The Third Way

“Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to rage, for it is written: “If you will not execute judgment for yourself, I shall execute your judgment, says God” – Romans 12:19 (Aramaic Bible in English).

France is in shock and in mourning. French President Francois Hollande vowed to attack the Islamic State group without mercy as the jihadist group claimed responsibility Saturday for orchestrating the deadliest attacks on France since World War II.  Not unlike after the horrific attacks of September 11^th, President George W. Bush’s statement in response to those attacks that he would lead the world to war “against terror.” The popular call seems to be mounting —“this time it’s all-out war.”

Our world is filled with violence – like a plague, an infection, a pandemic of people killing people, and people killing themselves. Violence is an undeniable part of creation. It arises in the opening chapters the Book of Genesis when Adam and Eve, due to their sin, became required to kill animals for food and clothing. While permitted by God as necessary for their survival outside of the Garden, it introduced violence to humanity.

As the story of Creation continues, violence quickly shatters the human family. Enraged by fear that his little brother Abel would find greater favor with God, and thereby take advantage and power over Cain, the older brother violently defends his position and prominence in the world with the brutality of fratricide. Throughout the Biblical narrative, violence continues with horrific consistency. Power is defined by the sword, forged in vengeance, lived in dominance, and blessed by presumed fidelity to God. Yet, even when sanctioned and blessed by God, the stain of violence is one for which God is not pleased—a brutal reality of humanity’s brokenness and sinfulness. Even King David, a man after God’s own heart and one truly blessed by God, was forbidden to build the Temple because he had blood on his hands.

God in His Son Jesus reveals that violence is neither holy nor redemptive. Jesus demonstrated to us a different path—a peaceful and non-violent path. When calls arose for the Messiah of God to take up arms and vanquish the enemy with the force of military power, Jesus responded as a sheep being led to slaughter. Upon witnessing violent bloodshed in his defense by those who loved him, Jesus chose to heal the wounds of the enemy and condemn the use of weapons in the fear-driven anger of violence. Ultimately, rather than succumb to the lie that is redemptive violence, Jesus allowed the demonic powers to prevail in such a way that a new path may be known—the path of love.

Even in the evil that Jesus endured, he consistently challenged the myth of redemptive violence. He looked into the eyes of those killing him and called on God to forgive them. He loved his enemies and taught his disciples to do the same. He often said things like, “You’ve heard it said ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’… but I want to say there is a better way” and “You’ve heard it said, ‘love your friends and hate your enemies’… but I tell you love those who hate you… do not repay evil with evil’.” Jesus challenged the prevailing logic of his day, and of ours.  He insisted that if we “pick up the sword we will die by the sword” – and we’re learning that lesson all too well.

Orthodox Catholic Christianity throughout history has had a powerful critique of violence in all its ugly forms. One of the early patriarchs, Saint Cyprian, as African Bishop in the third century, critiqued the contradictory view of death so prevalent in our contemporary culture where we hypocritically call killing evil in some instances and noble in others: “Murder, considered a crime when people commit it singly, is transformed into a virtue when they do it en masse.” Violence in any form is evil, and evil is inconsistent with our faith. The message of the Cross remains one of peace—a peace that passes all understanding and a peace that does not come as the world believes it ought. Christ’s peace transcends the false myth of redemptive violence, for redemptive violence gives way to violence as an end in itself.

When one of Jesus’ disciples picks up a sword to defend him and cuts off a guy’s ear, Jesus scolds his own disciple, picks up the ear, and heals the wounded persecutor. Christian theologians have said Jesus teaches a “third way” to interact with evil. We see a Jesus who abhors both passivity and violence and teaches us a new way forward that is neither submission nor assault, neither fight nor flight. He shows us a way to oppose evil without mirroring it, where oppressors can be resisted without being emulated and neutralized without being destroyed. We can take courage that Jesus understood the violence of our world, very well.  At one point he wept over Jerusalem because it didn’t know the things that make for peace. No doubt Jesus is still weeping. And lots of us are weeping with him – from Boston to Kiev, from Damascus to Paris. Perhaps it’s time for a united, nonviolent assault on the myth of redemptive violence. Perhaps it’s time for us to declare that violence is always evil – period. There is always a third way.

*Compiled from multiple sources.

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God Bless Paris

In our prayers this morning we especially spiritually unite with all of those who stand against terror.

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New Hieromartyr Priest John Kochurov of Chicago

Saint John Kochurov was born in Russia on July 13, 1871. He excelled at his studies at both the seminary and academy. After graduating in 1895, Fr. John married and then was subsequently ordained a priest on August 27, 1895 at the St. Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg.

In the late 1890s, a large number of émigrés from Carpathian Ruthenia and Galicia were migrating to the United States. Having expressed the desire to be a missionary priest, Father John was assigned as the first permanent priest at St. Vladimir’s Church in Chicago, which later became Holy Trinity Cathedral. As the parish did not yet have their own building, his first major project was the construction of the church building. Under the guidance of Bishop Tikhon (future Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow), Fr. John enlisted the services of the noted architect Louis Sullivan to design the church. In addition to his zealous labor in Chicago, he was also instrumental in establishing parishes in Buffalo, New York, Hartshorne, Oklahoma, and Slovak, Arkansas.

After returning to Russia he was assigned to serve in Estonia, where he applied the teaching skills he had learned in America. In 1916 he received a new assignment to Tsarskoe Selo near St. Petersburg. Only six days after the Bolsheviks seized power, Father John was beaten to death in the street by a gang of Bolshevik sailors in Tsarskoye Selo. Thus he became the first of countless Priest-Martyrs of the Soviet’s atheist yoke.

Commemorated on October 31/November 13

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Feastday Greetings – С Праздником

Monastery Icon of Our Lady Joy of All Who Sorrow

Greetings on our monastery’s Altar Feast of the Icon of Our Lady Joy of All Who Sorrow!

Поздравляем всех с Престольным Праздником Иконы Пресвятой Богородицы Всех Скорбящих Радости!

We pray that God grant to every affiliate and benefactor health and salvation for many blessed years!

Спасения вам и здравия на многая и благая лета!

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Altar Feast – Престольный Праздник

All Orthodox churches, monasteries, and chapels are naturally dedicated to the worship of God.  After the period of persecutions ended and Christians first became able to build churches, they built them on holy sites associated with events in scripture, the life of Christ, or over the tombs of the martyrs.  If there was no holy site at hand, the faithful would dedicate the church or monastery in the name of a saint or a holyday commemorated on the ecclesiastical calendar.  This tradition has continued to this very day, so our churches always have their own special feast day.  This is called the altar feast or the patronal feast.

Our monastery chapel is dedicated to the Feast of the Icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow,” which is celebrated tomorrow on the Julian Calendar.  The original Icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow” was glorified by wonderworking in the year 1688.  A woman named Evphymia, who was by birth the sister of the Patriarch of Moscow Joakim (1674-1690), lived in Moscow and for a long time had suffered from an incurable illness.  One morning during a time of prayer she heard a voice: “Evphymia! Go thou to the temple of the Transfiguration of My Son; an image is there, named “Joy of All Who Sorrow.”  Have the priest serve a molieben (prayer service of entreaty) with a blessing of water, and thou wilt receive healing from sickness.”  Evphymia, having learned that in Moscow was actually such an icon in the church of the Transfiguration on Ordynka Street, dutifully followed the instruction that had been conveyed to her, and she was healed of her infirmity.  The miraculous healing occurred on October 24^th/November 6^th in 1688.

When establishing our monastic community in 2013, the decision to dedicate our chapel to the patronage and protection of the Most Holy Theotokos Joy of All Who Sorrow was not without due consideration.  Approximately twenty-five years ago, an acquaintance of mine was informed that her distant relative who resided in Austria had recently died.  Having no living relatives in Austria, my acquaintance was named as the executor of her relative’s affairs.   Upon her return from Austria, my acquaintance requested to meet with me privately to discuss an important matter. During our meeting, my acquaintance shared the following information with me:

Toward the end of World War II two young soldiers came upon my relative’s home and begged for shelter.  They related that they had been forcibly drafted into the army and had been stationed in Russia on the Eastern Front.  Having fled the fighting, they were desperately trying to return back to their families in Austria.  The woman offered them food and overnight shelter.  On the following day, she provided them with civilian clothing and destroyed their military uniforms.  In gratitude for her generosity, one of the young soldiers gifted her with an icon that he had obtained while in Russia.  She graciously accepted the gift and entrusted the safety of the two young men to the protection of the Mother of God.  Although the woman was Roman Catholic, she hung the icon in a prominent place in her home where it was kept with reverence for the rest of her earthly life.  In her Last Will and Testament, she requested that the icon be given to a Russian Orthodox priest, who would spiritually value it as she had done so during her lifetime.  My acquaintance stated that I was the only Russian Orthodox priest that she knew and, therefore, would like to gift me with the icon pursuant to her relative’s request.

The icon is a portrayal of Our Lady Joy of All Who Sorrow.   The exact age of the icon and its provenance are unknown to me.  Miraculously the icon survived the Bolshevik Revolution and subsequent persecution of the Church, when most sacred items were destroyed unless they had been secretly hidden.  The holy icon also survived the prolonged and devastating Nazi invasion of Russia during World War II.  The icon bares signs of both age and abuse.  Upon receipt, I had a case (kivot) specially fashioned in an attempt to help preserve the icon and to protect it from further damage and deterioration.  And, so, it seemed appropriate to consecrate our community to the protection of the Icon of Our Lady Joy of All Who Sorrow.  Coincidentally, or rather, providentially, the official approval date of our Articles of Incorporation is November 5, 2013, which happens to be the eve of the Icon’s Feast.

Veneration of the Mother of God is very popular among Russian and other Slavic people, and there are countless churches with this dedication in the Russian lands and in the immigration.  I think it safe to say that our small community senses the great sanctity of our precious icon and feels the heavenly intercessions and protection of the Mother of God in a special way.  We give thanks to God for our OCCA household of faith, our small place of worship, for God’s innumerable mercies to us, for the intercession and protection of the Mother of God on our walk through life, for our religious community and for our beloved family and friends.

The annual celebration of our altar feast is something very special to us, filled with prayers for special intentions and thanksgiving.  Tomorrow morning we will offer a special Molieben and Akathist in the monastery chapel before the Icon of Our Lady Joy of All Who Sorrow.  If you would like to have prayer for any reason offered before the icon, please send your intentions via email to: ocmoljaws@gmail.com

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Spiritual Teaching of Saint Mother Maria Skobtsova

“At the Last Judgment, I will not be asked whether I satisfactorily practiced asceticism, or how many bows I have made before the divine altar. I will be asked whether I fed the hungry, clothed the naked, visited the sick and the prisoner in jail. That is all I will be asked” – Mother Maria Skobtsova of Paris.

Mother Maria Skobtsova was an unconventional Orthodox nun who aided the persecuted Jewish people in occupied France during WWII. Confronting the horror of Nazi brutality, Mother Maria devised an ingenious plan to save Jewish children destined for extermination camps: Paris garbage collectors, upon her urging, hid the children in trash cans and whisked them to safe havens outside the city. Mother Maria, for her selfless rescue activities, perished in a gas chamber in Ravensbruck concentration camp in Germany in 1945. Today, she is among the “righteous gentiles” honored in Israel and a canonized saint in the Orthodox Christian Church.

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Righteous John, Wonderworker of Kronstadt

Commemorated on October 19th/November 1st, Saint John of Kronstadt was a married priest, who lived with his wife in virginity. Through his untiring labors in his priestly duties and love for the poor and sinners, he was granted by our Lord great gifts of clairvoyance and miracle-working, to such a degree that in the last years of his life miracles of healings — both of body and of soul — were performed countless times each day through his prayers, often for people who had only written to him asking his help.

Father John of Kronstadt was born in 1829 in the north of Russia to pious parents, his father Elias the sacristan at the village church. While completing his seminary studies at the St. Petersburg Academy he dreamt of becoming a missionary to the natives of Siberia or Alaska but observing the conditions of society in St. Petersburg he realized that there was much missionary work needed in Russia. He suffered from a long period of depression while at the Academy and later said he was only freed from this darkness by long prayer. As he struggled over which direction to take in life he had a dream in which he saw himself as a priest at St. Andrew’s Cathedral in the city of Kronstadt, which is near St. Petersburg. Graduating from the Academy, he married Elizabeth, the daughter of a priest and was ordained a priest in 1855. Appointed to St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Kronstadt, he was deeply moved when he entered the church for the first time and realized it was the church he had seen in his dream.

During his lifetime he was known throughout Russia, as well as in the Western world. He has left us his diary My Life in Christ as a spiritual treasure for Christians of every age; simple in language, it expounds the deepest mysteries of our Faith with that wisdom which is given only to a heart purified by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Foreseeing as a true prophet the Revolution of 1917, he unsparingly rebuked the growing apostasy among the people; he foretold that the very name of Russia would be changed. As the darkness of unbelief grew thicker, he shone forth as a beacon of unquenchable piety, comforting the faithful through the many miracles that he worked and the fatherly love and simplicity with which he received all. Saint John reposed in peace in 1908.*

*Taken from the Great Horologion

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