Sermon ~ 4th Sunday after Pentecost

Posted on by Fr. Peter
At that time, as Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, beseeching him and saying, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, in terrible distress.” And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” But the centurion answered him, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard him, he marveled, and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such faith. I tell you, many will come from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.” And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; be it done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment. (Matthew 8:5-13)
In this week’s Gospel passage we have another healing of Jesus but this one is a little different than the ones that come before and perhaps the ones that come after.
In the passage just before this, Matthew 8:1-4, Jesus heals a leper by touching him. This would have made Jesus ritually unclean and that is something that is unacceptable to someone who practices the Jewish faith. Lepers were sent away from the city for two reasons, one if they came into contact with someone that person, like Jesus in the story, would have become unclean and two, leprosy was, and is, highly contagious! Jesus reached out and touched the man and healed him.
In today’s Gospel we see a Roman Centurion come to Jesus and ask Him to heal his servant.
A Roman Centurion is a commander of more than 100 Roman troops, this is not a man who begs very easily for anything but we see him begging Jesus to heal his servant. Notice that the Centurion calls Jesus “Lord” another thing that a Roman Soldier, of any rank, would do. It is quite possible by the way that the Centurions servant is himself a Jew!
We now have a declaration by the Centurion that has become part of our Liturgical Services, “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed.” This is a reminder to us that none of us are worthy to have Jesus, our Lord and Savior, come under our roof. We are all of us, sinners and have fallen short of the Glory of God, but with one word, one action of Jesus, the Crucifixion, Jesus has put us on the road to worthiness. The faith of this man to recognize the fact that he, and we, are not worthy is a reminder to us all.
For the second time in the Gospel we see that Jesus was marveled. The first time was at the recognition of the unbelief of the people of His own hometown, and the second is here in this story. Jesus marveled at this man’s faith! The Lord and Savior of us all was marveled by this man’s faith. Here we see another example of the humanness of Jesus, the one who created all of us and knew us before we had a name, was marveled at this man’s faith. But there was something else going on here.
Jesus makes the pronouncement, “I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel.” He says that, “Many will come from East and West” but the, “Sons of the Kingdom of Heaven will be cast out into utter darkness.” He is speaking here not only of the Jews that refused to recognize Him as the Messiah but also those of us who do not “live” our faith!
I have told you before that it is not enough for us to come and follow all the rules and regulations of the Church we have to live our faith everyday out in the world. Mother Maria of Paris, a saint I have grown very close too over the last year, has this to say about our life as Christians:
“At the Last Judgment I will not be asked whether I satisfactorily practiced asceticism, nor how many prostrations and bows I have made before the holy table. I will be asked whether I fed the hungry, clothed the naked, visited the sick and the prisoner in jail. That is all I will be asked.”
Our lives as Christians should be not about ourselves, but about another! If we do not “live” our faith, Jesus tells us we will be cast into outer darkness!
This past week, I have been attacked in the local and statewide media for living our Christian faith. There were some pretty dark days this past week and I took great solace in two passages of Scripture that I think we would do well to commit to memory:
“If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” John 15:18-19
Jesus tells us that the world will hate us, and trust me when I say this too you, the world does hate us! The world hates us when we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and those in prison. But we do not have a choice to do these things or not because Jesus commands us to do this. But we are in good company as Jesus tells us to remember that the world hated Him first! We are a chosen race, a royal priesthood. We are a resurrection people and Alleluia is our Song!
“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Matthew 5:11-12
This passage is part of the Sermon on the Mount or the Beatitudes and we sing this each time we celebrate the Divine Liturgy just before the Little Entrance. These words that I have heard hundreds of times have taken a new and very personal meaning for me. It is easy to be Christian when things are going well; the challenge comes to hang in there when the times are difficult. “Great is your reward in Heaven.” Well at least I have that going for me!
These are not easy words for us to hear and even worse when it is actually happening to us. I felt as though I was all alone. Looking back I can imagine this is how Jesus felt the night before His crucifixion when he went to pray and asked his Apostles to wait, and they fell asleep. Or when he was arrested and his closest friends left Him and one sold him, and the other denied Him!
Then a good friend emailed me both of these quotes and somehow I knew it was all going to be okay.
Jesus is calling each of us to step out of our comfort zone and live the kind of life that He is asking us to live. This is not an easy life. It was not easy for the Centurion in today’s Gospel to come forward and ask Jesus for help but he did it because he had such great faith that he knew that Jesus would grant his request.
We are being asked to live an extraordinary life for Jesus. To live for someone other than ourselves. To place our life in His hands and trust in Him that all will be okay. This is a lesson I learned this past week and one that I hope I will remember for a long time to come.
Are you willing, today, to take that step that is necessary to live your faith and not just practice it?

Prayers requested for Archbishop Dmitri

Posted on by Fr. Peter
SYOSSET, NY [OCA] — The Holy Synod of Bishops requests prayers from the faithful for His Eminence, Archbishop Dmitri, retired Archbishop of Dallas and the South.
Archbishop Dmitri’s health has deteriorated steadily in recent months, and especially during the past few days.
Prayers private and corporate are deeply appreciated.
Additional information will be posted as it is received.
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7 July ~ St. Willibald, Bishop of Eichstatt

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Bishop and missionary. A native of Wessex, England, he was the brother of Sts. Winebald and Walburga and was related through his mother to the great St. Boniface…
After studying in a monastery in Waitham, in Hampshire, he went on a pilgrimage to Rome (c. 722) with his father, who died on the way at Lucca, Italy. Willibald continued on to Rome and then to Jerusalem. Captured by Saracens who thought him a spy, he was eventually released and continued on to all of the holy places and then to Constantinople (modern Istanbul, Turkey), where he visited numerous lauras, monasteries, and hermitages.
Upon his return to Italy, he went to Monte Cassino where he stayed for ten years, serving as sacrist, dean, and porter. While on a visit to Rome, he met Pope St. Gregory III (r. 731-741), who sent him to Germany to assist his cousin St. Boniface in his important missionary endeavors. Boniface ordained him in 741 and soon appointed him bishop of Eichstatt, in Franconia. the Site of Willibald’s most successful efforts as a missionary.
With his brother Winebald, he founded a double monastery at Heidenheim, naming Winebald abbot and his sister Walburga abbess. Willibald served as bishop for some four decades. His Vita is included in the Hodoeporicon (the earliest known English travel book). An account of his journeys in the Holy Land was written by a relative of Willibald and a nun of Heidenheim.

Statement on Tornado Donations

Posted on by Fr. Peter
After the June 1st Tornado that hit my Community of Southbridge, I and several members of my Congregation decided that we would open the Church as a regional donation point. Donations for tornado victims started to arrive and we soon knew that the Church Hall would not be large enough to contain all of the donations.
I made contact with the United Way in Southbridge who arraigned for a warehouse space generously donated by United Lens and the operation was moved from the Church Hall to the United Lens warehouse on Worcester Street in Southbridge. Coordination was made with the distribution centers in both Brimfield and Monson and supplies were delivered to those communities as well as a similar group in Sturbridge.
Prior to the June 6th meeting of the Southbridge Town Council, then Chairman Steven Lazo asked me if I would be willing to be appointed by him to be volunteer coordinator for the Town of Southbridge. I agreed and was appointed by Mr. Lazo to that position. It was my understanding that the warehouse operation was still under the direction of me as Pastor of the St. Michael’s Church and as a member of the disaster response network of the International Orthodox Christian Charities. At no point was it my understanding that the Town had taken responsibility over the warehouse operation.
As a Non-Governmental organization involved in disaster relief, coordination is made with local officials but the operation is managed by the organization and not by the Government. The United Way and the local Chamber of Commerce sent word out through their membership to solicit donations. The Chamber of Commerce took over the volunteer coordination as they were asked to do this by the Office of Governor.
After two weeks of distribution the number of people coming to the site had dwindled and the decision was made to stop operations. A decision was going to have to be made as to what was to be done with the items that remain. I made contact with the distribution centers in both Brimfield and Monson to discover that they had so many donations they could not accept much of what we had. The Hygiene kits that we received from Church World Service were sent to Springfield at the request of Church World Service and were distributed through the Salvation Army in Springfield.
With the need in the area seemingly diminished I was uncertain what to do with the items that remained. Contact was made with the local food pantries in Southbridge as well as the senior center in Charlton. I was informed that their available supplies was diminished as they were also making items available not only to Tornado victims but to the residents that had lost power due to the storm that hit Southbridge the following week. The Committee made the decision to move the items from the warehouse to the food pantries. We were not sure what else to do with the items and I did not want them sitting in the warehouse not being used.
The bulk of the items were transferred to the Southbridge Food Share pantry at Catholic Charities as well as to the food pantry at St. Mary’s Church. Some items were sent to the senior center in Charlton for their food distribution program and some items did go to the Food Share Pantry in Webster. Approximately 100 gallons of water was given to the Relay for Life relay to aid in their effort.
The distribution of food was not done to deny affected residents of needed aid. The decision was made due to the fact that the numbers had dwindled and it appeared that the aid was no longer needed. With both Brimfield and Monson unable to accept any other donations I made the decision to transfer the items to the food pantries in the area to aid people.
There was never any attempt on my part to mislead people who had generously donated items to those in need. It was my intent to make sure all of the items donated went to people in need in the Greater Southbridge area. The decision was made in haste and in retrospect I realize that better coordination could have been made with all involved. It was never my intent to hurt anyone but only to help those in need the best way I know how.

How to Destroy a Culture in 5 Easy Steps

Posted on by Fr. Peter

by Joe Carter (First Things) –

In his book The Future of Marriage, David Blankenhorn, a liberal, gay-rights-supporting Democrat and self-professed “marriage nut,” offers this sociological principle: “People who professionally dislike marriage almost always favor gay marriage.” As a corollary, Blankenhorn adds: “Ideas that have long been used to attack marriage are now commonly used to support same-sex marriage.”
Blankenhorn provides almost irrefutable proof that this is the expressed agenda of many—if not most—professional advocates of same-sex marriage. Other scholars have noticed the same and have attempted to present the public with the facts about the less-than-hidden agenda to use homosexual rights to deinstitutionalize marriage and to separate sexual exclusivity from the concept of “monogamy.”
Since the agenda is an open secret, how has this anti-marriage program been able to advance to the level of public policy? And how did it happen so quickly?
To understand this seismic cultural shift we should turn to an obscure, decade-old political theory.
The Overton Window, developed in the mid-1990s by the late Joseph P. Overton, describes a “window” in the range of public reactions to ideas in public discourse. Overton believed that the spectrum included all possible options in a window of opportunity:
Imagine, if you will, a yardstick standing on end. On either end are the extreme policy actions for any political issue. Between the ends lie all gradations of policy from one extreme to the other. The yardstick represents the full political spectrum for a particular issue. The essence of the Overton window is that only a portion of this policy spectrum is within the realm of the politically possible at any time. Regardless of how vigorously a think tank or other group may campaign, only policy initiatives within this window of the politically possible will meet with success.
All issues fall somewhere along this policy continuum, which can be roughly outlined as: Unthinkable, Radical, Acceptable, Sensible, Popular, Policy. When the window moves or expands, ideas can accordingly become more or less politically acceptable.
Overton’s model was developed to explain adjustments in the political climate. But I believe it can also illuminate how profound and deleterious changes are advanced in our culture. If the goal were to undermine cultural institutions, the process for getting from Unthinkable to Policy would follow these five easy steps:
Step #1: From Unthinkable to Radical — The first step is the easiest—provided the issue can become a fetish or the topic of an academic symposium. Since both the professoriate and the perverts have a fascination with the faux-transgressive (the truly transgressive [i.e., Christianity] tends to terrify them) all you need to do is get the attention of one of these groups. It doesn’t matter which you start with since the politics of the bedroom and the classroom inevitably overlap.
Step #2: From Radical to Acceptable — This shift requires the creation and employment of euphemism. Want to kill a child exiting the womb? Call it “dilation and extraction” and infanticide becomes a medical procedure. Want to include sodomitic unions under the banner of “marriage?” Redefine the term “marriage” to mean the state-endorsed copulation of any two(?) people who want to share a bed and a tax form. Be sure to say it is about “love”—in our culture, eros excuses everything.
There will naturally be a few holdouts, of course, but those who reject the shift from Radical to Acceptable can be shamed into approving. All that is required is to deploy a stingingly suitable insult. The word “bigot”, for instance, is more effective than a billy club at beating the young into submission. There are few core beliefs they won’t change to avoid being called a bigot. The disapproval of their Creator is unfortunate; enduring the disfavor of their peers is unimaginable.
Step #3: From Acceptable to Sensible — There is nothing more sensible than to submit to one’s god. And while Americans may profess to worship Allah, Jehovah, or Jesus, we mostly worship an American Idol—ourselves. That is why social libertarianism has become our country’s fastest-growing cult. It has tapped into this self-idolatry by preaching a gospel of the Individual. It’s a pragmatic and accepting message. You were, as its chief evangelist Lady Gaga says, “born this way”: “It doesn’t matter if you love him, or capital H-I-M / Just put your paws up /’Cause you were born this way, baby.”
Step #4: From Sensible to Popular — This step merely requires personalizing the issue. Do you know someone who is LGBT? Divorced? Had an abortion? Sure you do, they are in your family, in your school, at your church.
Do you hate them? If not, then how can you still disapprove of their actions? (Note: Be sure to talk fast so that no one follows the logic.) As it says in the Good Book (or maybe in a Lady Gaga song), judge not lest God judge you for judging. You want people to like you, don’t you? Then express popular approval for what your cultural betters (e.g., people on reality TV) believe should be popularly approved. Then you’ll be popular and it won’t be necessary to call you a bigot.
Step #5: From Popular to Policy — Commission a public opinion poll. Show it to a politician. They’ll do the rest.
Of course not everyone in society will agree with every step along the way, but that won’t stop an issue from sliding into policy. All it requires is for a majority of the people who find the issue unacceptable to do nothing at all.
Almost every culturally corrosive policy—from abortion to no-fault divorce to gay marriage—has come about in America this way: Christians who find such issues “unacceptable” tacitly accept this social-libertarian shift by their refusal to take action.
Taking action is perhaps the wrong word, though, since what is most often necessary is deliberate inaction. For example, if every Christian in America who claimed to be pro-life would simply refuse to vote for any candidate—regardless of party—who supports abortion, the abortion laws would change within two election cycles. Similarly, if every Christian in America who claimed to be pro-marriage had refused to support no-fault divorce, there would be less poverty and fewer broken families in our country today. And if every Christian in New York had made it clear that he would hold his representatives accountable for attempting to redefine marriage, then the recent expansion of homosexual-rights legislation would have never come to a vote.
Sadly, such inaction has never happened and is unlikely to occur in the near future. America has produced an overwhelming number of Christians who are adept at explaining why they can support issues that are antithetical to Christianity and depressingly few who can give reasons why we should adhere to the teachings of scripture and the wisdom of the church.
History has shown that dedicated Christians can close the Overton window and reverse the shift from “policy” to “unthinkable.” But it requires a people who have courage and conviction and a willingness to be despised for the truth. Do current generations have such virtues? Probably not. But I’m holding out hope that our grandkids will be born that way.

HT: First Things and AOI.

OCMC Missionaries Need Your Prayers and Support

Posted on by Fr. Peter
There are currently 23 Orthodox Christians from United States serving, or preparing to serve, as long-term OCMC missionaries in places like Alaska, Albania, Kenya, Japan, and Tanzania. These faithful servants offer a living witness to the Orthodox Faith and the hope, love, and salvation made possible through Christ to people who may have never heard the message of the Gospel. Please pray for our brothers and sisters who have answered the call to give two or more years of their life to the work of making disciples of all nations. Please remember them in your prayers and support their ministry efforts by visiting http://www.ocmc.org/donate and click “Support a Missionary”. Thank you in advance for making this vital work of the Church possible.

In Congress, July 4, 1776

Posted on by Fr. Peter
THE UNANIMOUS DECLARATION of the thirteen united STATES OF AMERICA  

WHEN IN the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the People.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States, for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners, refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our People, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislature.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislature, and declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
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New Monasticism

Posted on by Fr. Peter
“At the Last Judgement I shall not be asked whether I was successful in my ascetic exercises, how many bows and prostrations I made [in the course of prayer].  I shall be asked, Did I feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and the prisoners.  That is all I shall be asked.  About every poor, hungry and imprisoned person the Savior says ‘I’: ‘I was hungry and thirsty, I was sick and in prison’.  To think that He puts an equal sign between Himself and anyone in need… I always knew it, but now it has somehow penetrated my sinews.  It fills me with awe.” St. Mother Maria of Paris
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2 July ~ Ştefan cel Mare (Stephen the Great)

Posted on by Fr. Peter
The holy and right-believing Prince Saint Stephen the Great (Romanian: Dreptcredinciosul Voievod Ştefan cel Mare şi Sfânt) was ruler of Moldova (in modern-day Romania) from 1457 to 1504. He was a great statesman and military tactician as well as being a devout Orthodox Christian. He was responsible for defending Moldova against the Ottoman invasion, building a church or monastery in thanks to God after each victory.

Stephen the Great was glorified, along with his spiritual father St. Daniel the Hermit of Voroneţ (Sf. Daniil Sihastru de la Voroneţ) and many other Romanian saints, by the Synod of the Church of Romania in 1992. His feast day is July 2.

St. Stephen (also spelled Stefan) is honored as a saint throughout the Orthodox Church. Despite his earthly failings (somewhat comparable to the Psalmist and Patriarch David), he was a great defender of the True Faith against the onslaught of the Ottoman-Muslim Empire during the last half of the fifteenth century.

St. Stephen defeated Mehmet at a famous and decisive battle in a place called Vaslui (not far south of Iaṣi in the province of Moldova). Had he not done so, little would have stood between Mehmet and the Ukraine—and the obliteration of the rest of the Orthodox world. Mehmet met his match after shortly after having sacked Constantinople. With the rest of the Balkan peninsula falling to Islam’s sword, Mehmet must have seemed unstoppable to Christians everywhere, yet none of the Western powers nor the Western Church would lift a finger against the Ottomans. Thus, Stephen stood more or less alone in defense of Christianity and his homeland.

Perhaps of equal or greater significance to this great saint’s life is that he built many churches and monasteries—one after each of his 47 successful battles against the Ottomans, including many of the most beautiful monuments to Orthodoxy in the entire world. These monasteries still stand today and despite over 500 tumultuous years, including 50 years of Communist persecution of the Faith, they continue to thrive as a home to thousands of monastics. Stephen’s monasteries include the famous “painted” monasteries, referring to the fact that the outsides are frescoed and, remarkably, have survived 500 years of weather—except on the north sides. These include the fabulous painted monasteries of Voroneţ, Moldoviţa, and Suceaviţa, as well as Putna (where Stephen reposes) and Neamţ. At the west end of the south exterior wall of Voroneţ, interestingly enough, is a vibrantly colored fresco of the siege of Constantinople. Based undoubtedly on his zeal for the Church, he was commonly referred to as holy even during his life. St. Stephen’s son founded the Probota Monastery, a magnificent monument to his own faith, still thriving today as a monastic community for women. Ironically, as depicted in the iconography on the west wall in the nave of its main church, St. Stephen’s grandson—the son of Probota’s founder—gave himself to Islam, no doubt preferring theeasier life it falsely promised him.

St. Stephen lost two battles and built nothing after them, probably believing that he did not have God’s blessing to do so. And although he did have one son who resulted from an adulterous relationship, that son and his wife founded the painted monastery, Probota.

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Dignity of the Human Person

Posted on by Fr. Peter
I have begun to read the little book, The Pearl of Great Price, The Life of Mother Maria Skobtsova by Sergei Hackel and I have found what I think is a wonderful passage that should be adopted by all who work to alleviate the suffering of those who are less fortunate.What follows is Mother’s Code of Practice based on a recognition of the dignity of man created in the “Image and Likeness of God”

If someone turns with his spiritual world to the spiritual world of another person, he encounters an awesome and inspiring mystery […].  He comes into contact with the true image of God in man, with the very icon of God incarnate in the world, with a reflection of the mystery of God’s incarnation and divine manhood.  And he needs to accept this awesome revelation of God unconditionally, to venerate the image of God in his brother.  Only when he senses, perceives and understands it will yet another mystery be revealed to him – one that will demand his most dedicated efforts […].  He will perceivethat this divine image is veiled, distorted and disfigured by the power of evil […]. And he will want to engage in battle with the devil for the sake of the divine image.But it is a battle which demands self-abnegation.  Anyone who engages in it should not harbor the slightest desire, however subtle for personal gain.  By the same token, there should be no question of entertaining any idle curiosity for the victim’s experience.  On the contrary, it is essential to put oneself in his place, to attempt to appreciate and experience from within what he feels, to become all things to all men.

A doctrinaire approach from without is to be avoided.  The reduction of men’s needs to a few common denominators is likely to lead to mechanistic and partial solutions.  Yet equally pernicious and unprofitable is the facile and sentimental acceptance of the person just as he is, spiritual warts and all.  For those who work in this field, the balance is achieved by care, sobriety and love.  But this love needs to be extended to the whole person.  As was too often forgotten in the Russian Orthodox past, man’s body requires care, as well as his spirit and his psyche.

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