On Illness

Saint Cyril, Archbishop of Jerusalem

My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

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ON ILLNESS

Saint Ambrose of Milan says of the Christian attitude toward illness: "If the occasion demands it, a wise man will readily accept bodily infirmity and even offer his whole body up to death for the sake of Christ...This same man is not affected in spirit or broken with bodily pain if his health fails him. He is consoled by his struggle for perfection in the virtues" (Exegetical Works). Hearing this, the man of the world is quite likely to exclaim: "What an idea! How can a man 'readily accept' illness and disease?"

To an unbeliever, this is indeed an incomprehensible thing. He cannot reconcile the fact of human suffering with his own idea of God. To him, the very thought that God would allow pain is repugnant; usually he sees every kind of suffering as evil in an absolute sense.

Without the aid of Divine Revelation man cannot understand the origin and cause of pain, nor its purpose. Many people, not having help in understanding, are haunted by the fear of pain, terrified at the thought of a lingering illness, and quick to seek medical relief because they believe illness is only the result of "chance."

But even in everyday life, we know that suffering really isn't "absolutely evil." For example, we submit to the surgeon's knife in order to have a diseased part of the body is cut away; the pain of the operation is great, but we know that it is necessary in order to preserve health or even life. Thus, even on a strictly materialistic level, pain can serve a higher good. 

Another reason why human suffering is a mystery to an unbeliever is because his very "idea" of God is false. He is shocked when the Holy Fathers of the Church speak of God in the following way: "Whether God brings upon us a famine, or a war, or any calamity whatsoever, He does so out of His exceeding great care and kindness" (Saint John Chrysostom, Homily 7, On the Statues).

The God-bearing Elder Macarius of Optina, in 19th-century Russia, wrote thusly to a friend: "Being weak in health as you yourself are, I cannot fail to feel much sympathy for your plight. But kind Providence is not only more wise than we are; It is also wise in a different way. It is this thought which must sustain us in all our trials, for it is consoling, as no other thought is."

Wise in a different way...Here we can begin to see that the Patristic understanding of God's ways is contrary to the world's view. In fact, it is unique: it is not speculative, scholarly, or "academic." As Bishop Theophan the Recluse has written: "Christian faith is not a doctrinal system but a way of restoration for fallen man." Therefore, the criterion of faith--true knowledge of God--is not intellectual. The measure of truth, as Professor Andreyev wrote, "is life itself...Christ spoke of this clearly, plainly, and definitely: "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life" (John 14:6). That is "I Am the Way" of perceiving the Truth; I Am Myself the incarnate Truth (everything I say is true)...and I Am Life (without Me there cannot be life)" (Orthodox Christian Apologetics). This is very far from the wisdom of this world...

"...For we know that all creation groans and travails in pain until now" (Romans 8:22).

"The way of salvation which leads to eternal life is "narrow and hard" (Matthew 7:14). It is appointed both by our Lord's Holy example and by His Holy teaching. The Lord foretold to His Disciples and followers that in the world, that is, during their earthly life, "they would have tribulation" (John 16:33; 15:18; 16:2-3)...From this, it is clear that sorrow and suffering are appointed by the Lord Himself for His True servants during their life on earth" (Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov, The Arena).

The Purpose of Illness

"But if we are sons, we are heirs also; heirs indeed of God and joint heirs with Christ, provided, however, we suffer with Him that we may also be glorified with Him" (Romans 8:17).

Our Savior and the God-bearing Fathers of the Church teach that our only concern in this life should be the salvation of our souls. Bishop Ignatius says: "Earthly life--this brief period--is given to man by the mercy of the Creator in order that man may use it for his salvation, that is, for the restoration of himself from death to life" (The Arena). Therefore, we must "look upon everything in this world as upon a fleeting shadow and cling with our heart to anoint of it...for we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal" (Saint John of Kronstadt, Spiritual Counsels). For Orthodox Christians, the center of life is not here, but there, in the eternal world.

How long we live, what disease or illness accompanies our death--such things are not the proper concern of Orthodox Christians. Although we sing "many years" for one another at Names-days and other celebrations, this is only because the Church in her wisdom knows that we indeed need "many years" to repent of our sins and be converted, not because a long life has any value in itself. God is not interested in how old we are when we come before His Judgment, but whether we have repented; He is not concerned about whether we died of a heart attack or cancer, but whether our soul is in a state of health.

Therefore, "we should not dread any human ill, save sin alone; neither poverty, nor disease, nor insult, nor malicious treatment, nor humiliation, nor death" (Saint John Chrysostom, On the Statues), for these "ills" are only words; they have no reality for those who are living for the Kingdom of Heaven. The only real "calamity" in this life is offending God. If we have this basic understanding of the purpose of life, then the spiritual meaning of bodily infirmity can be opened for us. (Source: The Holy Fathers on Illness by Father Alexey Young)

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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!"--Saint John Chrysostom

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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George

Uniting Our Prayers With Those of Our Nuns of the Saint John Chrysostom Monastery

My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

You are invited by the nuns of St. John Chrysostomos Monastery to join them and other Orthodox Christians in offering the "Jesus Prayer" on your prayer rope for 15 minutes beginning at 9 pm Eastern time (8 pm Central) nightly as long as this coronavirus threat exists. There is strength in prayer when we pray together as the body of Christ. Wherever you may be at that time, please set aside 15 minutes for prayer.

May God bless and protect everyone. Amen.

With agape,

+Father George  

Prayers for the Sick

Venerable Alexis the Man of God

My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

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PRAYERS FOR THE SICK

Priest: Let us pray to the Lord

People: Lord have mercy.

O Lord Almighty, the Healer of our souls and bodies, You Who put down and raise up, Who chastise and heal also; do You now, in Your great mercy, visit our brother (sister) (Name), who is sick. Stretch forth Your hand that is full of healing and health, and get him (her) up from his (her) bed, and cure him (her) of his (her) illness. Put away from him (her) the spirit of disease and of every malady, pain, and fever to which he (she) is bound; and if he (she) has sins and transgressions, grant to him (her) remission and forgiveness, in that You love mankind; yes, Lord my God, pity Your creation, through the compassions of Your Only-Begotten Son, together with Your All-Holy, Good and Life-creating Spirit, with Whom You are blessed, both now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.

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Priest: Let us pray to the Lord.

People: Lord have mercy.

O Lord our God, Who by word alone did heal all diseases, Who did cure the kinswoman of Peter, You Who chastise with pity and heal according to Your goodness; Who are able to put aside every malady and infirmity, do You Yourself, the same Lord, grant aid to this Your servant (Name) and cure him (her) of every sickness of which he (she) is grieved; lift him (her) up form his (her) up from his (her) bed of pain, and send down upon him (her) health and complete recovery; for You are the Physician of our souls and bodies, and to You do we send up Glory: to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and to the ages of ages.  Amen.

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SICKNESS, SUFFERING, AND DEATH

Suffering

There is no life in this world without suffering. The cessation of suffering comes only in the Kingdom of God.

There are generally three sources of suffering in this world: suffering from persecution of others in body and soul, suffering from sickness and disease, and suffering in spirit because of the sins of the world. There are only two possible ways to deal with such sufferings. Either one humbly accepts them and transforms them into the way of salvation for oneself and others; or one is defeated by them with rebellion and rejection, and so "curses God and dies" both physically and for eternity in the age to come (cf. Job 2:9-10).

We have seen already that "all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted" (1 Timothy 3:12); and that Christians should "count it all joy"  when they "meet various trials" (James 1:2), "rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for His Name" (Acts 5:41).

We have also seen that those who suffer through sickness and disease with every virtue of Christ will receive "sufficient grace" from God to be strong in the Lord in their bodily weakness, and so direct their sufferings "not unto death" but to the "glory of God" (cf. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, John 11:4).

"Since therefore Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same thought, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of time in the flesh no longer by human passions, but by the will of God" (1 Peter 4:1-2).

The spiritual person, when suffering in the flesh, uses his afflictions to be set free from sin, and to be made "perfect through suffering" like Jesus Himself (Hebrews 2:10). He knows that as his "outer nature is wasting away" he is being born into the Kingdom of God if he suffers in and with Jesus the Lord.

In a very real sense the most grievous suffering of all is not in the flesh but the spirit. This is the suffering that torments the soul when, by the grace of God and in the Light of Christ, the spiritual person sees the utter futility, ugliness, and pettiness of sin which is destroying men made in the image of God. According to one great theologian of the Church, this suffering was the most grievous of all for the Lord Jesus Himself (cf. Metropolitan Anthony Khrapovitskii, 20th century, The Dogma of Redemption).

The spiritual person, according to the measure of grace given by God, participates spiritually in the agony of Christ. It is the greatest suffering of the Saints, infinitely more unbearable than any external persecution or bodily disease. It is the torment of the soul over the utter foolishness of sin. It is the agony of love over those who are perishing. It was in such straightness of soul that the Apostle Paul could exclaim: "...I have great sorrow and anguish in my heart, for I wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen by race" (Romans 9:3).

The ultimate form of all suffering which leads to salvation is compassionate love for all that is perishing through the ridiculous foolishness of sin. Christ suffered from such love to the full and unlimited extension of His Divinity. And each person suffers it as well to the extent that he or she is deified in Christ by the grace of the Holy Spirit. (Source: Orthodox Church in America)

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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" -- Saint John Chrysostomos

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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George

Prayer of Protection From the Coronavirus

Apostle Aristobulus of the Seventy, Bishop of Britain

My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ God,
Christ is in our midst! He was, is, and ever shall be.

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PRAYER OF PROTECTION FROM THE CORONAVIRUS
Deacon: Master, give the blessing.

Priest: Blessed is our God always, now and forever and to the ages of ages.

People: Amen.

Apolytikion (Dismissal) Hymn of Pentecost, Mode pl. 4.

People: Blessed are You, O Christ our God. You made the fishermen all-wise, by sending down upon them the Holy Spirit, and through them You drew the world into Your net. O Lover of mankind, glory to You.

The Litany

Deacon: Have mercy on us, O God, according to Your great mercy, we pray to You, hear us, and have mercy.

People: Lord, have mercy. (3)

Deacon: Again we pray for pious and Orthodox Christians.

People: Lord, have mercy (Kyrie, Eleison. (3)

Deacon: Again we pray for our Archbishop Nathanael and all our brothers and sisters in Christ.

People: Lord, have mercy. (3)

Deacon: Again we pray for mercy, life, peace, health, salvation, visitation, forgiveness and remission of the sins of the servants of God, those who are under impending threat of the Corona Virus, those who are suffering and those who are recovering from this affliction.

People: Lord, have mercy. (3)

Deacon: Again we pray for the protection of this Holy Church and this city, and every city and land from wrath, famine, pestilence, earthquake, flood, fire, sword, foreign invasion, civil strife, and accidental death. That our Good and Loving God may be merciful, gracious and kindly-disposed, and may divert and disperse all anger and disease coming against us, and deliver us from His own just threat hanging over us, and have mercy on us.  

People: Lord, have mercy.  (3)

Deacon: Again we pray that the Lord God may hear the prayer of us sinners and have mercy on us.

People: Lord, have mercy.  (3)

Priest: For You are a Merciful God Who loves mankind, and to You, we offer up glory, to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and forever and to the ages of ages.

People: Amen.

Deacon: Let us pray to the Lord.

People: Lord, have mercy.

[The Priest, bowing his head, says the following prayer]:

Prayer of Protection from the Coronavirus
(Prayer by His Grace Bishop Alexis (Trader) of Bethesda)

Priest: O God Almighty, Lord of heaven and earth, and of all creation visible and invisible, in Your ineffable goodness, look down upon Your people gathered in Your Name. Be our helper and defender in this day of affliction. You know our weakness. You hear our cry in repentance and contrition of heart. O Lord Who loves mankind deliver us from the impending threat of the coronavirus. Sent Your Angel to watch over us and protect us. Grant health and recovery to those suffering from this virus. Guide the hands of physicians, and preserve those who are healthy that we may continue to serve You in peace and glorify Your Most Honorable and Majestic Name, of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, now and forever and to the ages of ages. Amen.

Priest: Glory to You, O God, our Hope, Lord, glory to You.

Deacon: Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and forever and to the ages of ages. Amen. Lord, have mercy. (3) Holy Master, give the blessing.

Priest: May Christ Our True God, through the intercessions of His All-Pure and All-Immaculate Holy Mother; the power of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross; the protection of the Honorable, bodiless powers of Heaven; the supplications of the Honorable, Glorious Prophet and Forerunner John the Baptist; of the holy, glorious and praise-worthy Apostles of the holy, glorious and triumphant Martyrs; of our righteous and God-bearing Fathers; of the holy and righteous ancestors of God Joachim and Anna, of Saint Andrew the First-Called and Apostle, and of all the Saints; have mercy on us and save us, for He is Good and Loves mankind.

Priest: Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Our Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. 

People: Amen.

(Source: Greek Orthodox Metropolis of San Francisco)

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The Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Love of God and Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with You all. Amen.

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Please continue your prayers to our Divine Creator and Heavenly Father to protect us from this virus and to strengthen our faith and trust in Him.

With fatherly love,

+Father George

On the Church (Part II)

Icon of the Mother of God of Saint Theodore

My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

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ON THE CHURCH (Part II)
By Saint Porphyrios

In the Church, We Are All One, and Christ is the Head

The Head of the Church is Christ and us humans, we Christians, are the body. The Holy Apostle Paul says: He is the head of the body, of the Church (Colossians 1:18). The Church and Christ are one. The body of the Church cannot exist without its Head. The body of the Church is nourished, sanctified, and lives with Christ. He is the Lord, Omnipotent, Omniscient, everywhere present and filling all things, our staff, our friend, our brother: the pillar and sure foundation of the Church. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the basis--He is everything. Without Christ the Church does not exist. Christ is the Bridegroom; each individual soul is the Bride.

Christ united the body of the Church with heaven and earth: with angels, men, and all created things, with all of God's creation--with animals and birds, with each tiny wildflower and each microscopic insect. The Church thus became "the fullness of Him Who fills All in All" (Ephesians 1:23), that is, of Christ. Everything is in Christ and with Christ. This is the mystery of the Church. Christ is revealed in that unity between His love and ourselves: the Church. On my own, I am not the Church, but together with you. All together we are the Church. All are incorporated in the Church. We are all one and Christ is the Head One body, one body of Christ: "You are the body of Christ and individually members of it" (1 Corinthians 12:27). We are all one because God is our Father and is everywhere. When we experience this we are in the Church. This is our Lord's wish for all the members of the Church, as expressed in His Great High-Priestly Prayer: "that they may be one" (St. John 17:11, 22). But that is something you can only understand through grace. We experience the Joy of unity, of love, and we become one with everyone. There is nothing more magnificent!

The important thing is for us to enter into the Church--to unite ourselves with our fellow men, with the joys and sorrows of each and everyone, to feel that they are our own, to pray for everyone, to have care for their salvation, to forget about ourselves, to do everything for them just as Christ did for us. In the Church, we become one with each unfortunate, suffering and sinful soul.

No one should wish to be saved alone without all others being saved. It is a mistake for someone to pray for himself, that he himself may be saved. We must love others and pray that no soul be lost, that all may enter into the Church. That is what counts. And it is with this desire one should leave the world to retire to a monastery or to the desert.

When we set ourselves apart from others, we are not Christians. We are True Christians when we have a profound sense that we are members of the mystical body of Christ, of the Church, in an unbroken relationship of love--when we live united in Christ, in an unbroken relationship of love--that is when we experience unity in His Church with a sense of oneness. This is why Christ prays to His Father saying, "that they may be one" (St. John 17:11, 22). He repeats the prayer again and again and the Holy Apostles emphasize it everywhere. This is the most profound aspect, the most exalted meaning, of the Church. This is where the secret is to be found: for all to be united as one person in God. There is no other religion like this; no other religion says anything of this sort. They have something to say, but not this mystery, this exquisite point of the mystery which Christ demands and tells us that this is how we must become, that He wants us to be His.

We are one even with those who are not close to the Church. They are distant on account of ignorance. We must pray that God will enlighten them and change them so that they too may come to Christ. We see things in a human light, we move on a different plane and imagine that we love Christ. But Christ, Who "sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous" (St. Matthew 5:45), tells us: "love your enemies" (St. Matthew 5:44). We need to pray that we may all be united in God. Then, if we live-out this prayer, we will achieve the corresponding results; we will all be united in love.

For the people of God, there is no such thing as distance, even if they are thousands of miles apart. However, far away our fellow human beings may be, we must stand by them. Some people regularly telephone me from a town on the edge of the Indian Ocean--Durban is what it is called if I am pronouncing it correctly. It is in South Africa, two hours drive from Johannesburg. Indeed, a few days ago they came here. They were taking a sick person to England and they came here first to ask me to read a prayer over him. I was very moved.

When Christ unites us, distances do not exist. When I leave this life it will be better. I will be closer to you. (Source:  Orthodox Heritage)

(To be continued)

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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" - Saint John Chrysostomos

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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George 

On the Church

Venerable Benedict of Nursia

 My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

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ON THE CHURCH
[Source: Wounded by Love: The Life and Wisdom of Saint Porphyrios]

The Church is without beginning, without end and eternal, just as the Triune God, her Founder, is without beginning, without end and eternal. She is uncreated just as God is Uncreated. She existed before the ages, before the Angels, before the creation of the world--"before the foundation of the world" as the Holy Apostle Paul says. (Ephesians 1:4). She is an expression of the richly varied Wisdom of God. She is the mystery of mysteries. She was concealed and was revealed "in the last of times" (Col. 2:9). The Church remains unshaken because she is rooted in the love and wise Providence of God.

The Three Persons of the Holy Trinity constitute the Eternal Church. The Angels and human beings existed in the thought and love of the Triune God from the beginning. We human beings were born now, we existed before the ages in God's Omniscience.

The Love of God created us in His image and likeness. He embraced us within the Church in spite of the fact that He knew of our apostasy. He gave us everything to make us gods too through the free gift of grace. For all that, we made poor use of our freedom and lost our spiritual beauty, our original righteousness and cut ourselves off from the Church. Outside the Church, far from the Holy Trinity, we lost Paradise, we lost everything. But outside the Church there is no salvation, there is no life. And so the compassionate heart of God the Father did not leave us exiled from His Love. He opened again for us the gates of Paradise in the last of times and appeared in flesh.

With the Divine Incarnation of the Only-begotten Son of God, God's pre-eternal plan for the salvation of mankind was revealed again to men. In his Epistle to Timothy the Holy Apostle Paul says: "And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory" (1 Timothy 3:16). The words of the holy Apostle Paul are dense in meaning: divine, heavenly words!

God in His infinite Love united us again with His Church in the Person of Christ. On entering into the uncreated Church, we come to Christ, we enter the realm of the uncreated. We the faithful are called to become uncreated by grace, to become participants in the Divine energies of God, to enter into the mystery of Divinity, to surpass our worldly frame of mind, to die to the "old man", and to become immersed in God (cf. Col. 3:9; Romans 6:6; Eph 4:22). When we live in the Church we live in Christ. This is a very fine-drawn matter; we cannot understand it. Only the Holy Spirit can reach it to us.  (Orthodox Heritage)

(To be continued)

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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" -- Saint John Chrysostomos

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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George