lord, that with peace of mind I may
face all that this new day is to bring.
Grant unto me grace to surrender myself completely to Thy
holy will.
For every hour of this day instruct and prepare me in all
things.
Whatsoever tidings I may recieve during the day, do Thou
teach me to accept tranquilly, in the firm conviction that all
eventualities fulfill Thy holy will.
Govern Thou my thoughts and feelings in all I do and say.
When things unforseen occur, let me not forget that all co-
meth down from Thee.
Teach me to behave sincerely and reasonably toward every
member of my family, that I may bring confusion and sorrow to
none.
Bestow upon me, my Lord, strength to endure the fatigue
of the day and to bear my part in all it’s passing events.
Guide Thou my will and teach me to pray, to believe, toThe ikon of the Holy Mother Wladimir.
THE ORTHODOX VENERATION
OF THE MOST HOLY MOTHER OF GOD.
Our most holy Lady, the Mother of God and Ever-Virgin
Mary, is incontestably the highest being of all rational creatures.
She is far above the highest orders of angels and the holiest of
the saints. Of all mortals She is the only one who passed through
death, resurrection and the transfiguration of the flesh and was
taken bodily to heaven by Her Son, the Saviour of the world.k
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That the mystery of the incarnation might take place, God
was pleased to prepare for Himself a living, animate temple. It
was the most humble, most meek and most pure Virgin Mary
whom He chose to be that temple. The Virgin Mary is mankind’s
best gift to God, the best present from earth to heaven.
The holy Virgin’s father, St. Joakim ,was of royal paren-
tage (he traced his descent from King David’s son, Nathan), while
Her mother, St. Anne, came from a high-priestly family (she was
the daughter of the priest Matthan of the tribe of Aaron). But
their distinguished and spiritual ancestry was only the beauti-
ful background against which the countless personal virtues of
Saint Joakim and Anne shone brightly: chastity, humanity, pu-
rity of heart, meekness and forgiveness, unshakable faith in God,
undying hope and profound love for God and their neighbor.
They were childless, and although they had reached advanced
old age, they patiently and unmurmuringly bore their shame and
the scorn of society, *) and never ceased to knock and ask and
implore God for the gift of a child. And they promised to conse
crate their child wholly to the service of God.
The Lord heard the prayer of the wonderful parents, and
gave them a daughter. The Lord’s messenger, the Archangel
Gabriel, brought from heaven from the Tripersonal God Himself
the holy Virgin’s name Mary which means Lady. And consequent-
ly Mary became the Mistress or Lady of the whole world, visible
and invisible, of men and angels, Queen of heaven and earth,
the supreme and highest authority after God.
After the birth of the holy Virgin, Saints Joakim and Anne
fulfilled their vow and consecrated their child to God. “With
diligent care.” says St. Dimitry of Rostov, they reared their child.
In an atmosphere of constant prayer, worship and thanksgiving
to God the most pure Virgin grew up, imbibed the fragrance of
holiness with which She was surrounded and prepared Herself
with all Her being for the great and wonderful mystery of a
special, extraordinary union with God incomprehensible to the
human mind.
When She was three years old, Her parents brought Her to
the temple of the Lord and gave Her up entirely to God. A few
years after this “Entry into the Temple,” St. Joakim died at the
age of eighty. Left a widow, St. Anne went to Jerusalem and— 10 —
settled near her holy daughter, praying for Her unceasingly in
the Temple of the Lord. Two years later St. Anne also died at
the age of eighty .In this way the holy child Mary became a
complete orphan. After the death of Her parents She was free
from all earthly ties and gave Herself entirely to God. She spent
all Her time in the temple occupied in reading the sacred books,
prayer and pious meditations.
Having begun Her truly monastic life on the threshold of
childhood and girlhood, the Most Holy Virgin Mary attained such
spiritual and bodily purity on the frontier between girlhood and
youth (adolescence) that She became worthy to become the Un-
wedded Bride of the Holy Spirit. This was announced to Her by
the Lord’s messenger, the Archangel Gabriel who had previously
announced to Her Parents the joy of Her own birth.
The cycle of feasts of the Mother of God observed by the
holy Orthodox Church can be studied as a symbolical chain of
events that frame the mystery of the Incarnation.
On the day of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God
(September 8-th), when earth offers her fruits, mankind offered
to God her best fruit, her fragnant flower — the holy Virgin Mary.
On the day of the “Entry into the Temple” (November 21-st)
the three-year-old child was adopted by God Himself as His dau-
ghter.
On the day of the “Annunciation” the most pure Virgin was
granted to become the eternal Bride Unwedded of God the Holy
Spirit.
On “Christmas Day” the Ever-Virgin Mary became the most
Pure and Blessed Mother of God the Son — the Most Holy Mother
of God.
And on the day of Her “Assumption” the Most Holy Mother
of God rose in Her transfigured body and ascended to heaven.
Yet She did not abandon the earthly world of men but became
the Mother of all people, the intercessor and mediatress before
God for the whole human race.
“In giving birth Thou didst preserve Thy virginity, and in
Thy assumption Thou didst not leave the world, O, Mother of God.
Thou didst pass to Life, Thou who art the Mother of Life, and by
Thy prayers Thou deliverest our souls from death,” sings the ho-
ly Orthodox Church.
The gracious Daughter of God the Father, the Mother of Godeae
Most Pure Ever-Virgin Mary became the Mother of the Lord,
the Lady and Queen of men and angels.
Evidence that the Most Holy Mother of God “in Her assump-
tion did not leave the world” is given by St. Andrew, fool for
Christ’s sake. Rapt to Paradise, he found that our Lady was not
there. As he was wondering why, he heard a voice saying: “Did
you want to see the most radiant Queen of the heavenly powers?
But She is not here. She has gone to the troubled world, to help
people and to console the afflicted.”
St. Dimitry of Rostov tells the honour and glory of the Most
Holy Virgin Mary in wonderful words: “She was crowned with
glory and honour. She was crowned with glory, for She sprang
from a royal root; She was crowned with honour, because She
came from a priestly family; She was crowned with glory, because
She was the child of chaste parents; She was crowned with honour,
for the message of the Annunciation was conveyed to Her by an
Archangel; She was crowned with glory, as the Mother of God, for
what can be more glorious than a person who bears God? She was
crowned with honour as Ever-Virgin, for what can be more ho-
nourable than to remain a virgin even after child-bearing? She
was crowned with glory more glorious than the Seraphim, since
She was loved in a seraphic way by God. She was crowned with
honour more honourable than the Cherubim, since She surpassed
the Cherubim in wisdom and knowlege of the Godhead.”
At the conclusion of his eulogy of the Most Holy Virgin Mary,
St. Dimitry of Rostov says: “She kept all the Lord’s command-
ments, fulfilled all the will of God, observed all His directions,
hid all His words in Her heart, and showed Her neighbors all
the works of mercy. Therefore She was worthy to be crowned
as one who did everything well” (Sermon on the Nativity of the
Mother of God).
The Most Holy Virgin Mary is the meekest and humblest
being in all the universe. The righteous Simeon’s prophecy, “And
a sword will pierce thy soul,” was fully realized in the life of
the Most Holy Mother of God. Her Son’s Golgotha was the sword
that pierced the pure Virgin Mother’s soul. “My soul is ready to die
with sorrow” (more literally: “My soul is sorrowful even to death”),
prayed Her Son, the Saviour of the world, in the Garden of
Gethsemane. Could His holy Mother be less sorrowful? As She
gazed at Her crucified Son, would not His most pure Mother besorrow the Holy Mother of God bore in Her heart when St. John
took Her to his home after the Saviour’s death! Yet the sorrow-
ful Mother did not give vent to Her grief by uttering a single
word. Mary’s voice is the softest, gentlest, quietest, of all the voi-
ces of the world. Few of Her words have come down to us. For
that reason alone, how precious is Her every meek and gentle,
pure and holy word!
“For every idle word that they speak men will give account
at the day of judgment” (Mat. 12, 36). All, even the most perfect,
the purest and holiest of men, even the greatest hermits who
spent long years in silence, will have to answer for all their idle
words. Only the Mother of God throughout the whole of Her life
never uttered a single idle word. In the holy Gospel are recorded
for mankind all Her very occasional utterances — precious pearls
of the spiritual treasury of word. These few sentences are to be
found in the conversation with the Archangel Gabriel at the time
of the annunciation, in Her conversation with St. Elisabeth, in
Her brief questions to Her twelveyear-old Son in the temple at
Jerusalem, and in Her humble request at the marriage in Cana
of Galilee. But not a single word of Hers has reached us from
Calvary, or from Pentecost, or from Her own death-bed.
Silence is the mystery of the future life, but it was the na-
tural element of the spirit of the Ever-Virgin Mother of God.
And it could not be otherwise. For is it possible to find human
words to express the essence of the mystery of the incarnation
of God the Word?
According to the explanation of St. Gregory the Sinaite, the
Mother of God was the one rational vessel in which God dwelt
by His actual being. “Such a reception of God within oneself,”
says Bishop Ignatius Briantchaninov, “is evidently the unique
exclusive, unparalleled prerogative of the Mother of God, inac-
cessible alike to holy men and holy angels.”
“Yet in spite of all Her majesty,” continues Bishop Ignatius,
“the conception of the Mother of God took place according to the
common law of humanity. Consequently the general confession of
the human race of conception in iniquity and birth in sin is also
true of the Mother of God. The humble and revenent Mary made
this confession for all the world to hear: “My soul magnifies the
Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour” (Lk. 1, 46).
But if God Whom She bore is also Her Saviour, then She wasPepe eit
humanity ... The Virgin Mary was conceived and born in perdi-
tion, in a fallen state, in the chains of death and sin; She was born
in the same state as the whole human race. The fact that She
gave birth to God, the Saviour of all men including Herself, gave
Her a greatness that surpassed the greatness of the sinless Angels
who never tasted the death of the soul and so did not need a Savi-
our.”
The descent of the Holy Spirit on the pure Virgin Mary
took place twice: on the day of the Annunciation and at Pente-
cost. According to the teaching of the Orthodox Church it was
only at the second descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost that
the destruction of eternal death was accomplished in the most
holy Mother of God (as also in the holy Apostles). ,
In this connection the same Bishop Ignatius writes: “Perhaps
to some people it may seen incomprehensible why at the first
descent of the Holy Spirit on the Virgin the destruction of eter-
nal death was not accomplished in Her? The destruction of eter-
nal death was a fruit of the redemption. Before the redemption
had been accomplished it was impossible for it to take place.”
The Orthodox Church’s teaching on the honour and glory
of our Most Blessed Lady, the Mother of God and Ever-Virgin
Mary who gave birth to God and the Saviour of the world yet
needed salvation herself through her Son, differs from Roman
Catholic teaching and Protestant teaching on the same subject.
Catholics teach that the Mother of God was conceived without ori-
ginal sin like the Saviour, while Protestants do not acknowledge
the Virgin’s perpetual virginity.
Protestants affirm that after she had given birth to the God-
Man, the Mother of God did not retain her virginity, but became
Joseph’s wife and had other children by him. Luther and Pro-
testants in general consider virginity unnatural for human beings.
On this question Bishop Ignatius Briantchaninov, in his “Expo-
sition of the Teaching of the Orthodox Church on the Mother
of God,” writes as follows:
“The Orthodox Church regards virginity as natural to man;
she regards as the true human nature that in which man was
created. The state of the fall in which all mankind now finds
itself is an unnatural, subnatural, abnormal state... The Saviour
Himself in His humanity was an all-holy virgin. His Mother was
a most pure virgin replete with every gift of grace. Virginity.eta
tural to fallen nature, is restored as a gift to nature that has been
renewed by the Saviour.” The most pure, most blessed, grace-
filled Ever-Virgin Mary not only demonstrated in herself inte-
rior spiritual perfection, but even by her outward appearance
she astounded all who had the good fortune to see with their
own eyes her flawless beauty.
St. Dionysius the Areopagite, a distinguished and learned
Athenian who was converted to Christianity by the Apostle Paul,
after visiting the Mother of God in St. John the Evangelist’s
home, wrote to St. Paul: “I have seen with my own eyes the
divinely beautiful and most holy Mother of our Lord Jesus
Christ who surpassed in sanctivity all the celestial spirits. When
I was brought into the presence of the God-like and most holy
Virgin, there shone about me such a tremendous, immeasurably
divine and powerful radiance (it not only shone from without,
but lit up my soul from within even more), and I was filled with
such a wonderful and varied fragrance, that neither my frail
body nor my spirit could bear such stupendous signs and fore-
tastes of eternal beatitude and glory. My heart failed, my spirit
gasped within me at the sight of her divine glory and grace. I
testify by God Who dwelt in the most pure womb of the Virgin
that if I had not retained in my memory and in my newly-en-
lightened mind thy divine teaching and commandments, I would
have taken the Virgin for God and would have honoured her
with the adoration due solely to the one true God.”
No one fulfilled so fully and so simply Christ’s basic com-
mandments as His most pure Mother. In no one was love for
God and love for one’s neighbor in such wonderful harmony as
in the most holy Mother of God. Just before His death on the
cross, the Saviour affiliated to His holy Mother His beloved dis-
ciple St. John the Theologian, and in his person the whole human
race. And from that time the most holy Mother of God became
for ever a living link between earth and heaven, truly “Jacob’s
Ladder,” the eternal Mediatress for sinful men before her Son
and God.
The God-Man and Saviour borrowed His flesh from the flesh
of His Mother. It is not by chance that the Orthodox Church in
many ikons depicts the faces of Mother and Son with a family
likeness. By taking flesh from His purest Mother the Saviour
sanctified human flesh in general, and placed His Mother above
all in authority after God. That is why the Orthodox Church, in
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invoking all the Saints and holy Angels, says: “Pray for us!” and
only invokes Our Lady with words: “Most Holy Mother of God.
save us!”
St. John Chrysostomos affirmed that the most powerful in-
tercession before God in heaven was that of the Mother of God.
No grace is given to men without her mediation. The Heavenly
Queen’s intercession and prayers to God are of greater worth
and value than the prayers and intercession of all the Saints.
“Through thee, O Mother of God,” cries St. Ephrem the Sy-
rian, “has flowed from Adam, flows and will flow till the end of
the world all glory, all honour and all holiness.”
In the light of this Orthodox teaching it becomes understand-
able why St. Seraphim prayed all his life and died on his knees
before the ikon known as “Our Lady of Compunction” (without
Child).
In Mr. Uekskuehl’s interesting and spiritually instructive
article (“An Incredible but True Occurrence,” ed. by the Trinity
Laura, 1908) is told what power over demons has the mere in-
vocation of the name of the Virgin Mary. Father John of Kron-
stadt, in his diary, “My Life in Christ,” explains how it is that
her name has such power. Elsewhere he writes: “Pronounce the
name of God with the deepest reverence... Reverently pro-
nounce also the name of the Most Pure Mother of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Ever-Virgin Mary. The demons tremble at the sign
of the life-giving cross... How much more do the demons
tremble before Our Lady, the Mother of God, and even at Her
Most Holy Name! Our Lady is like the brightest star. She is all
radiant with Light in God. She is like a glowing ember in a large
fire, all luminous and full of fire. As it is easy to think that He
(God) is Light and Holiness, so it is that She too is eternal light
and eternal holiness. Amen.”
The most holy Mother of God is spiritually perfect. Yet be-
fore God “even the perfection of the perfect is imperfect.” That
is why St. John Cassian, in reflecting on the power of the holy
sacrament of the Eucharist, can dare to say that it “perfects even
the Perfect and Most Holy Mother of God.”
To the Orthodox mind the Holy Virgin is primarily a MO-
THER, who maternally loves and understands her children, who
grieves over her children’s sins, who is loved as a mother by
her children, sinful people of a sinful world. She is “the warm
Intercessor for a cold world.” At the same time the holy Virgini Ge
is our mother in the sense that she is flesh of our flesh, and blood
of our blood. She is not a superhuman being but an ordinary
human being, born like all the rest of us under the burden of
sin in this vale of tears. Like us she needed salvation from sin
and death, and like us she suffered the greatest afflictions to
which only a human heart is susceptible.
At the same time Mary is full of grace, the Sovereign Lady
and Queen of heaven and earth, the Mother of God “more ho
nourable than the Cherubim and incomparably more glorious
than the Seraphim.” As a human being she understands every-
thing. As Mother of God she can do everything. She is our own
Mother, and she is God’s own Mother!
For her purity the host holy Virgin evokes cumpunction in
all human hearts longing for purity of heart in order to be able
to see God. “Most Pure Mother” — these are the words that re-
echo most of all in orthodox hearts. And we orthodox love her
as the dearest and purest Mother imaginable. Love for our Mo-
ther is chaste and holy. In love for our Mother there can be no
impurity. But in the Roman Catholic cult of the Madonna, with
platonic love is frequently combined a subtle sensuous element,
of love for the “Beautiful Lady,” for “Eternal Womanhood,” etc.
All orthodox dogmatic theology is invisibly penetrated with
the presence of the Mother of God. Father Sergius Bulgakov
was profoundly right when he said that “without the veneration
of the Mother of God, without knowing her, worshipping and
following her interiorly, true Christianity is impossible. It is not
within our power to honor the Son apart from His Mother, or to
worship the Divine Infant and remove Him from the Mother of
God. The veneration of the Mother of God is not only a dogma
of faith, but is an indispensable inner condition of salvation.”
(Friend of the Bridegroom,” p. 24 of Russ. ed.).
Orthodox mystical experience in regard to the Holy Mother
of God is inexhaustibly wide and deep. There never has been
and never will be a single true Christian who has not had in his life
obvious miraculous help from the Mother of God, and even fre-
quently. Specially mother who pray for their children obtain
great help from the Mother of God. The vast number of wonder-
working ikons of Our Lady is plain evidence of her unfailing
aid to the whole human race. The feast of the “Protection” bears
witness to the same fact. The names of the ikons indicate the
nature of her help: “Joy of All in Sorrow,” “Unexpected Joy,”ee
“Intercessor of Sinners,” “Speedy Helper,” “Sweet-smelling Blos-
som,” “Compunction,” “Softening of Evil Hearts,” and so on.
Out of the countless number of miraculous ikons of the Mo-
ther of God, the following enjoy special veneration in Russia:
Kazan, Vladimir, Tikvinsk, Smolensk (“Odigitria” which means
“Guide”), Potchaevsk, Iversk, and the ikons of “The Sing” (espe-
cially the Kursk “Root Ikon,” so called because it was found at
the roots of a tree).
Liturgical practice in regard to the Holy Mother of God is
vast. “Virgin Mother of God, rejoice!” (a prayer composed of the
greetings of the Archangel Gabriel and Saint Elisabeth) has be
come in Russia the very first prayer which an orthodox child
learns when it begins its religious instruction and education. “It
is truly meet” (a prayer begun by man and completed by an An-
gel) has become the prayer which concludes and crowns every
Orthodox gathering, from a synod of bishops to a parish council
or meeting of parishioners.
Theological literature on the Mother of God is quite inex-
haustible and forms a special science called Mariology. Art of all
ages and nations from the birth of Christ down to our own times
has devoted a vast amount of labor to the Mother of God. Reli-
gious painting and poetry, have recorded and reproduced every
word and detail of her life known from holy*scripture and tra-
dition. Iconography in her honor is equally abundant, as may be
seen from Kondakov’s three volumes, “The Iconography of the
Mother of God.” But all these works of art are powerless to give
a true spiritual portrait of the Heavenly Queen. Only by prayer
and ikon can the Mother of God, like her Divine Son, be “worthly
and rightly” glorified. This truth has long since been realised
by Orthodoxy, especially Russian Orthodoxy.
“Virgin Mother of God, rejoice!”
“Over thee, O thou who art Full of Grace, rejoice all creation,
the angelic company and the human race.”
“We have no other help, we have no other hope, but thee,
O, Lady!”
“Most Holy Mother of God, save us!”
Prof. I. Andreev.THE NEW RUSSIAN MARTYRS.
I consider it my duty as an Orthodox Christian and as a hu-
man being to relate the following experience to the people of
the whole world. It is an account of how sixty Orthodox priests
met a martyr’s death in Soviet Siberia at the hands of the execu-
tioners — of which I was an eyewitness.
When I was acting as a watchman at a meteorlogical observ-
atory, I was appointed in 1929 to the Regional Executive Commit-
tee (REC). As a member of REC I was sent to Leningrad. There
an expeditionary party of fifteen men was formed of which I
was one. It was my first trip to Siberia. Our destination was the
town of Irkutsk.
The chief of our expeditionary party was Ivan Paramono-
vitch Golubev. He was an elderly man with two diplomas, ideally
exact and punctual. At the same time he was polite and sympa-
thetic, and gave his extremely ingenious advice to everyone who
went to him.
By the 15-th August 1929 we were in Irkutsk, 60 kilometres
from Lake Baikal. The object of our expedition was to investi-
gate ways of communication, to compare and collate schemes,
and to examine and control the work of constructing a mecada-
mized highway between Irkutsk and Kuvtuk, *) 100 versts over
the mountains beyond Lake Baikal. To go by train from Irkutsk
to Kuvtuk meant a journey of 194 versts round Lake Baikal with
47 large and small tunnels.
From Irkutsk we travelled on horseback. We had four tents
among us, and each of us had a traveller’s folding bed. The road
over the Transbaikal Mountains was wild and overgrown. We
never met a soul. The stillness was wonderful. The scenery was
magnificent. We collected cedar cones, and in the evening we
roasted them in hot ashes and made our supper of them. They
turned out to be delicious —like roasted nuts.
The first day we covered a distance of 30 kilometres quite
safely and in good spirits. The rest of our journey was not so
pleasant. It took us seven days to do the remaining 70 kilometres.
*) U pronounced each time as in “I put on my coat.”Faeaaee ee ea ET ae
He 9
We had to force our way through brush and fallen trees, and
all the time we were followed by a grizly bear, a so-called ant-
eater, which did not allow us to sleep at night. Although we
kept fires burning continually round our tents, yet the bear used
to come so close that we heard the noise made by it. And what
a noise it was! Sticks, pieces of wood and sometimes heavy stones
eame at us. This Siberian grizly bear of ours gave us no peace
with his practical jokes! True, we had rifles with us, but it was
impossible to see far beyond the camp-fires. The howling of wol-
ves, the sound of falling fir-cones, every rustle of leaves startled
us and, voluntarily or involuntarily, we loudly invoked the name
of God. Nowhere do you so believe in God as in the desert or
in a dense forest. Regardless of all the conventions of soviet life,
Ivan Paramonovitch often said to us: “Pray to God, and He will
have mercy on us all, and we shall return home safe and sound
to our homes and families.”
We reached Kuvtuk and finished all the work we had been
sent to do. Late in the autumn we returned to Irkutsk.
Just at that time a wave of godless communism was raging in
Irkutsk. Only two months previously, in August 1929, almost in
the centre of the town, near Tihkonov Square (changed by the
Bolsheviks to Lenin Square), the Cathedral of St. John the Bap-
tist had been the cynosure of all eyes. But now, in the place
where the Cathedral had stood, we saw only a heap of rubble.
The Cathedral had been blown up. As our group passed the spot,
somehow or other we all suddenly came to a standstill at the
sight of such vandalism, and Ivan Paramonovitch drew a deep
sigh and said: “Who did it disturb?”
We were resting in Irkutsk before our second journey, when
Ivan Paramonovitch proposed that we should go to a village on
the outskirts of the town called Glaskovo to see a monastery.
We drove there in carriages.
On crossing the pontoon bridge over the River Angara, we
at once saw a large, white-stoned monastery and a crowd of
people beside it. As we joined the crowd we saw that many of
the people had tears in their eyes. In the monastery enclosure
stood two horses harnessed to Siberian two-wheeled carts. Cats-
paws of some kind were throwing ikons and other church pro-
perty out of the monastery, while others were loading them on
to the carts. One of these wretched creatures was particularly
blasphemous. He was smashing the ikons and reviling the ima-— 7 —
ges depicted on them in every possible way. At last he shouted
loudly: “Ah, yes! There are those incorrupt relics still left. Now
we shall see how incorrupt they are!” So saying, he rushed into
the monastery and in a few minutes came out carrying a coffin
in his hands. The fool put the coffin on the left side of one of
the carts and then sat on the holy relics. With a self-satisfied
look, he lit a cigar. But the horses started off on their own. Three
minutes had not passed when the horse which the atheist was
driving suddenly jumped aside off the road and bolted. The god-
less activist was hurled from the cart with terrific force, broke
two ribs and fractured his left arm. The crowd gasped and people
told one another it was God’s punishment.
On December 18-th we started out on our second journey,
this time down the River Angara. We had to pass through Ka-
menka (Angarstroy). There we saw the famous Alexandrovsky
Centrat Prison, and were entertained by the Buryats. *) Our
final point and destination was the village of Morozovo in Tche-
remhovsky Province. There once again we witnessed the wrath
of God.
The President of the Morozov town council received an order
from the Regional Executive Commitee to take the bells from
the church. Some ardent atheists were found who were ready
to carry out this infernal act. But what was the result? One of
them, as his wife told us later, on returning home after this sac-
rilegious operation, asked his wife to make some tea. His wife
placed a glass of tea gefore him and also ga’ n a soft dough-
nut. The atheist began to eat the doughnut: but he choked with
the first bite, and died.
At the end of January 1930 we returned to Leningrad. In
1931, 1932 and 1933 I went every year on a fresh expedition to
Siberia. One summer's night of the year 1933, on account of its
black horror, will remain indelibly in my memory for the rest
of my life.
In July 1933 our expedition party stopped for the night in
the forest on the Katchoog-Nizhnioodinsk road. It was a clear,
still night; somewhere nearby a stream was chattering cares-
singly, the trees were whispering softly in the breeze, and the
perfumes of the forest flowers floated down the valley. That
valley I shall never forget; I shall remember it for ever! Till late
*) Buryats: A Siberian tribe of Mongolian origin.cre ER TRS RRR
ae OT a,
at night we were sitting cheerfully at the camp fire and talking
peacefully without the least suspicion that on this very spot
a ghastly tragedy was to be enacted.
Our light, forest sleep was interrupted by raucous and pe-
remptory shouts. We jumped to our feet. The leader of our expe-
dition, Boris Nikolaevitch Martyshovsky, a native of Irkutsk,
seized his binoculars, while others set the two surveyor’s levels
and began to look in the direction from which the voices came.
And at once we saw a crowd of men moving in our direction.
Who were they and where had they come from in the middle
of the night and in a deserted forest? Perhaps it was a halluci-
nation.
It was no hallucination. The crowd came nearer and nearer
driven on by insolent and peremptory shouts, the cause of which
we could not yet make out. But now we could see the men’s faces
and clothes. They were living skeletons wrapped in fantastic
rags. Over the shoulder of each of these skeletons was a rope,
and behind the crowd a barrel was mounted on some kind of a
fatuous carriage. The skeletons were pulling it. We afterwards
learnt that the barrel was full of human excreta. One of our expe
dition who did not lose his presence of mind even at the sight
of that outrageous spectacle, managed to count the crowd. There
were sixty of them. On each side of the crowd marched convoys
in semi-military uniform, armed with rifles; and it was they who
were shouting.
Noticing the camp of our expedition, one of the convoys sig-
nalled to the crowd to stop, and in pure Siberian chekist jargon
shouted loudly in our direction: “Flop and don’t flap an eyelid!”
(“Lie down and don't move!”) One of the convoy began to run
back, evidently having received an order.
About ten minutes later a whole platoon of armed men
appeared. They advanced towards us with their rifles at the
ready. The commander of the platoon and the political officer *)
came out towards us. They asked who we are and demanded
identity documents. After that, the platoon commander asked us
sternly what grounds we had for camping on territory belonging
to a government forcedlabor concentration camp of the N.K.V.D.
(secret police). We told him that we had not the slightest idea
*) In the Red Army each rank has its political counterpart, so that there
is an army captain and a political captain, a general and a political gene-
ral ete, The political officer's business is to spy on the army officers.dele 9D
that there was a concentration camp in the vicinity and that it
was not marked on the map, and he seemed satisfied with our
answer. He then told us that we must be as dumb as fish, and
he explained with pathos that we were accidentally having the
honour of being present at one of the most glorious operations
of the VIT'K-GPU (another name for N.K.V.D.), the fiery sword
of the proletarian revolution. “Those people,” he said, pointing
at the unfortunate victnms, “are sentenced to be shot, and you of
course will not pity them. They are devils of darkness, useless
‘pops,’ ** dope of the people.” The commander ordered us to go
into our tents, while he told one of the gaurds who accompanied
him to move the sentenced men towards the pit. Apparently
there was a pit somewhere closeby. Dumb and petrified with
horror, sick with disgust at the executioners, and ashamed of
our own cowardice and fear, we sat in our tents listening tensely
for the approaching silence of death. But there was again the
sound of human voices.
“You are breathing last breath. Say, is there a God?”
“I believe in one God the Father, Almighty Creator,” sang a
meek voice.
The report of a rifle! There was a lump in our hearts as we
sat in our tents. Then a second report, a third... Evidently the
condemned men were being introduced to the pit one by one.
And again more than once the same wooden, lifeless voice asked:
“Is there a God? Speak!”
“All-Seeing, All-Knowing, Omnipresent, Almighty, All-Mer-
ciful, All-Good!” was the reply.
Many years, perhaps, will pass, but that grave on the Kat-
choog-Nizhnioodinsk road will be found and will draw crowds
of pilgrims who will visit the unknown Siberian forest in order
to offer their fervent prayers to the holy martyrs of the Orthodox
faith who gave their lives for our Lord Jesus Christ.
M. G.
**) Pop: a vulgar word for priest (ep. pope, papa ete.).THE CHILDREN’S SECTION
NATASHA’S DREAM.
What could be done with Natasha? Aunt Katia was worried.
The little girl refused to listen to anyone. Since the moment her
mother was taken to the hospital everything went wrong. The
little girl was not the same now, — no more prayers. At first
aunt Katia thought the reason for the change was the child’s
longing for her mother, but on the last visit to the hospital she
had refused even to go along. Natasha was now selfish and un-
kind. When aunt Katia talked to her she closed her eyes, clen-
ched her fists, and just sat there refusing all help, muttering
under her breath, “You just wait, I’ll show you.” “Whom was she
threatening?”, wondered aunt Katia helplessly.
“T won’t pray, I won't,” muttered Natasha to herself.
Why should she? When Mother was carried out on that hor-
rible stretcher by those men in the white suits, she had prayed
all night for her to come back well and smiling. Why should
such a kind, lovable mother be so sick? Why did God let it hap-
pen? Mother had always prayed to Him. She too had prayed hard
to her heavenly Father and her guardian Angel. She had asked
Them to help her mother, but no help came. It was now more
than a month since her mother was taken away with her eyes
closed and her face so pale. At first she had been told that shetenga a
had heart trouble; afterwards they discovered a terrible lump in
her breast and cut her with sharp cruel knives.
After that Natasha stopped praving. She felt she was old
enough, at seven, to know what is right and just. No one could
help her, since God and her Guardian Angel had done nothing.
She now looked reproachfully at the ikons put up by her own
dear mother. There was one of Jesus, one of the Mother of God
with the Child in Her arms. and a tiny one of her Guardian Angel
Natasha shut her eyes tightly, “No, I won’t pray to you, I won't,”
she whispered.
“Natasha, it is bed time,” coaxed aunt Katia. “Now be a good
little girl. Say your prayers and go to bed.” But Natasha just
threw off her clothes, slipped into bed, and turned defiantly to-
ward the wall
“Natasha darling,” pleaded aunt Katia, “Why is my little
girl behaving so? You are making your Guardian Angel very un-
happy. Help your mother get well by praying for her. Please do!”
Aunt Katia took the tiny ikon and tried to turn Natasha
toward herself in order to bless her with it. but the child fought
back and knocked the ikon out of her hand. It fell to the floor.
“Oh dear,” cried aunt Katia, frightened and sad. She picked
up the ikon, wiped it with her clean white apron, and ki
“Well Natasha,” her voice was severe, “if you won't pray
have to pray for you. It is a great offense to throw an ikon on
the floor.” With that she went out, closing the door.
Curled up in bed in a small tight ball, Natasha felt her heart
beating fast, — so fast. Her cheeks were burning.
“J didn’t want to do that. Really I didn’t.” She felt heavy
inside, frightened and cold. Something was going to happen now,
she knew it, — for offending her Guardian Angel so!
Suddenly Natasha saw herself not in her own room but in
a large beautiful garden. The sun shone brightly, the sky was very
blue, and soft melodious singing could be heard. About her were
many flowers, growing in separate flower beds. They were all
different. There were some white lilies, anemones, lilies of the
valley, transparent narcissuses, tulips, simple corn flowers, dai-
sies, and glorious roses. Some flowers stood up straight, holding
their heads high toward the warm caressing sun. Others looked
weak and sickly, with their heads bent to the ground and their
leaves shrivelled and wan. Some were almost hidden by stifling— 5 —
weeds. Some beds were completely filled with bramles, thorns,
and weeds.
Then Natasha noticed walking towards her a Woman of wond-
rous beauty, dressed in a pale blue gown.
“Did you come to look at our garden, Natasha?”, She asked
kindly. “Come, I shall show it to you.”
“Where am I?”, asked Natasha shyly.
“This is Our Father’s Garden,” answered the Lady in blue.
“The flowers which you see represent human souls. The
beautiful ones represent souls that love Our Father and try to
please and help Him in His kind deeds. Those that look sick and
wilted are souls who have lost faith in prayer. And now they
have no strength to lift their heads. But Our Father in His infi-
nite mercy will help them. Those with weeds and creepers around
their stems represent people who in their unkind deeds have for-
gotten Our Father and refuse His love. But their Guardian An-
gels may still help them if they allow them to untwine the cho-
king sticky creepers. They still may be led to safety and light.”
Then Natasha noticed Angels with white wings and radiant
garments walking around each flower bed, watering each flower
with clear sparkling water from crystal vessels. Others were ca-
refully trying to smooth out the crumpled leaves and free the
sickly flowers from clinging creepers and weeds.
“Where is my flower,” whispered Natasha.
The Lady with the kind and lovely face took the little girl
by the hand and led her toward a tiny, doubled-up white daisy.
It’s stem was choked by brambles and creepers, gray and hor-
rible, so that no sunlight could reach the poor flower. Near it
stood an Angel with his head covered by his white wings, weeping.
“Why are you crying?”, inquired the Lady.
As the Angel raised his face, Natasha recognized her Guardi-
an Angel from her tiny ikon. His face was very sad now, and
his forehead was marked by a dreadful red bruise, as if from
a blow.
“I am crying,” answered the Angel in a soft sad voice, “because
Our Father gave me a little girl to watch over, who was such
a good little girl that I was happy to watch her grow; happy to
watch her in prayer, each morning and night. She always asked
me to guard her. But lately she has changed. Our Father, in His
mercy, wanted to save her mother, who had a dangerous growth
in her breast unknown to anyone. Therefore He sent her a slight— 6 —
illness so that the danger could be discovered and removed in
time. The woman is safe now, but the little girl, instead of being
grateful, has been reproaching me and even Our Father for her
mother’s sickness. She stopped praying, and even pushed me
away.” The Angel touched the ugly mark on his forehead. “You
see she even hit me! Look at the thorns about her soul! What
will happen now? What shall I tell Our Father? He may punish
her, you know, and I pity her. I would like to help her but she
turns away. That is the reason for my tears.” And the Angel
started to cry again, covering his head with his wings.
The Lady in blue looked sadly at Natasha.
Natasha was trembling and sobbing bitterly. She wanted to
cry out, “I shall never do anything like that again, Guardian
Angel, I will be kind. I shall pray to Our Father, and always be
grateful for everything.” But her tongue would not move: she
could only whimper. — Then she woke up.
The sun was pouring in through the nursery window, bright
and warm. Aunt Katia was bending over her.
“Why have you been crying in your sleep, Natasha, my
child?” Her voice was anxious.
Natasha rose quickly to her knees; made the sign of the cross;
then kissed her aunt tenderly.
“Aunty, dear, I will never be such a nasty little girl anymore.
Please, please forgive me. I was bad and cruel. Let’s go to Church
today. I want to pray for my darling mother and ask forgiveness.
I understand all now. My Guardian Angel will never have cause
to cry because of me.”
She took down the tiny ikon of her Guardian Angel and
pressed it to her cheek. From the other ikons the eyes of Christ
looked down at the little girl with infinite tenderness. Aunt Katia
with tears of thankfulness in her eyes gently stroked Natasha’s
curly head.
Galina Deinitzina.Father John of Cronstad.
MY LIFE IN CHRIST.
Translated by E. E. Goulaeff.
PARTI,
This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, amt
Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.” — St. John XVII. 3.
THOU, O,God, hast opened wide to me Thy truth and Thy
verity. By instructing me in the sciences, Thou hast opened to
me all the riches of faith, of nature, and of human understanding;
I have learned Thy word — the Word of God — “piercing even
to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit.” ' I have studied the
laws regulating the mind of man, its love of wisdom, the forma-
tion and the beauty of speech; I have penetrated in part into the
mysteries of Nature, into her laws, into the abyss of the creation
of worlds and their revolution; I know the population of the
terrestial globe; I have acquainted myself with its different peo-
ples, with the celebrated persons, and their works, who have
passed in turn through this world; I have in part studied the
great science of self-knowledge and of how to draw nigh to Thee;
in a word, I have become cognisant of many, many things —
“for more things are shewed unto thee than men understand,”*
and hereafter I shall yet learn much. I have many books of very
varied contents; I have read and re-read them, but still I am not
yet satisfied. My spirit still thirsts for further knowledge and
my heart is unsatisfied; it hungers, and from all the knowledge
thus acquired by the intellect, it cannot gain full happiness. When
will it be satisfied? It will be satisfied, when “I will behold Thy
face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with
Thy likeness.”* Until then I shall hunger. “Whosoever drinketh
of this water (of worldly wisdom) shall thirst again: but whoso-
ever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst;
but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water
springing up into everlasting life,”* said the Lord.
How is it that the saints see us and our needs and hear our
prayers? Let us make the following comparison: Suppose that
you were transplanted to the sun and were united to it. The sun
1 Hebrews IV. 12. 2 Sirach IIT 23. 3 Psalm XVII. 15.
4.8 Tnhn TV 12 and 14,— 3
lights the whole earth with its rays, it lights every particle of the
earth. In these rays you also see the earth, but you are so small
in proportion to the sun, that you would form, so to say, but one
ray, and there are an infinite number of such rays. By its iden-
tity with the sun this ray takes an intimate part in lighting the
whole world through the sun. So also the saintly soul, having
become united to God, as to its spiritual sun, sees, through the
medium of its spiritual sun, which lights the whole universe, all
men and the needs of those that pray.
Have you learned to see God and represent Him to your-
self — as the omnipresent Wisdom, as the living, acting Word,
as the vivifying Holy Spirit? The Holy Scripture is the domain
of Wisdom, Word and Spirit, of God in the Trinity; in it He clear-
ly manifests Himself: “The Words that I speak unto you, they
are spirit, and they are life,”! said the Lord. The writing of the
Holy Fathers are again the expression of the Mind, Word and
Spirit of the Holy Trinity, in which the spirit of the higher class
(spiritually speaking) of mankind has largely participated; the
writings of ordinary worldly men are the expression of the fal-
len spirit of men, with all their sinful attachments, habits and
passions. In the Holy Scriptures we see God face to face, and
ourselves as we are. Man,know thyself through them, and walk
always as in the presence of God.
As you are aware, man, in his words, does not die; he is im-
mortal in them, and they will speak after his death. I shall die,
but shall speak even after my death. How many immortal words
are in use amongst the living, which were left by those who died
long ago, and which sometimes still live in the mouths of a whole
people! How powerful is the word even of an ordinary man!
Still more so is the Word of God: it will live throughout all ages,
and will always be living and acting.
As God is the creative, living and life-giving Wisdom, there-
fore those greatly sin who, by the thoughts of their spirit, turn
aside from the Wisdom of the Trinity and occupy themselves
with material, perishable things, thus materialising their spirit
itself. Especially do those sin who, during Divine Service in church
or during their prayers at home, entirely turn aside in their
2 St. John VI. 63.met 251 ea
thoughts from God and allow their minds to wander in different
places outside the church. By doing so they greatly offend God,
upon Whom on such occasions our minds should be fixed.
To what end do fasting and penitence lead? For what pur-
pose is this trouble taken? They lead to the cleansing of the soul
from sins, to peace of heart, to union with God, they fill us with
devotion and sonship, and give us boldness before God. There
are, indeed, very important reasons for fasting and for confession
from the whole heart. There shall be an inestimable reward gi-
ven for conscientious labour. Have many of us the feeling of son-
like love to God? Dare many of us, without condemnation and
with boldness call upon the Father in Heaven and say: “Our Fa-
ther!” .. . . Is there not, on the contrary, no such sonlike voice
to be heard in our hearts, which are deadened by the vanities
of this world and attachments to its objects and pleasures? Is not
our Heavenly Father far from our hearts? Is it not rather an
avenging God that we should represent to ourselves, we who
have withdrawn ourselves from Him into a far-away land? Yes,
by our sins all of us are worthy of His righteous anger and
punishment, and it is wonderful how long-suffering and for-
bearing He is to us — that He does not strike us like the barren
fig trees. Let us hasten to propitiate Him by repentence and
tears. Let us enter into ourselves; let us consider our unclean
hearts in all strictness, and when we see what a multitude of
impurities are keeping them from the reach of Divine grace, we
shall ourselves acknowledge that we are spiritually dead.
The loving Lord is here: how can I let even a shadow of
evil enter into my heart? Let all evil completely die within me;
Jet my heart be anointed with the sweet fragrance of goodness
as with a balsam. Let God’s love conquer thee, thou evil Satan,
instigating us, who are evil by nature, to evil. Evil is most hurt-
ful both to the mind and to the body. It burns, it crushes, and
jt tortures. No one bound by evil shall dare to approach the
throne of the God of love.
When praying, we must absolutely subject our heart to our
will, and turn it towards God. It must be neither cold, crafty.
untruthful, nor double-minded, otherwise what will be the use
of our prayers, of our preparation for the Sacrament? It is good
1 St. Matthew XV. 8.= 90
for us to hear God’s voice of anger: “This people draweth nigh
unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me.”! So do not let us stand in church
in a state of spiritual prostration, but let the spirit of each one
of us on such occasions burn in its working towards God. Even
men do not much value the services which we render to them
coldly, out of habit. And God requires our hearts. “My son, give
Me thine heart.”! Because the heart is the principal part of the
man — his life. More than this, the heart is the man himself.
Thus he who does not pray or does not serve God with his heart,
does not pray at all, because in that case his body only prays,
and the body without the mind is nothing more than earth. Re
member, that when standing in prayer, you stand before God
Himself, who has the wisdom of all. Therefore, your prayer
ought to be, so to say, all spirit, all understanding.
The saints of God live even after their death. Thus, I often
hear in church the Mother of God singing her wonderful, heart-
penetrating song which she said in the house of her cousin Eliza-
beth, after the Annunciation of the Archangel. At times, I hear
the song of Moses; the song of Zacharias — the father of the
Forerunner; that of Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel;
that of the three children; and that of Miriam. And how many
holy singers of the New Testament delight until now the ear
of the whole Church of God! And the Divine service itself — the
sacraments, the rites? Whose spirit is there, moving and tou-
ching our hearts? That of God and of His saints. Here is a proof
for you of the immortality of men’s souls. How is it that all these
men have died, and yet are governing our lives after their death
— they are dead and they still speak, instruct and touch us?
As the breath is necessary for the body, and as without
breathing men cannot live, so likewise the soul cannot truly live
without the breath of God’s Spirit. As air is necessary for the
body, so is the Holy Ghost for the soul. Air has some likeness
to the Holy Ghost. As “the wind bloweth where it listeth, and
thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it
cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the
Spirit.”®
When you are threatened with temption to sin, then re-
present to yourself vividly that sin is exceedingly displeasing
1 Proverbs XXIII. 26. 2 St. John IIL. 8=o Sioa
to God, Who hates iniquity. “Thou hatest all workers of iniqui-
ty.”! And in order to understand this better, imagine a father,
righteous and severe, who loves his family, and is trying by eve-
Ty means to make his children well-principled and upright, in
order to reward them afterwards for their good behaviour by
the great riches he has laboriously laid up for them, and, who
nevertheless sees, to his grief, that the children, disregarding
their father’s love, do not love him, do not pay attention to the
inheritance so lovingly prepared for them by their father, but
live disorderly, and rush impetuosly to destruction. Mark, that
“sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death,’? because it kills
the soul, because it makes us the slaves of the Devil — the
destroyer of men; and the more we work for sin, the more dif-
ficult will be our return, and the more sure will be our ruin.
Dread, therefore, every sin with the whole heart.
When your heart inclines to evil, and the evil one begins to
undermine your heart, so that it is completely removed from the
rock of faith, then say to yourself inwardly: “I know of my
spiritual poverty, my own nothingness without faith. I am so
weak, that it is only by Christ’s name that I live and obtain
peace, that I rejoice and my heart expands, whilst without Him I
am spiritually dead, I am troubled, and my heart is oppressed;
without the Lord’s Cross I should have been long since the victim
of the most cruel distress and despair. Only Christ keeps me alive:
and the Cross is my peace and my consolation.”
We are all able to think, because an unlimited Wisdom
(Thought) exists, just as we are able to breathe because unli-
mited air-spaces exist. This is the reason why bright ideas upon
any subject are called inspirations. Our thoughts are constantly
flowing conditionally with the existence of the unlimited Spirit
of Wisdom (Thought). This is why the Apostle says: “Not that
we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves,
but our sufficiency is of God”? This is also why the Saviour
Himself says: — “Take no thought how or what ye shall speak,
for it shall be given you in that hour what ye shall speak.” * Thus
you see that the thought and even the word itself (the inspiration)
come to us from without. This, of course, in a state of grace and
in cases of need. But even in our ordinary state all our bright
1 Psalm V. 5, 2 James I. 15 and others.
3 Corinthians III. 5. 4 St. Matthew X. 19.— 2 —
thoughts come from our Guardian Angel and from God’s Spirit:
whilst, on the contrary, impure, dark thoughts proceed from our
corrupt nature and from the Devil, ever lying in wait for us. How
then, should the Christian behave? “God Himself worketh in us.”
In general, throughout the world we see the Kingdom of thought
in the structure of the whole visible world, as also in particular
in the earth, in the rotation and the life of the terrestrial globe;
in the distribution of the elements — light, air, water, earth,
fire (concealed), whilst other elements are diffused in all animals
— in birds, fishes, reptiles, beasts, and men — in their wise and
ingenious construction, in their faculties, nature and hab:
plants, in their construction, nourishment, etc.; in a word, we see
everywhere the kingdom of thought, even down to the lifeless
stone and sand.
Priests of God! learn how to turn the bed of sorrow of the
Christian sufferer into one of joy by the consolation of faith;
learn how to make him, instead of — in his opinion —
unfortunate, the happiest of men; assure him that
“a little chastised he shall be greatly rewarded a
and you will be the friends of mankind, angels of «
instruments or ministers of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter.
If the fervour of faith in the heart is not sometimes stirred
up, then intime, through negligence, faith may beco:
extinguished in us; and Christianity with its Sacra
tries to extinguish faith in our hearts and to bury in oblivion all
the truths of Christianity. That is why we see men who, being
Christians, are only such in name, while by their actions they
are quite heathen.
Do not think that our faith is not vivifying to us — pastors —
that we serve God hypocritically. No; we before all, and more
than all, avail ourselves of God’s mercies, and we know by ex-
perience what the Lord Himself is to us, His Sacraments, His
most pure Mother, and His Saints. For instance, in partaking of
the life-giving mysteries of the Blood and Body of the Saviour,
we often experience in ourselves their vivifying effect, the hea-
venly gifts of peace and joy in the Holy Ghost; we know that the
1 Philipians II. 13. 2 Wisdom IL.83 Hes
gracious gaze of a king does not rejoice the heart of the least of
his subjects as the merciful gaze of our heavenly Master, as His
mysteries rejoice our hearts. And we should have been most un-
thankful to the Lord, and our hearts would indeed have been
hardened, had we not tried to make known the glory of God’s
Life-giving Mysteries unto His beloved, had we not extolled His
wonders, accomplished in our hearts during each celebration of
the Divine Liturgy. We also experience the effect of the in-
vincible, incomprehensible, divine power of the Lord’s glorious
and life-giving Cross, and by its power we drive away from our
hearts evil passions, despondency, pusillanimity, fear, and other
snares of the Devil. The Cross is our friend and benefactor. I say
this sincerely, with full belief in the truth and power of these
words.
You wish to comprehend the incomprehensible; but can you
understand how the inward sorrows with which your heart is
overwhelmed overtake you, and can you find, except in the Lord,
the means tc drive them away? Learn at first, with your heart,
how to free yourself from sorrows, how to ensure peace in your
heart, and then, if necessary, philosophise on the incomprehen-
sible, for “if ye then be not able to do that thing which is least,
why take ye thought for the rest?”!
Think oftener: Whose wisdom appears in the construction
of your body? Who has ordered the laws of your thoughts, so
that until now these laws are followed by all men? Who has
engraved in the hearts of all men the law of conscience, so that
until now it rewards the good and punishes the evil in all men?
The Almighty, All-wise, and most gracious God! Thy hand is con-
stantly upon me, a sinner, and there is no moment when Thy
mercy leaves me, Grant me, then, always to kiss, with living faith,
Thy gracious hand. Why should I go far to seek for the traces of
Thy mercies, of Thy wisdom, and Thy omnipotence? O! how
clearly these traces are visible to me! I, I myself am a miracle of
God’s goodness, wisdom and omnipotence. I myself — on a small
scale — am a whole world; my soul is the representative of the
invisible world; my body — of the invisible one.
Brethern! what is the purpose of our earthly life? It is, that,
after our trial by earthly affiction and misfortunes, and after— 4
our gradual advancement in virtue, by means of the divine gifts,
given to us in the sacraments, we may rest, after our death, in
the Lord, the peace of our souls. That is why we sing of the dead:
“Grant rest, O, Lord, to the soul of Thy departed servant.” We
wish him to rest in peace, as the limit of all wishes, and pray
to God for this. Is it not, then, unwise to grieve much for the
departed? “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest,”! says the Lord. Thus our departed
ones, who have fallen asleep in a Christian death, came to this
voice of God and obtain rest. What is there, then, to grieve for?
Those who are trying to lead a spiritual life have to carry
on a most skilful and difficult warfare, through their thoughts,
every moment of their life — that is, a spiritual warfare; it is
necessary that our whole soul should be every moment a clear
eye, able to watch and notice the thoughts entering our heart
from the evil one and repel them; the hearts of such men should
be always burning with faith, humility and love; otherwise the
subtlety of the Devil finds an easy access to them, followed by
a diminution of faith, or entire unbelief, and then by every pos-
sible evil, which it will be difficult to wash away even by tears.
Do not, therefore, allow your heart to be cold, espe during
Prayer, and avoid every way cold indifference. Very often it
happens that prayer is on the lips, but in the heart cunning, in-
credulity or unbelief, so that by the lips the man seems near to
God, whilst in his heart he is far from Him. And, during our
prayers, the evil one makes use of every means to chill our hearts
and fill them with deceit in a most imperceptible manner to us.
Pray and fortify yourself, fortify your heart.
If you wish to ask of God in prayer any blessing for yourself,
then before praying prepare yourself for undoubting and firm
faith, and take in good time means against doubt and unbelief.
For it will go ill with you if during the prayer itself your heart
wavers its faith and does not stand firm in it; then do not even
expect to obtain of the Lord what you have prayed for doub-
tingly, for in so doing you have offended the Lord, and God does
not bestow His gifts upon a reviler. “And all things, whatsoever
ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive,”* said the
1 St. Matthew XI, 28, 2 St. Matthew XXI. 22,
a— 3 —
Lord. This means, tha‘ if you doubt and do not believe, you shall
not receive. “If ye have faith and doubt not,” said He also. “ye
shall have power to move mountains.”! Therefore, if you doubt
and do not believe, you shall not have power to do so. “Let him
ask in faith, nothing wavering, for he that wavereth is like a
wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.” says the
Apostle James; “for let not that man think he shall receive any-
thing of the Lord. A double-r-inded man is unstable in all his
we * The heart that doubts that Cod can grant what it asks
for is punished for this doubt: it is painfully oppressed and con-
tracted by doubt. Do not anger Almighty God even by a shade
of doubt — especially you. who have already experienced many
and many times, the omnipotence of God. Doubt is a blasphemy
against God, an insolent lie of the heart or of the lying spirit that
nestles in the heart. against the spirit of truth. Fear it as you
would fear a venomous serpent. or no — what I would rather
say, is, despise it. do not take the slightest heed of it. Remem-
ber that God, during your prayer, is waiting for your affirma-
tive answer to the question which He is inwardly asking vou:
“Believe ye that I am shle to do this?” To which question you
must from the depth of your heart reply, “Yea, Lord’”* Let the
following considerations also help you in your doubt or unbe-
lief: I ask of God, firstly, that which already exists, and nothing
merely imaginary not a fanciful good, and everything that exists
receives its being from God: because “without Him was not any-
thing made that was made,”' and therefore, nothing that hap-
pens can happen without Him, and everything has either receiv-
ed its being from Him, or happens by His will or His permission
by means of powers and faculties given by Him to His creatures
— and in everything that exists or is still happening, God is an
«l-powerful Master. Besides this. “He calleth those things which
be not as though they were.”* Therefore, had I even asked for
that which does not exist, He could give it to me by. creating it.
Secondly, I ask of God what is possible. because what is impos-
sible for us is possible for God; and there cannot be any difficult:
even in this respect. because God can do for me even that which
is impossible in my own opinion. It is our mistortune that our
faith is hindered by the short-sightedness of our reason — that
St. Matthew NAL 5. 2 James L 6-7.
38 Matthew TY 18 1 St. John a. 5 Romans IV, 17.— 36 -
pider, that catches the truth in the web of its judgments. its
arguments and analogies. Faith embraces and sees suddenly, whilst
reason arrives at the truth by circuitous ways; faith is the means
of communication between one spirit and another, whilst reason
is the means of communication between the spiritually sensual
spiritually sensual and even simply material: the first
spirit and the latter the flesh.
(To be continued).
DE
WE HAVE IN STOGK.
1. TO THE ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS OF THE UNITED
STATES OF AMERICA. C. H. Stratman .......... $ .10
2. THE BRIDE OF CHRIST. C. H. Stratman ...... .20
3. A LETTER FROM AN ORTHODOX NUN TO HER
UNCLE — LUTHERAN ....... ........ ......... 10
4. THE FAITH OF THE SAINTS. CATECHISM OF THE
EASTERN ORTHODOX CHURCH. Bishop Nicholai
D. Velemirovich.
HOLY TRINITY MONASTERY, JORDANVILLE, N. Y.