Orthodox Christian Witness

DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF ST. JOHN, ARCHBISHOP OF SHANGHAI AND SAN FRANCISCO

ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN WITNESS (USPS 412-260)
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FEBRUARY, 2005, VOLUME XXXIX, NO. 2 (1545)

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1. THE GREAT WAGER BETWEEN BELIEVERS AND UNBELIEVERS
2. DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HISTORY
3. CITIZENSHIP 101
4. COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS!
5. FROM THE INTRODUCTION TO THE LIVES OF THE SAINTS
6 NEW ITEMS FROM THE BOOK CENTER

It is a marvellous thing that God rained manna on the fathers, and that they were fed by daily nourishment from Heaven. Therefore, it is said 'Man hath eaten the bread of Angels' (Ps. 77:25). Yet all those who ate that bread died in the desert but this food which you receive, this 'living bread, which came down from Heaven,' furnishes the substance of eternal life, and whoever eats this bread will not die forever'; for it is the Body of Christ.

St. Ambrose of Milan

1. THE GREAT WAGER BETWEEN BELIEVERS AND UNBELIEVERS

By Photios Kontoglou

from his book Mystical Flowers, Athens, 1977 (in Greek)

PHOTIOS KONTOGLOU (1896 - 1965), a Greek Orthodox iconographer and author, was born in Aivali, Asia Minor. After traveling around the world he eventually returned to his homeland, but was forced to leave after the Asia Minor catastrophe in 1922 and moved to Athens, Greece. His writings and icon painting distinguished him as a soldier for Christ and struggler for the spirit of Orthodox "Romeosini." His writings reveal the Christian-Roman/Byzantine Orthodox spirit of the neo-Hellene. His dedication to the traditional Orthodox Byzantine Iconographic Art form, at a time when even iconographers on Mount Athos were using Western prototypes, was instrumental to the reawakening of Orthodox liturgical art forms that was to occur, which we now enjoy.+ + + On Pascha Monday night, after midnight and before going to sleep, I went out into the little garden behind my house. The sky was dark and covered with stars. It was as if I was seeing it for the first time. A distant psalmody appeared to be descending from it. My lips murmured, very softly: "Exalt ye the Lord our God, and worship the footstool of His feet." A holy man once told me that during these hours the heavens are opened. The air exhaled a fragrance of the flowers and herbs I had planted. "Heaven and earth are filled with the glory of the Lord," I said. I could have easily remained there alone until daybreak. I felt as if without a body and without any bond to the earth. Fearing, however, that my absence would disturb those within the house, I returned and lay down. Sleep had not completely overtaken and I truly do not know whether I was awake or asleep, when suddenly a strange man rose up before me. He was as pale as a dead man. His eyes were wide open and he looked at me in terror. His face was like a mask, like a mummy's. His glistening, dark yellow skin was stretched tight over his head, displaying the cavities of a dead person's head. He did not look real - as if he was part of a painting. In one of his hands, he held some kind of a bizarre object which I could not make out; the other hand was clutching his breast as if he were suffering. This creature filled me with great terror. I looked at him and he looked at me without speaking, as if he were waiting for me to recognize him, strange as he was. And a voice said to me: "It is so-and-so!" And I recognized him immediately. Then he opened his mouth and sighed. His voice came from far away; it came up as if from a deep well.

He was in great agony, and I felt pity for him. His hands, his feet, his eyes -- everything showed that he was suffering. In my despair, I was thinking of helping him, but he gave me a sign with his hand to stop. He began to groan in such a way that I froze. Then he said to me: "I have not come; I have been sent. I shake without stop; I am dizzy. Pray God to have pity on me. I want to die but I cannot. Alas! Everything you told me before is true. Do you remember how, several days before my death, you came to see me and spoke about religion? There were two other friends with me, unbelievers like myself. You spoke, and they mocked. When you left, they said: 'What a pity! He is intelligent and he believes the stupid things old women believe!'" "Another time, and other times too, I told you: 'Dear Photios, save up money, or else you will die a pauper. Look at my riches, and I want more of them.' You told me then: 'Have you signed a pact with death, that you can live as many years as you want and enjoy a happy old age?'" "And I replied: 'You will see to what an age I will live. Now I am 75; 1 will live past a hundred. My children are free from any needs or wants. My son earns a lot of money, and I have married my daughter to a rich Ethiopian. My wife and I have more money than we need. I am not like you who listen to what the priests say: "A Christian ending to our life ..." and the rest. What have you to gain from a Christian ending? Better a full pocket and no worries ... Give alms? Why did your so merciful God create paupers? Why should I feed them? And they ask you, in order to go to Paradise, to feed idlers! Do you want to talk about Paradise? You know that I am the son of a priest and that I know well all these tricks. That those who have no brains believe them is well enough, but you who have a mind have gone astray. If you continue to live as you are doing, you will die before me, and you will be responsible for those you have led astray. As a physician I tell you and affirm that I will live a hundred and ten years ...'" After saying all this, he turned this way and that as if he were on a grill. I heard his groans: "Ah! Ouch! Oh! Oh!" He was silent for a moment, and then continued: "This is what I said, and in a few days I was dead! I was dead, and I lost the wager! I was the confused one and now the horror was upon me! Lost, I descended into the abyss. What suffering I have had up to now, what agony! Everything you told me was true. You, dear Photios, have won the wager!" "When I was in the world where you are now, I was an intellectual, I was a physician. I had learned how to speak and to be listened to, to mock religion, to discuss whatever falls under the senses. And now I see that everything I called stories, myths, paper lanterns, well, I now know that it is all true. The agony which I am experiencing now, and this is the truth I live in, it is like a worm that never sleeps; this is the gnashing of teeth." After having spoken thus, he disappeared. I still heard his groans, which gradually faded away. Sleep had begun to take over me, when I felt an icy hand touch me. I opened my eyes and saw him again before me. This time he was even more horrible and smaller in body. He had become like a nursing infant, with a large old man's head which he was shaking. "In a short time the day will break, and those who have sent me will come to seek me!" "Who are they?" I asked.

He spoke some confused words which I could not make out. Then he added: "Over there, where I am, there are also many who mocked you and your faith. Now they all understand that their spiritual darts have not gone beyond the cemetery. There are both those who have done good to you, as well as all those who have slandered you. The more you forgive them, the more they detest you. Man is evil. Instead of feeling rejoice, kindness makes him bitter because it makes him feel his defeat. The state of these latter people is worse than mine. They cannot leave their dark prison to come and find you as I have done. They are severely tormented, lashed by the whip of God's love, as one of the Saints has said [St. Isaac the Syrian]. The world is something else entirely from what we see! Our intellect shows it to us in reverse. Now we understand that our intellect was only stupid, our conversations were spiteful meanness, our joys were lies and illusions." "You, who bear God in your hearts, Whose word is Truth, the only Truth, you have all won the great wager between believers and unbelievers. This wager I have lost. I tremble, I sigh, and I find no rest. In truth, there is no repentance in hell. Woe to those who walk as I did when I was on earth. Our flesh was drunk, and we mocked those who believed in God and eternal life; almost everyone applauded us. They treated you as mad, as imbeciles. And the more you accept our mockeries, the more our rage increases." "Now I see how much the conduct of evil men grieved you. How could you bear with such patience the poisoned darts which came from our lips and which called you all hypocrites, mockers of God, and deceivers of the people. If these evil men who are still on earth would see where I am, if only they were in my place, they would tremble for everything they are doing. I would like to appear to them and tell them to change their path, but I do not have the permission to do so, just as the rich man did not have it when he begged Abraham to send Lazarus the pauper. Lazarus was not sent, so that those who sinned may be punished and those who went on the ways of God might be worthy of salvation." "He that is unrighteous, let him do unrighteousness yet more; and he that is filthy, let him he made filthy yet more. And he that is righteous, let him do righteousness yet more; and he that is holy, let him be made holy yet more" (Rev. 22:11)." With these words he disappeared.

2. DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HISTORY

By James K. Fitzpatrick

[The Wanderer, August 14, 2003] The National Education Association (NEA), the country's largest teacher union, gets a lot of heat from Christian parent groups. And deservedly so. The organization can be counted upon to back the secular liberal agenda whenever the opportunity presents itself. But, as the saying goes, even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while. Let's give credit where credit is due. The NEA found a nut at its annual convention last month. The assembled teachers took note of a situation that has provided a source of late-night humor for Jay Leno for years now: the man-in-the-street's lack of knowledge of American history. (Leno will interview people outside his Hollywood studio who routinely do not know if the War of 1812 came before or after the Civil War, or if Abraham Lincoln was president before or after Franklin Delano Roosevelt.) The NEA teachers at the convention focused upon improving the results of the last National Assessment of Education Progress. According to an Associated Press story, this standardized test revealed that "about one-third of students in fourth, eighth, and twelfth grade could not show a basic understanding of civics at their grade level." And "high school seniors fared even worse, with nearly six in ten below 'basic,' meaning they lack even partial mastery of fundamental skills."

Some examples:

"Almost three out of four fourth-graders could not name which part of the government passes laws. Most students thought it was the president. "About three out of four fourth-graders knew that July 4 celebrates the Declaration of Independence. But one in four thought it marked the end of the Civil War, the arrival of the Pilgrims, or the start of the woman's right to vote. "More than half of twelfth graders, asked to pick a U.S. ally in World War II from a list of countries, thought the answer was Italy, Germany, or Japan," rather than the Soviet Union. Similarly distressing results were found in a poll commissioned by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni. In their survey of seniors at the top 55 liberal arts colleges, only 29% knew that Reconstruction referred to the situation in the South after the Civil War, 30% believed that the president may suspend the Bill of Rights at will, only 29% knew that the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was related to the War in Vietnam, and less than one quarter could identify James Madison as the "father of the Constitution."

How did we come to this state of affairs? Might it be that things were always this bad? I don't think so, though I do believe that many adults tend to romanticize what the typical student knew in the "good old days." The people who take the time to read news stories about the state of modern education nowadays were probably better than average students in their youths. In all likelihood, they would have known which branch of government passes laws and what we celebrate on the Fourth of July when they were in school. But what about their less studious class-mates? What about the large percentage of students who dropped out of school by the age of 16 back in the 1950s? When I think back to the group of friends who hung around with me in the playgrounds of New York City in the 1950s, I suspect that a good number of them wouldn't have known the War of 1812 from the Peloponnesian War. ("Suspect?" No, I am sure of it. I have a couple of old buddies in mind.)

That said, there can be no denying that there is a problem with the way our schools are handling their responsibility to convey our heritage to the modern generation of students. These days, even many of our better students are unfamiliar with the key figures and events of our history, as the American Council of Trustees and Alumni study makes clear. Something has changed in the way history is taught. Or the way it is not taught. One explanation is the preference of many modern educators for "skills development" and "behavior modification" over the acquisition of historical data. And let's admit it: There is something to be said for that point of view. A former colleague of mine a very good teacher and "history buff" used to say that a "student is not a vessel to be filled, but a lamp to be lit." By that he meant that even the best students were likely to forget many of the names, treaties, and wars they studied in their social studies classes, and that it was more important to awaken a love of learning that would lead them to read and think about the lessons of history in their adult lives. Another explanation is the stress on "social studies" over "history" that is favored by many modern teachers. I can remember being at a teachers' conference where the discussion turned to whether it was more important for our students to be able to identify Robert E. Lee or to understand the meaning of "cultural diffusion." Obviously, it would be good for students to know both. But, if a choice has to be made about where to place the emphasis during classroom instruction, most of the teachers at the meeting came down on the side of the social science material, arguing that an understanding of concepts such as the melting pot, minority rights, and ethnocentrism will do more to promote good citizenship than the ability to recall famous men and battles. You may agree or disagree with this point of view, but it is not irrational or an indication of an inherently secular humanist bias. But let us not be Pollyanna's. There is a secular humanist bias at work in this scenario as well. There are teachers and educational theorists who encourage our schools to downplay the study of history because they see it as a testimony to those "dead, white European males" who laid the foundation of the Christian West. These modern educational ideologues employ the study of social science concepts to undermine that heritage. The last thing they want is for our young people to develop a veneration for the past. They want to disparage the American past for the purpose of promoting a new multicultural, secular humanist society on its ruins. Actually, those caught up in this ideological enthusiasm do not harbor an animus against the study of history. That is not what drives them. They are more than willing to devote class time to the study of slave uprisings and the lives of early feminist leaders. They want our students to know who Martin Luther King and Susan B. Anthony were. They want them to be aware of the impact of the civil rights and anti-war movements in the late 1960s. Russell Kirk used to say that we studied history and literature in our schools "to pre-serve, protect, extend, and defend the heritage of the Christian West." The modern multiculturalists do not oppose the study of history when it does just the opposite, when it defames and undermines that heritage.

3. CITIZENSHIP 101

"If home schoolers can't be socialized, they'll just have to settle for being civilized," quips veteran education analyst Robert Morrison in response to the perennial argument that home schooling socially shortchanges students. A survey released last week bolsters his contention: Home school graduates make good citizens. "Home schooling Grows Up," a Home School Legal Defense Association survey of 5,000 adults home schooled seven or more years, portrays a community more civic-minded than the rest of the population. The disparity is most dramatic among young adults: In the 18-24 age group, 76 percent of home school graduates have voted in a national or state election during the last five years, compared to only 29 percent of public-school graduates. Home-school graduates are also far more likely to work for or to contribute financially to a political campaign (See WORLD, Oct. 18.)

Home schoolers enjoy life in general, as well. Fifty-nine percent said they were very happy with their lives, compared to 28 percent of the general public. Home school graduates are also more likely to be involved in regular community service in their neighborhood or church (71 percent to 37 percent).

The survey also shows that the public is likely to see more of this public good: Eighty-two percent of home school graduates said they would home school their children, and among those with school-age children, 75 percent were already doing so.

4. COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS!

* "If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death, you are more blessed than three billion people in the world."

* "If your parents are still alive, and still married (to each other) you are very rare."

* "If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead, and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of the world's citizens." Sometimes it's good to count blessings - and thank God for them!

5. FROM THE INTRODUCTION TO THE LIVES OF THE SAINTS

by Saint Justin Popovich

(The complete text is found in ORTHODOX FAITH AND LIFE IN CHRIST, trans. by Astgerios Gerostergios et. Al. Inst. for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 1994) The lives of the saints are in fact the life of the God-man Christ, which is poured out into His followers and is experienced by them in His Church. For the smallest part of this life is always directly from Him because He is life, [11] infinite and boundless and eternal life, which by His Divine power vanquished all deaths and resurrects from all deaths. According to the all-true and good tidings of the All-True One: "I am the resurrection and the life" (John 11: 25). The miraculous Lord who is completely "resurrection and life" is in His Church in His whole being as Divine-human reality, and consequently there is no end to the duration of this reality. His life is continued through all ages; every Christian is of the same body with Christ, [12] and he is a Christian because he lives the Divine-human life of this Body of Christ as Its organic cell.

Who is a Christian? A Christian is a man who lives by Christ and in Christ. The commandment of the Holy Gospel of God is divine: "live worthily of God" (Col. 1: 10). God, Who became incarnate and Who as the God-man has in entirety remained in His Church, which lives eternally by Him. And one lives "worthily of God" when one lives according to the Gospel of Christ. Therefore, this Divine commandment of the Holy Gospel is also natural: "Live worthily of the Gospel of Christ" (Phillip. 1: 27). Life according to the Gospel, holy life, Divine life, that is the natural and normal life for Christians. For Christians, according to their vocation, are holy: That good tiding and commandment resounds throughout the whole Gospel of the New Testament. [13] To become completely holy, both in soul and in body, that is our vocation. [14] This is not a miracle, but rather the norm, the rule of faith. The commandment of the Holy Gospel is clear and most clear: as the Holy One who has called you is Holy, so be ye holy in all manner of life (1 Peter 1: 15). And that means that according to Christ the Holy One, Who, having been incarnate and become man, showed forth in Himself a completely holy life, and as such commands men: "be ye holy, for I am Holy" (1 Peter 1: 16). He has the right to command this, for having become man He gives men as Himself, the Holy One, all the Divine energies which [are] necessary for a holy and pious life in this world. [15] Having united themselves spiritually and by Grace to the Holy One-the Lord Christ-with the help of faith, Christians themselves receive from Him the holy energies that they may lead a holy life.

Living by Christ, the saints can do the works of Christ, for by Him they become not only powerful but all-powerful: "I can do all things in Christ Jesus who strengthens me" (Phillip. 4: 13). And in them is clearly realized the truth of the All-True One, that those who believe in Him will do His works and will do greater things than these: "Verily, verily I say unto you: he that believeth in me, the works that I do he shall do also and greater works than these shall he do" (John 14: 12). And truly: the shadow of the Apostle Peter healed; by a word St. Mark the Ascetic moved and stopped a mountain... When God became man, then Divine life became human life, Divine power became human power, Divine truth became human truth, and Divine righteousness became human righteousness: everything which is God's became man's.

What are the "Acts of the Holy Apostles"? They are the acts of Christ which the Holy Apostles do by the power of Christ, or better still: they do them by Christ Who is in them and acts through them. And what are the lives of the Holy Apostles? They are the living of Christ's life which in the Church is transmitted to all faithful followers of Christ and is continued through them with the help of the holy mysteries and the holy virtues. And what are the "Lives of the Saints"? They are nothing else but a certain kind of continuation of the "Acts of the Apostles." In them is found the same Gospel, the same life, the same truth, the same righteousness, the same love, the same faith, the same eternity, the same "power from on high," the same God and Lord. For "the Lord Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever" (Heb. 13: 8): the same for all people of all times, distributing the same gifts and the same Divine energies to all who believe in Him. This continuation of all life-creating Divine energies in the Church of Christ from ages to ages and from generation to generation indeed constitutes living Holy Tradition. This Holy Tradition is continued without interruption as the life of Grace in all Christians, in whom through the holy mysteries and the holy virtues, Jesus Christ lives by His Grace. He is wholly present in His Church, for She is His fullness: "the fullness of Him who filleth all in all" (Eph. 1: 23). And the God-man Christ is the all-perfect fullness of the Godhead: "for in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (Col. 2: 4). And Christians must, with the help of the holy mysteries and the holy virtues, fill themselves with "all the fullness of God" (Eph. 3: 19).

The Lives of the Saints show forth those persons filled with Christ God, those Christ-bearing persons, those holy persons in whom is preserved and through whom is transmitted the holy tradition of that holy grace-filled life. It is preserved and transmitted by means of holy evangelical living. For the lives of the saints are holy evangelical truths which are translated into our human life by grace and podvigs (asceticism). There is no evangelical truth which cannot be transformed into human life. They were all brought by Christ God for one purpose: to become our life, our reality, our possession, our joy. And the saints, all, without exception, live these Divine truths as the center of their lives and the essence of their being. For this reason the "Lives" of the Saints are a proof and a testimony: that our origin is in heaven; that we are not from this world but from that one; that a man is a true man only in God; that on earth one lives by heaven; that "our conversation is in heaven" (Phillip. 3: 20); that our task is to make ourselves heavenly, feeding ourselves with the "heavenly bread" which came down to earth. [16] And He came down to feed us with eternal Divine truth, eternal Divine good, eternal Divine righteousness, eternal Divine love, eternal Divine life through Holy Communion, through living in the one true God and Lord Jesus Christ. [17] In other words, our vocation is to fill ourselves with the Lord Christ, with His Divine life-creating energies, to live in Christ and to make ourselves christs. If you set about this you are already in heaven although you walk on earth; you are already wholly in God even though your being has remained within the limits of human nature. The man who makes himself a christ surpasses himself, as man, by God, by the God-man, in Whom is given the perfect image of the true, real whole man in the image of God; and in Him are also given the all-vanquishing Divine energies, by the help of which man raises himself above every sin, above every death, above every hell; and this he does by the Church and in the Church, which all the powers of hell cannot overcome, because in Her is the whole wondrous God-man the Lord Christ, with all His Divine energies, His truths, His realities, His perfections, His lives, His eternities.

The Lives of the Saints are holy testimonies of the miraculous power of our Lord Jesus Christ. In reality they are the testimonies of the Acts of the Apostles, only continued throughout the ages. The saints are nothing other than holy witnesses, like the Holy Apostles who were the first witnesses-of what?, of the God-man Jesus Christ: of Him crucified, resurrected, ascended into heaven and eternally alive; about His all-saving Gospel which is unceasingly written with evangelical holy deeds from generation to generation, for the Lord Christ, who is always the same, constantly works miracles by His Divine power through His holy witnesses. The Holy Apostles are the first holy witnesses of the Lord Christ and His Divine-human economy of the salvation of the world, and their lives are living and immortal testimonies of the Gospel of the Savior as the new life, the life of grace, holy, Divine, Divine-human and therefore always miraculous, miraculous and true as the Savior's life itself is miraculous and true.

And who are the Christians? Christians are those through whom the holy Divine-human life of Christ is continued from generation to generation until the end of the world and of time, and they all make up one body, the Body of Christ-the Church: they are sharers of the Body of Christ and members of one another. [18] The stream of immortal divine life began to flow and still flows unceasingly from the Lord Christ, and through him Christians flow into eternal life. Christians are the Gospel of Christ continued throughout all the ages of the race of men. In the Lives of the Saints, everything is ordinary as in the Holy Gospel, but everything is extraordinary as in the Holy Gospel-both one and the other, uniquely true and real. And everything is true and real by the same Divine-human reality; and the same holy power-Divine and human-bears witness to it: Divine in an all-perfect way, and human-also in an all-perfect way. What are the Lives of the Saints? Behold, we are in heaven, for earth becomes heaven through the Saints of God. Behold, we are among angels in the flesh, among Christ-bearers. And whoever they are, the Lord is completely in them, and with them, and among them; and there is the whole Eternal Divine Truth, and the whole Eternal Divine Righteousness, and the whole Eternal Divine Love, and the whole Eternal Divine Life.

What are the Lives of the Saints? Behold, we are in Paradise, in which everything which is Divine, holy, immortal, eternal, righteous, true, and evangelical grows and increases. For by the Cross in every one of the saints the tree of eternal, Divine, immortal life blossomed and brought forth much fruit. And the Cross leads to heaven; it leads even us after the thief, who for our encouragement entered Paradise first after the All-Holy Divine Cross-bearer-the Lord Christ-and entered with a cross of repentance. What are the Lives of the Saints? Behold, we are in eternity: no longer is there time, for in the Saints of God Eternal Divine Truth, Eternal Divine Righteousness, Eternal Divine Love, Eternal Divine Life reign and rule. And in them there is no longer any death, for their entire being is filled with the resurrecting Divine energies of the Risen Lord Christ, the Only Vanquisher of death, of all deaths in all worlds. There is no death in them-in holy people: their whole being is filled with the Only Immortal One-the All-Immortal One: the Lord and God Jesus Christ. Among them-we are on earth among the only true immortals: they have conquered all deaths, all sins, all passions, all demons, all hells. When we are with them, no death can harm us, for they are the lightning-rods of death. There is no thunderbolt with which death can strike us when we are with them, among them, in them. Saints are people who live on earth by holy, eternal Divine truths. That is why the Lives of the Saints are actually applied dogmatics, for in them all the holy eternal dogmatic truths are experienced in all their life-creating and creative energies. In The Lives of the Saints it is most evidently shown that dogmas are not only ontological truths in themselves and for themselves, but that each one of them is a wellspring of eternal life and a source of holy spirituality.

According to the All-True Gospel of the unique and irreplaceable Savior and Lord: "My words are spirit and life" (John 6: 63), for each one pours out from itself saving, sanctifying, a life-creating, transfiguring power. Without the holy truth of the Holy Trinity we have none of that power from the Holy Trinity on which we draw by faith and which vivifies sanctifies, deifies, and saves us. Without the holy truth about the God-man, there is no salvation for man, for from it, when it is lived by man, wells forth the saving power which saves from sin, death, the devil. And this holy truth about the God-man-do not the lives of countless saints most evidently and experimentally bear witness to it? For the saints are saints by the very fact that they constantly live the entire Lord Jesus as the soul of their soul, as the conscience of their conscience, as the mind of their mind, as the being of their being, as the life of their life. And each one of them together with the Holy Apostle loudly proclaims the truth: "Yet not I live, but Christ liveth in me" (Gal. 2: 20). Delve into the Lives of the Saints: from all of them wells forth the grace-filled, life-creating, and saving power of the Most Holy Theotokos, Who leads them from podvig to podvig, from virtue to virtue, from victory over sin to victory over death, from victory over death to victory over the devil, and leads them up into spiritual joy, beyond which there is no sadness nor sighing nor sorrow, [19] but rather everything is only" joy and peace in the Holy Spirit" (Rom. 14: 17), joy and peace from the victory obtained over all sins, over all passions, over all deaths, over all evil spirits. And all this, without a doubt, is the practical and living testimony to the holy dogma concerning the Most Holy Theotokos, truly "more honorable than the Cherubim and beyond compare more glorious than the Seraphim," the holy dogma which the saints by faith carry in their hearts and by which they live with zealous love. Again if you want one, two, or thousands of irrefutable testimonies of the life-bearing and life-creating nature of the All-Venerable Cross of the Lord, and with it an experimental confirmation of the all-truthfulness of the holy dogma of the saving nature of the death of the Savior on the Cross, then start out with faith through the Lives of the Saints. And you will have to feel and see that to each saint individually, and to all the saints together, the power of the Cross is the all-vanquishing weapon with which they conquer all visible and invisible enemies of their salvation. Furthermore, you will behold the Cross in all their being: in their soul, in their heart, in their conscience, in their mind, in their will, and in their body, and in each one of them you will find an inexhaustible wellspring of the saving, all-sanctifying power which unfailingly leads them from perfection to perfection, and from joy to joy, until finally it leads them into the eternal Heavenly Kingdom where there is the unceasing triumph of those who keep festival and the infinite delight of those who behold the ineffable beauty of the face of the Lord. [20] But not only these aforementioned dogmas are witnessed by the Lives of the Saints, but all the other holy dogmas: of the Church, of grace, of the holy mysteries, of the holy virtues, of man, of sin, of the holy relics, of the holy icons, of life beyond the grave, and of everything else which makes up the Divine-human economy of salvation. Yes, the Lives of the Saints are experimental dogmatics. Yes, the Lives of the Saints are experienced dogmatics, experienced by the holy life of the holy people of God.

In addition, the Lives of the Saints contain in themselves Orthodox ethics in their entirety, Orthodox morality, in the full radiance of its Divine-human sublimity and its immortal life-creating nature. In them is shown and proven in a most convincing manner that the holy mysteries are the source of the holy virtues; that the holy virtues are the fruit of the holy mysteries-they are born of Them, they develop by Their help, they are nourished by Them, they live by Them, they are perfected by Them, they become immortal by Them, they live eternally by Them. All the Divine moral laws have their source in the holy mysteries and are realized in the holy virtues. For this reason the Lives of the Saints are indeed experiential ethics, applied ethics. Actually, the Lives of the Saints prove irrefutably that Ethics is nothing other than Applied Dogmatics. The entire Life of the Saints consists of the holy mysteries and the holy virtues, and the holy mysteries and the holy virtues are gifts of the Holy Spirit Who accomplishes all in all (1 Cor. 12: 4, 6, 11). And what else are the Lives of the Saints but the only Orthodox pedagogical science. For in them in a countless number of evangelical ways, which are completely worked out by the experience of many centuries, it is shown how the perfect human personality, the completely ideal man, is built up and fashioned, and how with the help of the holy mysteries and the holy virtues in the Church of Christ he grows into "a perfect man, according to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." [21] And this is indeed the educational ideal of the Gospel, the only educational ideal worthy of a being made in the image of God, as man is, and which is established by the Gospel of the Lord Christ, established and realized first by the God-man Christ, and afterwards realized in the Holy Apostles and the other Saints of God. At the same time, without the God-man Christ, and outside the God-man Christ, with any other educational ideal, man forever remains an incomplete being, a wretched being, a miserable being, who deserves all the tears of all eyes in God's worlds. If you wish, the Lives of the Saints are a sort of Orthodox Encyclopedia. In them can be found everything which is necessary for the soul which hungers and thirsts for eternal righteousness and eternal truth in this life, and which hungers and thirsts for Divine immortality and eternal life. If faith is what you need, there you will find it in abundance: and you will feed your soul with food which will never make it hungry. If you need love, truth, righteousness, hope, meekness, humility, repentance, prayer, or whatever virtue or podvig, in them, the Lives of the Saints, you will find a countless number of holy teachers for every podvig and will obtain grace-filled help for every virtue. If you are suffering for your faith in Christ, the Lives of the Saints will console you and encourage you and make you bold and give you wings, and your torments will be changed into joy. If you are in any sort of temptation, the Lives of the Saints will help you overcome it both now and forever. If you are in danger from the invisible enemies of salvation, the Lives of the Saints will arm you with the "whole armor of God," [22] and you will crush them all now and forever and throughout your whole life. If you are in the midst of visible enemies and persecutors of the Church of Christ, the Lives of the Saints will give you the courage and strength of a confessor, and you will fearlessly confess the one true God and Lord in all worlds-Jesus Christ-and you will boldly stand up for the holy truth of His Gospel unto death, unto every death, and you will feel stronger than all deaths, and much more so than all visible enemies of Christ, and being tortured for Christ you will shout for joy, feeling with all your being that your life is in heaven, hidden with Christ in God, wholly above all deaths. [23]

In the Lives of the Saints are shown numerous but always certain ways of salvation, enlightenment, sanctification, transfiguration, "christification," deification; all the ways are shown by which man conquers sin, every sin; conquers passion, every passion; conquers death, every death; conquers the devil, every devil. There is a remedy there for every sin: from every passion-healing, from every death-resurrection, from every devil-deliverance; from all evils-salvation. There is no passion, no sin for which the Lives of the Saints do not show how the passion or sin in question is conquered, mortified, and uprooted. In them it is clearly and obviously demonstrated: There is no spiritual death from which one cannot be resurrected by the Divine power of the risen and ascended Lord Christ; there is no torment, there is no misfortune, there is no misery, there is no suffering which the Lord will not change either gradually or all at once into quiet, compunctionate joy because of faith in Him. And again there are countless soul-stirring examples of how a sinner becomes a righteous man in the Lives of the Saints: how a thief, a fornicator, a drunkard, a sensualist, a murderer, an adulterer becomes a holy man-there are many, many examples of this in the Lives of the Saints; how a selfish, egoistical, unbelieving, atheistic, proud, avaricious, lustful, evil, wicked, depraved, angry, spiteful, quarrelsome, malicious, envious, malevolent, boastful, vainglorious, unmerciful, gluttonous man becomes a man of God-there many, many examples of this in the Lives of the Saints. By the same token in the Lives of the Saints there are very many marvelous examples of how a youth becomes a holy youth, a maiden becomes a holy maiden, an old man becomes a holy old man, how an old woman becomes a holy old woman, how a child becomes a holy child, how parents become holy parents, how a son becomes a holy son, how a daughter becomes a holy daughter, how a family becomes a holy family, how a community becomes a holy community, how a priest becomes a holy priest, how a bishop becomes a holy bishop, how a shepherd becomes a holy shepherd, how a peasant becomes a holy peasant, how an emperor becomes a holy emperor, how a cowherd becomes a holy cowherd, how a worker becomes a holy worker, how a judge becomes a holy judge, how a teacher becomes a holy teacher, how an instructor becomes a holy instructor, how a soldier becomes a holy soldier, how an officer becomes a holy officer, how a ruler becomes a holy ruler, how a scribe becomes a holy scribe, how a merchant becomes a holy merchant, how a monk becomes a holy monk, how an architect becomes a holy architect, how a doctor becomes a holy doctor, how a tax collector becomes a holy tax collector, how a pupil becomes a holy pupil, how an artisan becomes a holy artisan, how a philosopher becomes a holy philosopher, how a scientist becomes a holy scientist, how a statesman becomes a holy statesman, how a minister becomes a holy minister, how a poor man becomes a holy poor man, how a rich man becomes a holy rich man, how a slave becomes a holy slave, how a master becomes a holy master, how a married couple becomes a holy married couple, how an author becomes a holy author, how an artist becomes a holy artist...

Endnotes:
11. cf. John 14: 6; 1: 4.
12. cf. Eph. 3: 6.
13. cf. 1 Thes. 4:3,7; Rm. 1: 7; 1 Cor. 1: 2; Eph. 1: 1-18,2:19,5:3, 6:18; Phillip. 1: 1, 4:21-22; Col. 1: 2-4,12,22,26; 1 Thes. 3:13,5:27, 2 Tim. 1: 9; Phlm. 5: 7, Heb. 3: 1, 6: 10, 13: 24; Jude 3.
14. cf. 1 Thes. 5: 22-23.
15. cf. 2 Peter 1: 3.
16. cf. John 6: 33, 35, 51.
17. cf. John 6: 50, 51, 53-57.
18 . I Cor. 12: 27, 12-14, 10: 17; Rom. 12: 5; Eph. 3: 6.
19. cf. Kontakion for the departed faithful (Translator's note).
20. cf. First Morning prayer of St. Basil the Great and First Post-Communion Prayer (Translator's note).
21. cf. Eph. 4: 13.
22. cf. Eph. 6:11,13.
23. cf. Col. 3: 3.

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