Click here for the October 7, 2018 Bulletin
FIND THE ROAD AND GO…… |
| On Wednesday, 29 August, 2018, the Orthodox Church named another citizen of heaven. That day, the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople lifted to the Holy Altars as a saint, Elder Amphilochios (Makris), Geronda of Patmos, who was born on that island to peasant parents in 1889. In March, 1906, he entered the Monastery of St. John the Theologian, Patmos; in August, having earned the love of the aging brotherhood, he was made a rassofore (first-stage) monk and given the name Amphilochios. To fight the passions and temptations, Amphilochios would employ strict fasting – ten mouthfuls of food at each meal on standard days, with seven or eight olives on fast days. In 1919 he was tonsured to the Great Schema, one of very few in the Monastery to be so honored. Later that year he was ordained to the diaconate and priesthood and sent to Kos where he served as Confessor there and throughout the Dodecanese. He was sent to the Cave of the Apocalypse in 1926, where St. John the Apostle and Evangelist wrote the Book of Revelation. The Monastery’s brotherhood, seeing the Elder’s great holiness, elected him Abbot. He stood up against Mussolini and the Italian occupation of Patmos. Hearing Confession was his chief weapon of spiritual healing, one he exercised with great gentleness and compassion. Unlike other Elders of the time, St. Amphilochios was not stern, nor did he command his spiritual children to follow what he thought should be the way, respecting rather their personal discernment. In this he imitated the great St. Barsanuphius who counseled Elders: “Do not force people’s good will by imposing your own.” He likewise was aware of the teachings of St. Theophan the Recluse (1850-+1894) who urged his spiritual children to learn to listen to God themselves and discern what is His will. He knew that he was not a substitute for the Holy Spirit nor did he seek to take the place of God. His Eminence Metropolitan Kallistos of Diocleia, himself a monk of the Monastery of St. John on Patmos who personally met St. Amphilochios on a number of occasions recalls “He was never severe but was challenging, always acting as God’s “usher” – guiding and pointing the way to God, never compelling.” He was a shining example of the poor Christ, the pure Christ, and the obedient Christ. In short, St. Amphilochius was driven his entire life by the words of the First Epistle of St. John whose Cave he tended on Patmos: “Beloved let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God.” (I John 4:7) Echoing his beloved John, St. Amphilochius humbly wrote: “I was born to love people. It doesn’t concern me if he is a Turk, black or white. I see in the face of each person the image of God. And for this image of God I am willing to sacrifice everything.” (from Precious Vessels of the Holy Spirit) The blessed one reposed on 16 April, +1970 and his holy relics are at the Evangelismos Monastery of nuns which he established years earlier. This Saturday, a busload of members from St. George and its 50 Plus Club will journey to the Monastery of Agia Skepi (Holy Protecting Veil) in Pennsylvania. Following in the holy tradition of Orthodox throughout the centuries of making prayerful pilgrimages to monasteries, they go to pray, to steep themselves, if for a brief period, in the “atmosphere of holiness”, and to allow themselves to be touched by God through the holy ones whom the Epistle to the Hebrews tells us “….wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented – of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts, mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.” (Hebrews 11: 38-39) Our pilgrims remind us that monastics have a unique mission in our world – so important that the Elder St. Anatoly of Optina Monastery wrote: “Monasticism supports the entire world. And when there will be no more monasticism, the Dread Judgment will be upon us.” Out of step with the times, a seeming anachronism at the foot of the altar of the post-modern culture, monastic communities speak of another dimension of reality, another time and place, another purpose for life and living that is centered around self-sacrificial love.His Eminence Archbishop Mark of Berlin (Germany) and Igumen (Abbot) of the Monastery of St. Job, tells us why monastic communities are regarded with jaundiced eye by the secular world: “One of the main problems is that people are not used to restraining themselves, to willfully enduring struggle, to disciplining themselves to do anything in order to assume responsibility for one’s soul – instead we stubbornly and persistently chase the dreams that the world can never give us.” Monasticism stands in witness to that self-effacing love. It was how Jesus loved. It was how He told US to love. St. Amphilochius’ constant call to self-sacrificing love summoned all monastics to take up the battle, to welcome those who came to their doors as Christ Himself, and to tell the world a secret: God loves you, God wants to embrace you, God seeks entrance again and again to your heart and will always pursue you! Mother Christophora, Abbess of the Romanian Orthodox Monastery of the Transfiguration near Pittsburg, reveals how it is done: “Living in a monastery, we have an ongoing opportunity to witness pilgrims coming to pray; seekers coming to observe and question; wealthy, poor, sick and healthy entering our doors to offer their prayers to Almighty God. Others phone or write with prayer requests, comfort or assistance. In each of these moments Christ is present giving His peace, His hope, and His love. What a miracle that monasteries continue to exist in our busy and secular world!” It has been said that the Church is a hospital, a place for the healing and cure of the soul, and that monasteries are the “intensive care units” – places to go when one needs special healing, or is facing a spiritual or life crisis, or simply is “noised-out” by the chaos and cacophony of a world that is too much with us. We do a great disservice to the people of God when we separate or isolate the parish Church from the monastery. Monastic communities are the moorings of the Church, the Church’s anchor, the presence of permanence in an ever-changing world. They stand awake and alert, and in fervent prayer 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, as reminders that Christ’s Kingdom was not of this world and neither is ours. The parish and the monastery are two different facets of God’s loving Word to the believer — two necessary and complimentary means of embedding Christ’s call to self-effacing, self-giving love deep in our hearts. The sainted Amphilochius again reminds us: “I beg you to apply this commandment to try to perceive the love in the face of Christ to such an extent that when you pronounce His name, tears flow from your eyes. Your heart must really burn. Then Christ will become your Teacher. He will be your Guide, your Brother, your Father – and your Geronda (Elder).” In a time when Christianity is under assault by a perniciously indifferent world, ever-flirting with godlessness, when young souls are overwhelmed with doubts and lack any support from the traditions of devotion, when the thirst of human restlessness is slaked only by the illusory offerings of “happiness” – find a road to an Orthodox monastery. Go there, visit again and again, and experience a beacon that will direct everyone who swims in the sea of life, both those who are in the Church and those who yet are coming to her. O Holy Father Amphilochius, boast of monastics, be with us on our way! Faithfuly your servant, Fr. Dimitrios Below is the link to the Atlas of Orthodox Monasteries in America. It has all the information on monasteries in the United States and is published by the Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States: http://www.assemblyofbishops. |