studying theology...

Hello Family and Friends!

Long time no talk :)

Life has been quite busy around here. I’m coming into the final part of my program (writing the thesis), which should take anywhere from 1-2 semesters.

Just thought I’d share a nice little excerpt from Fr. Stephen Freeman’s blog:

“Another specific activity, deeply related to this false and true self, is the knowledge of God, and all that we speak of when we say, “doctrine.” Part of the argument of St. Gregory Palamas, against those who argued for a different manner of knowing God, was his insistence on the experiential character of the proper knowledge of God. Thus when we know God properly, we know Him as Person, not as object or topic. Someone may know all of the dogmatic formulas such that they can repeat them with no trouble, or even quickly analyze a statement as somehow being contrary to the doctrine of the Church, and yet know all of this in a way that is not proper. They simply become experts, like someone studying for a game show. This is an activity that fosters the false self, and may be more dangerous than many, because the person involved can suffer under the delusion that because they “know” all of the true facts, they actually know the truth, when they do not.“

http://fatherstephen.wordpress.com

Lots of love!

mike

Holy Grand Prince and Martyr Michael of Tver...

Dear Friends and Family,

It has been forever since I have had a chance to post anything. Various obligations just do not allow this to happen at the moment. I did, however, want to post the life of Grand Prince and Martyr Michael, as I enjoyed reading it and thought you might as well:

“Saint Michael, born at Tver in 1272, was the son of Prince Yaroslav Yaroslavovich, who was himself the brother of Sinat Alexander Nevsky (23 Nov.). Michael was brought up in the faith and in the pracice of the virtues by his mother, who later became a nun. The strong monastic influence in his upbringing led him to see hi future in terms of a simple choice between becoming a monk or dying a martyr. God however laid on him the heavy burden of government when he succeeded his elder brother as Prince of Tver (1285). Nineteen years later he was to become, in addition, Grand Prince of Vladimir, the capital of Russia during the Mongol occupation and the seat of the Metropolitan of Kiev. In the meantime, he had married Princess Anna Dimitrievna of Rostov, who gave him four sons and four daughters.
        After some years, Michael was deprived of the Principality of Vladimir through the machinations of his kinsman Prince George Danielovich of Moscow. Michael’s counsellors urged him to take up arms against George but he preferred to give up powere rather than have his people shed their blood for him. But when George threated Tver, Michael took the advice of the Bishop to go to war agains his cousin, and he was victorious. Among his princers was George’s wife, Princess Agatha, who happened to dier in captivity as a result of an accident. Her death unleashed the fury of George against Michael and also roused up the Tatar Khan, who was Agatha’s brother. A Tatar expedition against Tver seemed all too probable, unless Prince Michael would agree to go to the Golden Horde to be judged at the court of the Khan. All Michael’s kinsmen could foresee the fatal outcome of such a proceeding, and they did their best to dissuade him from it. However, after discussing the matter with his spiritual father, the holy Prince made up his mind to go to certain death in order to spare his people.
        Held prisoner with a wooden yoke around his neck which kept his hands and arms at shoulder-height, Michael spent his days and nights chanting the services of the CHurch and Psalms of David. His son, a hostage of the Tatars, was allowed to keep him company. He turned the pages of the sacred books for his father, who was consoled by his presence. Obliged to kneel before the Khan and become a laughing-stock of the Tatars, all Michael uttered by way of complaint were the words of the Psalmist: I am an object of scorn to them: they have looked on me and they have shaken their heads. Help me, O Lord my God: O save me according to Thy mercy (Ps. 108:25-6). Thereafter the tears flowed continuously from his eyes. During the night of 21 and 22 November, he had a revelation of his approaching death. He attended the Liturgy, communicated in the holy Mysteries and having embraced the members of his family who were present, he opened the Psalter and read the words uttered by the Prophet, foreseeing the Passion of Christ: My heart is in angiusih within me: and the terrors of death have fallen upon me (Ps. 54:4). Then he added: Cast thy burden on the Lord, and He will sustain theee: He will never permit the righteous to be moved (ibid. v. 22). So, filled with courage and hope, he calmly greeted George and his henchmen who threw themselves on him like wild animals and mauled him ferociously before running him through with their swords.
        The relics of the holy Prince were returned to Moscow where they owrked many miracles. On 6 September 1320, they were translated with great solemnity to Tver. When the city was besieged by the Poles and Lithuanians in 1549, the inhabitants were encouraged by Saint Michael, who appeared in the form of an armed and mounted knight.

Through the prayers of Thy Saints, Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon us. Amen.

Making room for others...

May the following quote from a moving short story by Checkov serve as a reminder to us all to slow down and look beyond the surface in our day-to-day interactions with others...

Help us to slow down enough to see this!

“Iona turned round to tell them how his son died, but at that moment the hunchback gave a
little sigh of relief and announced that, thank God, they had come to the end of the journey. Having
received his twenty kopecks, Iona gazed after the revelers for a long time, even after they had
vanished through a dark gateway. Once more he was alone, once more silence fell on him. The grief
he had kept at bay for a brief while now returned to wrench his heart with still greater force. With an
expression of anxiety and torment, he gazed at the crowds hurrying along both sides of the street,
wondering whether there was anyone among those thousands of people who would listen to him. But
the crowds hurried past, paying no attention to him or to his grief. His grief was vast, boundless. If his
heart could break, and the grief could pour out of it, it would flow over the whole world; but no one
would see it. It had found a hiding place invisible to all: even in broad daylight, even if you held a
candle to it, you wouldn't see it.”

~ from “Heartache” by Anton Checkov

Towards an Asceticism of Hospitality...

Dear Family and Friends,

After having returned from a trip to England (London, Darby, Cambridge and Essex) and a pilgrimage to Mt. Athos, an overarching theme has come to mind which was referenced continuously throughout our journeys. This theme can best be summed up with one word: hospitality. It is something that requires, in my mind, a few prerequisite notions:

1. That we consider our brother to be our life. Or as others put it, our brother to be our salvation (1 John sums this up pretty well).
2. That we leave room in our lives for our brother. This, of course, can take on many different forms, but in our busy society this might have to do with evaluating our jobs, family lives, recreation, and asking ourselves to what extent these are carried out for our own good, or that of others. With a job, for example, the prevailing philosophy nowadays can often very self-centered--everything being set up for success, even if it means stepping on others’ to do so. Our jobs, though, can be transformed in most cases into arenas for practicing this very principle of leaving room for others, even though it may cost us (financially, or in terms of self-respect or reputation etc.). Another aspect of this point, however, which is very important in our day and age is that we leave room for our neighbor in the busyness that is superficially created in our minds. Often the nature of our jobs and our pace of life can be associated with stress that builds up within our minds--the pounding and swirling of thoughts in our heads, whether its remembering an appointment, replaying an intense meeting or conversation, etc etc...All of these things that cause our minds to scatter and eventually snap under pressure, distract us from the still simplicity that is reality. If we clutter our minds with all of these false realities (because they are not actually even helping our every day realities, but only acting as pale distortions of them) we certainly DO NOT LEAVE ROOM FOR OUR BROTHER, which as many fathers say, is a door to meeting Christ. Sometimes humility means slowing down to the point of being able to listen. Often we say, “how can I slow down, I have so much to do.” Two points arise: either we need to re-evaluate how much we are doing in light of eternal values and consequences and maybe try to trim off the unnecessary time-fillers, or we need to come to grips with the fact that it is not the excess of jobs but the internal pace and scatterdness with which we meet these jobs. If we met them with a natural internal pace and one that we singly focused (usually on the prayer of Jesus or something similarly simple), maybe these things would not seem so difficult, and MAYBE they might even take on a whole new level of meaning and beauty...the mundane and even tedious suddenly becoming overwhelmingly brilliant and beautiful.
3. That we do not see our spiritual life and our obligation towards our neighbor (i.e. family, friends, co-workers and everyone) as existing in conflict. Someone asked a monk at an active and frequently visited monastery, “how do you keep unceasing prayer active in your monastery with all of the noisy visitors?” The monk replied, “if our prayer ceases as a result of our interaction with the visitors it means that we were not praying for them as we should have been.” Other examples in the Gerontikon show that, in fact, an ascetic’s interaction with guests shows the true state of his/her heart and the fruit of their labors (i.e. whether their labors in prayer were purely out of pride and a sense of human accomplishment, or out of humble recognition that his labors are solely dependent on God’s Grace in transforming his heart in that of Christ’s...one that loves the whole world)Just as we see in the Old Testament with the visit of the Angels and many other examples in every day life, we do not know when we will be hosting Christ or angels. And this is not just an ethical metaphor or lesson but an ontological reality: that when we treat those made in God’s image as we would treat Christ, we are truly meeting Christ (“Lord when did you come to visit us?”). Leaving room for others (i.e. loving them) is an enormous act of asceticism, and requires an upheaval of our own will and a humble taking on and acceptance of the gift of Grace of the will of God in order to carry out this awesome love.

These were a few meditations that were picked up (among many) along our rich and profitable journey. The following is a nice story from the Gerontikon that might encourage us along the way (especially us perfectionists who constantly look at results instead of process :)):

A brother said to Abba Poimen:

“If I give to my brother a bit of bread or something else, the demons pollute this act as if it was done out of the desire to be liked by people.”

The Elder replies:

“And even if it happens out of people-pleasing, we will give to our brother whatever it is that he needs.”

And he told him the following parable:

“Two men were farmers and lived in the same city. One of them sowed his seed and produced a small and unclean harvest.

The other was negligent and did not sow, for this reason he did not have any harvest at all. If a famine were to occur, which out of the two would have enough to live?”

“The one who got the small and unclean harvest,” responded the brother.

“Thus, we too,” says the Elder, “let us sow a bit, even in an unclean way, in order not to die from hunger.”

Well, I think that’s all for now.

with much love,
Mike

Trip to England...

Dear Friends and Family,

Christ is Risen!

The semester is racing by, and we're nearly approaching the final month of classes! The month of May is full of exciting events. On Wednesday I'll be heading to the UK for an Orthodox Youth Festival, and hopefully a trip to the Monastery in Essex. Directly after I return three parishioners from my church in Boston will be coming for a pilgrimmage to the Holy Mountain and Thessaloniki, and directly after that some other folks will be coming, and then a trip to Romania to meet Vera, Teo and Sophia and a journey home with them to Boston for the summer!

Nothing to share in the way of insights, except for the following gem from Fr. Justin Popovich:

"It is essential to create in our people (speaking to the Serbian nation, but really to all of us) the sense that the faith of Christ is a virtue beyond nationhood, being ecumenical and catholic, trinitarian; and that for someone to believe in Christ entails their waiting on Christ, and only on Christ, with every event of their lives."

Glory to Thee for All Things!

with love,
mike

In Light of the Volcano...

Dear Friends and Family,

Today, while reading an editorial in the greek paper Kathimerini entitled "The Lesson of the Ash," something struck home very clearly. In the article the author reminds his audience that we as humans only understand our innate dependence and limitations when the works of our own hands begin to fail us, or when nature intervenes (referring specifically to the recent volcano eruption, and the consequent halt in sky travel all over the globe). His article reminded me quite vividly that we, the "enlightened" ones, have become very sure of ourselves, of our cleverness and capabilities. We undermine reality to philosophize about multiple realities because we have come up with advanced methods to avoid the only true one, one that, if we do not act, meets us with the bitter kiss of death; by taking pain-killers, drugs, "injections" of emotional and sexual highs from various forms of media, among other things, our religion (the avoidance of reality) has truly become our opiate.

It is times like these however, when the surprising silence in the air, reminds us that we do not rule the earth or the skies, but are rather completely dependent to their beck and call. We often only realize this when the rug is pulled out from underneath us (when we lose our ever-present "oxygen" as it were...the system that we have spent lifetimes building) When our economic system, like an enormous teetering mountain, begins to come crashing down upon us, we realize that our are inventions are built on the straw foundation of our human confidence. Human ingenuity is truly a marvel to behold, as we are capable of so much! But a denial of our dependence and a confidence leading back to ourselves, makes it all seems so vain. When we grasp on to our own intelligence and craftsmanship as if it is the ultimate mind, we find in the end, that we have been fooled...but it's often too late.

We, the children of the Enlightenment, call the children of the "dark continent" (or of the pre-settler America's or any other "unenlightened" land) barbarians and fools. We conquered them, educated them, civilized them and taught them a religion that we ourselves would not uphold, only to discover that we had successfully beaten most of the precious, God-given, wisdom out them--wisdom that we could have done well to listen to and to apply!

10 years of higher education often opens the door to...

...a suffocating world of hyper-analysis, inability to smile, and depression. We are so advanced and educated that we are able to (or rather, forced by our diseased minds, to) deconstruct the view of a marvelous sunrise or a breath-taking mountain-range. While we blow our minds up like balloons, filling them with numbers and information, we allow our life-giving organ, our heart, to wither like an unwatered flower in the hot sun. Never before has man been so in need of his Creator. Never before have we been so defiant and desirous to lead our own destiny. But destiny in our hands inevitably leads to confusion and despair. Confusion, because it is not our natural state, and we know this. Despair, because life has a way of showing us that we are not in charge. Beloved friends, let us wake up to this reality and seek within ourselves the answers that have for so long lain dormant and untouched...and that we have been taught to keep that way.

Let us allow the prophetic words of Fr. Justin Popovich (and others) to soak into our very being and lead us to the TRUE Enlightenment:

"The more a man devotes himself to the ways of natural knowledge [whose chief characteristic is its approach by examination and experimentation], the more he is seized on by fear and the less can he free himself from it. But if he follows faith, he is immediately freed and "as a son of God, as the power to make free use of all things." "The man who loves this faith acts like God in the use of all created things," for to faith is given the power "to be like God in making a new creation." Thus it is written: "Thou desiredst, and all things are presented before thee" (cf. Job 23:13 LXX). Faith can often "bring forth all things out of nothing," while knowledge can do nothing "without the help of matter." Knowledge has NO POWER OVER NATURE, but faith has such power. Armed with faith, men have entered into the fire and quenched the flames, being untouched by them"

(Fr. J. Popovich "The Theory of Knowledge of Saint Isaac The Syrian").

We all know that natural knowledge is not evil, but a work of creation at which we can marvel and for which we can give thanks. But just for a moment, let's unplug and go within, let's turn down the noise of our calculations and analysis and see if there is a message in the "un-productive" stillness.

Let us turn from our father the Enlightenment, and become children of Faith, where instead of a fatal and false self-deification we find a confidence and foundation based in a sure, never-failing reality. Then we can marvel at the never-ending sun-rise of our lives as we plunge deeper and deeper into the ocean of true knowledge.

Glory to Thee!

with love,
mike

Inspirational Gem #1

Dear Friends and Family,

A good friend, John M, came and visited Greece in January. In our efforts to “seize the day” while he was here, we briefly recorded (both audio and text) some thoughts and “gems” that we picked up throughout the course of our time together. These gems come from conversations that took place between us, with others (priests, monks, lay people), in “dialogue” with some books that we were reading, and just from life itself. We had intended to send them out bit by bit in the form of a mass e-mail, and still hope to do so, but life has a way of delaying these worthy efforts and making it difficult to complete. Thus, I have decided to start posting them slowly but surely on my blog, so that at least you all will be able to benefit from these moments as we did as well.

The following text is made up of some notes taken during an informal conversation with a local priest and confessor here in town, Fr. Spiridon. We were discussing various topics relating to ministry and work in the Church and this is mostly from the mouth of Fr. S:

We as humans, when we undertake any kind of work, we need to focus on two things: our effort and God’s blessing (hope, prayer, effort) and in trusting that He will complete the work in His time. We need to leave the results (and worrying about them) for God and be happy at all times even when things don’t go our way, knowing that our success lies in our effort and in God’s seeing our effort and blessing it (maybe not in such a way that matches with our understanding of human “results” but still a blessing nonetheless).
We don’t need too much experience or expertise when we begin a particular work in service to Christ and His Church, we just need to strive from our hearts to do God’s will out of love and not worry (i.e. if we are teacher) about how much someone understands something, but instead to focus on our effort and knowing that He will bless.
We never want to be slaves to a program. We make schedules and have a course of action. When you live like that, you are easily disappointed, and you switch things around by saying that, instead of God being in control and giving the blessing, we are in control and wait for God to be obedient to us. We have a list of things to do, and one step at a time, it leads us to become more and more anxious at every step. Anxiety comes when we trust ourselves and take things into our own hands. If you are confident and want to be in control then God says: ok, you can do it on your own? Fine, go ahead, and he “leaves you” to try.
A word of caution: hoping does not mean carelessness and saying that God will take care of everything and so I can sit back and watch, but rather means that we begin with respect and acknowledge that our human attempt is weak and poor and that God will complete and perfect our weakness.
A priest or layperson doesn’t start his labors thinking that he is capable, but rather because he loves the children of God and by his ministry in performing the sacraments (in the case of the priest), he puts his hope in God’s blessing.
The priest in the parish has to first have a fatherly relationship with his parishioners, and then be a teacher, otherwise they won’t listen (this is a mentality that seeks to avoid the trap of guruism).
Teachers have to have the sense of being life-long students, and must have the inspiration and desire to learn from their students. Only in this way will their students respect them. They have to be human first.
More to come!

with love,
mike