The bronze statue of Saint Willibrord can be seen today in the Archdiocese of Utrecht (The Netherlands), close to the Domplein. The statue is a symbol of the devotion of the faithful to Saint Willibrord, the missionary-bishop who evangelised many areas of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and Denmark in the 6th century. Born in England in the 7th century, Willibrord took his vows as monk and started his mission in continental Europe in 690 AD. By journeying to Rome, he established a connection with the Pope and symbolically united the Frisian region with the diocese of the Bishop of Rome. Thanks to his evangelising mission, the community of the Church grew exponentially until his death in 739 AD. The present-day statue in Utrecht was sculpted by Belgian artist Albert Termote, who depicted the Saint as a monk carrying a small Frisian church in his hand, symbol of the churches that Saint Willibrord built in Europe. Since 2002, the ‘Willibrord procession’ takes place every year in September, during which the relics of the Saint are carried to the Cathedral of St. Catharina. The statue represents the work and perseverance of many Saints who, like Willibrord, contributed to shape the Christian roots of Europe and, almost unnoticed, evangelised the continent in the Middle Ages.
Singing maintains good mental health
It is a whole-body experience that allows for deliberate, deep breaths.
Singing can make people forget their worries and anxieties, even for a while. However, many of them are afraid to do so, mainly because they do not define themselves as musical. Although this hesitation is natural, it can prevent people from expressing themselves in a way that has proven benefits for their mental health.
Singing songs that match the mood or express how a person wants to feel, instead of just listening, allows them to touch more deeply and go through different emotions.
Singing is an experience that covers the whole body and creates the possibility for deliberate, deep breaths. It triggers the release of endorphins and dopamine, which causes increased physical and mental awareness.
Researchers have noticed that listening to music and singing can improve a person’s good mental state and help him cope with feelings of anxiety and sadness.
A study done in 2019 and published in BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care looks at how music will affect people who have lost a loved one in the last five years but have not recently taken medication for anxiety or depression and have not started attending psychotherapist.
Half of the participants in the study attended choral classes and socialized for 90 minutes a week.
After 24 weeks, this group of people experienced a stabilization of the symptoms of depression, as well as an overall improvement in their mental state and self-esteem.
According to another study conducted in 2021 by the University of Helsinki, people over the age of 60 engaged in choral singing have better developed verbal abilities than those who do not sing. The study was published in PLOS One.
Despite these benefits, many people have great difficulty singing in places where they could be heard by others. This makes them feel vulnerable.
Singing is one of the many ways in which a person can contribute to good mental health. However, some people do not find it useful or enjoyable and try to unload through other methods such as meditation or long walks.
It is important for everyone to find ways to make themselves feel better.
The results of this study found that there is a decrease in cortisol, a hormone associated with stress. The subjects felt calm, relieved and comfortable after singing, as evidenced by their responses to the questionnaire. This study concludes that singing has both health and psychological benefits in a confined space for older people.
Sound effects
So far, we’ve talked about how your body and mind can rejuvenate when you sing in the bathroom, but we also need to look at the physics associated with the bathroom and see how that makes the bathroom such an interesting place to showcase our musical talent! The acoustics in most bathrooms are essentially ideal for starting a private small concert. For example, most bathrooms have tiles that barely absorb sound. In fact, it means that your voice is reflected back and forth when you sing in the bathroom. This reflection also amplifies your voice, but it’s not just about the volume; magic lies in two other phenomena: echo and resonance.
Reverberation
Because the walls of the bathroom are not at the same distance from your mouth; some of the sound waves travel a little farther and take a second longer to reflect in your ears. In addition, because the walls in the bathroom are usually made of smooth hard surfaces, sound waves continue to bounce more often before fading. So, somehow, your sound lasts longer in the bathroom than in your living room. This effect is called reverberation. You get the impression that the note you sang lasted longer than you kept it. Reverberation also tends to smooth the transition between notes.
In fact, many karaoke systems these days are designed to implement this reverb effect electronically, which can slightly improve your sound as you sing!
Resonance
The performance of your shower will still sound better than the karaoke system, powered by the reverberation technique, because the bathroom has another acoustic property that is much harder to emulate: resonance.
In resonance, the sound waves are arranged exactly in the right way to amplify the sound. During a shower, this often happens because the wavelength of the note is exactly right for the size of the bathroom – in a way that makes the tops of the reflected waves line up. As a result, many of the notes will not only resonate, but will also combine with other reflected sound waves in a way that cancels out some of the sounds. This resonant effect is much more noticeable at deeper bass tones, as they have longer wavelengths, i. there is a greater distance between the crests of the sound waves. Now this effect of amplified and muffled sound is not the same in the whole bathroom. In some places in the bathroom your notes will be a bit muffled, while in other places it will sound great!
Food for good health and psyche
We all know how important it is to choose the right food
We all know how important it is to choose the right food that we eat – which foods are suitable for the brain and our good psyche.
1. Seaweed
Seaweed contains Omega-3 fatty acids and magnesium, which take care of the brain and help with stress.
2. Nuts
Walnuts are a great source of protein and healthy fats that help maintain balanced blood sugar levels. They contain Omega-3 and have a beneficial effect on our energy, mood and focus.
3. Dark chocolate
Dark chocolate, which has over 50% cocoa, will release endorphins in your brain and make you happier and less stressed. Cocoa also improves blood flow to the brain and improves its functions.
4. Salmon
Salmon is rich in Omega-3, which helps improve cell function in the brain, leading to a lower risk of depression, memory problems and dementia. This fish will balance hormones, control appetite and increase serotonin in your body.
5. Soy
Soy contains amino acids that are important for the muscles and bones of our body and help deal with sleep disorders and insomnia. It is also useful in the recovery of estrogen during menopause.
6. Salvia
Sage is rich in antioxidants that help improve memory and concentration. The flavonoids in it protect the brain from serious diseases, as well as prevent depression and anxiety.
About miracles and signs Part Three
Before the Second Coming of Christ there will be omens in the sun and the moon and in the stars, and on the earth there will be sorrow in the nations of bewilderment and of the noise and excitement of the sea (Luke 21:25). How can these signs be distinguished from the signs of the antichrist, because he will also give signs in the sun, the moon, the stars and in the air? [32] The former will be true and will therefore be completely different from the signs of the antichrist, which will consist of deceptive phenomena. The performers of the signs of the antichrist will be the antichrist himself and his “apostles”, and the signs of the sun, moon and stars announcing the Second Coming of Christ will become by themselves, without any mediation. The celestial lights will fulfill their purpose, which is why they shone in heaven at the command of the Creator (Gen. 1:14). They have already fulfilled this purpose at Christ’s birth with the wonderful star (Matt. 2: 2), they fulfilled it at the crucifixion of the Godman, when the sun was covered with the dark veil of darkness at noon (Matt. 27:45). St. Evangelist Matthew says that after the tribulation caused by the dominion of the antichrist has passed, Christ’s coming will come immediately, and it will begin with the sun going dark and the moon not giving its light, and the stars falling from the sky (Matt. 29:25). These lights will remain in place, notes Blaz. Theophylact of Bulgaria, but they will darken and it will seem to human vision that they have disappeared from heaven, because of the abundant heavenly light that will illuminate the world, prepared to receive the Lord in His glory.
We dare to call the doctrine of miracles and signs that we offer you the doctrine of the Holy Orthodox Church, the doctrine of its holy fathers. The essential need for an accurate and as detailed as possible exposition of this doctrine is obvious. The true signs were helpers of the true knowledge of God and the salvation he gave; false signs were helpers of delusion and the doom that resulted from it. In particular, the action of the signs that the antichrist will perform will be extensive and powerful, it will captivate unhappy humanity and make it recognize as god the messenger of Satan. The pious contemplation of the miracles of our Lord Jesus Christ is edifying, comforting, and soul-saving. What holy simplicity there is in them! How through them the knowledge of God has become easier for people! What kindness, what humility, and what irrefutable power of conviction lurk in them! Contemplation of Christ’s miracles elevates us to the Word, which is God. In order to restore communion with fallen apostasy, God pleased His Word to put on human flesh, to appear and communicate with people, to enter into the closest relationship with them, and by winning them over for Himself, to exalt them. in the sky. Dressed in human flesh, the Word continued to be the Word of God and to act as a word according to His Divine dignity. It sits at the right hand of the Father with accepted human nature and as God continues to be everywhere. It is written on paper, It is clothed in sounds, but being Spirit and Life (John b. 63), It enters minds and hearts, recreates those who unite with Him in spirit, attracting to spiritual life and body. From contemplating the miracles of Christ, we ascend to the knowledge of this great meaning, which is contained in the Word of God, the only thing necessary (Luke 10:42) for our salvation, to the Word who serves salvation and accomplishes salvation to the fullest. The knowledge of the Word of God from the Holy Scriptures, spoken and clarified by the Holy Spirit, together with the knowledge derived from the activity directed according to the Word of God, finally overshadowed by the knowledge taught to us by God’s grace, give the Christian purity of mind and heart.
In this purity the spiritual mind shines, like the sun in a clear cloudless sky. At daybreak, after the night darkness, the clarity of material objects changes: some of them, which have not been seen before, become visible, some, which have been seen vaguely and merged with other objects, are separated from them and outline more clearly. This is not because objects have changed, but because the clarity of human vision in relation to them changes as the darkness of night changes with the light of day. The same is true of the human mind in regard to moral and spiritual objects, when the mind is enlightened by the spiritual knowledge emanating from the Holy Spirit. Only in the light of spiritual reason can the soul see the holy way to God. Only in the light of the spiritual mind can the unmistakable invisible procession of the mind and heart to God take place! Only in the light of spiritual reason can we avoid delusions, fatal gaps and precipices. Where this light is lacking, there is no knowledge of the truth, no God-pleasing virtue saving man to lead him to the abodes of paradise. Our spiritual eyes should be illuminated with the light of spiritual reason when we look at signs and wonders. In this way we will avoid the calamities in which our perception through carnal wisdom may involve us. We saw the nature of the miracles of the Godman, we saw what their purpose was. The signs, having fulfilled their purpose, have left the field of their ministry, leaving the real doer to act – the Word. It is He who abides and will abide as a doer until the end of the world, as He has declared to Himself: behold, I am with you to the end of the world (Matt. 28:20). After the end of the ubiquitous performance of the signs that accompanied the sowing of Christianity through the preaching of the apostles and co-apostolic men, the signs were performed in separate places by selected vessels of the Holy Spirit. Over time, with the gradual weakening of Christianity and the deterioration of morality, holy men performing signs became few, [34] and eventually disappeared altogether. Meanwhile, people, having lost reverence and respect for all that is sacred, having lost the humility with which they could see their unworthiness not only to perform but also to see signs, now crave miracles more than ever. Intoxicated by arrogance, arrogance, ignorance, they strive indiscriminately, hastily and boldly for everything related to miracles, not refusing to participate in the performance of miracles, they decide to do so without the slightest they think. But this course of action is more dangerous than ever. We are gradually approaching the time when the great spectacle will open before us of the numerous and astonishing false miracles, and the unfortunate graduates of carnal wisdom, who will be seduced and deceived by these miracles, will be led to perdition.
The revival of the soul through the Word of God leads to a living faith in Christ. Living faith seems to see Christ (Heb. 11:27). To her view, Christianity, by remaining secretly, becomes open, by remaining unattainable, becomes clear and understood, no longer hidden by the thick, impenetrable veil that hides it from the dead faith. Living faith is spiritual reason. She no longer needs signs, because she is completely satisfied with Christ’s signs and especially with the greatest of them, the crown of signs – His word. The desire to see signs is a sign of unbelief, and signs have been given to unbelief to convert to faith. To cling with all our souls to the Word of God, to unite with Him in one spirit, and the signs of the antichrist will not attract even our attention. With contempt and hatred we will look away from them as from the spectacle of demons, as from the actions of God’s fierce enemies, as from the blasphemy of God, as from deadly poison and contagion. Let us remember the following particularly important remark, drawn from the experience of the ascetics. All demonic phenomena have the property that even the slightest attention to them is dangerous. From such attention, admitted even without any sympathy for the phenomenon, we can leave the most harmful impression, to succumb to the most severe temptations.
Humility is inseparable from spiritual reason. St. Isaac Sirin says: “Only he who is humble can be considered reasonable. He who has no humility will never have reason. ”[36] Living faith opens the eyes of the soul to God, the Word of God unites the soul with God. He who has seen God in this way, who has felt God in this way, sees his nothingness, is filled with unspeakable reverence for God, for all His works, for all His commandments, for all His teachings, and preserves humility. And the humble one will not dare even to be curious about what is happening outside the will of God and which has been timely condemned by the Word of God. Therefore, the signs of the antichrist will remain foreign to the humble, as having nothing to do with them.
The knowledge of one’s own weakness and nothingness, the knowledge of God, of His majesty, omnipotence and infinite kindness, urges the soul to aspire to prayer to God. All the hope of such a soul is centered in God, and therefore there is no reason for it to be distracted by prayer; she prays by uniting her strength and striving for God with all her being, she resorts to prayer whenever possible, she prays constantly. When the great tribulations come in the time of the antichrist, all who truly believe in God will turn to Him in fervent prayer. [37] They will cry out for help, for intercession, they will ask for God’s grace to be sent to them for support and guidance. Man’s own strength, though faithful to God, will be insufficient to withstand the combined strength of rejected angels and men who will act with fervor and despair in anticipation of their imminent doom (Rev. 12:12). The divine grace, which will cover God’s elect, will invalidate for them the deceptions of the deceiver, his fearless threats, his despised miracles. She will give them the courage to confess the Savior, Who saved people, and to expose the false messiah who came to destroy people, she will lead them to the scaffolds as royal thrones, as a wedding feast. The feeling of love for God is sweeter than the feeling of life. Just as the pre-mortal and death-accompanying sufferings are the beginning of the sinner’s eternal torment, [39] so the suffering for Christ and the violent death for Him are the beginning of the eternal joys of heaven. We see this clearly from the actions of God’s grace on the martyrs of the first centuries: they were originally given the opportunity to show their will; from the very first torments help came down to them from above and made for them both torment and death desired for Christ. Foretelling the tribulations that must precede His Second Coming, the Lord commanded His disciples to be vigilant and to pray: Beware, be vigilant and pray, for you do not know when the time will come (Mark 13:33).
Prayer is always necessary and useful for man – it maintains his communion with God and keeps him under God’s protection, keeps him from arrogance, from deceptive vanity and pride – both from his own, arising from fallen nature, and from those who are brought into his thoughts and imagination from the world of fallen spirits. Prayer is especially needed in times of tribulation and danger, whether visible or invisible, because it is an expression of rejection of arrogance, an expression of our hope in God, it draws God’s help on us. Almighty God acts instead of praying in difficult circumstances and brings His servant out of them through His wonderful providence.
The knowledge of God, the living faith, the gracious humility, the pure prayer – these are the belongings of the spiritual mind, they are its constituent parts. Conversely, ignorance of God, unbelief, spiritual blindness, pride, arrogance, and arrogance are the attributes of carnal wisdom. By not knowing God, by not accepting and understanding the means offered by God to obtain knowledge of God, it is in itself a wrong, soul-destroying way of acquiring knowledge of God, according to its structure: it seeks signs from heaven. Amen!
(Writings of Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov. Volume IV. Ascetic Sermon and Letters to the Lay People, St. Petersburg, 1905, pp. 292-326 [in Russian])
NOTES:
* All underlining in the text is by the translator
32. The Evangelist. Interpretation of the Gospel according to Mark, ch. 8, pp. 11-12.
33. St. Isaac Sirin. Words 25, 26, 27 and 28.
34. Prep. John the Ladder. Ladder, word 26:52.
35. St. Isaac Sirin. Word 28.
36. St. Isaac Sirin. Word 89.
37. St. Ephraim Sirin. Word 106.
38. St. Isaac Sirin. Word 38.
39. This thought belongs to the holy martyr James the Persian. – see Lives of the Saints, November 26.
Putin has found a way to justify the entry of the Russian army in Ukraine
Vladimir Putin ordered on Monday 21 February the Russian army to “maintain peace” in the pro-Russian separatist territories of Ukraine, whose independence he has recognized, before signing mutual aid agreements providing for the lasting presence of Russian forces in the “people’s republics” of Donetsk and Lugansk.
Recognition of the independence of these two eastern territories opened the way for a Russian military deployment at the request of the separatists who have been fighting the Ukrainian armed forces for eight years. Neither the timetable nor the scale of the deployment was announced in the documents, each of which is one page long and was published on the website of the Russian database of legal texts.
According to the texts published on a website of the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, the mutual assistance agreements provide for the parties to defend each other, share military bases and protect their borders together. With a duration of 10 years, they create “the legal basis for the presence” in these territories “of Russian military units necessary to maintain peace in the region and ensure sustainable security.
Press statement by President Charles Michel of the European Council and President Ursula von der Leyen of the European Commission, 21 February 2022
President Michel and President von der Leyen condemn in the strongest possible terms the decision by the Russian President to proceed with the recognition of the non-government controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts of Ukraine as independent entities.
This step is a blatant violation of international law as well as of the Minsk agreements.
The Union will react with sanctions against those involved in this illegal act.
The Union reiterates its unwavering support to Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders.
statement by President Emmanuel Macron 21 February 2022
Tweet Government official – France
By recognizing the separatist regions of eastern Ukraine, Russia is violating its commitments and undermining Ukraine’s sovereignty. I condemn this decision. I asked for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council and European sanctions.
De Lima thanks European Parliament for continued solidarity with her
PHILIPPINES, February 22 – Press Release February 21, 2022
Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima thanked the European Parliament (EP) for renewing its call for the Philippine government to end her political harassment and immediately and unconditionally release her from unjust detention.
De Lima, who will mark her 5th year in unjust detention on Feb. 24, said the support she receives from EP and other justice and freedom-loving groups and organizations here and abroad continue to strengthen her resolve.
“The European Parliament was one of the first international organizations who stood by me after seeing the fakeness and baselessness of the charges being filed against me by Duterte regime.
“Five years later, they are still by my side as we wait for justice to be upheld by the courts. Thank you, EU, for your constant support and solidarity. With the continuous backing of organizations like yours, I will continue to fight and fight more!” said De Lima in her statement posted on Twitter.
The European Parliament issued a resolution last Feb. 17 condemning, among others, De Lima’s continued unjust detention and other human rights abuses in the country. The text was adopted by 627 votes in favor.
EP said Philippine authorities should “end the political harassment of Senator Leila De Lima, to order her immediate and unconditional release, and to prosecute in fair trials those found to be responsible for her arbitrary detention and other human rights violations committed against her, such as gender-based attacks and violations of her right to due process.”
The Parliament also called on the European Union to closely monitor the development of the remaining trumped-up cases against De Lima, which affect her bid for reelection for the upcoming national elections.
“Senator De Lima, who has announced her intention to run again for the Senate, will not have the same rights and opportunities to run her electoral campaign as other candidates,” part of the Resolution read.
Likewise, in a speech at the EP Plenary last Feb. 17, Commissioner for Equality Helena Dalli commended De Lima’s courage and maintained that her rights to due process must be respected.
“Finally, next week marks the fifth anniversary of the imprisonment of Senator De Lima. She will have spent five years in pre-trial detention yet is standing again in the country’s general election. As former President Benigno Aquino has said, ‘If injustice could be done to Leila, a sitting Senator, injustice could be done to anyone,’ she said.
De Lima said the continued solidarity she receives from the international community, like EP, is a testament that the the world is watching closely the injustices perpetrated by the current regime.
“European Parliament’s continued solidarity, along with other parliaments and international organizations, is solid proof that the world keeps its eyes on what’s happening here.
“I thank all of them in consistently taking time to check on the human rights developments in our country and call out the Duterte regime’s unjust policies such as the murderous “War on Drugs”, red-tagging of activists, journalists and other citizens who lend their voice and hands to help the marginalized sectors,” she said.
“And as I said before, with the whole world watching, and more and more people gaining discernment about Duterte regime’s continued political persecution against me and other critics, my tormentors must realize that locking me up in jail and stripping me of my rights and freedom is a huge mistake,” she added.
Last year, the EP also adopted a resolution calling, among others, for action on the deteriorating human rights situation in the Philippines under the present administration and for De Lima’s immediate release from unjust detention.
In March 2017 and April 2018, the EP also adopted resolutions on the human rights situation in the Philippines, highlighting the political persecution De Lima is subjected to under the Duterte regime.
Archaeologists discover the oldest English coin from the reign of Henry VII in Canada
Researchers have suggested several versions of how this coin could end up in Canada.
In the course of their recent excavations, archaeologists have uncovered in Newfoundland the oldest English coin ever found not only in Canada, but possibly in all of North America, writes Smithsonian Magazine.
Working on the site of a former English colony, the team unearthed a rare 2penny – half a groat coin that was minted over 520 years ago, between 1493 and 1499. The coin dates from the reign of the first king of England from the Tudor dynasty, Henry VII, who ruled from 1485 to 1509. It was discovered in historic Capids Cove, where the English merchant John Guy founded a colony in 1610.
“Some artifacts are important in that they tell us about the excavation site, others because they spark the imagination. The coin we discovered is definitely one of the latter. It is impossible not to wonder how this half-groat went, and how many hands it went through with the moment it was minted and before it was lost in the bay sometime in the early 17th century, “said chief archaeologist William Gilbert, who discovered the site in 1995 and continues to excavate here.
Gilbert showed the recently found coin to the former curator of the Bank of Canada Museum, who helped to authenticate the find. As it turns out, the silver coin was minted in Canterbury, an ancient city in the southeast of England, around the middle of the reign of Henry VII.
Earlier, the oldest English coin found in the country was a silver groat (4p coins) minted during the reign of Henry’s granddaughter, Elizabeth I, in 1560 or 1561, and discovered in Capids Cove in 2001.
Other strange English coins found on the continent include a 1558 groat buried on Richmond Island in Maine, USA around 1628, and a 1560 silver coin found in Jamestown, Virginia.
Who exactly left the coin in Capids Cove is still a mystery. Gilbert claims that one of the harbor settlers dropped half a groat when the fort was being built. The coin was found a few meters from the pillar, which was part of the foundation of the fortification.
“I believe the coin was most likely dropped by John Guy or one of the early colonists during construction in the fall of 1610,” Gilbert added.
Considering that half a groote is about 60 years older than a silver groote found in the bay in 2001, it is also possible that it was lost before the arrival of the colonists, possibly one of the first explorers of Canada.
“Interestingly, the found coin was minted around the time that John Cabot arrived in England in 1495,” Gilbert emphasized.
Analysis of the coin is ongoing, but researchers hope to display it in Capids Cove for the 2022 tourist season.
About miracles and signs (2)
There was no vanity, no showiness in the miracles of the Lord, none of them was made for display to the people, all of them were covered with the veil of Divine humility. These miracles were essentially a chain of good deeds for suffering humanity. At the same time, they showed convincingly the power of the Creator over the material creation and over the created spirits, expressed and proved the dignity of God, accepted human nature, appeared as a man between the people.
One of the miracles of the Lord of mysterious significance was not accompanied by visible good deeds for a person, but it celebrates the good deed, ready to be poured out on all mankind. This is the miracle of the killing of the barren fig tree, rich only in leaves (Mark 11: 13-14, 20). This tree is mentioned in a candle. Scripture (Gen. 3: 7) among the trees of paradise in the account of the fall of the forefathers. It used them with its leaves to cover their nakedness, which the ancestors did not notice until the fall, and which sin revealed to them. Perhaps the fruit of the fig tree was the forbidden fruit. Coming out of Bethany, the Lord did not find fruit on the fig tree, but He did not look for it in time. This untimely desire for food of the flesh was an image of the wrong desire of the forefathers, which, like all other human infirmities, the Lord bore upon Himself and overcame. Not finding fruit, the Lord rejected the leaves and destroyed the existence of the tree completely: another tree, the tree of the cross, was already being prepared as an instrument for the salvation of men. And the tree, which became an instrument of human destruction, was killed by order of the Savior of men. The mysterious miracle was performed in the presence of only the closest followers of the mysterious teaching – the holy apostles. It was performed before the very beginning of the redemptive deed of the God-man for all mankind, before His ascension on the cross.
The miracles of the Lord had a sacred meaning, a sacred purpose. Although they were great good deeds in themselves, in regard to Divine providence they served only as a testimony and proof of incomparably higher good deeds. By accepting human flesh, the Lord brought to people an eternal, spiritual, priceless gift – salvation, healing from sin, resurrection from eternal death. The words of the Lord and the way of His life showed this gift quite convincingly: in life the Lord was sinless, universal (John 8:46), His word was full of power (Mark 1:42). But the people were deep in darkness and the fog of carnal wisdom, their hearts and minds blinded. It turned out that a special indulgence was needed for their painful condition. It turned out that they needed to be given the clearest, most obvious testimony of their bodily feelings, it turned out that through bodily feelings it was necessary to impart to them vital knowledge of the mind and heart, which were dead with their inherent death – eternal death. And in the help of God’s word God’s miracles were given. In order for people to understand and accept the spiritual gift, which could be seen only with the eyes of the soul, the Lord added to the eternal spiritual gift a temporary, bodily gift – healing of bodily human diseases. Sin is the cause of all human infirmities – both mental and physical, the cause of temporary and eternal death. By showing His authority over the consequences of sin in human bodies, the Lord has shown His authority over sin in general. Carnal wisdom sees neither mental infirmities nor eternal death, but sees bodily infirmities and bodily death, acknowledges them; they strongly influence and puzzle him. By healing with one commanding word, with one commandment all the sick, raising the dead, commanding unclean spirits, the Lord showed His authority, God’s authority over man, over sin, over fallen spirits, showed all this obvious to the bodily feelings, to the most carnal. wisdom. And this, seeing and feeling this authority, could and was obliged in logical sequence to acknowledge the authority of the Lord over sin and not only with regard to sin against the body, but also with regard to sin against the soul. It was to acknowledge the Lord’s authority over the soul itself, all the more so because in some of the Lord’s miracles, such as the resurrection of the dead, God’s unlimited authority over both body and soul was manifested. The body came to life, calling to it the soul that had already passed into the spiritual world, and when it returned, it united with the body with which it was already separated forever. The man was given signs in himself, not somewhere outside him. He was given evidence of his salvation in himself, not far from him. The testimony of the eternal salvation of soul and body was given through the temporary salvation of the body from bodily infirmities and bodily death.
When the miracles of the Lord are received correctly and piously, they turn out to be overwhelmed with Divine reason: the request for a sign from heaven turns out to be, whatever it really was, meaningless. There are rare cases when the power of the Lord was manifested outside man, over objects of material nature, but there have been such cases. They are a testimony that the Lord’s power over all nature is unlimited power, the power of God. These miracles complement the miracles that were good deeds to humanity in man himself, in order to most accurately determine the meaning that people were obliged to give to the appearing Redeemer of men. Since the purpose of the Lord’s coming to earth was the salvation of men, the Lord’s care was directed to man, to the most perfect creation of God, His image, His verbal temple. The land of our exile and suffering journey – the earth, all material creation, despite its imposingness – have been left without His attention. Although some miracles have been performed in material nature, they have been performed to meet human needs.
This is the meaning and purpose of the miracles performed by the Lord and His apostles. This is what the Lord has announced, this is what His apostles have announced. Once in the house where the Savior was, many people gathered. The house was full and a crowd gathered at the door; it was no longer possible to get inside. At that time, they brought a weakened man who could not get up from the stretcher. The people who carried it, seeing the many people and the crowd, put the sick man on the roof, made an opening and lowered the stretcher before the Lord. Seeing this manifestation of faith, the merciful Lord said: Child, your sins are forgiven. Some of the scribes stood there. As if they knew the law by letter and were filled with envy and hatred for the God-man, it immediately occurred to them that He had uttered blasphemies. Who can forgive sins but God? You thought. The Lord of the hearts, seeing their thoughts, said to them: What do you think in your hearts? Which is easier (according to your understanding) to say to the weak: are your sins forgiven, or to say get up, take your bed and walk? A hypocrite and a deceiver can say without proof “your sins are forgiven.” But in order to know that the Son of Man has the power on earth to forgive sins (he says to the weak) I tell you: get up, take your bed and go home. The weakened man was instantly healed, strengthened, took his bed, and went out before all (Mark 2: 2-12). This miracle is filled with Divine wisdom and kindness. First, the Lord gives the sufferer a precious spiritual gift, invisible to the eyes of the flesh: forgiveness of sins. But giving the gift led Jewish scholars to believe that such a gift could only be given by God. In response to their heartfelt thought, the Lord gives them new proof of Himself that He is God: the spiritual gift and the spiritual proof are confirmed by a material gift and proof – the instantaneous and complete healing of the sick. Concluding his Gospel, St. Eph. Mark says that after the Lord’s ascension, the apostles preached everywhere, and the Lord helped and sustained the word with figures from which it was accompanied (Mark 16:20). This thought was also expressed by all the apostles in the prayer with which they turned to God after the threats of the Sanhedrin, which forbade them to study and act in the name of Jesus: Give to Your servants Yours for healing, and miracles and signs to take place in the name of Your Holy Son Jesus (Acts 4: 29-30). God’s signs were given as assistance to the word of God. The signs testified to the power and significance of the word (Luke 4:36). And the real perpetrator is the word. Where the word is accepted, signs are not necessary, because of the perceived dignity that the word contains. Signs are condescension to human weakness. In one way the word works, in another the sign. The word acts directly on the mind and heart, the sign acts on the mind and heart through bodily feelings. The consequences of the influence of the word are stronger, more definite, than the consequences of the action of the signs.
When both the word and the sign act together, then the action of the sign seems to go unnoticed due to the strong action coming from the word. This is clear from what is said in the Gospel. Nicodemus had signs, and he knew in the Lord only the Master sent by God (John 3: 2). On St. Apostle Peter’s word worked, and he confessed the Lord as Christ, the Son of God. You have words of eternal life, he told the Godman, and we believed and knew that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God (John 6: 68-69). St. an. Peter was an eyewitness to many of the Lord’s miracles – the gathering of the crowd had just been satisfied by multiplying the five loaves – but in his confession the apostle was silent about the miracles, speaking only of the power and action of the word. The same thing happened later with the two disciples, who did not know the Lord when they talked to Him on the road to Emmaus, but realized that He was only after he arrived in the village, at home, when the bread was broken. Only they knew the Lord, and He became invisible. They said nothing about the astonishing miracle, but turned their full attention to the action of the word. Didn’t our hearts burn in us – they told each other – when He spoke to us on the way and when He explained the Scriptures to us? (Luke 24:32)
The God-man has favored those who have not seen signs and have believed (John 20:29). He expressed sympathy for those who were not satisfied with the word and needed miracles. If you do not see signs and wonders, you will not believe (John 4:48), He told the Capernaum nobleman. This is said in the most accurate way – those who leave the word and seek to be convinced by miracles are unfortunate. In this need is manifested the special predominance of carnal wisdom, the gross ignorance of a life sacrificed to corruption and sin, the lack of experience in studying God’s law and godly virtues, the inability of the soul to feel partakers of the Holy Spirit, to feel His presence and action in the word. The signs were intended primarily to persuade and convert carnal people engaged in worldly care. Stuck in the pursuits of life, constantly fixing their souls on earthly problems, they were unable to appreciate the true dignity of the word. The Merciful Word attracted them to the salvation bestowed by the word, by means of visible signs, which, having material persuasion acting through the senses, led the weak soul to the almighty, saving Word. Believers, because of signs, formed the lower class of believers in Christ. When they were offered the spiritual, supreme, all-holy doctrine, many of them interpreted it according to their understandings (John 6:60), did not want to ask God for an explanation of God’s word, but condemned the word, which is Spirit and Life. (John 6:63), and thus showed their superficial faith, their superficial heartfelt disposition. Then many of His disciples, witnesses of many signs, turned back and did not walk with Him (John 6:66).
Neither the word nor the signs of the God-man had a beneficial effect on the Jewish high priests, scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees, although, with the exception of the latter, they all knew the law very well by letter. Not only were they alien to God and hostile to Him because of the sinful contagion common to all mankind, but they became such, established and established themselves in this position because of their own will, out of high opinion of themselves, because of the desire to succeed in this life – something that the Gospel forbade. They could not listen to the Son of God when he spoke to them, did not listen to His words properly and did not pay attention to what was said, but perceived only what seemed appropriate to them to interpret it in their own way and accuse the Lord with it. This is how hatred is usually adjusted to the words of the one we hate. Why do you not understand My speech? Said the Savior to His enemies, who stubbornly and fiercely rejected the salvation offered to them. – Why don’t you understand My teaching? Why do you not accept My healing word? Because you cannot listen to My word (John 8:43) – it is unbearable for you. Because you are children of falsehood, and follow it, you do not believe Me, for I speak the truth (John 8:45). He who is of God listens to God’s words. Therefore you do not listen, because you are not of God (John 8:47). If I do not the works of my Father, do not believe Me; but if I do, though you do not believe in Me, believe the works, that you may understand and believe that the Father is in me and I am in Him (John 10: 37-38). In vain were the words, which, as the truth of God, contained in themselves complete authenticity (John 8:14). In vain were the miracles, which also contained complete authenticity, which were so tangible and obvious that even the enemies of the God-man, in all their desire and effort to reject them, could not fail to acknowledge them (John 9:24). . The means that worked for people who did not know God’s law or knew very little about it, who lived with earthly cares and vanity, but did not reject God’s law by their own will (by the expression of their free will), the same means had no effect to those who know God’s law in detail by letter, but reject it with life and free will (John 5: 46-47, 7:19). Everything that could have been done to save people was done by God’s unspeakable mercy. If I had not come and spoken to them, says the Savior, they would not have sin, and now they have no excuse for their sin. If I had not done among them the works that no one else has done, they would not have sinned, and now they have seen and hated me and my Father (John 15: 22-24).
Christianity is transmitted to us with such clarity that there is no excuse for those who do not know it. The reason for ignorance can only be our own reluctance to do so. As the sun shines in the sky, so does Christianity. He who closes his eyes, let him attribute his blindness and misunderstanding to his own will, not to the lack of light. The reason for rejecting the God-man from the people lies in the people themselves. In them lies the reason for accepting the antichrist. I came in my Father’s name, the Lord testified before the Jews, and you do not accept Me, but if another comes in his own name, you will receive him (John 5:42). They are called both rejecting Christ and accepting the antichrist, although the antichrist is referred to as the one to come. Rejecting Christ according to the structure of their spirit, they joined the recipients of the antichrist, even though they had completed their earthly journey many centuries before his coming. They committed his most monstrous deed – the murder of God. No such evil deed has been left for the time of the antichrist and for himself. To the extent that they were hostile in the spirit of Christ, their spirit was in communion with the antichrist, although they were separated from him by a great period of time, reaching today the end of the second millennium. Every spirit, says St. John the Theologian, which does not confess that Jesus Christ came in the flesh, is not of God: it is the spirit of the antichrist, whom you have heard coming, and is now in the world in spirit. (1 John 4: 3). Those who are guided by the spirit of the antichrist reject Christ, have accepted the antichrist with their spirit, have entered into communion with him, have obeyed him, and have worshiped him in spirit, making him their god. Therefore, God will send them – that is, He will allow them to be sent – an act of deception, so that they will believe the lie, so that all those who did not believe in the truth but loved unrighteousness will be condemned (2 Thess. 2: 11-12 ).
In His supposition, God is just. This assumption will be both a satisfaction and a rebuke and judgment of the human spirit. Therefore, the antichrist will come at the time predestined for him. His coming will be preceded by a general apostasy of most people of the Christian faith. With their apostasy from Christ, humanity will be prepared to receive the antichrist and will receive it with its spirit. In the very structure of the human spirit there will be a request, an invitation to the antichrist, sympathy for him, as in a state of severe illness there is a thirst for a deadly drink. An invitation will be issued, a calling voice will be given in human society – he will express an urgent need for the genius of geniuses, who will be able to raise material development and prosperity to the highest degree, to bring to earth such prosperity that heaven and heaven will become superfluous to men. The appearance of the antichrist will be a logical, just and natural consequence of the general moral and spiritual orientation of the people.
The miracles of the incarnate God were, in essence, the greatest material blessings imaginable by mankind. What benevolence can stand higher than restoring the life of the deceased? What benevolence can be more precious than curing an incurable disease that takes away the very vitality of life and turns it into more prolonged death than life? Leaving aside the charity, holiness, and spiritual significance of Christ’s miracles, these miracles were, however, only temporary gifts. These were signs in the true sense of the word, signs of eternal salvation given by the word. The resurrected by the God-Man died again when the time came for them – they were given only a continuation of their temporary life, and their life was not restored forever. Healed by the Godman became ill again and also died. Their health was restored only for a certain time, not forever. Temporary and material beneficences were performed as a sign of eternal and spiritual. The visible gifts were given to the enslaved people to believe in the existence of the invisible gifts and to accept them. Signs brought them out of the abyss of ignorance and sensuality and led them to faith, and this faith gave them knowledge of eternal goods and made them want to acquire them. With the help of miraculous signs, the apostles quickly spread Christianity throughout the universe. Their signs were clear and strong evidence of Christianity, both for educated peoples and for those who were mired in ignorance and barbarism. When faith was planted everywhere, when the word was planted, then the signs were taken away, ending their ministry.
They ceased to operate on a large scale and everywhere – they were performed by rarely chosen saints of God. St. John Chrysostom, the Holy Father and ecclesiastical writer of the 4th and 5th centuries, says that in his time the signs ceased to work, although in some places, especially among the monks, there were still men who performed signs. Over time, these flag-bearing men gradually diminished. For the last centuries, the holy fathers have predicted that then there will be no flag-bearing men. “Why,” some say, “are there no signs today?” Listen to my answer with special attention, because I hear the question I am asked today by many, I hear it often and even constantly. Why did all those who received baptism once start speaking in foreign languages, but now this is not happening? … Why has the grace of miracles been taken away from people now? This is what God does by not dishonoring us, but even giving us greater honor. In what way? I will explain. People in those days were more superficial, as if they had just been cut off from idols; their minds were thick and dull, they were immersed in the material and belonged to it, they could not imagine the existence of immaterial gifts, nor did they know the importance of spiritual grace – that everything is accepted only by faith. This was the reason for the signs. Of the spiritual gifts, some are invisible and accepted only through faith, others are associated with certain signs available to the senses to awaken faith in unbelievers. For example, the forgiveness of sins is a spiritual and invisible gift – we do not see with our bodily eyes how our sins are cleansed. The soul is purified, but it is invisible to the eyes of the body. Therefore, the cleansing of sins is a spiritual gift that cannot be seen by the bodily eyes, while the ability to speak in tongues, although it belongs to the spiritual actions of the Spirit, but also serves as a sign, acting on the senses. ), which is why it is easy for unbelievers to notice the invisible action performed inside the soul – it becomes obvious and is shown through the external language that we can hear. For the same reason, St. Apostle Paul says: But it is given to everyone to manifest the Spirit for the common good (1 Cor. 12: 7). So, I don’t need signs. Why? Because I have learned to believe in God’s grace without signs. The unbeliever needs evidence, but I, the believer, do not need it at all, nor do I need signs. Although I do not speak foreign languages, I know that I am cleansed of sin. The ancients did not believe until they received signs. Their signs were given as proof of the faith they accepted. Therefore, signs were given not to believers, but to unbelievers, so that they might become believers. This is what St. Apostle says. Paul: Therefore tongues are a sign not to those who believe, but to those who disbelieve. [15]
If signs were sorely needed, they would still exist today. But the word that the signs contributed to remained. It has spread, reigned, embraced the entire universe. It has been explained quite comprehensively by the church fathers: access to it and its assimilation have become particularly easy. It is essential, it is necessary, it carries out the salvation of men, it gives us eternal goods, it gives us the Kingdom of heaven, it contains the highest spiritual signs of God (Ps. 118: 18). But the word of the Lord endureth for ever: and this is the word which is preached unto you (1 Peter 1:25). There was life in Him, and life was the light of men (John 1: 4). It gives birth to the dead for eternal life, giving them from Himself His universal life: hearers and doers of the word are resurrected not from a mortal seed but from an imperishable one, through the word of the living God who abides forever (1 Peter 1:23). . To know the meaning of a word, it must be fulfilled. As soon as a person begins to fulfill the Gospel commandments, they immediately begin to transform man, to transform him, to enliven him, to transform his way of thinking, his heartfelt feelings, his body itself: For the word of God is alive and active and more sharp from any double-edged sword: it penetrates to the separation of soul and spirit, of joints and brain, and judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Heb. 4:12). The word of God contains a testimony of itself in itself. It is similar to the healing signs – it acts in the person himself and with this action he testifies to himself. It is the highest sign. It is a spiritual sign given to people to satisfy everything necessary for their salvation and thus makes material signs unnecessary. A Christian who is unaware of this property of the word exposes himself in a cool attitude to the word, in ignorance of the word of God, or in dead knowledge of the letter alone.
PART TWO
The aspiration that is found in modern Christian society – to see and even perform miracles – should not be ignored. This aspiration needs careful consideration. The desire to perform miracles is strongly condemned by the Holy Fathers: such a desire reveals the self-deception that lives and prevails in the soul, based on arrogance and vanity. The great mentor of the monks, St. Isaac the Syrian, reflects on this question: intercession in something ordinary for us, not to lose the necessary reverence for Him and this to harm us. This is what He does, contemplating the saints. In all circumstances, God allows them to perform a feat appropriate to their strength and to work in prayer, but at the same time He shows them that His secret care for them does not cease for an hour. If the difficulty of the circumstances exceeds the measure of their reason, if they are exhausted and unable to act because of their natural infirmity, then He Himself does what is necessary to help them according to the greatness of His authority, as befits and as He knows. Whenever possible, He secretly strengthens them, putting in them the strength to overcome their sorrows. He frees them from their sorrow and confusion with a mind which He Himself bestows upon them, and by making them aware of His providence, he evokes in them a praise which brings them all-round benefit. When circumstances require overt support, He does so as needed. His means and ways of helping are the wisest. They help in need, in case of need, but not meaningless. He who dares and prays to God to do something extraordinary without being compelled by any necessity, who desires miracles to be wrought through his hands, allows himself to be tempted in his mind by the devil who mocks him. Such a person appears conceited and has a sick (damaged) conscience. It is right in sorrow to ask God for help. Tempting God unnecessarily is dangerous. It is truly unjust who desires this. In the lives of the saints we find examples of the Lord fulfilling their desires by expressing His displeasure. The one who seeks and desires miracles voluntarily, without being forced to do so, falls away from the state in which he can protect himself, and through his hidden aspirations moves away from understanding the truth. If the one who prays for something unusual is heard, then the evil one finds a place in him, as in one who walks before God without reverence, with audacity, and in doing so, the evil one throws him into even greater hidden aspirations.
True righteous people not only do not want to be miracle workers, but when they are given the gift of miracles, they give it up. They do not want this not only in front of people’s eyes, but also in themselves, in the secrets of their hearts. One Holy Father, because of his purity, received from God a gracious gift to know about those who came to him, but he prayed to God, begging his friends to ask the same – that this gift be taken away from him. If some of the saints accepted the gifts, either out of necessity or because of their simplicity, others accepted them at the direction of the Spirit of God working in them, but by no means accidentally, unnecessarily … The true righteous live constantly with thought, that they are unworthy of God. That they consider themselves miserable, unworthy of God’s care, is evidence that they are truly righteous. [16]
From this sacred reflection follows the conclusion that those who wish to perform signs desire it because of carnal fervor, driven by passions incomprehensible to them, even though they seem to be guided by zeal for God’s works. Those who want to see signs are also in such a state of self-deception and heat. Tempting God and violating the reverence for Him is forbidden in all cases, asking for God’s help is allowed in an emergency when there is a lack of one’s own means to get out of it. However, the choice of means of support must be left to God, surrendering to His will and mercy. The Lord will always send us a spiritual aid. It will bring both the help we need and a taste of holy humility through that same help. It is not connected with outward splendor, as one would like in the same carnal wisdom, so as not to injure the soul by satisfying its vanity. Both in the work of God and in the ministry of the Church itself, God’s blessing and God’s help must be constantly invoked, it must be believed that only God’s spiritual means can be useful for faith and piety, but in no case those means. it offers us carnal wisdom.
It is difficult for a person to bear the glory without harming his soul. This is difficult not only for the passionate (slaves of the passions), but also for those who have conquered the passions, for the saints. Although they have been given victory over sin, their variability has not been removed, they have not been deprived of the opportunity to return to sin and the yoke of passions. This has indeed happened to some with insufficient attention to themselves, when they have trusted too much only in themselves, in their spiritual condition. The tendency to pride is present even in the most purified souls, as Rev. Macarius the Great observes. This same tendency becomes the beginning of deviance (from the right path) and attraction (from sin). For this reason, the gift of healing and other visible gifts are very dangerous to those to whom they are given, as they are highly valued by carnal-minded people who glorify them. Invisible gracious gifts, such as the gift of guiding souls to salvation and healing them from passions, are incomparably superior to the visible, but they are not understood or noticed by the world. Not only does he not glorify God’s servants who have these gifts, but he even persecutes them as acting against the principles of the world, as slandering the authority of the prince of this world. The merciful God gives people what they need and benefit from, even though they do not understand and appreciate it. It does not give what is in any case a little useful, and can often be too harmful, although carnal wisdom and ignorance are insatiably thirsty and seek it. “Many,” says St. Isaac the Syrian, “performed miracles, raised the dead, worked to convert the lost, performed great miracles, brought others to the knowledge of God, and then themselves, after reviving others, they have fallen into impure and abominable passions, which have killed themselves ”[20]. Prep. Macarius the Great tells of an ascetic who lived with him and received such an abundant gift of healing that he healed the sick only by the laying on of hands, but after being glorified by the people he became proud and fell into the deepest sinfulness. In the life of St. Anthony the Great is mentioned a young monk who commanded the wild donkeys in the desert. When the great ascetic heard of this miracle, he expressed distrust of the miracle-worker’s state of mind, and indeed, news of the tragic fall of the monk soon followed. In the 4th century in Egypt lived a holy old man who had a particularly great gift of miracles and therefore – a resounding glory among men. He soon noticed that pride was beginning to overwhelm him and that he could not overcome it on his own. The old man resorted to God with the most fervent prayers to be handed over to demon possession in order to humble himself. God fulfilled the humble and wise request of His servant and allowed Satan to enter him. The old man was handed over to rage in for five months he had to be chained, and the people, who flocked to him in large crowds and glorified him as a great saint, left him, declaring that he had lost his mind. Thus the old man got rid of human glory and thanked God, who saved him from destruction. Salvation came through insignificant torture and dishonor before the carnal people, who did not understand that through the signs the devil caused disaster for the old man, and through open rage the old man was returned to safety by the wonderful mercy of God.
From this it becomes clear why the great fathers Sisoi, Pimen and others, who had abundant gifts of healing, began to hide them. They did not trust themselves, because they knew the ability of man to change easily and through humility they protected themselves from the dangers of the soul [23]. The holy apostles were given the gift of miracles to aid in preaching, but at the same time God’s providence allowed them severe tribulations and persecutions for this very purpose – to keep them from exalting themselves. St. Isaac Sirin says: “A gift without temptation is fatal for the one who accepts it. If what you are doing is pleasing to God and He has given you a gift – ask Him to give you a reason on how to humble yourself in this gift or ask Him to be a guardian of the gift (guardians of the gifts of the Holy Apostles be the calamities befallen them), or to take away from you the gift that may be the cause of your destruction, because not everyone can keep their wealth without harming themselves. ” [24]
The spiritual mind’s view of bodily diseases and their wonderful healing is completely different from that of carnal wisdom. The wisdom of the flesh considers diseases to be a calamity, and their cure, especially when it is miraculously done, to be the greatest prosperity, regardless of whether such healing is of benefit to the soul or harm. The spiritual mind sees both in the infirmities sent by God’s providence and in the healings bestowed by God’s grace, God’s mercy to man. Enlightened by the light of God’s word, spiritual reason teaches us godly and soul-saving behavior in both cases. He teaches us that it is permissible to seek and ask God to heal the disease with the firm intention that the restored health and strength be used for the service of God and in no case for the service of vanity and sin. Otherwise, the wonderful healing will only serve for greater condemnation and will cause even greater punishment in both temporal and eternal life. This is what the Lord Himself testified. When He healed the weak, He said to him: Behold, you are healed, do no more sin, lest something worse happen to you (John 5:14). Man is weak and easily inclined to sin. Since some saints who have the gracious gift of healing and abundant gift of spiritual contemplation have been tempted and fallen into sin, it is all the easier for God’s gift to be abused by carnal people who have no clear understanding of spiritual things. And many have abused! Having miraculously received healing from their illness, they did not pay attention to God’s goodness and their obligation to be grateful for it, but began a sinful life. They turned God’s gift to their detriment, and by turning away from God, they lost salvation. Therefore, wonderful healings of bodily infirmities are rare, although carnal wisdom venerates and desires them. You ask, but you do not receive, because you ask badly – to scatter it in your lusts (James 4: 3).
Spiritual reason teaches us that diseases and other afflictions that God sends to people are sent by God’s special mercy. As bitter healing medicines help the sick, so they contribute to our salvation, to our eternal well-being much more securely than wonderful healings. Often, quite often, it turns out that the disease is much more beneficial than its healing. Sickness is such an essential good deed that to take it away through healing would be to take away the greatest good, incomparable to that temporary good which will bring healing to the bodily infirmity. Poor and sick Lazarus, mentioned in the Gospels, was not cured of his grievous disease, was not delivered from poverty, and died in the same condition in which he had long suffered, but because of his patience was exalted by the angels in the bosom of Abraham ( Luke 16:22). Scripture everywhere testifies that God sends various afflictions, including bodily infirmities, to those whom He has loved (Heb. 10: 6ff.). Scripture affirms that all of God’s saints, without exception, have made their earthly journey on the narrow, steep, and thorny path filled with various tribulations and hardships (Heb. 12: 3). Based on such an understanding of tribulation, the true servants of God treated those who suffered tribulation with the utmost prudence and devotion. The tribulation that was sent to them, whatever it was, they welcomed as something deserved, [25] believing with all their souls that the tribulation would not have been sent if it had not been allowed by the Just and Almighty God according to human needs. Their first job when grief befell them was to realize that they deserved it. They sought and always found in themselves the cause of grief. Then, if they saw that their sorrow was an obstacle to their pleasing God, they prayed to God to deliver them from it, giving their request to the will of God, and in no way considered their understanding of sorrow to be correct. It cannot be completely correct: the judgment of even a holy man is limited, it cannot comprehend and see all the causes of sorrows, as it encompasses and sees the all-seeing eye of God, allowing sorrows for His beloved servants. St. ap. Three times Paul prayed to God to remove the satanic angel who had hindered him from preaching Christianity. Paul was not heard: God judged this matter differently than the inspired apostle (2 Cor. 12: 7-10).
Surrendering oneself to the will of God with a sincere reverent desire to do it is a natural consequence of true, spiritual reasoning. When the holy monks became ill, they accepted sickness as God’s greatest blessing, tried to spend this time in praise and thanksgiving to God, did not want healing, although miraculous healings were performed mainly among them. They wanted to patiently and humbly endure what God had allowed, believing and confessing that it was more beneficial to the soul than any self-willed feat. Reverend Pimen the Great said: “There are three monastic deeds (ways of spiritual asceticism), equal in dignity – when one is properly silent, when one is sick and thanks God, and when one obeys with pure thoughts.” In the Egyptian hermitage, where the most holy monks lived, Rev. Benjamin lived. Because of his virtuous life, the Lord gave him an abundant gift of healing. Having this gift, he himself fell ill with a severe and prolonged illness, from which his whole body swelled. He swelled unusually much. They were forced to move him from his own cell to another, more spacious one. That’s why they had to take out the whole door of his cell. In the new room they made him a special place to lie down, and more precisely to sit down, because he could not lie on the bed. In this situation, the reverend continued to heal others, and those who saw his suffering and sympathized with him, urged them to pray for his soul and not to take care of his body. “When my body is healthy,” he said, “I have little use for it.” Now, transmitted to the disease, it does me no harm. “[27] Abba Peter said that once he visited Rev. Isaiah the Hermit and found him suffering from a serious illness, he expressed regret. To this the reverend replied: “Although so depressed by the disease, I can barely remember the terrible time (of death and God’s judgment). If my body was healthy, the memory of that time would be completely foreign to me. When the body is healthy, then it tends to provoke hostility toward God. And our sorrows serve as a means of keeping God’s commandments. ” [28] St. fathers, when they were afflicted with diseases and other sorrows, first of all tried to show patience on their own, resorting to self-condemnation and self-reproach, and thus exerted pressure on the heart by forcing it to be patient. They remembered death, God’s judgment, eternal torment, the memory of which weakened the meaning and feeling of earthly sorrows (Matt. 28:20). They raised their thoughts to God’s providence, recalled the promise of the Son of God to be steadfast with His followers and to keep them, and thus moved their hearts to benevolence and courage (Matt. 28:20). They forced themselves to praise God and thank Him for their sorrow, they were forced to realize their sinfulness, which required punishment and understanding because of God’s justice and because of God’s very goodness. To their hard work to gain patience they added this: they intensified their diligent prayers to God to send them the spiritual gift of gracious patience, inseparable from other spiritual gifts, and the gracious humility that serves with it as a sure pledge of salvation and eternal bliss. .
The great standard-bearing fathers did not perform healing, which was very easy for them, on their disciples, given to diseases due to God’s permission or God’s providence, so as not to deprive them of the spiritual prosperity they had to achieve through the disease of the original moral laws. of the Church. The abbot of the dormitory in Gaza, Rev. Serid, a student of Barsanuphius the Great, who remained silent in the same dormitory, was ill for a long time. Some of the older brothers asked the great old man to heal the abbot. St. Barsanuphius replied, “Several of the saints here can pray for my son’s health, as I have told him, and he will not be sick for a single day, but then he will not receive the fruits of patience. This disease is very useful for him to gain patience and gratitude. “[30] Explaining the need to grieve for the ascetic of Christ, St. Isaac the Syrian says: “Temptation is good for everyone. If it was useful to St. Apostle Paul, let all mouths be shut, and the whole world be guilty before God (Rom. 3:19). The ascetics are tempted to multiply their wealth, the weak to protect themselves from what is harmful to them, the sleeping to wake up, those who stand far away to draw closer to God, their own to become even closer. The untrained son does not enter into his right to dispose of his father’s wealth, because he will not be able to dispose of it usefully. For this reason, God first tempts and torments, and then gives the gifts. Glory to the Bishop, Who with bitter medicines gives us to enjoy health! There is no person who does not grieve during training. There is no person who does not find bitter the time during which he has to drink the cup of temptation. But without them it is impossible to gain psychic strength. And it is not to our credit that we can endure. How can a vessel made of earth retain water if it is not strengthened in advance by divine fire? If we humbly pray to God for him with reverence and a constant desire for patience, we will receive everything in Christ Jesus our Lord. ”[31]
(Writings of Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov. Volume IV. Ascetic Sermon and Letters to the Lay People, St. Petersburg, 1905, pp. 292-326 [in Russian])
NOTES:
* All underlining in the text is by the translator
13. Interpretation of II Cor. 3:18.
14. St. Nifont of Constantinople. 4th answer to the brother.
15. St. John Chrysostom. First talk of Pentecost.
16. St. Isaac Sirin. Word 36.
17. St. Isaac Sirin. Word 1.
18. Prep. Macarius the Great. Talk 7, ch. 4.
19. St. Tikhon of Voronezh. Essays, item 15, letter 103, item 4.
20. St. Isaac Sirin. Word 56.
21. Prep. Macarius the Great. Talk 27, ch. 1.
22. Alphabetical crutch.
23. There.
24. St. Isaac Sirin. Word 34.
25. Prep. Mark the Ascetic. 226 chapters for those who think to justify themselves by deeds, ch. 6.
26. Alphabetical crutch.
27. There.
28. Prep. Isaiah the Hermit. Word 27.
29. Prep. Abba Dorothea. Teaching 7.
30. Answer 130.
31. St. Isaac Sirin. Word 37.
Ten Love Letters to the Earth VI-X
VI
Our Journey of Eons
Dear Mother Earth,
Do you remember when you and Father Sun first formed from the dust of exploded stars and interstellar gas? You didn’t yet wear the silken cloak of freshness that you do today. At that time, Mother, more than four and half billion years ago, your robe was made of molten rock. Soon it cooled to form a hard crust. Although Father’s light was far less than it is today, your thin atmosphere captured the heat and kept your oceans from freezing. In those first few hundred million years, you overcame many great difficulties to create an environment capable of sustaining life. You released great heat, fires, and gases from your volcanoes. Steam was expelled from your crust to become vapor in your atmosphere and the water in your great oceans. Your gravity helped anchor the life-sustaining sky, and your magnetic field prevented it from being stripped away by solar winds and cosmic rays.
But even before forming the atmosphere, you endured a collision with a great heavenly body, almost the size of Mars. Part of the impacting planet became you; the rest of it, along with some of your mantle and crust, became the moon. Dear Mother, the moon is a part of you, as beautiful as an angel. She is a kind sister to you, always following you, helping you slow down and keep your balance, and creating tidal rhythms on your body.
Our entire solar system is one family, revolving around Father Sun in a joyful and harmonious dance. First there is Mercury, metallic and cratered, closest to the sun. Next is Venus with her intense heat, high-pressure atmosphere, and volcanoes. Then there is you, beloved Mother Earth, the most beautiful of all. Beyond us orbits the Red Planet, cold and desolate Mars; and after the asteroid belt there comes the gas giant Jupiter, by far the largest planet of all, attended by an assembly of diverse moons. Beyond Jupiter orbits Saturn, the spectacularly ringed planet, followed by Uranus, tilted on his side after a collision, and, finally, distant blue Neptune with his turbulent storms and high winds.
Contemplating this splendor, I can see that you, Mother Earth, are the most precious flower in our solar system, a true jewel of the cosmos.
It took you a billion years to begin to manifest the first living beings. Complex molecules, perhaps brought to you from outer space, started to come together in self-replicating structures, slowly becoming more and more like living cells. Light particles from distant stars, millions of light years away, came to visit and stay a while. Small cells gradually became larger cells; unicellular organisms evolved into multicellular organisms. Life developed from deep within the oceans, multiplying and prospering, steadily improving the atmosphere. Slowly, the ozone layer could form, preventing harmful radiation from reaching your surface, and allowing life on land to prosper. It was only then, as the miracle of photosynthesis unfurled, that you began to wear the exquisite green mantle you do today.
But all phenomena are impermanent and ever-changing. Life over vast areas of the Earth has already been destroyed more than five times, including sixty-five million years ago, when the impact of a giant asteroid caused the mass extinction of dinosaurs and three quarters of all other species. Dear Mother, I am in awe of your capacity to be patient and creative, despite all the harsh conditions you have endured. I promise to remember our extraordinary journey of eons and to live my days with the awareness that we are all your children, and that we are all made of stars. I promise to do my part, contributing my own energy of joy and harmony to the glorious symphony of life.
VII
Your Ultimate Reality: No Death, No Fear
Dear Mother Earth,
You were born from the dust of distant supernovas and ancient stars. Your manifestation is but a continuation and when you cease to exist in this current form you too will continue in another. Your true nature is the ultimate dimension of reality—the nature of no-coming and no-going, no-birth and no-death. This is also our true nature. If we’re able to touch this we can experience the peace and freedom of non-fear.
And yet, because of our limited view, we still wonder what will happen to us when our physical form disintegrates. When we die, we merely return to you. You have given birth to us in the past, and we know that you will continue to give birth to us time and time again in the future. We know we can never die. Each time we manifest, we’re fresh and new; each time we return to the Earth, you receive and embrace us with great compassion. We promise to train ourselves to look deeply, to see and touch this truth—that our lifespan is your lifespan, and your lifespan is limitless.
We know that the ultimate and the historical—the noumenal and the phenomenal—are two dimensions of the same reality. Touching the historical dimension—a leaf, a flower, a pebble, a beam of light, a mountain, a river, a bird, or our own body—we can touch the ultimate. When we deeply touch the one, we touch the all. This is interbeing.
Dear Mother, we vow to see you as our body, and to see the sun as our heart. We will train ourselves to recognize you and the sun in every cell of our body. We will find you both, Mother Earth and Father Sun, in each tender leaf, in each flash of lightning, in each drop of water. Diligently, we will practice to see the ultimate and realize our own true nature. We will practice to see that we have never been born and we will never die.
We know that in the ultimate dimension there is no birth and no death, no being and no nonbeing, no suffering and no happiness, and no good and no evil. We will train ourselves to look deeply into the world of signs and appearances with the insight of interbeing, in order to see that if there were no death, there could be no birth; without suffering, there could be no happiness; without the mud, the lotus can’t grow. We know that happiness and suffering, birth and death, lean on each other. These pairs of opposites are only concepts. When we transcend these dualistic views of reality, we’re freed from all anxiety and fear.
Touching the ultimate we’re happy and at ease—we’re in our element, free from all notions and concepts. We’re as free as a bird soaring in the sky, as free as a deer leaping through the woods. Living deeply in mindfulness, we touch our true nature of interdependence and interbeing. We know we are one with you and with the whole cosmos. The ultimate reality transcends all notions and concepts. It can’t be described as personal or impersonal, material or spiritual, nor as the object or subject of mind. Ultimate reality is always shining and shining on itself. We don’t need to look for the ultimate outside of ourselves. We touch the ultimate in the very here and now.
VIII
Father Sun, My Heart
Dear Father Sun,
Your infinite light is the nourishing source of all species. You are our sun, our source of limitless light and life. Your light shines upon Mother Earth offering us warmth and beauty, helping Mother Earth to nourish us and make life possible for all species. Looking deeply into Mother Earth, I see you in Mother Earth. You aren’t only in the sky but you are also ever-present in Mother Earth and in me.
Every morning, you manifest from the East, a glorious rosy orb shining radiantly in the ten directions. You are the kindest of fathers with a great ability to understand and be compassionate, and yet at the same time you are incredibly bold and courageous. The light particles you radiate travel over 150 million kilometers from your immensely hot crown to reach us here on Earth in just over eight minutes. Every second you offer a small portion of yourself to the Earth in the form of light energy. You are present in every leaf, every flower, and every living cell. But day by day, your great physical mass of fusing plasma, 330,000 times the size of our Earth, is slowly diminishing. Within the next ten billion years most of it will transform into energy, radiating throughout the cosmos, and even though you will no longer be visible in your present form, you will be continued in every photon you have emitted. Nothing will be lost, only transformed.
Dear Father, your creative synergy with Mother Earth makes life possible. Mother’s slight tilt in her orbit offers us the four extraordinary seasons. Her miracle of photosynthesis harnesses your energy and creates oxygen for the atmosphere to protect us from your blazing ultraviolet radiation. Over the eons, Mother has skillfully harvested and stored your sunlight to sustain her children and enhance her beauty. Birds can enjoy soaring through the sky and deer can enjoy darting through the woods because of your creative harmony with Mother Earth. Each species can delight in its element thanks to your nourishing light and the miraculous canopy of the atmosphere embracing, protecting, and nurturing us all.
There is a heart inside of each and every one of us. If our heart were to stop beating, then we would die instantly. But when we look up toward the sky, we know that you, Father Sun, are also our heart. You aren’t just outside of this tiny body of ours, you are within every cell of our body, and the body of Mother Earth.
Dear Father, you are an integral part of the whole cosmos and our solar system. If you were to disappear, then our life, as well as that of Mother Earth, would also end. I aspire to look deeply to see you, Father Sun, as my heart, and to see the interrelationship, the interbeing nature between Father Sun, Mother Earth, myself, and all beings. I aspire to practice to love Mother Earth, Father Sun, and for human beings to love one another with the radiant insight of nonduality and interbeing in order to help us transcend all kinds of discrimination, fear, jealousy, resentment, hatred, and despair.
IX
Homo Conscius
Dear Mother Earth,
We have given ourselves the name homo sapiens. The precursors of our species began to appear only a few million years ago, in the form of apes such as orrorin tugenensis who could stand, leaving their hands free to do many things. As they learned to use tools and communicate, their brains grew and developed, and over six million years they gradually evolved into homo sapiens. As agriculture and societies emerged, we acquired new capacities unique to our species. We became self-aware and began to question our place in the cosmos. Yet we also developed traits in discord with our true nature. Because of our ignorance and suffering, we have acted with cruelty, meanness, and violence. But we also have the ability, with spiritual practice, to be compassionate and help- ful toward not only our own species but also other species—to become buddhas, saints, and bodhisattvas. All humans, without exception, have this potential to become awakened beings able to protect you, our Mother, and preserve your beauty.
Whether we’re human, animal, plant, or mineral, each of us has the nature of awakening because we are all your offspring. Yet we humans are often proud of our mind consciousness. We are proud of our powerful telescopes and ability to observe distant galaxies. But few of us realize that our consciousness is your own; you are deepening your understanding of the cosmos through us. Proud of our capacity to be aware of ourselves and the cosmos, we overlook the fact that our mind consciousness is limited by our habitual tendency to discriminate and conceptualize. We differentiate between birth and death, being and nonbeing, inside and outside, individual and collective. Nonetheless, there are humans who have looked deeply, cultivated their mind of awareness, and overcome these habitual tendencies, to attain the wisdom of nondiscrimination. They have been able to touch the ultimate dimension within them and around them. They have been able to continue you on the path of evolution, guiding others toward the insight of nonduality, transforming all separation, discrimination, fear, hatred, and despair.
Dear Mother, thanks to the precious gift of awareness, we can recognize our own presence and realize our true place in you and in the cosmos. We humans are no longer naive in thinking ourselves the masters of the universe. We know that in terms of the universe we are tiny and insignificant, and yet our minds are capable of encompassing numberless worlds. We know that our beautiful planet Earth is not the center of the universe, and yet we can still see it as one of the universe’s many wondrous manifestations. We have developed science and technology, and discovered reality’s true nature of no-birth and no-death, of neither being nor nonbeing, neither increasing nor decreasing, neither the same nor different. We realize that the one contains the all, that the greatest is contained within the smallest, and that each particle of dust contains the whole cosmos. We are learning to love you and our Father more, and to love one another in the light of this insight of interbeing. We know that this nondualistic way of seeing things can help us to transcend all discrimination, fear, jealousy, hatred, and despair.
Shakyamuni Buddha was a child of yours who attained full awakening at the foot of the Bodhi tree. After his long journey of seeking, he realized that the Earth is our true and only home, and that heaven, the whole cosmos, and the ultimate dimension can be touched right here with you. Dear Mother, we promise to remain with you throughout countless lifetimes, offering you our talent, strength, and health so that many more bodhisattvas can continue to rise up from your soil.
X
Can You Count on Us?
Dear Mother Earth,
The human species is but one of your many children. Unfortunately, many of us have been blinded by greed, pride, and delusion, and only a few of us have been able to recognize you as our Mother. Not realizing this, we have done you great harm, compromising both your health and your beauty. Our deluded minds push us to exploit you and create more and more discord, putting you and all your forms of life under stress and strain. Looking deeply, we also recognize that you have enough patience, endurance and energy to embrace and transform all the damage we have caused, even if it takes you hundreds of millions of years.
When greed and pride overtake our basic survival needs, the result is always violence and unnecessary devastation. We know that whenever one species develops too rapidly, exceeding its natural limit, there is great loss and damage, and the lives of other species are endangered. For equilibrium to be restored, causes and conditions naturally arise to bring about the destruction and annihilation of that species. Often these causes and conditions originate from within the destructive species itself. We have learned that when we perpetrate violence toward our own and other species, we are violent toward ourselves. When we know how to protect all beings, we are protecting ourselves.
We understand that all things are impermanent and without a separate self-nature. You and Father Sun, like everything else in the cosmos, are constantly changing, and you are only made of non-you elements. That is why we know that, in the ultimate dimension, you transcend birth and death, being and nonbeing. Nonetheless, we need to protect you and restore balance, so that you can continue for a long time in this beautiful and precious form, not just for our children and their children but for five hundred million years and beyond. We want to protect you so you can remain a glorious jewel within our solar system for eons to come.
We know that you want us to live in such a way that in each moment of our daily lives we can cherish life and generate the energies of mindfulness, peace, solidity, compassion, and love. We vow to fulfill your wish and respond to your love. We have the deep conviction that generating these wholesome energies, we will help reduce the suffering on Earth and contribute to alleviating the suffering caused by violence, war, hunger, and illness. In alleviating our suffering, we alleviate yours.
Dear Mother, there have been times when we suffered greatly as a result of natural disasters. We know that whenever we suffer, you suffer through us. The floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis aren’t punishments or manifestations of your anger, but are phenomena that must occur on occasion, so that balance can be restored. The same is true of a shooting star. For balance in nature to be achieved, at times some species have to endure loss. In those moments, we have turned to you, dear Mother, and asked whether or not we could count on you, on your stability and compassion. You didn’t answer us right away. Then, beholding us with great compassion, you replied, “Yes, of course, you can count on your Mother. I will always be there for you.” But then you said, “Dear children, you must ask yourselves, can your Mother Earth count on you?”
Dear Mother, today, we offer you our solemn reply, “Yes, Mother, you can count on us.”
From Love Letter to the Earth by Thich Nhat Hanh (2013). Parallax Press, the publishing house of the Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism.
Amsterdam is testing robots for the canals
Visitors to Amsterdam will soon notice autonomous vessels the size of a small car that silently sail the ancient canals, transporting passengers or transporting goods and rubbish.
This will be the electric Roboat, a more attractive name than “autonomous floating vehicle” for a project that should soon begin test trips. The aim of the project is to improve transport opportunities in the crowded city.
“We have a lot of road traffic and congestion, e-commerce supplies and logistics are clogging the small streets of the city,” said Stefan van Dyck, director of innovation at the Institute for Advanced Development in Amsterdam, who designs and develops Roboat with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). .
“At the same time, we have a lot of water under the open sky in the canals … That’s why we developed a self-driving, autonomous ship – to help with the logistics in the city, and also to move people.”
After four years of testing with smaller versions and improvements to the concept, the manufacturers showed the first two functional and life-size robolades on Wednesday. One of the first test applications of the venture will be for the unprestigious, but important, task: garbage collection.
The work is usually done by garbage trucks, but they are not safe on the narrow streets of the city and cause traffic jams. Instead, shore-based robots will act as floating garbage containers, returning to the base when filled.
The city, which supports the project, is considering sites for a pilot garbage collection project, which begins early next year, Van Dyke said.
The robots will need to be digitally connected to the city’s water traffic management to avoid collisions, but Van Dyke said one big advantage is that they don’t need drivers and “see” both at night and during the day. .
“So we can also use the night to collect waste and import construction materials into the city, while, for example, a boat trip is more active during the day,” he said. This also leads to a better distribution of water traffic.
Technical details for Roboat are on the project website, including battery capacity and wireless charging system.
Below the waterline, it looks somewhat like an upside-down drone: two propellers, front and rear, and two thrusters on either side of the bow, allow it to maneuver quickly and land so smoothly that it would embarrass most captains.
Laser “eyes”, GPS systems on the nose and stern and multiple side cameras help with positioning. Roboat programming is done with computers on shore.
The prototype is not yet allowed to enter the normal water traffic of the city with passengers. But in the longer term, the average size and fourth frame of a ship weighing 1,200 kg can be used for passenger, garbage and transport models. It is designed so that several Roboats can be connected together.
The merger of Robats will open up more opportunities for one-off use, Van Dyke said. Such are the creation of a floating concert platform, a temporary bridge, the assembly of a barge or, in marine versions, the formation of a circle of robots to help limit an oil spill.
