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The Examiner In BondsMarch 2020

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“The Examiner In Bonds” ©Copyright 2019 All Rights Reserved

A Publication of: St. Seraphim’s Fellowship

An Orthodox Christian Prison Ministry

An agency of the Department of Prison Ministry Under the Omophorion of:The Antiochian Orthodox ChristianArchdiocese of North America and His Eminence Metropolitan JOSEPH with Hierarchical oversight provided by:His Grace the Rt. Rev. BishopTHOMAS, Ed.D.Dept. Dir: The Very Rev. Fr. David RandolphSpiritual Dir. The Very Rev. Fr. Michael Byars

Editor & Publisher: Fr. Dcn. Seraphim Address:

Saint Basil’s Orthodox Church 5200 NE 29th Street

Silver Springs, Florida 34488

We look forward to your letters, praise reports, art work, questions about the Orthodox Faith, and prayer requests, because you matter to us!

In This Issue:

Page 3 “Spiritual Immunity”

Page 9 “You’re More Important Than You Think”

Page 17. “Roger Hunt Memorial”

Page 18 “A Rational And Logical Mind”

Page 21 “The Liturgies of America”

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“Spiritual Immunity” By: Fr. Dn. Seraphim

I work with a woman who recently underwent surgery for a possible cancerous growth. The tumor had become very large and was causing a large abdominal distention that was very uncomfortable and causing no end of concern for her. The surgery went well and the tumor was removed but during her recovery period, she was stricken by a very rare immune system disorder called “Papulosquamos disease”.

The autoimmune disease is characterized by Lichen planus (LP), a chronic inflammatory and immune disease that affects the skin, nails, hair, and mucous membranes. It is characterized by polygonal, flat-topped, violaceous papules and plaques with overlying, reticulated, fine white scale, commonly affecting dorsal hands, flexural wrists and forearms, trunk, anterior lower legs and oral mucosa.Although there is a broad clinical range of LP manifestations, the skin and oral cavity remain as the major sites of involvement.The cause is unknown, but it is thought to be the result of an autoimmune process with an unknown initial trigger. There is no cure, but many different medications and procedures have been used in efforts to control the symptoms.

I have a great deal of admiration for this woman as she has returned to work while still suffering terribly. She wears gloves, and a hat, to cover up the condition and to help protect her skin. But, her face is quite red. I have taken my lunch with her in the break room over the last week or so, and she has shared with me the excruciating pain and itchiness that she must endure. This has caused much depression as she doesn’t know how long this condition will persist. Please remember her in your prayers.

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Apparently, this disease has been present in her body for all of her life and has remained dormant, but something happened after her surgery that caused this condition to conspicuously manifest itself.

This got me to thinking about our immune system and how it protects us from many serious conditions, as well as a spiritual analogy of how God protects us.

Some of the least-understood diseases within human pathology are autoimmune diseases. By way of definition, autoimmunity is the failure of an organism to recognize its own components as part of itself, causing the immune system to turn against and attack the organism's own cells and tissues. Some of the better-known autoimmune diseases are Celiac disease, Type I diabetes, lupus, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis. In them, critical parts of the body are attacked after being misidentified as foreign. Depending on the exact autoimmune disease, this can include the small intestine (Celiac disease); the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas (Type I diabetes); the heart, lungs, blood vessels, liver, and kidneys (lupus); the central nervous system (lupus, multiple sclerosis); and the skin and joints (lupus, rheumatoid arthritis). Many autoimmune conditions are quite debilitating, severely limiting the activities and overall lifestyle of those suffering from them. So interconnected is the human body that, when the immune system attacks an organ or system, it drastically affects the whole. What Paul says of the spiritual body is equally true of the physical body: “And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it.” 1 Corinthians 12:26

As dreadful as autoimmunity is within a physical body, spiritual autoimmunity far surpasses it in the power to debilitate and destroy.

Let us now think about the spiritual immune system!

Studying God’s physical creation can reveal many spiritual principles. For example, we can better understand what Jesus Christ meant in John 3, regarding the process that leads to becoming “born of the Spirit,” by studying how a child is begotten and grows in a mother’s womb.

Similarly, by examining how a physical virus infects a human body and quickly spreads to others, we can better comprehend how spiritual viruses can infect Christians and spread to others of God’s people within the body of Christ.(Remember that all analogies have a reasonable limit and will eventually break down.)

In nature, a virus is a microscopic infectious agent (too small to be perceived by the human senses) that replicates itself within the cells of a living host.

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A virus cannot thrive and spread without a host. Varying in shape and complexity, viruses are present in homes, schools, workplaces—anywhere in our environment—waiting for a host to come along. They look for a way inside a body (nose, mouth, breaks in the skin). Once inside, the virus uses a type of protein on its outer coat to “feel” or “recognize” suitable host cells to infect.

When a cell is infected, the virus replicates itself within the host cell. It then breaks free from the cell, either by breaking it open (thus destroying it), or by pinching out from the cell membrane, breaking away with a piece of the cell surrounding the virus. (In the latter case, the host cell is not destroyed.) The virus then spreads throughout the body, multiplying itself, and attacking and infecting other cells. The body’s immune system responds by producing chemicals that cause the body’s temperature to increase (i.e., a fever). Other symptoms may include congestion, coughing, sore throat, etc. The immune system’s job is to eliminate the virus from the body.

A Spiritual Analogy

Just as there are many physical viruses, Christians are at risk from a variety of spiritual viruses: Wrong attitudes, wrong conduct (sin), wrong use of speech, and wrong teaching, or heresy.

As the “god of this world” (II Cor. 4:4), Satan tries to use these“viral strains” to poison our thinking and destroy our lives. The devil constantly searches for ways to trip us up, to veer us off the path that leads to God’s kingdom.

The “prince of the power of the air” (Eph. 2:2) broadcasts attitudes of bitterness, envy, jealousy and self-righteousness to get us off track and cut us off from God. Satan hunts for whoever is most vulnerable—a suitable “host.” His goal is to infect your mind with wrong attitudes, thoughts, desires and feelings. If he succeeds, his many spiritual viruses will incubate within the mind and grow. Unless repented of, this will lead to even more carnal attitudes. Sooner or later, the infected “host” will pass his sickness to whomever he comes in contact with.

These “viral agents” come in various disguises—gossip, whispering, backbiting, rumor and innuendo, debates—and will eventually manifest themselves in words and actions: …

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“Coarse jesting and foul language, lies, false accusations, along with “adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings”—the works of the flesh (Gal. 5:19-21).

Like the 24-hour flu, some physical viruses manifest themselves right away. But some, like HIV, may not show symptoms for several years. Likewise, some brethren are infected right now, at this very moment, but the symptoms are not clearly visible. They may not show for years. But when they do, WATCH OUT! The infected will “go off ” like spiritual homicide bombers—suddenly—without warning—destroying and maiming the person and perhaps even those around him.

Recall that a person’s immune system is designed to eliminate viruses from the body. Similarly, the Church provides spiritual medications that, when taken faithfully, will eliminate these spiritual viruses. These prescriptions administered by the Church are Baptism, Confession, Holy Communion, liturgy, prayer and ascetic practices.

The apostle Peter warned that our adversary, the devil, is “a roaring lion” who “walks about, seeking whom he may devour” (I Pet. 5:8).

Nature teaches us that when lions hunt for prey, they always go for the easiest targets. Why? Because, though they are incredibly strong, powerful and swift, lions lack an important attribute: Endurance. They simply cannot muster enough sustained energy to chase after prey over long distances. As a result, they hunt for prey that can be easily caught. And so does Satan! He hunts for easy targets—the weak, the sickly, the old and weary, the spiritually wounded, and babes.

No matter where you go—no matter where you sit, eat, walk or run—they (the evil ones) will find you. They search for the vulnerable. They probe for the weak. They hunt for a suitable host in which to thrive and multiply. You cannot hide from them. Some people are infected and don’t even know it. Others think, “It could never happen to me!”

But it can—and will if you do not trust in God and take the medicine that He prescribed in His Church.

Just as there are physical viruses (SARS, Ebola, HIV, etc.) that plague mankind at every turn, spiritual viruses seek to plague the minds and lives of all true Christians.

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But what are spiritual viruses? Who do they infect? How do they spread among God’s people? Why are spiritual viruses so deadly?—and how can we become immune to them?

You cannot afford to let these questions go unanswered!

These “viral agents” come in various disguises—gossip, whispering, backbiting, rumor and innuendo, debates—and will eventually manifest themselves in words and actions: Coarse jesting and foul language, lies, false accusations, along with “adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings”—the works of the flesh (Gal. 5:19-21).

It is vital that one understands exactly how these viruses take hold in our souls. All sin starts in the mind with our thoughts. These are referred to by the Church Fathers as Logismoi (Greek: λογίσμοι lo-yeez-mee, is a term used to describe assaultive or tempting thoughts.) Fr. Maximos of Mount Athos is quoted extensively on the subject of logismoi in Kyriakos Markides' book, “The Mountain of Silence” Fr. Maximos describes five stages of logismoi as detailed in the teachings of the Fathers of the Church:

Assault - the logismoi first attacks a person's mind. (A thought comes)

Interaction - a person opens up a dialogue with the logismoi.(One entertains the thought)

Consent - a person consents to do what the logismoi urges him to do.(One puts the thought into action)

Defeat - a person becomes hostage to the logismoi and finds it more difficult to resist.(One is held captive by the demons)

Passion or Obsession - the logismoi becomes an entrenched reality within the nous of a person.(The nous is the eye of the soul. St. John of Damascus says that the nous is the purest part of the soul.)

Fr. Maximos explains that no sin is committed until the stage of Consent, though he warns that if a person is of weak temperment, they are unlikely to be able to resist the logismoi at the Interaction stage.

Fr. Maximos teaches that the best way to combat logismoi is to be indifferent, to ignore them. He suggests that a person should pray to combat logismoi, but only when not overcome by fear.

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It’s important to remember that “perfect love casts out fear:” 1 John 4: 18

God is Love! 1 John 4:8 describes one of God’s primary attributes as love. “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” This verse does not simply define God as love; it describes God’s love as permeating His essence in all He is and all He does.

Jesus Christ died for us out of Love! He founded His Church and gave us everything we need because He Loved us. He gave us an established ministry to deal with our viruses or sin sickness. He established a visible Church. It was He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers. He gave us brothers and sisters who are part of His Body, The Church, to comfort and encourage us. He told us that He would never leave us nor forsake us and finally He promised to return. And, the He said: “but in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” 1 Timothy 3: 15

Lastly, please know that we, here at St Seraphim’s Fellowship, love and pray for you daily, and along with the Holy Spirit of God and The Bride of Christ in Revelation 22: 17, We extend you this heart felt invitation: “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”

The Prodigal Son returns to His Father’s House

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“You’re more important than you think”

Part 9 of The Passions Series By: Fr. Dcn. Seraphim

Self-importance is a funny thing. We all have a tremendous thirst for it. It’s one of the hardest of all things to get along without. And strangely enough, it’s a thing we don’t believe we’ve got unless we can feel it. When our toes are numb inside ski boots or skates, we still know we’ve got them. But when we can’t feel our importance, we don’t think we have any. Do you know why? It’s because we get our sense of importance from other people instead of from God, where we’re supposed to get it. So when other people aren’t treating us as if we’re important, we actually don’t think we are!

To God, each of us is infinitely important. God closely watches and cares about everything you say and do and every single breath you take. It’s absolutely impossible to make ourselves either more or less important than God has already made us. No other human being can add to our importance or subtract from it, no matter how they treat us. Our importance is always with us, whether we are successes or dropouts, whether we are accepted by others, or rejected by them, whether we are saints or criminals. The only reason we are all important is that God thinks so, and says so. The whole Bible is a record of how important every human being is to God.

Have you ever heard the word “redundant”? It means overdoing something and making it clumsy or grotesque. If you put another mouth on your face, or added two more eyes to your head, that would be redundant. And anytime you try to be important, that would be redundant. That’s adding something clumsy and grotesque to yourself, something you’ve got enough of already. You see, you already have perfect importance from God, and it will show up best if you leave it alone and never try to do anything more to it. Whenever we try to be important, all we do, both spiritually and psychologically, is detract from the wonderful importance we already have. If you pray, you will realize this and will become able to stand up with the importance you already have from God. You never feel that you need any other importance.

Wanting to be included by others is natural and healthy; it’s not the same as wanting to be important. We are supposed to be included by other people, and to include them in our lives. But we do not get included by acting important, at least not by the people it’s a pleasure to be with. People who try to add importance to themselves beyond what God has given them are full of vanity, which makes them secretly envious and cruel and bitter, the worst sort of friends.

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They include one another in their social and intellectual groups, and if you want to add something redundant to the importance you already have from God, you will probably be included by them too. But that whole life is a fake, and if you’re a sincere person, you won’t like it. People who only use each other to boost their vanity and self-importance become boring after awhile, because they’re so self-centered and shallow and insincere. Better, much better, to skip their company and let God take care of how important you are, and not give it another moment of thought yourself.

If you pray to be delivered from the passionate human urge to be important in an ugly, redundant way (and it takes quite a lot of prayer), then God will begin showing you how important and dear you are to him, and he will greatly increase your faith in him. Whenever you give up trying to look important to people, you always get in return the experience of discovering how extremely valuable you are to God. Among holy people, no one tries or wishes to be any more important than anyone else. The Bible says that such people, all doing the work God gives them, are like the parts of your body, your hands and feet and eyes and all the rest. The parts of your body belong together and work together and help one another. If you function the way God tells you to in his Body, you will have the secure feeling of being important among his people and really belonging with them. You will be necessary to them, and they will be necessary to you, just as your hands and your feet and your eyes are all necessary to your body and to one another.

God has made you different members of his body. The eye can’t say to the hand, I do not need you; nor can the head say to the feet, I have no need of you. No, all the members of the body are needed, and especially the parts that may not look most attractive. You are the body of Christ. You are individual members in it. (1Cor.12:18,27)

People who do not become obedient to God can never be assured of their importance, and are therefore never quite able to get rid of the urge to look important in an ugly and redundant way. Don’t worry if God hasn’t made his whole for you clear yet. You’re like a jigsaw puzzle, and you have to keep praying and wait until God puts the pieces together for you before you’ll be able to see the full picture of your special calling. You may have a special talent in art or writing, but that by itself is really nothing. Many people have gifts like that and use them only to try to make themselves redundantly important. The only natural abilities that can become real offerings among the members of Christ are the ones you go ahead and develop entirely in obedience to God. And a gift that may look very small to you when it first appears can have great consequences when God has fully developed it. Obedience to God is where bigness is, so any gift you’ve got is going to be big if it grows out of doing what God tells you personally to do. The saints, who gave precious offerings to their people (and to all of us) later on, started out simply by obeying God.

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I am small and of no reputation; yet I do not forget thy commandments. (Ps 19:141)

Whatever God builds up in you, as a result of your strong determination to obey him, becomes your offering to other people. It is by making that offering that you are a functioning part of Christ’s body and are fully included among the right friends for your interests and your personality. When everyone has made an offering that comes from obeying God, and not from an urge to be stupidly important, you’ve got a circle of friends you can enjoy and trust and love. You’re all bound together by faith and joy, and by an unbreakable fondness for God and one another.

Behold, how good and joyful a thing it is for friends to dwell together in unity! It is like the fresh dew of the morning, which fell upon the hill of Sion. For there the Lord promised his blessing, and life for evermore. (Ps 133:1,3,4) Lots of people look as if they’re not trying to act important at all. You can only tell for sure whether someone is trying to be redundantly important if you watch to see what happens when he doesn’t get his own way on a number of occasions. If he really isn’t trying to be important, he won’t mind being crossed in what he wants. But if he is secretly trying to make himself important, he’ll be awfully upset, awfully angry or pained, at not getting his own way. Wanting your own way is the classic symptom of trying to make yourself redundantly important. And wanting our own way, like a spoiled child, is a passion that’s pretty deeply entrenched in all of us.

You may think it’s unmanly not to make yourself felt. You may think it’s good to assert yourself and demand your rights and get your own way. No, it is not. Everything we think up and want to do on our own and regardless of the will of God, no matter how noble or wonderful or just it may appear, is harmful to us because it keeps us from being joined to God’s perfect will. You can’t possibly be going after your own will and after God’s will at the same time, any more than you can be going after big game in Africa at the same time that you’re going after pearls in Japan. If you really believe in asserting your own will and demanding your rights, God will be of no help to you in what you desire. There is not a single father in all of Christianity who will tell you differently. The fathers say that being able to perform miracles, to conquer whole armies and nations, even being able to raise the dead, can’t compare with the courage and holiness of a man who has conquered his own self importance and willfulness.

Let us flee from willfulness as from the poison of death. (Hesychius)

Our will is a brass wall between man and God. (Abba Pimen)

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He who wishes to kill his own will must do the will of God, instead of his own will, introduce God’s will into himself, inculcate and implant it in his heart. (Simeon the New Theologian)

That soul that is perfect whose desiring power is wholly directed toward God. (Maximus the Confessor)

You can’t get over this passion of willfulness by deciding to reform, by using your own will power. You see, you don’t just have a single will in yourself. You have two wills. One is your higher, intelligent will. It wants God and everything good. The other is your lower will; sometimes the fathers call it your dumb sensory will. St. Paul said he had one will that delighted in God’s commandments, but another will that kept trying to draw him into sin (Romans 7:21,23) The more we pray, the more our higher will prevails and leads us into God’s perfect will. But when we don’t pray much, our dumb lower will takes over. It wants everything that is bad for us and nothing that is good for us. It is called dumb (or irrational), because it has no reasoning power. It’s just a “wanter.” All it does is want, want, want, without any judgment of any sort. When something looks beautiful, it wants it, even if it’s from the devil.

“Two wills existing in us fight against one another. One belongs to the intelligent part of our soul and is therefore called the intelligent will, which is the higher; the other belongs to the sensory part and is therefore called the dumb, carnal, passionate will. The higher will is always desiring nothing but good; the lower, nothing but evil.”

If this dumb sensory will is not cut off by wise training when we are children and by prayer when we are older, it gradually makes us want our own way in everything, even the smallest details. Life is such that we are going to get some opposition when we want our own will in everything. So this dumb sensory will releases energy into our bodies to help us fight the opposition. If you were suddenly confronted with a desperate emergency, like having to save a child’s life or fight off a wild animal, adrenalin would be released inside you and would give you abnormal strength with which to meet the crisis.

The fathers say this is what happens in people who let their dumb sensory will run away with them. Getting their own way becomes so urgent that every least desire is an emergency to them. Merely getting a sweater they want, or going to a movie when they want to, or watching a favorite TV program, is such a hot issue to them that they release as much inner energy for it as if they were going to rescue a baby from a burning home or escape a grizzly bear.

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Being all worked up that often, according to the fathers, actually affects our brain and our blood. It makes people unable to think straight or control themselves, even when they really want to. It can end in what the fathers call “frenzy” and what today we call insanity. So falling into the habit of wanting our own way all the time is no small thing. Even if it doesn’t lead us all the way into insanity, it certainly takes us in the direction of mental imbalance. In the words of a certain wise man, “this frenzy is due to the passion of vainglory, which affects a certain place in the brain and disturbs all it’s tracts.” (Nilus of Sinai)

“This spirit (of vainglory and willfulness) seizes upon the vessels in which the vigor of the soul resides. It overwhelms the soul with foulest darkness and interferes with its intellectual powers, as we see also happening from wine or fever or excessive cold and from other indispositions.” (John Cassian)

Wanting our own way in everything is also the main cause of anger. If you don’t care about having your own way, there won’t be a whole lot to get mad at in life. If you feel angry frequently, it’s probably because you aren’t getting your own way often enough to satisfy your dumb sensory will. And if you want your own way so much that you’re getting mad about not having it, then it means you’re trying to make yourself redundantly important and aren’t content with the importance God has given you, because getting our own way primarily makes us feel self-important. So getting angry a lot (unless you’re in a situation that seriously threatens your safety, and need to be propelled out of it by the force of anger) means you want to feel important and have your own way more than you want to obey God.

People who are determined to get their own way in everything look peppy and strong-minded, especially in their earlier years. But the ancient Christians say that wanting your own way all the time uses up your energy and finally leaves you without much strength to go on. They say wanting your own way leads to chronic weariness and eventually makes you want to quit working and lie around all the time, many people keep pushing themselves and don’t give into the urge for rest, but it’s an awful strain.

One saint says that your energy is kind of like the flowing power of a stream. When your dumb sensory will is in control, making you want everything in sight, it spreads the stream of your energy out over flat, wide land. The shallow water (your dissipated energy) soaks into the ground and disappears. Your higher intelligent will, on the other hand, channels the stream of your energy into what the Bible calls the narrow way (of obedience to God),

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forces it between the high banks of discipline that keep it running fast and finally push it into a gushing waterfall that generates real power. That’s why the fathers say that people, who wait for God to tell them what to do, and then obey him, never become easily worn out or lose their natural energy.

They who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. (Isa. 40:31)

Extreme vanity, with willfulness as its constant companion, gives us the stoics, people who seem to have fantastic will power and will nearly wipe out their whole personalities in order to look good. When vanity is a little less strong, so that people fail to be successful stoics, then willfulness goes into various defenses and escapes, like smoking and drinking and other destructive actions. We usually say such people have no will power, when the real trouble is that they have far to much (self) will, so much that they won’t give it up and let God’s will operate instead. A person who thinks he has weak will power needs to pray earnestly to get rid of vanity and willfulness. Then his natural power to obey God and say no to self-destruction will be restored to him.

I know only too well how hard it is to get over wanting your own way in everything. We grow up getting our own way so constantly that we think we’re supposed to have it. Nearly everybody you see is fighting for it. Because of the sickness we’ve inherited from our society, we think something is dreadfully wrong if we can’t have our own way. But if we don’t do something about it, we’ll become drained of our normal strength, to say nothing of losing our natural gifts and our real selves, actually our very humanity, by being seriously cut off from God. What can we do? Ask God to deliver us from vanity, and especially from the awful trap of wanting to feel important when we already are important. He will do it. And as soon as he does, you will naturally stop wanting your own way quite so much as you did before, because you won’t have any motive for being bossy and demanding, for throwing your weight around. When you get your first few experiences of deliberately not having your own way (because you have become interested in doing God’s will instead), it will make you unexpectedly happy about the control you feel coming into yourself. We tend to think self-control is unpleasant; but the truth is, you can’t possibly get inner contentment and happiness without it, just no way! When you get a good taste of it, you’ll realize that always wanting your own way is frustrating and painful, but obeying God is beautiful and gives you confidence. Then you’ll start asking God to deliver you even more from wanting your own way. And you’ll really mean it.

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When you pray to give up wanting your own way too much, remember that you’re doing it so God can take you over, not so that anybody else can. As you make progress in overcoming vanity and willfulness, the people who want to influence and use you won’t think you’re getting less will at all; they’ll think you’re getting more willful and stubborn than ever. You can’t afford to be naïve about this. Most people don’t want you to obey God; they want you to obey them. They like your dumb sensory will very much, because they can cater to it and in that way keep control of you. So as you pray to be freed from your dumb sensory will, pray also to enter fully into God’s will for you, and not into anyone else’s. And don’t worry about anyone who doesn’t seem to be pleased with it.

This is my last letter on vanity and the various things that come out of it. You can be delivered from them all by prayer. The fathers say we overcome our passions with two weapons, the Holy Spirit and the name of Jesus. So use the name of Jesus when you pray, and the Holy Spirit will drive out the passions we’ve been talking about. Here are the main symptoms of vanity, which you especially want to pray about and confess if you spot them in yourself. A tendency to show off and want people to praise you. A weakness for flattery, either giving it or taking it. Envy, jealousy, and gossip. Trying to look better than you are (being a fake). Blaming another person for something that’s happened to you. Being highly sensitive to criticism, or suspecting others of criticizing you when you haven’t any proof that they’re really doing it. Thinking you’re not a sinner and not guilty of anything. Feeling virtuous or noble or innocently victimized. Bitterness. Trying to look or act self-important. Feeling unable to realize how important you are to God. Wanting your own way in a lot of small things, Fighting for your own way in anything which is not clearly God’s will for you. Being unreasonably afraid of people or things or certain situations, cowardice of any sort. Feeling you are under the control of other people, that they can stop you from being yourself. Wanting to use other people for your own purposes. Letting something or someone else influence you more than God does. Feeling frequently angry, tired out, or unable to go on because things haven’t worked out the way you wanted them to. Being unable to feel strong affections or to love anyone. Being unable to believe in God (because God says, “How can you believe when you seek glory from one another?”). Being unable in due time, to see God’s will for you. Being unable to relax and enjoy things.

When you are somewhat freed of vanity and everything that goes with it, your reward will be warn human relationships, which come from getting much more faith and love and deep confidence in the Lord. Only then will you clearly see who other people are and what they are like. As long as you have vanity, you don’t see people the way they really are. You only see them from the standpoint of what they done to you or what they can do for you. As long as we use other people to admire us and praise us; as long as we let them be our idols and control us; as long as we use their offenses

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against us to justify our own sin and make us look innocent; as long as we depend on them to make us feel important, or use them to get our own way, we shall never actually know much about them. They’ll seem more or less like instruments to us.

When God delivers you from enough vanity, then you can see someone outside of yourself and clearly recognize who he is. You won’t be seeing a tool you can use, or someone who can use you as a tool. You’ll be seeing another person just as real and individual as yourself. And you’ll have a natural, spontaneous feeling of relationship to him. That’s when you’ll be able to answer the questions I have posed to you in my letters. Who am I? and Who are you? You be able to say “I’m me and you’re you” and understand, in a really profound way, that you’re talking about two equally important, separate human beings, both with the same basic passions in them and both urgently in need of salvation by the Lord, and both equally in need of loving the other person.

“For nothing that is endowed with reason and judgment has been created, or is created, for the use of another, whether greater or less than itself, but for the sake of the life and continuance of the being so created.” (Athenagoras)

“He has equally created all and has died for all, in order to save all equally.” (Callistus)

“Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves”

Genesis 11

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“May His Memory Be Eternal”

On January 28, 2020, at 10:55 AM, Our Brother Roger Hunt peacefully reposed in The Lord.

Roger was a part of St. Seraphim’s Fellowship for many years. He selflessly gave of his time and was a blessing to everyone he came in contact with. He

was a faithful man who had a deep love for the people in prison. Please remember him in your prayers. Roger was a musician and composer with a wonderful voice and loved to sing and chant in the choir at Church. May the merciful God grant Roger repose in His paradise where Roger can join his voice with the heavenly hosts who praise our God continually before the Throne. Please pray for Roger and his daughters Rebecca and Rachel.

Many of you from Tomoka CI and Union CI

will remember him.

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“A Rational and Logical Mind?”

By: Fr. Stephen Powley

How would you respond to some well-meaning Christians who said they did not want to lose their rational and logical minds by joining an “organized religion”? Over the years of being a prison chaplain, I encountered many, many men who had embraced that very thinking. They felt that submitting to the authority of the Church was something they could never do because it meant giving up their minds. They also believe that they only need their Bible and their rational, logical minds. It seems that same thought has become so very popular in our society today. Perhaps the first question we could ask those Bible believing Christians who do not want to lose their rational thought process in some Church (which of course we know isn’t the case at all) is: Where in the Bible do you find rational and logical thinking working out well?

Ananias & Sapphira certainly seemed to be using very rational and logical thinking in Acts 5…oh, but they ended up dead.

Nadab & Abihu (Numbers 3) offering incense to the Lord sounded quite rational and logical, but they also ended up dead.

Israel demanded a king and who was a more logical choice than Saul as he was handsome and bigger than anyone else (1 Samuel 9-10)…that really worked out for them (forgive my sarcasm). That list can go on and on through the entire Bible…with logical and rational thinking not turning out well.

So then, let’s consider historically what happened within Christianity. We find a great deal of rational, logical thinking by people using the Holy Scriptures.

Arius was quite logical in his teaching that the Son of God was not co-eternal and consubstantial with His Father.

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Pelagius taught that the role of Jesus was only to be viewed as “setting a good example” and that Divine Grace has no place in the life of a Christian…we have the full responsibility for our own salvation.

Sabellius used his rational mind with the Bible to teach that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are simply different modes or aspects of one God, rather than three distinct persons (a total denial of the Holy Trinity).

Nestorius used his rational mind to discover that the Holy Scriptures pointed out that Jesus was not God come in the flesh (a total denial of the Incarnation). The list of heretics using their logical and rational minds goes on and on, with many still at work today. Simply using our rational and logical minds to understand a God that is far beyond our comprehension are the very things heresies are made of… and how they continue to exist today. If you sit through a presentation from certain heretical groups, they will continually ask you: “Doesn’t this make sense to you?” They learned long ago the best approach is to appeal to rational and logical thinking.

There is Truth in this universe and at some point we have to accept the fact that our rational minds may not arrive at it because some of the things of God are truly beyond our comprehension.

May we take seriously these words of the Holy Prophet Isaiah (55:8-9): “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

This leads us to the Seven Ecumenical Councils which handed down the Truth that had always been believed from Christ through His Apostles and on to their disciples and on to their disciples through each generation. Each of those heretics mentioned earlier were dealt with in one of those ecumenical councils. God doesn’t call each Christian to have to figure out all of these things on our own…over and over again. Through the Holy Spirit those councils verified those handed-down truths and it is those truths that we stand on today.

Our rational or logical minds will never wrap themselves around the Holy Trinity or the Incarnation. Those are truths beyond our comprehension.

“If you could understand the Holy Trinity, then the Holy Trinity would not be God!”

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If these “non-organized church” folks would use their “rational, logical minds” to grasp these arguments both from Holy Scripture and from history, they may be able to see their need to get back to the Church that has not changed with every wind of doctrine that blows by. Here there is great safety. This is not simply a blind acceptance with a thoughtless mind, but rather it is a mind that embraces the Truth that has been handed down. Without that foundation, rational and logical thinking has led to the thousands of divisions within Christianity. They all proclaimed that they used the Bible and their rational, logical minds and they gave us schism after schism until Christianity as a whole now has the look of a shattered mirror. We have a responsibility to do our best in using our minds to present such mysteries to those logical, rational Christians.

God did not create us to be robots nor does He call us to act as such. He calls us to use our minds, but from the foundation of truth… not in order to invent or come up with our own truth, but in order to walk in that truth. Consider these words of the Holy Apostle John from his third epistle: “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”

The Holy Apostle John passed that truth on to his disciples. St. Ignatius learned from him and passed that truth on to his disciples and so on. The only hope for heresies in today’s world is that people continue to ignore the Early Church (or dismiss it as having become corrupt right after the Apostles died). The best hope for Christianity today is to go back to the Early Church and those Seven Ecumenical Councils and to begin “walking in the truth.” That brought St. John joy in the first century and it will no doubt bring joy to our Lord today!

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“The Liturgies of America”

Fr. Stephen Freeman

I will be far from the first to observe that football in America has a sort of religious cast. If “liturgy” means a “work of the people,” then football is its clearest manifestation in our culture. When a team wins, there is a deep, abiding sense within its fans that “we won.” The constant use of “we” through public discussions indicates that we experience this sport as something in which we “participate” – it is an act of communion. To some degree, it is the most profound act of communion within our culture.

Though it is true that far more people attend Church than attend football games, it is nonetheless true that football draws a wider, more “ecumenical” audience. Basketball lost a hero a week or so ago with the sudden death of Kobe Bryant in a helicopter accident. A nation needs public liturgies in which to honor the dead and to mourn. It is not surprising, therefore, that the Superbowl, though dedicated to a different sport, saw fit to make just such a remembrance.

The ancient meaning of “liturgy” referred to a public work. For example, in ancient Athens, during times of war, it was not unusual for the rich to donate the cost of building a warship. Such a donation was known as a “liturgy,” a “public work,” or, “a work for the people.” There were other such donations. The expenses for a large public event such as the feasting and the sacrifices that accompanied a major celebration would be a “liturgy.” It is rather interesting that this word came to be the one used by the Church to designate its public worship services.

The role played by public ceremonies is among the oldest aspects of human civilization. It has varied from culture to culture and from culture-god to culture-god. Maintaining the assurance of divine blessing was but one concern. The other, more to my point, was the public participation in the mystery of communal existence. Individualism is a very modern thing. Most societies have been marked far more by their sense of participation in the whole. I think that modern individualism is a bit of a thin veneer that masks a much deeper, darker participation in society as a whole. For, in truth, we cannot survive as mere individuals: we are sustained by our place within a larger scheme.

What do people gain from their place within a larger scheme? We derive purpose, meaning (for a time), sometimes forgiveness and atonement. Note that I am discussing all of these things in terms of anthropology. Any religion, any public liturgy, can do these things. If they do not, we find new ones. If I make a distinction regarding the liturgies of the Christian Church (such as those of the Orthodox) it is that they represent a public work that is rooted and grounded in the work of Christ as received in Holy Tradition. As such, they are not examples of our modern cultural liturgies.

Many people will be unaware that the American Congress used to call for national days of fasting during times of crisis. In March of 1863, the Congress and the President called on the nation to pray and do acts of “humiliation” (fasting), in repentance for our sins, with a view that the civil war taking place was, perhaps, a just punishment for the nation’s sins. Times have changed.

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I had a recent conversation with a friend about the impossibility of national repentance in America, for the simple reason that there is no way to publicly liturgize such a thing. In truth, our liturgies have become strange agglomerations of prayer/patriotism/sports. This year’s Superbowl had a moment (ever so brief) of silence for Kobe Bryant and the other victims of his helicopter crash. It had an intense period of patriotism where both America the Beautiful and the National Anthem were sung, complete with presentation of the flag and a military flyover.

I have served military funerals now and again, always with a sense of awkwardness. There is nothing lacking in the funeral rites of the Orthodox Church (nor were there any particular lacunae (blank space or a missing part) in the Anglican funerals I served for 20 years before my conversion). The addition of military ritual, which is exceedingly stiff, and modeled, quite likely, on those of the Masons, always seemed rather jarring. It’s just awkward. America is a country, not a belief.

Public liturgy is particularly difficult for a nation that has slowly changed the notion of “secular” into the absence of religion, or anything readily identified as such. The emotional needs of the nation have not changed – only its way of expressing them.

The Superbowl generally represents the largest television audience for a single event in the year. Many games have some of the same liturgical elements: patriotism with a dash of remembrance. Oddly church services in some circles have added the same elements. When the 4th of July falls on a Sunday, many churches have services in which strictly patriotic hymns are sung. A Baptist Church in a nearby town has 2nd Amendment rallies (bring your guns).

I have twice lived in towns where the local college team won a national championship. It is difficult to describe the euphoria that settles in following such an achievement. Locally, Tennessee last won a national championship in 1998 and has fallen on hard times. The magic of the autumn Saturday liturgies has begun to wane with attendance in decline as well. America (and her liturgies) wants winners. In truth, patriotic narratives are simply too thin to sustain human existence.

The gradual rise in what would become modernity occurred at the same time as the rise of the nation state. Over time, the nation state has been the focus of modernity’s hopes. If we harness our collective will (we imagine), we can build a better world. As such, patriotism has become the religious expression of modernity (complete with the occasional refrain of “God shed His grace on Thee”). Prayers for the state (as well as strongly-held political opinions) seem to expect that the state will be the focus and engine of worldly well-being. Providence has been delegated to the democratic process. We only want the future we choose.

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Of course, all of this is inadequate. Vote as we will, the future will not be controlled. We cannot vote to make ourselves good (much less better). Without a virtuous community, the future will stand little chance of being virtuous. With great frustration we will greet a future that bears a remarkable resemblance to ourselves (the truth of ourselves). Without such a future, there would be little basis for self-knowledge and repentance.

America does not have a liturgy of repentance. The days of fasting once enjoined upon us are a thing of the past. Even then, for all the prayers and fasting of Lincoln’s republic, no particular liturgy ever marked the end of slavery, much less sought to repent for its evils. To this day, many seek to justify its history.

When the Soviet Union fell, within a few short years, Russians began to create memorials and liturgies for the atrocities of the Soviet Union. In Moscow, at the killing fields of Butovo, a Church now stands as a memorial to its victims. Public liturgies are held there on a regular basis. It is one of many such memorials across the country. Our public narrative is very thin.

The Church historian, Martin Marty, once said that American Christianity was “2,000 miles wide and 2 inches deep.” When our Christian theology mimics the triumphant patriotism of our culture, nothing deeper ever begins. Depth comes with suffering. Suffering creates sorrow, and sorrow, of a godly sort, produces repentance. We are bad at enough stuff and have a history sufficiently marked with sorrow to create fertile ground for repentance. It lacks the humility to greet it.

It is ever so much more than a game.

Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom

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Orthodox icon of Jesus Christ Pantocrator. An Encaustic icon

Encaustic means on wood, Discovered in Sinai, at St.

Catherine's Monastery, in the 6th century. One of the most important icons in the Monastery's collection

and represents the two faces of Christ. In which Christ is presented in the act of blessing with His right hand while holding a closed gospel

book in His left. It is the oldest known panel icon to depict Christ.

The composition is simple, the colors are clear: the dark hair, beard and the tunic contrast with the gold

aureole, the decorations of the sacred book and the pallor of the

face, and the remaining space of the panel is filled with a glimpse of architecture. The most singular

aspect of the work is that the two halves of Christ's face express

different emotions: on the side on which He holds the Gospel, His features are hard and severe ,

representing Christ as a Judge who sees all, while the expression on the side with the blessing hand is calm and serene, representing Christ in

His role of savior. The word Pantocrator is Greek,

meaning "Ruler of All." The image expresses the central reality of the Christian faith; the Divine Majesty of the creator and ruler of all the world, made flesh and therefore

visible to us in the person of Christ Jesus our redeemer. This is the oldest known icon of Christ

Pantocrator, written in the sixth century and preserved in the remote monastery of St. Catherine in the Sinai desert. The location enabled

the image to survive the destruction of most icons during the

iconoclastic era in Byzantine history, (726 to 815 AD.).

Lent is approaching (March 2nd) A Time for Repentance, prayer and fasting.