SODOM AND GOMORRAH

Open the wise book of the world, open holy Scripture, and search somewhere there in the beginning. You will see there were five cities in a rich land. The grass was five meters high; they had goats and cattle; they had wealth. And what happened? They fell into sin, they fell in the flesh: they fell into fornication, into adultery, in sins against nature. They became “oka”. For man is spirit, which rises upwards; while he who has become “oka”, you weigh him and his whole value is only 50, 60, 80 okas of body. So they became people of “okas”. Flesh only, without spirit, without ideals, without anything high and sublime. In that society only one just man remained. And he would tell them: My brethren, stop, depart from sin… It fell on deaf ears; they couldn’t care less; they kept doing what they were doing, their pleasure. Partying, entertainment, woman, fornication. They had nothing more in their brains beyond the flesh and wine and entertainment. They were building houses, palaces, all these things. What was the end? One day, there where the sun shone brilliantly, suddenly the sky became black. There was lightning, thunder, and in a short time there fell not water nor snow nor hail. But what fell? Fire and brimstone! The region lit up. The trees were burned, the sheep were burned, the goats were burned, the houses were burned, their kings were burned, their judges were burned, their teachers were burned, all were burned. Their gold, their silver, everything melted. God passed them through a furnace. And then, after all things were burned, suddenly the earth sank to the depth of 500 – 600 meters, into a chaos. There a sea was formed, where nothing lives. In all the waters fish live; in this not a single fish lives. Sodom and Gomorrah became the Dead Sea.…

ELDER EUMENIOS (SARIDAKIS), THE SAINT FROM THE LEPER COLONY

Gevorg Kazaryan

Elder Eumenios (in the world, Constantine Saridakis) was born January 1, 1931 in the Cretan village of Efia, to the family of the pious George and Sofia Saridakis. He was the eighth and last child in this poor family, which lost its breadwinner early. The difficult years of Nazi occupation in Greece did not allow little Constantine to receive an elementary education. Nevertheless, the boy stood out not only for his intelligence but also for his special piety. A wondrous event had a decisive influence on the future elder’s choice of path in life. It happened in 1944. During a festive dinner an extraordinary, blinding radiance appeared, which, as Fr. Eumenios later related, penetrated deep into his soul. Amazed and shaken by the divine light, the youth cried out, “I will become a monk!” Constantine’s path in life was foreordained. As the elder himself said, “If a person has a calling from God for something good, then God works and helps him.”

In 1951, Constantine Saradakis entered the monastery of Prophet Elias not far from his village. In that monastery, besides the abbot there labored two elderly, blind monks, whom the young novice served with great love. Three years later Constantine received the monastic tonsure with the name Sophronios.

How Does an Orthodox Way of Life Begin?

Our deeper spiritual life begins when our soul begins to long for God and assert itself in our conscience. When this happens it leads us to change our way life.

Elder Aimilianos says,

When it is, then, that a soul says: “l must live a Christian life, I must live differently”?
When it acquires the sense that it is a soul in exile; when it realizes that it is something that has been cast away, and now exists outside of its proper place, outside of Paradise, in a foreign land, beyond the borders within which it was made to dwell.

To begin to think about changing our way of life, to live according to the ten points of an Orthodox Way of Life, we must begin to acquire the feeling that we are separated from God. This is a feeling where we sense there exists some invisible barrier between us and God.

Spiritual life does not begin from any kind of intellectual analysis. On the contrary such efforts may only increase the size of the barrier.

Elder Aimilianos says,

The Spiritual life, you see, begins with a kind of vision, with the feeling of banishment, and this is not arrived at by means of any intellectual analysis or evaluation. I simply feel within myself the presence of a wall, a barrier, and I don’t know what’s beyond it.

This is a feeling that there is an insurmountable obstacle that we must overcome, that there is a “dividing wall” (Eph2.14) between us and God. We realize how distant we are from God. We begin to understand that He is Spirit but we ourselves are only flesh. We realize that we don’t really have any conversation with God, but only talk at Him, often only out of obligation.
As this feeling of separation, of being in exile, develops, we begin to seek God in earnest. First must come this feeling of being separated from God.

Elder Aimilianos says,

But if the soul doesn’t have this feeling, it can’t even begin to embark upon a spiritual life. It may live a Christian life, but only in a manner of speaking, only in appearance, only on an intellectual level, only within the limits of its own conceptions.

This feeling of separation provides the proper motivation to participate in divine services, personal prayer and ascetic practices voluntarily without the sense of obligation or “l must.” The soul will move us forward based on a divine vision, one where we begin to see our fallen nature and realize we belong in paradise.

The beginning is not a fear of condemnation to a burning fire in hell, but a desire to be united with a loving God. This feeling of separation leads us to try to understand why we are separated and the desire to seek the help of the Holy Spirit to unite us with Him.

Ten points for an Orthodox Way of Life

Reference: The Way of the Spirit, Archimandrite Aimilianos, pp 2-6

All POSITIVE — in AGAPE!

There’s a big difference between getting to repent and having to. Kids don’t have to have ice cream — they get to!

1. We get to rise in the morning and dedicate another day to God and His Church.
2. We get to be people who give sacrificially and help others.
3. We get to go to work/school and add cheer to our colleagues’ day.
4. We get to learn and further embrace the ways and traditions of the Church in our lives.
5. We get to talk to God, learning prayers and hymns of the Church.
6. We get to challenge ourselves with more rigorous fasting — as we strive to overcome our base inclinations and passions.
7. We get to read holy things (the scriptures and the Fathers).
8. We get to prepare and receive holy communion.
9. We get to serve the poor and visit the sick.
10. We get to live in repentance.
All POSITIVE — in AGAPE!
The Fathers of the Church (google the likes of Anthony the Great, Photios the Great etc.) teach us that the phrónēma (mindset, disposition) of the Church is repentance in love. 

8th Sunday of St Luke The Good Samaritan

(Luke 10:25-37)

By

His Eminence

Metropolitan Panteleimon of Antinoes

A certain man was traveling from Jerusalem to the city of Jericho. He was a peaceful and hard working man, who was struggling for his daily bread and caring about his family. On his way, he suddenly fell into the hands of thieves. What can anyone expect to follow? They stripped him of whatever he had, they mistreated him with cruelty, they wounded him and abandoned him in the midst of the desert, lying down in his own blood and half dead without any help.  

In today’s Holy Gospel reading our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the Son of God, gives us the example of the suffering man, who fell in the hands of evil thieves. He was stripped from every good thing that he possessed. He is the man, who departed from the sacred law of God and was abandoning the holy city of God, Jerusalem, in order to go to the city of sin, Jericho. Thus, he brought upon himself the sufferings which he endured.

The priest and the Levite, although, are close to the scene and they have seen what had had happened, yet, they do nothing! They do not want even to look upon the man and they leave him and depart in a hurry! They flee from the crime scene! They flee from their duty! This is what many typical religious people do today: They, who suppose to be religious, are in reality only typically. They are those people who, through religion, seek worldly glory from men, instead of seeking the glory which is offered by God. They live not according to the Orthodox Christian Faith and virtues, but in accordance of their own vain glory, self-love and self-satisfaction.

Today, how many times we see the sufferings of our fellow man? How many times we hear the sigh and we notice the tears of the ones who are in pain and suffering, and we abandoned them, saying: “I have no time for them”, in order that we do not miss our pressure and valuable time!  Or, in order that we won’t spend few of our money! Or, in order that we might not get tired and suffer for the sake of our fellow man! Thus, we depart from the crime scene and do not perform our good and righteous duty.