Spiritual Enrichment: January 2016

Then a voice came from heaven, “You are My beloved Son in who I am well pleased.” Mark 1:11

On January 6th, we celebrate the Theophany of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. On this day we commemorate the baptism of our Lord and the revealing of the Holy Trinity. On the day of Theophany, we see that God the Father prepares Christ for His 3 years of ministry, and in the 30th year of His earthly life led Him to the River Jordan to be baptized by Saint John the Baptist. On this glorious day, God sent the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. Descending upon this act in this form consecrated the baptism by the Holy Spirit. To complete the revelation of the Holy Trinity on this feast, God the Father speaks these words, “You are my beloved Son; with whom I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:11) Therefore, all of the wonders of the Trinity were brought to us on this day.

Lord, when You were baptized in the Jordan, the veneration of the Trinity was revealed. For the voice of the Father gave witness to You, calling You Beloved, and the Spirit, in the guise of a dove, confirmed the certainty of His words.

(Excerpt of the Apolytikion of the Holy Epiphany of our Lord)

January being the first month of the worldly calendar, people use the opportunity to seek renewal and set goals for the upcoming years, often for ways in which to improve. I implore you to think of how often these goals correspond with our life in Christ. All things can be seen in the light of Christ, so we can connect him to all that we do in life; living our lives according to Him. The Church in Her wisdom offers us the blessing of the great feast of Theophany. On this feast, we are given the enlightenment of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So let us all look to renew ourselves through the waters of the Jordan, and make new strides to glorify our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Alexander Kamilaris
Seminarian

Reading: Mark 1:9-11, Mathew 3:13-17
Prayer: Christ our God, in this New Year we pray for strength, discernment, honesty, humility and above all else, love. May each of our days be filled with eagerness and glory to You, so that we may be partakers of Your eternal light. Amen.

Our guest author is Alexander Kamilaris a first year seminarian at Holy Cross. He is a member of the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Raleigh, NC. Alex has a strong love and passion for youth work and outreach ministry.

Spiritual Enrichment: October 2015

Dazzled by the color palette of her native New England landscape, Emily Dickinson styles the natural delights of autumn in the following prose:

The Morns are meeker than they were,
The Nuts are getting brown:
The Berry’s cheeks is plumper,
The Rose is out of town. The Maple wears a gayer scarf,
The Field a scarlet gown.

As a native to the sunny beaches of Florida, the four seasons have long possessed something of a fabled character. For us Floridians, the palm trees never changed color, and we had “hurricane days” off from school instead of snow days. And speaking of snow, the only “white stuff” we ever saw on the ground was the powdery sand that separated us from the Gulf of Mexico. By northern standards, Florida is an endless summer.

But here at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, a true New England fall is upon us. This means stunning foliage, crisp air, and warm, spicy scents. And of course, the end of Daylight saving time (don’t forget to set your clocks back on Sunday, November 1st).

While our natural environment is in perpetual flux, the centerpiece of our campus— the Chapel of the Holy Cross remains constant. Finished in 1963, construction of our chapel was charged by Archbishop Michael of America, and made possible through the fundraising efforts of GOYA chapters from across our nation. It is modeled after the 11th century Church of the Holy Apostles, which is nestled in the archaeological site of the ancient marketplace (agora) in Athens, Greece (and still functions!). And most fittingly, as it is said, the great cross which crowns the golden dome of our chapel occupies the highest point, not just of our campus, but of the greater Boston area. Just as a great beacon shines forth its light to illuminate the way for ships that pass by night, so too do we strive to shine the Light into the world from atop of our Holy Hill.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:5

In the communion of faith, the triune God has revealed Himself and speaks to us. And it is in this ordinary ebb and flow of the seasons that we many times hear Him so clearly. As we who live in New England (unfortunately) know, winter is coming. Soon the beautiful gold, amber, and crimson leaves will become brown and gray. The crisp, cool air will give way to harsh and frigid temperatures. And we will begin to long for the scent of roses, fresh cut grass, and coconut oil. And while we get to sleep in an extra hour, we lose many hours of light and sunshine.

But amidst these changes, our chapel will be there; unchanged; a bastion within the bedlam. St. Paul reminds us that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). Although the days grow shorter, and the natural world around us decays, we are ever hopeful for the coming spring—when the sleeping flowers and trees will be awakened in renewed splendor, and when the light of the day overtakes the darkness once again. In this majestic way, even nature itself proclaims the power of the resurrection of Christ. And always looking above, from wherever we stand on campus, we look up to the cross and are reminded that it is in that chapel that we receive the Light that is never overtaken by darkness.

Menios Papadimitriou
Seminarian

Reading: Ecclesiastes 3, Matthew 5:14-16
Prayer: Dear God, we thank you for Jesus Christ, the Light of the World.

Menios Papadimitriou is a third year Master of Divinity student at Holy Cross Seminary. He is from Clearwater, Florida and has a BA in Philosophy and Political Science from Florida State University. He serves as the coordinator for the Harvard chapter of the Orthodox Christian Fellowship, is employed by the MIT department of student life, assists with youth programming at St. Constantine and Helen Church in Cambridge, MA, and is a teaching fellow to Fr. Eugen Pentiuc, Holy Cross Professor of Old Testament, Hebrew and Semitic Languages and Dean of Academic Affairs.

Spiritual Enrichment: September 2015

“Caesar seeks his image; render it. God seeks image; render it. Do not withhold from Caesar his coin. Do not keep from God his coin.” – Saint Augustine

In the Gospel according to Mark we are presented with a scene where the Pharisees and Herodians, who are normally enemies, have teamed up in order to try to trick Jesus into saying something that they can use to denounce Him, either to the Jews or the Roman authorities, and have Him put to death. They approach Him and ask whether it is lawful for them to pay a certain tax that was put on all the people who were a part of the Roman Empire, but not Roman citizens. Couched in this question are both religious and political pitfalls: if He answers yes, then this would make Him unpopular in the eyes of the oppressed Jewish population. If, however, He says that they shouldn’t, then it would make Him a law-breaker and a rebel against the ruling Roman Empire. Our Lord, sensing their deception, side-steps their trap all together and gives them an answer with which they can find no fault in at all: “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

It was a very clever trap, but when the conspirators attempted to “ensnare Him in His words,” the Word of God instead reminded them of a fundamental truth: when asked whose image was on the coins used to pay the tax, they answered “Caesar’s.” If his image was on the coins, then they belonged to him. But remember what it says in Genesis 1:26, that we were created in God’s image! When Jesus Christ tells them to give to Caesar the things that are his, He is saying that we do have responsibilities and obediences in this world, and that is okay. These things do not hinder us in our attempts to be obedient to God, and in fact, they can help.

We have many different responsibilities in our lives, from taking care of our families, to doing the things asked of us in our jobs, and we can often feel like these things are taking up the precious time we have to spend in prayer or in worship. However, if we try to look at these situations with the phronema of the servant-Christ, then they can in fact become for us prayer and worship. The psalms say that a humble heart is a sacrifice to God, and the prophet Samuel relates that to obey is, in God’s eyes, better than a good sacrifice. One way that we can demonstrate our humility is through serving and graciously fulfilling our obediences, and humility is a requirement for love, both of others and of God. When viewed this way, rendering to “Caesar” becomes at the same time giving to God what belongs to him: that coin that is our soul and that bears His image!

Zachary Thornbury
Seminarian

Reading: Mark 12:13-17, Psalm 50:16, 17 (LXX) and 1 Kings (Samuel) 15:22
Prayer: Heavenly King, please give us the strength and humility to fulfill both our earthly and heavenly obligations. Help us to imitate Your Son, who has shown to us that through obedience we can gain eternal life. Accept our sacrifice, for You are holy, now and forever and to the ages of ages. Amen

Zacharias Thornbury is a fourth-year seminarian at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology. He and his wife are from the church of Holy Transfiguration in Marietta, GA. They have two children; Elijah, who is 4, and Kassiani, who is 2.

Spiritual Enrichment: May-June 2015

…Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here,
but has risen… Luke 24: 5-6

This is the joyful greeting that we give to each other, from the time of Pascha until Pentecost. It is said in many different languages: Greek, English, Russian, Romanian, Arabic and many others. It is such a short, simple phrase, but it speaks to an amazing fact of the reality that we now live in. Translated into the language of eternity, “Christ is risen” means, “death is no longer the victor.” Christos anesti means, “the way back to the Garden – and beyond – has been opened.” Christos voskrese means, “what began with Abraham is reaching its triumphant conclusion.” It is a battle cry against the enemy, a victorious trumpet sounding through creation, an affirmation of faith throughout the generations, a promise of hope for mankind, and a banner heralding joy in all the world.

It is also a call to action. After His resurrection, Christ appeared to his disciples saying, “Peace be to you; even as the Father hath sent Me forth, I also send you.” The Word of God has already proclaimed salvation, and now it is our duty to spread this Good News to those who need to hear it. As the Philoptochos, you have as your ministry to be friends to the poor; poor in money, poor in food, poor in friends – poor in whatever might be lacking. You are called to be yourself poor in spirit, that is, poor in pride, and jealousy, and all the things opposed to a life which imitates that of Jesus Christ. By being friends of those in need, you are entering into a personal friendship with Christ himself, as it is written, “Verily I say to you, insofar as ye did it to one of the least of these My brethren, ye did it to me.” By becoming poor in spirit in order to love others, you will gain more than anything riches can buy, for, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, because theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

“Christ is Risen from the dead, By death trampling down upon death, And, to those in the tombs, He has granted Life!”

“Christ is risen from the dead, by death trampling upon death, and to those in the tombs granting life.” We were the ones in the tombs, and we now have been given the chance to again live with God! Let us choose to embrace this life, to love God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind, and our neighbor as ourselves.

Christ is Risen! Truly He is Risen!

Zachary Thornbury
Seminarian

Scripture Passage: Matthew 25:34-46

Our guest author is Zacharias Thornbury a third-year seminarian at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology. He and his wife, Amanda, of 6 years, are from the church of Holy Transfiguration in Marietta, GA. They have two children, Elijah, who is 3, and Kassiani, who is 1.

Spiritual Enrichment: April 2015

I shall kiss Thy most pure feet and wipe them with the hairs of my head, those feet whose sound Eve heard at dusk in Paradise, and hid herself from fear. Hymn of Kassiani

On the night of Holy Tuesday, when we gather together to sing the Orthros for Holy Wednesday, we have the chance to hear one of the most beautiful expressions of repentance ever written. This hymn, composed by St. Kassiani the Hymnographer, recounts the story of the sinful woman from the Gospels who anointed Christ’s feet with costly perfumes and wiped them with her hair. It is a story of incredible repentance; the sinful woman falls before Christ and confesses to him her lustful passions and love of sin and she begs for forgiveness. It is a story of deep humility; she ignores her ego, and weeps openly and profusely before Christ and the disciples. She pays no mind to material wealth, and spends her money on very expensive perfumes to pour out on Christ’s feet. She places herself lower than servants by not only washing Christ’s feet – a job for the servants of the house – but by also using her hair to wipe his feet, rather than a towel.

Great and Holy Lent is a time for us to step outside of our normal, daily routine, and to spend time paying attention to the thoughts and desires of our body, mind and soul. It is not a period of sorrow, but rather a chance for preparation and purification. It is a time that doesn’t end with Pascha, but which should be carried through the entirety of the year. During Great and Holy Lent we aren’t just preparing to greet the resurrected Christ, but preparing to be created anew, from fallen human beings into ones that have been lifted from the grave by the Word of God and restored to our original glory. We prepare to not just be resurrected with him, but to be recreated as beings able to enter into the Kingdom of God.

This is what the woman in the Hymn of Kassiani is doing. She recognizes Jesus as God and, even though she has lived a sinful life, she draws near to him. She confesses to him that her life has been lived in darkness and in sin, and she shows her sincere metanoia, her true change of mind, by humbling herself before him and washing him with her tears. She asks him for his forgiveness and though her sins are many, she does not despair, but trusts in his mercy. She is preparing herself to enter the Kingdom of God! The Hymn of Kassiani recounts the beautiful story of this woman, but it can also be our story. This Lenten season let also make our own preparations. We can do this by living not for this world, but the next. By turning away from ourselves, and towards God; to Whom belongs all glory and honor, now and forever. Amen.

Zacharias Thornbury
Seminarian

Additional Reading: Luke 7:37-50; Hymn of Kassiani (Holy Week Book, Tuesday Evening)
Prayer: Christ our God, give to us as well tears, as those of the sinful woman. Forgive us for our transgressions and accept our repentance, for you are holy, along with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and forever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Our guest author is Zacharias Thornbury a third-year seminarian at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology. He and his wife of 7 years are from the church of Holy Transfiguration in Marietta, GA. They have two children, Elijah, who is 3, and Kassiani, who is 1.

Spiritual Enrichment: March 2015

Great and Holy Lent has commenced, not only at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, but throughout the Orthodox Christian world. At the seminary, our journey began on Cheese fare Sunday with Forgiveness Vespers in our beloved chapel. During this service, the liturgical trappings of the chapel were changed from festal reds and whites to the familiar Lenten purple, symbolically marking our transition into this penitential period. The service ended with the entirety of our community approaching one another individually and asking forgiveness of any offenses. The following morning brought the somber observance of clean Monday (καθαρά Δευτέρα), where the seminarians spent the day in prayer and reflection.

Great Lent has been described as an “arena of virtues,” a metaphor which hearkens unto the Gladiators of yore. During this time, through attentive spiritual discipline, most notably, fasting, we endeavor to cleanse ourselves of choices that estrange us from our closeness to God—sin. Fasting from particular foods can be likened to an athlete training hard before a big game. By running hard and lifting heavy weights, an athlete builds strength, agility, stamina, and endurance. Through a strong training regimen, the athlete plays better and easier than he would have had he not practiced and trained. Likewise, if we can exercise command over what we eat and drink, we can also improve our control over the words we speak, the actions we do, and the thoughts we entertain.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew
a right spirit within me. Psalm 51:10

This requires humility. We must continuously be conscious of the multitude of our sin, continuously asking God and one another to forgive our shortcomings, yet remembering that this multitude of sin is superseded only by the abundant grace and mercy of God.

Menios Papadimitriou
Seminarian

Scripture Passages: 2 Corinthians 7:1, Matthew 6: 16-34
Prayer: Dear God, we pray that during this Lenten season we may cleanse our minds and bodies of things that keep us from drawing close to you.

Our guest author this month is Menios Papadimitriou a Second Year Seminarian at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology. He is from Clearwater, Florida.

Spiritual Enrichment: February 2015

You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer us spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1st Peter 2:5

The theme of the priesthood is something that has been of great focus to me recently. I was ordained to the first degree of the priesthood, the Holy Diaconate, this past month on January 17th, the feast of St. Anthony, by His Eminence, Metropolitan Alexios. Furthermore, a good friend of mine, Deacon John Mamangakis will be ordained as a priest early this month. While my friend and I have been ordained with a special and specific role within the clergy of the Church, did you know that we are all ordained in a way? Through our baptism and chrismation, we are all ordained within the royal priesthood of Christ. We all become little “christs” because the word χριστός (christos) means to be anointed…and that is just what we are through our chrismation.

“By our being a part of the Church, each and every one of us have a role, working in synergy with God to bring
all creation to salvation.”

So, what does this mean? Orthodox theologians have spoken of our “royal priesthood” as that of “priests of creation.” By our being part of the Church, each and every one of us have a role, working in synergy with God to bring all of creation to salvation. Our role is not to utilize or consume it, but to help sanctify and cultivate the Lord’s creation, just as Adam and Eve were commanded to in the Garden. One way that we do this on a regular basis is when we offer what God has given us back to Him, which He then returns to us. We use the wheat and the grapes that God provides us to create bread and wine which we offer back to Him in the Divine Liturgy. This then becomes the saving Body and Blood of Christ which is offered back to us. This is a very tangible way to practice this Synergy, in manifesting our role as priests of creation; God has offered us what we need to create the prosphora, which will be offered back to us as Holy Communion.

As we begin Great Lent this month, we are provided the opportunity to renew and meditate upon our responsibility as priests of creation. Through our fasting from not only food, but things that can be distractions such as television, movies, or the internet, we can sharpen our focus on sanctification instead of consumption. We can more easily see the image of God in the people we come across each day, the birds around us singing doxologies to their Creator, and each rain as a fresh baptism of the Creation we are priests of. We are provided the opportunity to sanctify our mind, body, and spirit to the worship and service of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Deacon Theodore Ehmer
Seminarian

Scripture Passages: 1 Peter 1:13-17, 2:4-10
Prayer: Let us fast with a pure heart; let us sanctify our body and consecrate our whole spirit entirely to God. -From the Lenten Triodion

Our guest author is Theodore Ehmer a fourth-year seminarian at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology. He and his wife Stacey have been married for almost five years and are from Marietta, Georgia.