Saint Nicholas Orthodox Church

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

WHY  OUR  PRAYERS  DO  NOT  REACH  GOD

Conversation with Mitred Archpriest Father John Mironov,
Final Part

Question: How should we dispose ourselves to prayer?

Answer: By repentance and humility. For all degrees of “spiritual maturity” one thing holds true: if we have repentance then we are getting closer to the Lord. And vice versa, when we are no longer aware of our sinfulness — we depart from God. The venerable fathers did not ask for ability to work miracles, nor for visions, but “to see my our sins and not judge my brother”. Therefore, when we begin considering ourselves of some importance, this is our first fall.

Yes, man first lies in a crib, then he begins to walk, and only then — to run and romp, to get bumps and cry. But if his cry is sincere, then the bumps of his sins will go away little by little.

 When you are drawn back to your habitual sin — pray. You are going to improve only when you see your worthlessness, display your humility. If you are not improving, if you are returning to sin — it means that you have not acquired humility, yet. But, under any circumstances, do not grumble. You must always remember: the Lord is humbling you by your sinful sicknesses.

As for humility, we must learn it from the Mother of God. Often women tell me: “Father, I have no humility”. I answer them: “So, you should learn from the Queen of Heaven. Ask her. She will teach you. Then, little by little, all the roughness will be effaced”. We just have to resort to the help of the Mother of God, and do so in a childlike manner, artlessly.

Question: Here is a very important question, Father: how can we teach our children to pray?

Answer: Children see adults and learn from them. How was it in the past? The whole family would stand and pray together, from the youngest to the oldest. Family is called a little church, little house church. People were married in church weddings; the young ones from their childhood were used to the divine services, to fasts and prayers. Mother takes the infant to church for communion — and he already knows what the church is, what communion is. This can be done today, too.

Sometimes, during the service, you look — some mothers have three-four children and all of them are in the temple. Those children become accustomed to being in the church. What is going to be of those children later — whether they are going to be believers or will fall away from the Church — we do not know, but the most important component is there — child is accustomed to the church life, the spiritual training has started. They will grow and maybe they will remember how, when little, they went to church, how they prayed… Then their hearts will be touched and their little souls will be saved.

Question: Should we force our children to pray?

Answer: People say you cannot compel someone to supplicate God sincerely (nevol’nik — ne bogomol’nik). But, of course, to some degree, children have to be forced to pray.  The Kingdom of Heaven is taken by force. It is the same as with the adults: if we do not want to do something — we force ourselves to it. This also holds true for the children — we should teach them the work of prayer, and for this it is well to compel and use as an example the Mother of God. At the age of three, she already served God praying in the Temple of Jerusalem.

Question: Sometimes we pray for God to grant health to a sick person, but he is not getting better. How should we understand this?

Answer: Everything is done according to God’s will. We cannot penetrate it with our intellect and judge the things which are beyond our understanding. We have examples of remarkable asceticism, martyrdom for Christ, when people of righteous life would be sick for a long time and would view their sickness as the Lord’s gift aiding them in their salvation. There was, for instance, an elder, Little Matthew the Bedridden, who was bedridden for over forty years. He lived in the Pskov region, not far from Izborsk. He was a peasant; he got married as everyone else. Then he got a chill in his kidneys and got ill. He taught the Orthodox people, although he was lying in unceasing suffering. He had a humble soul. Therefore, the Lord revealed to him great mysteries. People were drawn to him, would flock to him from far-away places. Even Grand Duchesses would visit him from St-Petersburg, in order to receive a blessing from the elder — Little Matthew the Bedridden.

Do you remember the character in Turgenev’s “Living Relics”? She was lying immovable, but how she gave thanks, how she rejoiced at the singing of birds, rustling noise made by a running mouse! A little hare hopped by — and it was a feast to her. Everything brought her joy and she consoled others, saying: “What are you saying, my lord? I feel very good!”
 

           Venerable Seraphim of Vyritsa

And what about dear Father Seraphim of Vyritsa?! I remember well how I visited him. He would bring joy to every soul. He was lying on a tiny bed; himself — all dried up, sickly looking. But whenever you would come in to him, you felt a special grace from being next to him, a special power and God’s mercy. Today, we have such people, too. They do not only bring consolation, but they give us strength to pray, so that our hearts and souls wouldn’t be extinguished, wouldn’t be bogged down in this sinful life.

Question:  How can a sorrowful person be helped? For example, if he is very sick, and he suffers from pain and the fear of death?

Answer: Our Lord Himself sends consolation to such afflicted and ill people. Nonetheless, consolation received from other people is important, too. A kind word strengthens the spirit, instills courage. It would be good to pray together. Then the Holy Spirit will move the afflicted one to think about his life, will bring him repentance. And when the person feels repentance before the Lord, his sufferings will find relief. He will understand why he is suffering — that he did many things in his life wrong: didn’t show love to his neighbor, didn’t fulfill in his life that what we pray about when we say: “Let us command all our life unto Christ Our God”.

The ailing and suffering person should always keep in mind — isn’t he suffering for his sins? It is also good to compare our pain with the sufferings of other people. When people tell me that their life is so hard, I ask them: “Do you have a roof over your head?” — “I do”. “Do you have a piece of bread?” — “I do”. “Your feet still can walk?” — “They can”. “Then look what other people are going through”. Then the person stops complaining.

The reason for our sorrow is in our pride, in our self-love. I can’t remember a single year that we wouldn’t have some sorrows. A saying often comes to mind: “Sorrow is deeper than the sea”. I was then just a little boy, and my memory didn’t preserve how the campaign of dispossession of peasants was begun, how we were evicted from our house. Later on, my sister told me that we were taken in the cargo railway cars to the Sin’avskie swamps, to the peat-bog to build a hydroelectric power plant. Many of those who refused to enter the kolkhozes were shipped there.

We were brought there and settled in the barracks which were frozen-through. Famine started. We were searching for the frost-wrinkled radishes in the fields and picking ash-berries in the woods. Thus the years of 1932, 1033, 1934 and 1935 went by. Famine claimed two of my brothers: Peter and Basil, and my sister Alexandra. My uncle died on the peatery, my mother got tuberculosis and had it for 17 years. She passed on to the Lord at the age of 55… All her life my mother suffered, from much crying her eye bags got obstructed… she was mourning the hard life, death of her children, her friends.

Only in 1936 we saw bread and could remember its taste (although it was yet a long time till we were able to taste white bread). A candy — a tiny lollypop — was a miracle to us, it was the best reward for good behavior. And we thanked God for even those joys, which seem so meager now. We prayed to the Lord that He would give us our daily bread, and He would send it to us every day, but little by little.

Once my father saved up a few pennies, whatever he was able to earn, and went to Leningrad to buy bread. He bought several loaves of it, put them in a backpack and headed home. While he was in a railway station, somebody slashed his bag and pilfered almost all bread. He managed to hold on to only two loaves. But we thanked the Lord for that little joy, too.

It was 1937, and sorrow visited us again. NKVD officers were prowling at nights, picking up people. More than once I saw how they would arrest a family’s sole bread-winner, how people would throw themselves under the wheels of the NKVD cars…

At ten years of age we began carrying the equal work-load with the adults. We have learned to appreciate everything God would send us. 

In 1941 we were occupied by the Germans. First, we were told that they would never come near Leningrad. But on September 6 we were told we were occupied. Then there started our sufferings, hunger, a long journey to the Pskov region where our family had been evicted from. Over a month we were walking beside the front line. Some days were full with so much sorrow that we didn’t hope to reach the goal of our journey alive. But the Lord helped us.

While we lived under occupation, I grew a bit. At 16, while retreating the Germans sent me to a camp, but I escaped, crossed the front line and enlisted in the army. By that time I had turned 17. After serving in the army, in 1946, I buried my mother (my father was living in exile) and set off for Vyritsa to see Elder Seraphim. The elder gave me his blessing to enter St-Petersburg Theological Seminary and in 1948 I started my studies there.

Russian people have a saying: “They won’t exile you farther than the sun, they won’t make you worse than a man. You think it is sorrow, but when you think it through it is God’s will”. Compare my narrative about the years of my childhood with the times we are living through now… Yes, our times are difficult, but it used to be much worse.

The Lord said: “In thy patience thou shalt acquire thy souls”. Patience is a great power full of grace.

Time will pass and we shall understand that what we are going through was arranged by Divine Providence for nobody’s benefit but ours. May the Lord help us to see it at all times and enable us through prayer to acquire peace and love, so needed by all of us.

Question: Father, in conclusion of our conversation about prayer, what would you wish to all our readers?

Answer: Apostle Paul says: “Pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God concerning you” (1 Thes. 5:17-18).

Where there is prayer — there is acquisition of holiness. Where there abides Christ’s love — the spiritual life is there, indeed. But where there are squabbles, quarrels, scandals, divisions — thence the grace of Christ departs. It is like a bird which sits on the branch and sings while the man stands still under the tree. But should he do as much as wave his hand — the bird has flown away. So also the grace departs from us when we are vain and lack attention. “By the Holy Spirit every soul is vivified and by purity it ascends…” — here is what we should remember at all times.   

                                                      The End

. . . . . News  From  All  The  Ends  Of  The Earth . . . . .

Cairo, Egypt: A report from the U.S. Copts Association reveals that the Muslim Brotherhood-influenced Egyptian Medical Association is trying to prohibit any organ transplants that would involve a Muslim donor and Christian recipient, and vice versa. "This is to protect poor Muslims from rich Christians who buy their organs and vice versa," Hamdi Al Sayed, medical association director, said in the report. The association's plan now has been assembled as a bill before the Egyptian parliament, where it is pending. A spokesman for the Coptic Christian community, Bishop Marcos, said the explanation doesn't support the proposal, since a rich Christian could seek to buy organs from a poor Christian, or a rich Muslim from a poor one. "We all have the same Egyptian blood, but if the reason for the measure is to end organ trafficking, we rejected it because it may also occur between believers of the same religion," he said in the report. He warned the proposal is troubling because it could lead to a prohibition on blood donations across religious boundaries, and even result in physicians being prevented from examining and helping patients of religions other than their own. In Egypt, such measures would put Christians at a disadvantage, since they make up only about 10 percent of the 76 million population. "We are afraid that in the future there will be hospitals for Christians and hospitals for Muslims," said the bishop in the report. Egyptian Human Rights Union, whose spokesman, Maguib Gibrael, said the prohibition "violates human rights, the constitution and national unity." "If the Medical Association does not annul the measure, there will be more conflict between Muslims and Christians," he warned. The Muslim Brotherhood, a primary opposition party in Egypt that has been linked to Islamist movements around the world, is supporting the proposal. Officials do confirm that Egypt has a lively black market for human organs, and during the 1990s there was an effort to limit kidney transplants for non-citizens because of the number of foreigners visiting Egypt seeking transplants. About the same time, a wave of anti-Christian violence was led by several Islamist organizations including Islamic Jihad. The death toll, which is ongoing and mostly involves Coptic Christians as victims, has reached 1,300.

New York, N.Y.: Metropolitan Philip, primate of the Antiochian Orthodox Church in America, issued an official letter to the hierarchs, clergy and faithful of the Antiochian Archdiocese this past August 7, repeated an earlier edict which forbids members of the Antiochian Archdiocese to be in communion with clergymen who serve a handful of Palestinian and Jordanian Orthodox parishes which now form a new vicariate under the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Vatican City: Pope Benedict XVI is to rehabilitate Martin Luther, arguing that he did not intend to split Christianity but only to purge the Church of corrupt practices. Pope Benedict will issue his findings on Luther (1483-1546) in September after discussing him at his annual seminar of 40 fellow theologians — known as the Ratzinger Schülerkreis — at Castelgandolfo, the papal summer residence. According to Vatican insiders the Pope will argue that Luther, who was excommunicated and condemned for heresy, was not a heretic. Cardinal Walter Kasper, the head of the pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, said the move would help to promote ecumenical dialogue between Catholics and Protestants. It is also designed to counteract the impact of July's papal statement describing the Protestant and Orthodox faiths as defective and “not proper Churches”. The move to re-evaluate Luther is part of a drive to soften Pope's image as a hardliner as he approaches the third anniversary of his election next month. This week it emerged that the Vatican is planning to erect a statue of Galileo, who also faced a heresy trial, to mark the 400th anniversary next year of his discovery of the telescope, reports The Times.

Rome, Italy: An Italian priest and theologian tried to organize an online beauty pageant for nuns to give them more visibility within the Catholic Church and to fight the stereotype that they are all old and dour. The "Miss Sister 2008" contest was scheduled for September on a blog run by the Rev. Antonio Rungi and would give nuns from around the world a chance to showcase their work and their image. "Nuns are a bit excluded, they are a bit marginalized in ecclesiastical life," Rungi told The Associated Press. "This will be an occasion to make their contribution more visible." Rungi, a theologian and schoolteacher from the Naples area, said that visitors to his site would have a month to "vote for the nun they consider a model." Nuns would fill out a profile including information about their life and vocation as well as a photograph. It would be up to them to choose whether to pose with the traditional veil or with their heads uncovered: "But being ugly is not a requirement for becoming a nun. External beauty is gift from God, and we mustn't hide it." Rungi said the idea was first suggested to him by nuns with whom he regularly prays and works. The Russian Orthodox Church was skeptical about the idea of the Catholic priest to hold such a beauty contest. Spiritual leader of the people’s monarchical movement ‘For the Faith and Fatherland’ Hieromonk Nikon (Belavenets) considered Catholic initiative only "a cynical way to make money with sensation. The Lord granted us our appearance, there's no merit of ours. Thus, it's not good to boast things you didn't create yourself. Even more unnatural idea is to hold a vanity contest among those who should free from vanities of the world." However, Roman Catholic idea didn’t last long. Rev. Rungi closed the contest, although a great number of nuns had signed up. “I have to say that our intentions were misinterpreted. Some even said I belong in hell”, said the Roman Catholic theologian. 

Jerusalem, Israel: Two ultra-Orthodox Jew have been charged over the brutal beating of a woman by a self-styled religious modesty squad who considered her behavior indecent, Israeli police said on Monday. The charge sheet says the two were among seven members of the vigilante group who barged into the home of a 31-year-old divorcee in Jewish-Occupied Jerusalem after neighbors complained of her "indecent" lifestyle. The gang gagged her, hit her, kicked her and said she would be killed if she did not leave the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood where she lived. A third member of the group was also arrested for allegedly setting fire to a clothing store in an ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem neighborhood, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. Religious modesty squads have been active in Israel for the past decade, particularly in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods. Ultra-Orthodox Jews, known as Haredim — Hebrew for God-fearing — make up 8 to 10 percent of Israel's population. They follow strict interpretations of Jewish religious laws.

                               Ultra-Orthodox Jews

Dhaka, Bangladesh: A crocodile ate a 25-year-old after he waded into a pond next to a shrine in an attempt to receive the animal’s blessing. Inspector Kabir said Rubel Sheikh and his mother traveled to the Muslim Khan Jahan Ali shrine, where hundreds of people visit every day to offer hens and goats to the crocodiles living there. Part of the shrine ritual involves bathing in the water with the crocodiles, but devotees are very rarely approached by the animals. "He went into the pond hoping to be blessed when a crocodile attacked him and dragged him into the deep part of the pond,'' Kabir told the Associated Press. "This is a very unusual incident. Normally, the crocodiles are very friendly and do not harm people.'' About 25 people dove into the pond to try and rescue Sheikh, but could not find his body. When it was washed ashore it had been largely eaten.

Tokyo, Japan: On Tuesday, August 26, at 94 years old, died the oldest hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Archbishop Nicholas (Sayama) of Ramenskoe. Archbishop Nicholas (Sayama Dayroku) was born on November 22, 1914. In 1941, he graduated from the Tokyo Theological Seminary, and in 1954 entered the St. Vladimir's Theological Seminary in the United States. Here in October 1956, he was ordained to the diaconate, and in November — to the priesthood. Upon completing St. Vladimir's Seminary in 1959, he lived in Athens, and on September 1, 1962 received monastic tonsure in the Trinity-Saint Sergii Lavra and was named Nicholas. In 1966, he was elevated to the rank of Archimandrite. In December 1967, Father Nicholas was appointed head of the Russian spiritual mission in Japan. Archimandrite Nicholas’ consecration to the episcopate took place at Alexander Nevsky Laura on December 10, 1967. In 1970, Japan became an autonomous Orthodox Church, and instead of Russian spiritual mission in Tokyo a representation of the Moscow Patriarchate was established. Bishop Nicholas served as rector of the representation from 1970 to 1986. In 1984, he was elevated to the rank of archbishop, and since 1996 - served as Archbishop of Ramenskoe, vicar of Moscow diocese. In 1986 Archbishop Nicholas retired and since then he lived in the Japanese Chiba prefecture, bordering Tokyo district.

Rome, Italy: An Italian museum refused to remove a modern-art sculpture portraying a crucified green frog holding a beer mug and an egg that the Vatican had condemned as blasphemous. The board of the Museion museum in the city of Bolzano decided by a majority vote that the frog (by German ‘artist’ Kippenberger) was a work of art and would stay in place for the remainder of an exhibition. Kippenberger's works have been shown at the Tate Modern and the Saatchi Gallery in London and at the Venice Biennale, and retrospectives are planned in Los Angeles and New York. The Vatican wrote that the work "wounds the religious sentiments of so many people who see in the cross the symbol of God's love." 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

1. August Bulletin Cover Sponsors are Nicholas and Patricia Yacko — in memory of Nicholas Yacko.

2. Please, do not forget that we are yet to finish collecting funds for cover our recent church painting project. Last week, we received ZERO dollars towards church painting. To pay off the painting of our church, we have raised $5.079.00, with only $274.00 yet to be collected. You might have noticed the iconic images of Sun and Moon in the corners of the eastern wall of the Altar. These icons, was given to us as donation by a young and talented iconographer Philip Subotic, who is currently working on covering the interior of Archangel Michael Serbian Orthodox Church in Lansing, IL, with magnificent frescos.

3. This year our parish is hosting the Distinguished Diocesan Donors Dinner which is scheduled for September 28th. Since we host the event, it would be good if we could have a good number of our faithful as donors, or at least to be present at the dinner as guests. The Distinguished Diocesan Donors contribute $100.00 or more to Camp Nazareth. Guests at the dinner contribute $30.00, which covers their dinner selection and adds a few dollars to the DDD program. Therefore, even if we come as guests we still help the camp and will have an opportunity to hear about our diocesan Camp Nazareth, its history, different events the camp is available for and the important place it holds in the hearts of the hundreds of our diocesan children who flock to the camp every summer.

4. On Sunday, September 21, following the Divine Liturgy, we are having Hotdogs and Beans Luncheon in our hall. The all-you-can-it luncheon is $5.00 for adults and free for children. In the narthex we have a sign-up list for the luncheon attendees — make sure you put your name down and indicate the number of people coming with you.

5. Let it be known for those of us who smoke: we may not smoke in the room which has icons in it nor may we do it in the presence of a clergyman, or a monastic.

6. On Wednesdays, September 3rd and 10th, we are going to have Bible Study Classes beginning at 6:30 P.M. Refreshments are provided.