The previous Sunday we celebrated the Triumph of Orthodoxy, the triumph of that true Church of Christ to which, by the grace of God, we all belong. But the triumph of Orthodoxy is not only a historical event, dear brethren; it is not revealed only in the fact that for almost 2,000 years, despite diverse and most terrible persecutions and heresies, this Church, founded by Christ Himself and His apostles, continues to exist unchanged and to safeguard the fullness of truth. The Church is not some bureaucratic institution; the Church is a living assembly of all its members and, therefore, the full triumph of Orthodoxy occurs only when all the members of the Church are truly Orthodox, i.e. when the faithful incorporate their faith into their lives, when their lives become transformed by Orthodoxy, when they live in an Orthodox manner.

But precisely how should we live in an Orthodox manner? In what way must Orthodoxy permeate our entire life? To this answer the Church dedicates the remaining four Sundays of the Great Lent. First of all, there is prayer. Through prayer we come directly into contact with God, our Creator. Prayer is the breath of life for us, without prayer we spiritually suffocate. Prayer is just as essential to our soul as air is to our body. And so – as a prime example of prayer – on this, the second Sunday of Lent, the Church offers us Saint Gregory of Palamas, teacher of the highest form of prayer – the inner prayer, the internal spiritual endeavor.

Another factor of Orthodoxy in our life is the bearing of one’s cross. Thus, as a supreme example – on the third Sunday of Lent the Church brings out to us the life-giving Cross of our Lord. Subsequently, on the fourth Sunday of Lent the Church gives us St. John of the Ladder, who teaches us another important aspect of Orthodoxy in our life – the acquisition of virtues.

But perhaps we already pray more-or-less, we more-or-less patiently endure the cross which we have been given in life, and perhaps we have even acquired some virtues, and yet we are still not living entirely in an Orthodox manner. Why? Because we sin. All of us are already born with the seeds of sin within us, and during our lifetime we further amass our own sins. If we continue to live with these sins, we cannot be truly Orthodox. However, the Church offers us a wonderful means of overcoming this handicap in our life, and that is – repentance. And so, as a supreme example of penitence and also an example of how we should never despair of our sins, – on the fifth Sunday of Lent the Church gives us St. Mary of Egypt, who from the worst possible sinner turned not only into a righteous person, but literally into an angel on earth. In this fashion, throughout the entire Great Lent the Church reveals to us the treasures of the Orthodox faith and teaches us how to incorporate this faith into our lives.

But now let us dwell on the lesson of this Sunday, which is prayer. Saint Gregory Palamas came from Constantinople, lived in the 14th century and was the Archbishop of Thessalonika. He attained a highly virtuous life, became an eminent theologian and wrote many spiritual writings. But his greatest achievement was the revival of the ancient art of inner prayer, which flourished among the great Church Fathers – desert-dwellers and ascetics, – and which in time became forgotten. This method was also called the “internal endeavor,” because those who used it not only prayed at certain times, for example in the mornings and evenings, as we barely manage to do, but remained in prayer constantly.

Such a state of constant prayer became possible only after a long and hard effort, when a person learned to disregard all external stimuli of the surrounding environment, learned to focus his attention within himself, which was called “to bring the mind down into the heart,” and then, miraculously and by the grace of God, a direct link between man and God Himself became established. This was made possible through the use of the so-called “Jesus prayer”: “O Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me, a sinner.” This brief prayer was constantly said in such a way that it became incorporated into one’s very breathing, and thus prayer literally became part of one’s breath, even when one was doing something, or talking to someone, etc.

For us, in our extremely busy lives, with the constant hurry in which we live, with the manner in which we are bombarded by external stimuli, – the process of internal endeavor, dear brethren, is beyond our capability. However, its most elementary part – the Jesus prayer – remains quite accessible even to us. We may not be able to combine it with our breathing, but we can certainly manage to say it continuously within ourselves: while traveling to and from work, while doing household chores, while going shopping – we can always at least keep this prayer in our mind. And you will see, dear brethren, how the fruits of this prayer will quickly reveal themselves: by saying this prayer over and over again, and by continuously repeating the sweetest name of Jesus Christ, we will not be so quick to pay attention to all the temptations that surround us, we will not be so quick to take offense or pass judgment on others, we will not be so quick to fall into despair; on the contrary, as long as we occupy our minds with the Jesus prayer, we will be calm, joyous, and peaceful. The Scriptures tell us that whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Such is the treasure of prayer which Orthodoxy gives us.

Let us take advantage of this wonderful time of the Great Lent, dear brethren, in order to apply some effort and try to teach ourselves the Jesus prayer, which is the mightiest weapon against the evil spirits and, at the same time, a source of spiritual blessings and joy for us.

“O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon us, sinners.” Amen.

Father Rostislav Sheniloff

Friday of the sixth week of Great Lent marks the end of the 40 days of preparatory lent, during which the Church taught us about repentance, inner prayer, the bearing of one’s cross, ascending the ladder of virtues; taught us to supplicate the Mother of God, in order to obtain the most powerful aid in the matter of penitence; and finally, as the supreme example of its teaching, the Church offered us the image of Saint Mary of Egypt, a great sinner, who, by means of penitence, fasting and obedience to the Holy Virgin, attained the angelic state in which man was originally created.

Now the Church turns to a direct commemoration of the historic events of almost 2,000 years ago, which were instrumental in achieving the salvation of mankind. The Jewish feast of Passover was approaching, and with it the last days of the Lord Jesus Christ’s life on earth. The rage of the Pharisees and the Jewish elders against Christ was extreme, and they waited for an opportune moment to seize the Lord and put Him to death.

Already at the start of the sixth week of Lent, church hymns begin to mention the illness of Lazarus, brother of Martha and Mary, from the town of Bethany. The Lord loved this pious family and often visited it. But Christ was not in Judea at this time, and the sisters sent word to Him of Lazarus’s illness. Then the Lord said to His disciples: “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.” The Lord then deliberately stayed in place for two more days and finally said to His disciples: “Let us go into Judea. Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go to awake him.” Jesus Christ was telling them about Lazarus’s death, but the disciples thought that He was talking about ordinary sleep, which is often beneficial during an illness, and so they said: “Lord, if he sleeps, he shall do well.” Then Jesus said to them plainly: “Lazarus is dead, and I am glad for your sake that I was not there, so that you may believe. However, let us go to him.”

In one of the holiday hymns the Lord is called “the conqueror of death.” There have been many conquerors in the history of mankind: talented physicians conquered illness, military leaders conquered huge armies; there are conquerors of space and conquerors of distance. But the world does not know any other “conqueror of death” except Jesus Christ. None of the most prominent men in the world have ever aspired to that title. He alone could do so – our Lord and Saviour. During His life on earth He showed His power in three cases: the resurrection of the daughter of Jairus, the resurrection of the son of the widow from Nain, and the resurrection of Lazarus.

The death of the daughter of Jairus was a very recent death. She died while Christ and her father were on their way to her. Even Christ called her death “sleep,” but everyone laughed at Him, knowing that she had died. But He sent everyone out and, taking her by the hand, said: “Maiden, arise!” And her spirit returned, and she arose.

In the case of the son of the widow from Nain death had taken a stronger hold: the deceased had already been placed on a bier and not only carried out of the house, but was already being carried out of the city gates for burial. The Lord stopped the procession, touched the bier and said: “Young man, I say unto thee – arise!” The dead youth sat up and began talking. And Jesus gave him back to his mother.

And now – Lazarus. Here the triumph of death was final and complete. Lazarus had already been dead for four days. There was weeping all around, but no one had absolutely any hope of resurrection. And when the Lord said to Martha, the sister of the deceased: “Thy brother shall rise again,” even she answered: “I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” And here the Lord spoke wondrous and remarkable words, which are a pledge of eternal life also for all of us, Orthodox Christians: “I am the resurrection and the life; he that believes in Me, even though he were dead, shall live again. And whosoever lives and believes in Me, shall never die.”

Then the Lord, seeing Martha and Mary weeping, and all the Jews who came with them also weeping, in His humanity felt grief Himself, and wept. Finally He said: “Take away the stone.” At this point even the deceased’s sister could not contain herself and said to Him: “Lord! He rots already, for he has been dead four days.” And so the stone was taken away from the cave where the dead man lay. And Christ cried out in a loud voice: “Lazarus! Come forth!” And the dead man came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was bound about with a napkin. And Jesus said to them: “Loosen him, and let him go.”

Then many of the Jews who were there and had seen the incredible miracle came to believe in Jesus Christ. But others went to the Pharisees and told them of what Jesus had done. Christ’s enemies became worried, and fearing that the entire populace might come to believe in Christ, they convened a council and decided to kill Him. But news of the great miracle spread all over Jerusalem. Many Jews came to the house of Lazarus to see him, and having seen him, believed in Jesus Christ. Then the Jewish elders decided to kill Lazarus, too. But Lazarus lived for a long time after his resurrection, and later served as bishop on the island of Cyprus.

On the day following the resurrection of Lazarus, and six days before the Jewish Passover, the Lord Jesus Christ made a triumphant entrance into Jerusalem, in order to show that He was truly a King, and that He was going to His death voluntarily. There was a great deal of bustle and agitation among the Jews when Christ entered the capital. Millions of people annually came to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, and the city already overflowed with people when the ceremonious welcome of the long-awaited Messiah took place. Moreover, news of the extraordinary resurrection of Lazarus spread like wildfire among the populace, and everyone joyously glorified God. The Apostles were waiting for the moment when their Teacher would come to Jerusalem to be glorified as an earthly king. They believed that this moment had finally arrived, and so they cried out exultantly: “Hosannah, blessed is the One Who comes in the name of the Lord!” So great was the enthusiasm of the populace, that people spread their clothes along the Lord’s path, cut off palm branches, and spread them before Him, or held them as a symbol of triumph and celebration. In ancient times, green branches were used to welcome kings who were returning victorious from battle. Thus we now have the custom for the faithful to receive blessed willow branches during the all-night vigil, to hold as a symbol of Christ’s victory over death.

Great was the enthusiasm of the apostles and the populace. But the One Who was the cause of this celebration did not Himself take part in the general rejoicing. The Lord knew how unstable was the populace and how changeable was the crowd. He foresaw that even a week would not pass, and the cries “Hosannah to the Son of David” would be replaced with the shouts “Take Him, take Him, and crucify Him,” and that these terrible words would be shouted by the same crowd which was now greeting Him so exultantly. This filled His saintly soul with great sadness. But one thing was of great comfort and joy to the Lord as He entered the capital – and that was the innocent voices of children, who cried out to Him from their pure souls and hearts: “Hosannah to the Son of David!” The Lord was filled with gladness as He witnessed this pure childish delight, and the children rejoiced and celebrated with all their hearts, expressing their love for Him spontaneously.

Immediately following upon the feast of the entrance of the Lord into Jerusalem (or Palm Sunday), we embark upon Passion Week, which commemorates the passion of our Lord and brings us to the feast of feasts – the glorious Resurrection of Christ.

The purpose of prayer is to unite man with God, to bring Christ into man’s heart. Wherever prayer is active, there Christ abides with the Father and the Holy Spirit – the one-in-essence and indivisible Holy Trinity. Where you find Christ – the Light of the world – there you find eternal light for the world, there you find peace and joy, the angels and the saints, the bliss of the Heavenly Kingdom.

Blessed are those who have clothed themselves in the Light of the world – in Christ – still in this present life, because they have already begun to wear incorruptible garments.

Thus, inner prayer is aimed at bringing Christ into man’s heart, ridding it of the evil spirit, and destroying all his deeds that have been committed through sin. It is for this reason that the Son of God has come, in order to destroy the deeds of the devil, – says the beloved Disciple. Wherever the devil becomes aware of the power of inner prayer, there he opposes it with frenzied fury, battles against this prayer.

Many times the demons, from out of the mouths of those possessed, confessed to being burned by the effect of this prayer. There was a certain monk, who became so indolent that he left off his prayer rule and returned to the world. He went back to his native land in Cephalinia, where people possessed by demons come to Saint Gerasimus to be healed. This monk also went to venerate the saint, and on the way he met a possessed woman who cried out: “Do you know what you are holding in your hands? O wretched man, if only you knew what you have in your hand! If only you knew how your rosary burns me. And you are holding it only from habit, as a custom!” The monk was dumbfounded. God’s providence made the demon speak out thus. The monk came to his senses. God enlightened him, and he said to himself: “What am I doing! I am holding a mighty weapon in my hand, and I have been unable to vanquish the devil. And not only have I been unable to vanquish him, but he has taken me captive and is dragging me wherever he wants. I have sinned, O my God!” And in that same hour, having repented, he made a new beginning and so excelled in prayer and monastic life, that he became an instructive example for many. And to think only that the importance of prayer and the rosary was revealed – albeit quite unwillingly – by a demon, in accordance with the unfathomable will of the Almighty.

If Christ is the Light of the world, then those who do not see Him, who do not believe in Him, are undoubtedly blind. On the contrary, those who labor to fulfill His commandments enter the light; they confess Christ and worship Him as God. Moreover, whoever confesses Christ and worships Him as the Lord and God, calling upon His name, receives also the power to do His will. But if he does not do so, then it is clear that such a one confesses Christ only superficially, while his heart is far away from Him…

The prayer is on your lips? Then grace will follow it. But besides the lips, the prayer should also pass into the mind, descend into the heart. This, however, requires a lot of time and effort

The difficulty of prayer lies in the beginning, as with all other good deeds. The tongue has to make a great effort, as recompense for all its idle talk and vanity. A habit has to be formed, for without effort and spiritual labor it is impossible to get into the habit of prayer. Humility is also required, in order to attract grace. Only then does the path open up before the spiritual laborer. The prayer is then united with breathing. The mind wakes up and follows the path of prayer. With time all passions calm down. Desires become restrained, the heart becomes tranquil.

Constantly rein in your mind, no matter how much it becomes distracted. Seeing your effort and your labor, God will send you His grace, to enable you to collect your mind. With grace everything is done joyously and effortlessly.

With prayer one goes from joy to joy. Without prayer – there is one fall after another, sorrow after sorrow, poor control over one’s conscience. Spiritual fruits are attained slowly: some effort and abstinence together with prayer, some beneficial sorrow and tears, and then comes the sweetness of God’s presence, the immaculate fear of God, which rectifies and cleanses the mind and the heart.

Be as temperate as possible in sleeping and eating, in order to be able to restrain also your tongue and eyes. And if you happen to eat or sleep in excess, then apply more effort in doing God’s work. Thus the demons will be frustrated, seeing that although they were successful in wounding you in one area, they were vanquished in another.

Be alert and act with sobriety. Not only effort is needed, but also sobriety, and the latter even more so, according to the Holy Fathers. The mind becomes quickly sullied, but is quickly cleansed. The heart is cleansed with great difficulty, but becomes sullied more slowly, being impeded by the grace of God residing in it. For this reason the heart must be cleansed, in order to help the mind become enlightened with the pure thoughts that are reflected in it from above.

Just as it is impossible for the one who walks at night not to stumble, so is it impossible for the one who has not yet seen the divine light not to sin…

Watch your imagination most attentively. Do not take in any external images. A wandering mind draws more and more grotesque images, trying to enter into a forbidden consciousness, trying to depict the hidden and private life of others. Prayer destroys such images as soon as they are created.

No one among mortals can remain uninvolved in the battle with the demons. Everyone experiences these enemy attacks, in order for the will to act and to freely make a choice. Greatly honored is the person who – by the grace of God – acquires the ability to restrain the devil in the initial stage of temptation – the suggestion. (According to the Holy Fathers’ teaching on thoughts, suggestion is the first stage in the development of a thought, when the devil presents a tempting image to a person’s imagination. This stage is not yet considered to be a sin.) Do not wish to unite yourself with those who, while living in a state of captivity, do not agree and say: ‘But I can no longer withstand it – at this moment I cannot do anything.’ Yes, at this moment you cannot, but you could have done so before, just as you will be able to do so again, if you make a new beginning.

It is not unrepentant sinners who enter the Heavenly Kingdom, but the sinners who have been cleansed through penitence. Nothing helps a person as much in his spiritual warfare, in his triumph over passions, as constant inner prayer. In the midst of temptations, when the mind and the tongue flag, do not leave off your praying. Try just a little bit more, so that God sees your good intention and fortifies you. The Lord wants even greater things from you, and for this reason leaves you in temptation for a while, in order for you to attain these greater things which He knows you can do. And you know it as well.

From time to time you may receive grace without any effort on your part, as though the Lord were saying to you: All that you have is good, but do not think that it all depends on you alone. I am the One to judge when to come and when to leave, and in this way I will teach you patience and rejection of your own will, so that you will learn the lesson of humility well.

Attention should be united with prayer and remain inseparable from it, just as the body is inseparably united with the soul. The mind should guard the heart while it prays, and should pray to God from within the heart, saying constantly: O Lord Jesus Christ, save me! And then, when the mind, being within the heart, gets a taste of how good is the Lord, and delights in it, afterwards it will never wish to leave its place within the heart.

God is light, and the contemplation of Him is also Light. Fortunate are those who have approached the Divine Light, who have entered It, who have united with It, and who have themselves become part of this Light, because they have completely taken off the soiled garments of their sins and no longer wish to shed bitter tears. Fortunate are those who have come to know the Light of the Lord while still living on earth, as though they have already seen Him in person, and thus they have hopes of also standing before Him in the eternal life. Fortunate are those who have accepted Christ, Who has appeared as Light to those who have been in darkness up to now, for they have become sons of Light and the unending day…

Archimandrite Ephraim the Athonite

Today I would like to speak on a subject which is very relevant to our times: the end of the world; more particularly, the signs being fulfilled in our times which point to the end of the world.

There have been a number of times in the past when this subject was of great interest. In fact, you can even call them “apocalyptic” times. The Apostles themselves felt that their times were very apocalyptic. (Later I will present some of the statements they made in the Scriptures which show that they really expected the end of all things to be very close.) At various other times – for example, in the West, around the year 1000 – there was a great expectation of the end. In Russia near the end of the 15th century, again there was a period when the end was expected shortly. This was because the year 1492, according to the chronology of the Old Testament, was the year 7000 from the creation of the world. And many people in our own times have this same feeling that time is running out, that something big is going to happen. Often this is bound up with the number 2,000. That is, we have come to the end of two millennia of Christianity; a millennium is thought of as a big thing, a whole thousand years, and two of them means some great crisis must be approaching; and many people place this in the terms of the end of the world. Of course, that does not necessarily mean anything, since we don’t know the day, or the hour, or the year when the world is going to end (Matt. 24:36). I will try, however, to go into what our attitude should be toward this expectation of the end.

Nowadays, when you think about “apocalyptic awareness,” you think of Protestant sectarians of various kinds, who have definite ideas about what is going to happen at the end of this age. It is not only religious thinkers, however, but also ordinary secular philosophers who talk about the end of the world in a very bold way. I will give you an example, one who should be close to us because he is an Orthodox writer: Alexander Solzhenitsyn. He has been outside of Russia since 1974, and has written about life in the Soviet Union and especially in the Soviet labor camps, the infamous Gulag. He is not what one would consider a “mystical” or “vague” thinker, or someone who’s up in the clouds; he is very down-to-earth.

Almost three years ago he gave a talk at the Harvard University commencement, in which he spoke boldly to the people of the West (just as before that he had spoken boldly to Soviet leaders), telling them that their civilization is collapsing and is in danger of being taken over by Communism, that modern humanism is not deep enough to satisfy the human soul, and that it is no model that can be followed by Russia, if Russia should overthrow Communism. At the end of this address he used the following words to express his idea of the depth of the crisis which is now occurring in the world:

“If the world has not come to its end, it has approached a major turn in history, equal in importance to the turn from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance.” Here he speaks seriously of the possibility of the “end of the world,” based on his observations that it is impossible for men to live long without deep spiritual roots, which have been uprooted in the East by Communism and in the West by worldly humanism.

In his other writings, Solzhenitsyn, like many realistic thinkers today, speaks of specific reasons, quite apart from the spiritual ones, why he thinks that such a period of great crisis is facing humanity. He mentions things that you will find in any serious analysis of today’s news: namely, such things as the nearness of the exhaustion of the earth’s resources (if they are used at the present rates); the disastrous pollution of air and water and soil (which is much worse in Russia than in America); the overpopulation of the world and the approaching disastrous shortage of food which seems to be coming; and, of course, the development of weapons in the last few decades, which makes the virtual annihilation of human life possible.

All this relates to the physical signs of an approaching great crisis, the end of the modern age, and perhaps the end of the world itself. But much more remarkable than these are the spiritual signs that are multiplying in our times. This is what I would like to mostly talk about.

First of all, I would like to ask a question: What should be the attitude of a committed Orthodox Christian toward this whole idea of the end of the world, and toward the signs which are preparing for it? Should we dismiss all this as some kind of superstition, hysteria, and so forth?

No, we should not. We have, first of all, the answer given by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself in the Gospel. Just two days before He was to go to His Passion, His disciples came to Him on the Mount of Olives and asked Him: “Tell us, when shall these things be?” – that is, the destruction of the temple, which He had just mentioned. Then they asked Him: “And what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?” (Matt. 24:3). Our Saviour at that moment did not reject the question, as He did at other times when the disciples asked things they should not be asking, such as when James and John asked if they would be able to sit next to Him in the Kingdom of Heaven (Mark 10:37). On the contrary, He allowed them to ask the questions, and He answered them. These answers take up the entire twenty-fourth chapter of the Book of St. Matthew (where the historical events before the end of the world are set forth), and the twenty-fifth chapter (where He teaches most fully on the coming Judgment and on how to prepare for His coming). In a shorter form, these are also set forth in the Gospels of Mark and Luke. Some of these prophecies refer directly to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, which happened several decades after the Crucifixion, but the rest refer to the end of the whole world.

In His answer, our Lord gives the following main points. First of all, beware of deception, of following false Christs. Then there will be various signs, such as wars, famines, earthquakes – and all these are not the end but rather the beginning of the tribulation. Then there will be the moral signs: the persecutions of Christians; the increase of evil; the growing coldness of love, which is one of the main signs that Christianity is dying, because the sign of a Christian, as our Lord told us, is that he has love for others. Then another sign is that the Gospel is to be preached to the whole world, after which the end will come. Another sign is that there will be a terrible tribulation, i.e. apart even from all the things He has mentioned already: wars, famines, earthquakes. And “the abomination of desolation will be in the holy place” (we must understand this according to the interpretation handed down by the Holy Fathers, which I will speak about); and “the days will be shortened… for the sake of the elect” (Matt. 24:15, 22).

Then again He warns about false Christs and false prophets, and about “great signs and wonders” which, “if possible, will lead astray even the elect,” i.e. not only will terrible physical events happen, but there will also be deceptions which are so subtle that even the elect themselves might be fooled.

Then the sign of the coming of Christ: it will be sudden, from above, and not like His first coming. The signs of the very end are that “the sun shall be darkened, the moon shall not give its light, the stars will fall from heaven”; and then Christ Himself will appear in the heavens with the sign of the Cross.

But He tells us that the day and hour of His coming are not for us to know. Nonetheless, we should pay attention. He gives us the parable of the fig tree: when we see its branches putting forth leaves, we know that summer is nigh; and, likewise, when we watch the signs and see these things beginning to happen, then we know that the times are ripe, that the end is drawing near.

Therefore, we are to watch not for a specific day or time, but rather for the signs of the end so that we can be prepared. We are especially to be prepared against deception, which is involved with one of the great events to happen at the end of the world: the coming of Antichrist, which we will discuss shortly.

As I mentioned earlier, the age of the Apostles – the first century – was full of the expectation that Christ would soon return. Today it is a little difficult for us even to imagine how the Apostles could be so filled with fervor for Christ that they could go to all the ends of the world; but they literally did. The Apostle Thomas went to India, and some say even as far as China; St. Andrew went north to Scythia, which is now Russia; St. Aristobulus and others went to England; St. Matthew and others went south to Abyssinia. The whole civilized world at that time was covered by the Apostles, because they had the idea that the world was coming soon to an end, and that they were to go out to all the lands and preach the Gospel. Already by the time of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in A.D. 70, the Gospel had been preached to virtually all the known inhabited world. From that time on began the bringing forth of fruits in all those countries in which the seed of the Gospel had been planted.

And we see, if we take any one particular country that received the Gospel, how over the centuries it brought forth fruits. It had saints, the lives of people were completely changed, and there was a total difference between the time that country was pagan and the time it accepted Orthodox Christianity. If you take any country in the West, such as Britain or France, or in the East, such as Byzantium or Syria or Russia, you will see that this is the case.

There are a number of Scriptural passages in which the Apostles mention the coming of the end. For example, in Philippians 4:4-5, St. Paul writes: “Rejoice in the Lord always… The Lord is at hand.” St John mentions in 1 John 2:18: “Little children, it is the last hour.” The Apostle Peter says in 1 Peter 4:7: “The end of all things is at hand.” Elsewhere, answering those who said that the end was a long time in coming, St. Peter says in his famous statement that “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day, and that the Lord is only being patient with us until we repent (II Peter 3:8-9). And then, immediately after that, he gives us a full description of the actual end of the world by fire (3:10-13).

So, from that very time, those who were fervent Christians had a definite idea: the world is soon coming to an end. Of course, nineteen centuries have passed since that time. Does that mean that the Apostles were mistaken? Or that anyone else who thinks so is also mistaken, and we should put away all ideas that the end of the world is at hand, that Christ is coming soon? No, it does not mean this. It means that we are to understand this in the right way, and the right way is the spiritual way. If we ourselves are leading a conscious spiritual life, conducting the unseen warfare against our own fallen nature and against the demons who are against us, then we will be constantly expecting the coming of Christ into our soul.

The only danger is if you go overboard and begin to try to place dates, to calculate exactly when it is going to happen, to be too concerned about specific events which are occurring and too quick to place them in categories so that they fit into chapters of the Apocalypse.

Of course, the big mistake made by the people who go overboard in these details occurs when they fall into the heresy of chiliasm: the expectation of Christ coming to earth for a thousand years. Chiliasm, a heresy fought by the early Fathers of the Church, constantly comes up again in sectarian circles, especially in times of historical uncertainty and crisis. It is the teaching of a reign of Christ on earth before the end of the world: a reign of peace and prosperity under Christ, Who will reign with His elect in Jerusalem and conquer all foes. This troublesome heresy was widespread even in the early history of the Church and was condemned by the Second Ecumenical Council in A.D.381. That was when the phrase was put in the Creed: “…and His Kingdom shall have no end.” This phrase was introduced into the Creed with the specific intention of countering the chiliastic teaching of the heretic Apollinarius.

The idea of chiliasm arose out of a misinterpretation of Apocalypse chapter 20, which says the devil was bound for a thousand years, and Christ came and reigned with His saints. If you just read the text straight through without stopping and interpreting it according to what the Holy Fathers have said about it, you can get the idea that there is to be a period of a thousand years between two future comings of Christ. This means you have to have two different Judgments. In fact, the Protestants do: they have a “Great White Throne Judgment,” and some other kind of Judgment. This confuses the whole picture of Christian eschatology.

In the universal interpretation of the Orthodox Holy Fathers, however, there is no mystery about this. The reign of Christ with His saints is occurring now. This is the Church. This is the life of grace in the Church with the Sacraments, which Protestants, not having, do not understand. The life in the Church is such a blessed state – because we are with Christ, we have His grace, we have His Body and Blood within us – that this is like Paradise. And this is what people call the millennium. The “thousand years” means a whole period. One thousand is a round number: 10x10x10 in symbolical language means the fullness of time between the First Coming and the Second Coming of Christ.

Expectation of a chiliastic coming of Christ (i.e. of Christ reigning as an earthly ruler for a thousand years) has led to fantasies and bloodshed, from the time of the Middle Ages to now: “charismatic” leaders persuade their followers either that they are Christ, or that they are preparing for Him. This is an exact fulfillment of Christ’s prophecy of fake Christs who will not come from the heavens at the end of the world. In recent times, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh-Day Adventists, and many other sectarian groups have preached this doctrine, often predicting the exact year and day of the end of the world – which never comes on schedule – or preparing for a great “world leader” who will bring peace on earth. This “world leader” will be the Antichrist, about whom the Scriptures prophesy exactly. Fantasies of the coming “millennium” are one of the chief ways mankind is preparing for the Antichrist.

Our times are full of this chiliasm or millenarianism. This is the basis of the Communist ideology of the perfect state on earth that will come when the “dictatorship of the proletariat” finally ends. Such fantasies always result in tyranny in the name of a religious or philosophical ideal.

Chiliastic views themselves are not a particular sign of the end. They existed in the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and in more modern times; but they have never been more widespread than today, not merely among small groups of sectarians, but among political and religious leaders of humanity. This I will talk about a little later as one of the signs of the end.

Now let us turn to some of the spiritual signs of the end. Most of these signs are bound up with the figure of Antichrist, the world ruler at the end of time, the last great enemy of Christ. Many people have a very superficial idea about him: Luther thought it was the Pope, others have a caricatural idea of him as simply a vicious dictator. We must go deeper than this, and especially distinguish between the general spirit of Antichrist, the many lesser antichrists who have this spirit to some degree, and the Antichrist himself, who will come only at the very end of time and rule the whole world. St. John says (1 John 2:18): “As ye have heard that Antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come; therefore we know that it is the last hour.” That is, just because we have seen many with the spirit of Antichrist in the past – those who have fought against Christ, like some Roman emperors, and especially those who have tried to deceive Christians by means of some fake teaching and seeming miracles – this does not mean there will not be a single Antichrist at the end of the world. These many small antichrists should prepare us for the coming of the great Antichrist.

Father Seraphim Rose

On March 30th (the 17th by the old calendar) the Church commemorates the Saint Alexis, the man of God.

What a wondrous saint and how deeply moving is his life! St. Alexis was born in the 4th century A.D. in Rome, in the reign of the emperors Arcadius and Honorius. His parents, Ephimianus and Aglaida, were very pious and a model of chastity and hospitality. Although Ephimianus was a rich nobleman, he himself ate only once a day, but every day at his home he fed a multitude of widows, orphans, wanderers, the poor, and the sick. St. Alexis also grew up to be a pious and educated young man, well-versed in the Holy Scriptures and other religious writings.

When St. Alexis came of age, his parents had him engaged to a maiden from a princely family, but after the wedding the saint came to his bride and gave her his gold ring, then went into his room, changed into a poor man’s clothes, and secretly left his house and his city. Arriving at the seashore, he found a ship that was set to sail for Asia Minor, and so he sailed on this ship, wishing to escape from the vanity of secular life. After wandering for a while, the saint came to the city of Edessa and settled there at the church of the Holy Theotokos. St. Alexis lived as a beggar at the church portal and kept a very strict fast, partaking only of bread and water. From such a severe life his whole body withered, and the beauty of his face waned.

Meanwhile, his parents and his bride grieved terribly over his disappearance, while his father sent servants everywhere to search for his son. Some of them even came to Edessa, but did not recognize St. Alexis and, taking him for a beggar, gave him alms.

St. Alexis lived in Edessa at the church of the Mother of God for 17 years, and through his pious life earned God’s grace. During this time the church sacristan had a vision concerning St. Alexis: the sacristan saw an icon of the Holy Theotokos, Who said to him: “Lead into My church the man of God who is worthy of the Heavenly Kingdom; his prayer rises up to God like incense, and the Holy Spirit rests upon him like a crown upon a king’s head.”

After this vision the sacristan began to search for a man of such righteous life and, not finding him, appealed to the Holy Theotokos for help. And once more he had a vision in which he heard a voice issuing from the icon of the Theotokos, saying that the man of God is the beggar who sits at the church portal. Then the sacristan led the saint into the church, for him to live there.

However, since many people began to venerate St. Alexis for his righteous life, once more he secretly left the city, in order to flee from earthly fame. The saint boarded a ship sailing for Silicia, but by God’s Providence a storm arose during the voyage, and the ship unexpectedly ended up in Rome. Then St. Alexis decided to return to his own home, but to live there as a stranger. Ephimianus, seeing a poor wanderer and not recognizing his own son, greeted him warmly and ordered the servants to build him a small dwelling near the entrance to the house and to serve him.

And thus St. Alexis lived at the entrance to his parents’ house for another 17 years, overcoming many tribulations by his extraordinary patience: on the one hand he had to bear insults from his father’s servants, who, at the instigation of the devil, taunted him most harshly; on the other hand the saint was continuously forced to hear the pitiful weeping of his mother and his bride, who did not cease to mourn him. His heart was torn with pity at the sight of their tears, but his love for God helped him to bear this trial and to continue leading the life he had chosen.

But the time came for the saint to leave this temporal life in which he had experienced such poverty and deprivation, and to enter the joy of eternal life. At this moment a Divine liturgy was being served in the city cathedral, at the end of which a wondrous voice issued from the altar: “Come to Me all ye that labor and are heavily laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). All those who were present in the church fell to the ground in fear, crying out: “Lord, have mercy!” Then the voice was hear a second time: “Look for the man of God, who is already leaving this life; let him pray for the city.” Everyone began to search all over Rome for such a man, but did not know where to find him. Meanwhile, the voice from the altar was heard again: “Look for the man of God in the house of Ephimianus.” At this point the king, who was in the cathedral at that time, turned to Ephimianus and asked: “How is it that you, possessing such a treasure in your home, did not tell us about it?” Ephimianus replied: “As God is my witness, I know nothing about it.”

Then the king arose and went together with his noblemen to Ephimianus’s house, deciding to search there himself for the man of God. Arriving at the gates, they found dead the beggar who had lived at the entrance, but whose face was now shining with an angelic radiance, while his hand clasped a letter to his parents, explaining all that had happened. The king immediately ordered St. Alexis’s body to be carried into the midst of the city, so that everyone could venerate the saint. And all Rome gathered there; and all the people venerated the saint, from whom there were many healings and miracles. Afterwards the body of the saint stood in the cathedral for a whole week, open to universal veneration, and subsequently, as it was being placed in a marble casket, a stream of aromatic myrrh issued from the body, filling the entire casket. All the inhabitants of the city anointed themselves with this myrrh and were healed of all their illnesses.

Saint Alexis, the man of God, reposed in 411 A.D.

It is said in the Bible that the Ark stopped upon the mountains of Ararat. It should naturally be assumed that it was Mount Ararat, since it is not a ridge, but a cone-shaped mountain of volcanic provenance, whose upper part, beginning with 4.5 km above sea level and all the way to the summit, is covered with eternal ice (Ararat’s elevation is 5700 meters).

Where did Noah’s Ark stop? After “the water of the great abyss” had remained for half-a-year, even the tops of mountains were covered with water. The ice should have melted in the water, but if the ship had stopped below the zone of eternal ice, it would have rotted and been destroyed without a trace. However, had it stopped on the very summit, after the Deluge it would have been covered with a strong layer of ice and would have become inaccessible to people. By God’s Providence the Ark stopped in a mountain lake at a height of 5 km, where the glaciers drift down from the summit, and there is considerably less ice cover. In cold years the Ark is covered with ice and snow and cannot be seen, while during the summer in hot years part of it becomes exposed, which, however, happens very rarely.

On July 6, 1955 French mountaineer Fernand Navarra and his 15-year-old son Rafael found Noah’s Ark and shared this discovery with the entire world. The meter-long wooden beam (from the frame of the ship) brought back by Fernand Navarra was subjected to radioactive analyses. The tests showed that the wood (oak) was 5,000 years old. The analyses were performed in two laboratories: in Cairo and in Madrid. All the photographs, the results of the analyses, and certifications were appended by Navarra to a book published in French.

This unique discovery was preceded by two not too successful expeditions, made by the same man in 1952 and 1953. And not surprisingly, since even for the most desperate mountaineers access to the Ark is difficult due to frequent and destructive snowstorms.

Navarra dedicated 17 years to this expedition. He encountered difficulties, because Ararat is located at the junction of three borders: Armenia, Iran, and Turkey, who had concluded an agreement forbidding ascent up Mount Ararat. Navarra conducted all his expeditions in secret, passing through the dangerous zone at night.

At the very last he was fired upon and arrested by the border guards, but afterwards he was let go safely with all his films and the piece of wood. Such are the conditions in which this heroic expedition took place.

The first information about a search for Noah’s Ark comes from the pagan priest Veronus in 475 B.C. He tells of how many people in his times and earlier had achieved the summit of Ararat, had seen Noah’s Ark there, and had brought back bits of it as relics. In Christian times Nicholas Damascene confirms that the frame of the Ark remained in a state of preservation for a long time. Joseph Flavius likewise writes in his opus “Antiquities” that many people brought back bits of the Ark from the Ararat. Theophanus of Antioch confirms the same in A.D. 180. In 1800 the American Claudius Rich published a report by a certain Aga Hussein, who claimed he had reached the summit of Ararat and had seen the remains of the Ark.

In 1829 the expedition of Frederick Parrot, a professor at Derpt University, opened the way for scientific expeditions to Ararat. Two of Parrot’s expeditions did not reach the summit of Ararat, while the third time he and his group of six colleagues did apparently succeed in reaching the site of the Ark, but could not prove it.

In 1840 a magazine in Constantinople reported the discovery of Noah’s Ark. A Turkish expedition, outfitted for researching snow avalanches on Ararat, discovered a gigantic frame made out of nearly black wood, protruding from a glacier. The inhabitants of the closest villages to Ararat reported that they had known of the existence of this structure for 6 years, but dared not approach it, because they saw a fearsome spirit appearing in an upper window there. Such fears did not stop the Turks, a brave people. Despite great difficulties, they continued their research. Their expedition came close to the Ark. It was in good condition, although its sides had become damaged from time. One of the members of the expedition, who spoke French and English, stated that the sides of the Ark were constructed from the wood mentioned in the Scriptures. As everyone knows, this wood does not grow anywhere else except in the Euphrates River valley. Making their way inside the Ark, the members of the expedition ascertained that it was arranged for transporting cattle.

The inner space is divided into sections 15 feet high. The Turks could only get into three sections, because the others were filled with ice. The length of the Ark was 500 kadem (a Turkish measure).

In 1893 Nourri, an archdeacon in a Nestorian church, studied the sources of the Euphrates River, and after ascending Mount Ararat officially declared that he had seen the remnants of the Ark, “whose front and back parts are accessible, while the middle part remains under ice. The Ark is made out of thick brown-colored boards.” After measuring the Ark, Nourri found that its dimensions coincide with those described in the Bible.

On the wave of his enthusiasm Nourri formed a society which was to finance a second expedition, providing it with all necessary materials, but on condition that the Ark, after being lowered from the Ararat, would be delivered to the Chicago Exhibition.

In the end Nourri was forced to give up his brilliant project, because the Turkish government refused to grant permission to have Noah’s Ark taken out of the country, and the shareholders then refused to participate in the affair. After that nothing more was heard of any expeditions until World War I.

But in August 1916 the Russian aviator Vladimir Roskovitsky, who was exploring the Turkish border, found himself over Ararat and saw a frozen lake in the eastern part of the snow-covered summit. At the edge of this lake there was the frame of a gigantic ship. Part of the ship remained covered with ice, while the sides were open and in some parts damaged. Moreover, one of the folds of the door could be seen. When Roskovitsky informed his superiors of his discovery, they wanted to obtain precise confirmation of it. Conducting flights over the mountain they, on their part, also became convinced of the existence of the indicated object and so informed Moscow and St. Petersburg. Tsar Nicholas II ordered a government expedition to be sent to Ararat. A company of 150 soldiers worked for a month to make an ascent up the mountain somewhat possible. Afterwards a scientific mission was sent there, which conducted research by measuring and photographing the Ark and collecting samples of it. The results were sent back to St. Petersburg. Unfortunately, all these priceless documents appear to have been destroyed during the Russian Revolution.

The Roskovitsky affair was due to be echoed during World War II. The head of the Soviet security service, Major Jaspar Mascalin, says that one of his people was curious to fly over Ararat, to see whether there was any truth in what Roskovitsky had reported 25 years earlier. The Soviet pilot did, in fact, notice a structure partially submerged in an icy lake.

However, all of this did not prevent the Soviet expedition from declaring the story of the Ark to be a myth which had nothing to do with science.

Expeditions were also undertaken in postwar times, but they did not succeed due to the obstructions put up by the Turkish government under pressure from the Moslem world, since the Koran indicated another mountain on which Noah’s Ark had supposedly rested.

Ferdinand Navarra was due to take part in an expedition by the missionary Dr. Smith. After several failures, Navarra decided to act independently, even without permission from the Turkish government.

The heroic adventure of the last expedition was described by Navarra in his book. Having reached the ice border at night, at the advice of his Armenian friend he set up camp there, in order to set out in the morning to storm the inaccessible cliffs, all completely covered by ice. A terrible blizzard came on in the night, and there was a strong frost, so that Navarra and his son Rafael barely escaped freezing in their shelter, which became covered by a thick layer of snow under a temperature of 30 degrees below zero.

In the morning, with God’s help, as Navarra writes, he set out for the site he had seen from afar during one of his first expeditions. Despite the fact that everything was covered with ice and accumulations of snow, he succeeded in finding the Ark. With great difficulty and risk Navarra cut out a section of the oak frame from the ice, 1 meter long and 8 inches wide, whose antiquity was later established as being 5,000 years. There was no planking in this place.

Navarra’s book is illustrated with photographs of the cut-out piece of the frame and of the site on which the Ark is located under the ice, as well as photos of laboratory certifications, drawings, maps, etc. This is naturally not the last expedition; the future will presumably provide more detailed information.

Protopriest Stefan Lyashevsky

Springtime

	The sun so brightly shining,
The apple trees in bloom,
	Birds from the south are flying
And weaving nests anew.
	The yellow dandelions
Have spread over the fields,
	And in the lilac bushes
The nightingale sings.
	The violets in the woods,
Alongside morels placed,
	Peer out from under leaves
With limpid, joyous gaze.
	Now overflowing with water,
The streams do merrily run,
	And both the grass and bushes
Await their flowering turn
	Again the glorious cycle –
Each spring, just like the first,
	The world’s a thing of beauty,
A paradise on earth.

Princess N.V. Ourousoff
Translated by Natalia Sheniloff