ALTVÄTER. Archimandrit Ephraim von Arizona

Athos der Film- Trailer und Eindrücke

Eindrücke von Athanasios Hailas, einem orthodoxen Bruder im Herrn (vielen Dank nochmals :) ):

Kurz: der Film hat mir in jedem Aspekt sehr gut gefallen und mich in seiner Einfachkeit sehr berührt.

Als ich schrieb, ich sei gespannt auf den Inhalt, dachte ich, es gäbe einen Sprecher. Den gibt es nicht. In diesem Film kommen nur die Leute zu sprechen, über die der Film gemacht wurde. Es handelt sich hierbei um drei Mönche, von denen einer Eremit ist. Die Aufnahmen gingen über drei Jahre.

Gezeigt wurden Eindrücke aus dem alltäglichen Leben der Mönche. Sei dies das Gebet in der Zelle, die Liturgie, das Brotbacken, Ofen aufbauen, Berg besteigen und Tiere tränken, den Weinanbau machen, zum Fischen rausfahren - und das zu verschiedenen Jahreszeiten (was halt so anfällt). Die Mönche sprachen nicht viel, aber sehr herzlich. Von wo sie herkommen, wo sie schon waren. Dass sie ihr Handwerk machen, weil dem Mensch ein Werk wichtig sei. Gebet, Werk, Kontemplation. Somit bringen sie eine Stabilität in ihr Leben, und das trägt sie. Auch sie haben natürlich Leidenschaften, und hatten auch oft hässliche Gedanken über das, was sie machen, aber eben dieses regelmäßige, abgeschiedene Leben hilft diesen Menschen, ihr Leben zu meistern.

Es war keine tiefe Theologie dabei. Aber diese einfachen Worte in einfacher Sprache waren absolut geerdet, nachvollziehbar - na ja und sehr herzlich.

Was mir am allerstärksten im Gedächtnis geblieben ist, und mir einen unheimlich tiefen Eindruck hinterlassen hat, war, dass die Mönche in ihrem Tagewerk immer wieder das Jesusgebet zitierten oder eine kurze Fürbitte an die Mutter Gottes aussprachen. Dabei klang das nicht ehrwürdig oder ergreifend, sondern ganz einfach und alltäglich. Da habe ich mir zum ersten Mal gedacht, genauso muss es sein, mehr braucht es nicht. Es war vor allem NATÜRLICH und überhaupt nicht aufgesetzt.

Das hat mich wirklich sehr tief beeindruckt und ich habe mich gefragt, warum ich das nicht auch hin und wieder - spontan - in meinem Tagewerk mache. Kostet nichts und tut eigentlich gut. Schon dafür allein bin ich dankbar, dass ich in diesem Film reingegangen bin.

Mit wie wenig diese Menschen auskommen und sich in ihren Sein und Tun in ihrer Umgebung einpassen hat mir ins Auge gestochen.

Was der Film nicht war: keine Dokumentation über den Athos, sondern auf das Leben dieser drei Menschen fokusiert. Natürlich gab es auch den einen oder anderen geistlichen Höhepunkt, so zum Beispiel eine Mönchsweihe. Und die ganzen Arbeiten, die dazu parallel anfielen (Kochen, und zwar in Riesentöpfen - und diese Leute KÖNNEN kochen!!!!).

Natürlich gab es auch Landschaftsaufnahmen. WOW! Eingesetzt wurde u.a. auch eine Helicam. Das sind wir noch nicht so gewöhnt, aber der Einsatz von Drohnen wird uns in der Zukunft immer öfter begegnen.

Ich sage nur: atemberaubend. So manche Aufnahme aus der Luft wäre auf solch eine Nähe mit einem Flugzeug oder Hubschrauber nicht möglich gewesen.

Alles in allem strahlten die Menschen, die Szenen und die Umgebung Ruhe aus. Untermalt wurde das hin und wieder auch mit byzantischen Gesängen (Simonopetra).

Erwartungsgemäß waren nicht sehr viele Leute im Kino. Die allerwenigsten von denen die waren, waren erkennbar Orthodoxe (ein paar Serben waren da) - ansonsten waren das, schätze ich, interessierte Nichtorthodoxe. Was mir sehr gut gefallen hat, war, dass niemand gesprochen hat und dass die Leute wirklich bis zum Ende des Abspanns dageblieben sind. Da war keine Aufbruchstimmung da, sondern eine Ruhe, wie ich sie von Kinopubliken eher nicht gewohnt bin. Sehr, sehr schön.

Ich war nicht alleine im Kino, sondern mit einem jungen Freund aus Samothraki, der in den letzten Jahren zum Glauben gefunden hat und sich sehr darüber gefreut hat, dass ich ihn darauf angesprochen habe. Natürlich haben wir hinterher über unseren Glauben gesprochen und ausgemacht, mal zusammen auf den Athos zu gehen. Außerdem hat uns die Einfachkeit des Lebens auf dem Athos, das Reiten auf dem Muli, das stundenlange Gehen, um einen anderen Ort zu erreichen, die Berge und das Meer sehr an das frühere Leben auf Samothraki erinnert. Seufz... :-)

Natürlich gab es auch die obligatorischen byzantinischen Gesänge.

Was ich ein bißchen vermisst habe, war das nicht-griechische Element auf dem Athos. Es gab zwar eine Szene in der der Epitaph (das Grabtuch Christi) am Karfreitag um die Kirche geführt wurde, und da es nur das Grabtuch war, glaube ich, dass es Russen sein könnten (Bei den Griechen liegt das Grabtuch noch auf einer Bahre, außer auf dem Athos ist es anders).

Aber als erster Eindruck über den Athos ist der Film für den "westlichen Betrachter" (und auch für so manchen östlichen) optimal. Er überfordert nicht, wechselt sich gut ab zwischen Landschaften und Alltagsszenen und lässt die Hauptpersonen sprechen.

Ich hoffe, ich konnte das gut wiedergeben und bedanke mich bei Euch, die Ihr Interesse an den Eindrücken vom Film bekundet habt. Bitte entschuldigt, dass es so lange gedauert hat, aber ich bin vorher nicht dazu gekommen.

Euch allen den reichlichen Segen Gottes und den inneren Frieden und Ruhepol, den wir doch alle irgendwo suchen...

Lieben Gruß,

Athanasios

PS: "Der Athos ist der höchste Punkt auf der Welt" - Zitat aus dem Film (glaube ich)

Wie die Tugenden zur Sünde werden

Der Sinai, alte Ikone

Der heilige Gregor vom Sinai zeigt vier grundlegende Tugenden auf:
Weisheit, Tapferkeit, Enthaltsamkeit, Wahrheit.
Aus Stolz degeneriert die Tapferkeit zu Tollkühnheit oder Furchtsamkeit, die Weisheit zu Feigheit oder Unwissenheit, die Keuschheit zu Unenthaltsamkeit oder Gefühlslosigkeit, die Wahrheit zu Habsucht oder Unwahrhaftigkeit.
 Bei dem geistigen Streiter stellen sich durch seine Anstrengungen der Reihe nach folgende Tugenden ein: Enthaltsamkeit, Fasten, Wachsamkeit, Geduld, Tapferkeit, Schweigsamkeit, Gebet, Stillschweigen, Weinen, Demut. Die sündenverhaftete Seele hat ihrerseits auch ihre Erlebnisse. Die Dämonen flößen ihr Gedanken ein, und der Wille neigt sich freiwillig zur Sünde.
Die Materie erzeugt reine Gedanken, der dämonische Angriff jedoch schlechte. Bei einem Vergleich unterscheiden sich also die natürlichen Gedanken und Worte von den nicht-natürlichen und übernatürlichen. Böse Gedanken gehen den Phantasiebildern voraus, und auf die Phantasien folgen die Leidenschaften.

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The Holy New Martyr Maxim Sandovich (1886-1914) - Fr. Edward Pehanich

 

St. Maxim was born in 1886 in Zdynia in the Lemko region of Carpatho-Rus which was then a part of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy in present day Poland. His father, Tymofej, was the cantor of Zydnia’s Greek Catholic church. After completing his education in the nearby town of Jaslo and Nowy Sacz, he entered the Greek Catholic Basilian monastery in Krakow. Dissatisfied with the attempts to Latinize the Eastern rite to make it more acceptable to the Roman Catholic majority and also attempts to denationalize the Rusyns, he crossed the border into the Russian empire and entered the famed Orthodox monastery at Pochaev. It was while at the monastery that his outstanding potential attracted the attention of the illustrious Bishop Anthony (Khrapovitsky) who enrolled him in the Orthodox seminary in Zhitomir.

Fr. Maxim

He completed his seminary studies in 1911 and that same year married Pelagia Grigoryuk and was ordained to the Holy Priesthood. At that time in the Lemko region there was a growing movement away from the Greek Catholic Church to the Orthodox Faith of their ancestors. Fr. Maxim returned home to serve the Orthodox faithful in the villages of Hrab, Vysovatka and Dovhe. After serving his first Divine Liturgy in Hrab on December 2, 1911, the Austrian authorities, suspicious of the Orthodox Faith for its alleged Russian sympathies, issued an order forbidding any further Orthodox services. Fr. Maxim ignored the order and continued to conduct services in village homes. He was repeatedly fined and held under temporary arrest. Before Pascha in 1912, he was again arrested with his friend and spiritual father, Father Ignatij Hudyma, and held in prison for two years in a Lviv prison until their trial began on March 9, 1914. After being found not guilty he immediately returned to his native village and continued minister to his Orthodox parishioners. Martyrdom
With the outbreak of World War I, Fr. Maxim was again arrested and imprisoned on August 4, 1914 along with his entire family. Fr. Maxim, his father, mother, brother, and wife were forced to travel on foot to the prison while being prodded by the bayonets of the soldiers. In prison they were placed in separate cells and denied the opportunity to see each other. This time, however, there would be no court trial. On the morning of September 6, Fr. Maxim awoke in his cell and read his morning prayers as usual. Austrian soldiers led the twenty-eight year old priest from his cell to a wall in the prison courtyard where he was bound and blindfolded. As he was being led from his cell Fr. Maxim realized where they were taking him and humbly and with dignity asked, "Be so good as not to hold me. I will go peacefully wherever you wish."    There they ripped his priestly cross from his chest and threw it to the dirt, marking an “X” with chalk over his heart for a target. Before the command to execute the priest was given, Father Maxim was heard to shout:  “Long live the Rus’ people, long live Orthodoxy!”  As the shots rang out the martyr slumped to the ground. To assure that he was dead three more blasts of a revolver were emptied into his head. On September 12, St. Maxim’s father, his pregnant wife, and brother were sent to the concentration camp at Talerhof in the far western part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. While in the camp Pelagia gave birth to a son she named Maxim in honor of his father. Like his father, the younger Maxim also entered the priesthood serving the Lemko Rusyn people faithfully until his death in 1991.
 

The Holy New Martyr Maxim Sandovich

     His Canonization
In September 1994, the official glorification of St. Maxim began in the courtyard of the Gorlice Court House where the saint had been martyred, where a bronze plaque marking the tragic event was placed on the wall. Following this service, a procession of hierarchs, including our Metropolitan Nicholas of blessed memory, clergy and faithful entered the Holy Trinity Church in Gorlice for the service of glorification.
For the glorification of a saint, ordinarily the saint’s relics would be exhumed from their grave and transferred in procession to the church. The bishops of the Orthodox Church of Poland decided to delay the transfer, fearing it would provoke the areas’ Roman Catholics who reluctantly tolerate the Orthodox presence. Finally on September 5-6, 2007, the martyr’s relics were transferred from the village cemetery in Zdynia to the Holy Trinity Church in Gorlice, Poland where they are enshrined on the right side of the icon screen.

The Witness of Martyrs

Our Lord said: Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell (Matthew 10:28). The life of this new hieromartyr (priest-martyr) echo the words of Jesus. St. Maxim had no fear of threats from the government, imprisonment, abuse, insults and even a firing squad. When this newly-ordained priest was arrested for serving an Orthodox Divine Liturgy his first action on being freed was to immediately return to his flock and resume his priestly ministry. The Lord’s words in the Book of Revelation apply well to St. Maxim:  Be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life (Revelation 2:10). In my many years working as a hospice chaplain I have often been summoned by doctors and nurses to the bedside of a terminally ill patient who is fearful of his approaching death. These medical professionals assume, rightly so, that it is primarily an active faith that can help a person face this fear. The promise of the Lord Jesus to us is that if we believe in Him and our lives are joined to His we have nothing to fear in death. But while the death and resurrection of our Savior have removed our fear of death, Jesus does not desire that all of our fears vanish. He does want us to be afraid of something! He wants us to be afraid of the right things, to be fearful of things that should be fear:  ...fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his soul? (Matthew 16:26). The life of St. Maxim Sandovich, faithful priest shines forth this truth!

Troparion    (Tone 4)
Moved by the providence of God to go to Mount Pochaev,
there to learn the rightness of the Orthodox Faith
you attained unto true teaching in the city of Zhitomir
and returned to your own country as a brave warrior of Christ.
For Orthodoxy and your people you received the crown of martyrdom
and thereby made your native land steadfast in the Holy Faith.
O hieromartyr Maxim, entreat Christ God that our souls be saved.

Source and thanks to http://www.pravoslavie.ru

Orthodoxe Kapelle des hl. Bartholomäus in St. Andrä am Zicksee, Österreich.

Seliger Paisios - Prophezeiung über das Siegel des Antichristen

Wir leben in schweren Tagen und wir (die Christen) werden Mühen und vielleicht sogar das Martyrium (durch andere) während des Sturmes, der ausbrechen wird, erleben. Nur wer ein spirituelles Leben führt, wird das durchstehen können. Man darf sich nicht der Verzweiflung hingeben. Diese schwierigen Zeiten sind ein Segen, weil sie uns dazu bringen, uns noch mehr Christus anzunähern. Es ist eine guten Gelegenheit uns noch mehr im (guten) Kampf zu üben.
Dieser Krieg findet nicht mit Waffen statt, sondern ist spirituell, gegen den Antichristen. Er wird versuchen, wenn möglich, selbst die Auswerwählten in die Irre zu führen.

Alles wird durch das Biest kontrolliert werden, von Brüssel aus. Nach den (Chip-) Karten und die (neuen) Ausweise (mit Chip), werden sie mit List das Siegel einführen. Sie werden die Menschen dazu nötigen, sich auf Hand oder Stirn das Siegel anbringen zu lassen. Nur diejenigen, die das Siegel haben werden, werden verkaufen und einkaufen können. Die Gläubigen, die es nicht annehmen werden, werden viele Leiden durchstehen.

Deswegen wäre es gut, sich jetzt schon daran zu gewöhnen, einfach zu leben, ein zwei Felder zu bestellen, ein paar Ölbäume oder vielleicht ein Tier zu besitzen, um das Notwendigste für die Familie zu haben. Das große Bedrängnis wird drei oder dreieinhalb Jahre andauern. Gott wird die Menschen nicht ohne Seine Hilfe lassen.

The Spiritual Struggle - Fr. Andreas Agathokleos

1. If somebody isn’t thinking and says something that annoys you, don’t get upset. Ignore them. Never mind what they said. Is that a reason for you to burn? In cases like that, say nothing. Instead of saying ‘That mother-in-law of mine’ll be the death of me’, say, ‘That mother-in-law of mine’ll be the saving of me’. Let me not do anything bad. Let me not think badly of her when she’s my salvation’. The Scriptures say ‘defeat evil with good’. Let’s not do bad things. Good people don’t do bad things when other people are bad or something unpleasant happens.
2. We should always see the good in people. Because if we see what’s not good, we’ll certainly see lots of things, because there’s nobody deficient in those.
3. If you want an infallible society, without imperfections, without differences and contrasts, you’re not going to find it, no matter where you go. On one day, you might not find anything bad, but you certainly will the next. That’s the society we live in.
4. We should be magnanimous. The grace of the Holy Spirit gives magnanimity. ‘The fruits of the Holy Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness and restraint’. ‘Those who are of Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires…’ Because once a passion’s inflamed, it’s difficult.
5. Do you wonder how the evil enemy of humankind works? He fights so that we don’t take communion, don’t go to confession. Once, in paradise, he tricked us into eating the forbidden fruit. Now he sets out to stop us approaching the sacraments of the Church.
6. If we’re crucified and we suffer with Christ, we’ll rise with Him. But in any case, first comes work, then the reward. The effort always go before the crown [cf. William Penn: ‘No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown’].
7. Submission is a great value. Even greater is not to expect other people to set any store by you.
8. Satan hinders us from doing good. If we manage to, he either makes us regret it or be proud of it. We should do good for the glory of God, for the glory and grace of God and the benefit of souls, not for our own glory.
9. When an icon-lamp gives light to others, is its own diminished? As long as it’s lit, it’s got light. Often enough, there’s smoke as well- pride- so we need to add oil. The Holy Spirit’s the oil. Then the devil praises you, so that you become puffed up and you won’t get your reward. You have to say ‘Get thee behind me, Satan’. As David did at the time of his repentance, when he was under attack by demonic powers and he cried aloud to God with all his soul: ‘Hasten to help me…let those who seek my soul be ashamed… let those who wish me evil be put to shame… let those whose say to me, “Fine, fine!” be turned back immediately ashamed’.
10. We should try and live in moderation. Moderation in speech, in words, in actions, in the way we look at things, in everything. Joy, sorrow and love should all be in moderation. The only exception is God. Him we should love as much as we can.
11. We have to love our neighbour ‘as ourselves’. For alms, ‘as much as seems good; but not miserably or by force’. It’s a matter of ‘diagnosis’: depending on the place, the time and the purpose. You see, even God gives in due measure. ‘To each of us grace has been given in accordance with the measure of Christ’s gift’.
12. When we humble ourselves, grace is abundant. We have to be reasonable in all things, measured. We do so much without thinking or out of some passion.
13. When we get angry, it makes the soul boil. When we act weakly, feebly or lethargically it’s a sign of coldness.
14. When grace comes to dwell in someone, unclean spirits can’t come in. And the Scriptures say that when an unclean spirit departs from a person, it passes through ‘waterless places’, seeking rest. And then it says ‘I’ll return to the house which I left. When it comes, it finds it empty, swept and beautifully arranged’ and then brings in another seven demons and so ‘the last state is worse than the former’. So we need to pray for our souls continuously.
15. Nobody can boast that they never fall. Some people have virtues by nature and yet, despite that, struggle hard to acquire what’s beyond nature- no passions. We who don’t have virtues want to acquire them without effort. That doesn’t happen. Even insignificant things require effort, humility and grace. How much more so things that are really important! Without patience and effort in small things, we’ll never get anywhere. It needs more fervent prayer and humility. With practice and by the grace of God, we’ll slowly get there.
16. Let’s not reproach other people; even if they do us down and do us harm, it doesn’t matter. Because if we reproach them we’ll make them ashamed. Whatever we suffer, whatever people do to us, God takes note of it and it’ll be a cause for us to enjoy greater spiritual gifts. Because what we suffer helps us in the struggle to mortify the passions and find humility. When people strive, they want to be tested, so that they don’t go through the same things again, which would be senseless repetition.
17. The devil’s always working against us. Every day he neither sleeps nor drinks. Our struggle is against ‘the rulers, the authorities the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places’ This is why we [stand] ‘with the belt of truth fastened about our waist… and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God’. We do what we can, we should resist as far as possible.
18. When we accept a situation that’s distressing for us, we immediately feel lighter. We may not get over it entirely, but the pain becomes bearable. We should always say ‘give us faith and grace’.
19. The devil was waging war against a monk to make him fall. He made great efforts. He tried all the tricks he knows but couldn’t get round him. He pressed him to leave the monastery, but the monk wouldn’t. The Evil One said to him: ‘You’re fighting me and winning but you won’t get away from me. If you live forty years, I won’t leave you in peace, until I make you fall’, When he’d said this, the monk thought, ‘Why am I sat here quarrelling with him. I’ll go to my village and put my affairs in order…’ He set out. ‘Where are you off to?’ one of the fathers said to him. ‘I’m coming back’, he replied. ‘Come back now’ said the other, ‘this is another one of his ploys’. He did as he was told and turned back and said, ‘I’ll stay here till I die’.
20. I believe there’s not a person in the world who’s got everything, who’s not tested, who doesn’t have a cross to bear.
21. If we harbour an antipathy, anger, revulsion, a complaint, it’s like a house that’s not cared for. It gets dusty, the windows become dirty, and the yard fills up with weeds and muck. If you open it, you’re afraid to go in. We have to clean every day, because the devil brings obstacles and makes the house of our soul his own. When he wants to make a nest, he brings in straw and clay and so on. As long as we get rid of what he brings in every day, he can’t make a nest. Even more, if we break his eggs, there won’t be any fledglings.
22. In the heavenly battle, there are two opposing wills: the one is rational the other, the inferior, is that of the senses. It’s irrational, an appetite of the flesh and passion. With the superior, we want what’s best; with the inferior what’s worst. This confirms what Saint Paul says: ‘But I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretch that I am. Who will rescue me from this body of death’. ‘For I don’t do the good I want, but the evil I don’t want’.
23. The day that’s in our best interests is one when we suffer more. If we don’t suffer, we’re like someone who’s opened their shop and nobody comes in to buy anything. It’s not the spectators that win prizes, but the athletes who compete fairly.
24. We have to swallow so much, to keep so much down. If we start looking for perfection and infallibility I don’t think we’ll find many people free of censure. We should be satisfied with what we’ve got and happiness will follow. We shouldn’t look at other people, because they’ve got problems as well that we don’t know about.
25. ‘Send Lazarus to tell my brothers to repent’, said Dives, the rich man. This was before the judgement. Any mother who dies and sees her children going astray and sinning is sad. But not after the judgement. ‘No fear, no sorrow, no sighing’, but joy and light. When we have the lights on, we can’t see out to where it’s dark, but those who’re outside in the dark can see us. That’s the way it is in the realm of Paradise, as well.
26. Often enough we try to be more righteous than God, so that nobody should remain outside Paradise. But in that case there’s neither struggle nor restraint.
27. When we think that spiritual things are difficult, it’s because we’re not trying. God helps.
28. In everything we do, we should put Christ first and ourselves last. Not the other way round. Constantine the Great didn’t triumph like that. He won only with the Cross in front of him.
29. Everything we do should be for the glory of God and the benefit of souls. We shouldn’t waste our hours and days but should use them to praise God and provide succour to the souls of other people.
30. Nobody gets through this life unscathed. People who suffer have their reward.
Source: Fr. Andreas Agathokleous, Εμπειρία Αγιότητος. Ταπεινή καταγραφή του βίου, της θαυμαστής πολιτείας και των θεοπνεύστων λόγων του παππού Παναή από τη Λύση. Published by the Orthodox Spiritual Centre of Saint George Makris, Larnaca 2005, pp. 72-77.

Source and thanks to:

Fr. Andreas Agathokleos

Pemptousia

How A Hindu from Fiji Became An Orthodox Priest

By Fr. Barnabas Nair

Greetings to all my beloved Orthodox Christians. I am Fr. Barnabas from Labasa, the second largest island in Fiji. I am taking the opportunity to convey to you how I found the truth in the Orthodox Church.
When I first met His Eminence Mr. Amphilochios on my island Vanua Levu in the city of Savusavu it was a Saturday morning on the 18th of June in 2010. When he visited me in my store, he was standing near my door. I thought he was an ordinary man, but then I saw that he wore a pectoral cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. I took him into my shop. I was very happy and my tears were rolling when I shook hands with him. With his smiling face he called me outside and we had a pleasant conversation.
I managed to meet him again the next Sunday. It was the only time for me to pray with a holy man, I, who up until then was a very strong Hindu and did not want to become a Christian. One evening I invited him to my home to have dinner and to meet my family. Throughout my life being a Hindu no one ever visited my family. But that which His Eminence did by visiting me, despite me not being a Christian, was an emotional moment for me and left me speechless. We had some discussions and later he asked me if I wanted to change my faith and become an Orthodox Christian. Something that I easily noticed was that he was a man full of love and true faith.

Later he took me and my family to Greece, and then I was ordained a deacon in Rhodes in the Monastery of Panagia Ipseni. We came to know what Orthodoxy is. It is a true faith and today I feel proud that I am an Orthodox Christian. When I see churches and monasteries, tears fall from my eyes and I thank our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who changed our life into Orthodox Christians.
Then after a week I was ordained a priest in the Church of Saint Gregory Palamas in Thessaloniki. It was a great day for my family and for the people of my island of Vanua Levu. In my life I never thought I would become an Orthodox priest and I am very proud and want to thank our Lord Jesus Christ.
I assure you that with the help of God and the blessing of His Eminence Amphilochios I will bring in many Orthodox Christians on my island, in the Church of Saint Athanasius and Saint Nicholas in Vanua Levu. The grace of our God and His infinite mercy be with you.
I want to thank His Eminence Archbishop Amphilochios for my ordination to the diaconate, as well as the nuns and fathers of the monastery in Tharri of Rhodes. I would also like to give my heartfelt thanks to the residents of Rhodes for the care and love shown us during our stay on the island.
Finally, I want to thank the people of the Orthodox Brotherhood of Foreign Missions in Thessaloniki for their great support during my ordination and throughout the entire duration of my stay there.

Source and thanks to  http://journeytoorthodoxy.com

From Roman Catholic Spain to Wisconsin Orthodox

by Jorge Luque
I was born in a nominally Roman Catholic family, though they did not practice their faith. I was baptised in the RC church, and some years later, about the age of nine, had my first communion. And that was all my Christian formation, those two separate instances without anything in between. My family did not go to church, except for baptisms, weddings, and funerals.
I was more or less like them until I was a teenager, when I converted, or rather came back, to the Roman Catholic faith.
I was 16 years old when, after undergoing a severe and long depression, I turned back to the faith of my “forefathers”. That was my thought back then, that is, to make a turn around, returning to my cultural and religious roots. The love for tradition was very strong in me, and was leading me step by step to the true faith, though not directly, for I had to go first through a period in my life dominated by the Roman Catholic faith.
I was sitting in a public library when, reading the first words of the first chapter of St. John’s Gospel, something, finally, changed in me. That was a turning point for me, the moment in which I decided to turn to God.
Months later I went on a pilgrimage to the tomb of Apostle St. James in Spain. After reaching my destination and praying at the apostle’s tomb, I visited and then joined a nearby Roman Catholic monastery of the Trappist order.
I stayed there for a year as a postulant. I was 18 to 19 years old.
It was one of the best periods of my life, that monastery was like a school where to learn about my recently embraced faith. But I could not stay there, for I felt clearly that monasticism was not my calling, and I desired very strongly to get married and start my own family. So I decided to leave before making any vows. After that year in the monastery, my life was like walking through a wasteland, spiritually speaking. I had no contact whatsoever with other Christians. I used to go to mass every Sunday, even on a daily basis sometimes? but those churches were almost empty, except for some elderly people. After a few years I stopped going to church and abandoned all my personal devotions ( I used to pray the psalms and to say the Jesus prayer.) It was a very long and dark period of my life. Somehow, I clung to my faith, but my heart was getting colder and colder, to the point where I almost stopped feeling.
It was then, when I could not bear it any longer, and my heart was almost drained, that I finally found the Orthodox faith.
I was about to turn 35 years old, and all that I knew about the Orthodox Church I had learned in that Roman Catholic monastery in two 2 books: the Way of the Pilgrim, and the Sayings of the Desert Fathers.
One day I came across a random article on the internet about the fall of the papacy into heresy, and the schism of the West from the Orthodox East. It was just a mediocre article, but for some reason it set off something within me. I began to doubt what I had been told regarding the Roman Catholic dogmas about the pope (papal supremacy, infallibility, and his primacy)
The whole building of my Roman Catholic beliefs fell apart overnight. When that happened I saw myself swimming in a rough sea without any boat, I turn to the Orthodox Church, running away from the chaos in which I was immersed.
A month later, after rejecting the pope and his lies, I embraced my Orthodox faith, though it took me longer to walk into an Orthodox church.
I found a Russian Orthodox Church in Spain, under the Patriarchate of Moscow, about 50 miles from my home, an hour and a half each way by bus. One Sunday I went to this church and spoke to the priest, after liturgy. An elderly lady translated for us because the priest, Fr. Dimitry, did not speak Spanish well.
I told him about my desire to be baptised, to which he answered, very reasonably, that I needed first to go for a while to church every Sunday before being received into the church. That same day during lunch he advised me to go back to the Roman Catholic church, for I definitely would not be able to adapt, because of the language barrier, almost no one spoke Spanish. I assured him that I would adapt and that I was firmly decided to stay in the Orthodox Church. I asked his permission to keep going to liturgy every Sunday. He was very much surprised and told me to come back and even got someone to drive me to and from church.
After a few months going there every Sunday, Fr. Dimitry offered to chrismate me. I declined explaining again that I wanted to be received into the church by baptism, for the sacrament for receiving people into the Church is baptism, not Chrismation, except by economia.
Fr Dimitry told me he did not have a place to baptise me, and that it was not the practise to receive adults through baptism outside of Russia. Then I asked his blessing to come to the USA to be baptised and to go to the seminary for I felt I was called to the priesthood. He gave me his blessing, though he was taken aback.
To make a long story short, 2 years after first going to Fr Dimitry’s church, I saved enough money to pay for a plane ticket and come to the US, to Wisconsin, where Fr Thomas and Matushka Elizabeth Kulp had offered to have me stay in their house and baptise me in their Church. I came 3 months ago now, right before the visit of the Kursk Root icon to our parish. And got baptised on
Holy Saturday of this year. Fr. Thomas and Matushka Elizabeth took me in like a member of their family and offered me a living example of how to live like a true Orthodox Christian. They have encouraged me in my desire to attend seminary and have helped me with this application.
Jorge was just accepted into the seminary program at Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary in Jordanville, NY.

Source and thanks to http://journeytoorthodoxy.com

Seliger Paisios Agiorit - Die Russen und die NATO im kommenden großen Krieg

Die Russen und die NATO werden aufeinanderprallen. Das Feuer, das im Balkan entfacht wurde, wird sich ausbreiten.
 
Die Russen wollen jetzt auf' s Mittelmeer hinaus. Das wird ihr Motiv sein. Aber das wird nicht die Wahrheit sein. Die Wahrheit ist, dass Gott sie einberufen wird, sie sollen Sein Instrument sein.

Das Siegel des Antichristen - Seliger Paisios Agiorit

Sie wenden Maschinen an, um den Menschen „die Luft zum atmen zu nehmen“ (die Freiheit). Um das Siegel des Antichristen durchzusetzen.

Um uns (die Menschen) zu unterjochen, zu brandmarken. Wie, wenn Krieg ist und die Maulesel, die Pferde, beschlagnahmt und gebrandmarkt werden. Gebrandmarkt, mit einem heißen Eisen.

 

Wenn jemand das Malzeichen akzeptiert, verleugnet er Gott.