In the beginning, the word appeared... And it is the word that becomes for every believer the force that leads to God, opens hearts to love and kindness, care and creation. Sermons and conversations convert even those who consider themselves atheists to Christ.
Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh is rightfully considered the voice of Orthodoxy in the twentieth century. It was his conversations that opened for many their path to Christ, into the bosom of the Orthodox Church.
Vladyka, in the world Andrei Bloom, was born in 1914 in Lausanne into a prosperous family of hereditary diplomats. For some time they lived in Persia, but after the Bolsheviks came to power in their native country, they wandered around the world until they settled in Paris. The reverend had a difficult childhood in exile. At the workers' school where he studied, he was severely beaten by his peers.
Metropolitan's appeal to God
In his youth, Andrei, who had just turned 14 years old, listened to lectures by his father Sergius Bulgakov. The boy felt deep disagreement, deciding to sincerely fight such “nonsense as Christianity.” The future Bishop Anthony of Sourozh, whose biography from that moment began to take a different direction, decided to pay attention to the primary source - the Gospel. As he read, the young man felt the invisible presence of the one he was reading about...
Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh was a surgical doctor, which was the reason for his participation in the French Resistance. At the end of the war, he decided to become a priest and, by God's providence, went to England. It is in this country that the monk experiences one of the significant events of his life.
Having poor command of English, Father Anthony gave a lecture from a piece of paper, which turned out to be very gray and boring. He was given advice to improvise more. Then the priest objected that it would be funny. “That’s very good, people will listen,” was the answer. It was from that memorable day that he always delivered sermons and lectures himself, without a previously prepared text. The teachings and instructions became a truly precious legacy of Anthony of Sourozh. He spoke sincerely, deeply and vividly, which helped convey the Orthodox faith to modern people in all its patristic purity, while preserving the depth and simplicity of the Gospel.
Childhood
Before accepting monasticism, Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh, whose biography is very interesting even for those who are far from religion, was called Andrei Borisovich Bloom. He is a native of Switzerland (city of Lausanne). Born June 19, 1914. My grandfather worked as a consul and belonged to Russian diplomatic missions.
He met his future wife in Italy during his service. He taught the woman the basics of the Russian language. After the wedding, the newlyweds moved to Russia.
Daughter Ksenia Scriabina was also born there. I met my husband, Boris Eduardovich, while on vacation in Erzurum. He worked there as a translator. After some time, Ksenia and Boris got married.
When Andrei (Antony) was born, the family was in Lausanne. Then after 2 months they moved to Moscow. A year later, the family again had to move to a new place - to Persia, in connection with the appointment of Boris Bloom.
Here the future Metropolitan Anthony spent his entire childhood. Andrei was taught Russian by a nanny who lived in their house for some time. Then the grandmother and mother were involved in raising the boy.
In the book “Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh. Biography in the testimonies of contemporaries” it is said that after the revolution in 1917, the Bloom family began to wander around European countries.
My father, due to duty, had to stay in Persia. The wanderings continued until 1923, when the family stopped in France. The mother quickly found a job there, as she spoke several foreign languages and had stenography skills.
School time was very difficult for Andrey. There were no parents nearby, since the educational institution was located outside the French capital.
The Parisian district where the school was located was considered disadvantaged. Even law enforcement agencies did not dare to come there in the evening and at night, since a real massacre began there after sunset.
Andrey was bullied by his peers at school. He had to survive there and wait for the end of his studies.
Once, as a student, Andrei passed the exact stop on the subway, not far from which the school was located. He lost consciousness from negative memories.
The word of the lord
After some time, Father Anatoly becomes the primate of the Sourozh diocese. At first it was a small parish, open to a group of Russian emigrants. Under the leadership of the bishop, it became an exemplary, multinational community.
The word of the saint spread much further than the English believers, showing the richness of Orthodoxy to many Western Christians. In addition, his audio recordings, samizdat books, conversations and live sermons brought many Russians back to the path of God. This is exactly how the Monk Anthony of Sourozh remained in the memory of believers. The Metropolitan's biography ended in 2003; he died in London.
Conversations
1949 October 21st – talk for the Clergy Society and address at a public meeting in Forbes Hall, Dundee. October - sermon - conversation in the church of St. Paul and St. Brand (Whitechapel). Begins to conduct conversations in the Commonwealth of Sts. Albania and Sergius, at the universities of Cambridge and Oxford, at King's college, Gilmore House, English workers' parishes, etc. countrywide. Starts regular conversations with the youth group in the parish.
1950 January – participation and conversation at the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity meeting, Caxton Hall, Westminster. Subsequently, he regularly participates in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity until 2001.
1957 February – conversation for the Guild of Pastoral Psychology. December 16 – conversation at a pastoral meeting in Paris.
1959 January 8 – conversation at the Christian Evidence Society. January 22 – Talk – Memorial Lecture (Honorary Lecturer) Drawbridge as part of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Conversation at the Christian ecumenical community in Taize. Autumn – a series of conversations about prayer in English.
1959-1960 A series of conversations in English on dogma “Church Dogmas.”
1960 April 30 - conversation - sermon at St Cuthbert's Church, London. A series of conversations about prayer in Russian.
1960-1961 A series of conversations in English about Tradition. A series of conversations in the parish “The Last Things”.
1961-1962 A series of conversations on the nature of grace in English.
1962 September 24-25 – talk at the Presbyterian Church in Llanelli. A series of conversations in English “Lives of the Saints”.
1963 19 January – participation and conversation – sermon for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Southwark cathedral, London. February 14-15 (1963 or 1964) - first speech - conversation at a meeting of the London Medical Group. November – sermon – conversation on the occasion of the death of US President Kennedy.
1963-1964 A series of conversations in English “Shaking the Foundations”. A series of conversations for English-speaking parishioners.
1964 February 7 – conversation for the ecumenical group in Nancy (France). Conversation for the Guild of Pastoral Psychology.
1964-1965 A series of conversations in English about the book of Genesis.
1965 Talk for the Nightingale Fellowship (an association of nurses who studied at the Nightingale Training School of St Thomas' Hospital). May 13 – the first conversation as part of the readings of the London Medical Group. November 18 – conversation as part of the readings of the London Medical Group Christian Objections to Secular Medicine, Middlesex HMS. December 7-23 – visit to the USSR. Conversations at MDA and LDA. A series of conversations for the Commonwealth of Sts. Albania and Sergius. A series of conversations in French about prayer.
1966 January 13 - conversation as part of the readings of the London Medical Group. January 27–February 8 – visit to the USSR. Visit to the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra, conversation at the MDA. August – conversation at a summer youth camp, France (Normandy). October 27 – conversation at Rochester Cathedral. November 17 – conversation at the ecumenical university club of Louvain.
1966-1967 A series of conversations in English “Orthodoxy.”
1966-1968 A series of conversations in Russian about the liturgy.
1967 Conversation for the Commonwealth of Saints Albania and Sergius about body and matter in spiritual life. January 12 – conversation in Paris about the life of the Russian Orthodox Church. February – conversations in Canterbury. February 28 - conversation as part of the readings of the London Medical Group. April - conversation - discussion with Edmund Leach, Provost of King's College, Cambridge September 2 - conversation at the ecumenical community in Taizé. September 28 – conversation about the Church in Geneva in French. October 18 – conversation at Central school, London.
1967-1968 A series of conversations in English “Gospel”.
1968 February 17 – conversation for the Commonwealth of Sts. Albania and Sergius about fasting. March 19 - conversation as part of the readings of the London Medical Group. March 22 – conversation about freedom at the Pushkin Club in English. August - conversation - sermon on the USSR invasion of Czechoslovakia. October 17 – talk for Stoutport Christian Council. November 10-11 – a series of conversations in French at the Abbaye Sainte-Gertrude, Louvain. Conversation at a meeting of Syndesmos. Conversation about medical ethics in English. A series of conversations in Louvain on prayer and holiness in French. A series of conversations in English about an unrighteous ruler.
1969 January 27-31 – a series of conversations in the chapel at the University of Exeter College, “School of Prayer.” February 1 – talk on suffering at the University Church of Oxford. February – March – a series of conversations for the Commonwealth of Sts. Albania and Sergius about the Church. March 20 - conversation as part of the readings of the London Medical Group. July – visit to the USA, holding discussions. November 3 – talk about self-discovery for a youth group in Geneva in French. November 12 – conversation on worship in secular society for the Commonwealth of Sts. Albania and Sergius. November 18-20 - a series of conversations in French for Lumen Vitae November 25 - a conversation as part of the readings of the London Medical Group. Visit and series of talks in Louvain.
1970 January 21 - sermon - conversation at the Catholic Cathedral in Lausanne. Conversation at Chartres Cathedral. Conversations on the Holy Trinity in German in Freiburg February 1-6 – conversation, Christian Study Week University of Birmingham. February 15-21 - Tour of France (Chartres, Tours, Orleans, Bourges, Chateroux, Issoudin) A series of conversations in French. May – a series of conversations (seminars) on prayer in the USA together with Canon Douglas A. Rhymes, visit to Winnetka. June 4 – conversation about Rev. Seraphim of Sarov in English. July 5 – talk at Leamington Hastings All Saints' Church October 16 – talk for Clergy Wife's Fellowship, Salisbury. November – conversation on prayer at Seven Oaks. November – series of conversations “God and Man” at Abbaye Sainte-Gertrude, Leuven. November 20 – conversation for Lumen Vitae.
1971 February 8 – conversation - lecture (honorary lecturer) at Westfiled college as part of the lectures (The Maynard-Chapman divinity lectures), established since 1946. February 19 – conversation for the Bible Society in St. Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe Church, London February 23 - conversation as part of the readings of the London Medical Group. May 11-12 – a series of conversations for the community of clergy wives Clergy Wife's Fellowship. October 9 – visit and conversation at Rochester Cathedral. October 21 – conversation for the Commonwealth of Sts. Albania and Sergius about the Holy Spirit. November – conversation for the Child Jesus Society on the suffering and death of children. December – a series of conversations for the Commonwealth of Sts. Albania and Sergius about Vladimir Lossky. A series of conversations about the sacraments in English.
1972 February 6-12 – a series of conversations at the University of Cambridge, St Catherine's college. March – a series of conversations about the Holidays in English. April 15 – talks at Ampleforth University. Conversations at the universities of Durham, St. Simeon's House, and the School of Economics in London. August 13-23 – participation in the meeting of the Central Committee of the WCC in Utrecht. Conversation at a meeting of the Christian Medical Commission of the WCC about death. October 15 – talk at the Christian festival at Holy Trinity Church, South Kensignton, London. November – a series of conversations in Louvain.
1972-73 A series of conversations (Huslean preacher) at the University of Cambridge as part of the Hulsean lectures established since 1780. A series of conversations about saints in English.
1973 January 9 - conversation as part of the readings of the London Medical Group. January 15 – conversation at the University of London. January 25 - conversation - lecture (honorary lecturer) as part of the Christian Evidence Society's Annual Drawbridge Memorial Lectures. February 7-10 – a series of conversations (seminars) in Ireland, Irish School of Ecumenics on prayer, Dublin. February 12 – conversation on prayer at the Sheffield Theological Society. March 1 – conversation in the Church of St. Laurence Jewry, London. March 7 – conversation – sermon at the University of London. April 9-13 – Lent talks at Norwich Council of Churches. June 2 – conversation at the Guild of Pastoral Psychology. November - December - conversations at the University of Dundee November - a series of conversations at Abbaye Saint-Certrude, Louvain. A series of conversations in English about church holidays.
1974 January 28 – conversation in St. Chads cathedral, Birmingham. May 8 – talk on medical ethics for The Bristol Medico-Chirurgical Society. May 26 – conversation in the University Church of Cambridge. June 24 – talk at the University of London for medical chaplains. August – conversation – sermon at the opening and participation in meetings of the Central Committee of the WCC in Germany. August – a series of conversations for Orthodox priests in Finland, Finland. October – conversation in Guilford Cathedral about Christ. October – December – a series of conversations in the Commonwealth of Sts. Albania and Sergius. November 12 – conversation at the University of Sussex. A series of conversations in English about the Old Testament.
1975 January-June – a series of conversations “Theology of the Resurrection” in the Commonwealth of Sts. Albania and Sergius. January 21, 28, February 4 and 11 – a series of conversations in the University Church of Cambridge. February 11 – conversation for The Royal Overseas League about stress. February - April - a series of conversations for the Commonwealth of Sts. Albania and Sergius. February 28 – conversation at King's college, London. March 4 – conversation at the meetings of the London Medical Group, St Mary's hospital, London. September 14 – talk “Medicine and Faith” at The Cathedral Church of St Deiniol, Wales. October 26 – conversation – sermon in Notre Dame, Paris. Conversation at the Pushkin Club in English. A series of conversations in English.
1975-1977 A series of conversations for the Commonwealth of Sts. Albania and Sergius on the liturgy.
1976 February 2-9 – a series of conversations for church leaders. St George's house. February 6-7 - conversation as part of the readings of the London Medical Group. February 7 – conversation at Ursuline Convent School. February 14 – conversation - sermon during Lent, St James church, Piccadilly, London. February 18 – Chaos at Barnard. February 21 – conversation - lecture (honorary lecturer) in memory of Jane Harrison, Newnham college, Cambridge. February 23-25 – a series of conversations in the Church of St. Botolph's, Aldgate. March 2-3 – conversations about prayer in English. April 14 – conversation - sermon at St James's Church, Piccadilly. May 12 – conversation at Foyels bookshop. June 6 – talk at University Church, Cambridge, Great St. Mary. July 6 – talk at Horton Hospital, Epsom August 6 – beauty talk in High Leigh. November 9 – conversation at the Welsh National Medical School “Pain”. November 13 - talk at University Church, Cambridge, Great St. Mary. November 16 – conversation about death in Newcastle. November 21 – talk at the University of Reading for Anglican chaplains. November 25 – talk at Enfield Polytechnic College. November 26 – conversation at the Institute for Cultural Research about holy fools. December 2 – conversation as part of the readings of the London Medical Group. December 15 – conversation in the Church of St. George's Campden Hill, London. A series of conversations in the parish about prayer in English.
1977 February 22 – talks at Wells cathedral. March 7 – talk at St Michael and All Angels'Church, Walthamstow. May 5 – conversation - sermon after memorial service at the University of Hull. May 31 - conversation - sermon in the church of St. Columns of the Church of Scotland at the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. October 4 – talk at Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church. October 23 – conversation - sermon in the Cathedral of St. Albania, St Albans. November 3 – conversation as part of the readings of the London Medical Group at St. Thomas's Hospital, London. December 1 – talk at the University of York.
1977-1979 A series of conversations in the parish about the Creed in English.
1978 January 15 – conversation – sermon at the University Church of the University of London (UCL). March 5 – conversation – sermon at the University Church of Cambridge. April 10 – conversation in the Church of St. Mary the Abbot. April 25 – conversation - sermon on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Church of St. Mark, Clerkenwell. June 10 – “School of Prayer” talk at the Methodist Church in Chelmsford. July 8 – conversation about the icon for students in the St Catherine's sessions, Cumberland Lodge, Windsor. November 1 - sermon - conversation for All Saints' Day in the Church of All Saints Margaret St, London. November 1 – conversation following the Lambeth Conference, Diocese of Swansea and Brecon. December 6 – conversation in the Pushkin House in English. Conversation at St Luke's Church, Battersea. A talk for chaplains working in higher education Chaplain's for Higher Education, Oxford. A series of conversations on prayer and conversations on death for the Commonwealth of Sts. Albania and Sergius.
1978-1979 A series of conversations for church youth camp leaders.
1979 January 16 – conversation at Westminster Cathedral. January 21 - conversation - sermon at the Methodist Church, Surbiton Hill. January 25 – conversation as part of the London Medical Group readings at Westminster Medical School. January-May – a series of conversations for the Commonwealth of Sts. Albania and Sergius about worship in English. March – conversation at St. James Church on the value of man. March 23 – talks for the West London Institute for Higher Education about death. April 10 – conversation in the Church of St. Lawrence Jewry "We Believe" May 27 – conversation at the Diocesan Assembly and a letter to the flock about the need to develop a Charter for the Diocese of Sourozh. November 7 – talk at the Hospital Church of the University of Wales. November 18 – talk at the University Church of Cambridge.
1979-1981 A series of conversations about saints for the Commonwealth of Sts. Albania and Sergius.
1980 February 7 – talk for the Polytechnic College, Kingston Polytechnic. February 13 – conversation at Buckinghamshire College of Higher Education. 4 March – talk at the Bible Society 10 March – talk for the Wessex regional cancer organization. March 12 – conversation about prayer at St. Baptist Church. James's Church, Piccadilly. March 18 - conversation as part of the readings of the London Medical Group. 10 April – talk for Wessex Regional Cancer Organisation, Royal South Hants Hospital about death. April 17 – conversation about the Resurrection in connection with the death of Archimandrite Leo Gillet. May 6 – conversation for the Bible Society The British and Foreign Bible Society. May 21 – conversation for Fulham Churches week for Lent. November 1 – conversation – sermon at the “Suffering Church” festival. November 6 - conversation as part of the London Medical Group readings at Westminster Medical School.
1981 March – talk at St Martin's Baptist Church, Epsom. March 12 – talk at St Martin's Church, Epsom. March 18 – conversation as part of the readings of the London Medical Group. July 10 – talk at Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham boys' school, Elstree. August 23 - conversation - sermon at St. Bartholomew's Church, Brighton.
1981-1983 A series of conversations in the parish about the sacraments in English.
1982 January 19 - conversation as part of the readings of the London Medical Group. January 31 – conversation in the chapel of The Trinity college “Orthodox tradition”. March 23 – conversation “Theories of loss” at the Reading nurses' education center. May 16 – conversation at the Baptist Church in English. May 20 – conversation at the St. Hospice. Christopher, London. June 24 – talk at the Methodist Church in Barnett. October 10 – talk at the University of Nottingham. October 21 – talk on prayer at St Julian Church, Coolham, Horsham, Sussex. October 25 – talk for students in Cambridge. November 1-4 – a series of conversations and lectures (honorary lecturer) as part of the lecture hall in memory of T. Eliot at the University of Kent (Eliot Lectures). November 14 – talk at the university church of Hertford College, Oxford. November 29 – conversation - lecture (honorary lecturer) as part of the annual readings of the Association of the Anglican and Eastern Orthodox Churches 'Constantinople Lecture'. Conversations – lectures (honorary lecturer) at the University of Nottingham as part of Firth lectures.
1982-1983 A series of lectures for parents in English.
1983 January 16 - conversation - sermon in the University Church of Cambridge. February 1 – conversation as part of the readings of the London Medical Group. March 3 – conversation about prayer for New Group. March 16 – conversation – sermon for the Waltham St. community. Lawrence. March 30 – conversation about Christ in Basingstoke. April 23 – conversation for the community of clergy wives Clergy Wives Association. April 27 – conversation for Russian Refugees Aid Society. May 24 – conversation for English Speaking Union, UCL. June 4 – talk on prayer and unity, Forest Hill, talk at the YMCA. June 12 – conversation – sermon at the University of Aberdeen. June 22 – conversation at Deiniol's library. July 4 – talk for Northwood Council of Churches, at St John's United Reformed Church, Northwood, Middlesex. July 6 – conversation about death. August 28 – conversation – sermon at the festival at All Saints Church in Marsworth. September 3 – conversation – sermon on the occasion of the Westminster Pilgrimage for Christian Unity. November 8 – conversation at Coventry Cathedral. December 5 – talk at St Paul's School for Girls. December 13 – conversation at the St. Hospice. Christopher about the resurrection. December 30 – talk at St Paul's School for Girls.
1984 January 29 – conversation at Magdalene College. February 7 – a conversation for the Methodist Synod on shepherding. February 15 – talk at UCL University of London about chaos. February 18 - conversation about death in the Anglican Society (Anglican Society) March 2-3 - participation in a meeting and conversation for the Noric branch of the Commonwealth of Sts. Albania and Sergius. March 9 – conversation for the Ecumenical Commission of the Portsmouth Roman Catholic Diocese. March 12 – conversation about icons, Westminster University. March 22 - conversation as part of the readings of the London Medical Group at Guy's Hospital. April 5 – conversation at the Guild of Pastoral Psychology. April 9 – conversation for Cruise (National Organization for Widowed and Their Children) about death. April 11 – conversation in Cardiff about prayer. May 9 – conversation about prayer in Chiswick. June 13 – conversation at the Holy Brengle Institute (Salvation Army). July 18 – conversation about holy fools for Richmond Fellowship. September 13 – conversation about Orthodoxy in Harfield. September 17 – talk about prayer in Peckham. November 14 – conversation about the Russian Church for the Commonwealth of Sts. Albania and Sergius. November 16 – talk for MacMillan Cancer Relief Fund. A series of conversations in English about death.
1984-1985 A series of conversations in English about the liturgy.
1985 14 January - talk on the Lord's Prayer at Ealing Abbey. January 28 – talk about silence at Ealing Abbey February 6 – talk at King's College. March 10 – conversation at Wall Street Methodist Church about love. March 28 – talk on the Lord's Prayer in Horsham. May 1 – talk on spiritual direction at St James' Piccadilly. May—talk at Southern Diocesan Council for Family Care. September 25 – talk about the Jesus Prayer at The Fellowship of the Hidden Life. November – December – a series of conversations at the Forum Centre. November 13 – conversation on the Lord's Prayer in English Walthamstone. Conversation at a meeting of the Christian Council of Ageing.
1985-1986 A series of conversations about asceticism in the Pushkin House in English. A series of conversations about the Church and Churches in the parish in English.
1986 January 7 – conversation at the Pushkin Club, London. January 29 – talk on the Jesus Prayer, Ealing Abbey. February 1 – conversation at a feminist meeting. February 5 – conversation - lecture (honorary lecturer) in memory of Pearl Thomas (memorial lecture) at the National Organization for the Widowed and their children Cruse. February 6 – conversation at Malborough School about the loss of loved ones. February 27 – conversation at St Joseph's Hospice. March 11 - conversation about icons at the Christian forum at King's college. March 12 – conversation – sermon at the University of London Church. April 13 – talk at St Anselm's Hatch End, Middlesex about Christianity. 16 April – talk about violence at Swindon Military College. April 22 – conversation “Unity in Christ.” May 13 - conversation as part of the readings of the London Medical Group at the University of London Hospital. May 14 – talk at UCL University of London. May 15 – conversation about death at Allan Hall Seminary. July 2 – talk at Durham University. November 10 – conversation for the Kensington Council of Churches. November 17 – conversation about death at the London School of Economics. November 17 – talk about the Church for the Kensington Council of Churches. December 3, a conversation about the Incarnation at school in English. A series of conversations about the Book of Genesis in the parish in English.
1986-1987 A series of conversations about saints in the parish in English.
1987 14 January – conversation about child deaths in Hampstead. February 6 – conversation at King's college. March 18 – conversation in a series of lectures during Lent in the hospital church at the University of Wales (University Hospital of Wales). April 2 - conversation as part of the readings of the London Medical Group at the London Hospital. May 1-3 – a series of conversations at the 6th Congres Orthodoxe en Europe Occidentale in Walbourgh. September 2 – conversation about the spirituality of the Russian Church in Scotland. November 6 – conversation about faith in Poole. November 25 – talk at the University Church in London about healing. November 25 – conversation at the Freudian Society. December 10 – conversation at the UK Ministry of Defense about the values of society.
1987-1990 A series of conversations for leaders of a youth church camp in English.
1988 January 13 – conversation about glasnost and perestroika in Bagshot. February 1 – conversation about the Incarnation at King's college. February 2 – conversation about the Russian Church. February 16 – conversation on prayer in Edinburgh. February 17 – conversation about the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus' at the British-USSR Association. March 3 - conversation as part of the readings of the London Medical Group. April 16-17 – a series of talks for students at the University of Cambridge. June – trip to the USSR. Meetings at home, conversations, including with teenagers. September 5 – conversation - sermon on the occasion of the thanksgiving service as part of the conference “Spiritual Issues in Cancer Care” in Westminster Abbey. September 7 – conversation with Greek priests. September 12 – Orthodox liturgy in the cathedral and a conversation about the millennium of the Baptism of Rus' in Bath. September 23 – conversation at St. Girls’ School. Paul's School for Girls. September 29 – talk – sermon at Swansea University. October 8 – conversation about Russian spirituality in English. October 12 – talk on Orthodox doctrine, Bracknell. October 21 – conversation - lecture (honorary lecturer) in memory of Batten (CR Batten lecture) in Bloomsbury, Central Baptist Church. October 31 – conversation about the spirituality of the Russian Orthodox Church at Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church.
1989 January 31 – conversation at the University of London. 7 February – talk for South Battersea Cooperative of Churches on prayer. 26 February – Lenten Talk – Sermon for Hambleden Valley Group, Medmenham. February – a series of conversations during Lent for South Battersea co-operative of Churches. March 7 - conversation as part of the readings of the London Medical Group at Middlesex Hospital Medical School. April 16 – conversation as part of the Anselm Paper Lectures series, St. Anselm Church, Hatch End, Westfield Park. May 4 – conversation - sermon on the Ascension in Peckham. May 7 – two conversations about prayer. May 19 – talk at Epsom Methodist Church. May 8-22 – a series of conversations about men and women in the Pushkin House in English. June 26 – conversation about religious education in the USSR. July 30 - conversation - sermon at the end of the course at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. September 3 - conversation for the Swedish club about the Russian Church October - the first (and only) public conversation in Moscow, in the House of Artists. November 2 – conversation at Eton College about doubt and faith. November 21st – conversation at Bagshot about life, death and prayer. Conversation in the Pushkin House in English “Man and Woman.”
1989-1990 A series of conversations with Rev. Sergiy Ovsyannikov about shepherding.
1990 January 30 – conversation for Interchurch Travel pilgrimage. February 17 – conversation about women's issues. March 15 – talk about the future of spirituality in English at St Mary Woolnoth. Lent - a conversation about prayer at Kensington Council of Churches. June 25 – conversation about quality of life in English. November 12 – conversation for the Red Cross “Changes in the Church in Russia.” December 10 – conversation at Sion college about the psychology of religion. A series of conversations in the parish about the Church in English.
1991 January 9 – conversation - sermon at King's college. February 18 – conversation at the Kensington Council of Churches on the revival of the Church in the USSR. March 5 – conversation at King's college about death. May 9 – conversation at Rugby school about faith in people. May – conversation for priests of the Greek Church. November – conversation – sermon in St. Cuthbert's Church. November 14 – conversation at the London Cathedral on freedom. Conversation about Christianity in Edinburgh. A series of conversations in English “Life in Christ.” A series of conversations in English “Experience and Images.”
1992 A series of conversations about liturgy for the parish in Russian. A series of conversations in the parish about the Church in English.
1993 March 13 – conversation about prayer in Westminster Abbey. June 12 – conversation about the hierarchical structures of the Church at the Diocesan Assembly of the Diocese of Sourozh. November 8 – conversation with parents in Russian. A series of conversations about prayer in the parish in English.
1993-1994 A series of conversations in the parish about faith in the Church in Russian.
1994 A series of conversations in the parish about faith and baptism.
1995 February 7 – conversation in the parish house about the experience of Russian emigration. March 28 – conversation with the Russian public “The Church in Emigration.” August - a series of conversations for Russian television, filmed by Olga Klodt. A series of conversations in the parish in Russian about the Church in history.
1996 March 14 – talk at the University of Essex “Way of the Cross”. Two conversations about prayer in the parish in Russian. A series of conversations in the parish about the Creed in Russian. A series of conversations with parents in the parish in Russian.
1997 August 31 - conversation - sermon on the death of Anne Garrett and Diana, Duchess of Windsor. September 16 – conversation with staff at Hammersmith Hospital.
1997-1998 A series of conversations in the parish about the Old Testament in English.
1998 January 25 – conversation – meeting with the Russian community in London. July 19 – conversation – meeting with the Russian-speaking part of the parish. September 3 – conversation for the Swedish club about the Russian Church.
1998-1999 A series of conversations in the parish in Russian “I want to share with you everything that has accumulated...”.
1999 October 21 – conversation in the parish about prayer in Russian. October 24 – talk at the University of London for the English Catholic Society. November 14 – conversation - meeting with the Russian public in the cathedral. A series of conversations - memories of figures of the Russian emigration.
2000 February 20 – conversation with pilgrims from Germany in Russian. March 20 – conversation about the prodigal son for the Commonwealth of Sts. Albania and Sergius. April 10 – talk at Birkstead House about the Resurrection.
2000-2001 A series of conversations about prayer in the parish in Russian
2001 April – a series of video conversations for Valentina Matveeva. June 9 – conversation at the Diocesan Assembly of the Diocese of Sourozh about the needs of the diocese. June 21 – conversation for the Orthodox Institute in Cambridge. September 11 - conversation - sermon on the occasion of the terrorist attack in the USA.
2001-2002 A series of conversations in the parish in English “Confidence in things unseen: last conversations.”
2002 A series of conversations in the parish in Russian about the Sourozh diocese. November 29 and 30 – services, conversation and reception on the occasion of the 45th anniversary of episcopal service. November 30 – conversation at the Diocesan Assembly of the Diocese of Sourozh.
2003 January 6 – conversation – meeting with sailors from Russia.
The shortest sermon
Bishop Anthony of Sourozh decided to talk about how he went to preach at one of the services. The Father said: “Just yesterday a woman came to the evening service with a baby. But she was dressed in jeans and did not have a scarf on her head. I don’t know who exactly reprimanded her, but I order this parishioner to pray for this woman and child until the end of her days, so that the Lord will save them. Because of you, she may never come to church." Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh turned around and left. This was his shortest sermon.
Works of the Reverend
Anthony of Sourozh, whose works were never distinguished by pure orthodox theology, is known in many countries. His sermons and conversations always contain the unique Orthodox word of God. Berdyaev’s philosophy played a significant role in the development of such thinking of the Metropolitan. First of all, he was interested in the doctrine of the opposition between personality and individuality, about being as a certain relationship between I and You.
Features of theology
Three features can be distinguished in the mature, deep theology of Metropolitan Anthony.
- Evangelism. This distinctive feature of his edifications is that formally and stylistically, the metropolitan’s sermons, teachings, and conversations are structured in such a way as to be a strong link between the Gospel and ordinary listeners. They seem to shorten the distance that separates modern people from the living Christ. Every believer becomes a participant in the Gospel story; the life of Anthony of Sourozh is proof of this.
- Liturgicality. With the help of the theology of the monk, the predominantly silent Sacrament of the Church takes on verbal form. This difference is inherent not only in any part of the rite or sacrament, but also in the totality of church communion. His word sounds like a sacrament and brings every believer into the church. The conversations of Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh were always perceived by people with a special sense of grace and closeness to God.
- Anthropological. The Bishop himself noted this feature of his lectures. His words are deliberately aimed at instilling true self-confidence in a frightened and deafened modern life. Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh reveals the immeasurable depth of each individual person, its value for God and the always present possibility of communication between Christ and man.
Such communication is, in a sense, equal. People can turn to Christ by building their relationship to faith as one of love and friendship, rather than slavery and domination. It is precisely as a personal, unique and unique communication with the Lord that the Metropolitan understands prayer and describes this in his writings.
Everyone perceived the bishop’s word addressed to the crowd of parishioners as a personal appeal. Thanks to the focus on the individual in the fullness of his being, the sermons of Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh to this day call on every believer to have a personal dialogue with God.
Father loved to repeat that the feeling of the Lord’s presence should be immediate, like a toothache. This also applies to the reverend himself. Anyone who personally saw him alone or in a crowded church will never forget that the special warmth of a true believer emanated from him.
Orthodox Life
Ideally, a person should be another person's paradise. Compare this idea with Sartre's statement: “Hell is others.” People perceive each other this way because deep down they understand that they should really need each other, but in reality they don’t need each other at all.
A meeting is not for eternity; an unreal meeting makes the presence of another a living hell. As in the song of Vladimir Vysotsky: “Here you get so busy in a day... When you come home, you sit there.” And this is what the hero of the song says to his wife - that is, to the person who should be dear to him. But... the world practically does not know love not through passion. Saint Nektarios of Aegina says that without Christ even love will rot. Without Christ there is no true love, but only passion in one form or another. The love of a righteous person is not like that. First of all, it is characteristic of the love of a righteous person not to divide his attitude towards people according to degrees. “I love you, but I still love my son or husband more.” Such love only torments the one to whom it is directed, because we understand that we must be loved and needed to the last depth and in everything - and only this will be right. Loneliness is when we are surrounded by close people, each of whom has someone who is dearer to them than you.
This is not how a Christian loves. For him, every person is the only one. Each one is dear without any degrees. The Holy Fathers say that for God every single person is as dear as all people together. The Christian does the same. Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh said that when meeting a person, he acts according to the principle of a closet - he pulls out the drawer in which everything about this person is. It can be added that when Vladyka Anthony met a person, he completely turned into one single box for this person.
Metropolitan Anthony saw one man only a few times in his life, but when he died, he called the bishop his best friend. And the reason for this is the love that Metropolitan Anthony has.
The meeting also requires gratitude. Gratitude to another person for existing. Then, with every meeting and every year, the depth of a person will be revealed more and more.
John Tolkien said about appropriation: “Some things have become colorless to us because we have stolen them, locked them away, and stopped looking at them.” This also applies to people. That is, we should not follow the desire to own a person, but treat him as a gift. Or, as the philosopher Simeon Frank said, “perceive the other as light.”
*** There is a difference between the way a smart guy or a poet talks about height and beauty. When we hear a wise man, we suffocate from despondency and lose strength, and when a poet speaks, people gain inspiration and wisdom to live.
Metropolitan Anthony spoke as a poet and prophet, as one with power, and not as wise men and formalists.
He speaks about the spiritual, which he himself experiences and experiences, therefore he always speaks as a witness to the reality of the spiritual world and his words are living. And this happens so rarely in our world...
Seeing and hearing Bishop Anthony, people were amazed that they saw before them a Christian and a real person, and this vision was for them, according to St. Irenaeus of Lyons, with the sight of the glory of God. And this always pleases the good and reminds various egoists and clever people how far they are from goodness.
That's how smart people are - they still need a link to authority, and the beauty that happens before their eyes outrages them. You tell someone that Vladyka Anthony of Sourozhsky considered Tarkovsky’s films boring, they will think, but try to say that these films are boring for you personally, and they will write you down as a nonentity. A wise guy in society is the same as a Pharisee in religion. Sometimes these two hypostases are combined in one person. Their basic commandment is this: “Not one of our contemporaries can live or speak from the Spirit.”
***
Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh will be one of the first people on earth to remember that the Western world was once filled with Orthodox believing saints. Another such person was St. John of Shanghai, who collected ancient lives, found particles of relics and returned the memory of the glorious past, or through him the ancient righteous came into the world for which they had always prayed. Ancient saints. Lives speak volumes. About the wondrous radiance that emanated from their faces, about their extraordinary love, ability to forgive, mercy and service to others. People often forget the past, but those who love (and saints are like that) remember everything. They remember so that everyone who is needed and dear to them can be brought home - into the eternal kingdom of the coming resurrection.
As is known from history, all the saints of Europe until 1054 (the fall of the local Roman Church from the universal Church), the saints of England until 1066 (Battle of Hastings) and Ireland until 1171 (the Council of Cashel, which transferred the Irish
Church under Roman jurisdiction) existed in a single Christian, apostolic, orthodox tradition. Of course, the Church in the Middle Ages (as now) acted in different cultures and, accordingly, created different cultures. The Celts of Ireland were not like the Saxons of England, the Picts, the Germans, or even the Gauls, not to mention the Romans. But these differences were, in essence, the uniqueness of the holiness of each people, the uniqueness of its beauty.
***
St. Silouan of Athos said that none of the saints would share their spiritual experiences and revelations if they were not forced to do so by love. But even here we see that some saints say very little about themselves, trying more to hide than to reveal, at least when they talk to unknown people.
And there are other saints who generously shared their treasure with the whole world. Like Vladyka Anthony, they said that if they leave the blessed event only to themselves, it will warm them, but will not warm anyone else. And they ran the risk of misunderstanding, talking about secret and hidden things - about their love and the Lord’s response to it. It is not difficult to see that often these saints and ascetics were people of a poetic mood. Yes, Rev. Simeon the New Theologian wrote poetry, and Elder Sophrony Sakharov wrote paintings.
***
One day, Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh was approached by a priest who devoted all his soul to sermons and church and did not pay any attention to his family. His wife was suffering, and he wanted the famous bishop to admonish her not to interfere with his constant stay in the temple. But Bishop Anthony, contrary to the priest’s expectations, advised him to devote most of his life to his family.
– But what about my service to people? – the priest was amazed. “If your family is happy, people will come to you themselves,” answered Metropolitan Anthony.
And so it happened. The priest spent a lot of time with his family, and the family became happy, knowing that they were dear and loved. The parishioners of the temple saw this and, if earlier the priest himself ran after them, and they were reluctant to communicate, now people themselves began to come to his home to bask in the rays of the warm and bright happiness of his family.
When the priest told Bishop Anthony about this, he smiled and remained silent. After all, he knew that Christianity is, first of all, giving warmth to those who are nearby. And the warmth already makes you want to get closer to it and warm your heart. And so, seeing that happiness and joy are possible in the world, a person truly recognizes Christianity.
***
I think that the community (where it exists) is not a multitude, not the entire temple. These are a few extraordinary and authentic people who, together with a wise priest-friend, walk the path to Christ. And this priest is in some ways similar to Metropolitan Anthony - perhaps in the lightness, depth and poetry of the Holy Spirit.
***
When Vladyka Anthony died, the priest of my church said about him with great respect: “He was an old man”...
I was then surprised: “Why an old man?”, because I thought that righteousness is associated with miracles. And only years later I understood why Saint Macarius the Great wrote that the miracles of an ascetic are just an external expression of his essence, and who he is is revealed in Christ-like, genuine love, which is so great that it gave Metropolitan Anthony 15 hours to receive people, when deeper than fatigue there was a desire for happiness to come to everyone and no one to leave offended...
Once the film crew was recording a story about the bishop. Among them was an operator of retirement age who had a cold attitude towards everything church-related. But when he heard Metropolitan Anthony speak, he came up and asked if he, an old man, could be baptized?
“Of course,” he answered, “it’s like love, and you can fall in love at 80...
We are all no older than God, and some of my lecturers, who are already over 50, told me that by discovering the Church, they discovered for the first time how interesting life is.
Artem Perlik
The power of the pastoral word
Metropolitan Anthony is not a teacher, but a shepherd. He talks to everyone about what exactly a person needs at this moment. Personal communication with the monk helped many believers realize the fullness of the phrase “God is love.” He accepted each person, regardless of his own employment, ill health, exhaustion, as a lost son returned by a miracle of God.
Starce accepts and understands all the people who came to him for help and advice in a variety of situations. This may be a dead end of mental search, the last extreme of life. The Metropolitan carried his faith to everyone: Orthodox and non-Orthodox, non-Russian and Russian, atheists and Christians. It is as if he places on his shoulders a burden taken from every hesitant and exhausted person. In return, the monk bestows a little of his unique freedom, which manifests itself in small things: freedom from hypocrisy, bureaucracy, and narrowness. It helps you live freely in God.
Theological conversations
Conversations by Anthony of Sourozh are devoted to the main issues of Christian life and faith. Filled with understanding and love, the pastoral word has more than once become a real salvation for people who faced insurmountable stumbling blocks and insoluble contradictions. The monk knew how to heal with the wisdom and depth of his conversations.
The main questions that the clergyman covered answered what it means to be a Christian and how to stay with God in the modern world. The Metropolitan emphasized that man is a friend and disciple of Christ. This means believing in the people themselves, starting, first of all, with yourself, continuing with all others: strangers and neighbors. Every person contains a piece of the Lord’s light, and it always remains in him even in the most pitch darkness.
Metropolitan about love
Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh's sermons were also dedicated to love. “Love one another as I have loved you...” - this is exactly what one of God’s commandments sounds like. These words should reach our hearts and delight our souls, but how difficult it is to bring them to life.
The Metropolitan noted that love for each person is revealed in several planes: this is the experience of ordinary, simple love between members of the same family, children for parents and vice versa; this is a joyful, bright feeling that arises between the bride and groom and permeates all the darkness. But even here you can encounter fragility and imperfection.
Anthony of Sourozh said that Christ calls us to love each other, he makes no distinctions. This suggests that every believer must love absolutely every person he meets, unfamiliar, attractive and not so attractive. He wants to say that each of us is an individual with an eternal destiny, created by God from nothingness to make a unique contribution to the life of humanity.
Each of us is called and placed by the Lord into this world to accomplish what others are unable to do; this is our uniqueness. “We must love any of our neighbors, as God loved us all, otherwise we reject Christ himself,” this is exactly what Anthony of Sourozh believed. He always spoke about love as a special feeling that should be directed towards the whole world, towards God and towards himself.
Conversations with the priest. The legacy of Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh
Audio |
In the Moscow studio of our TV channel, Archpriest Igor Petrov, clergyman of the Ascension-St. George parish in the city of Rybinsk, answers questions from viewers. – Today the topic of our program is the legacy of Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh, and we are talking about love for one’s neighbor.
Father Igor, why did you choose this particular topic, why is the legacy of Metropolitan of Sourozh relevant today and why is it close to you? – I would like to recall the work “The Shepherd” by the ancient Christian Hermas, which speaks of the Church as a woman with a beautiful face and gray hair, that is, the Church is always young and, on the other hand, ancient. As the great Greek theologian Vincent of Lerins said: speaking in a new way, do not say something new. Therefore, we must talk, on the one hand, about traditional things, and on the other hand, try to make it understandable to people. The Church strives to speak to people in a language they understand.
As the Holy Fathers of the Church say, the most important content of a Christian’s spiritual life is always reading the Holy Scriptures and the books of the Holy Fathers. We must, undoubtedly, begin the study of the patristic heritage with the Russian holy fathers. Of course, these are the works of St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov), Theophan the Recluse, Tikhon of Zadonsk, and our father John of Kronstadt. Speaking about our holy fathers, I would like to say that such wonderful contemporaries of ours, spiritual mentors, authors of wonderful books as Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh, Nikolai Evgrafovich Pestov, Sergei Iosifovich Fudel, are our teachers to the patristic Tradition, to the Russian holy fathers and, of course, , to the ancients.
Speaking about Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh, we note: his favorite spiritual writer, by the way, was St. Theophan the Recluse. There are few conversations of Bishop Anthony where he does not refer to the works of St. Theophan. For me personally, Vladyka Anthony was a teacher: it was from him that I learned about the existence of our venerable father Maximus the Confessor, the venerable Abba Dorotheos, John Climacus. Remembering the words of the Apostle Paul: “Imitate your mentors and, looking at their death, imitate their faith,” one cannot help but pay attention to the love of Bishop Anthony for St. Theophan the Recluse, who also occupies a huge place in my life, as in the lives of many Orthodox Christians of people. And I would like to share this joy.
Vladyka Anthony was a man deeply involved in the patristic tradition. I would like to recall the words of his senior contemporary, Archpriest Georgy Florovsky, who said that we need to have the mind of our fathers. What is meant is that we not only collect their texts, or, as Archpriest George says, that we should not engage in “herbarization of texts” (from the word “herbarium”), but that we should learn to have the mind of our fathers. This refers to the method of assessing ourselves and the world around us, which is given to us by the patristic Tradition through the mouth of the fathers.
We know that Metropolitan Anthony’s confessor, Archimandrite Afanasy (Nechaev), came from the Valaam Monastery and instilled in him this ancient Russian patristic tradition and love for the holy fathers. Of course, Vladyka Anthony read the holy fathers all his life, but he had a period when for fifteen years he read only the holy fathers. It’s good when we can read from him wonderful references to the holy fathers, presented in good Russian, and learn from him to love them. Bishop Anthony, in a very modern, relevant, warm, simple, kind, emotional way, reveals to us all the richness of the Russian patristic Tradition and, of course, the universal one.
– I know that you wanted to say a few words about the consolation that reading Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh gives.
– If we recall the preface to “The Spiritual Meadow” and other patristic texts, then often in Tradition the collection of books of the holy fathers is likened to either a pharmacy or a wondrous meadow in which various flowers bloom, and a wise bee collects from each flower an amazing nectar peculiar only to this flower . In the same way, we come to the holy fathers and learn a lot from them. For example, our great father Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov) is undoubtedly a teacher of repentance. Of course, he tells us about everything, but in many ways he is the teacher of repentance; we know his amazing texts. The great teacher of repentance for us is, of course, the Monk Ephraim the Syrian, to whom Bishop Anthony also very often refers.
I would like to separately note that, of course, all Orthodox holy fathers place the gospel principle of repentance as the basis of spiritual life. This is very characteristic and natural. For many years, more than twenty years, I have been constantly reading the books of Metropolitan Anthony, returning to them in preparation for sermons, lectures, various church obediences, and I want to note that Vladyka has an amazing ability to console - simply, very kindly, warmly and sincerely. We know that Vladyka wrote little, mostly these wonderful books that are being published and will be published in our country are recordings of his conversations, which people who loved him carefully recorded on a tape recorder and transcribed. He had an amazing gift - he did not write like other Fathers of the Church, but had God’s gift to speak so amazingly, heartfeltly, sincerely and warmly about the most important phenomena of our spiritual life, in particular about man, human dignity, about how God treats man - respects and loves him endlessly. These are amazing words that warmed the hearts of me and many of my compatriots and served as a guide to the patristic heritage.
– I think it will be interesting to remember how the future Metropolitan Anthony came to faith.
– There is a very interesting passage that I will not retell, but will read these wonderful words: “Once we gathered, and it turned out that we had invited the priest to have a spiritual conversation with us savages... And what he said brought me into such a state of rage that I could no longer tear myself away from his words.” This was Father Sergius Bulgakov. Why does the lord say this? They played volleyball; their teacher came and said that they had invited a priest and they needed to go. To which the future Metropolitan Anthony said that he did not believe in God. Actually, they were prepared for the fact that they had to return to Russia with weapons in their hands in order to liberate it from the rebels.
– Did he live in France?
– Yes, he lived in France. Then there was a very difficult period in his life, he even had thoughts of suicide. It was a very tough area, school, the loss of our homeland - all this was stress. He perceived many people as enemies, there were many childhood conflicts and fights, that is, he was brought up in harsh conditions and was in many ways bitter. He was a member of the children's youth organization "Vityazi", which trained future warriors, so to speak. And so he was outraged that the priest came and they were distracted from the game. The leader, being a wise man, said: “You still have to go, otherwise, you know, he’ll spread it all over Paris.” That is, being wise, he used some cunning.
And so the bishop writes that Father Sergius Bulgakov “spoke as one speaks to small animals, bringing to our consciousness all the sweet things that can be found in the Gospel <...> meekness, humility, quietness - all the slavish qualities for which we are reproached, starting with Nietzsche and beyond. <...> I decided <...> to go home, find out if we have the Gospel somewhere at home, check and be done with it...” As Bishop Anthony says in his other conversations, to make sure that this priest told them, in general, the wrong things, that he was lying.
“Mom turned out to have the Gospel, I locked myself in my corner <...>. I was sitting, reading, and between the beginning of the first and the beginning of the third chapter of the Gospel of Mark, which I read slowly because the language was unusual, I suddenly felt that on the other side of the table, here, stood Christ. And it was such a striking feeling that I had to stop, stop reading and look. I looked for a long time; I didn’t see anything, didn’t hear anything, didn’t feel anything with my senses. But even when I looked straight ahead at the place where there was no one, I had the same vivid consciousness that Christ was standing there, undoubtedly. I remember that I then sat back and thought: if Christ is standing here alive, it means that this is the risen Christ. This means <...> everything that they say about Him is true. If this is true, then the whole Gospel is true, it means there is meaning in life, it means one can live for nothing other than to share with others the miracle that I discovered; that there are probably thousands of people who don’t know about this, and that we need to tell them as soon as possible...”
That is, the Lord had mercy on him and appeared to him. And, having found God, while still a very young man (he was fourteen years old), he finds the meaning of life. And then the Bishop’s very characteristic words: “I remember the next morning I went out and walked as if in a transformed world; I looked at every person I came across and thought: God created you out of love! He loves you! You are my brother, you are my sister; you can destroy me, because you don’t understand this, but I know this, and that’s enough... This was the most striking discovery.” It is very characteristic that when a person meets God, he learns to meet him in each of his neighbors, or at least strives to learn this. This is stated in the first volume of the Bishop’s works, in the “Man” section, subsection “Without Notes,” on page 257.
– Question from a TV viewer: “How not to offend your neighbor, how not to offend your mother?”
– This is a very good question, thank you. The point is that it is very important that we possess exactly what the Bishop is talking about. A meeting with God is always a meeting with a person. Without a doubt. The Bishop met Christ and from now on learned to meet him in another person and respect his dignity. We know that every person is an icon of God - εικονίδιο in Greek. That is, dogmatics tells us that man has divine dignity.
We read in the fifth commandment: “Honor your father and your mother, that it may be well with you and that you may live long on earth.” That is, love for mother should be even greater and stronger. Therefore, on the one hand, dogmatic literacy is of great importance in our spiritual life, so that we simply understand that our neighbors and any person in general are the image and likeness of God. And as the Apostle Paul, whom Bishop Anthony often quotes, says, we must learn to live according to the spirit and “not believe every spirit, but test the spirit to see whether it is from God.” When we feel irritated (and we especially often allow ourselves to become irritated with our loved ones and family), we must restrain ourselves as much as possible and remove this irritation. Do not do anything out of vanity and ambition, as we read from the Apostle Paul, try to humble yourself, try to love your neighbor, and especially your mother, your relatives, and be lenient towards them.
– Tell us how the life of Metropolitan Anthony changed after his meeting with the Gospel, his meeting with Christ?
– Yes, I wanted to cite one wonderful excerpt from the collection of works of the Bishop “On Faith and the Church”, which continues the theme that we began to talk about: “I will not talk now about the circumstances under which I read the Gospel, but one of the first things that struck me when I met the word of the Gospel, the word that God speaks to man, these are the words that God shines His sun on the good and on the evil, on the grateful and the ungrateful, on those who love and on those who hate, that for Him everything is people are our own (cf. Matt. 5:44–46). We may be strangers to Him, but He is our own, we can turn away from Him and turn out to be traitors, in the very last sense of the word, and He will remain faithful to the end (to what end - it was still unclear to me then, because it was only the beginning of the Gospel story; I later discovered what the end was).” That is, the end of the cross.
“And I remember what a revelation it was. The revelation was this: I am surrounded by people whom I have always considered natural enemies, a danger to life, a danger to the integrity of the soul; and suddenly it turns out that God loves these people, like a father loves his children - and me too! I remember that on the first morning after reading, I went out, looked around me in amazement at all the people who were walking down the street, rushing to catch the train, to work, and thought: what a miracle! They may not know that they are loved indiscriminately by God, but I know this, and they can no longer be my enemies... Whatever they do to me or to anyone else, none of these people will never be my enemy; he may turn out to be a predatory beast, he may act cruelly, he may act insanely, but I know that we have the same Father, that each of them - of us - is loved equally and that there are no enemies... And suddenly I discovered “that God treats man with the deepest respect, treats him not like a master treats a slave, not like a pagan god treats people who are subject to him, but in a completely different way - and this struck me in the parable of the prodigal son.” And the bishop further develops this topic.
We, of course, remember the parable of the prodigal son, we remember that in the ancient, ancient world there was a rule of patria potestas: the son, whatever he was, whatever his status, was always subordinate to the father. The father was the head of the clan, and everyone was in obedience to him. And so the prodigal son in the Gospel parable seems to say to his father: “Let’s consider that you have already died for me.” As the bishop said, the son committed the metaphysical murder of his father: “Give me what is due to me after your death, and we will forget about each other.” This is how the Bishop interprets this parable. And then the son goes to a distant country, leads a bad life there, goes broke and works as a hired hand for a local resident, tending his pigs, which in the context of the traditions of the Old Testament prohibition was doubly sinful, nasty, unclean (the pig was an unclean animal). As we read, he was even ready to eat the faces.
And then the thought comes to his mind: “I’ll go back to my father. Although I betrayed him, I will tell him: “I have sinned before Heaven and you. And although I am no longer worthy to be called your son, take me at least as a hired hand into your house.” We read about how the son was returning home, was about to say these words to his father, and his father was waiting for him. Perhaps for many years he stood on the outskirts of the village and waited for his unfortunate, lost son. Suddenly he sees him, is the first to take steps towards him, hugs him, and the son begins to say what he had prepared in advance: “I have sinned in Heaven and before you, that I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” And the father, who is undoubtedly the image of God, our Creator and Father, allows him to say all this. But when the son wanted to say: “Take me at least as a mercenary,” he does not allow him to say these words. The Bishop notes this as a characteristic thing - God never, despite all our falls, gross sins, ugly mistakes of youth or adulthood, can and does not want to deprive us of the great dignity of sonship. Of course, this is a great joy for us; the Bishop consoles us by drawing our attention to this. And, on the other hand, this is, of course, a great responsibility.
– You can develop the topic of human dignity. What does Metropolitan Anthony say about this?
- In one of his conversations, the bishop quotes one of the hermits of antiquity, who said: “Whoever saw his brother, he saw his God: an icon, a living icon, not of God Himself, but of a man imbued with the Divine presence.” Every person has the inherent dignity of being a son of God; Every person bears the image and likeness of God. We read in the book of the Old Testament and in passages from the Gospel that are amazing and comforting for us that each of us is an icon of God, “aykon” in Greek - “image”. It is in each of us, and, undoubtedly, we are obliged to see divine dignity in every person. We understand that Christianity is not just a set of some sacred traditions, not just texts of the Holy Scriptures, but always a very specific and applied thing that determines our life, our attitude towards people, our everyday existence, our attitude towards ourselves, towards God, towards the world .
If for an unbeliever another person is a certain individual, often quite abstract, then for a Christian every person is the image and likeness of God, which imposes certain obligations on the Christian in relation to the people around him. For example, we know that under the command of the holy righteous warrior Fyodor Fedorovich Ushakov, who was a naval commander, a man of very high status, and had a large number of people under his command (sailors, midshipmen, officers), there were minimal losses in manpower. Why? Because in every sailor (and in the past these were serfs who were completely dependent) he saw not some human material, masses, a set of conventional units, not some functions, but the image and likeness of God. This determined his attitude towards people. This also determined that one of the first awards that was presented to him by the empress was an award for the fact that under his leadership a very large number of people were saved. He also organized the treatment of people (there was a very bad epidemiological situation in the boathouses near Kherson), without sending them to the hospital, where they could easily become truly infected and die. Ushakov was one of the first to ensure that his epidemic was stopped. In all the hostilities he did not have a single prisoner. All this speaks about his attitude towards people.
And, on the contrary, in Victor Hugo’s programmatic novel “The Ninety-third Year” a communard is depicted who says: the more I love humanity, the less I am able to love a specific person. And under the slogan “Liberty, equality and fraternity” of the so-called Great French Revolution, we see a constantly working guillotine and a huge number of human victims. In our country, at a certain period, something similar happened in order to achieve seemingly great ideas.
– It’s interesting that when Robespierre began his career, as a young lawyer, he advocated the abolition of the death penalty, but came to exactly the opposite.
– He was not a Christian, and for him a person was simply a conventional unit, therefore, as we used to say: when a forest is cut down, the chips fly... For a Christian, a person is never a chip, but a being with divine dignity.
– Question from a TV viewer: “My sister is a church member, but when she came to church, the candle box worker was rude to her. This made a very unpleasant impression on her, because this is not the first time this has happened to her, and the worker of the candle box is the mother of the rector of the temple. That's why people are afraid to complain about her. My sister doesn't want to complain, but this made a very painful impression on her. She is disabled and has poor vision. Maybe do some checking, since this attitude can confuse other people too. After the confession, the sister came up and apologized to her. We lack Christian love.”
– We know that the Church is not a society of righteous people, but of repentant sinners. We need to remember this. And I would remember the words of the Apostle Paul that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” If someone is rude to us and humiliates us, I think this is not a reason for us to fall into some kind of depressive state. In general, when we get very upset, when someone upsets us greatly, this indicates that pride lives in us.
Of course, the person who carries out obedience behind the candle box must be restrained and friendly, because the Church is associated with him. But when we still react too sharply to such things, according to the Monk Simon the New Theologian, and do not perceive it with meekness, then this indicates that an ancient serpent lives in us. If this happens, we must first of all forgive the other person, pray for him, and not strive to resort to some kind of police measures as quickly as possible. Still, it's hardly good to complain.
In the Gospel we read that if your brother has offended you, then go and expose him between you and him alone. Moreover, the sister asked for forgiveness; I think we can talk to this woman later. The most important thing is not to enter into any harsh polemics with her; I don’t think we have the right to think that this woman herself later did not repent of her action and was not upset herself. If she is a believer, especially mother... We must forgive her, pray to the Lord, the Mother of God for an increase in love, and then try to find a common language with her. At the very least, do not carry resentment in your heart for a long time, but try to push it out of your consciousness, remembering that, by and large, if you look at it, we hardly deserve anything better. Therefore, let this situation work for our good.
– On the one hand, it seems fair to achieve some kind of truth, to stop such actions, but is it Christian to complain about a person?
“I think the situation will be resolved, we just need to give God space.” Probably, you shouldn’t try to immediately seek justice, but pray, starting with yourself. Because very often, as it is said in the Gospel, we see the sins of another person and at the same time we tend to justify ourselves, we do not see our sins and mistakes, but we blame the other person for everything. I think every Christian should try to see his own fault in everything. I am saying some well-known things, but if we have an evangelical approach to conflicts, it will be easier for us to resolve all this. We must perceive this situation not from the point of view of justice, which, of course, is understandable, but try to perceive it as God’s permission. And when we perceive it this way, then, probably, it is easier for us to live, it is easier for us to perceive some sorrows, troubles that surround us, because our life is a “valley of tears,” as we read in the Psalter, so I don’t think that here you have to fall into some difficult states.
– How can we not forget that every person is the image and likeness of God? When we remember this, we can look at the people around us through this prism, but then for some reason we forget about it. And even as Orthodox Christians and parishioners, we can become irritated and angry with our neighbors. How to remember this truth?
– We all tend to forget a lot, so the Church teaches that we should always have inner work, that we should always remember the most important Christian truths. As Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk says: always remember four things - death, judgment, hell and heaven. Of course, the beginning of such internal work is remembering the presence of God - that we are never alone with any situation, but God is always present, He always sees not only our actions, but also our thoughts. When we remember the presence of God, then it is easier for us to cope with our passions.
Alas, we certainly do not always feel this reverence for another person. Very often we break down - the spirit of anger that lives in our hearts comes to life, our passions awaken again. In my opinion, Neil of Sinai has such a comparison. The Judean desert is quite populated by poisonous snakes and adders that live in burrows. When the sun shines brightly, they hide in the midday heat, and when the sun goes down, they come out again. So is our soul. As long as no one bothers us, everything seems to be quiet and calm, but when some tempting situations arise, evil, our sins that live in us, wake up.
You can also recall Pimen the Great’s story about the cauldron. While the fire is burning under the cauldron, its contents are boiling - and no unclean insects will land on the cauldron. As soon as the fire goes out, the cauldron cools down - and various nasty, unclean insects land on it. It’s the same with our soul: while we are burning, while we are putting wood on the fire, we are trying to live a spiritual life, it is easier for us to fight sins, those impulses of evil that constantly arise in us. The practice of sobriety and smart doing teaches us how to fight thoughts. The Gospel says that sin is not only murder or adultery, as in the Old Testament, but sin is already a look with lust, anger in our hearts, and we must learn to delve into ourselves. Bishop Anthony speaks about this very soulfully: we must learn to dive into our depth.
– Question from a TV viewer: “I have a question about the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Mark, where the parable of the sower is given. The Savior tells a parable, and the disciples then ask Him to explain the parable. And he said to them: it has been given to you to know the secrets of the Kingdom of God, but to those outside everything happens in parables; so they look with their own eyes and do not see; They hear with their own ears and do not understand, lest they convert, and their sins be forgiven. I don’t understand the meaning of the phrase let them not convert, and their sins be forgiven. Please explain.”
– I think that, firstly, this phrase should be interpreted in context. When we try to understand certain gospel texts, then, of course, the context is very important. The parable of the sower says that some seed fell on fertile soil, some fell on thorns, and others on rocky soil. By the way, Vladyka Anthony, commenting on this text, says that these are all our states: often we are like rocky soil, sometimes our inner state is like thorns, sometimes it can be gracious when the word of God bears fruit. Of course, we must try to become like fertile soil.
As for parables, we know the story of the Apostle Paul that he was caught up to the third heaven and heard unspeakable verbs, that is, many things of spiritual life are very difficult to explain in human words. Therefore, the Lord often uses parables to explain truths to the simple, not very educated people who surrounded Him. These vivid parables are very instructive for us.
Undoubtedly, the Lord wants all people to be converted - this is quite obvious. This is one of the difficult passages in the Gospel of Mark, which may also be due to the translation. There are many such complex passages; there is no need to pay special attention to them, but we must try to see the main thing that the Lord wants to tell us here. Of course, God wants everyone to be saved and come to the mind of truth, so that everyone will be converted, everyone will understand what He says, so that we will hear and see, becoming like fertile soil. Therefore, we do not need to pay undue attention to such difficult points.
– You also wanted to quote Bishop Anthony.
– The following wonderful passage: “And only then can we understand the words of the Savior that we must love our neighbor as ourselves, precisely as ourselves. We must love ourselves, but not the empirical person we are: self-loving, stupid, vain, etc., but love the person who is embedded in our depths as an opportunity and as a calling. We must look for this person within ourselves. We must find this person within ourselves and take care of him, as the Mother of God took care of the Savior when He was lying in a manger, as She kept Him when He was a Baby, as She protected Him when He was a Child. This is how we should treat ourselves." A very interesting and very well known topic.
In general, in the works of the bishop, as one priest wonderfully said, there are many hidden quotes from the holy fathers. As Father Georgy Florovsky said, we must have the mind of our fathers. Vladyka was a deeply traditional man, he knew the holy fathers and thought exactly this way, and he teaches us this very well. This theme is very characteristic of the patristic Tradition. Apparently, the bishop had in mind here the wonderful sermon of St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov) from the series “Ascetic Sermon” (a wonderful collection that I advise everyone to re-read or read). There is just a sermon on love for one's neighbor, where St. Ignatius emphasizes that we do not know how to love our neighbor as ourselves, because we do not know how to love ourselves. This is exactly what Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh says: we love our empirical selves, we love our passions, our pride, stupidity, vanity, and we try little to love that “hidden heart of man,” as we read in the First Epistle of the Apostle Peter (the Bishop loves this passage very much) or in Apostle Paul about the “inner man.” We must learn to live and love the inner person within us.
In one of his conversations, Bishop Anthony quotes St. Ephraim the Syrian, who says that the Lord, when creating man, puts the entire Kingdom of Heaven into him. That is, each of us has a great treasure, each of us must find that same pearl of great price that the Savior speaks about in the parable: when a man goes and sells everything to buy a field and find a pearl of great price in it.
We must learn to love ourselves correctly. As the Lord says, go into your depth. And he clarifies that he did not come up with this, but the holy fathers said. And we can say that there is also a quote from Theophan the Recluse here. If we take the letters and statements of the saint, then very often he says that we must “stand with our minds in our hearts and pray to God from there.” That is, we must enter into our depth, gather ourselves together, and then it is easier for us to be in the face of God, it is easier for us to manage ourselves - this is a very important practice. We must love our depth, discover it in ourselves like a precious pearl, and then we will see our unworthiness and feel our responsibility for the gifts that God gives us, to be active and active Christians.
– Question from a TV viewer: “In the context of the question of why it is spoken in parables, I would like to add that a person who does not read the Scriptures needs to be explained in one words, but someone who has been studying theology for a long time needs completely different categories. In this regard, I want to ask. Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh writes: “When you are praised, do two things: first, remember why you are being praised, and try to become one; and secondly, never try to dissuade people, because the more you dissuade, the more people will see humility in you, which you don’t have at all.”
I wanted to know about this paradox. This is probably best not followed by the average person. I just didn't understand it. It would be easier for me to understand that, on the contrary, I need to humble myself.”
- You are absolutely right; this is undoubtedly true. We must again quote a wonderful well-known passage from the bishop’s works, which was precisely addressed to people who are in the know. This was said by Metropolitan Anthony in one of the conversations that he held at his parish with people who went for interviews. Through the mouths of such experienced shepherds as the Bishop, the Church speaks to people in a language they understand. Being an experienced shepherd, the bishop spoke differently with different people. I remember how, having arrived in the Soviet Union and staying at the Ukraina Hotel, he met a young Soviet officer on the stairs who asked: “What does God believe in?” And the bishop, wanting to find a common language with him, said that God believes in man. These are very important words.
Even living in Great Britain, he had enormous authority; he was often invited to higher educational institutions; he was a Doctor of Theology. In Cambridge, as well as in other universities, he gave more than ten thousand lectures among non-Orthodox people, since he had the ability to take into account a person’s mentality, his consciousness. You quoted a very famous passage of his, which was just spoken for church people, that when you are praised, remember why, but do not try to refute it, because then you will imitate humility, which you do not have. I think this is very clear.
I remember another text about how one famous preacher preached a very successful sermon and was told: “How wonderfully you preached today.” He replied: “Thank you, the devil has already told me about this.”
Christianity never offers any ready-made recipes for all occasions, like some formulas in which we put numbers in place of unknowns and find the answer. It is always life in the spirit. Before us is a living person. They said about the Bishop that he spoke to every person as if there was only the Bishop himself, this person and the Lord God Himself. He had such an amazing gift that he knew how to see who was in front of him and conform his thoughts and judgments to the person who was next to him, which is very important.
– Our program is coming to an end. You wanted to quote a few words from the Bishop concerning Russia.
– It is characteristic of Metropolitan Anthony that he loved Russia very much. He was a Russian emigrant; he lived abroad almost from early childhood: his father was consul in Iran. Then the tragedy of the revolution occurred, and in the end the family ended up in France, where life was very difficult. Already from his adolescence, Vladyka always recognized himself as Russian, like other people of the first wave of emigration, who, living in the West, had to learn a lot in order to later return to their homeland and serve it - a completely Christian attitude. As Count Uvarov said: the meaning of our life is service to God, the Tsar and the Fatherland. Later, already in the Soviet years, when Russian people came to the UK, for example, on a scientific exchange, he advised many to study in the West, but then return to Russia and serve it.
Vladyka was truly a Russian man. Enjoying enormous authority, he had the opportunity to bring the truth of Orthodoxy to the British Ministry of Defense, where he gave one of his last talks. And the first thing he said: “I am a Russian person.” Speaking to British officers, he spoke specifically about the dignity of man, that God loves man and that he is a Russian man. This is a very important example for us - we must imitate our mentor in love for the Motherland and must not just use the world around us, but show ourselves as people who are called to serve God the Father, the Fatherland.
Presenter Denis Beresnev
Recorded by Ksenia Sosnovskaya
About prayer...
The monk noted that for him the Lord’s Prayer was one of the most difficult for years. It is quite logical that each individual sentence is accessible and, most importantly, understandable to everyone within the framework of their experience, spiritual growth, and depth of faith. “In general, many cannot find the most important key, because turning to God is the whole path of spiritual life,” said Anthony of Sourozh. He spoke long and thoughtfully about prayer, helping believers to realize the full power and meaning of our word addressed to Christ.
You can perceive any prayer in two parts. The first is the call: “Our Father.” Next are three petitions. These are the son’s prayer lines, because we are all children of our heavenly father. Then there are petitions that can serve as a guiding light to truly discover the depth of your own faith. The Heavenly Father is the source of our life, a teacher who acts on the power of boundless love for us. We are all brothers and sisters of Christ in humanity.
When praying, according to the monk, there is often a feeling as if we are calling on the Lord to do something. We pray as beggars extend their hand. And the Lord sent each of us into the world in order to build the Kingdom of God, the city of God, which should be together with the city of man. Therefore, in prayer we must ask to become faithful builders of this Kingdom.
The Lord will never forget us, he will give us material, material bread. Believers must seek in God a meeting with him, as with the word that is sent in the Gospel. It is there that the Lord shows us the way, the path to it and to the Kingdom of God.
Anthony of Sourozh spoke with all completeness and sincerity about love, prayer, friendship and the personality of man in God.
Be a Christian
ABOUT THE CHURCH
One important point about Christianity is that Christ Himself did not write anything. The Gospel that we have is the memory of the Church, the memory of Christ’s closest disciples about what they experienced, what they learned while communicating with Him; but Christ Himself did not leave the book behind Him, as many other teachers left. What did He leave behind Him? Do we know with certainty what He said, what He taught, what His image was? Yes, we know, and much more reliably than if we had a book into which we “read” what we want to see in it, as we constantly do when reading the works of different writers: we see ourselves in them and perceive the book only to the best of your understanding. Christ did not leave the book, but left a living society, which is called the Church and which knows Him personally.
I say “knows,” and not just “knew,” because from century to century all those who became believers are people who met Christ in one way or another, and they can repeat the words of one of the Epistles of the Apostle John: That We have heard, […] what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at, and what our hands have touched […] we declare to you (I John 1:1-3); we are talking about what is an absolutely undeniable reality for us within the limits of our experience. This has happened to countless people for centuries. And we must remember that the Church is not just a community of people united, as the Catechism says, by dogmas, hierarchy and sacraments. Of course, all this is in the Church and is, as it were, an integral part of it, but there is also another core in the Church: a meeting, a face-to-face meeting with Christ. This meeting can be amazing or it can happen gradually, barely noticeably, but it must always happen so that a person can say: “I am a believer.”
But there is a point here that seems very important to me. Faith, that is, the experience of meeting God is inexpressible. It is impossible to convey what happened; in human language it is possible to express only what is accessible to language, to our perception. I will tell you frankly, although perhaps inappropriately, what happened to me, and then I will move on to the question of how faith can find expression.
I was born before the First World War. My life experience includes all the tragic years of life in Russia and emigration abroad. The circumstances were such that I did not hear any church or even just Christian teaching. In exile, I lived in a closed school, leaving it only for a few hours on Sunday; Then there was no time to teach me - then I needed to be consoled and made happy. And therefore I had no concept of God. I knew that my parents believed in God, but other than that I didn’t know anything. And this went on for quite a long time. I joined a Russian youth organization as a boy. Father Georgy Shumkin, whom I spoke about in a previous conversation, was there; he revealed to me the mystery of all-conquering love, a love that can rejoice or be tortured on the cross. But I perceived this only as his personal property, incomprehensible to me. Then years passed. I heard about God, but was not interested in Him.
And then one day, while playing volleyball, our leader came up to us, boys of about fourteen, and said: “Here, guys, we invited the priest to have a conversation with you, because Holy Week is coming, go to the hall.” Everyone refused, including me especially sharply. Others were somewhat church-going, but I had no idea about this area and answered that I did not believe in God or priests and had no desire to go somewhere to study something that I absolutely did not need. My leader was smart, he didn’t say that it would be good for my soul - I would have told him that I don’t have a soul, so I don’t need a priest. The leader told me: “Just imagine what this priest will spread throughout Paris if none of you goes to his conversation! I’m not asking you to listen, you go, sit in a corner and think your thoughts.” I decided that out of loyalty to the organization I could do this; went, sat in the corner and was going to think his thoughts. But to my misfortune (or perhaps happiness) it turned out that the priest spoke too loudly and interfered with my thinking; and what he said began to outrage me to such an extent that I began to listen. We were then being prepared to return with a sword in our hands and save Russia from Bolshevism, and he told us about Christ - about humility, about patience, about meekness, about all the virtues that we didn’t care about, because they It seemed to us that they would not bring any benefit to our business. I listened with increasing indignation; When he finished his conversation, I did not return to the playing field, but rushed home and asked my mother to give me the Gospel, because I wanted to make sure of it personally. I remember my words to her: “I want to check, because if the Gospel says what this priest says, I’m finished with God, finished with Christ and will throw away my baptismal cross.” Before reading, because I was a reasonable boy, I remembered how the priest said that there are four Gospels; From this I concluded that one should be shorter than the others, and if I’m going to waste time reading the Gospel, let’s read the shortest one. And then I was caught - not by the priest, but by God, because I began to read the Gospel of Mark, which was intended for boys like me, for savages. I began to read, and between the first and third chapters, which I read slowly because I was not used to the outdated language of even the Russian translation, I suddenly felt that on the other side of the table at which I was reading was the living Christ. I didn’t see Him, I didn’t smell anything, I didn’t hear anything. I leaned back in my chair and became convinced that this was not a vision, not a hallucination, but a completely simple confidence that He was standing here. And then I thought: if this is so, then everything that is said about Him must be true; if He died and is now alive, then He is the One about whom Father Sergius spoke...
I began to read the Gospel separately, and several things especially struck me then. I was used to viewing life as a jungle, every person was a danger to me, an enemy; to survive in the jungle of early emigration, it was necessary to petrify, become hard, impenetrable. And suddenly I see that the Gospel of Matthew says: God commands His sun to rise on the evil and on the good (see Matthew 5:45). I thought: if God loves both the good and the evil, and I want to be with God, then I must also begin to love not only the good, who love me and are good to me, but also the evil, whom I am so afraid of and still hated. I thought about it and decided: okay; no matter what people do to me, I will love them in order to remain with Christ; even if they scald me with boiling water, I still won’t give up this love... The next day, when I went out into the street, I looked at the crowd of people rushing to the station (we lived outside the city then) and thought: God created them all , He loves everyone, and I will love everyone... That was my first impression. I cannot fully express this; I can only describe in such poor words how this affected me, but I cannot in any way convey what happened in my soul when I suddenly found myself face to face with Christ.
What does this mean? This means that faith, according to the Apostle, is the conviction of things not seen (Heb. 11:1). I did not see Christ, but I met Him, and I am absolutely sure of this to this day, almost eighty years later, as I was sure then.
But then I had to express my faith, pass it on. And many years later I came across a book by St. Macarius of Egypt, where he makes a distinction between the experience of faith and the expression of it in words. He says: imagine that on a dark night you are lying in a canoe carried by a river or sea. Above you is a bottomless sky, stars, you are rocked by water, and you experience this lull with your whole being. And then the tide goes out, and your shuttle lands on the sand. At that moment, you no longer feel the soothing swing of the shuttle, but it continues to be present in your entire being. You know it was there, you still feel it in you. This is the moment when we can move from the experience of faith into its expression, we can begin to talk about what we have experienced with our whole body, with our whole soul.
And this is a very important moment in the Church. All the apostles, all the saints, all the sinners who have ever touched even the hem of Christ’s robe can say: at that moment something happened to me, at that moment I experienced something, felt it, and I can try to convey it to you as -indirectly... What does “indirectly” mean? We all know how to speak, but how is it possible to convey? Is a person just going to believe me or any of us because we say, “It happened to me”? Or maybe you're lying, maybe you're mistaken, maybe you just imagined it. How to explain this?..
And here I remember the story from the Gospel about how Christ appeared after His Resurrection to ten disciples (Judas had already died, and Thomas was not with them). They met Christ and rejoiced that He was alive, that death had no power over Him, that He had conquered evil, death; victory belongs to Him. And then Thomas returned, and the others began to tell him that they had seen the risen Christ. He looked at them and answered: Unless I put my finger into the wounds of the nails, I will not believe (John 20:25). Why? Because, looking at them, he saw that nothing decisive had happened to them. Yes, they rejoiced, but they remained the same students they were before. Thomas did not see any transformation in them. This transformation happened later when they received the gift of the Holy Spirit. But before that, Thomas could not believe their words, because he did not see in them a decisive and decisive change.
And this happens to us all the time. Between us, sinners, who sometimes shine with a small light, like a candle can burn in the attic, and the saints, who shine, like Saint Seraphim of Sarov shone before Motovilov’s eyes, the difference, of course, is colossal. But if a person can see through us, in us, some kind of light, if, looking at us, he sees that we are not like other people, that the light of eternal life is pouring out of us, then he can believe our word, or rather, not even a word - he will believe us. One Christian writer says that between an unbeliever and a believer there must be as great a difference as between a statue and a living person. A statue may be beautiful, more beautiful than any person, but it remains a tree or a stone. A person may be plain, but something in him shines with Divine light. And this writer says that when an unbeliever meets a believer, he should stop and exclaim: “What happened? I expected to meet a statue, and in front of me is a statue that has come to life, it is alive, it moves, it conveys to me something that I have never seen before!”
This is the essence of the Church in the personality of each person, as he approaches Christ, communes with Christ, receives the Holy Spirit, this is the difference between a believer and an unbeliever, alien to the Church. But an “alien” person is also a person in the full sense of the word. This is a person who, like dry firewood, is waiting for the moment when the spark falls and he himself lights up. He is not “dehumanized” by his unbelief, he is a man who has not yet found the fullness of life. And we, believers, we who have met God and Christ, must shine with such a light, emit such a light - not necessarily blinding, perhaps the light of a small candle, which would make those who meet us say: “There is something in this man that has never been seen before.” I’ve never met anyone before!”
This is the essence of the Church, this is its real nature. The Church then becomes what it essentially is: the body of Christ, that is, the continuation through millennia and centuries of the incarnate presence of God, the flesh of the Son of God offered to us in the Sacraments, and the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Church is the manifestation of Christ, the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, the manifestation of eternal life. The Church is a place where God and man are united, a place where God can meet a person who is still alien to Him; and the most miracle of this meeting. That's what the Church is.
"Learn to be"
Discussion of the spiritual aspects of old age is a very important issue, as Anthony of Sourozh mentioned more than once. “Learn to Be” is a special sermon that reveals for believers the concepts of old age and the problems that are inherent in this age.
The Metropolitan noted that in old age or old age, those problems that were hidden in the past, are present in the present and, perhaps, will appear in the future, begin to come to light. We must not close our eyes to our past; we must have the courage to face it. Painful, ugly, wrong situations help us gain inner maturity and finally resolve, unravel these issues and become truly free.
Old age and solving problems of the past
Every elderly or old person must deal with the problem of the past, if there really is faith that God is the God of the living, that we are all alive in Him and exist for Him and for Him. It is impossible to simply say that there has been reconciliation with the evil that was caused to others, it is necessary to come to terms with the circumstances...
There is also the problem of the present. When time brings old age and takes away everything that constituted youth, people always face certain problems. Physical strength is weakening, and mental abilities are no longer the same... Most people try to kindle coals in a dying flame, wanting to become the same as before. But this is the main mistake, and the artificially fanned coals quickly turn into ashes, and the internal pain only becomes stronger.
