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FROM THE FATHERS

“OUR LORD fasted forty days before His bodily death (Mt. 4:2) and feasted forty more with His disciples after His bodily resurrection, appearing to them by many infallible proofs… and speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God (Acts 1:3-4). For by fasting He showed in Himself our toil, but by eating and drinking with His disciples He showed His consolation in our midst. While He was fasting he was crying out, as it were, Take heed lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the cares of this life (Luke 21:34), whereas while he was eating and drinking He was crying out, as it were, Behold I am with you all days even unto the consummation of the age (Matt. 28:20), and: But I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no one shall take from you (John 16:22). For as soon as we set our feet upon the way of the Lord we both fast from the vanity of the present world and are cheered with the promise of the world to come, not setting our heart on the life here below, but feeding our heart on the life above.” Ven. Bede of Jarrow, + 735 A.D.

“IT IS the Spirit of Truth Himself, Which causes the house of His glory [the Church] to shine with the splendour of His own light, and in this temple He wills that there be nothing unworthy, nothing wanting in fervour. It is also by His teaching and assistance that the purification of the fast and alms deeds has been enjoined upon us. For this venerable day [Pentecost] is followed by the most salutary practice of abstinence, which all holy men have ever found profitable

1 to themselves, and which we exhort you, with all pastoral solicitude, that you carefully observe, so that should you in these days have ac- quired any stain through heedless neglect, then let the correction of fasting cleanse it, and the devotion of your piety amend it.” Saint Leo the Great, Pope of Rome, + 461 A.D. g g g g g g g g g The Mystery of the Rapture

Continuation & Completion IV. The “incomparable” glory of the Mother of God

1. “Heaven,” therefore—to wit, the “House of the Father”— is “spacious” and includes “many mansions,” that is “different degrees of honour.” Perhaps, however, this clarification now gives rise to the perception of three very general “mansions,” that is, three places or levels of different degrees of honour, when we take into consideration that there is one glory of the Most Blessed The- otokos, another of the Holy Bodiless Powers, and another of the deified faithful. 2. Yet, what mind is capable of apprehending the incomparable glory of the Mother of God? The sanctification that befits her as the Mother of God and her preternatural charisms “transcend every mind and every word, on account of both their magnitude and their multitude,” since “there is nothing else in the entire creation either equal to the Theotokos or superior to her.”109 3. “There is, therefore, nothing in life like Mary the Theoto- kos,” says that most consummate orator Chrysostomos; “Go about the whole creation in your mind, O man, and see whether there is anything equal to, or greater than, the Holy Theotokos and Virgin; traverse the earth; look around the sea; pry into the air; scrutinize

2 the heavens in your intellect; call to mind all of the invisible Pow- ers, and see whether there is any other such wonder in the whole of creation.”110 4. In what, however, does the incomparable glory of the Mother of God reside? “Thou, O Virgin Mary,” says St. Nicodemus the Hagiorite, addressing the All-Holy Theotokos, “didst contain in thine immaculate womb genuinely, without seed [and] without knowing a man, God the Word, Whom thou didst carry without fatigue, didst bring forth without travail, and to Whom thou gavest birth without corruption, without impairing thy Virginity. These four [facts] are the most preternatural, the most extraordinary, the most unprecedented, and the most astounding.”111 5. On account of these four facts, “most fittingly is the The- otokos incomparably higher than all of the Heavenly Powers, for they only receive certain illuminations from God, whereby they are illumined and perfected”;112 “hence, the Theotokos is incomparably superior even to the very Cherubim, as also to the Seraphim; for the Theotokos is incomparably more glorious than they.”113 6. Furthermore, it is a fact that “the Theotokos is the ani- mate throne of God, the King of all, for she contained in her womb Him Who cannot be contained by anything, and carried him as 114 a throne.” The Seraphim, however, stand around this throne, which suggests the distance between the Theotokos and the Heav- enly Powers: “I saw the Lord sitting on a high and exalted throne, and the house was full of His Glory. And the Seraphim stood round about Him: each one had six wings, and with twain they covered their face, and with twain they covered their feet, and with twain they flew. And one cried to the other, and they said, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His Glory.”115 7. There is, therefore, a “difference in station” between the Theotokos and the Heavenly Orders, concerning which the Divine Gregory Palamas makes the following marvellous comments: ‘Con- cerning the supreme order of Angels Esaias writes: ‘And the Sera- phim stood round about Him;’ but concerning her David says: ‘upon thy right hand did stand the queen.’ Do you see the difference in

3 their station? From this you can also comprehend the difference in the dignity of their standing; for the Seraphim stand round about God, but only the Queen of all stands beside Him;” “not only does she stand beside Him, but at His right hand, as is fitting, for where Christ sits in Heaven, to wit, ‘on the right hand of the Majesty,’ there also she now stands, having ascended from earth to Heaven; not only because she loves and is loved in return more than all others, in accordance with the very laws of nature, but also because she is truly His throne; where the king sits, there also stands his throne. Esaias beheld this throne in the midst of that Cherubic choir and called it ‘high and exalted,’ indicating thereby that the Mother of God far surpasses the Heavenly Powers. For this reason, he also introduces the Angels glorifying God for her and saying: ‘Blessed be the Glory of the Lord from His place.’”116 8. So great is the superiority and the exceeding honour of the Ever-Virgin Mother of God, “beyond all measure and proportion,”117 in relation to the Heavenly Powers, by virtue of the magnitude and multitude of her “essential” and “inner” charisms,118 that St Cosmas the Melodist, “wishing to hymn the incomparable glory of the Mother of God,” “is compelled to summon from without the Cherubim and the Seraphim, the foremost Orders of Angels, who stand around God, in order that through their comparative incomparability, or incomparable comparison,”119 he might chant this extraordinary hymn: “More honourable than the Cherubim, and beyond compare more glorious than the Seraphim, thee who without corruption gavest birth to God the Word, the very Theotokos, do we magnify.”120 9. That remarkable exponent of our Church’s teaching concerning the Theotokos, St Nicodemus the Hagiorite, declares that this hymn should be understood as follows: “Beyond compare more honourable than the Cherubim, and beyond compare more glorious than the Seraphim,” since the adverb “incomparably” is to be ascribed “not only to the Seraphim, but also to the Cherubim;” that is, the Theotokos is “more honourable not comparably, but incomparably” than the Cherubim and the Seraphim.121

4 10. It is noteworthy that “in referring to the two highest Orders of the first Angelic Hierarchy—I mean the Cherubim and the Seraphim—and in saying that the Theotokos is incomparably more honourable and more glorious than they, the Divine Cosmas demonstrated that she is more honourable and more glorious than all of the other lower Orders; for if she is superior to the greater, how much more superior is she to the lesser?”122 11. The Spirit-bearing Athonite expert on the Theotokos concludes succinctly: “She surpasses both Angels and Archangels, and all of the choirs of the Heavenly Powers, not commensurably, but incommensurably.”123 12. However, the incomparability of the preëminence of the Mother of God is extolled with especial emphasis not only when the Saints teach that the All-Pure one “is the sole frontier [μεθόριον] between created and uncreated nature,”124 but also when they pro- claim that “The Virgin is the treasurer and guardian of all the trea- sures and charisms of God the Heavenly King,” “so as to impart and distribute them to all creatures, both intelligible and sensible, both Angels and men.”125 13. This astounding idea was already expressed by St. Greg- ory Palamas: “She was the first to receive the fullness of Him Who fills all things, and she renders Him accessible to all in distributing to each according to his strength and in proportion to the measure of his purity; hence, she is the treasury and dispenser of the wealth of the Godhead,” “and none of the gifts of God could be granted either to Angels or to men save through her.”126 14. This common mind of the Church regarding the incomparable superiority of the Mother of God is summarized as follows by St. Nicodemus: “Since our Lady, the Theotokos, as Mother of God, comes immediately after God and incomparably surpasses not only men, but also the very foremost and highest orders of the Angels, the Cherubim and the Seraphim, she distributes through herself the wealth of all God’s gifts and Divine illuminations to all, both Angels and men alike; such is the common mind of the entire Church of Christ.”127

5 15. Nevertheless, the ninefold choir of the Holy Bodiless Powers, although incomparably inferior, in terms of participation in Divine Glory, to the All-Blessed Theotokos, is still clearly superior to the choir of deified persons, since the Angelic choir consti- tutes the Heavenly Hierarchy. 16. The Holy Bodiless Powers are differentiated, according to Saint Dionysius the Areopagite, into three triadic ranks: the highest triad is comprised of the Thrones, the Cherubim, and the Seraphim; the middle triad consists of the Dominions, the Powers, and the Authorities; in the lowest triad are found the Principali- ties, the Archangels, and the Angels.128 17. The Divine Damascene, with reference to these three “triadic ranks,” says the following: “As that most holy, sacred, and superlative theologian, Dionysius the Areopagite, says, all theology, that is to say, Divine Scripture, assigns nine different names to the heavenly Entities; that Divine Mystagogue divides these En- tities into three triadic ranks.”129 18. In Heaven, however, there prevails an eternal principle, as the Saints assure us: the lesser participate in God through the greater. For, since this is an eternal principle in Heaven, that the lesser participate through the greater in Him Who is beyond being, and since the Virgin Mother is incomparably greater than all, as many as participate in God do so through her.130 19. By virtue of this principle, therefore, the three orders of the Holy Bodiless Powers participate to different degrees in the Divine illuminations, but whereas the higher orders participate in the glory of the lower, the lower orders do not participate in the sacred illumination of the higher, according to the initiate of hid- den mysteries, Dionysius: “For the superior ranks possess super- abundantly the sacred attributes of their inferiors, whereas those lowest in rank do not possess the transcendent fulnesses of their superiors, although the initial illuminations are partially conveyed to them through the first ranks, proportionately to themselves.”131 20. This difference between the heavenly orders is confirmed by St John of Damascus: “But they differ from each other in lumi-

6 nosity and station, either occupying their station in accordance with their luminosity, or participating in luminosity in accordance with their station, and illumining one another by virtue of the superiority of their rank or nature. It is clear that the superior orders impart both illumination and knowledge to the inferior ones.”132 21. This difference in luminosity and station between the Heavenly “triadic ranks” became especially perceptible during the Divine Ascension of Our Lord, as Saint Maximus the Confessor teaches us. Responding to the question, “Why did the Holy Spirit descend nine [ten] days after the Ascension?” he leads us up to the Mystery of the Restoration of those in Heaven: “Some who are educated in the things of God say that, since the Angelic Powers con- sist, according to Dionysius the Areopagite, of nine Orders, when the Lord ascended—according to His humanity (for, according to His Divinity, He fills all things), He assigned a single day to each order, from the first day to the last; for these, too, were in need of the Lord’s visitation to them; for in Him, according to the Apostle, all things were gathered together, not only things on earth, but also things in Heaven; and after this He appeared to God the Fa- ther, and thus did the Spirit descend,’133 ‘neither the Thursday on which He ascended nor the Sunday on which the Spirit descended being including in the reckoning.’134 22. To each Order of the Heavenly Powers, then, the God- Man, in His Ascension, “assigned a single day” and “on each day” “each Order approached and worshipped that deified Flesh” of the Saviour. And finally, “when the nine days and Orders had been fulfilled, on the tenth [day] the Comforter descended.”135 23. Therefore, as the lower heavenly orders do not participate in the same glory as the higher orders, “for the final ranks have no share in all of the attributes of the highest ranks,”136 in precisely this way human beings who have been deified, who in some sense collectively form a place or level, do not participate in the sanctifying illumination of the supreme heavenly orders. 24. A clear picture of this inferiority of deified human beings by comparison with the Heavenly entities is given by the wondrous

7 event of the purification of the Holy Prophet Esaias by a Seraph: “And there was sent to me one of the Seraphim, and he had in his hand a coal, which he had taken off the altar with the tongs: and he touched my mouth, and said, ‘Behold, this hath touched thy lips, 137 and shall take away thine iniquities, and shall purge thy sins.’” 25. The holy Bodiless Hosts, as “celestial powers,” according to Saint Basil the Great, “are deemed worthy of standing in closest proximity [to God] by virtue of their exceeding holiness,”138 and consequently, as “secondary noetic lights,” according to the Divine Damascene, “which derive their luminosity from the First and Unoriginate Light,”139 “enjoy a primary and manifold participation in the Divine, and provide primary and manifold revelations of the Divine hiddenness.”140 It is precisely for this reason that they are called by the general name “Angels,” because “Divine illumination is granted to them first, and through them revelations that transcend us are transmitted to us.”141 26. To be sure, the Holy Bodiless Powers, that is, “every noetic nature,” as Saint Gregory Palamas says, are “fellow-servants with us and in the image of the Creator”; nevertheless, “we are far inferior [in respect of the Divine likeness], and especially now [after the Fall], to the good Angels,” who are “more honourable than us, as being without bodies and closer to the utterly incorpo- real and uncreated Nature,” and “are for this reason called a secondary light and an emanation of the Primal Light.”142 And, more specifically, the Noetic Powers “though fellow-servants with us, are nonetheless honoured by us and are by virtue of their rank far more honourable than us,” as “maintaining both their proper rank and cherishing that purpose for which they were created.”143 27. However, in spite of this vivid awareness of the three most general “mansions,” that is, the three levels of different degrees of honour and glory—of the Theotokos, of the Bodiless Powers, and of deified human beings—the Holy Apostle Paul did not have this distinction in mind, and certainly did not ascend to the third level, that of the Theotokos. Therefore, what, in the end, was the “third heaven” to which the God-bearing Apostle was “caught up”?

8 28. The holy Hesychastic Fathers will give us an authori- tative answer to this question, since they had similar deificatory experiences, that is, they were “experienced Fathers,”144 who, after passing through the stages of purification and illumination, attained to deification and became “supracelestial.”145 • These three stages of the ladder leading to Heaven, which touches on the Throne of the Lamb, now induct us into the Mys- tery of the three Heavens.

V. The apprehension of “more Divine realities”

1. According to the Holy Fathers, “no one can be saved without first being deified; and again, no one can be deified without first 146 being assimilated to God.” For a man to be made like unto God, he must imitate the Divine perfections and thus be united with Him. 2. Salvation, therefore, means deification, and deification means the resemblance and union of the image (man) with the Prototype (God): “Salvation cannot be brought about but through the deification of the saved; deification is assimilation to God and union with Him, as far as this is attainable.”147 3. Man, in ascending the ladder towards assimilation to God, becomes good by participation and by Grace, and is inflamed by Divine longing, and is purified through this Divine longing; in being purified, he becomes Godlike; in becoming Godlike, he becomes god by Grace forever after.148 4. In this state, the mind of the person being deified “is smit- ten by longing” “and experiences awe beyond comprehension,”149 because he sees “himself being caught up by God”150 and enjoying the future blessedness, which is “the vision of God, not [of course] according to His Nature and Essence, but according to His Divine attributes and perfections.”151 5. This vision of God is to be identified with the vision “of the 152 Divine attributes that are beheld naturally and eternally,” that is, with the vision of the uncreated Energies of God; this apprehension of “more Divine realities” is to be identified with the “third heaven.” In that case, he who is deified is caught up “into the regions around

9 153 the Trinity;” that is, he participates in the uncreated Energies of 154 155 God and “is led and acted upon” by God, since his bodily and psychic functions are suspended and become quiescent. 6. The Holy Fathers give the name “rapture” to this reve- latory experience of the holy Apostle Paul and speak about the 156 “mystery of the rapture.” This “rapture” was a spiritual experience identical to the deification experienced by the Saints of the Old and New Testaments. However, in view of its ineffability, it has been ar- ticulated in a variety of ways, since created language is insufficient to express realities that are, by nature and by Grace, uncreated. 7. As the Patristic theology of prayer draws closer and closer to the Mystery of the three Heavens, we observe that it already lays a secure foundation for the further understanding of this issue: “The beginning of prayer consists in expelling thoughts, through single words of prayer, as soon as they assault us; the middle stage of prayer is for the intellect to concentrate on what is being said or thought; the end of prayer is being caught up to the Lord.”157 8. Corresponding to the three stages of prayer, the journey towards deification passes through three stages: practical philosophy, natural contemplation, and theological mystagogy. According to Saint Maximus the Confessor, “It is said that the function of practical philosophy is to purify the mind of every passionate fantasy, that the function of natural contemplation is to afford the mind access to all true knowledge of existing things in accordance with the cause by which they exist, and that the function of theological mystagogy is to make it [the mind], by Grace and according to habit, like God and equal to Him—as far as possible—, so that it no longer has any awareness at all of things se- quent to God, on account of its transcendence of them.”158 9. St Theophylact of Bulgaria, summarizing the Tradition antecedent to him, in which he participates by experience, gives us an anagogical interpretation of the three Heavens: “Since many matters are spoken of anagogically, we will say a few things that are easier to understand. Thus, there is the first heaven, the end and scope of moral philosophy, in which one properly regulates

10 his moral conduct. Then there is the second, physical heaven, in which one acquires knowledge of the nature of the universe, as far as this is possible. Then there is the theological, third heaven, in which, according to the measure of his capacity, one attains, through vision, to the apprehension of more Divine realities that transcend knowledge.159 10. To this hermeneutical tradition belongs also the choir of the Hesychastic Fathers of the Philokalia, down to Saint Nico- demus the Hagiorite. The greatest among them, Saint Gregory Palamas, assures us that the holy Apostle Paul was at that time [during the “rapture”] light and spirit, to which he was united and from which he had received the capacity of uniting, having gone out from all things and become light by Grace and non-being by transcendence, that is, by rising above created things.160 11. It should be noted that the Neptic Fathers distinguish between two different kinds of illumination and “rapture”: that of the heart and that of the mind, the former preceding and the latter following. Saint Nicodemus the Hagiorite calls illumination in the heart “enhypostatic” “because it abides in the heart by habit, not coming and going in the manner of thoughts,” and he also notes that “unless the heart is first illumined, the mind cannot be caught up to God.”161 12. When the “illumination” of the heart has increased great- 162 ly, then the mind, becoming the “mind of Christ,” is exalted “to the third heaven.” For, being guided by that light which multi- plies in the heart and inundates it, the mind ascends or is led up to Divine revelations of God’s power, wisdom, and goodness. It is caught up to the eternal and natural attributes of God prior to the fashioning of creation; and it sees the issues of things to come and beholds whatsoever other secret and ineffable mysteries the Holy Spirit will reveal to him in proportion to his purity.163 13. According to the Holy Fathers, the “Mystery of the rapture” is the next stage of “pure prayer,” since, as Saint Isaac the Syrian elucidates, “prayer is one thing, and Divine vision during prayer is another:” beyond the boundary of pure prayer “there will

11 then be wonderment, and not prayer,” for “what pertains to prayer has ceased, while there is a certain Divine vision, and the mind does not utter any prayer.”164 This “Mystery” is given very rarely, for “one out of thousands is found worthy to attain to pure prayer with great vigilance, to break through this boundary, and to acquire experience of that Mystery,” “and as to that Mystery which is after pure prayer and lies beyond it, there is scarcely to be found a single man from generation to generation who by the Grace of God has attained to it.”165 14. The “Mystery of the rapture,” which, on account of its rarity, is characterized by the Saints as “a thing difficult to grasp, difficult to express, and difficult to acquire,”166 those who are deified are always vouchsafed “at the time of prayer.” Abba Isaac, after stating that this “ineffable grace” “is granted to the worthy at the time of prayer,” just as, moreover, the Lives of the Saints present “many of the Saints standing at prayer, their minds caught up therein,” then responds as follows to the question, “why are these great and inexpressible charisms granted only at the time of prayer?”: “Because at this time, and more than at any other time, a man is prepared and collected, so as to devote his attention to God, both desiring and receiving mercy from Him.”167 15. With particular regret we must conclude our lengthy disquisition on the mysteries of the “third heaven” and the “progress, ascent, or assumption”168 of the God-bearing Apostle thereto with the words of Saint Theophylact of Bulgaria, according to the simpler rendition of Saint Nicodemus the Hagiorite: “Paul, therefore, ascended to the vision of the celestial regions around the Holy Trinity, caught up thereto, assuredly, by the ineffable power of the Holy Spirit, having transcended all created things, both sensible and intelligible, and even the very orders of the Angels. Dur- ing the time of this rapture, he was neither in the body, since his bodily senses were not functioning, nor outside the body, since even the cognition and energy of his mind had ceased and were not functioning; neither were the other faculties and energies of his soul functioning, and consequently he did not know in what

12 kind of state he was. For before the things of God all human cognition becomes quiescent, since the mind of man is then caught up by God and is led and acted upon by Him as, where, and into what mysteries He desires and wills,” “which sights and revelations are all unknown to the mind and inexpressible in language, and one cannot receive or apprehend them unless he departs from man’s natural baseness and lowliness and ascends to that which is above nature by the ineffable power of the Holy Spirit.”169 Footnotes: 109) St Nicodemus the Hagiorite, Commentary on the Great Feasts 110) St John Chrysostom, “On the Holy Virgin and Theotokos Mary” 111) & 112) See note 109 113) St Nicodemus, ‘Eορτοδρόμιον, p. 367 114) Ibid., p. 366 115) Is. 6:1-3 116) St Gregory Palamas, “Hom. XXXVII, ‘On the All-Venerable Dormition of our Most Pure Lady, the Theotokos & Ever-Virgin Mary”; Is. 6:2; Ps. 44:10; Heb. 1:3; Is. 6:1; Ezek. 3:12 117) Cf. 2 Cor. 4:17 118) St Nicodemus, ‘Eορτοδρόμιον, p. 366. • “Essential” and “inner” charisms of the Theotokos are “the sanctification that befits her as Mother of God and the preternatural and extraordinary charisms” with which the Holy Spirit enriched her and which “transcend every mind and all speech.” 119) Ibid. • The Saint explains why he spoke of “comparative incomparability” and “incomparable comparison”: “Comparison is made with things that are of the same nature, the same kind, and the same essence. When comparison is made between things that are of different natures and essences, it should rather be called distinction, and not comparison; in such a case, we are talking about superior or inferior, not about more and less. Hence, the comparison in this Troparion is really a distinction.” 120) Matins of Great Friday, Canon, Ode 9, Heirmos 121) See note 118 122) St Nicodemus 123) St Nicodemus the Hagiorite, Garden of Graces 124) St Gregory Palamas, “Homily LIII, ‘On the Entrance of Our Exceedingly Pure Lady, the The- otokos and Ever-Virgin Mary into the Holy of Holies and Her Godlike Life Therein.” 125) St. Nicodemus, Garden of Graces 126) St Gregory Palamas, “Homily LIII” 127) St Nicodemus the Hagiorite, Handbook of Spiritual Counsel 128) St Dionysius the Areopagite, On the Celestial Hierarchy, chs. 6-9 129) St John of Damascus, Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Bk. II, ch. 3 130) St Gregory Palamas, “Homily LIII” 131) St Dionysius, On the Celestial Hierarchy 132) St John of Damascus, Exact Exposition, Bk. II 133) St Maximus the Confessor, Questions and Answers on Various Disputed Subjects 134) St Nikodemus, ‘Eορτοδρόμιον, p. 525 135) See note 134 136) St Dionysius the Areopagite, On the Celestial Hierarchy, ch. 11 137) Isaiah 6:6-7 • In verses 5-7, in a spirit of self-reproach, Isaiah confesses his unworthiness and sin- fulness on beholding the Lord, and in order to take up his prophetic work he is purified by one of the Seraphim. 138) St Basil the Great, Commentary on the Prophet Isaiah, §183 139) St John of Damascus, Exact Exposition, Bk. II, ch. 3. 140) St Dionysius, On the Celestial Hierarchy, ch. 4, §2 141) See note 140 142) St Gregory Palamas, One Hundred Fifty Chapters on Topics of Natural and Theological Science and on the Moral and Ascetic Life, Intended as a Purge of the Barlaamite Scourge; St Gregory the Theologian, “Oration XL, ‘On Holy Baptism,’” §5 143) See note 142 144) St Gregory Palamas, Discourse in Defence of the Holy Hesychasts, Bk. I, ch. 3 145) See note 144 146) St Nicodemus 147) St Dionysius, On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy

13 148) -152) St Nicodemus 153) St Theophylact of Bulgaria, Exposition of 2 Corinthians 154) The Uncreated Energies of God are called by Holy Tradition also: “the Divine attributes that are beheld naturally and eternally,” “virtues of God,” “natural properties of God,” “natural and essential powers of God,” “processions of the Cause of all things,” “Divine names that disclose Providence,” “participations and essential participations of existing things,” “Divine gifts,” “uni- fied theology,” and “attributes and perfections of God.” 155) St Theophylact, Exposition of 2 Corinthians 156) St Gregory the Theologian, “Oration XXVIII (Second Theological Oration), ‘On Theology,’” 157) St John of Sinai, The Ladder, Discourse XXVIII 158) St Maximus the Confessor, Concerning Various Difficult Passages of Sts Dionysius and Gregory, to Thomas the Sanctified [Ambigua] 159) St Theophylact, Exposition of 2 Corinthians 160) St Gregory Palamas, Discourse in Defense of the Holy Hesychasts, Bk. II, ch. 3 161) St.Nicodemus, Παύλου αἱ Δέκα Τέσσαρες 162) 1 Cor. 2:16 163) See note 161. 164) Abba Isaac the Syrian, “Discourse XXXII” 165) See note 164. 166) St. Gregory Palamas, Discourse on the Life of St. Peter the Athonite 167) Abba Isaac, “Discourse XXXII” 168) See note 156 • St. Maximus interprets these three terms of St. Gregory, “progress,” “ascent,” and “assumption,” in his Ambigua 169) St Nicodemus; cf. St. Theophylact, Exposition of II Corinthians, • St. Theophylact distinguishes between the “third heaven” and “Paradise,” saying that the “third heaven” is “the regions around the Trinity,” to which the Divine Apos- tle was originally caught up, whereas “Paradise” is “the more arcane mysteries of the Godhead,” to which he was subsequently “caught up,” since “in the realm of theology, too, there are ascents.” Taken from the website of the former Synod in Resistance g g g g g g g g g Concerning the Religious Upbringing of Children

Archpriest Sergei Schukin

On What is a Christian Upbringing Founded?

IF WE OBSERVE manifestations of evil in the soul of a child, even in the very earliest years, then at the same time we shall also see signs of good feelings: tenderness, pity, guilelessness. But the good beginnings in a person do not flourish on their own, but they need constant care and support. Initially parents, we have already said, must employ every way to implant in the child an

14 understanding of the difference between what is permitted and what is not permitted. As the child matures it is not possible to implement reprimands and light punishments alone: it is vital to strengthen in his soul such a disposition and feeling that should he be attacked by evil inclinations, he would nonetheless be sustained by the good. Fortunately, man has within a remarkable enabler, which we call the conscience. The duty of the parents is to teach the child to pay the conscience regard and follow it, so that his conscience will develop and will be sensitive to understanding good and evil.

One must understand that to implant in a child understanding of his conscience, without connecting it to other moral ideas, would be just an abstraction; it would be difficult and practical- ly useless. Any person, and especially a child, seeks for something more definite, and especially with regard to moral questions, that is, things touching his conduct. For this very reason it is absolutely necessary to incline him to a purely religious understanding, to the idea of God and our responsibility before Him. From the concept of God and our relationship with Him, love, reverence and thanksgiv- ing lay the foundation for our morality, which is religious faith. Without this foundation any education will be shaky and unsuc- cessful.

Often people object to us, saying that the concept of God, or of good and evil, and so on, is too complicated for a child and that such an understanding must be given later. Experience, however, shows that at three or four years old a child can easily understand these precepts, if, of course, they are presented to him in a vivid way, using, for example, the icons above his cot, the sign of the Cross, the most simple morning and evening prayers. The pure soul of the child immediately grasps the first religious concepts through the voice of his conscience, and that creates a simple, but nonetheless solid religious sensibility. On this foundation one can in the long term build up his whole moral being comprised of an integrated religious world-view.

15 For those who question the religious sensibilities of children, let them take note of the following: faith in God is not something invented by people but something born within with the person. It is something inherent in everyone, and not only the “recondite” and such-like people. The atheists attempted to demonstrate that faith in God is an artificially induced idea. But we see that new generations in the atheistic USSR still seek faith in God. On the other hand, faith in God is open to and understood by all peoples, regardless of their age or their academic excellence: to believe in Him and to worship Him is something the very simplest and un- educated person can do, as can the most learned person. Every believer grasps and lives out his faith according to the measure of his ability, and it is to that measure that a person (or even a whole people) grows and develops, grows and intensifies his conception of God. This explains the fact that all religious people, whatever the differences in their development, always understand each other.

These characteristics of the Christian religion - its affinity to the person’s soul and its being attainable by all - allow it to be inculcated into the very youngest children and upon it their whole upbringing can be built. And one can only marvel greatly at how easily and how deeply children accept faith in God and how ben- eficially it reflects on their conduct. Faith in God not only gives a sound foundation for the battle against the negative inclinations within a child, but it resolves for him a range of the most difficult questions, which cannot be explained in any other way: those concerning good and evil, about the creation of the world, about life and death, and so on. The most important thing is that faith in God is the key to all the positive aspects within the child’s soul: kindness, love, pity, shame, repentance and the desire to do better. To be continued … g g g g g g g g g

WITH so much in our News section this month, we have had to omit our "Coming Month" & "Points from Correspondence” sections. Apologies for this!

16 NEWS from the Richmond Diocese of the Church of the Genuine Orthodox Christians of Greece

A DAY OF CELEBRATION An Ordination at Saint Edward’s

th THIS YEAR, the Sunday of the Myrrh-bearing Women, 9 nd / 22 April, was the day of one of the greatest celebrations that we have had since we arrived in Brookwood in 1982. The occasion for the celebration was the ordination to the priesthood of Fa- ther Deacon Nicolae Capitanu. On the Friday, we met Bish- op Ambrose at Heathrow on his arrival in this country. Un- fortunately on that day, having experienced the unpleasantness in South Ossetia of which we have informed our people, he was not feeling at all well, and so for the rest of the day he rested. On Saturday, His Grace was somewhat stronger, and in the morning Bishop Sofronie and Bishop Iosif arrived with Fr Sebastian Mogarzan and Fr Nicolae, and held talks with Bishop Ambrose, while Fr Marcel Tofan was celebrating a Baptism in church. In the afternoon Fr Archimandrite Daniel arrived from Germa- ny, and he served the Vigil service with the Bishop in attendance. Shortly after it began, Fr Gabriel Lawani and his presbytera, Helena, arrived from Manchester. On Sunday morning, before the scheduled service, the Romanian congregation who had started to arrive an hour and a half before the appointed time, chanted their Akathist service. The hierarchs were met at the west door, and when they had finished their entrance prayers, the Hours were read in English, while they and the remaining clergy vested. At the Divine Liturgy the three Bishops concelebrated with Archimandrite Varlaam Pastra Varu and Archi-

17 mandrite Daniel, the priests Sebastian Mogarzan, Pavel Onofrei, Marcel Tofan, Nicolae Onofrei, Simeon Movila (whose workshops in Romania had carved our new shrines and other church furnishings), Ioan Onofrei, Gabriel Lawani and Borislav Popov, with the Archdeacon Laurentie Badaran, the Deacon Lucian Onofrei, Fr Nicolae himself and the sub- deacons Ioan Florian and Ioan Turcu assisting. With the two resident brotherhood clergymen, this made a total of three hierarchs, twelve priests and four deacons - something unprecedented for our tiny community at Brookwood. The Liturgy was celebrated in a mixture of English, Romanian, Greek and Slavonic, and after the Great Entrance, Fr Nicolae was ordained to the sacred priesthood at the hands of Bishop Sofronie. The Holy Mysteries were imparted to the faithful from two chalices, and at the end of the service both Bishop Sofronie and Bishop Ambrose preached. Then Father Nicolae was brought forward again and given the epigona- tion and the jewelled cross and blessed to hear confessions. The whole celebration was one of great joy and spiritual uplift, especially for those of us living here in the West, in a kind of Orthodox diaspora, for we experienced the brotherly love and support of a host of Traditionalist Orthodox believers. As Bishop Sofronie re- marked while here, we should rejoice that there are so many True Orthodox Christians with us. Because of the numbers of people, some unable to get into the church, Catalin Tamasanu, ably abetted by his mother, extended the sound system, so that the service could be heard outside. After the church service, as usual we had the Parish Breakfast in the old Mortuary, served buffet style, and the Bishops and visiting clergy circulated among the people and got to know us a little more. We also had the opportunity to meet Fr Nicolae’s Preoteasa Maria and their two young sons. Fr Nicolae and his family will live in the priest’s house on Mount Pleasant Road, which belongs to the Convent, and will serve there and minister to the Romanian-speaking flock, who hold fast to the traditionalist confession. That he has brought his family to come and live here must in many ways have been an act of great cour-

18 age and love, and is something we value as our Church’s presence in this country is in great need of more priests. May our Saviour reward him greatly and bless his ministry here. We ask all our people to help and support him and his family in any way they can. On a more mundane level, we also thank the people who stayed be- hind after the celebration on Sunday and cleared everything away so neatly, and even washed down the floor of the mortuary, so that everything was left in good order and clean. God bless them too!

THREE BAPTISMS AT SAINT EDWARD’S

ON Saint Edward’s Day, the day also of the Resurrection of th st Lazarus, Saturday, 18 / 31 March, after the festal Divine Liturgy, the Priestmonk Pahomie from the Monastery of the Trans- figuration at Slatioara baptized Ecaterina, the twelve-day- old daughter of Gheorghe and Andreea Grigoras of Edgware. Her godparents are Mihai and Maria Amariei, and Ecaterina is named after the Great Martyr Catherine.

st th ON Bright Saturday, 1 / 14 April, Flavia the infant daughter of Subdeacon Ioan and Georgette Turcu of Pinner was baptized in our church. The celebrant was Fr Borislav Popov and Flavia’s godparents are Vasile and Theodorina Turcu, her uncle and aunt. Flavia is named after St Flavian the Confessor, the Archbishop of Constantinople. As we were unable to have a Lit- urgy on that day due to illness, Flavia received the Holy Mysteries for the first time on Thomas Sunday.

th st ON Saturday, 8 / 21 April, Matei, the son of Cristian and Oana Girdea of Edgware was baptized by Fr Marcel Tofan from Romania. Matei’s godparents are Florin and Mihaela Pe- trescu and he is named for the Holy Apostle and Evangelist.

We ask the faithful to remember these, their new brothers and sisters in Christ, in their prayers.

19 SAINT EDWARD’S SPRING FEAST THIS YEAR, the day of the martyrdom of St Edward fell on Lazarus Saturday. The eve of the feast was one of particular anticipation as we were expecting the arrival of a new Shrine for the Saint’s relic casket and one for the vestments of Saint John of Shanghai. They were due to come before the Presancti- fied Liturgy on the Friday afternoon, but failed to arrive. However work proceeded on the demolition of the old brick-built shrine. Then it was promised that they would arrive and be in place for the Vigil. However even that did not happen! They finally arrived as we approached the end of the Vigil. These beautifully carved shrines were gifts from one of our people, given in memory of his father, who was in fact not Orthodox. Subdeacon Ioan Tur- cu, Daniel Ciuperpcovici and Claudiu Ciuperpcovici set to work on installing them immediately after the Vigil, and they worked through till twenty past twelve in the night, so that the two shrines were in place for the Liturgy on the Saturday morning. The present installation is in fact temporary, as we are anticipating further improvements in that part of the church, but their being in place for the Liturgy added to the joy of our celebration.

Before the Vigil, undeterred, it seems, by the work going on in church, twenty-six pilgrims from the Russian Orthodox Ca- thedral, Ennismore Gardens, Knightsbridge, came with the blessing of their ruling hierarch, Bishop Matthew of Sourozh, to venerate the sacred relics. And during the Vigil Priestmonk Pahomie from Romania was with us, and he concelebrated at the festal Liturgy, before which the two new shrines were blessed. The day ended with yet another Vigil service - for Palm Sunday.

GREAT WEEK & PASCHA DURING Great Week, Bishop Ambrose, who had been staying at the Convent’s priest house and pastorally caring for the nuns, came to Brookwood on the Tuesday, being brought by Sub-

20 deacon Ioan Turcu. On Wednesday, he celebrated the last Lit- urgy of the Presanctified Gifts with us, and in the evening served the Mysterion of Holy Unction, assisted by the Brotherhood clergy and Fr Borislav. Late in the evening he was taken back to the Convent by Ioana Roxana Amarie. There he remained until the day of Pascha, while we continued our usual round of services here. On Great Thursday, Archimandrite Daniel arrived and assisted us through the last days of the week and heard confessions. The weather was rather rainy and unpleasant until Great Friday, but then improved and the grounds dried out, making it possible for us to have our usual “paschal bonfire.” It seemed that at the Midnight Paschal celebration there were many more people here than usual. The rains providentially started again at about 6.30 a.m. and so at that point not only did the stragglers make off, but this year, they kindly tidied things up and made sure that all the foods were returned to the kitchen, which was a great help. In the afternoon Matias and Liggy Fagerlund brought the Bishop from the Convent, where he had celebrated Pascha, to Brookwood again and he served the Agape Vespers service with us. This year we managed to read the Gospel appointed for that service in thirteen different languages, showing how the message of the Resurrection of our Saviour calls all peoples. Then, we had another buffet meal, this time indoors, and the Bishop was able to talk with the people who came. On the Monday, His Grace was the protocelebrant at the Divine Liturgy, and preached against the prevalent sin of judg- ing others. After breakfast with those who attended, he returned to London. Sadly, although we also had a Liturgy on the Tuesday, because of illness we were unable to do so on the Wednesday and Thursday. On Bright Friday, a feast of the All-holy Theotokos, the brotherhood clergy served at her Convent in Brondesbury Park.

TWO FUNERALS A FRIEND of our community of many years standing, Du- san Barac, recently reposed at his home in nearby Worplesdon.

21 th th On Monday, 13 / 26 March, the funeral was served by clergy from St Sava’s Church, Ladbrooke Grove, London, in a marquee erected in the Serbian section of the cemetery which adjoins our own. As people had come from far and wide, refreshments were offered to the mourners at the Brotherhood for early-comers before the service, and after the interment the mourners were invited to a Mercy Meal at the Farmhouse Café at Rokers, almost op- posite Dusan’s home. Members of the brotherhood and some of our parishioners attended the service.

READER Peter Butt of Folkestone, who had joined our parish from the Moscow Patriarchal diocese in this country, reposed at the Hythe View Care Home in Hythe and his funeral th th was at Saint Edward’s Church on Thursday, 6 / 19 April. The Brotherhood clergy and Fr Borislav served, and Archpriest Al- exander Fostiropoulos of the Paris Exarchate in this country, who had previously been Peter’s pastor, was among the mourners. After the burial in our cemetery, a Mercy Meal was laid on in the old Mortuary, the foods being provided by the premier caterers in this part of the country, the Baker’s Dozen in Brookwood.

May Reader Peter and Dusan find rest with the Saints and be granted Memory Eternal. Please remember them in your prayers.

NEW ICONS WE HAVE been given a beautiful hand-painted icon of Saint Procla, the wife of Pontius Pilate, by Anthony and Procla Bell. The icon was painted by the sisters of the Convent of the Holy Angels, Afidnai, Greece,and at the moment is being framed.

Anthony Bell and Paul Popov, who made a pilgrimage to Greece at the end of Bright Week, have also given us an icon of the Holy Martyrs of the Monastery of the Pantocrator Tao of Mt Pendeli in Attica.

22 RE-RECEPTION INTO THE CHURCH

AT the Palm Sunday Liturgy, having confessed, Ludmila Belokopytova was re-received into the Church by the Mysterion of Holy Chrismation. She had been baptized in infancy in her na- tive Russia, but under Soviet conditions had not been able to practice her Faith and had in time lapsed. At the Liturgy she received the Holy Mysteries again for the first time. May God grant her faithfulness to Orthodoxy and Many Years!

CHERTSEY MUSEUM

THE CURATOR of the Chertsey Museum, Emma Warren, invited members of our Brotherhood to the showing on Wednes- th day 25 April of a short film, “A Year of Runnymede’s Riv- ers,” which the museum was instrumental in producing. The showing was to a select invited audience, but we were nonetheless invited because one part shows the Blessing of the Waters at the Abbey River on Theophany. The film can be seen on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsPVy2RjdcY&feature=yo utu.be. Our section is about four minutes from the start, but the whole film approx.( 22 mins) is worth watching. At the showing we met other people featured in the film and also found that the museum has the largest collection of Ancient Greek pottery in Surrey.

VISITING GROUPS

ON PALM SUNDAY afternoon, Margaret Hobbs brought a group visiting the cemetery on a walk organised by the Brookwood Cemetery Society to see the church. th On 25 April, Dr Jonathan Conlin of the University of Southampton brought four students to visit the church and the exhibition room. After visiting us, they went on to visit the military cemeteries.

23 NEW DOG

THROUGH the good offices of Elena Holden, our chief and much-valued dinner lady chivvier, we have been given a second dog, a young Labrador-cross bitch. The donor, Donna Saun- ders, was unable to keep it when she moved into new accommo- dation. The dog was called Luna, but as this is the name of a pagan goddess, we felt it was a little inappropriate for a “monastery dog” and so have slightly modified it to Bruna. She is brown, and does not seem to have noticed the change. She and Bilbo are already the closest of friends, and she has settled in extremely easily. g g g g g g g g g PRACTICAL TIP ACCORDING to Fr Nicon Patrinacos's Dictionary of Greek Orthodoxy, one of the Greek words for a church service is ako- louthia. This is particularly instructive, as that word is closely related to their word for following. And it is important that we do indeed follow the services. This is primarily done by listening, and by guarding ourselves against distraction and day-dreaming. However, it often happens in the diaspora that services are either wholly or in part in languages that we do not understand, and then perhaps one can resort to following in a book in one's own language, rather than just being there and not understanding at all, or pre- tending in a new-age-y way to mop up the “atmosphere.” However there are two caveats about this practice one always should bear in mind. It should only be used when necessary, because by reading along on one's own you are necessarily divorcing yourself to some extent from the corporate worship - privately engrossed in your own book. And secondly, you should be extremely careful, even if you are reading along, to try and still follow. It doesn't profit at all if while the deacon is intoning the Litany of Peace you are look- ing at what the Epistle might be. Some people can be seen almost frantically leafing through their service books, clearly not following. This is a serious failure and is not beneficial at all.