A Pastoral Word on Halloween The Joyous Feast of Pumpkin

by Bishop [now Archbishop] Kyrill

It is that time of the year when the secular society in which we live is preparing for the festival of Halloween. Many do not know its spiritual roots and history, and why it contradicts the teachings of the Church. The feast of Halloween began in pre-Christian times among the Celtic peoples of Great Britain, Ireland and northern France. These pagan peoples believed that life was born from death. Therefore they celebrated the beginning of the "new year" in the fall (on the eye of October 31 and into the day of November 1) when, as they believed, the season of cold, darkness, decay and death began. A certain deity whom they called Samhain was believed by the Celts to be the Prince of Death and it was he whom they honored at their New Year's festival*.

From an Orthodox Christian point of view, we can see many diabolical beliefs and practices associated with this feast which have endured to this time. On the eve of the New Year's festival, the Druids, who were the priests of the Celtic cult, instructed their people to extinguish all hearth fires and lights. On the evening of the festival, a huge bonfire built from oak branches (oak was regarded by the Celts as sacred) was ignited. Upon this fire sacrifices were burned as an offering in order to appease and cajole Samhain, the Prince of Death. It was also believed that Samhain, being pleased by the offerings, allowed the souls of the dead to return to their homes for a festal visit on this day. It is from this belief that the practice of wandering about in the dark dressed up in costumes imitating ghosts, witches, hobgoblins, fairies, etc. grew up. For the living entered into fellowship and communion with the dead by what was, and still is, a ritual act of imitation, through costume and the activity of wandering around in the dark of night, even as the souls of the dead were believed to wander.

On Hesychia and the Cleansing of the Mind and Heart

A proven lover of the desert was the blessed Russian hieromonk Father Serapios, who visited the great hesychast and recluse Kallinikos in 1912-13, to ask his bless¬ing that he might depart and join those athletes who contended in the field of the desert.

Elder Kallinikos, an experienced teacher of the Jesus Prayer, described to the Russian monk the dangers, traps and delusions which the enemy of our salvation uses to attack those who live in seclusion, especially those without a spiritual guide. But when he saw Father Serapion's wounded heart, burning with divine desire, he gave in, on condition that he could be his guide. Father Serapios celebrated the liturgy in St. Gerasimos' chapel and then, with the prayers tid blessing of his coach and elder Kallinikos, left to go toward Athos' peak.

Twelve years passed since that meeting. Then one night, around midnight, the great hesychast's disciple came to his teacher's remote hut and knocked on the door. Elder Kallinikos, thinking that the knock might be a delusion from the devil, asked, before he opened the door, for the Symbol of Faith to be recited. Father Serapios obeyed, even adding the "Our Father" and the "One is Holy, One is the Lord Jesus Christ, to the glory of God the Father." At this, Elder Kallinikos opened the door, threw his arms around him and asked, "Where have you been all these years, my brother? Believe me, I thought you were lost, although I never stopped praying for you. Where did you stay? What was your food?"

"Holy Father," replied Father Serapios in a weak voice, "after you blessed me, I went to the peak of Athos. I stayed three days and nights, but not being able to endure the cold, I went to Panagia.1 I tried to stay there, but I could not find my beloved hesychia, because many pilgrims visited there.
"A bit farther down, I discovered a cave. Not even the shepherds of Lavra when herding their sheep could see me there, because I hung an old cassock over the cave's opening. I ate the things I found in the forest: chestnuts, shoots, acorns, roots and bulbs. I drew water from the well near Panagia's hut. Day and night my soul was filled with ineffa¬ble bliss coming from the Jesus Prayer and visions.

6th Sunday of St Luke

 (Luke 8:26-39)

By His Eminence Metropolitan Panteleimon of Antinoes

            As our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ visited the villages of Judaea, he met a man from the village of Gergeseen. Now, this particularly man few years ago became possessed by many demons, who made him suffer in many ways. The possessed man was in a wild condition, the result of the demons’ influence. He was ripping off his clothes and was living in the tombs of the dead. Although his relatives were tiding him up with chains, in order that he will be unable to harm any other human being, he was breaking his chains and was led by the demons into the wilderness.      

            In this miserable condition our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Son of God, meets with the possessed man. The appearance of the possessed man is pitiable and frightful. Yet, the Merciful Lord walks into the wilderness in order to meet with His troubled creation, man. He meets with him and opens a dialogue with the unclean spirits, which with His Divine authority casts out and banishes them away from His creation.

            The Work of Salvation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ had as its final goal to free man from the bondage and the tyranny of the evil one, Satan. With man’s fall into sin, day after day, year after year, he was drifting far away from God, falling more and more into the traps of the enemy. Mankind became enslaved to the devil. The peak of this tyranny is achieved, when man is possessed by evil spirits.

            When the evil spirit posses man’s soul, then it rules over both his soul and body, in other words man’s whole existence. Man acts whatever Satan tells him to do, without having understanding of what he says or does. Man’s soul and conscience are paralyzed by the evil forces and are unable to react against them. Man lives the greatest misery of his existence.

            Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, for the love towards man, came to free him. He came to meet with every man. He came to discuss with us and to guide us back to God the Father.

Sunday of the 7th Ecumenical Synod

By His Eminence Panteleimon Metropolitan of Antinoes

In the year of our Lord 726 AD, the Emperor of Byzantium, Leon III Isauros, influenced by the heretical teachings of the Nestorians and Paulicians, who opposed the use of holy icons, forbidden the veneration of the holy icons. But this imperial decision was not accepted by the majority of the Orthodox people of the Byzantine Empire. The reaction of the Orthodox faithful reached its peak, when the Emperor ordered to remove the miraculous holy icon of Christ the Savior, which was above the palace’s main entrance. This action was considered as an act of high treason. Thus, from that moment the iconoclast period began and lasted more than 120 years.

The heresy of iconoclast doesn’t refer only to the prohibition of the veneration of the holy icons, but it was a wide religious and ecclesiastical reformation. The iconoclasts refused not only the veneration of the holy icons, but also that of the holy relics of the holy Saints, their intervention and those of the holy Mother of God, the Ever Virgin Mary and Theotokos.

 The Orthodox people rebelled and, having as their leader someone called Kosmas, gathered an army and sailed against the capital city of Constantinople. Unfortunately, Leon III, as a skilled general and Emperor, managed to overtake the rebellions, captured and beheaded Kosmas. From that day Emperor Leon III enforced the general prohibition of the veneration and use of holy icons. He raised a cruel persecution against anyone who was a friend of the holy icons. The Orthodox Empire entered into a period of struggle which lasted more than 120 years. The people were divided into iconoclasts (those who destroy the icons) and those who were friends of the icons.    

            Numerous martyrs and confessors gave their lives defending the true teachings of the Orthodox Church concerning the holy icons, the holy relics and the interventions of the holy Saints. Many scholars, Bishops and Monks, wrote books clarifying the true meaning of the veneration of the holy icons. They distinguished between the worship which is offered only to God and the honoring veneration which is offered to the holy Saints, who are in reality the true friends of Christ. Among those who defended the holy icons are St John of Damas, St Basil the Great, and St Theodore Abbot of the Monastery of Studite.

3rd Sunday of St Luke

The resurrection of the widow’s son of Nain

(Luke 7:11-18)

By

His Eminence

Panteleimon Metropolitan of Antinoes

            When death occurs it saddens our hearts. For man was not created by God to die; but, was created with the possibility of not dying. If Adam never had disobeyed God’s Commandment in the Garden of Delight, death would never occurred and man would participated in an eternal life here on earth. Man would never had to face pain, sufferings, mortality and finally death, which became his greatest enemy, because of the Fall and the Disobedience to God’s Commandment.

            In today’s Gospel’s reading, we see before our very eyes a mother who accompanies her only begotten son to its tomb. The whole picture moves our hearts. The mother with great pain in her soul accompanies the fruit of her womb to its final resting place. She is surrounded by many people and, yet, she remains by herself with the only thought, the lost of her precious child, who was her only comfort in life as she had lost her husband some time ago.  

            The situation is dramatic. During this hopeless time, the moment, when she preceded towards the tomb, unexpectedly Christ meets with her. Christ meets with the dead young man and changes the course of life. The Source of Life confronts with the death of His creation, and with authority He commands saying: “Young man, I say to you, rise” (Luke 7:14). Immediately, “the dead sat up rise” (Luke 7:15).

            The people of Nain were filled with sacred fear, a deep astonishment and an indescribable admiration, when they witnessed this sensational miracle. They had seen and heard about the many miracles which the Lord had performed. But, this, which took place before their very eyes and only by His commandment, was stunning. They witnessed a dead man being raised from the dead. They saw a fellow countryman, who they thought that was for ever lost, coming back to their society alive and in good health.