The Deacon

Great Lent 2020: Entering the Fast of Great Lent Together

February 22, 2020 By The Deacon

Beloved Faithful,
How joyous was our celebration of the holy Nativity of Our Saviour! How great the grace we received at the sacred Baptism of Our Saviour and through the blessing of the Waters! I think back on the Vigil procession in the snow, our meal together on Nativity morning, and the amazing singing of Carols together. Let us all thank God for His love towards us through the whole Festive Nativity Season and for all the days ahead.

Now, in just over a week, we shall enter together into the Fast of Great Lent. And so I thought it would be good for us to take a moment to gather our thoughts on Lent ahead of its arrival.

Let us start out on the Lenten path together and remember that we do so with innumerable past generations of Orthodox Christians who went before us. We move forward into Lent with the prayerful support of two thousand years of holy Saints, and as a Parish, in supporting each other, we witness with them the Truth of our holy Faith, and the salvific works of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ.

And so, let us begin the course of the Fast well. As our Metropolitan Andrew said, “Let us learn the humility of the Publican. And think about how the next action you take will advance you before God”. Let us “fight the good fight”, as the holy Apostle Paul instructs us and begin with eagerness! Our Holy Orthodox Church established this Fast as a time of prayer, a time of repentance, a time for almsgiving, as a time of mutual forgiveness and love, and as a time of quiet reflection leading to the great victory of Pascha.

The Triodion is the Church Service book for Great Lent, and as we have already started to chant from it, I went forward to the first days of the Fast and here is what the initial Services tell us:

“With joy let us enter upon the beginning of the Fast”,
“Let us joyfully begin the all-hallowed season of abstinence,
And let us shine with the bright radiance of the holy commandments”,

And we shall also soon hear the incredibly compunctionate prayer of Saint Ephraim:

“O Lord and Master of my life, a spirit of idleness, curiosity, ambition, and idle talk, give me not.
But a spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love, bestow upon me, Thy servant.
Yea, O Lord King, grant me to see mine own failings and not to condemn my brother; for blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages. Amen. “

May Our Saviour bless our endeavours, grant us a beneficial Season of the Fast, and bring us all together to celebrate with joy the Resurrection of Our Saviour.

Father Anthony

A Season of Blessings 2019: Nativity Message from Fr. Anthony

January 4, 2020 By The Deacon

St. Nicholas Orthodox Church Scarborough, English Language Orthodox Church Toronto, Orthodox Services in English Beloved Faithful,
As the great Feast of Our Saviour’s holy Nativity approaches, I began to recall the many great blessings and wonderful Feastdays that we have celebrated together over the past months at Saint Nicholas Cathedral. We were blessed to have a beautiful Concelebration of Hierarchs at the Divine Liturgy on Sunday June 2nd where Metropolitan Gregory of Boston, Metropolitan Ihnat of Seattle, Bishop Chrysostom of Lanham, Archimandrite Isaac, Father Bohdan, Father Andrew, Father Rodion, Father Sergey, and Father Deacons George and James participated, and our beloved Bishop Andrew was raised to be Metropolitan of Toronto. In July, our Vigil and Liturgy for Saints Peter and Paul were made extra special with a Parish luncheon where we recalled the great works of these two Chiefs of the Apostles. Many other joyous events followed: five of our parishioners travelled on pilgrimage to the Holy Land in October, our dear brother Michael was baptized and received into our Holy Orthodox Church on November 2nd, and then with joy our Father Deacon George was elevated to ProtoDeacon on the Feast of Saint Nicholas with our Metropolitan Andrew presiding, and Metropolitan Gregory and Archimandrite Isaac in attendance. Axios Father Deacon George! Our Parish and Clergy truly appreciate your care and diligence in the sacred Services, your commitment to the Church, and we pray that Our Saviour bless you and your family for your labours.

On the Saturday and Sunday following the Feast of Saint Nicholas, through God’s mercy and grace, I received holy ordination to the Deaconate and then to the Priesthood. My dear and faithful Orthodox Christians, it was indeed overwhelming, and yet made so joyous by your prayers, encouragement and support, and I know everyone was so happy that our dear Father Bohdan and Presbytera Donna, together with Father George and Metropolitan Gregory had travelled to attend my ordination. Having been guided by many kind and pious people during my thirty-one years as a Reader, I ask again for your forgiveness and for your prayers, that Our Saviour may bless our work together for many years ahead. May God bless everyone who contributed, prepared meals, participated in the Services and helped in the celebrations.

With so many blessings, beloved Faithful, let us join together in thanksgiving to Our Saviour; let us ask for his continued mercy, for the forgiveness of our sins, and praise Him for his benefactions toward us. Let us also remember and pray in these days approaching Nativity for all pious Orthodox Christians and Clergy, remembering especially Father Bohdan and flock at Saints Peter and Paul Mission, Father Demjan and flock at Saint Andrew’s in Saskatoon, the parishioners of the Holy Mother of God of the Portal Church in Calgary, Father Sergey and Matushka Vera, and Father Deacon George and Deaconissa Tatiana and their family, and all those who pray for us at the Monastery and Convent in Boston.

In our Church Service there is a hymn for the Forefeast of Our Saviour’s Nativity that I would like to share.

“Behold, the time of our salvation is at hand. Prepare, O cave; the Virgin draweth nigh to give birth. Rejoice and be glad, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah, for from thee our Lord is risen up as the sun. Hearken, ye mountains and ye hills, and ye lands round about Judea; for Christ cometh, that He might save man whom He fashioned, since He is the Friend of man.
Indeed, our salvation is at hand, as the celebration of the birth of Christ approaches. Let us all therefore rejoice, and ask that through the prayers of His holy Mother, He will enlighten us all.”

In closing, I want to share that our Metropolitan Andrew has arrived at the Mother of God Church in Calgary where he will celebrate Nativity Services with the faithful there. He extends his fatherly blessing to all of us, and prayers that we may all share in the joy of our Saviour’s holy Nativity.

In Christ,
Father Anthony
Saint Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral, Toronto

The Schedule for Nativity is as follows:

Monday January 6 (Dec. 24 O.S.)
–Royal Hours with St. Basil Vesperal Liturgy – 7:30am
–Compline, Entreaty, Matins – 6:30pm

Tuesday January 7 (Dec. 25 O.S.)
–Divine Liturgy – 9am
Followed by Nativity Treats and Caroling in the Church Hall

Homily by St. John of Kronstadt on the Parable: Sower and the Seed – (Luke 8: 5-15)

October 27, 2019 By The Deacon

On the Varying Effects of God’s Word Upon Man’s Heart, Owing to Differences Among Hearts

Today, beloved, the Gospel parable was read about the sower and the seed, about the unequal quality of the land upon which the seed fell, and about the varying fates of the seed. At the end of the Gospel reading the Lord Himself, at the request of His disciples, explained the parable (Luke 8:5-15).

Pitiful man! Poor man! How many obstacles he has in this most important matter, that of saving his soul! In that he himself treads upon the saving seed of the word of God, which can make him wise unto salvation, treading upon it either intentionally, consciously, and sneeringly, or out of frivolity, neglect, and ignorance; in that the universal malefactor and blighter of the human race, the devil, snatches away the saving word; in that his hardened and obdurate heart does not permit him to be saved; in that thorns – or the various cares, passions, and pleasures of life, along with riches – set before him insurmountable barriers to salvation. Only a few, who with honest and goods hearts and true reason value their salvation as they should, patiently making use of the means for salvation that have been given us, are saved. Many are called, but few are chosen. Astonishing! What is ultimately happening here? Who is to blame for this absurdity, for this voluntary perdition of men? Man himself is to blame, for treading upon – and often learning to tread upon daily – the wondrous, great, and countless gifts of God. The Lord God, Who created him in His image and likeness, in righteousness and holiness, granted him every opportunity, every means and strength, for life and piety. Man, in his laziness and ignorance, his negligence and obstinancy, his unreasonable predilection for the here and now, is like a shadow passing through life, rushing headlong towards perdition while pushing aside the saving hand of God. Who is to blame for this perdition, if not man himself? You will say: it is impossible, or at least difficult, to be saved! But, in fact, countless multitudes of men like you have been saved; they are even now being saved, though not many. “Being saved is difficult!” But do you really want to obtain eternal life – in blessed union with God, the Mother of God, the Angels, and all the Saints – without labor? Without the labor of self-purification, assisted by grace, without the labor of prayer and vigilance, without almsgiving, without meekness, without humility, without abstinence? In the acquisition of earthly goods we do not judge labor to be superfluous, and we often work at this with all our strength; but when it comes to obtaining eternal blessedness, we throw up our hands. It is not as though the matter of salvation were extremely difficult: “For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light,” says the Saviour (Matthew 11:30). Yes, with God’s help it gradually becomes easy, though at first it is hampered by the persistent warfare with sin. But is not sin itself a matter of extreme difficulty, since it is unnatural and alien to our divine nature? Is sin not torturous? If we labor in sin, how then can we not labor in righteousness, in saving our soul from sin? There, the end is death; but here, eternal life. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life” (Romans 6:23).

The present parable of the sower and the seeds was given not only to encourage listeners with honest and goods hearts to fulfill the word of God more zealously or unto greater perfection in virtue, but also so that people who are dissolute, neglectful, hard-hearted, and filled with passions might be prompted to take heed, listen attentively to the word of God, and work out their salvation with fear. The grace of God can change any heart for the better, accomplishing the miracle of salvation in any man, if only he would believe, desire to be saved, seek salvation, and admit the abyss of his sins, as well as the abyss that his sins have created between wanton sinners and God; if only he would submit himself to God’s saving grace and not push aside the saving hand of God. There were, and are, thousands of examples of men being saved who were previously dissolute, frivolous, hard-hearted, and subject to all manner of passion. They heeded the word of God, did not resist it, followed it – and they were saved, and are now in the blessedness of the Heavenly Kingdom. Nothing is impossible for God: He can save an inveterate sinner; He can raise him from the pit of hell to the height of His Kingdom and eternal blessedness – like the wise thief, like Mary of Egypt, who was drowning in the abyss of sin. Man himself must simply desire, ask for, and earnestly seek salvation; for the Lord does not desire to draw us unto salvation forcibly, so that salvation, like something forced upon us, would not become repellent to him: for we hold dear and pleasing to us only that which we ourselves have come to love and to which we have grown akin, which has become our treasure and, as it were, our nature. And such precisely is Christian virtue, such is the Kingdom of God: one must come to know it, to love it with one’s whole heart, to assimilate it here on earth, to root it in one’s heart in such a way that it wholly penetrates one’s entire soul, leaving no place in the heart for pernicious and insidious sin.

Christian! Cast aside your perilous dissipation, your unbelief, negligence, and sloth, your laziness for salvation; do not trample upon the wondrous gifts of grace; earnestly read or listen to the word of God, which opens unto you the path to salvation; accomplish it with the utmost understanding and strength; conquer your hard-heartedness and obdurateness; soften your heart like wax with the flame of the grace of the Holy Spirit and with tears of repentance; cast from your heart the thorns of sin, even though this be grievous and painful, for they have become second nature to you. You cannot, you say; but God’s grace is omnipotent: it will help you easily accomplish the whole work of your salvation.

Speaking of the seeds of the word of God that nourish the soul of man, I call to mind also that earthly, perishable seed: the seed of bread, the present bad harvest of bread crops, and the high cost of bread, its unprecedentedly high cost. The bad harvest came about from the destruction of wheat by insects and worms, or from drought. Where do these afflictions come from? From our sins. We did not offer the Lord God the fruits of our repentance and the correction of our wretched life; the Lord takes away our earthly goods, for which we did not know how to be, and were unwilling to be, thankful to Him; we did not want to do His will, and we became evil, crafty, proud, untruthful, unrestrained, idle-talking and foul-mouthed, avaricious, cruel, stingy, merciless, and unclean. Obviously, a rod of paternal justice hangs over us. God punishes us with crop failures, fires, floods, grueling wars, and destructive hardships and diseases. But do we come to our senses, do we repent, do we correct ourselves? Have we not become obdurate, have not our hearts turned wholly to stone? Deliver us, O God! Where then will the Kingdom of God be on earth, if not in Christians that call themselves Orthodox, in an Orthodox land, where there are so many precious Orthodox shrines dedicated to God, so many holy relics of God-pleasers, so many wonder-working icons, so many magnificent churches, in which there are such heavenly services on earth? “The Kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof” (Matthew 21:43). Yes, may we not forever be put to shame; may the Lord correct us with the rod of punishment, and may He not deprive us of His mercy and His Kingdom. Amen.

Translation Copyright Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Brookline, MA.

The Divine Appearance of the Honoured Cross

September 27, 2019 By The Deacon

Appearance-Cross-St. Nicholas Orthodox Church Scarborough, English Language Orthodox Church Toronto The first appearance of the honored Cross occurred in the year 312, in October, during the time of St. Constantine the Great. It appeared in the sky at noontime and was composed of radiant stars, with the words, “By This, Conquer”. Thus, by this first manifestation, the honored Cross became the labarum, the standard, of the first Christian empire, which served the purpose of proclaiming and conveying our Orthodox Christian faith and piety throughout the known world.

The second majestic appearance of the Cross took place during the reign of Emperor Constantius, the son of St. Constantine the Great, in the holy city of Jerusalem on May 7th, 351, the day of Pentecost, when St. Cyril was bishop of Jerusalem. The honored Cross was comprised entirely of a certain divine light visible to everyone for a week, and in magnitude it stretched from Golgotha and the Church of the Resurrection all the way to the Mount of Olives.

In this pamphlet, we have eye-witness descriptions of the third appearance of the Cross. These descriptions are provided by individuals still living in 1975, when the first edition of this pamphlet appeared in Greek.

In the early 1900s and especially in the 1920s, there were strong anti-Church and secularist forces in power in Greece and in the Ecumenical Patriarchate. These forces introduced the Gregorian calendar. The Gregorian calendar is adequate for the functions of business, the stock exchange, and other worldly, secular activities. Liturgically, however, it is in no way possible to reconcile the Gregorian calendar with our canonical , Orthodox Christian Paschalion. Moreover, the introduction of a Church calendar change by a local church created an unacceptable liturgical disunity within the Church Itself.

Vast numbers of the people of Greece refused to accept these anti-canonical, anti-Church changes being forced upon them by state police power. Such people suffered persecution, imprisonment, and deprivation at the hands of secular police powers. But the spiritual eyes of true Orthodox Christians saw clearly even if, at the time, they did not completely comprehend the evil of the new calendar. It was a forerunner and a sign of the greatest heresy in the history of the world—Ecumenism. Many people, however, became confused. Some began to waver. Just as the Arians were in control of the worldly power in 351 and were able to force their heresy upon the empire, so at this time, the calendar innovators controlled the worldly power of Greece. In such a troubled and dangerous time, the All-Merciful God heeded the needs of His people. Again, as in 351, God sent a wondrous apparition of the sign of the All-Honourable Cross to seal the truth and put the false teachers to shame.

The appearance of the Cross took place in this manner: In 1925, on the eve of the feast of the Exaltation of the All-Honourable and Life-giving Cross of Our Saviour, September 14 according to the Orthodox Church calendar (September 27, new style), the all-night vigil was served at the Church of St. John the Theologian in suburban Athens. By nine o’clock that evening, more than two thousand of the Orthodox faithful had gathered in and around the church for the service, since very few true-Orthodox churches had been accidentally left open by the civil authorities. Such a large gathering of people could not, however, go unnoticed by the authorities. Around eleven P. M. the authorities dispatched a platoon of police to the church “to prevent any disorders which might arise from such a large gathering.” The gathering was too large for the police to take any direct action or to arrest the priest at that time and so they joined the crowd of worshippers in the already over-flowing courtyard of the church.

Then, regardless of the true motives for their presence, against their own will, but according to the Will which exceeds all human power, they became participants in the miraculous experience of the crowd of believers.

At 11:30 P.M., there began to appear in the heavens above the church, in the direction of northeast, a bright, radiant Cross of light. The light not only illuminated the church and the faithful but, in its rays, the stars of the clear, cloudless sky became dim and the church-yard was filled with an almost tangible light. The form of the Cross itself was an especially dense light and it could be clearly seen as a Byzantine cross with a crossbar toward the bottom. This heavenly miracle lasted for half an hour, until midnight, and then the Cross began slowly to rise up vertically, as the cross in the hands of the priest does in the ceremony of the Elevation of the Cross in church. Having come straight up, the Cross began gradually to fade away.

Human language is not adequate to convey what took place during the apparition. The entire crowd fell prostrate upon the ground with tears and began to sing prayers, praising the Lord with one heart and one mouth. The police were among those who wept, suddenly discovering, in the depths of their hearts, a childlike faith. The crowd of believers and the platoon of police were transformed into one, unified flock of faithful. All were seized with a holy ecstasy. The vigil continued until 4:00 A.M., when all this human torrent streamed back into the city, carrying the news of the miracle because of which they were still trembling and weeping.

Many of the unbelievers, sophists, and innovators, realizing their sin and guilt, but unwilling to repent, tried by every means to explain away or deny this miracle. The fact that the form of the cross had been so sharply and clearly that of the Byzantine Cross, with a crossbar at the bottom for a foot-rest, completely negated any arguments of accidental physical phenomena.

The fact that such an apparition of the Cross had also occurred during the height of the first great heresy must impress the Orthodox with the importance of the calendar question and of all that is connected with it. No sensible person can discuss this issue lightly, with secular reasoning or with worldly arguments. Innovators, like the Arians in 351, are left without extenuation or mitigation.

By this third appearance, our Lord and Saviour has confirmed from on high that we are to remain faithful to the heritage we have received from our Holy Fathers, and which was codified by the First Ecumenical Council and sealed by almost two thousand years of usage by the subsequent Ecumenical, Local and Pan-Orthodox Councils of our Church.

The Exaltation of the Life-Giving Cross

September 27, 2019 By The Deacon

Saint Helen, the mother of Saint Constantine the Great, when she was already advanced in years, undertook, in her great piety, the hardships of a journey to Jerusalem in search of the Cross, about the year 325. A temple to Aphrodite had been raised up by the Emperor Hadrian upon Golgotha, to defile and cover with oblivion the place where the saving Passion had been suffered. The venerable Helen had the statue of Aphrodite destroyed, and the earth removed, revealing the Tomb of our Lord, and three crosses. Of these, it was believed that one must be that of our Lord, the other two of the thieves crucified with Him; but Saint Helen was at a loss which one might be the Wood of our salvation.

At the inspiration of Saint Macarius, Archbishop of Jerusalem, a lady of Jerusalem, who was already at the point of death from a certain disease, was brought to touch the crosses, and as soon as she came near to the Cross of our Lord, she was made perfectly whole. Consequently, the precious Cross was lifted on high by Archbishop Macarius of Jerusalem; as he stood on the ambo, and when the people beheld it, they cried out, “Lord, have mercy.”

It should be noted that after its discovery, a portion of the venerable Cross was taken to Constantinople as a blessing. The rest was left in Jerusalem in the magnificent church built by Saint Helen, until the year 614. At that time, the Persians plundered Palestine and took the Cross to their own country (see Jan. 22, Saint Anastasius the Persian). Later, in the year 628, Emperor Heraclius set out on a military campaign, retrieved the Cross, and after bringing it to Constantinople, himself escorted it back to Jerusalem, where he restored it to its place.

“By This, Conquer” – Read more on the three Divine Appearances of the Honoured Cross