The Week Ahead

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Dear brothers and sisters, 

Recently, our community has been blessed with some wonderfully festive Liturgies – for the Forerunner, for the Holy Chiefs of the Apostles, Peter and Paul, and yesterday for the Royal Martyrs. 

On these occasions we have been pleased to celebrate the namedays of the faithful, and we very pleased that Nicholas could be with us yesterday, on his first nameday, having been baptised by Father Luke in honour of the Holy Tsar-Martyr on Lazarus Saturday, (on the same day that we baptised George in the sea), after a long and thorough catechumenate. 

As well as congratulating him, we would like to thank him for reading the Hours, the Apostol and thanksgiving prayers – of which he was not forewarned. Many Blessed Years! 

We were also very happy to welcome Isaiah, one of the catechumens from the Llanelli Parish, and were glad for yesterday’s addition to our catechumens with Thomas’s quiet admittance to the catechumenate in the porch of St John’s, whilst the parish shared trapeza in the church. 

We are now looking forward to James’s baptism in Chippenham in a fortnight, adding to the number of our Wessex faithful, and to Tracey’s baptism in St Nicholas on the Eve of the Dormition, at which time she will take the baptismal name of Mary, in honour of Our Lady, the Mother of God, and her feast. 

Last Saturday saw a wonderful Cheltenham Liturgy, and next Saturday sees the celebration of the feast of Venerable Anthony of the Kiev Caves at the Urdd Centre in Llangrannog, on the Cardigan Coast, currently housing refugees from Ukraine. We hope to commence the Hours at 10:00 and Liturgy at 10:30, but given that this is a new setting we are keeping a slightly open mind. Directions may be found here: 

https://www.urdd.cymru/en/residential-centres/llangrannog/about/directions/ 

Looking forward to next Sunday’s Liturgy, at 11:00, we celebrate more namedays, with the feast of the Holy Equal to the Apostles, Great Princess Olga, and the variables for the feast may be found at ‘Orthodox Austin’, as usual: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vaZU8gMRGU07waG9ryRIa9KYvjnWcF8P/view 

May I ask for confession requests by Wednesday evening please, as this is something of a challenging week, given a concentration of activities? I have already had a chance to confirm some confessions with parishioners. 

Wishing you a sensible and cautious few days, and looking forward to seeing parishioners at the cooler end of the week. 

In Christ – Hieromonk Mark 

On the Feast of the Royal Martyrs

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Dear brothers and sisters, Happy Feast!  

Mosaic in the crypt of the Church on the Blood, above the spot on which the Imperial Family were martyred.

It was great blessing to celebrate the Holy Royal Martyrs today, and in so doing, we looked beyond the bloody-horror and violence of their martyrdom to appreciate the priceless treasure that God has granted to the Orthodox people by calling the Imperial Family to enter the mystery of Golgotha, and  to drink from the cup of suffering and martyrdom, as they were conformed to the image of the Saviour, as we heard in the Apostle reading from St Paul’s letter to the Romans: 

“We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestine to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.”  (Romans 8: 29-30)

As God lovers, He called the Royal-Martyrs “according to His purpose”, and in their suffering for that Divine purpose – contrary to the wisdom of the world – they were conformed to the image of Christ, the Suffering Servant, pouring out Himself for His people, until He was without beauty or comeliness. 

In the Gospel for the feast, we heard, 

“If the world hates you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” (John 15:18-20) 

The world vision promoted by Lenin (returned to Russia at the expense of the Western powers) and his fellow Bolsheviks, was at odds of the world represented by the Royal Martyrs: of Christian Monarchy defending and promoting the Church and Faith; of society built upon the precepts of the Gospel; of national life in which the Church, Divine Services, and Christian Tradition was shaped by the rhythms and routines of the fasts and feasts, and the seasons of the Christian year. 

As a visible embodiment of Orthodox authority, Christian governance and sacral-kingship, the Royal Martyrs were an impossible threat to the Marxist-Leninist vision, the Royal Martyrs and had to be destroyed – by lies, deception and hate, and ultimately by the violence to which these gave license. 

For Orthodox Christians the resultant false ‘histories’ and mythologies necessary to dehumanise the Royal Martyrs, to justify unspeakable violence, and to desensitise the Russian people and the wider world to the horrors of the Ipatiev House and the Four Brothers Mine are an irrelevance and distraction from the glorious works of grace wrought by God through His saints. 

In the 1990’s, after aCcross had been set up on the site of the Ipatiev House, it was illumined by a heavenly light, as the clouds opened and rotated above the Cross, and no snow fell within the large circle of light which fell upon the ground around the site of the martyrdom. In the same decade, a former guard of the “Museum of the Workers’ Revenge” in the Ipatiev House signed an affidavit describing how she would hear beautiful church-singing from the basement room of execution, and that light shone from beneath the door during the night.

In on November 7 1997, the anniversary of the Revolution, an icon of the Tsar-Martyr began to weep myrrh, and the following May, during a procession to mark the Tsar’s birtday, another icon began to weep myrrh during a procession. At this time. of course, the Moscow Patriarchate had yet to canonise the Royal Martyrs. Our Russian Orthodox Church Church Outside of Russia had already done so in 1981.

Through the prayers of the Royal Martyrs, the godless have been brought to Faith; hardened hearts have been softened; the young have been delivered from depression, despair and destructive lives; addicts have been delivered from alcohol and drugs; childless women have been granted children; students have received help in studies; soldiers and refugees have been delivered fom capture and great dangers; families have been reconciled and healed; the sick and infirm have received healing – such as a blind child who received sight after his face was covered with a towel that had absorbed the myrrh from a myrrh-weeping icon of the Tsar.

We encounter the sanctity, rightness, and righteousness of the Royal Martyrs in these miracles, and to those of Faith, the lies and salacious stories bandied in the newspapers in America, Britain, and the Russia ‘proletarian-press’ on the eve of the revolution, seem two-dimensional, flimsy and ridiculous compared to the miracles through which Almighty God has glorified the Royal-Martyrs ever since their martyrdom. 

To return to the Apostle, “…whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified” – and despite the lies the world invented and wrote about them, God has glorified the Royal Martyrs through countless miracles and outpourings of grace. 

Through earthly suffering, they were translated to heavenly glory and, as the Russian Empire and the wider world was gripped by the satanic plague of Bolshevism and Revolution, the All-Merciful Lord raised up the Royal Martyrs as intercessors and as spiritual warriors whose intercessions and merciful care for their land would resurrect the Russian Orthodox Church and people. 

For the faithful, the countless miracles and wonders of the Royal Martyrs should dissolve the propaganda, myths and lies invented, not only by communists, but also by the western powers who sought the destruction of the dynasty as part of the destruction of Russia as a world- power at the beginning of the 20th century – the same powers who wished to see a defeated and humiliated Russia carved up into ‘zones of influence’ distributed between themselves.

And, as we read of the events surrounding the end of the House of Romanov, and the passion and sufferings of the Royal Martyrs, we should not worry ourselves with imagined alternative outcomes; ‘what-ifs’ – imagining how things could have been different though a White Army Victory or escape form the Urals; or rueing over the lack of rescue by royal relatives. 

The lives of various holy men and women make it clear that the death of the Imperial Family was their calling – their sacrificial-vocation – to ultimately play their own metaphysical and spiritual part in the deliverance and salvation of Russia from the darkness and evil which it was entering. “As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” (Romans 8:36-37) For the Royal Martyrs, there suffering was not only for the sake of Christ, but for the sake of Russia.

It is widely believed that their fate had been revealed to St Seraphim of Sarov, who recorded this in a letter shortly before his death in 1833, sealing it with five wax seals and addressing it “to the fourth sovereign who will arrive in Sarov, and as yet is not known”. At the canonisation of St Seraphim in 1903, the letter was given to the Tsar, who wept bitterly on reading it, but kept the contents a secret. 

In Diveyevo, on their return from the canonisation, the Tsar and Tsarina visited Blessed Pasha of Sarov, who told the Tsar, “Your Highness, come down from the throne yourself.” 

Before her death she had her cell-attendants physically support her to make prostrations before the Tsar’s portrait, and when they asked her “Why, Mamashenka, do you pray so to the Tsar?” she replied “Silly ones. He will be higher than all the Tsars.” Shortly before her death in 1915, having already called him a martyr, Blessed Pasha kissed the feet of his portrait, saying, “My dear one is already near the end.”  

The following year, in 1916, the Eldress Maria Mikhailovna of the Novgorod-Desyarina monastery greeted the visiting Empress with the words, “Here comes the martyr, Tsaritsa Alexandra!” And, in May the same year, a startets in the Sarov Hermitage, related a vision to the celebrated writer, Sergei Nilus: 

“At a time of his profound sorrow over the sufferings of the Royal Family, when he was praying for them with tears, he fell asleep during his prayers. He saw himself in Tsarskoe Selo, and over the Alexander Palace there stood a bright, radiant pillar that reached up to heaven. Then the elder went up to the palace, where he saw a wondrous vision. The Emperor was sitting at a desk, occupied with writing. Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich was sitting at another small table reading books. Close by, the Empress and her daughters were sitting and doing handiwork, and among them was the radiant Elder, St. Seraphim, the Wonderworker of Sarov, giving them spiritual instruction and consolation. When Elder Seraphim saw the archimandrite he went up to him and said, ‘Don’t be too grieved. Father, don’t be despondent; God will not abandon His chosen and beloved children. He has the power to snatch them away from evildoers, but He desires for them, not earthly happiness, but heavenly. It is easier for the Lord to send legions of angels to destroy all their enemies than it is for us to speak a word, but He only takes away their enemies’ reason, so that they destroy themselves. The Lord has sent me for a while to console, strengthen and protect the Royal sufferers, for the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak, and they have need of our heavenly assistance in difficult moments of sorrow. Look at the resplendent light that emanates from the faces of the Royal sufferers — this is a sign that they are under God’s special care, as righteous ones. Just as, from the beginning of the world, the righteous have been vilified, wronged and slandered by iniquitous people — followers of the first liar and deceiver, the devil; so also have these righteous Royal sufferers been vilified, humiliated, slandered and wronged by evil people, instigated by the same universal evildoer who rose up against the righteous ones and against our Creator and God Himself, Christ, the Giver of life. Look at the face of the Empress and you will see that the light emanating from her face is brighter than the others — this is a sign that she has borne more slanders and false accusations than anyone, from followers of the universal slanderer.’ This vision made such a powerful impression on the archimandrite that when he related it he could not restrain his tears.” 

Placing their hope in God, the Royal Martyrs accepted the portion He allotted them, and accepting their cup of suffering, they lived in a spiritual and prayerful captivity, reassured of the love of God through their Faith and relationship with Him, reflecting the sentiments of the Apostle: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” (Romans 8:35-37) 

Peace and trust in God shine through this realisation, and can be seen in royal correspondence, such as in the letter that the Empress wrote to Colonel A.V. Syroboyarsky from detention in Tsarskoe Selo, in 1917,: 

“Everything can be endured if you feel His (God’s) presence and love and if you believe in Him steadfastly in everything. Severe trials are helpful – they prepare us for the other life, for the distant journey.  

It is easier to bear one’s own sufferings than to see the woe of others without it being possible to help them… 

One must ever thank God for all that He gives, and even if He took it away, then perhaps, when one endures without a murmur, all will be even brighter. One must always hope… 

You see, we have not lost our faith, and I hope we never will. It alone provides strength, the streadfastness of spirit, to endure all. And one must be grateful for everything, for it could be much worse…Isn’t that so?” 

If we, as Christian people can reflect this spiritual fortitude, constant hope in God and immense Faith, refusing to lose our trust in His love, then that love will flow into the world with a joy that shocks and challenges evil, violence and cruelty with the mind of Christ, so that we can join with the Apostle Paul, with the Royal Martyrs and all the saints in confessing “that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:39) 

Emulating the Royal Martyrs in Faith, let us put aside earthly cares, knowing that all things are in the hands of God, and that whatever may happen to us in life, His love remains immeasurable and immovable; His inscrutable will always seeks what is needful for us in the eternal scheme of His providence and wisdom, rather than according to the fickle standards and measures of success in  the world; and that in all things He seeks our transformation to reflect His image and likeness and to be with Him in the endless blessedness of the Kingdom – not a temporary and passing Kingdom of this world, but the endless glory of the age to come. 

Let us abandon ourselves into His hands, with the faith, hope, humility and spiritual-courage of the Royal Martyrs.

Holy Royal Martyrs, pray to God for us! 

Reconciliation in the Power of the Holy Spirit

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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Dear brothers and sisters,

In so many icons of St Peter and St Paul, we see the Holy Chief Apostles embracing or exchanging the kiss of peace, but we should remember that the unity between the apostles is one that had to be striven for and only came after dispute and disagreement. The relationship between these very different men, was established through hard work and perseverance, and by allowing the Holy Spirit to act, speak and reconcile them in their lives.

Having been personally chosen by the Ascended Lord (whom Paul had never known during His earthly life) and called to a radically changed life of missionary apostleship and dedication to the Gospel, Saul became Paul, and a feared outsider was called into the apostolic circle, with a specific and heroic task ahead of him.

Saul, the zealous pharisee and persecutor of the first Christians was recast by the Saviour, who turned his life upside down, calling him to set all aside for Christ, looking to the Gentile world, outside Israel, outside the Torah, outside circumcision and the Covenant. The zeal for this vision and mission was to take him all around the Mediterranean world, risking danger, threats to his life and making him a vagrant and a ‘prisoner for Christ’.

For the first Jewish-Christians this challenged the very foundation of their understanding of Christ’s message, the application of the Gospel and the wider meaning of the Cross and Resurrection, outside the Jewish world.

Against a background of suspicion, in today’s Epistle reading, we heard Paul arguing for his place in the apostolic ministry:

“Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.”

Paul challenges them, as if to say, ‘if you want to play a competitive game of measuring labours and endeavours for the Lord, fine… as I can outstrip many of you in what I have already experienced in the preaching of the Gospel!’

Paul and Peter took diametrically opposed views, and Paul saw the Gospel to the Gentiles as the fulfilment of the economy of salvation as envisaged by the prophets, and the meaning of his life.

The holy prophet, Zechariah, wrote that, “Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favour of the Lord… Thus says the Lord of hosts: In those days ten men from nations of every language shall take hold of a Jew, grasping his garment and saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’ ”

… and, it was after conflict at Antioch that at the Council of Jerusalem that Peter the Apostle of the Jews, accepted the middle-ground and was reconciled with Paul’s vision of the call of the Gospel to the Gentiles, who – it was accepted – did not need to be circumcised and follow the Torah and Jewish traditions. Men from ‘the nations’ tugged on the sleeves of Paul, that they migt receive the Gospel, so that God could equally be with them.

Having been reconciled with Paul’s vision, the Acts of the Apostle sums up the sentiments of Peter and James, the Brother of the Lord:

“My brothers, you are well aware that from early days God made his choice among you that through my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness by granting them the Holy Spirit just as he did us. He made no distinction between us and them, for by faith he purified their hearts. Why, then, are you now putting God to the test by placing on the shoulders of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? On the contrary, we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they.”

For us as Orthodox Christians, this is the first council of the Church of Christ, and like all true Councils was guided by the Holy Spirit, which led the leaders of the infant-Church through disagreement, dispute and lively discussion to a position where they could be united in proclaiming the Faith of the Church.

In God’s hands, inspired by the Holy Spirit, such disputes become the convincing tool and spiritual-process through which minds and hearts change and are convinced of theological and philosophical Truths – struggling to grasp and understand, rather than passively nodding, with no understanding or conviction.

The Reconciliation of Saints Peter and Paul, Trophime Bigot (1579-1650).

Peter, and James the Brother of the Lord, with their deeply held Jewish-Christian convictions, and Paul, burning with zeal for those outside the Mosaic covenant, were at the heart of this Council – agreeing and disagreeing, disputing, discussing, looking for common ground and a way forward to reconcile different views, and unite them into a singular inspired vision, determined NOT by them, but by God, in the power and Grace of the Holy Spirit.

This reminds us to be realistic in our understanding of the Councils of the Church, warning us not to dumb them down and transform them into a polite, sanitised theological tea-parties, denying the passionate arguments of those taking part, or the fact that councils involved dispute and disagreement during discussions. Apostles and bishops have needed to sometimes go away, fast, pray and reflect, to be led into and confirmed in Truth.

If we allow ourselves to be tools of the Holy Spirit, with our ears and hearts open to the His voice in others, such discussion can lead us into Truth and Faith. Hearts and minds may be persuaded, changed and transformed, as the Holy Spirit speaks through the mouths of humans – acting though their actions, speaking through their words, being communicated by their enlightened minds, ideas and explanations.

And… even when we find unanimity, this does not negate our different temperaments, methods of communication, particular talents and, as we all dissolve into some sort of homogenised or cloned version of discipleship, but rather weaves us together in Faith and love, in a union which is both united and diverse – made strong, immoveable, and unshakeable in the power and unity of the Holy Spirit.

Old Believers’ Icon, Союз любви – the “Union of Love.”

But for this to happen, our hearts and minds must be open and receptive to His power, and we must pursue the unity of the Church through prayer precisely for this cause, through selflessness and self-denial, through fasting for unity and peace, and through the wider asceticism of Christian living.

Then, like Peter and Paul, we may embrace those very different to us, growing together and converging as we proactively overcome division by seeking reconciliation and unity in Faith and love – but also essentially in TRUTH!

S prazdnikom – a very joyful feast to you all!

Amen!

The Week Ahead

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Dear brothers and sisters, greetings on this feast of the All-Praised Chief Apostles, Peter and Paul.

As we celebrate this feast, we congratulate Peter and Paul on their nameday, as well as Pavel in the Llanelli parish, Subdeacon Peter in London and our Chancellor, Archpriest Paul.

Dear Father and dear brothers, congratulations and ‘Many Years’!

We will celebrate the Divine Liturgy this morning, with the Hours and Liturgy, starting at 10:00, in the Church of St Mary the Virgin, North Church St, Butetown.

In preparation for Sunday, confessions will be heard on Friday and you are asked – as usual – to email me at otetzmark@hotmail.com or message me via Facebook or send a text. Requests by Wednesday night please. 

As announced on Sunday, we are now ‘on vocation’ from our Friday catechesis group, though there is still plenty to do with individuals on this front.

On Saturday, the Divine Liturgy will be celebrated in Cheltenham, with confessions from 09:15, the Hours at 10:00 and the Divine Liturgy around 10:30 (dependent, as always on confessions). We very much look forward to being with our Gloucestershire parishioners (though some come all of the way from Devon for Liturgy).

Saturday will also see our dear Alexandra singing in a concert in Llandaff Parish Hall at 13:00, and it would be lovely if some parishioners are able to support her. Please check here for details: 

https://www.llandaffcathedralfestival.org/whats-on/operarecital?fbclid=IwAR3AzACswYWAuDW62R6JvruYCxS8KImpj3q5Y7k6eZUrEtG60BGp5zJKcQY&fs=e&s=cl

After a very prayerful and peaceful Liturgy, last Sunday, we look forward to celebrating the Holy Royal Martyrs this coming Sunday. The variables for the service may be found here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Jh4XSfVnd5Qwvi-Oa-uaN2rUA57GP_r9/view

May God bless you. 

In Christ – Hieromonk Mark 

From Today in Cardiff: Honouring St Calogero

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Stichera, Tone 4:

As a true ascetic of Christ, O Blessed One, wast thou crowned; verily, with mortifications thou didst purify the eye of the soul, and wast therefore made worthy to see the God whom thou didst love and whom Moses had once seen; thou also receivest from him, O Calogero, the grace of thy miracles, through which thou has made thyself known to us, and thee we celebrate with hymns.

Holy, Venerable Father, Calogero, pray to God for us.

Thou wast made truly worthy to receive the gifts of the Spirit, O Father, and dost reward the faithful who celebrate thy holy memory by bestowing upon them peace and mercy; also, freeing them from all dangers, O glorious Calogero, thou leadest them by thy thy prayers to the never-waning light, O Blessed One.

Holy, Venerable Father, Calogero, pray to God for us.

O Holy Father Calogero, taking the yoke of Christ upon thy shoulders, thou didst come into the cave, having no fear of the assaults the enemy launched with beatings and vain noises, O holy one; but thou didst refute them with thy prayers, O mighty soul, pride of ascetics; therefore, constantly beseech Christ to have mercy upon us.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. 

O unwedded Virgin, bulwark and boast of those who praise thee, save the faithful who beseech thee, and free them from all misery, O thou who didst didst give birth to God who of his good pleasure wast made incarnate.

O great Saint of God, O glorious and venerable father, Calogero, we rejoice with thee in the glory thou enjoyest both in heaven and on earth, as the reward for thy virtue and the graces with which the Lord hath enriched thee, working great miracles through thine intercession: in giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the dumb, and health to all manner of the sick.

Look down from the glory that is above, upon us who are humble and weak, burdened with our many sins, and who ask thy help and consolation; for thou, art our protector, thou art our guide and defence.

And, as thou didst hearken to the multitude of poor people who didst resort unto thee, so hearken unto our prayers. Incline to us thy loving kindness, and help us to fulfill God’s commandments without stain; firmly to keep the Orthodox Faith; to approach God in heartfelt contrition for all our sins; to make progress in Christian devotion and to be worthy of thy prayers before God.

Receive us under thy paternal care, and as in the world thou didst cast the devil from the bodies of a multitude of people, so do thou now cast out sin from our hearts.  

Hearken unto us, who pray to thee in faith and love, and despise not us who seek thee as our defender. Now, and at the hour of our departure, help us and defend us by thy prayers from the wicked assaults of the devil, lest evil powers should have dominion over us; but let us be granted, by thy help, to inherit the blessedness of the heavenly mansions.

For we place our hope in thee, O kind-hearted father: be thou indeed our guide to salvation, and bring us to the unwaning light of eternal life, by thy good intercession before the throne of the Most Holy Trinity, so that we may glorify and hymn with all the Saints, the Name worthy of adoration, of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Exile and Adversity: A Lesson From the Saints

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We are not long home after a very prayerful Liturgy in Canton, at the end of which I was very pleased to be able to offer a litia in honour of St Calogero the Anchorite of Agrigento – observing in the homily how, even in adversity and the experience of being a refugee, the holy monk seized the opportunity to bring God’s love, light and grace to those who surrounded him in Sicily, his place of exile, where he died in his cave hermitage on Monte Kronio in 561, in the ninth decade of his long life.

We can say similar things of saints who acted in a like way in the emigration after the 1917-1918 Revolution: St John the Wonderworker in China, Europe and America; St Maria Skobtsova in inter-war Paris; St Seraphim (Sobolev) in Sofia. And, of course, countless other people of every level of society acted in like ways, showing a different way of Faith to the local religion that surrounded them.

God scattered the faithful to the four winds, and wherever they found themselves, temples rose up (sometimes in very humble makeshift settings), the Holy Mysteries were celebrated, encounters and conversations brought ‘outsiders’ to the threshold of the Church, which became their Church.

Out of adversity, exile and loss, came the Light of Christ, as God blessed the world by sending His faithful servants to so many nations, through their experience of revolution, social upheaval and exile.

In a parish like ours, in Cardiff, where we have just as many converts to Holy Orthodoxy as ‘native Orthodox’, we might reflect that without those who – like St Calogero – fled violence and persecution, the Light of Faith may not have touched our lives. For those of us who were taught and formed by émigrés, this is particularly true.

The Saviour teaches us that, “Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.”

Exiles like St Calogero, and so many saints exiled from their native lands never hid the Light of Christ, but shared it with those who surrounded them, and importantly, they did not allow adversity to crush and defeat them, but persevered so that others were enlightened, comforted, and touched by the love and grace of God.

This is a sober reminder for us.

The irritations and difficulties of our lives may be transformed from sharp sand and grit to pearls, as God transfigures and raises us up through our humility, patient-endurance, long-suffering, struggling, faithfulness and even joyfulness in trials.

And, in all of these things, the Light fo Christ still needs to shine.

The saints have found God even in starvation and cold, prison, exile, illness, torture, death and every adversity. None of these things have separated them from either His Presence or His love, and at the end of his life, in pain and privation in exile, this was so powerfully demonstrated in the dying words of St John Chrysostom, as he breathed his last at Comana Pontica, on 14 September 407 during a forced journey into further exile: “Δόξα τῷ Θεῷ πάντων ἕνεκεν” (Glory to God for all things).

Based on this, Metropolitan Tryphon Turkestanov wrote the well-loved akathist, which returns to St John’s words for its refrain, as in exile and imprisonment in the gulag, the godly hierarch still shared the Light of Christ, and saw His love in the glories of the world around him.

As St Paul wrote in the eight chapter of his letter to the Church in Rome:

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

If we can keep recognising, seeing and finding God’s love and glory, then we have something pricesless and limitless to share… and it is always with us, whatever life sends us, wherever we are, however we are feeling – in sickness and health, plenty or privation, joy or sorrow. God’s love is always there.

The dark storm clouds of life bring no terror to those in whose hearts Thy fire is burning brightly. Outside is the darkness of the whirlwind, the terror and howling of the storm, but in the heart, in the presence of Christ, there is light and peace, silence: Alleluia! 

(Kontakion 5 of the akathist, Glory to God for all things!)

Prayers to St Calogero after tomorow’s Liturgy

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Dear brothers and sisters,

In our final summer at Newman Hall, one of the greatest joys was to celebrate the feast of St Calogero of Agrigento, a 6th century Sicilian saint who arrived on the island as an exile, fleeing persecution and heresy, and by so doing blessed Sicily with his fearless preaching of Orthodox dogma– becoming one of the most well-loved saints and wonderworkers of the island. See:

Celebrating St Calogero. Buona Festa!

We were unable to celebrate his feast on his day, 18 June on the Church calendar, 1 July on the civil calendar- but will serve a litia before the icon, painted and presented in response to that Newman celebration, at the end of tomorrow’s Liturgy.

This happily reflects the celebrations held on and between the first two Sundays of July, in Sicily – and the icon remains a sign of friendship and proof that the saints bring us together in the bonds of Faith.

Though persecution and exile and the negatives of life caused St Calogero’s flight to Sicily, his preaching, miracles, and pastoral care in his new land show that blessings so often come through adversity – if only we take advantage and control of the new and unknown circumstances into which we are thrown.

Through exile, homelessness and escape from heresy came the preaching of Orthodoxy; countless miracles; the restoration of sight to the blind, speech to the dumb and hearing to the deaf; and the great consolation that this holy monk brought to the people of not only to the people of Byzantine Sicily, but to the Sicilian people to this day.

In the present dark times, an exiled, refugee saint should be an inspiration, opening our minds and hearts see that even in sorrow and darkness, God sends grace, light and life, and that seeds may be planted and new beginnings emerge even in adversity and trial.

Святый Преподобне Отче, Калогере, моли Бога о нас

Holy, venerable Father, Calogero, pray to God for us!

Troparion, Tone 8. By the streams of thy tears, thou didst make the soil of the desert fertile and with your deep groans didst make thy labours to bear fruit an hundredfold; and thou didst became a beacon for the whole world, radiating light by miracles, O Calogero, our Father; intercede with Christ-God to save our souls. 

Glory be to the father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; both now and ever, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Kontakion. Tone IV: Celebrating today the sacred memory of Calogero with songs, we give glory to Christ, to him who grantest him the grace of miracles to heal infirmities.

Celebrating St Calogero in the refectory of Newman Hall: Summer 2020.

The Kazan Icon “Of the Seven Lakes”

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Dear brothers and sisters, in addition to being the feast of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God, today is also the feast of the Seven Lakes Kazan Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos. The photograph is of one of my favourite cell-icons.

 Its origin story relates that near the end of the 1500s, a fellow named Evfimiy was born to a poor family.   Being a pious individual, he went to live in a monastery.  When his parents died, he inherited an icon of the “Smolensk” type from them, which he took with him to the region of Kazan.  He eventually settled in a secluded place many miles from the city.  It was surrounded by seven lakes.  There he eventually founded a monastery.

Though some time later he went to live in the Metropolitan’s house in Kazan, he nonetheless continued to guide the monastic community he had begun, and he also decided to give up his inherited “Smolensk” icon to the Seven Lakes monastic community.  The wooden church at the monastic site was eventually replaced by a stone church, and the “Smolensk” icon was placed in it, on the left side of the Royal Doors that led to the altar.

In June of 1654, there was a severe plague in Kazan, and people were dying.  It was decided to send the Seven Lakes – Sedmiezernaya – “Smolensk” icon to the city. 

It is said that a nun had a vision in her sleep, in which a shining old man who looked like St. Nicholas appeared to her, telling her that the people of Kazan should fast for a week and repent, and that the Mother of God was coming to the city to save the people from the plague. 

The nun did not do as she was told, so the old man appeared to her when she next slept, scolding her.  Finally, she went to the city officials and reported her vision.   According to tradition, all the citizens of the city went out, carrying their own “Kazan” icon, to formally meet and welcome the Sedmiezernaya icon some two miles from the city, where they fell to their knees and prayed for “her” help in ending the plague.

It is said the plague subsided when the icon was carried in procession around the city of Kazan.  The city eventually returned the icon to the Seven Lakes Monastery, but again in 1656 there was a plague in Kazan, so the icon was brought back to Kazan, and again the plague subsided.  After that, it became the custom to bring the icon from the Seven Lakes Monastery to the city of Kazan each year, when it would leave the monastery on June 25th and be brought into the city in a formal procession on June 26th (July 9, New Style).

The “Seven Lakes” Icon is also commemorated on July 28 and October 13.

Never, O Mother of God, will we cease to speak of thy powers, unworthy as we are. For if thou didst not intercede in prayer, who would have delivered us from so many dangers? Who would have kept us free until now? Let us never forsake thee, our Lady, for thou ever savest thy servants from all perils.

 

 

Schismatic charades at Lambeth Palace – and shameful ones at that…

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The sight of the Archbishop of Canterbury kneeling to be ‘blessed’ by ‘Metropolitan’ Epifaniy Dumenko is a great insult to the suffering and persecuted Ukrainian Orthodox Church, under the leadership of Metropolitan Onuphry.

Day by day, the Phanar-sponsored schismatics – led by the none-ordained Dumenko – illegally transfer churches to their ownership, storming temples even during services; desecrating places of worship; beating and kicking priests and even throwing paint in their faces; attacking religious processions, even stoning an icon of the Mother of God; beating and throwing down the faithful, regardless of age and gender… and yet the Archbishop of Canterbury kneels before the leader of this vicious schismatic circus.

We remind the Archbishop of Canterbury that the head of the canonical Ukrainian Church is His Beatitude, Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine, and that the vast majority of Ukrainian Orthodox faithful belong to the real Church over which the Lord has placed him as First-Hierarch – not the Phanar and CIA sponsored schismatic body of Messrs Dumenko and Zoria – neither of whom are clerics, as they possess no valid ordination, and merely dress up as clergy: wolves in sheep’s clothing.

Jumping on the politically-correct, virtue signalling, bandwagon – driven by blind-folded ‘well-wishers’ does little for Dr Welby’s spiritual kudos.

This is liberal ecumenism at its very worst – a schismatic charade paraded at the heart of the Anglican establishment – which seems to have decided that people like ‘us’ are to be avoided, and seen as enemy agents, even though the lives of our members of our own community, our parish families and of our friends are directly affected by the tragedy of Ukraine. It is very marked and interesting that after five months of war, the Diocese of Llandaff has yet to send a single communication to our parish. Very telling! Are we the enemy in the eyes of the Anglican leaders?

Whether the Anglican Primate understands, cares or is even bothered by the non-ordination of Dumenko, his schismatic accomplices and church-stealing, babushka-beating thugs, or the daily attacks on Ukrainian Orthodox temples, clergy and faithful is beyond our knowledge, but he should know that the ‘blessing’ of such a schismatic fake is nothing more than a spiritual curse upon his own head.

Prayers Today

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In the intense heat of the afternoon, it was a blessing to be in the cool interior of St Alban’s and enjoy the peace and tranquillity as everyone seemed to be hiding from the heat.

Just a few days after his feast, prayers were once again offered at the shrine of St Alban, for our parish, for our parishioners and friends – particularly asking the Protomartyr to show our parish the way forward in its search for a home which can be a ‘seven-days-a-week’ temple, with services in the same place, rather than in different parts of the city. However, we know that the Lord knows and the Lord allows, as we continually pray, “Thy will be done.”

As candles were lit, prayers were also offered to the Mother of God, before her Walsingham icon, especially for the sick among our parishioners and friends, and for those far from home, seeking refuge from war-torn Ukraine.

Parishioners will remember the icon of Our Lady of Walsingham from the Little Oratory of Newman Hall, where we often prayed the akathist in honour of the Walsingham icon as part of the many Orthodox services celebrated there. When the Oratorian Fathers were relieved of the chaplaincy and the care of Newman Hall, the icon was translated to the Oratory Church where it continues to be venerated, and where we continue to pray before it.

O Sovereign Lady, Mother of God most high, who didst inspire the Lady Richeldis to stablish the holy house at Walsingham for the veneration of thy holy Annunciation, entreat thy Son, even our God, to send down grace upon us for the healing of soul and body, that, as we approach and kiss thy holy ikon and drink the wholesome water drawn up from thy spring, we may ever praise and glorify the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and for ever and to the ages of ages.  Amen.