The Example of Saint Ambrose of Milan and the Contemporary Theories of Obligatory Cessation of Communion with those in Communion with Hierarchs Preaching Heresy "Bare-Headed"

By Protopresbyter Peter Heers 

Today, December 7th, we celebrate the memory of our Father Among the Saints Ambrose of Milan. The Life of the Saint, written by his close disciple Paulinus, relays important information on the state of the Church at the time and the way in which the Saint was elected bishop which is quite relevant to our contemporary situation and very instructive for us vis-a-vis how the Fathers of the Church dealt with heresy.

I will state them plainly and then comment again on them below, in the midst of excerpts from the Life of the Saint:

1. 50 years AFTER the First Oecumenical Council, which condemned Arianism, it is clear that there were Arians and Orthodox within the same Church communion.

2. The battle against Arianism raged for many decades WITHIN the Church, so much so that we see Arians succeeding Orthodox hierarchs and vice versa.

3. Elections of bishops were conducted within a local church, even within each parish, by BOTH Arians and Orthodox parishioners, meaning that they were in communion and attending the same parishes, communing of the same Chalice. (This is also apparent in the Life of St. Meletios of Antioch.)

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THE FAITHFUL PEOPLE OF GOD NOT ONLY HAVE THE RIGHT - THEY ARE OBLIGED TO CORRECT ERRING CLERICS

- Excerpt from a homily by the Ever-memorable and Blessed Fr. Athanasius Mytilinaios     

INTRODUCTION

Many believers write to me or ask me when I visit parishes or speak somewhere, what am I able to do, as a lay person, when my priest or bishop diverts from the Faith of the Church or teaches or guides believers in a manner contrary to the received Tradition and teaching of the Holy Fathers. The following excerpt from the homilies of the great Elder and Teacher of the Church, Athanasius Mytilinaios of Greece provides a good answer.

EXCERPT:

There exists the pan-heresy of ecumenism, which has taken hold of Patriarchs and Archbishops by the back of the neck the world over. Patriarchs and Archbishops throughout the world. You know, when someone comes and grabs you by the back of the neck, you are immobilized. If you grab a cat by its neck and you lift it up, he cannot bite you. He is unable to do anything and is immobilized.

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What beauty awaits us ..

 Ah, if you could only see a little bit of paradise, if you could only hear for a few seconds the chanting of the sweet angels who shine with heavenly light and emit paradisiacal fragrance! Oh, what beauty! Unfortunately, we are in the dark about all these things.

There everything shines with limitless bliss. And what does the throne of Christ tell you? Christ the Master sits upon a throne, and due to His light no one can discern His sacred and most sweet face. Oh, what sweetness and beauty! What is more beautiful than this? This is truly paradise: to behold the face of our Jesus! Glory to Thy Cross, O Lord, and to Thy Resurrection!

O depth of the wisdom of God! O mysteries of the three sun Deity! Blessed is he who humbles himself like a child, obeying all commands with a guileless soul for the love of God! And woe to him who will hold on to his egotism, like me; how many divine gifts does he deprive himself of!

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http://hristospanagia3.blogspot.gr/2016/01/what-beauty-awaits-us.html

Fr. Athanasios Mitilinaios(+2006).Day of Judgment comes.

However, when the Day of Judgment comes, when the resurrection of the dead comes—and this book talks about the resurrection of the dead, over a thousand years before Christ—when the sinners see the righteous shining like the sun, they will be in dreadful fear, and in anguish they will groan and say, this is the man whom we once held in derision! We thought that His life was madness! We are the fools! We took our fill of the paths of lawlessness and destruction, and we journeyed through trackless deserts. What good has our boasted wealth profited us? We were deceived. We were deceived. These two chapters of the Wisdom of Solomon [refers to expanded content of homily] present us with a tremendous picture of the psychology of the ungodly—the mind of the worldly man—who will discover his deception on that day.

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http://hristospanagia3.blogspot.gr/2016/01/fr-athanasios-mitilinaios2006day-of.html

The virtues are in the middle

The cardinal virtues are four: courage, prudence, discreetness, and fairness. There are eight other moral states that either go beyond or fall short of these virtues. Spiritual people consider them as vices, but non-spiritual people consider them many times as virtues. For courage going beyond is audacity while falling short is timidity.

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Clean yourself

   A young man asked an Elder in the Holy Mountain: “Elder, how I can see Christ?”
The Elder responded: “To see Christ my child, first you need to clean yourself. If you are expecting a visitor, then you clean your house. If you are expecting a guest, then you clean the room he will stay.

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FAITH AND HOPE IN GOD’S PROVIDENCE By St. Ignatius Brianchaninov (+1867).

FAITH AND  HOPE IN GOD’S PROVIDENCE

By St. Ignatius Brianchaninov (+1867).

St. Ignatius Brianchaninov stands out as one of the greatest patristic writers of the nineteenth century. This great saint left to Orthodox Christians a compass by which we can check our direction as vve traverse the complex path of spiritual life, to avoid the dark forests and pitfalls of spiritual delusion and pride.

There is no such thing as blind happenstance (a circumstance especially that is due to chance, Ed. God rules the world, and all that happens in heaven and under the heavens happens according to the wise and omnipotent God, unfathomable in His wisdom and omnipotence,, and unfathomable in His governance.

If there is not a single event that is secret from God, then we must glorify God for everything that happens.

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 http://hristospanagia3.blogspot.gr/2015/12/faith-and-hope-in-gods-providence-by-st.html

THE HUMILITY AND PIETY OF ST, PORPHYRIOS OF KAVSOKALYVIA

THE HUMILITY AND PIETY OF ST, PORPHYRIOS OF KAVSOKALYVIA

Commemorated on December 2nd.

On December 2nd the holy Orthodox Church commemorates the recently- glorified God-bearing elder of our times, St. Porphyries of Kavsokalyiva, who reposed on this day in 1991, He was known as a humble ascetic with the gift of foresight who always served the Divine Liturgy with compunction. In his memory we offer below his final letter.

While at the Holy Skete of Kavsokalvvia on Mt. Athos, the Elder Porphyries had given orders for his grave to be dug. Through a spiritual child of his, he dictated a farewell letter of advice and forgiveness to all his spiritual children.

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THE HOLY NATIVITY OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR By St. Theophan the Recluse.

THE HOLY NATIVITY OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR

By St. Theophan the Recluse.

Glory to Thee, O Lord! Once again we greet the awaited bright days of Christ’s Nativity. Let us be glad and rejoice.

In order to raise our festivities to a higher level in these days, the Holy Church has intentionally instituted a fast before them—a certain amount of constraint, so that as we enter the festive period we might feel as though we were coming out into freedom. Nevertheless, the Church in no way desires that we give ourselves over to mere sensual delights and fleshly pleasures. Since the Church has from olden times called these days  (“holy days”), they require that our very rejoicing on these days be holy, as they are holy. So that those who rejoice might not forget themselves, the Church has placed a short hymn upon our lips to glorify the newborn Christ, by which the flesh is settled down and the soul is uplifted, showing the proper occupations for these days: Christ is horn, give ye glory, and the rest.

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Christmas Christology: An Interview with Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos

This interview with his Eminence Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou was published in the journal "Καθ' οδόν" by the Community Youth of the Sacred Metropolis of Limassol, and as the reader will see, the questions cover a large part of the Christology of Christmas.

 

Question: The word Χριστούγεννα (Greek word for "Christmas") means the birth of Christ. We would like you to tell us what was the purpose of the birth of Christ and generally why did the Word of God have to incarnate. Couldn't there have been another way for the salvation of the human race?

 Answer: As it is written throughout our biblical-patristic tradition, the purpose of the Incarnation of the Word of God is the theosis of humanity, which means that He who according to His nature is God became man, that we may become gods according to Grace. In one of his discourses, Athanasius the Great analyzes that God sent the Prophets in the Old Testament to speak to His people, but ultimately the issue was how man will be deified and how he will be released from death.

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http://hristospanagia3.blogspot.gr/2015/12/christmas-christology-interview-with.html

Silence should be kept secretly and in your heart

 “Silence should be kept secretly and in your heart. Make sure that is not obvious to others that you maintain silence. As soon as you have said two or three words, continue immediately inside of you to send prayers for everybody to the Lord. Embrace secretly in your heart, with love, the entire world. All the Church … Make holy your silence by praying so is not sterile and barren.”

(Saint Porphyrius Kafsokalyvitis, Anthology of Advices, p. 281)

http://www.orthodoxpath.org/spiritual-life/silence-should-be-kept-secretly-and-in-your-heart/

Turn the wheel

  For everybody that lives in the world, do not despair when you are possessed by many passions, the weight of your sins is extremely heavy, and you feel you are driving really fast “downhill”. Put your hope in Christ’s hands and turn suddenly and abruptly the steering wheel in the way of God, uphill. Soon you will even bypass other slowly moving cars that were running ahead for many years on the road of God.

St. Paisios the Hagiorite

Translated by Dr. Nick Stergiou

http://www.orthodoxpath.org/spiritual-life/turn-the-wheel/

http://hristospanagia3.blogspot.gr/2015/11/turn-wheel.html

Avoid the causes

    “Avoid the causes, what triggers sin. For example, if you have diabetes and you are supposed not to eat sweets, how can you stop them if all the time you are inside or around stores that sell sweets and pastries?

(Source: Dion. Tatsis, Outdoor Archontariki, Recorded teachings of St. Paisiou, Konitsa Feb. ’94, 32)

Translated by Dr. Nick Stergiou

http://www.orthodoxpath.org/spiritual-life/avoid-the-causes/

http://hristospanagia3.blogspot.gr/2015/11/avoid-causes.html

Fathers of church about fasting

 Beware of limiting the good of fasting to mere abstinence from meats. Real fasting is alienation from evil. ‘Loose the bands of wickedness.’ For give your neighbour the mischief he has done you. Forgive him his trespasses against you. Do not ‘fast for strife and debate.’ You do not devour flesh, but you devour your brother. You abstain from wine, but you indulge in outrages. You wait for evening before you take food, but you spend the day in the law courts. Woe to those who are ‘drunken, but not with wine.’ Anger is the intoxication of the soul, and makes it out of its wits like wine.

St. Basil, in his homilies on the Holy Spirit

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