My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Only True Lord, God and Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
The Holy Fathers of the Church are the Defenders of
the Orthodox Faith [Part II].
By Metropolitan Augustinos Kantiotes of Florina, Greece
of blessed memory.
Being the SPIRITUAL DESCEDANTS of the Glorious Fathers of the Church places holy obligations on all faithful children of Orthodoxy. Just as those who have lived in hostile environment amid many troubles did not lose heart, become disillusioned, or faint-hearted, but instead held aloft the standard of Orthodoxy throughout everything, bearing witness to Jesus in their generation, so are we called to do. Let us too hold aloft the standard of Orthodoxy; let us too bear witness to Jesus in our generation which is either doesn’t know, or distorts the holy Truths of Orthodoxy.
By the MANNER OF OUR LIFE, we ought to show that Christ not only lived and worked Wonders in the era of the holy Fathers, but THAT HE LIVES AND CONTINUES TO WORK WONDERS (MIRACLES) EVEN TODAY; that the miracle of faith is something CONTINUOUS and UNINTERRUPTED in accordance with the Apostolic teaching which says, "Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever" [Hebrews 13:8}. Orthodoxy is NOT something static, but RATHER AN UNBROKEN LIVINIG STREAM, A HOLY FIRE WHICH ONE GENERATION RECEIVES FROM THE PREVIOUS, AND THEN IN TURN PASSES ON TO THE NEXT, CALLING IT TO LAY HOLD OF THE SAVING LIGHT. ORTHODOXY IS AN UNCEASING LIGHTING OF THE LAMPS, AN UNINTERRUPTED AND CONTINUOUS TORCH RACE WHICH BEGAN WITH THE FIRES OF PENTECOST AND CONTINUES DOWN TO OUR DAY AND WILL CONTINUE UNTIL THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. WE ARE CALLED TO BEAR WITNESS TO ALL T HIS, THUS BECOMING IMITATORS OF THE HOLY FATHERS.
May our lives shine as theirs did, for if we limit ourselves to hymns or praise and encomiums, boasting in the Patristic treasure, then we will resemble the unworthy sons of Israel who boasted in their glorious forefathers yet lived lives altogether different from them. "Your who live impiously cannot possibly call Abraham your father." Sadly, this rebuke might just as easily be spoken of our generation, a generation of sin and hypocrisy, "O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: And think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham" [Luke 3:7-8].
"The choir of the holy Fathers hath gathered from the ends of the earth, hath taught the single essence of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and hath carefully committed to the Church the mystery of theology. Praising them in faith, let us bless them saying: O divine legion, divinely eloquent swordsmen of the Lord’s command, most radiant stars of the noetic firmament, unassailable towers of the mystical Sion, sweet-scented blossoms of paradise, golden mouths of the Logos/Word, boast of Nicaea and adornments of the whole world: Pray ye in behalf of our souls!"
Beloved brethren! In the end times, the disrespect that people have often shown toward their parents according to the flesh, dishonoring them in various ways, has crept into their relationship with their spiritual fathers, and the teachers of the Church. People today stand with jaws agape, staring into bookshop windows wherein are displayed writings of questionable value–some even highly dangerous. In our schools, texts written by pre-Christian writers which are full of myths, and which propound the cosmology associated with the false gods of Olympus are taught in Ancient Greek classes. But the texts of the Great Fathers and Teachers of the Church which flow with the sweetness of Divine Wisdom, where are they? The Fathers have been exiled from the schools of our Orthodox kingdom. Sadly, the writings of the Holy Fathers, a treasure written for the most part in Greek, are kept hidden from our people. [Source: Orthodox Heritage]
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"Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!
– Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
Father George
The Eastern Orthodox Christian Ethos 