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According to my understanding, this is a common misreading of the Patriarch's words. This misreading is typically put forth by Anglicans seeking ecumenicism and Old Calendarists seeking arguments against the EP.
My child, know that in the last days hard times will come; and as the Apostle says, behold, due to poverty in piety heresies and schisms will appear in the churches; and as the Holy Fathers foretold, then on the thrones of hierarchs and in monasteries there will be no men to be found that are tested and experienced in the spiritual life. Wherefore, heresies will spread everywhere and deceive many. The enemy of mankind will act skillfully, and whenever possible he will lead the chosen ones to heresy. He will not begin by discarding the dogmas on the Holy Trinity, the divinity of Jesus Christ, or the Theotokos, but will unnoticeably start to distort the Teachings of the Holy Fathers, in other words the teachings of the Church herself. The cunning of the enemy and his "tipics" (ways) will be noticed by very few -- only those that are most experienced in spiritual life. Heretics will take over the Church, everywhere, and they will appoint their servants, and spirituality will be neglected. But the Lord will not leave His servants without protection. Truly, their real duty is persecution of true pastors and their imprisonment; for without that, the spiritual flock may not become captured by the heretics. Therefore, my son, when you see in the Churches mocking of the Divine act, of the teachings of the Holy Fathers, and of God's established order, know that the heretics are already present. Be also aware that, for some time, they might hide their evil intentions, or they might covertly deform the divine faith, so that they better succeed by deceiving and tricking the inexperienced.
They will persecute pastors and the servants of God alike, for the devil who is directing the heresy cannot stand the Divine order. Like wolves in sheep skin, they will be recognized by their vainglorious nature, love for lust, and lust for power. All those will be betrayers, causing hatred and malice everywhere; and therefore the Lord said that one will easily recognize them by their fruits. The true servants of God are meek, brother-loving and obedient to the Church (order, traditions).
At that time, monks will endure great pressures from heretics, and the monastic life will be mocked. The monastic families will be impoverished, the number of monks will decrease. The ones remaining will endure violence. These haters of the monastic life, who merely have the appearance of piety, will strive to draw monks to their side, promising them protection and worldly goods (comforts), but threatening with exile those who do not submit. From these threats, the weak of heart will be very humiliated (tormented).
If you live to see that time, rejoice, for at that time the faithful who possess no other virtues will receive wreaths for merely remaining steadfast in their faith, according to the Word of the Lord, "Everyone who confesses Me before men, I will confess before My Heavenly Father". Fear the Lord, my son, and don't lose this wreath so as to not be rejected by Christ into the utter darkness and eternal suffering. Bravely stand in faith, and if necessary, joyfully endure persecutions and other troubles, for only then will the Lord stand by you...and the holy Martyrs and the Confessors will joyfully watch your struggle.
But, in these days, woe be to monks tied to possessions and riches, and who, for the sake of love of comfort, agree to subjugate themselves to the heretics. They will lull their conscience by saying: we will save the monastery, and the Lord will forgive us. Unfortunate and blinded, they are not even thinking that through heresies and heretics the devil will enter the monastery, and then it will no longer be a holy monastery, but bare walls from which Grace will depart forever.
But God is more powerful than the devil, and will never abandon His servants. There will always be true Christians, till the end of time, but they will choose lonely and deserted places. Do not fear troubles, but fear pernicious heresy, for it drives out Grace, and separates us from Christ, wherefore Christ commanded us to consider the heretic and let him be unto thee as a heathen man and publican.
And so, strengthen yourself, my son, in the Grace of Christ Jesus. With joy, hasten to confession and endure the suffering like Jesus Christ's good soldier who was told: "Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the wreath of life".
You will notice that Silentchapel was not talking about OC vs. NC but rather the bad fruit of those who profess to be OCist, and (in at least one testimony here) the schismatics of Esph. are under an OCist group.
GaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaH!
* head explodes from frustration at why people do not understand that the EP has never concelebrated the Eucharist with the RCC and that OldCalendarist Schismatics are different from Orthodox who follow the old calendar.*
please return to your regularly scheduled programming.
According to Orthodox canonical order, each monastery is under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. That means the monks on Mount Athos are supposed to commemorate the Ecumenical Patriarch as their archbishop in prayer services. They are obligated to do so by law, in fact. It is therefore illegal for them to do otherwise.
* head explodes from frustration at why people do not understand that the EP has never concelebrated the Eucharist with the RCC
sorry Repentant, but I did say that I had read that somewhere. I should not have posted it without the source, which I have not been able to locate again. Please forgive me all.No one said that the EP did anything of the sort.
We want You to know, Your All-holiness, that we foster
the piety towards Your most reverent person and the
institution of the Ecumenical Patriarchate which is
set down by the tradition of the Orthodox Church and
the history of our martyred Nation. For this reason
our grief becomes even more excessive when we see,
next to Your photograph, advertisements in this
periodical with pictures of semi-naked women and other
scenes which are incongruous with the holiness of Your
ministry and office.
With these things in mind, we kiss Your Most Divine
All-Holiness' holy Right Hand and ask for Your
Patriarchal and Fatherly blessings, remaining Yours
with deepest respect and all due reverence.
Since 1965, regular concelebrations between official Orthodox and Roman Catholics have been held at Rome, although this is in violation of the canons against concelebrating with heretics4.
The Melkite Catholic Patriarch and Antiochian Orthodox Patriarch recently concelebrated a liturgy together (Feb 6, 2004).
http://ecumenizm.tripod.com/ECUMENIZM/id19.htmlHowever, when the Ecumenical Patriarch Demetrios concelebrated with the Pope of Rome in December of 1987, the Elder roused himself; his soul could not bear to be found in such a blatantly Ecumenistic Church. Along with other ascetics, he protested and separated himself from all the other fathers of Mt. Athos who followed the nineteen monasteries. He would not go to church in any of those nineteen or in any of the cells or dependencies which followed them.
Patriarch Athenagoras' (Spirou) successor Demetrius (Pandopoulos), when celebrating 10 years of the removal of anathema, greeted Pope John Paul VI as "the first in rank and honor in the entire Body of the Lord" who "presides according to the dictates of love and honor in the God-pleasing (? - L.P.) incense of the Pentarchy of One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church" [309].
Bartholomeos (Archondonis), the present Patriarch of Constantinople, who has many times concelebrated with Pope John Paul II is of similar disposition. At the same time both he and his predecessors, while being hierarchs of the Orthodox Church, cannot but be aware of the falsehood of their confirmation of the Supremacy of Roman Popes "in rank and honor in the entire Body of the Lord". Moreover, only a very dubious economia may admit the very existence of apostolic succession in the Latin Church, because according to the Church Canons, bishops-heretics are not only deprived of their clerical rank, but also excommunicated from the Church. Therefore they can neither preserve, nor pass on to somebody that which they do not possess: neither grace, nor apostolic succession. Apparently it is not by chance that, contrary to the rules of the Local and Ecumenical Councils, the papists deny the very possibility of a cleric, or bishop losing his rank [310].
If Old Calendarism (as opposed to following the Old Calendar) is anything, it is a temptation to those who are faithful.Actually, Oublio is right. Just because the Serbian Orthodox Church follows the Old Calendar, doesn't stop the Old Calendarists (or as we also call them, 'zealots' or rather 'zealot schismatics') to cause discord all around the place. They even published a book: "Judas' Kiss", containing pictures such as these:
Patriarch Paul shakes hands with a cardinal.
Patriarch Paul talks to a Roman Catholic bishop.
Patriarch Paul sitting next to two Roman Catholic bishops.
Serbian bishop attending a Roman Catholic Mass.
And so on and so forth.
Of course, all of them hold Esphigmenou monastery in extremly high regard. And of course, each of them is baptized for the second time - and I've heard reports that some were baptized even more, although I cannot verify this. I especially liked the following quote which popped up during the discussion:
"People who accept the new papal calendar will have boiling lead poured in their throats... in hell" There were interesting tortures replaced with ... since I can't remember.
They tend to ignore that the fact that the Holy Fire descends when 'ecumenist/heretical/traitor of Orthodoxy/judas/' patriarch prays on Great Saturday, and that miracles still occur in the (canonical) Orthodox Church. Also, Old Calendarists tend to split like Protestant churches - whenever they don't agree on some issue - wham, a schism. They have like thousands of Synods - 'True Orthodox Church', 'Genuine True Orthodox Church', 'Truly Genuine True Orthodox Church', 'This Time Really Genuine True Orthodox Church of The Western Mathian Synod' and so on.
This all comes from a lack of trust in God's love and mercy, and most importantly, one's doubt in faith. It has a 'God will not save me if this is not done properly', as if God is some strict judge on dance competition Who takes away not the sins of the world but points for every mistake we make. I also find that most proofs seen in zealots' pamphlets are of 'she said/he said' nature.
I wonder how they'd react if they found out how did St. Mark of Ephesus called the pope in their correspondance.
There is also an interesting thing... You see, some of the Serbian bishops reinstituted the old practice of reading the silent prayers outloud in their jurisdiction. However, some people see this as an innovation, a product of ecumenism. So what do they do? WHen they attend such Liturgies, they literally SHOUT the hymns that were supposed to conceal the silent prayers. When the Liturgy is over (with priest's/bishop's nerves considerably more worn out), they don't approach to take the blessing because, of course, the celebrant is an ecumenistic heretic.
While extreme form of ecumenism - considering all churches valid, that neither holds truth in entirety (and it seems that such view in eastern churches is only seen by an 'ecumenist' template in Old Calendarist pamphlets) is heretical, I find Old Calendarism equally dangerous - even more. One can hardly be an Orthodox and an extreme ecumenist (he will drop out of the Orthodox Church soon enough anyway), Old Calendarism is dangerous because it can tempt even the most faithful souls.
A prime opportunity to be "more Orthodox than thou".
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