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ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN WITNESS (USPS 412-260)
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JUNE, 2005, VOLUME XXXIX, NO. 6 (1549)
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1. AN ENCYCLE ON THE MORAL LAW OF GOD
2. DON'T DISCOUINT MORAL VIEWS
3. DAN BROWN DEBUNKNED
4. DVD: ICONS OF EVOLUTION
5. ON FEMALE MODESTY (St. Philaret of New York)
6. NEW ITEMS FROM THE BOOK CENTER
--And My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our
abode with him.-- Reflect, dearly beloved, how great a dignity this is:
to have the Lord come and abide in our heart. Should some rich and
powerful friend enter your home you would make haste to clean the whole
house, lest there be anything to displease the eye of the one who is
coming. Let you then cleanse the stains of evil doing from the house of
your soul, in preparation for the coming of God.
St. Gregory, On Pentecost
2005
AN ENCYCLICAL ON THE MORAL LAW OF GOD
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Throughout her sojourn in this fallen world, the One, Holy Catholic and
Apostolic Church of Christ - Israel, Old and New - has had to confront
false doctrine and to make clear, first for us, the Chosen People of
God, and then for the rest of Mankind, the soul-saving truths
concerning our True God and the ways He has appointed for us and our
salvation.
Thus, for example, in the time of St. Elias, that mighty and zealous
Prophet denounced and overturned the false worship of Jezebel's idols
and reaffirmed Israel's adoration of our True and Living God, In later
centuries, the Holy Fathers gathered together in Council to reject the
blasphemy that Jesus Christ is no more than a created man and to
proclaim that the Messiah is both Perfect God and Perfect Man. More
recently, the Church has condemned the pernicious pan-heresy of
Ecumenism and has plainly professed that ours, alone, is the one True
Religion, one True God, one True Christ and Saviour, one True Church
and Israel which is the only fount of saving grace through the Holy
Mysteries and the other Sacred Rites of the one True Body of Christ.
Consequently, we are called upon yet again to point out to the world
its doctrinal and moral errors and to confirm for all the one True Way
of our God. For God and for us Orthodox Christians, theology and
morality are integrally intertwined. Indeed, our morality - the way our
Merciful Benefactor has appointed for us to live - is a direct
expression of our doctrine concerning God. So it has always been for
Israel.
The Ten Commandments begin with doctrinal statements - the first four
Commandments about Who is the only True God and how He is to be
worshipped and revered. Thereafter come the remaining six Commandments
which are founded on the preceding four. That is, we honor our parents,
do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not murder, do not bear false
witness, and do not covet our neighbor's goods precisely because of Who
our God is. In order to be sure we understand what He means by these
Commandments, our Lord explained each of them in greater detail to the
Holy Prophet and God-seer Moses.
What the Orthodox Church of Christ proclaims to be the moral law for
Man made in the Image of God does not emanate from the mind of man but
is none other than the Word of God spoken by the Word of God Himself,
before and after His coming in the flesh. Our Lord directed us to live
according to His ways not at all for His benefit, but entirely for our
profit. God's moral law befits and reflects the Image of God in which
we are made and guides us to and sanctifies within us a profound,
grace-filled happiness for our life in this world. There is no other
way. Therefore, we preach no other way.
Hence, for the Glory of the Lord, out of love, and because this is our
sacred duty, we must declare aloud the moral law of God to counter the
moral degeneracy of this present age.
Because theology and morality are intertwined, the legitimizing of
immorality - that is, moral behavior contrary to the moral law of God -
by civil powers and by the so-called "mainstream" Christian
denominations in the West in general and in North America in particular
- is the direct consequence and moral expression of the pan-heresy of
Ecumenism.
Since - according to that lie - all religions are legitimate, all gods
are legitimate, all religious rites and ways are legitimate, then it
follows that all "moralities" and no morality are legitimate. The Ten
Commandments of the True God are of no greater importance than the
pronouncements of Vishnu or Mohammed or Zeus or the Buddha or the Dalai
Lama or the Great Spirit in the sky.
If, therefore, one of those religions permits the destruction of
deformed infants or suffering and infirm adults because of their
purported "poor quality of life", which of those faiths that share in
the ecumenist heresy can protest, since all religious ways and views
and practices are equally legitimate?
Again, if one of those religions permits bigamy or polygamy or
incestuous relationships or homosexuality or fornication, which of
those faiths that share in the ecumenist heresy can protest since all
the religions' ways are equally legitimate?
As teachers in the Church of Christ, we denounce the utter depravity of
these days, and we proclaim that there is only one moral law for us and
all of Mankind, the law of our God, the Creator and Fashioner of all.
According to this law, abortion and so-called euthanasia, for any
reason, are murder and are not permitted by the God Who made us in His
Image. Similarly, homosexual sex and, for that matter, any sex outside
of the lawful marriage of one man to one woman, are contrary to the
Commandments of God and not permitted by Him Who made us all in His
Image.
We find utterly repugnant that some would distort the Word of God to
justify any of these sins on the basis of supposed Divine compassion or
love. We find equally vile that others would pervert the Word of God to
justify any of these sins by denouncing the Saints of God or even God
Himself, as insecure or bigoted or ignorant of the true nature of man
or hateful or inwardly disturbed and, using such as pretext, would
reject the moral teachings of the Church.
To address specifically homosexual marriage, since it is the latest
madness to be codified into civil law and to be permitted by many of
the ecumenist and other false religions, even those fraudulently
calling themselves Christian, we assert that the Lord God, in Leviticus
18:22 ("And thou shalt not lie with a man as with a woman, for it is an
abomination."), prohibited men from lying with other men as with women
precisely because He is compassionate and loving and desires all that
is good for Mankind, since He is fully aware of man's nature. It is a
biological certainty, an irrefutable scientific fact, that successive
generations of humanity are the result of a heterosexual union, the
sperm of a man with the egg of a woman. This is the natural creation
that God ordained for man out of Divine compassion and love, and the
means for the survival of the human race in this fallen world.
Man was neither made sinful, nor corrupt, nor was he made for sin or
corruption. Man was made incorrupt and for sharing in the incorrupt
Life of the All-holy Trinity, now attainable through Christ Jesus.
Sin is not an offense against God; the Lord cannot be offended,
insulted, or hurt. Sin is an offense against ourselves, a corruption of
our human nature hurtful to us, not to God. The entire purpose of God's
moral law is to help us lead the normal life of incorruption, as much
as possible in the fallen world, so that our hearts and souls would be
open to divine grace and we would rejoice forever abiding in the Glory
of God. This is what is normal for human nature; everything that falls
short of this, everything that is corrupt, regardless of its origin or
composition, is abnormal.
When St. Paul, frequently and sordidly abused by those who are today
supporting homosexuality, in his first epistle to the Corinthians
(6:9-10), enumerates types of sinners who "shall not inherit the
Kingdom of God" ("Be not deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolators,
nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor
covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit
the Kingdom of God."), the Apostle is referring to those who are not
repentant, who refuse to see the sin in their life as corruption and
abnormal, The unrepentant sinner has no place in the Kingdom of Heaven,
but Heaven is full of repentant sinners of every kind. We do not vilify
people either for their outward conduct or for their innate or other
inner corruption and abnormalities. However, each of us is responsible
for his behavior, regardless of his inner proclivities, and it is for
our own behavior that each one of us is accountable.
Still, we do not condemn sinners; we ourselves, like all men, are
sinners. On the contrary, the Church is open to all sinners,
irrespective of their sins, who sorrowfully and compunctionately
acknowledge that their sin is, indeed, corrupt and abnormal, and is not
what God intended for them, and who desire and struggle to live
according to God's law.
It is God Himself Who condemns the perverting of His eternal law, our
distorting or denying of its precepts, to the end that we might pander
to our own passions, proclivities, and sins. The Lord Himself, and not
we, condemns them "that call evil good, good evil; who make darkness
light, and light darkness; who make bitter sweet, and sweet
bitter...that are wise in their own conceit, and knowing in their own
sight" (Esaias 5:20, 21).
The Christ Jesus preached by St. Paul and Who redeemed St. Paul from
his own sinfulness, the Christ Who saved thieves and murderers and
sexual transgressors who, repenting, asked for forgiveness: this is the
Christ we know, love, and adore, this is the Christ we also preach, the
Christ Jesus Whose Kingdom has a place for every single sinner who
repents of his sins and wholeheartedly confesses "Jesus Christ, the
same yesterday, and today, and unto the ages." Amen.
XMakarios, Metropolitan of Toronto
XEphraim, Metropolitan of Boston
XMoses, Metropolitan of Seattle
XSergius, Bishop of Loch Lomond
Protocol Number 2414
Monday of the Holy Spirit
2005
__________________________________________________
2. DON'T DISCOUNT MORAL VIEWS
U. S. News & World Report, November 29, 2004
I am struggling to understand the "don't impose your values"
argument. According to this popular belief, it is wrong, and perhaps
dangerous, to vote your moral convictions unless everybody else already
shares them. Of course if everybody already shared them, no imposition
would be necessary. Nobody ever explains exactly what constitutes an
offense in voting one's values, but the complaints appear to be aimed
almost solely at conservative Christians, who are viewed as divisive
when they try to "force their religious opinions on us." But as UCLA
law Prof. Eugene Volokh writes, "That's what most lawmaking is - trying
to turn one's opinions on moral or pragmatic subjects into law."
Those who think Christians should keep their moral
views to themselves, it seems to me, are logically bound to deplore
many praiseworthy causes, including the abolition movement, which was
mostly the work of the evangelical churches courageously applying
Christian ideas of equality to the entrenched institution of slavery.
The slave owners, by the way, frequently used "don't impose your
values" arguments, contending that whether they owned blacks or not was
a personal and private decision and therefore nobody else's business.
The civil rights movement, though an alliance of Christians, Jews, and
nonbelievers, was primarily the work of the black churches arguing from
explicitly Christian principles.
Double standard. The "don't impose" people make little effort to be
consistent, deploring, for example, Roman Catholics who act on their
church's beliefs on abortion and stem cells but not those who follow
the pope's insistence that the rich nations share their wealth with
poor nations or his opposition to the death penalty and the invasion of
Iraq. If the "don't impose" people wish to mount a serious argument,
they will have to attack "imposers" on both sides of the issues they
discuss-not just their opponents. They will also have to explain why
arguments that come from religious beliefs are less worthy than similar
arguments that come from secular principles or simply from hunches or
personal feelings. Nat Hentoff, a passionate opponent of abortion,
isn't accused of imposing his opinions, because he is an atheist. The
same arguments and activity by a Christian activist would most likely
be seen as a violation of some sort.
Consistency would also require the "don't impose" supporters to speak
up about coercive schemes intended to force believers to violate their
own principles: antiabortion doctors and nurses who are required in
some jurisdictions to study abortion techniques; Catholic agencies
forced to carry contraceptive coverage in health plans; evangelical
college groups who believe homosexuality is a sin defunded or disbanded
for not allowing gays to become officers in their groups; the pressure
from the ACLU and others to force the Boy Scouts to admit gays, despite
a Supreme Court ruling that the Scouts are entitled to go their own way.
Then there is the current case of Rocco Buttiglione, an Italian
Christian Democrat who was named to be justice and home affairs
commissioner of the European Union, then rejected for having an opinion
that secular liberals find repugnant: He believes homosexuality is a
sin. The Times of London attacked the hounding of Buttiglione "for
holding personal beliefs that are at odds with the prevailing social
orthodoxy despite a categorical statement that he would not let those
beliefs intrude upon policy decisions." The Times said this is a clear
attempt by Buttiglione's opponents to impose their views. No word of
protest yet from "don't impose" proponents.
Sometimes the "don't impose" argument pops up in an odd form, as when
John Kerry tried to define the stem-cells argument as science versus
ideology. But the stem-cell debate in fact featured ideology versus
ideology-the belief that the chance to eliminate many diseases
outweighs the killing of infinitesimal embryos versus the belief that
killing embryos for research is a moral violation and a dangerous
precedent. Both arguments are serious moral ones. Those who resent
religiously based arguments often present themselves as rational and
scientific, whereas people of faith are dogmatic and emotional. This
won't do. As Professor Volokh argues, "All of our opinions are
ultimately based on unproven and unprovable moral premises." No
arguments are privileged because they come from secular people, and
none are somehow out of bounds because they come from people of faith.
Religious arguments have no special authority in the public arena, but
the attempt to label those arguments as illegitimate because of their
origin is simply a fashionable form of prejudice. Dropping the "don't
impose" argument would be a step toward improving the political
climate. .
___________________________________________________________
3. DAN BROWN DEBUNKED
The American Spectator
Published 4/28/2004 12:05:14 AM
http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=6491
SAN DIEGO -- By any objective measure, The Da Vinci Code is a beach
read for conspiracy theorists. But because Dan Brown claims that all
descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in
his novel are accurate, many readers greet even the book's dubious
historical assertions with less skepticism than they otherwise might
(as was demonstrated in this space March 11). What people forget is how
narrow and clever Brown's defense actually is: one can describe a
painting accurately without knowing the first thing about how to
interpret it.
The pass given to The Da Vinci Code by people grateful for its
entertainment is problematic because Dan Brown's interpretation of
history beats Christianity into a pudding of pagan and feminine
wonderfulness sprinkled with the moral teachings of a charismatic
Jewish prophet. Scholars in Brown's novel believe that things went
pear-shaped in the year 325, when the emperor Constantine allegedly
appropriated the legacy of Jesus for his own cynical purposes.
The Da Vinci Code blames Constantine for promoting the divinity of
Jesus as a means of consolidating his own power, and claims that
Constantine's meddling -- ratified by a "close" vote at the Council of
Nicaea -- distorted the New Testament, subverted the influence of Mary
Magdalen, and wrote a blank check that Christianity's more patriarchal
factions still use to justify their alleged fear of the "sacred
feminine."
With a thesis like that down range, it's no wonder that taking shots at
The Da Vinci Code has become a cottage industry among Christian
writers. If Brown's revisionist reading of history were true, it would
be even more astounding than the way that Jacques Cousteau went from
being a legend in spear fishing to being an environmental activist. But
almost everything Brown writes is bunk. Enter Amy Welborn, author of
De-Coding Da Vinci, who fillets Brown's novel with the enthusiasm of a
sushi chef on her first day of work at a waterfront restaurant.
As a former high school teacher and a lay Catholic theologian with
several books to her credit, Welborn is admirably suited for the task
she undertakes, which is to make epistemology accessible to the general
public by exposing the termite-ridden foundations of Dan Brown's
unwitting Gnosticism. Keenly aware of the critics who say, "relax, it's
only a novel," Welborn explains that culture matters, and that "in The
Da Vinci Code, imaginative detail and false historical assertions are
presented as facts and the fruit of serious historical research, which
they simply are not." Every chapter in De-Coding Da Vinci ends with
suggestions for further reading and lists of questions for review and
discussion.
Some of the evidence that Welborn marshals in defense of truth will be
familiar to informed Christians. She reviews texts that show how belief
in the full humanity and divinity of Jesus predates the Council of
Nicaea, notes that what Brown calls a "close vote" in that assembly was
actually 300 to 2, and quotes experts who prove that characters in The
Da Vinci Code are as ignorant of Jewish history as they are of
Christian history and art history.
TWO THINGS SEPARATE Welborn's book and its publisher, Indiana-based Our
Sunday Visitor, Inc., from other general interest titles now taking
issue with Brown's bestseller. First, Welborn leaves more comprehensive
refutation of Dan Brown to books like Fact and Fiction in The Da Vinci
Code, Breaking The Da Vinci Code, and The Da Vinci Hoax. She prefers to
concentrate on the big picture, which is that Dan Brown ignores primary
(first-century) sources like the New Testament to quote exclusively
from discredited third and nineteenth-century sources.
Second, Welborn has comic timing. In volleyball terms, she is a master
of the bump-set-spike formula, where the bump is a scrupulously
accurate summary of some outlandish claim made in the novel, the set is
a hard look at the implications of that claim, and the spike is just
what it sounds like.
The chapter in her book debunking what the novel's characters say about
the influence of mystery religions on early Christianity shows her form
to good effect. In the bump, Welborn suggests, "You might have heard
this one before: Christianity's motif of a dying-and-rising god, a
water initiation and sacred meal, were by no means unique. You'll find
similar beliefs and practices all around the Mediterranean during this
period."
This is followed by the set: "We can safely conclude, then, that
Christians simply copied their resurrected Son of God, baptism, and
Eucharist from what was in the air, to remake what was originally
nothing more than a philosophical system into an exciting, attractive,
new religion."
From there, the spike ("That would get you thrown to the lions") is
effortless. Welborn then reviews the problems with "mystery religion
remix" scenario, reminding her readers of the big fact that Brown's
condescending scholar characters miss, to wit: "There is no evidence to
suggest, as Brown does, a direct adaptation of the fundamentals of
Christian thought and practice from pagan mystery religions. The roots
of Christianity are in Judaism."
While you probably already know that, it's good to have it reinforced
by a writer who understands that freedom is a means to truth, not an
end in itself. Even people who haven't already read the novel that it
trounces would profit from reading De-Coding Da Vinci. In a perfect
world, Welborn would have written a bigger book, but this slim volume
from a winsome polemicist who points unmistakably back to the Gospel is
still worth your time.
Patrick O'Hannigan is a writer living in San Diego.
____________________________________________________________
4. DVD: -ICONS OF EVOLUTION
"TRUE SCIENCE AND FREEDOM OF THOUGHT ARE INSEPARABLE. BUT AS THIS VIDEO
SHOWS, SOME SCIENTISTS PREFER POWER TO TRUTH."
Phillip Johnson, author of Darwin on Trial
Are students learning the whole truth about Darwin's theory of
evolution?
According to a growing number of scientists, the surprising answer is
no. They claim that many of the most famous "Icons of Evolution" -
Darwin's "Tree of Life," finches from the Galapagos Islands, and
embryos that look remarkably similar - are based on outdated research
and sloppy logic. They say students are being hurt by the failure to
present both sides of an emerging scientific debate over Darwin's
theory.
Come explore this fascinating new conflict over evolution in the
classroom - a conflict based on science, not religion. Learn about the
controversy that engulfs one town when a teacher actually tries to tell
student that some scientists disagree with Darwin.
From the Galapagos Islands to China, Icons of Evolution will take you
on a fast-paced, fascinating journey into one of the most controversial
issues in today's public arena.
Price: $15 plus p&h
An invoice will be enclosed with your order
Email your order to vikkif@homb.org Or
write to: HOMB, 1476 Centre St., Roslindale, MA 02131-1417
Please include your mailing address
____________________________________________________________
5. ON FEMALE MODESTY
An Encyclical by Saint Philaret the Confessor of New York
(Originally published as St Nectarios Education Series No. 78)
Our Lord Jesus Christ, instructing His disciples and apostles,
imbued in them the necessity of observing purity of heart and thought.
From the thought, and from the heart proceed our sinful impulses: But
those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart,
says the Savior; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed
evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false
witnesses, blasphemies (Matt. 15:18-l9). Unclean impulses of the mind,
and images, composed in the heart, are the origin of sin, and by
themselves, as a manifestation of inclination towards it, poison both
the heart and soul.
The Savior pointed to this with the following words: Ye have heard that
it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I
say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath
committed adultery with her already in his heart (Matt. 5:27-28).
This law of the psycho-physical nature of man is well-known to
contemporary perverters, who are consciously striving to corrupt our
youth.
We remember how in Russia those who prepared the revolution, and then
the communists, began the spiritual weakening of our nation by imbuing
the youth with shamelessness and depravity. Special circles were
organized for this, which spread contempt for the ordinary laws of
morality. Such propagation of "free morals" which surrounds us is even
greater, frequently being imbued even young children of school age.
In our days, as in pre-revolutionary times in Russia, this propagation
has the definite goal of corrupting contemporary society. This is an
old method. History is filled with examples of nations which perished
from the dissemination of depravity. The Lord turned Sodom and Gomorrah
to ashes. Babylon fell. The Roman Empire perished. The free West could
be subjected to this same corruption--and then, with a weakened will,
like a ripe fruit, it could fall into the hands of the communists. Not
for nothing does this propagation of so-called "free love" and the
fight with the sense of shame come specifically from them, for the
sense of shame is a person's first defense against moral downfall. On
the contrary, every contact, even a small one, with vice, already
brings disease into our heart and poisons it. Can a man take fire in
his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? (Prov. 6:27).
But the burning coals of shamelessness and dissoluteness are widely
spilled about us. Slighting their murderous nature, under the influence
of so-called "[free] sex", many gather them and are burned by them.
What do we see in the life which surrounds us? Indecency and
shamelessness in clothing; shameless kisses and embraces on the streets
and in public places; shameless advertisements, pictures, photographs,
and depictions in magazines; insane, filthy, repulsive pornographic
literature. ... All of this dissoluteness and perversion pours into
life in a wide wave. In truth there is no less shamelessness now, if
not more, than in the time of pagans, when the holy apostles and their
successors had to exhort Christians with especial zeal in the
observance of modesty.
Man's nature is such that in the sins of the flesh, the active role
belongs on the one hand to the male sex, while on the other -- is
evoked in him by the temptation which comes from women. Because of
this, Christian cultures everywhere established customs which helped
the preservation of good morals, as well as modest dress for women, so
that the exposure of the latter should not evoke sinful thoughts and
tempting inclinations in anyone. The higher the spiritual culture, the
more modest was the dress of the women.
Modesty in dress is our first line of defense. It must guard the purity
of women and keep men from the temptation of sinful inclinations.
Meanwhile, the evocation of specifically these feelings is the goal of
that half-nudity which characterizes contemporary fashion, reaching,
incidentally, almost total nudity in the shameless exposure on the
beaches.
What was peculiar before to fallen women, who, in the plying of their
low trade dressed provokingly with the goal of evoking sensuality in
men, is now becoming the mode and norm for clean maidens, in many cases
not taking into account the meaning and consequences of this fashion
which enslaves them.
If I he raising high of the hem of a dress, or the sharp emphasizing of
the contours of the body, contradicts modesty, which generally should
adorn Christian maidens and women -- then even more unbecoming is the
appearance of them in such dress in the temple of God. Respect for it
must be shown first. of all in modesty of dress. Not for nothing, until
recent times, many heterodox churches demanded that women entering them
cover their heads and shoulders, if their dress was too revealing. In
this is expressed chaste veneration of something holy and the
aspiration that nothing openly sinful and tempting for our neighbors be
brought into the House of God.
With these elucidations, in concordance with the decision of the Synod
of Bishops, we now turn to our God-loving flock, in which the pastors
and elder representatives of it must take upon themselves the
responsibility of reminding the young people that they cease to trample
the laws of natural modesty in their following of contemporary fashions.
The duty of teaching modesty to youth lies especially with the parents
who themselves must show an example in this, and persistently explain
to their children the sinfulness of contemporary shamelessness.
We know that the fight against sin, which surrounds us from all sides,
is not an easy matter. The path of salvation is made narrower in
proportion to the intensification in the world of evil and apostasy.
But the ancient. pagan world which surrounded the handful of the first
Christians was no less corrupt. These latter, however, did not accede
to the temptations of the pagan modes, even as some now do not accede
to contemporary temptations.
The virtue and modesty of Christian women was one of the phenomena
which conquered the pagan world. Now, when infidelity and the
corruption accompanying it are renewed with new strength, our
professing of the faith is demanded with especial force, not only in
dogmatic teaching, but in everyday life, remembering the call of our
Savior, Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good
works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven (Matt. 5:16).
The Holy Apostle Paul in his epistle to the Philippians (i.e. to the
Christians living in the large city of Philippi ) wrote that they shone
as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation (Phil. 2:15). A
lofty spiritual disposition and irreproachably clean, strictly chaste
life-these were the characteristic traits of the Philippian Christians,
for which the Apostle praised them. We live in later times; nineteen
centuries separate us from those days in which the Apostle Paul wrote
his epistles. But now, just, as the Christians of the first centuries,
we are encircled by an environment full of shamelessness and
perversion. May the high and holy example of the pure and chaste life
of the ancient Christians teach us to be as steadfast. and firm in the
observance of the laws of Christian morals, and not accede to the
temptations which surround us.
May the blessing of God be upon you all.
+ Metropolitan PHILARET
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