Saint Porphyrios: “They have committed Every Sin of the Flesh, But I love them”

Posted on June 24, 2015 by Semto Mechal

Elder

 

The Elder told me one day:

“Boys and girls come to me sometimes.  Those poor children, and what haven’t they done.  They have committed every sin of the flesh, but I love them.

The Elder did not justify the actions of the youth, which he characterized as carnal sins, but at the same time he loved them as precious souls “for whom Christ died“.  By his love he attracted them like a magnet and gradually they were healed of their worship of the flesh.

This patristic attitude of the Elder was misunderstood by conservative puritans (a person who is strict in moral or religious matters, often excessively so), who mourned, and some irresponsible progressives, who rejoiced, for the same reason: that supposedly the Elder “tolerated” carnal sins.

They did not understand that sin cannot be combated against with an intolerant condemnation of the sinner, nor through guilty legalism of the fall.  The Elder effectively fought sin by loving the sinner and helping them become aware of their responsibility for their fall, and the possibility in Christ of them being freed from it and guilt through repentance and forgiveness and the life in Christ.  He wanted to guide them to a new life, and not trouble their soul with past.

Source: From the book Hieromonk Elder Porphyrios: An Anthology of Advice, Translation by John Sanidopoulos. (http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com)

 

 

 

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God is the Judge

Posted on June 22, 2015 by Semto Mechal

You are angry with your neighbor, your brother, and say of him: ” He is such and such—a miser, malicious, proud,” or that he has done this and that, and so on. What is that to you?  He sins against God, and not against you. God is his Judge, not you: unto God he shall answer for himself, not to you. Know yourself, how sinful you are yourself, what a beam you have in your own eye; how difficult it is for you to master and get the better of your own sins; how afflicted you yourself are by them; how they have ensnared you—how you wish for indulgence from others towards your own infirmities.  And your brother is a man like you; therefore you must be indulgent to him as to a sinful man, similar in everything to yourself, as infirm as you; love him, then, as yourself, listening to the Lord saying: “These things I command you, that ye love one another”609; and as you pray for yourself, that the Lord may help you to root out your own cruel and incurable passions, so pray also for your brother, that the Lord may free him from the flattery and corruption of his passions, from their darkness and oppression.

We must remember that we are one sinful body, more or less infected in our members by the breathing of the ” common enemy—the Devil”; and that of ourselves, without God’s grace, we are powerless to free ourselves from this deadly and darkening breathing: only the Holy Ghost by His breathing can drive away this demoniacal darkness of the passions, through the power of the Lord Jesus Christ’s sufferings upon the cross.  We must therefore humbly pray to the Lord, in the spirit of brotherly love, for all our brethren and for all people, that they may escape from the darkness of the passions and their great attractiveness, in which they delight, not knowing their destructiveness; for instance: the rich man rejoices in his wealth; the ambitious one—in his distinctions; the glutton—in his food, drink, and dainties; the malicious—in his malice; the envious—in the sufferings of the victim of his envy; and so on.

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Misfortune

Posted on June 3, 2015 by Semto Mechal

Here on earth we frequently experience many misfortunes and hardships, but all of these are because we have not humbled ourselves.    

Elder Thaddeus

misfortune

At that time there were a lot of deaths on earth.  People were snatched unexpectedly and abandoned this life miserably.  Then Gregory, a friend of the Saint, asked him: “Tell me, Father, where did this evil come from?  Please explain it to me.”

“As you know,” the saint answered, “we commit many sins and we embitter our God, the lover of man, by not doing His will.  That’s why He sent us this sickle which cuts us down.  For it is written that ‘disobedience breeds death.’   Yesterday I saw a dreadful man threatening the earth and saying to her; shall destroy all the immoral who walk on you, all the drunkards, gluttons, the greedy, usurers, and especially those wallowing in the sodomitic sins.”

“And He said a lot even more serious that you cannot bear to hear!  He threatened to destroy us with sickle and sword, because we show no repentance nor any trace of improvement.  His glorious Mother and a bald bishop ardently pleaded with Him, but He refused to put if off ‘Are you more compassionate than I am?’  He said to them.  ‘Or do you feel more pain than I?  Yet you see almost all of them ignore My divine law and no one observes it!’”

“Gregory, my son,” the saint added, “that’s how the awful sickness afflicted many.  For it is written: ‘You have cast them down in their exaltation.’  While for the healthy virtuous it says: We heal the broken-hearted.  For if God did not have pity on Paul, the great luminary, but permitted a ‘messenger of Satan to harass him, to keep him from being elated,’ due to the abundance of revelations that he had, why wouldn’t He permit the devil to crush us sinners with sickness, until we learn to be humble?  It is not enough that we are sinners, we’re proud as well!  Besides, the Scripture says that ‘what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.’”

Taken from: Stories, Sermons, and Prayers of St. Nephon: An Ascetic Bishop

Prayer: We will be humbled one way or another.  Please Lord help us and give us Your grace to choose You and carry our cross to humble ourselves.

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God’s Providence

Posted on June 1, 2015 by Semto Mechal

In looking at life, we should accept all the things which come to us as God’s providence, knowing that they are intended to wake us up from our passions.  We should pray to God to show us some God-pleasing thing that we can do.  When we accept what comes to us, we begin to be like the simple woman in the Gospel who heard the call from God and was thus able to be His minister.  She was proclaimed to the ends of the world, as our Lord says, because of the simple thing she did—pouring out the ointment upon Him.  Let us be like her: sensitive to watching God’s signs around us.  These signs come from everywhere: from nature, from our fellow men, from a seeming chance of events…  There is always, everyday, something that indicates to us God’s will. We must be open to this.

Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose)  Great Lent, 1982

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Vision, Mission and Goal

Posted on April 30, 2015 by Semto Mechal

Where there is no vision, the people perish. Proverbs 29:18

A leader without a vision is in a very dangerous situation.  When the leader is gone for one reason or another then the organization will be in grave danger.  We need to look for the vision and it will come.  We need to seek it and the Lord is gracious to give us one.  A vision is a dream, a picture of a preferred future.  There is a purpose behind everything.   A nice story to illustrate this point.  One day a man was walking and happened to pass by a building site.  There were three men preparing building blocks out of a stone.  They were doing exactly the same work.  Each one of these three men had a different mood.  The first one is very upset and seem to be very bored and did not want to speak to anybody.  The man passing by approached him and asked the first one what he was doing.  The man without even looking up said you see what I am doing, it is a very boring job, I am just preparing stones for building.  Then he went to the second one who appears to be a little bit cheerful and seem to be enjoying what he was doing smiling and happy.  He asked him the same question, “What are you doing?” The 2nd man said, I am building a fence.  He looked around and He did not see any fence.  Then he went to the third man, who appeared to be on cloud 9, flying, singing and enjoying his work.  And he was very busy and did not want to waste his time.  The man asked him, I notice you are very busy and don’t want to waste your time but May I ask you what you are doing?  The man looked at him smiling and said I am building a cathedral.  Why was such a difference between these three men doing the same thing? Because each one saw something behind what they were doing and so their vision gave them a different kind of satisfaction. The first want did not see any goal behind what he was doing so he felt bored and it will not be surprising if he left the job.  The second one could see something bigger so he was a little bit more cheerful.  The third one was enjoying his work because he could see something very big like a Cathedral.   He may not even see it being completed for it takes a long time.  But he was able to envision this big Cathedral and that was what motivated him to continue to do his job.  What are we building?  What are we part of? It is an important question for all servants.

The vision is the ultimate end.  It is the finale destination. This is where we want our people or ourselves ahead of us.  Our mission of life is how to reach the vision by having goals.  For each goal, there will be a lot of activities.  The goal is short-term like a year.  The goal is a set of activities or smart steps that are achievable and measurable.  The activities are the building blocks.  But the activities have to be interrelated into one goal.   In this pyramid, we spend a lot of time at the bottom which is the activities without mapping out our goals and mission.  And it is highly unlikely that we even think about what our vision should be.  As a Church, do we have a vision for the next 10 years?  Where do we envision our Church to be? If servants do not see a clear vision, it would not be surprising if they left their service.

Jesus had a purpose driven life.  He had a very clear vision, a well stated mission and He had one goal that He kept following and then He had many activities to do during His 3 and half years ministry.  And all of His activities were interlinked together to the goal, to achieve His mission and to realize His vision.

He made His vision very clear.  He said, I came that they may have life abundantly. The better life is His vision.  He is coming back to restore the life that was taken away from us by the fall of Adam and even to give us a better life than the one that was promised at the beginning of creation.  He came to realize this vision.  The mission for the 3 and half year was announced when He said on Luke 4:18, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed.

This is the life mission of Jesus Christ.  His goal was the Cross.  Because through the Cross, salvation will be completed and that new life He came to proclaim will be fulfilled.  What were His activities?  How did He spend His time?  He summarized it when Saint John the Baptist sent some disciples to ask Him, are you the Messiah we are waiting for or someone else?  Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see:  The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.  This is the job description of Jesus.  This is where He spent most of His time, preaching, healing, comforting, talking, modeling, making disciples, and leading by empowering.  All of these things were coming together to achieve His going to the Cross.  The world crucified Him precisely for these activities.  The activities led Him to the Cross.  The authorities were concerned when the dead is raised and people start to believe.  It is only through the Cross, He was able to achieve the mission, He came for and the vision that He was entrusted with.  We need to draw this pyramid for our Church.  God gave us the faculty of reason and thinking so we can use it and glorify His name.

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Gathered because of His Name

Posted on April 23, 2015 by Semto Mechal

Gathered in His Name

Call upon me says the Lord and I will be there in your midst.   For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them. Matthew 18:20.  Our brothers were gathered not only in His name.  They were gathered because of His name.  Jesus was there with them walking in the beach.  They were 31 walking in the beach.  Thirty walked triumphantly and honorably with the power of God.  The 31st whispering in their ears “Peace be still”.  The cross continues to be our power and victory regardless of what we face.

And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. Mark 4: 38-39

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The Ethiopian Martyrs

Posted on April 22, 2015 by Semto Mechal

Our martyrs

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Body of Christ cries!!!

Posted on April 20, 2015 by Semto Mechal

Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!

If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.  1 Corinthians 12:26

Body of Christ cries!

Thirty of our brothers have been martyred on the shores of Libya.  May God rest their souls and give them crowns in His heavenly kingdom and comfort their families.   Many more are hiding in Libya.   Thousands of Ethiopians and fellow Africans are in fear in South Africa after Xenophobic attacks.  Thousands are stranded in Yemen.  Many of our sisters are being abused throughout the Middle East.  The body of Christ in Iraq, Syria, Libya and throughout the Middle East are being slaughtered, burned, crucified and buried alive.

Many ask, What shall we do?  Some say let’s send money to help out. It is noble to help out in this way but we can only help so much.  Some say let’s pray.  Yes, we need to pray for those already with the Lord and for the protection of all those in fear.  Will our prayers by itself be effective?  Did the people in Nineveh through the warning of Jonah only prayed or did they do something else?

There is one thing we always miss and that Christ calls each one of us to do.  The cry is the same today.  Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand!!!   More than anything else, He wants our confession and repentance.  Let’s us not think for one moment that, we will be safe here in the West.  It is only a matter of time.  The only safety we have is in Jesus Christ.  How?  By sharing the fellowship of His suffering.  Let’s experience our shame before our brothers and sisters.   Christ bore His shame and looked horrible before the world on the Cross to teach us.  Do we ever learn to expose ourselves so that we find our resurrection in Him? Or do we hide in the bushes and cover ourselves with Fig leaves just like our Father Adam?   David the Psalmist says in Psalm 19: 12 “Who can understand his errors (sins)? Cleanse me from secret faults (sins).  If we cover our sins, we will not find healing.  If we are struggling, let’s ask Him for grace.  He will be more than happy to give us His grace so we can repent.  It is high time, we take action and go to the person we offended to confess and ask for forgiveness.  And for those that have been hurt to forgive.  Let’s do it before time runs out.

When we confess and repent, we help our brothers and sisters who are in harm’s way.  Because through our repentance, the Spirit of God moves in and strengthens the Body of Christ, for we are all one body in Christ Jesus.  God help us and have mercy on us.

Matthew 11: 28 “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

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Opening ourselves for the Bridegroom

Posted on April 7, 2015 by Semto Mechal

Exposing & opening ourselves so the Bridegroom can heal us

The Bridegroom is coming to buy His bride and to pay the price for her in order to acquire her to Himself according to Ephesians 5 where it says husbands love your wives as Christ loves the Church and gave His life for her.  The price was His blood with His life.  So we follow the footsteps of our Savior because we have salvation in His passion and suffering.  Our Lord came to the temple to pray after spending the night in Bethany.  Jesus did not eat anything the night before and in the morning, He was hungry and He passed by a fig tree, expecting to see fruits because the leaves were big but He could not find any fruit in the fig tree.  And He did something He never did before.  Never in His ministry, in His teaching did He curse anyone or anything. He cursed the tree and said no one will eat any fruit again and coming back after visiting the temple, the disciples saw the tree dried up that same day.  They told Christ about it and His response was if you have faith you can move mountains.

The second biggest event of the day was He cleansed the temple.  All the Jews brought the sacrifices to the temple and the priest examined them and if the priest found any fault in the sacrifice, he actually rejected it.  The Jews who were coming from all over the world, bought their sacrifices from the temple and it was a chaotic scene.  Jesus was mad about this situation.  Here, He does something that He has not done before.  He threw away everything and drove all these people that were selling and buying out of the temple completely and said this is a house of prayer and you made it a house of merchandize.

Connecting these events together, this particular day is a day of uncovering.  In order for the Bridegroom who is coming to marry His bride, there needs to be openness. Because, openness creates closeness.  We are talking about the openness between the bride (which is us the Church) and the Bridegroom who is Christ.  If there is no openness, there is no unity.  The Lord is saying take off the mask, take out everything that covers up the real situation and let’s deal openly and honestly and put away hypocrisy.  When Adam and Eve sinned, the first thing that came to their mind is let’s cover up instead of going to God and say help us for we did the wrong thing and ate what you told us not to eat.  They did not do that, when they felt they are naked, they took fig leaves (the same tree Christ cursed Fig tree) and covered it up and they thought everything is okay.  But God asked Adam, where are you?  God is the one who asked, Did you eat from the tree?  Adam gave the very famous answer, it is not me, it is the wife you gave me.  And also blamed God for giving him this evil woman.  Yesterday, in the day of creation, Adam said this is the bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh and now he is saying something else.

Today is the day of uncovering.  The purple robe they put on Christ, the Bridegroom is like His tuxedo for the wedding.  But somehow it is not complete, He is half naked.  And on the cross, He is almost naked.  WHY? Christ knows our problem.  Adam and his children need to look good, especially in front of people.  Christ says I am going to do the exact opposite.  He says, I am going to look horrible in front of the whole world.  Even till now Jesus is exposed.  Everyday millions see Him on the cross as He is naked on the cross.  WHY? Christ is coming to be naked for us.  He comes in a very humble way so that we can learn from Him to be humble and lowly and open our hearts to Him.  He is coming not for war or to judge us but He is coming to marry us.  He is coming to be close to us.  He is going to propose the marriage.  He is saying to us here I am.  I am naked.  I am weak.  I am poor.  I am exposed and examined.  The Lord was under severe examination by the Scribes and Pharisees during this Holy Week.  Our Bridegroom is exposed and examined.

Christ is saying, why don’t you do the same?  I am not coming to judge you.  But I am coming to heal you.  Imagine going to a Doctor and expecting him/her to know what our problems or our condition is without telling them.  This is very important, the Lord will never ever heal something that is not exposed or that is not offered to Him.  We cannot say the Lord knows everything.  Yes, He does know everything but He can never impose Himself on us unless we ask Him.  We need to say Lord, this hurts please heal that.   We will never be able to unite with the Master and get the healer to heal every wound unless it is exposed.  We need to uncover the hidden parts of the heart.  There is not disease too hard or too tough for the Lord to heal.   The early Christians brought everything to the Apostles by selling their belonging and there was a lot of repentance.  Except Ananias and his wife, Sapphira lied and kept some of the money.  They were struck dead.  This is yet another severe example next to the cursing of the fig tree and the cleansing of the temple.  The Apostles never said this to anyone in the book of Acts, you drop dead now.  This is one disease that cannot be healed which is COVERING UP.  And this is the one thing that will separate us from our Bridegroom, because we are not transparent.  It is the one thing that in the end of times, that Jesus will say I do not know you.  We are covering up and we look different and He says I do not know you.

We all have this fear of exposure.  We have a fear of rejection and being cast out because of our sins and weakness.  A lot of us are brought up in an environment where we can’t even express our feelings or our emotions.  We can’t apologize.  It is very hard to expose.  When we expose what is inside, we are made fun of or belittled so there is a huge problem with opening up.  When we continue to live this covering up, it is very easy to live on the outside and just put a mask all day and all night.  And this creates a huge separation between us and the Bridegroom.  The love relationship will be lost, the prayer will be lukewarm and we don’t understand what God is doing in our lives anymore.  The Pharisees lived perfect lives on the outside but covered up the inside too well and lived a double life.  The fathers of the Church did not believe in self-examination.  They believed in opening up our hearts and sins in the presence of the heavenly Father, who is embracing us and encouraging us to tell Him everything.  He says to us don’t filter anything and get everything out.  Don’t act like everything is okay.

God puts a lot of people and situations in our lives to give us a chance to open and expose ourselves.  Every situation in our lives is meant to be used to open ourselves so that the Bridegroom can come and heal us. The Bridegroom will never marry the bride unless she matches Him.  If the bride is not open, they cannot get married.  If she is not exposed like Him, if she is not humble like Him, she cannot get married to Him.  If they are not on the same page, then can’t get married.  Christ calls each of us today to expose ourselves that He may heal us and unite with us.

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Metropolitan Anthony Bloom-On Confession: Private and Public Confession

Posted on March 31, 2015 by Semto Mechal

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