Our Pilgrimage to Pascha

Great Lent has now finished. This week we take another spiritual journey, that of Holy Week. During this week we journey with Our Lord to Jerusalem where we witness in the spirit, His betrayal, crucifixion and burial. To share in Christ’s suffering we keep the fast and attend all the services. If someone dear to you were dying, you would keep vigil or at least visit them everyday. Let us not abandon Christ in His time of suffering. Do not let the affairs of the world distract you but rather put the world to one side this week and join Our Lord in His Passion. Fasting this week is a pilgrimage, a journey. Pascha is the destination. Pascha is the fulfillment of our journey, of all our efforts – it is the source and beginning of our spiritual struggle. The Kingdom of God is here and yet is to be consummated at the end of time. We partake of the Kingdom, which is still to come. We foresee and taste but still struggle on earth. On Wednesday we will commune at the Vespers of the Presanctified. We need this Holy Communion to stay alive on our journey through the spiritual struggle against evil. Our physical hunger from fasting is a reflection of our spiritual hunger. Both will be fulfilled if we share this week in Our Lord’s Passion. For the faithful that observe this Holy Week of Passion, Pascha will be the fulfillment of our physical and spiritual hunger. Then fasting will have no meaning for we will be feasting with the Bridegroom.

"Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." (Chronicles, 16: 29)

God's creation is truly beautiful and the Church as a living organism, reflects this beauty in her services and ceremonies. In the Church, especially in the physical temple, the harmony between creation and the spiritual world is expressed in its architecture and in its atmosphere of holiness.

An Orthodox temple has its origin in the divine worship of the Temple in Jerusalem. To enter an Orthodox church is to enter a holy place. Emphasis is on the experience of God first, followed by scriptural readings and teaching.
In St John's Gospel, we read: God is a spirit and they who would worship Him, must worship Him in spirit and in truth. (John 4: 24)

True devotion must be internal and come from the heart. But we are not to infer from this that exterior worship is to be condemned because interior worship is prescribed as essential. On the contrary, the rites and ceremonies which are enjoined in the worship of God and in the administration of the mysteries are dictated by reason and are sanctioned by God in the Old Law (Zechariah 14:17) and by our Lord Jesus Christ and His Apostles in the New. Our worship is not human based but based on the heavenly.

The Church is a divine-human- community in which the eternal worship of Heaven is always present and ceaseless. The heavenly servants, the angels being pure spirits without body, render to God a purely spiritual worship. The sun and moon, and stars of the firmament pay to Him a kind of external homage.
In the Prophet Daniel, we read: Sun and moon bless the Lord...stars of heaven bless the Lord, praise and exalt Him above all forever.

But man, by possessing a soul or spiritual substance, partakes of the nature of angels and possessing a body, partakes of the nature of material bodies. It is therefore his privilege, as well as his duty, to offer to God the twofold homage of body and soul; in other words, to honour Him by internal and external worship.

Genuine piety cannot be concealed in the heart without manifesting itself by exterior practices of religion; and hence, though interior and exterior worship are distinct, they cannot be separated in the present life.

The fire cannot burn without sending forth a flame and heat. Neither can the fire of devotion burn in the soul without reflecting itself on our countenance, and even in our speech.
It is natural for man to express his sentiments by signs and ceremonies for, from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaketh. And as fuel is necessary to keep the fire alive, even so the flame of piety is nourished by the outward forms of religion.

Gender or Agenda?

It has become very popular to use the label 'gender' instead of  'sex'.  Not only is this incorrect but I find it an affront to my intelligence. When I was learning French and Latin at school, it was amusing to learn that the pen of my aunt was also feminine.  Later I discovered that while the sun was masculine in French, the mere moon was feminine...the Sun outshining the dull moon!...in German the sun was feminine and the mere moon was masculine.  While I was learning these peculiarities of foreign grammar, the feminist movement was busy changing the label 'sex' into 'gender'. Was this to serve their own perfidious agenda?

Gender refers to language and in most languages there are three - masculine, feminine and neuter. Sex, on the other hand, refers to male and female. There is no other, not according to Genesis that is.  Another 'agenda' word is anti-Semitism.   This word again applies to language, not people.  To be anti-Semitic is to hate Arabic and/or Hebrew and perhaps Aramaic, the language of the Lord Jesus Christ.

May be it's old age, but I am tired of this misuse of language to support politico-social agendas. I was brought up to call a spade a spade, however not to label people with offensive titles.

The new paganism or how to succeed in this life

Forgive me for not posting for ages...but that's me with a new toy. So what do I have to say?  I was invited to contribute to a book on biz strategy, not because I am an expert but because I am a potential customer for some new training program. I have taken some marketing courses in order to promote my novels. Now, I am being asked to sign up for something new...it never stops.  However, I might follow this through, (without any dollars upfront) in order to alert people to the new paganism that disguises itself as 'self realization' or 'achieving your goals'.

There are quite a number of sincere people who believe these things and genuinely care about others and are not pagans simply to make a pile of bucks. They do want you to be successful in business and in your personal life. They believe we succeed in biz by helping others. I can't disagree with that.


Some, who consider themselves Christians, would be shocked at these words: but true faith in Christ is not based on the gospel of wealth and health or on being successful in life. To believe this is pagan not Christian.


Contrary to Christianity, the new paganism is a life based on a life goal that is seen as the maximum satisfaction of all our so-called natural needs - what St John calls the lusts of the flesh... This kind of life-style is usually expressed through a broad moral freedom and is based on a belief that man is by nature spiritually sound. We only need the appropriate material and social conditions of life, and opportunities for self-realization.

The true Christian teaching about corrupt human nature and the need to purify it is totally foreign to new paganism. Today's pagans are fully satisfied with the present state of human nature, and therefore seek only "wealth" and "success".


It is difficult for us to find a balance between secular ambition and our loyalty to Christ. It is only through purification of heart, as the Fathers say, that we can begin to grow back into the likeness of God, which our ancestors lost.

By their fruits ye shall know them

One thing is important: the polarization into sides is, in our time, visible. Not that the battle is close or far ahead—but that the sides are being drawn…We know the signs by which the Devil can be identified; they have been familiar for millenniums. Are these signs presently visible? Are they in evidence? We see hatred, cruelty, violence, on all sides. We see each nation preparing itself, girding its loins, to destroy whosoever stands to its left or right. Naked, brute force, the power of the armed fist, has emerged within every nation of the earth: the disguise of international law is gone. And naked force is the sign by which ye shall know him—the Evil One branded by the mark of God, cast out of Heaven, hurled into the lake of fire! Does any man in his sane mind imagine that in the Final Battle, God’s standard will be carried forward by nuclear weapons, armored tanks and strike aircraft? Does any man believe that He Who made this universe could also manufacture mustard gas and bacteriological warfare? By their fruits ye shall know them. The mark is upon them! Pretense is gone—the filthy, hairy shape stands naked for all to see. He calls them in his own name, and to that name they respond. There is no shame, no horror: they have made their choice. They will fight for him, and when he falls for the second death, they will fall beside him. - Adapted from Voice from the street by Philip K. Dick Trust, 2007.

A message for Holy Week

Great Lent has now finished. This week we take another spiritual journey, that of Holy Week. During this week we journey with Our Lord to Jerusalem where we witness in the spirit, His betrayal, crucifixion and burial. To share in Christ’s suffering we keep the fast and attend all the services. If someone dear to you were dying, you would keep vigil or at least visit them everyday. Let us not abandon Christ in His time of suffering. Do not let the affairs of the world distract you but rather put the world to one side this week and join Our Lord in His Passion. Fasting this week is a pilgrimage, a journey. Pascha is the destination. Pascha is the fulfillment of our journey, of all our efforts – it is the source and beginning of our spiritual struggle. The Kingdom of God is here and yet is to be consummated at the end of time. We partake of the Kingdom, which is still to come. We foresee and taste but still struggle on earth. On Wednesday we will commune at the Vespers of the Presanctified. We need this Holy Communion to stay alive on our journey through the spiritual struggle against evil. Our physical hunger from fasting is a reflection of our spiritual hunger. Both will be fulfilled if we share this week in Our Lord’s Passion. For the faithful that observe this Holy Week of Passion, Pascha will be the fulfillment of our physical and spiritual hunger. Then fasting will have no meaning for we will be feasting with the Bridegroom.

The Search for Truth on the Path of Reason

Pokrov Press in Moscow has recently released a book by the renowned Russian theologian Alexei Osipov in English. “The Search for Truth on the Path of Reason” is a spiritual treasure, written in a clear and concise style that speaks to us today. It is a modern classic of Christian apologetics, its main theme being “knowledge of God” and I strongly recommend it.

Osipov points out that “knowledge of God” is not an intellectual exercise but is on the contrary, a gift from God. However much we stretch our minds through scholarly study, inevitably it is God, Who opens our minds and hearts to Divine knowledge. Our knowledge of God depends on our relationship with Him, which is founded in love and humility.

The problem even with our Christian thinking is that we have been influenced by secular philosophy. We may not have read Spinoza, Kant or Hegel, but nevertheless these thinkers have affected our religious views. Osipov explains how these philosophers have turned religion into a moral belief system that has greatly influenced Christianity. He shows how religion has become an ethical philosophy –a do good religion more concerned with social justice rather than communion with God. As an antidote to moralistic religious thinking he quotes from St Isaac the Syrian: “It is not good deeds that purify man’s heart, but rather the war with the passions and the humility that comes out of it.” And again:” The recompense is not given for labor but for humility.”
Osipov also addresses the supposed conflict between science and religion. He explains the origin of pagan beliefs and how they still affect society today. He emphasizes the difference between Old Testament Religion and Judaism, which can never be compatible with true Christianity.

The more I read in the pages of Osipov, the more I find. If you consider yourself a serious seeker, this book should be a part of your spiritual library.

“The Search for Truth on the Path of Reason” is available from Pokrovpress.com