North America Seminary Education , Culture and Indian Church

This posting is an offshoot from the recent postings in ICON on aspiring priests being educated in Eastern Orthodox seminaries and influence on future of the Indian Orthodox Church.



First and foremost on some things that I consider to focus for the basis of futher discussion.

1. Our faith is that by baptism by an Indian Orthodox priest and by that first communion thereafter , we each have become part of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

2. The Indian Orthodox Church with it's prelate the Catholicose of the East in Devalokam , founded by St. Thomas, with it's Catholicate established in 1912 , presently follows a major portion of liturgical forms of worship adopted from the contact with the Syrian Orthodox Church since 17th Century.

3. There existed some forms of worship used by the Church in India prior to the 17th Century unique to the Kerala culture and traditions that the Church adapted of which a few is being used by us presently like Kaiasthuri, Manthrakodi, Minu kettu etc.


4. The ancient communities in the mediteerenian area had a unique opportunity of being in close proximity , constant interaction due to trade and within the same empire. The Indian Church , unlike the Syrian , Coptic , Ethiopian , or Armenian Church , was not part of the Byzantine empire or the Mediteranian locale where the Ecumenical Councils of the Church were held . It has not played an active part prior to 17th Century , in the development of the Orthodox Theology when it was formulated in the three Councils or it's defence against the innovation perceived then against council of Chalcedon on the One Incarnate Nature of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. ( In short we got to know of Chalcedon after 17th Century interaction with the Syrian Church).

5. In the development of the two Christian communities in the immediate two centuries after the council of Chalcedon , amidst local persecutions ,attempts were made by each to explain their position as right and failure to come to consensus resulted in each calling the other as heretics.


6. The naming of Christian communities as Eastern Orthodox or Oriental Orthodox is a development in the last two centuries to show the distinction between those who accept the existence of Seven (7) Councils as Ecumenical including the council of Chalcedon and those who consider only the first three councils of Nicea, Constantinopole and Ephesius. This is the situation that the Indian Orthodox Church finds itself ifacing the Eastern orthodox and others with whom we share communion with called the Oriental Orthodox in 20th Century.


7. The life of the Church as examplified by the Church Fathers common to all be they Syrian, Armenian etc. is not only be confessing in words its theology but by living the Orthodox Christian Faith. (( Here clarity required - Orthodox is referred to it as Right Glory (God's glory) or Right Worship))

8. The Indian Church unlike the others that we share in communion did not have a history of martyrs and suffering from the first Centuries till it's major persecution from others who consider themselves as Christians - the Portuguese Roman catholics and have no record of calendar of saints like the Coptic , Syrian Church or the Ethiopian Church have. ( In fact these Calendars were edifying tools to guide members of the Church of the path followed by others previously to emulate ) . It should not be away from our focus that potential of persecution is yet to come for us if it is for God's glory through us.



9. It took the Orthodox community as a whole centuries for the Liturgical forms and Worship amidst differing situations in the past to develop prior to us the Indian Church adapted from the Syrian Church. Similarly it took centuries for the forms used by the Armenian , Coptic or Ethiopian Church for them to use it like they do now in their Church life. This is applicable to the Greek or the Russian Church which are the bulk of the Eastern Orthodox community.

10. Orthodox Christian communities in the past has always exercised the independent freedom on how it used the knowledge of the faith they have gained from others to edify the community as a whole to live out the Orthodox Christian faith. It is recorded that classical Greek Christian Scripture used to preach in one community were also used the other communities and each community had translated the texts for it's common people to understand . The forms of worship were different but the essence of faith remained un changed and coming to consensus was the norm and faith that the Holy spirit is guiding the Church to fulfill it's destiny.

Examples :

-Ethiopian Church while it has close connnection to Coptic Church has developed their form of worship in their native language , musical instrumentals adapated to glorify God as part of the liturgy.

- Russian church which never knew of Orthodoxy of any form till Prince Vladimir sent emmisaries in 10th Century A.D to Greece has adapted the forms they received specific to produce Holy men like St. Seraphim of Sarov and living it out from with the persecutions of communism.

- The OCA ( Orthodox church in America) which came about an offshoot from the Russian church during communism has adapted to translate the Russian liturgy ( St. John Chrysostoum Liturgy which has found it's way to Russia from Greece and thereafter to U.S) and attracted quite a few biased to western prostestant thought to turn to it , formed the St. Vladimir Seminary ( One of the seminaries where our aspiring priests in U.S have been accused ofbeing educated in Eastern Orthodox than the Oriental Orthodox or Indian Orthodox )

11. Due to it's significance to the topic , not to mention to above list is our Indian Orthodox Church in India (mostly isolated to state of Kerala and migrants from Kerala to other places thereof) which has in the last two centuries translated a lot of the Syrian prayers into native language of Malyalam , building up a community since 1912 that has a potential to grow in glory and witness to the present time and facing up to heresies and persecutions and produce martyrs ( here clarification martyrdom does not signify only by dying to torture at hands as shown by early Christians facing up to Romans , but no to sin , no to focus on a life away from God prayer worship amidst the many distractions including blogs and social media )

12. The community formed from Indian Orthodox Church in America , it's interaction with the Culture it finds itself in North America based on western model should be seen as unique and focus should not turn from these which I consider important.

-It's interaction with the Easten Orthodox in America , -Education by teaching by many of Eastern Orthodox in America noted in the native English language publications as only the Orthodox Christian community which has held it's faith since first century and preached in pulpit of the Atar by their priests ( knowingly or unknowingly the ancient Churches like Syrian Orthodox Church , Coptic Armenian or Ethiopian are potrayed as either heretical or trying to get in communion with them and one should be kind to them and try to offer help to accomodate them) , welcoming with open arms immigrant community to join them in worship and not explaining that there are theological differences and that some whom they consider as saints are labelled as heretics or robbers.

- Mind set of the Immigrant Indian Orthodox community of the past in North America - a) Not missionarries ,but first priority as who feel lost missing the support system of Church and Culture in India , looking to hold on to something of the past establishing congreggations and parishes with liturgy services in Malyalam . b) The ignorance of not knowing indepth the theology or the practise of the Orthodox Christian faith of merely having continued in simplicity the tradition common in India. c) Fear of losing children as they grow up using predominantly English language normally outside , being exposed to the fast western culture - forcing to attempting to hold back change by actually changing themselves using translations of liturgical books in English for Qurbana and singing in Malyalam tunes ( Emphasis so much on tunes and not meaning - The words and tune together to uplift the worshipping community as a whole and each individual as a participant was what the ancients prescribed and proved) d) The furstations by nuances of human fraility of pride , arguments on who should be Secretary , are they Jacobites will our church building be taken away and infighting within parish leading some youth brought up in America thinking they don't belong here and/or from pride again impatient sighs -Oh these are ignorant people and this is my Church and I must do something to change like going to Eastern Orthodox seminary or parishes to learn and help it ( An anology that comes to mind would be like some Orthodox Christians in India following a pattern without actually understanding or participating in worship jumping ship to protestant missions to learn the Bible and they come back trying to change the Church and their parents)

- Breakway from past and moving forward-

It is important to focus beyond the walls of the Indian Orthodox Christian community and see that mission of the Church in North America India continuing in the footsteps of our Lord and God Jesus Christ ,the Apostles and the Church fathers , is for all people all inclusive on every activity of their lives . The immigrant community culture issue in North America is not limited to us and would cite these diverse examples from my personal observation to elaborate

a) Ukranian community of glorious past in America where greater emphasis on Culture and language was emphasised , with limited youth from present generation even participating in liturgical services and limited members planning to enter into seminary training

b) OCA offshot of the Russian Church which have come a long way in very limited time centuries producing it's own seminaries with many caucasian converts joining to it's members and even inspiring cradle Indian or Ukranian Orthodox.

c) Common to all of the Oiental Orthodox Christian community in America - Coptic , Armenian, Indian , Syrian , Ethiopian and Eritrean

- each living out their life as Church within their culture and language limitations ( Copts get together with Copts only, Indians having liturgical service in Malayalam , Ethiopians only within their community etc.) and limited interaction together as Church. Isolated cases of interaction might be happening but not on a continuous basis to grow . ( An organization which seem promising to me is the SCOOCH even within the limitation of facing others from within our faith labelling us as heretics because of our unfortunate past relation with the Syrian Church)

d. Relationship with the Church from which it had its roots -

Syrian and Kerala traditions

I believe it is important to prove the past wrong which our young seminarians in U.S show promise on going back to find out how the Church existed in India and the situation they had to face in the past and learn from it. It is a shameful scandalous truth facing the Church in India with our Sister Orthodox adapting almost 90% of their liturgical forms forgetting the fact that many fathers of the Church whose work we have come to be blessed with lie in isolated unmarked graves of Antioch without any one there to do Doopa prarthana on their behalf. It is my prayer that the future Indian Orthodox in America would be foremost to go back to establish the relationship with seminaries and study organizations in India and other places to go back to studying old scripts of Syrian prose and Malayalam translate for common man to use in their prayerful lives in English or Malayalam as their preference and offer Doopa prarthana the fathers of old Antioch and Church Fathers of India who had stood up to persecutions from Dutch, Anglican , Syrian a like on the faith. Another aspect not to forget is grasping without offering - The practical usage of the Indian Church on traditions it had got the forms of Syrian traditions translated how much is being used on personal lives - Are we for convenience not going to confession , breaking away from 7 times of prayer ? . Here again I wish to draw a parallel on the use of Jesus Prayer which is now being labelled as part of Eastern Byzantine tradition when it is not as they originated from arrow prayers places like Nitrea and is even shown in our Ninevah prayer ( Yeshuve nee njangale sahaiyikename - ) It is just that the publicity and wide spread usage by Eastern Orthodox ( Not sure if they teach this in the seminaries of OCA)

Balanced focus on Syrian ,Other traditions that formulated Oriental Orthodox Christian Faith English language and potential in North America

Here I should emphasise us not to forget not only Syrian but also other traditions recorded in Geez , Coptic , Armenian and Greek etc. which would show a glimpse of past and formulated our common faith of Oriental Orthodox. In the past due to distance , language and cultural barriers the Indian Church could not interact with these Church communities. However the potential to interact has tremendously improved with internet, immigration policy in North America (In most major cities in U.S there exist Ethiopian , Armenian, Coptic and/ or the other three communities for us to interact and learn to edify together as Church. There exist seminaries and monasteries of Oriental Orthodox and monasteries in U.S ).

The fast pace of Globalization and English language influence in every aspect of life should also not be forgotten and unlike in the past what affect in US affect the very core in India too , it is a responsibility of Church as a whole and each of us as individuals by virtue of our membership to encounter. The question is How sincere are we and what will we be willing to sacrifice and how much encouragement we will give to some who want to attempt ?

Some thoughts to conclusion in future :

This past Sunday ( the reading of the Church - 4th Sunday after Epiphany ) focus on unbelief in God and each of us should not forget that We believe that God is guiding the Church to it's destiny with the Holy Spirit in it's fullness and the expectations of each of us shown in the Epistle reading of I Corinthians 12:12- 27. The Apostles and Church fathers including those Fathers labelled as Oriental Orthodox have lived it. Let us take time to cry out for His help and mercy in our lives to find use of us for Right Glory.

January 31, 2011

Scripture Reading January 09, 2011

First Sunday after Danaha

Scripture :

Evening : St.Mark1:14-34

Morning : St.John1:18-28

Before Holy Qurbana : Genesis25:19-34,30:36-31:2 , IIKings5:1-14 ,Isaiah49:7-13

Holy Qurbana : Acts2:37-47 , Ephesians1:3-14 , St.Matthew4:12-22

Synaxarium

Mor Aggai , Episcopa of Edessa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar_Aggai

Lukios Martyr , Mor Paule Episcopo and his brother Yuhanon , King Maximus

Saying

"Therefore, through patience and the consolation of the Scriptures may we also have hope of consoling ourselves after the afflictions of our distress when we too have been patient in tribulation and call to mind the actions of those who have far excelled us in righteousness and merit and borne far greater trials of adversity than we. For they, on account of the righteousness in which they were quite exemplary, often suffered the persecution of the unrighteous, in order that, by their exercise of righteousness, they might receive the crown of invincible patience, and might, moreover, leave behind for all who followed them the glorious footprints of their perseverance to mark their way."
The Venerable Bede.

Scripture Reading January 3, 2011

Scripture : St. John 1: 1 - 18 , Psalm 1: 1-16
Synaxarium : HG Baselius Mar Gevarghese II
http://www.malankaraorthodox.tv/H.%20H.%20Geevarghese%20II/Baselios%20Geevarghese%20II%20Catholicos.html
HG John III of Antioch
Lazarus of Turabdin,Turkey
Simeon of Harran
Lazarus of Sarug
Mar Yaqub Tel ada
Departure of St. John Khame
http://www.copticchurch.net/classes/synex.php?g_month=1&g_day=3&g_year=2011&btn=View&lang=
Saying
"Let pure faith, therefore, have this confidence, and doubt not that amid the persecutions at the hand of man and the dangers to the soul, it still has God for its helper, knowing that, if at length it comes to a violent and unjust death, the soul on leaving the tabernacle of the body finds rest with God its upholder; let it have, moreover, perfect assurance of the requital in the thought that all evil deeds return upon the heads of those that work them. God cannot be charged with injustice, and perfect goodness is unstained by the impulses and motions of an evil will."
St. Hilary of Poitiers.

Prayer in the name of Jesus in Orthodox Christian tradition of Indian Church

The accusation of one close to you , just as you are making vey small steps in learning to live the faith in the life of the Church that the Church is full of hypocrites, those who are like the pharisees , those who follow rituals and traditions without knowing the person Jesus Christ, is a very painful and often traumatic event that leaves it's scar etched into one's very fibre a feeling of hoplessness.

It is during such a time that we seek support and a reassurance from others , from our family , from the Clergy and whatever we hold dear to tell us this is not the case . It is possible then to find the help we get lacking in conviction and tell tale signs to make us assume the accusation to be true .

However this is when we members of Church fail to grasp the very true eternal truth proclaimed and lived out by the Church Fathers that as individuals we are mere men with no strength on our own with nothing to our own merit , but precious to One , and our help is from Him and Him alone the very God who became man Jesus Christ - who art one of the Holy Trinity. It is to Him that we should turn for solace and indeed He surely loves us and will not leave us to lose hope and let us realize the lie that the evil one is using to bring us to despair .

The short prayers to turn the attention of their lives to God was used by the early Church fathers in Nitrea turning to the desert spending time in caves raising their hearts in prayer seeking His help. I believe that this tradition became part of the worshipping community coming together as Church the reason why in our Eucharist service we repeatedly hear the Church proclaiming Kuriyelaison - 'Lord Have Mercy'. Alternatively the Greek , Russian Church traditions adapted the cry for help of the blind man ' Lord Jesus Christ Son of God Have mercy upon me a sinner' become part of ceaseless personal prayer and witness the great saints like St. Seraphim of Sarov.

If we have such a great history of well troden and proven path in the Church then you and me need not feel discouraged but rather take the step the effort to ask of Him, ask of His help in prayer and perhaps be the instrument to turn our accuser too to not look at his brother's sins, the brother who knows his sins are too many . Let us be thankful edified by this prayer in the name of Jesus in Orthodox Church tradition of the Indian Church found in Moonu Noyambu prayer very similar to the prayer of closing on each Holy Qurbana.

"Jesus, Be our Helper
Jesus Be our Shelter
Jesus, strengthen us-
Jesus guard us
lJesus, remove thewicked from us
lJesus, absolve oursins and our evil deeds
Jesus, have mercyon the judgement day"
http://orthodukso.blogspot.com/2010/06/orthodox-service-closing-prayers.html

Spiritual Father in Orthodox Christianity -5

This article was shared by Dr. Roy Cherian at ICON . May it be edifying.
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The Spiritual Father in Orthodox Christianity-- by Bishop Kallistos Ware ( Part 5)

In the Absence of a Starets And what is one to do, if he cannot find a spiritual father? He may turn, in the first place, to books. Writing in 5th-century Russia,St. Nil Sorsky laments the extreme scarcity of qualified spiritual directors; yet how much more frequent they must have been in his day than in ours!Search diligently, he urges, for a sure and trustworthy guide. "However, if such a teacher cannot be found, then the Holy Fathers order us to turn tothe Scriptures and listen to Our Lord Himself speaking." [31] Since the testimony of Scripture should not be isolated from the continuing witness ofthe Spirit in the life of the Church, the inquirer will also read the works of the Fathers, and above all the Philokalia. But there is an evident danger here. The starets adapts his guidance to the inward state of each; books offer the same advice to everyone. How is the beginner to discern whether or not a particular text is applicable to his own situation? Even if hecannot find a spiritual father in the full sense, he should at least try to find someone more experienced than himself, able to guide him in his reading.It is possible to learn also from visiting places where divine grace hasbeen exceptionally manifested and where prayer has been especially concentrated. Before taking a major decision, and in the absence of other guidance,many Orthodox Christians will goon pilgrimage to Jerusalem or Mount Athos,to some monastery or the tomb of a saint, where they will pray for enlightenment. This is the way in which I have reached the more difficult decisions in my life.

Thirdly, we can learn from religious communities with an established tradition of the spiritual life. In the absence of a personal teacher, the monastic environment can serve as guru; we can receive our formation from the ordered sequence of the daily program, with its periods of liturgical and silent prayer, with its balance of manual labor, study, and recreation. [32]This seems to have be en the chief way in which St. Seraphim of Sarov gained his spiritual training. A well-organized monastery embodies, in anaccessible and living form, the inherited wisdom of many starets. Not only monks,but those who come as visitors for a longer or shorter period, can be formed and guided by the experience of community life.It is indeed no coincidence that the kind of spiritual fatherhood that we have been describing emerged initially in 4th-century Egypt, not within thefully organized communities under St. Pachomius, but among the hermits andin the semi-eremitic milieu of Nitria and Scetis. In the former, spiritual direction was provided by Pachomius himself, by the superiors of each monastery, and by the heads of individual "houses" within the monastery. TheRule of St. Benedict also envisages the abbot as spiritual father, and thereis no provision for further development of a more "charismatic" type. Intime, of course, the coenobitic communities incorporated many of the traditions of spiritual fatherhood as developed among the hermits, but the need forthose traditions has always been less intensely felt in the coenobia,precisely because direction is provided by the corporate life pursued under theguidance of the Rule.

Finally, before we leave the subject of the absence of the starets, it is important to recognize the extreme flexibility in the relationship between starets and disciple. Some may see their spiritual father daily or even hourly, praying, eating, and working with him, perhaps sharing the same cell,as often happened in the Egyptian Desert. Others may see him only once a month or once a year; others, again, may visit a starets on but a single occasion in their entire life, yet this will be sufficient to set them on path. There are, furthermore, many different types of spiritual father;few will be wonder-workers like St. Seraphim of Sarov. There are numerous priests and laymen who, while lacking the more spectacular endowments of the startsi, are certainly able to provide others with the guidance that they require.Many people imagine that they cannot find a spiritual father, because they expect him to be of a particular type: they want a St. Seraphim, and so they close their eyes to the guides whom God is actually sending to them. Often their supposed problems are not so very complicated, and in reality they already know in their own heart what the answer is. But they do not like the answer, because it involves patient and sustained effort on their part:and so they look for a deus ex machina who, by a single miraculous word,will suddenly make everything easy. Such people need to be helped to an understanding of the true nature of spiritual direction.

Contemporary Examples In condusion, I wish briefly to recall two startsi of our own day, whom I have had the happiness of knowing personally. The first is FatherAmphilochios (+1970), abbot of the Monastery of St. John on the Island of Patmos, andspiritual father to a community of nuns which he had founded not far from the Monastery. What most distinguished his character was his gentleness,the warmth of his affection, and his sense of tranquil yet triumphant joy.Life in Christ, as he understood it, is not a heavy yoke, a burden to be carried' with resignation, but a personal relationship to be pursued with eagerness of heart. He was firmly opposed to all spiritual violence and cruelty.It was typical that, as he lay dying and took leave of the nuns under hiscare, he should urge the abbess not to be too severe on them: "They haveleft everything to come here, they must not be unhappy." [33] When I was to return from Patmos to England as a newly-ordained priest, he insisted thatthere was no need to be afraid of anything.My second example is Archbishop John (Maximovich), Russian bishop in Shanghai, in Western Europe, and finally in San Francisco (+1966). Little more than a dwarf in height, with tangled hair and beard, and with an impedimentin his speech, he possessed more than a touch of the "Fool in Christ." From the time of his profession as a monk, he did not lie down on a bed to sleep at night; he went on working and praying, snatching his sleep at oddmoments in the 24 hours. He wandered barefoot through the streets of Paris, and once he celebrated a memorial, service among the tram lines close to the port of Marseilles. Punctuality had little meaning for him. Baffled by hisunpredictable behavior, the more conventional among his flock sometimes judged him to be unsuited for the administrative work of a bishop. But with his total disregard of normal formalities he succeeded where others, relying on worldly influence and expertise, had failed entirelyas when, against allhope and in the teeth of the "quota" system, he secured the admission of thousands of homeless Russian refugees to the U.S.A. In private conversation he was very gentle, and he quickly won theconfidence of small children. Particularly striking was the intensity of his intercessory prayer. When possible, he liked to celebrate the Divine Liturgy daily, and the service often took twice or three times the normal space of time, such was the multitude of those whom he commemorated individually by name. As he prayed for them, they were never mere names on a lengthy list, but always persons. One story that I was told is typical. It was his custom each year to visit Holy Trinity Monastery at Jordanville, N.Y. As he left,after one such visit, a monk gave him a slip of paper with four names of those who were gravely ill. Archbishop John received thousands upon thousands ofsuch requests for prayer in the course of each year. On his return to the monastery some twelve months later, at once he beckoned to the monk, and much to the latter's surprise, from the depths of his cassock Archbishop John produced the identical slip of paper, now crumpled and tattered. "I have been praying for your friends," he said, "but two of them"he pointed to their names"are now dead and the other two have recovered." And so indeed itwas.Even at a distance he shared in the concerns of his spiritual children. One of them, superior of a small Orthodox monastery in Holland, was sitting one night in his room, unable to sleep from anxiety over the problems which faced him. About three o'dock in the morning, the telephone rang; it was Archbishop John, speaking from several hundred miles away. He had rung to say that it was time for the monk to go to bed.Such is the role of the spiritual father. As Varsanuphius expressed it, "I care for you more than you care for yourself."

Endnotes:
1. On spiritual fatherhood in the Christian East, see the well-documented study by I. Hausherr, S. L., Direction Spintuelle en Orient d'Autrefois(Orientalia Christiana Analecta, 144: Rome 1955). An excellent portrait of agreat starets in 19th-century Russia is provided by J. B. Dunlop, StaretzAmvrosy: Model for Dostoevsky's Staretz Zossima (Belmont, Mass. 1972); comparealso I. de Beausobre, Macanus, Starets of Optina: Russian Letters ofDirection 18341860 (London, 1944). For the life and writings of a Russian starets in the present century, see Archimandrite Sofrony, The UndistortedImage.Staretz Silouan: 18661938 (London, 1958).
2. Apophthegmata Patrum, alphabetical collection (Migne, P.G., 65, pp.37-8).3. Les Apophtegemes des Pres du Desert, by J. C. Guy, S.jj. (Textes deSpiritualit Orientale, No. 1: Etiolles, 1968), pp. 112, 158.4. A. Elchaninov, The Diary of a Russian Priest, (London, 1967, p. 54).5. I use "charismatic" in the restricted sense customarily given to it bycontemporary writers. But if that word indicates one who has received thegifts or charismata of the Holy Spirit, then the ministerial priest, ordainedthrough the episcopal laying on of hands, is as genuinely a "charismatic"as one who speaks with tongues.6. The Life of St. Antony, chapters 87 and 81 (P.G. 26, 965A, and 957A.)7. Quoted in Igumen Chariton, The Art of Prayer: An Orthodox Anthology(London, 1966), p. 164. [Webmaster Note: I could not determine where thisfootnote appeared in the original article.]8. Apophthegmata Patrum, alphabetical collection, Theophilus theArchbishop, p. 2. In the Christian East, the Patriarch of Alexandria bears the title"Pope."9. Ibid., Antony p. 27.10. Ibid., Antony, p. 24.11. Compare Ignaty's contemporary, Bishop Theophan the Recluse (+l894) andSt. Tikhon of Zadonsk (+l753).12. Three of the great banes of the 20th century are shorthand, duplicatorsand photocopying machines. If chairmen of committees and those in seats ofauthority were forced to write out personally in longhand everything theywanted to communicate to others, no doubt they would choose their wordswith greater care.13. Evergetinos, Synagoge, 1, 20 (ed. Victor Matthaiou, I, Athens, 1957,pp. 168-9).14. Apophthegmata Patrum, alphabetical collection, Poemen, p. 8.15. For the importance of a spiritual father's prayers, see for exampleLes Apophtegmes des Peres du Dsert, tr. Guy, "srie des dits anonymes", P.160.16. The Book of Varsanuphius and John, edited by Sotirios Schoinas (Volos,1960), pp. 208, 39, 353, 110 and 23g. A critical edition of part of theGreek text, accompanied by an English translation, has been prepared by D. J.Chitty: Varsanuphius and John, Questions and Answers, (PatrologiaOrientalis, XXXI, 3, Paris, 1966). [Webmaster Note. This and many other finebookson spiritual direction are available from _St. Herman Press_(http://www.stherman.com/) .17. Apophthegmata Patrurn, alphabetical collection, Antony, p. 16.18. Ibid., John the Theban, p. 1.19. Mystic Treatises of Isaac of Nineveh, tr. by A. J. Wensinck,(Amsterdam, 1923), p. 341.20. "_Conversation of St. Seraphim on the Aim of the Christian Life_(http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/praxis/wonderful.aspx) ," in A Wonderful Revelationto the World (Jordanville, N.Y., 1953), pp. 23-24.21. Apophthegmata Patrum, alphabetical collection, John Colobos, p. 1.22. Ibid., Mark the Disciple of Silvanus, pp. 1, 2.23. Ibid., Joseph of Panepho, p. 5.24. Ibid., Saio, p. 1. The geron subsequently returned the things to theirrightful owners.25. Les Apophtegmes des Peres du Desert, tr. Guy, "serie des ditsanonymes," p. 162. There is a parallel story in the alphabetical collection,Sisoes, p. 10; cf. Abraham and Isaac (Gen. 22).26. Fr. Andr Scrima, "La Tradition du Pre Spirituel dan l'Eglise d'Orient."Hermes, 1967, No. 4, p. 83.27. Apophthegmata Patrurn, alphabetical collection, Poemen, p. 174.28. Ibid., Isaac the Priest, p. 2.29. The Book of Varsanuphius and John, pp. 23, 51, 35.30. Quoted by Thomas Merton, Spiritual Direction and Meditation. (1960), p.12.31. "The Monastic Rule," in G. P. Fedotov, A Treasury of RussianSpirituality, (London, 1950) p.96.32. See Thomas Merton, op. cit., pp. 14-16, on the dangers of rigidmonastic discipline without proper spiritual direction.33. See I. Gorainoff, "Holy Men of Patmos", Sobornost (The Journal of theFellowship of St. Alban and St. Sergius), Series 6, No. 5 (1972) pp. 341-4.From Cross Currents (Summer/Fall 1974), pp. 296-313.**************************************

Spiritual Father in Orthodox Christianity -4

This article was shared by Dr. Roy Cherian at ICON . May it be edifying.
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The Spiritual Father in Orthodox Christianity-- by Bishop Kallistos Ware ( Part 4)

Obedience and Freedom

Such are by God's grace, the gifts of the starets. But what of the spiritual child? How does he contribute to the mutual relationship between fatherand son in God?Briefly, what he offers is his full and unquestioning obedience. As a classic example, there is the story in the Sayings of the Desert Fathers about the monk who was told to plant a dry stick in the sand and to water it daily. So distant was the spring from his cell that he had to leave in the evening to fetch the water and he only returned in the following morning. For three years he patiently fulfilled his Abba's command. At the end of this period, the stick suddenly put forth leaves and bore fruit. The Abba picked the fruit, took it to the church, and invited the monks to eat, saying,"Come and taste the fruit of obedience." [21] Another example of obedience is the monk Mark who was summoned by his Abba,while copying a manuscript, and so immediate was his response that he did not even complete the circle of the letter that he was writing. On another occasion, as they walked together, his Abba saw a small pig; testing Mark,he said, "Do you see that buffalo, my child?" "Yes, Father," replied Mark."And you see how powerful its horns are?" "Yes, Father", he answered once more without demur. [22] Abba Joseph of Panepho, following a similar policy,tested the obedience of his disciples by assigning ridiculous tasks tothem, and only if they complied would he then give them sensible commands.[23] Another geron instructed his disciple to steal things from the cells ofthe brethren; [24] yet another told his disciple (who had not been entirelytruthful with him) to throw his son into the furnace. [25]Such stories are likely to make a somewhat ambivalent impression on the modern reader. They seem to reduce the disciple to an infantile or sub-human level, depriving him of all power of judgment and moral choice. With indignation we ask: "Is this the 'glorious liberty of the children of God'?"(Rom.8:21)Three points must here be made. In the first place, the obedience offered by the spiritual son to his Abba is not forced but willing and voluntary. It is the task of the starets to take up our will into his will, but he can only do this if by our own free choice we place it in his hands. He does not break our will, but accepts it from us as a gift.

A submission that is forced and involuntary is obviously devoid of moral value; the starets asks of each one that he offer to God his heart, not his external actions.The voluntary nature of obedience is vividly emphasized in the ceremony ofthe tonsure at the Orthodox rite of monastic profession. The scissors areplaced upon the Book of the Gospels, and the novice must himself pick them up and give them to the abbot. The abbot immediately replaces them on the Book of the Gospels. Again the novice take the scissors, and again they are replaced. Only when the novice him the scissors for the third time does the abbot proceed to cut hair. Never there after will the monk have the right to say to the abbot or the brethren: "My personality is constricted andsuppressed here in the monastery; you have deprived me of my freedom". No one has taken away his freedom, for it was he himself who took up the scissors and placed them three times in the abbot's hand.But this voluntary offering of our freedom is obviously something that cannot be made once and for all, by a single gesture; There must be a continual offering, extending over-our whole life; our growth in Christ is, measuredprecisely by the increasing degree of our self-giving. Our freedom must be offered anew each day and each hour, in constantly varying ways; and this means that the relation between starets and disciple is not static but dynamic, not unchanging but infinitely diverse. Each day and each hour, under the guidance of his Abba, the disciple will face new situations, calling for a different response, a new kind of self-giving.In the second place, the relation between starets and spiritual child is not one- but two-sided. Just as the starets enables the disciples to see themselves as they truly are, so it is the disciples who reveal the starets to himself. In most instances, a man does not realize that he is called to be a starets until others come to him and insist on placing themselves under his guidance. This reciprocity continues throughout the relationship between the two.

The spiritual father does not possess an exhaustive program,neatly worked out in advance and imposed in the same manner upon everyone. Onthe contrary, if he is a true starets, he will have a different word fo reach; and since the word which he gives is on the deepest level, not his ownbut the Holy Spirit's, he does not know in advance what that word will be.The starets proceeds on the basis, not of abstract rules but of concrete human situations. He and his disciple enter each situation together; neither of them knowing before hand exactly what the outcome will be, but each waiting for the enlightenment of the Spirit. Each of them, the spiritual fatheras well as the disciple, must learn as he goes.The mutuality of their relationship is indicated by certain stories in the Sayings of the Desert Fathers, where an unworthy Abba has a spiritual son far better than himself. The disciple, for example, detects his Abba in the sin of fornication, but pretends to have noticed nothing and remains under his charge; and so, through the patient humility of his new disciple, the spiritual father is brought eventually to repentance and a new life. In sucha case, it is not the spiritual father who helps the disciple, but the reverse. Obviously such a situation is far from the norm, but it indicates that the disciple is called to give as well as to receive.In reality, the relationship is not two-sided but triangular, for in addition to the starets and his disciple there is also a third partner, God. OurLord insisted that we should call no man "father," for we have only onefather, who is in Heaven (Matthew 13:8-10). The starets is not an infallible judge or a final court of appeal, but a fellow-servant of the living God;not a dictator, but a guide and companion on the way.

The only true"spiritual director," in the fullest sense of the word, is the Holy Spirit.This brings us to the third point. In the Eastern Orthodox tradition at its best, the spiritual father has always sought to avoid any kind of constraint and spiritual violence in his relations with his disciple. If, under the guidance of the Spirit, he speaks and acts with authority, it is with theauthority of humble love. The words of starets Zosima in The Brothers Karamazov express an essential aspect of spiritual fatherhood: "At some ideas you stand perplexed, especially at the sight of men's sin, uncertain whether to combat it by force or by humble love. Always decide, 'I will combat it by humble love.' If you make up your mind about that once and for all, you can conquer the whole world. Loving humility is a terrible force; it is the strongest of all things and there is nothing like it."Anxious to avoid all mechanical constraint, many spiritual fathers in the Christian East refused to provide their disciples with a rule of life, a set of external commands to be applied automatically. In the words of acontemporary Romanian monk, the starets is "not a legislator but a mystagogue."[26] He guides others, not by imposing rules, but by sharing his life with them. A monk told Abba Poemen, "Some brethren have come to live with me; do you want me to give them orders?" "No," said the Old Man. "But, Father,"the monk persisted, "they themselves want me to give them orders." "No",repeated Poemen, "be an example to them but not a lawgiver." [27] The samemoral emerges from the story of Isaac the Priest. As a young man, he remained first with Abba Kronios and then with Abba Theodore of Pherme; but neither of them told him what to do. Isaac complained to the other monks and theycame and remonstrated with Theodore. "If he wishes", Theodore repliedeventually, "let him do what he sees me doing." [28] When Varsanuphius was asked to supply a detailed rule of life, he refused, saying: "I do not want you tobe under the law, but under grace." And in other letters he wrote: "You know that we have never imposed chains upon anyone... Do not force men's freewill, but sow in hope, for our Lord did not compel anyone, but He preached the good news, and those who wished hearkened to Him." [29]Do not force men's free will. The task of the spiritual father is not to destroy a man's freedom, but to assist him to see the truth for himself; not to suppress a man's personality, but to enable him to discover himself, togrow to full maturity and to become what he really is. If on occasion thespiritual father requires an implicit and seemingly "blind" obedience fromhis disciple, this is never done as an end in itself, nor with a view to enslaving him. The purpose of this kind of shock treatment is simply to deliver the disciple from his false and illusory "self", so that he may enterinto true freedom. The spiritual father does not impose his own ideas and devotions, but he helps the disdple to find his own special vocation. In thewords of a 17th-century Benedictine, Dom Augustine Baker: "The director is not to teach his own way, nor indeed any determinate way of prayer, but to instruct his disciples how they may themselves find out the way proper forthem . . . In a word, he is only God's usher, and must lead souls in God'sway, and not his own." [30]In the last resort, what the spiritual father gives to his disciple is not a code of written or oral regulations, not a set of techniques for meditation, but a personal relationship. Within this personal relationship the Abba grows and changes as well as the disciple, for God is constantly guiding them both. He may on occasion provide his disciple with detailed verbal instructions, with precise answers to specific questions. On other occasions hemay fail to give any answer at all; either because he does not think that the question needs an answer, or because he himself does not yet know what the answer should be. But these answers or this failure to answerare always given the framework of a personal relationship. Many things cannot be said in words, but can be conveyed through a direct personal encounter.

(To be Continued....)

Spiritual Father in Orthodox Christianity -3

This article was shared by Dr. Roy Cherian at ICON . May it be edifying.
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The Spiritual Father in Orthodox Christianity- by Bishop Kallistos Ware ( Part 3)

The Three Gifts of the Spiritual Father

Three gifts in particular distinguish the spiritual father. The first is insight and discernment (diakrisis), the ability to perceive intuitively the secrets of another's heart, to understand the hidden depths of which theother is unaware. The spiritual father penetrates beneath the conventional gestures and attitudes whereby we conceal our true personality from othersand from ourselves; and beyond all these trivialities, he comes to grips with the unique person made in the image and likeness of God. This power is spiritual rather than psychic; it is not simply a kind of extra-sensory perception or a sanctified clairvoyance but the fruit of grace, presupposing concentrated prayer and an unremitting ascetic struggle.

With this gift of insight there goes the ability to use words with power.As each person comes before him, the starets knows immediately and specificallywhat it is that the individual needs to hear. Today, we are inundated with words, but for the most part these are conspicuously not words uttered with power. [12] The starets uses few words, and sometimes none at all; butby these few words or by his silence, he is able to alter the wholedirection of a man's life. At Bethany, Christ used three words only: "Lazarus, comeout" (John 11:43) and these three words, spoken with power, were sufficient to bring the dead back to life. In an age when language has beendisgracefully trivialized, it is vital to rediscover the power of the word; and this means rediscovering the nature of silence, not just as a pause between words but as one of the primary realities of existence. Most teachers and preachers talk far too much; the starets is distinguished by an austere economy of language.But for a word to possess power, it is necessary that there should be not only one who speaks with the genuine authority of personal experience, but also one who listens with attention and eagerness. If someone questions a starets out of idle curiosity, it is likely that he will receive little benefit; but if he approaches the starets with ardent faith and deep hunger,theword that he hears may transfigure his being. The words of the startsi are for the most part simple in verbal expression and devoid of literary artifice; to those who read them in a superficial way, they will seem jejune and banal.

The spiritual father's gift of insight is exercised primarily through the practice known as "disclosure of thoughts" (logismoi). In early Eastern monasticism the young monk used to go daily to his father and lay before him all the thoughts which had come to him during the day. This disclosure of thoughts includes far more than a confession of sins, since the novice also speaks of those ideas and impulses which may seem innocent to him, but in which the spiritual father may discern secret dangers or significant signs. Confession is retrospective, dealing with sins that have already occurred;the disclosure of thoughts, on the other hand, is prophylactic, for it lays bare our logismoi before they have led to sin and so deprives them of their,power to harm. The purpose of the disclosure is not juridical, to secure absolution from guilt, but self-knowledge, that each may see himself as he truly is. [13]

Endowed with discernment, the spiritual father does not merely wait for a person to reveal himself, but shows to the other thoughts hidden from him.When people came to St. Seraphim of Sarov, he often answered theirdifficulties before they had time to put their thoughts before him. On manyoccasions the answer at first seemed quite irrelevant, and even absurd and irresponsible; for what St. Seraphim answered was not, the question his visitor had consciously in mind, but the one he ought to have been asking. In all this St. Seraphim relied on the inward light of the Holy Spirit. He found it important, he explained, not to work out in advance hat he was going to say;in that case, his words would represent merely his own human judgment whichmight well be in error, and not the judgment of God. In St. Seraphim's eyes, the relationship between starets and spiritual child is stronger than death, and he therefore urged his children to continue their disclosure of thoughts to him even after his departure to the next life. These are the words which, by his on command, were written on his tomb:"When I am dead, come to me at my grave, and the more often, the better. Whatever is on your soul, whatever may have happened to you, come to me aswhen I was alive and, kneeling on the ground, cast all your bitterness upon my grave. Tell me everything and I shall listen to you, and all the bitterness will fly away from you. And as you spoke to me when I was alive, do so now. For I am living, and I shall be forever."

The second gift of the spiritual father is the ability to love others and to make others' sufferings his own. Of Abba Poemen, one of the greatest ofthe Egyptian gerontes, it is briefly and simply recorded: "He possessedlove, and many came to him." [14] He possessed love this is indispensable in all spiritual fatherhood. Unlimited insight into the secrets of men's hearts,if devoid of loving compassion, would not be creative but destructive; he who cannot love others will have little power to heal them.Loving others involves suffering with and for them; such is the literal sense of compassion. "Bear one anothers burdens and so fulfill the law ofChrist" (Galatians 6:2). The spiritual father is 'the one who par excellence bears the burdens of others. "A starets", writes Dostoevsky in The Brothers Karamazov, "is one who takes your soul, your will, unto his soul and hiswill. . . . " It is not enough for him to offer advice. He is also required to take up the soul of his spiritual children into his own soul, their life into his life. It is his task to pray for them, and his constant intercession on their behalf is more important to them than any words of counsel. [15] It is his task likewise to assume their sorrows and their sins, to taketheir guilt upon himself, and to answer for them at the Last Judgment.

All this is manifest in a primary document of Eastern spiritual direction,the Books of Varsanuphius and John, embodying some 850 questions addressed to two elders of 6th-century Palestine, together with their written answers. "As God Himself knows," Varsanuphius insists to his spiritual children,"there is not a second or an hour when I do not have you in my mind and in my prayers . . . I care for you more than you care for yourself . . . I would gladly lay down my life for you." This is his prayer to God: "O Master,either bring my children with me into Your Kingdom, or else wipe me also out of Your book." Taking up the theme of bearing others' burdens,Varsanuphius affirms: "I am bearing your burdens and your offences . . . You have become like a man sitting under a shady tree . . . I take upon myself the sentence of condemnation against you, and by the grace of Christ, I will not abandon you, either in this age or in the Age to Come." [16]

Readers of Charles Williams will be reminded of the principle of'substituted love,' which plays a central part in Descent into Hell. The samelineof thought is expressed by Dostoevsky's starets Zosima: "There is only oneway of salvation, and that is to make yourself responsible for all men'ssins. . . To make yourself responsible in all sincerity for everything and for everyone." The ability of the starets to support and strengthen others ismeasured by his willingness to adopt this way of salvation.Yet the relation between the spiritual father and his children is not one-sided. Though he takes the burden of their guilt upon himself and answersfor them before God, he cannot do this effectively unless they themselves arestruggling wholeheartedly for their own salvation. Once a brother came to St. Antony of Egypt and said: "Pray for me." But the Old Man replied:"Neither will I take pity on you nor will God, unless you make some effort of your own." [17]

When considering the love of a starets for those under his care, it is important to give full meaning to the word "father" in the title "spiritual father". As father and offspring in an ordinary family should be joined inmutual love, so it must also be within the "charismatic" family of the starets. It is primarily a relationship in the Holy Spirit, and while thewell spring of human affection is not to be unfeelingly suppressed, it must be contained within bounds. It is recounted how a young monk looked after his elder, who was gravely ill, for twelve years without interruption. Never once in that period did his elder thank him or so much as speak one word of kindness to him. Only on his death-bed did the Old Man remark to the assembled brethren, "He is an angel and not a man." [18] The story is valuable as an indication of the need for spiritual detachment, but such an uncompromising suppression of all outward tokens of affection is not typical of the Sayings of the Desert Fathers, still less of Varsanuphius and John.

A third gift of the spiritual father is the power to transform the human environment, both the material and the non-material. The gift of healing,possessed by so many of the startsi, is one aspect of this power: More generally, the starets helps his disciples to perceive the world as God createdit and as God desires it once more to be. "Can you take too much joy in your Father's works?" asks Thomas Traherne. "He is Himself in everything." The true starets is one who discerns this universal presence of the Creator throughout creation, and assists others to discern it. In the words of William Blake, "If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything will appear to man as it is, infinite." For the man who dwells in God, there is nothing mean and trivial: he sees everything in the light of Mount Tabor. "What is a merciful heart?" inquires St. Isaac the Syrian. "It is a heart that burns with love for 'the whole of creation for men, for the birds, for the beasts,for the demons, for every, creature. When a man with such a heart as this thinks of the creatures or looks at them, his eyes are filled with tears;An overwhelming compassion makes his heart grow! small and weak, and he cannot endure to hear or see any suffering, even the smallest pain, inflicted upon any creature. Therefore he never ceases to pray, with tears even for the irrational animals, for the enemies of truth, and for those who do him evil, asking that they may be guarded and receive God's mercy. And for the reptiles also he prays with a great compassion, which rises up endlessly in his heart until he shines again and is glorious like God."' [19]

An all-embracing love, like that of Dostoevsky's starets Zosima,transfigures its object, making the human environment transparent, so that the uncreated energies of God shine through it. A momentary glimpse of what thistransfiguration involves is provided by the celebrated _conversation betweenSt. Seraphim of Sarov and Nicholas Motoviov_(http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/praxis/wonderful.aspx) , his spiritual child. They were walking in the forestone winter's day and St. Seraphim spoke of the need to acquire the HolySpirit. This led Motovilov to ask how a man can know with certainty that he is"in the Spirit of God":Then Fr. Seraphim took me very firmly by the shoulders and said: "My son,we are both, at this moment in the Spirit of God. Why don't you look at me?""I cannot look, Father," I replied, "because your eyes are flashing like lightning. Your face has become brighter than the sun, and it hurts my eyes to look, at you.""Don't be afraid," he said. "At this very moment you have yourself become as bright as I am. You are yourself in the fullness of the Spirit of God at this moment; otherwise you would not be able to see me as you do. . . but why, my son, do you not look me in the eyes? Just look, and don't be afraid; the Lord is with us."After these words I glanced at his face, and there came over me an even greater reverent awe. Imagine in the center of the sun, in the dazzling lightof its mid-day rays, the face of a man talking to you. You see the movement of his lips and the changing expression of his eyes and you hear his voice, you feel someone holding your shoulders, yet you do not see his hands,you do not even see yourself or his body, but only a blinding light spreading far around for several yards and lighting up with its brilliance the snow-blanket which covers the forest glade and the snowflakes which continue to fall unceasingly [20].
(To be Continued....)