Monday, February 4, 2013

Prayer, Like a Diamond





Whenever I get into a conversation about prayer, ultimately the question arises, “Do you really think we can change God’s mind?”  As mortals, it does seem supremely arrogant to entertain the thought that our wishes and desires move the hand of our omniscient God. We are instructed to pray “Thy will be done” but also to give our petitions to Him, as he loves us and desires to hear from us. (St. Matthew 6)
I don’t have all the answers about the incredible mystery of prayer, but what I have discovered are dimensions to prayer, like a multifaceted diamond. It's not as linear and simple as I used to think.   


One of those dimensions involves the heart of the person praying:  “The prayers of the righteous avail much.” (James 5) speaks to that aspect.  But what has been driven home for me lately is the facet of obedience as related to our prayer life.
It’s not just a matter of praying for someone or a situation; it’s the obedience of praying. It’s the praying when we don’t feel like it, when we feel dry and distant from God.  It’s the act of praying, that communion and worship of God that is both healing and cleansing to us.
I read a story recently, in the Sayings of the Desert Fathers, that illustrates my point [paraphrased] :


One of the monks came to his abba and asked him saying, "Abba, I feel nothing when I read the Bible or pray." So he told the monk to go to his cell and read the Bible and pray for 40 days.   The monk returned after the 40 days and said,  “I feel nothing”.  So abba told him to read & pray for another 40 days.  After 40 days, the monk returned and said again, “I do not feel anything”.  Then abba said to take a basket, fill it up with water and return it to him.  However, because of the weave, the water would not stay in, but drain through the bottom.

The monk tried many times to fill the basket with water but it would empty completely before reaching his destination.   So he came to his abba saying, "I could not get the water to stay in the basket."  So abba asked him saying, "Was there a difference in the basket before you put in the water and after?”  And the monk replied,  “Every time I put the water in, and it would drain, the basket gets washed and becomes whiter.”

So the abba said, "This is right, every time we pray, without noticing, our souls are being cleaned and when we read the Bible, even if we do not understand it at the time,  it is purifying us without realizing it."

Friday, February 1, 2013

Hero of the Faith


Even though it’s been nearly seven years since I became Orthodox, I still receive curious glances from people when asked where I attend church.  Probably stranger still is the incredulity seen (from non-Orthodox) when I talk about Russia and the treasure trove of spirituality to be found there.   
There seems to be a belief  -if indeed anyone thinks about it at all-  that Russia is yet full of atheists, political propaganda and that if Christianity exists there at all, it must be because of American missionaries sharing the Gospel of Christ.  I don’t disparage missionaries to Russia necessarily.  I just think that, sadly, some of them haven’t a clue about Russia’s rich cultural heritage, of the saints and martyrs this land holds.  We need more missionaries from Russia to come here, to the United States.  A land untested by such fire.
The fact is, Russia has been a Christian land longer than America has been a nation. Much longer.  Christianity came to Kievan Rus in the 10th century via glorious Byzantium; a spreading of the Light just as Constantinople became that beacon after the fall of the western Roman Empire.  Looking at history in this way, one can see the amazing hand of God at work through those who love Him.  One may argue that it is thanks to Christian Russia that North America became subject to this great Light, by way of the saints traveling from Russia to what is now Alaska.   Praise God for St. Innocent and St. Herman! †
Christian Russia continues to bear witness to the great Light of Christ; we have to look no further back, for one example, to the mid twentieth century.  I want to share one of those Light-Bearers with you, as I learned his story from Archimandrite Tikhon in his excellent book, Everyday Saints and Other Stories. 
His name was Ivan Mikhailovich Voronov.  He was a decorated WWII veteran, having served for four years as a soldier on the front lines against German aggression (yes, if you’re born after 1990, did you know that Russia was an ally of the United States during WWII ?)  He told the story of being in the midst of that German fire and hellish chaos and promising God that if he survived, he would dedicate the rest of his life to God and retire to the monastery.  In his words:

 “Imagine the German tanks charging our front lines, their machine guns firing, cannon shells blazing, just cutting us down, sweeping away almost everyone in their path, and suddenly in the midst of this utter hell I saw how our battlefield commissar tore off his helmet, even as the bullets were flying around him, and fell to his knees, and began to pray... yes, indeed, somehow this ‘Communist’ was able to mutter the half-forgotten words of the prayers he used to know as a child, begging the Almighty to spare us.  And He did.  That’s when I realized:  God lives inside all of us, and one day He will make his appearance to us, some way or other...”
Ivan Mikhailovich kept his promise and after the war, after serving those years in the Red Army, he went on to become the Great Abbot of the Pskov Caves Monastery, one of only two monasteries in all of Russia that continued to operate under Soviet repression.  With the same fervor that Ivan had demonstrated on the battlefield, he next brought to the defense of a beacon of Light in a darkened land. Ivan Makhailovich Voronov became Father Alipius, as is the custom in the Orthodox Church to take on a new name when entering monasticism and the priesthood. 
Pskov Caves Monastery, located in Pechory, Pskov Oblast in Russia

Fr. Alipius, for 13 years, defended the monastery against the same regime he had given his blood for.  And he did so with such tenacity, such wit and strength that one can only conclude God blessed him to meet the challenges of his day.
By those who knew him best, he was described as:

 “a fearless spiritual warrior and the ideal of a demanding and yet loving father.”  
“brilliant and often biting wit”
“governed by conscience alone”

As I read his story I couldn’t help but think of the crusty old men I have been blessed to know who were WWII vets.  Men who somehow, by the grace of God, were able to retain gentle loving hearts even though their lives had borne witness to some of the greatest horrors of mankind.  Men who had a fierce love of America, their fellow man AND God, having gone down into the pits to wrestle demons most of us can’t even imagine. 
Fr. Alipius was practical, earthy... a man’s man.  He obviously had no fear of the Soviet state, even if during his lifetime he witnessed the widespread destruction of both churches and monasteries.  He knew priests and other men & women who came under arrest because of their belief in God, an “enemy to the state”.  Year after year he fought with intelligence and wit to keep the monastery alive and protect his monks, over half of whom were highly decorated veterans of WWII.  Others had survived Stalin’s camps.  These were not weak men. 
A recorded eye-witness account tells of how, “on one winter evening several men in plain clothes marched into the office of Father Alipius and handed him an official command:  the Pechory Monastery near Pskov was officially closed.  The abbot was hereby commanded to so inform the personnel of the monastery.  Having read the document, Father Alipius tossed the paper into a blazing fire right before the very eyes of these officers.
To the astonishment of his visitors he calmly declared: “I am willing to undergo martyrdom and death by torture if it comes to that, but I will never close the monastery.”
The paper that he had just cast into the fire was an official decree of the government of the USSR, and had been signed by Nikita Khrushchev himself.”
Photos from the book, Archimandrite Alipius on a snowy day in Pechory

Fr. Alipius ruled by conscience alone, as God gave him direction and discernment.  His example is one of many that boasts the spiritual depth of a people that have been tested through fires America cannot fathom.  He is a hero of Russia, certainly, but so much more, a hero to Christendom.  Thank you Father Alipius.

May his memory be eternal
 †

I encourage you to get the book to read the rest of Fr. Alipius' amazing story plus many more inspiring people of faith.  Proceeds from this book go toward building a cathedral in Moscow to commemorate the victims of communist repression in Russia.

Happy Feast Day!

A blessed St. Brigid's Feast Day to you!



Holy Savior Cathedral, Bruges, Belgium
keeps in reverence a wool, Irish cloak believed
to be St. Brigid's own.

†  †  †

For our feast, we'll have quiche, boxty pancakes, stuffed mushrooms and homemade bread.  And later, cake!

†  †  †

A common blessing among friends was the hope that they would be fa bhrat Bhrighde, "under Brigid's Cloak", as her mantle was long remembered as a sign of protection and generous hospitality.



The Light of Christ shines gloriously through his saints!






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