MAY THE LORD GRANT ETERNAL REST AMONG THE SAINTS TO OUR PARISHIONERS AND FRIENDS WHO HAVE RECENTLY FALLEN ASLEEP:
+Gregory Telischak (40th Day 5/19)
+Paul Kutchmanich (40th Day 5/28)
+Barbara Tober (40th Day 5/28)
+John Vatasin (40th Day 6/19)
+George Hetzer (40th Day 6/24)
The Life of the Holy Hierarch Bishop Nicholai (Velimirovich) Of Ochrid and Zicha, Serbia
Nicholai Velimirorich was born into a large peasant family in the village of Lelich, Serbia, on December 23, 1880. Young Nicholai began his education in Lelich and later went to the capital city, Belgrade, to attend St. Sava Theological Seminary. He graduated in 1902 at 22.
He entered the graduate Theological Faculty (or school) in Bern, Switzerland, in 1905 and 1909 received a doctorate in sacred theology – the first of many doctoral degrees he would earn. Later that year, he returned to Serbia and was tonsured a monk at the Monastery of Rkovica, receiving the name Nicholai. He was soon ordained to the priesthood and eventually elevated to the rank of archimandrite. Two years after his ordination, he joined the faculty at his alma mater, the St. Sava Theological Seminary in Belgrade and taught there until 1915. During his four summer vacations from St. Sava’s, Archimandrite Nicholai went to study in Russia.
When World War I broke out, Archimandrite Nicholai was sent to England on a diplomatic mission. While he was there, he lectured at Oxford University and received a doctorate in philosophy at the university’s King’s College. At the same time, he received honorary doctorates from Cambridge University and Glasgow University. He returned to Serbian in 1919 and was elected and consecrated a bishop that same year, at age 39. He was appointed to the Diocese of Zicha and later to the Diocese of Ochrid.
He spent 1921 and 1922 as a missionary bishop in America, creating and administrating the Serbian Orthodox Diocese in the United States and Canada. After his two years in America, he returned to Ochrid, where he resumed the archpastorate of his two Serbian dioceses. That is where he remained until 1934, when he went back to Zicha until the collapse of Yugoslavia in World War II.
During World War II, the Nazis occupied Yugoslavia. Civil war broke out, and Serb fought Serb. In addition, hundreds of thousands of Orthodox Christians were tortured or massacred by the Croatians under the direction of the Nazis. Hosts of other Serbs were sent to Nazi death camps. Serbian Patriarch Gavrilo and Bishop Nicholai were sent to the infamous Dachau concentration camp, where – although they suffered horribly – they both survived the war.
Years later, Bishop Nicholai said that he had once spoken with an elder on Mount Athos. Young Nicholai asked the monk: “Father, what is your main spiritual exercise?”
The elder replied, “The perfect visualization of God’s presence.”
Ever since then, Bishop Nicholai said, “I tried this visualization of God’s presence. And as little as I succeeded, it helped me enormously to prevent me from sinning in freedom, and from despairing in prison. If we kept the vision of the invisible God, we would be happier, wiser, and stronger in every walk of life.”
As the war was nearing its end, Bishop Nicholai and Patriarch Gavrilo were liberated from Dachau. Patriarch. Gavrilo returned to Yugoslavia, but Bishop Nicholai did not, having found that he was unwelcome in Serbia. During the years that followed the war, Church leaders were not given the freedom to preach the Gospel and teach the Faith in Yugoslavia. So it was from abroad that Bishop Nicholai felt he could best serve the faithful of his Church, and he chose to remain in foreign exile.
He first went to England, but within a year, in April 1946, he decided to go again to America. This time he was a refugee, without any official position in the Church. He arrived at the Serbian Orthodox Cathedral in New York City. He also taught at the Serbian Orthodox Seminary in Libertyville, Illinois, until 1949. Bishop Nicholai moved to the Russian Orthodox St. Vladimir’s Seminary in New York and later to St. Tikhon’s Monastery and Seminary in South Canaan, Pennsylvania. There he would teach, preach, continue to write, and pursue his own studies. In addition to degrees from Bern and Oxford, Bishop Nicholai received doctorates from Halle in Germany, the Sorbonne in Paris, and Columbia University in New York.
He began as a professor at St. Tikhon’s Seminary, but eventually he was appointed rector. At that time, most of the courses at St. Tikhon’s were taught in Russian, but Bishop Nicholai chose to teach only in English. Other faculty members disagreed with his decision, and some became resentful of him, but the bishop knew that it was important for the students to hear their lectures in their own language. On most occasions, he even preached his sermons in English in the monastery church at St. Tikhon’s so that everyone – the monks, the seminarians and the faithful laity who attended the Liturgy – would be able to understand him. The people often complained about the use of English, but he would answer: “You have learned and heard enough. It is time for the seminarians to learn something.”
One of the students wrote of Bishop Nicholai: He sighed a great deal when he prayed and before class he would spontaneously pray for us and the seminary. He knew the strengths and weaknesses of each seminary student. At time he would sit on a warm fall evening and pay his flute, and the tears would stream down his face as he remembered his beloved Serbia. He also survived the Dachau prison camp. When the students would complain about the food, he would say, “You don’t know what bad food is. We would search through the garbage cans at Drachau.” But beyond that, he would not mention his sufferings.
Bishop Nicholai’s health had been weakened by his captivity at Dachau. Despite his ill health, however, he remained in constant contact with the faithful of the Serbian and other Orthodox churches. He taught his seminary classes with enthusiasm, power, and deep insight. He often traveled to the Serbian Church House in New York, and there he received his spiritual children and other visitors. His correspondents, his spiritual children, his students, his fellow monks, and all who knew him came to regard him with love and respect.
Bishop Nicholai fell asleep in the Lord on Sunday, March 18, 1956, at St. Tikhon’s. Ten days later, his body was moved for burial to the Serbian Monastery of Sava in Libertyville, Illinois, where it remained until April 24, 1991. At that time his body was taken back to Yugoslavia, where he lay in state in many towns and cities. According to his own final wishes, the bishop’s body was finally transferred to his native village of Lelich in Serbia on May 12, 1991. His remains joined those of his parents and his nephew, Bishop Jovan Velimirovich. In 1987, the local diocese as a saint of the Church glorified Bishop Nicholai.
Be ye merciful, even as your Father is merciful (Luke 6:36)
PLEASE REMEMBER THESE NAMES IN YOUR DAILY PRAYERS, AS THEY ARE IN NEED OF YOUR MERCY AND COMPASSION:
Matthew Kaznica, Douglas Rachko, Michael Lissy, Helen Vasilenko , Mary Kardash, Mary Chanda, Peter Popowich, Jean Banas, Helen Ridgell, Mary Ann De Sante, Julia Van Ess, Margaret Soroka, Linda Taylor, Jeffrey Taylor, George Brozina, Barbara Brozina, Ann Kattwinkel, Helen Pasternack, Anna Deeda, Frances Madeo, Ida Mossinac, Peter Glita, Nancy LaGreca, Kathleen Bobcock, Dara Boltuskonis, Frank Brincka, Tony Roskowsky, Dorothea Rohatsch, Alice Bacik, Holly Marie Pawloski, Kenny Burmeister, Margaret Klimek, John Krisko, Frank Bizub, William Cuthbert, Fred Gmyrek, Andy Stangas , Kathleen Stangas, Joseph Randazzo, Julia Ann La Greca, Anna Glogiewicz, Matthew Boveroux, Joyce Fant, Ann Hnath, Michael Kupec Sr., Johnson Hannah, William Demeter, Olga Jarosz, Margaret Ostek, Karen Kattwinkel, Stephen Morey, Leticia Pellegrino-Kehoe, Olga Warchol Manzcur, Archpriest Paul White, Infant Dominic Michael, David Wilson, William Yarcich, Katie Shores, Eileen Jeseseke, Helen Ridgell, Andrew Condo, Jeffrey Fippinger, Ann Cacciatore, Archpriest John Kassatkin, Dolores Van Dyke
Blessed are the merciful, because they shall obtain mercy, says the Scripture. Mercy is not the least of the beatitudes. Again: Blessed is he who is considerate to the needy and the poor. Once more: Generous is the man who is merciful and lends. In another place: All day the just man is merciful and lends. Let us lay hold of this blessing, let us earn the name of being considerate, let us be generous.
Not even night should interrupt you in your duty of mercy. Do not say: Come back and I will give you something tomorrow. There should be no delay between your intention and your good deed. Generosity is the one thing that cannot admit of delay.
Share your bread with the hungry, and bring the needy and the homeless into your house, with a joyful and eager heart. He who does acts of mercy should do so with cheerfulness. The grace of a good deed is doubled when it is done with promptness and speed. What is given with a bad grace or against one’s will is distasteful and far from praiseworthy.
When we perform an act of kindness we should rejoice and not be sad about it. If you undo the shackles and the thongs, says Isaiah, that is, if you do away with miserliness and counting the cost, with hesitation and grumbling, what will be the result? Something great and wonderful! What a marvelous reward there will be: Your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will rise up quickly. Who would not aspire to light and healing.
If you think that I have something to say, servants of Christ, his brethren and co-heirs, let us visit Christ whenever we may; let us care for him, feed him, clothe him, welcome him, honor him, not only at a meal, as some have done, or by anointing him, as Mary did, or only by lending him a tomb, like Joseph of Arimathaea, or by arranging for his burial, like Nicodemus, who loved Christ half-heartedly, or by giving him gold, frankincense and myrrh, like the Magi before all these others. The Lord of all asks for mercy, not sacrifice, and mercy is greater than myriads of fattened lambs. Let us then show him mercy in the persons of the poor and those who today are lying on the ground, so that when we come to leave this world they may receive us into everlasting dwelling places, in Christ our Lord himself, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
THE FENCE PROJECT
Late last summer, one of our parish ladies was cleaning out some items left over from our rummage sale when an elderly woman walking home from school with her grandchildren stopped at the rear gate on the 4th Street side of the Cathedral grounds.
The woman sheepishly looked at the items from afar, but was quickly invited over to come and take a look to see if there was anything there she could use. With thanksgiving, she took a few small items home. Among the items we had were a considerable amount of clothing, which we hung up on the 4th Street fence for the needy residents of our neighborhood to take. Word spread quickly, and the items were taken as fast as we could put them out.
The Cathedral is located in one of the poorer areas of North Jersey, and many of our neighbors lack the basic material needs. Thus was born "The Fence Project", and nearly every day since we've been placing clothing and non-perishable food at the back gate for those in need.
The project has brought us many spiritual blessings, and as word is spreading we've been receiving enough donations to keep it going. May the Lord grant that this simple project be the seed that grows into even greater charitable deeds for our parish to participate in.
Over the past few years an Orthodox woman, native of North America, has slowly become known to more and more people, particularly other Orthodox women.
Matushka Olga was the wife of Archpriest Nickolai O. Michael from the village of Kwethluk, on the Kuskokwim River in Alaska. As described in Fr. Michael Oleksa's book, Orthodox Alaska , she was neither a "physically impressive or imposing figure." She raised eight children to maturity, giving birth to several of them without a midwife. While her husband was away taking care of so many other parishes, she kept busy raising her family and doing many things for other people. One is reminded of the story of Tabitha in the book of Acts (9:36-ff) when hearing that "in addition to sewing +Father Nikolai's vestments in the early years and crafting beautiful parkas, boots and mittens for her children, she was constantly sewing or knitting socks or fur outerwear for them. Hardly a friend or neighbor was without something Matushka had made for them. Parishes hundreds of miles away received unsolicited gifts, traditional Eskimo winter boots (mukluks) to sell or raffle for their building fund. All the clergy of the deanery wore gloves or woolen socks...[which she] had made for them." While fulfilling many of the other tasks (like preparing the Eucharist bread) that are often assumed by other priests' wives, she also knew by heart the hymns of many feast days, including Palm Sunday, Holy Week and Pascha in Yup'ik (her Eskimo language).
After miraculously surviving an initial bout with cancer when it seemed that nothing could be done, she eventually succumbed to a return of the disease, preparing herself for death which took place on November 8, 1979 with great courage and faith. It appeared that the normal snow and river ice of that time of the year would prevent many people from attending her funeral. But the weather uncharacteristically changed and a southerly wind helped to melt the ice and snow, allowing parishioners from the neighboring village to make the journey to Kwethluk. "Hundreds of friends...filled the newly-consecrated church on the extraordinary spring-day of the funeral. Upon exiting the church, the procession was joined by a flock of birds, although by that time of year, all birds have long since flown south. The birds circled overhead, and accompanied the coffin to the grave site. The usually frozen snows had been easy to dig because of the unprecedented thaw. That night after the memorial meal, the wind began to blow again, the ground froze, ice covered the river, winter returned. It was as if the earth itself had opened to receive this woman. The cosmos still cooperates and participates in worship the Real People, [i.e. the name the native people give to themselves] offer to God". However, it has not been just her story, that has been so life changing to others, but the actual encounter with her presence that has taken place in remarkable ways. One woman, originally from Kwethluk, but now living in Arizona, had a dream in which Matushka Olga appeared, assuring her that her mother would be alright because she was coming to join Matushka Olga in a bright and joyful place. This woman did not know her mother was sick at the time, that she had been rushed to Anchorage, and that she would soon die. But the next day she received news of her mother's emergency and she rushed from Arizona to Alaska, comforting her mother with the news Matushka Olga had brought her about her eternal destiny. The woman died in peace and with her daughter, without the shock and grief that would have certainly ensued if the dream had not reassured her. Another woman, after viewing a picture of Matushka Olga, experienced a "compassionate, loving, gentle, and very real-very accessible presence."
The most detailed account comes from an Orthodox woman who, as in the previous example, had suffered for many years from the consequences of severe sexual abuse experienced as a child. This is her testimony of meeting Matushka Olga:
I was deeply at prayer and awake. I had remembered an event that was very scary. My prayer began with my asking the Holy Theotokos for help and mercy. Gradually I became aware of standing in the woods feeling a little scared. Soon a gentle wave of tenderness began to sweep through the woods followed by a fresh garden scent. I saw the Virgin Mary, dressed as she is in an icon, but more natural looking and brighter, walking toward me. As she came closer I was aware of someone walking behind her. She stepped aside and gestured to a short, wise looking woman. I asked her, "Who are you?" and the Virgin Mary answered, "St. Olga." St. Olga gestured for me to follow her. We walked a long way until there weren't many trees. We came to a little hill that had a door cut into the side. She gestured for me to sit and she went inside. After a little while some smoke came out of the top of the hill and from the open hole on the top of the hill. Everything around me felt gentle, especially Mother Olga. The little hill house smelled like wild thyme and white pine in the sun with roses and violets mixed in. Mother Olga helped me up onto a kind of platform bed, resembling a driftwood box filled with moss and grasses. It was soft and smelled like the earth and the sea. I was exhausted and lay back. St.Olga went over to the lamp and warmed up something which she rubbed on my belly. I looked five months pregnant. (I was not pregnant for real at the time.) I started to labor. I was a little scared. Mother Olga climbed up beside me and gently holding my arm pretended to labor with me, showing me what to do and how to breathe. She still hadn't said anything. She helped me push out what seemed to be afterbirth, that soaked into the dried moss on the bed. I was very tired and crying a little from relief when it was over. Up until this she hadn't spoken, but her eyes spoke with great tenderness and understanding.We both got up and had some tea. As we were drinking it, holy Mother Olga gradually became the light in the room. Her face appeared to have a strong light bulb or the sun shining under her skin. But I think the whole of her glowed. It was the kind of loving gaze from a mother to an infant that connects and welcomes a baby to life. She seemed to pour tenderness into me through her eyes. This wasn't scary even though, at the time, I didn't know about people who literally shone with the love of God. (It made more sense after I read about St. Seraphim). I know now that some very deep wounds were being healed at the time. She gave me back my own life which had been stolen, a life that is now defined by the beauty and love of God for me, the restored work of His Hands." After some time I felt that I was filled with wellness and a sense of quiet entered my soul, as if my soul had been crying like a grief-stricken abandoned infant and had finally been comforted."Even now as I write... the miracle of peacefulness, and also the zest for life which wellness has brought, causes me to cry with joy and awe.
Only after this did Holy Mother Olga speak. She spoke about God and people who choose to do evil things. She said that the people who hurt me thought they could make me carry their evil inside of me by rape. She was very firm when she said, “That’s a lie. Only God can carry evil away. The only thing they could put inside of you was the seed of life which is a creation of God and cannot pollute anyone." I was never polluted. It just felt that way because of the evil intentions of the people near me. What I had held inside me was the pain, terror, shame and helplessness I felt. We had labored together and that was all out of me now. She burned some grass over the little flame and smoke went right up to God who is both the judge and the forgiver. I understood by the "incense" that it wasn't my job to carry the sins of the people against me either. It was God's, and what an ever-unfolding richness this taste of salvation is. At the end of this healing time we went outside together. It was not dark in the visioning prayer. There were so many stars stretching to infinity. The sky was all a shimmer with a moving veil of light. I had seen photos of the Northern Lights, but didn't know they moved.)
Either Matushka Olga said, or we both heard in our hearts — I can't remember which —that the moving curtain of light was to be for us a promise that God can create great beauty from complete desolation and nothingness. For me it was proof of the healing — great beauty where there had been nothing before but despair hidden by shame and great effort."What is one to make of these accounts? If nothing else, for now, one can acknowledge the special place that Matushka Olga has had in the lives of certain native people and a growing local veneration to broader awareness that God reveals how He can be "wonderful in His Saints."
Matushka Olga was herself a midwife and may have also known from personal experience the traumas of being abused earlier in her life. Perhaps it is this role as an advocate for those who have been abused, particularly sexually, that God will continue to use Matushka Olga in drawing "straight with crooked lines." His work of creating beauty from complete desolation and nothingness. Although Matushka Olga has not yet been formally glorified as a Saint of the Church, she continues to be venerated locally in Alaska and throughout the world as word of her sanctity spreads. The Canonization Commission of the OCA is scheduled to take up the matter in the near future.
Matushka Olga Pray Unto God For Us!
This website was last updated on 18 May 2012 at 0321 GMT
ANGELS
Today, there seems to be more interest than ever regarding the nature of angels and their work. Therefore, it is vital for the Orthodox Christian to have a proper dogmatic understanding of angelology so that no one is brought to confusion by misconceptions and false teachings.
The Holy Fathers taught that God created the angels long before He created the visible world. They also understood the Genesis account of creation - In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth (1:1) - to mean not the physical heaven, but the invisible heaven, the dwelling place of the powers on high. Therefore the angels, already serving and glorifying God, beheld the beginning of all that is sensible. Since the angels are not co-eternal with God, St. Basil the Great places their creation within a supratemporal aeon. According to Dionysius the Areopagite, in respect to their place in the created order, angels share partly in eternity and partly in time, and as a result they stand midway between the things that are and the things that will be.
Angels are superior to all created beings, including man. Although they bear some of the same characteristics, possessing intelligence, will and knowledge, they are, in the words of St. Gregory Palamas, more honorable than us in that they possess no body and so more closely resemble the utterly bodiless and Uncreated Nature. The Holy Father notes that although man bears the image of God to a greater degree than the angels, they bear the likeness, something that we fall far short of.
By literal definition, an angel is a messenger, but in reality their functions are much more diverse. According to Tradition, they are divided into nine hierarchies or ranks, each consisting of three hierarchal degrees which Dionysius the Areopagite called “choirs” because the collective activities of the angels resemble an eternal song of praise and thanksgiving to God. Some Fathers, such as Chrysostom, Theodoret and Theophylactus expressed the opinion that in addition to the nine ranks there are yet many more that God has chosen not to reveal to man in this lifetime. Chrysostom describes them as innumerable other kinds, and unimaginably many classes which no words are capable of depicting.
In their capacity as servitors of mankind for the sake of our salvation, the lower angels serve in order to share in the superiority of the higher, and the higher angels serve by fulfilling their duty to share their abundance of grace with the lower. In this way the angelic hierarchy functions by channeling the love of God towards man in a complimentary manner. The Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones are perpetually immersed in praise and adoration of God, and exhibit such a fervent love for the Creator that it consumes all that comes between God and man, uniting the activities of the soul with the Divine. The Dominions, Virtues and Powers govern the cosmos and mirror the perfection of the first choir, and finally the Principalities, Archangels and Angels are those who have direct contact with mankind. It is they who serve as the messengers of God and the protectors of men. Within the Holy Scriptures several Archangels are mentioned by name: Michael and Gabriel in the canonical books, and Raphael, Uriel, and Salathiel in the non-canonical books. Holy Tradition gives us two more names, Jegudiel and Barachiel, which are not contained in the Scriptures. Thus, the names of the Archangels revealed to us through the written and oral Tradition of the Church are seven, which corresponds to the seven spirits described by the Apostle John as being before the throne of God (Rev. 1:4).
God has appointed angels to individual responsibilities, much like He appointed each man to have his own occupation. As St. Gregory the Theologian writes, some of them stand before the great God; others, by their cooperation, uphold the whole world. It is apparent that every angel has their own particular talents, for as the Holy Father writes different individuals of them embrace different parts of the world, or are appointed over different districts of the universe. St. Ambrose noted that angels develop their powers gradually, and are capable of advancement to positions of greater responsibility. Both St. Athanasius and St. Basil the Great wrote that the virtues of the angels are not indigenous. They are not holy by nature, but were created with the capacity and will to attain perfection.
Since angels traverse time and eternity, they are able to act in a mediatory capacity, contributing to the human knowledge of God by communicating His revelations to mankind. Dionysius the Areopagite expressed the opinion that all divine revelation is accomplished through visions or images produced by God and interpreted by angels. St. Gregory Palamas noted that there is a synergy between angels and men when it comes to divine revelation. Men have been recipients of the direct revelation of God beginning with the Incarnation, and angels have come to know these revelations through the vehicles of human participation and experience. Our knowledge of God is expressed in comprehendible symbols that are communicated by angels. Through these symbols, man is able to perceive that which is beyond the senses, and in return the angels themselves discover new means of divine revelation. Because only man is both spiritual and sensible, he alone is able to grasp the depth of God’s love on both levels. Angels, therefore, are reliant upon man to share the sensible revelations of God. As humans progress in spiritual perception, they come closer to the angelic state, the sensible form once required by man is overtaken by the divine spirituality, and the angels in turn become capable of grasping the sensible by themselves. In this sense, according to Dionysius the Areopagite, in the world to come men will become like the angels.
To understand the context of Dionysius’ statement, it should be understood that while it is possible for man to become equal to the angels or even ascend above them by participating in the Divine, it is not possible for man to actually become an angel, as modern heretical beliefs profess. This belief is especially prevalent when it comes to the death of an innocent child, and emanates from Christ’s words that one should take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. The words of our Lord reveal only that each person is assigned a guardian angel, and that the faith of a child is salvific. There is no scriptural or patristic basis to conclude that children or adults who lived a God-pleasing life will become angels upon their repose. Such a transformation would upset the created order, as angels and men are distinctive entities.
The eschatological role of angels is made clear by the words of our Lord, who noted that at the end His angels will come with a great sound of a trumpet and they shall gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other (Mt. 24:31, Mk. 13:27). Since they do not possess foreknowledge, the time of Christ’s return is unknown to them, for as the Lord said that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only (Mt. 24:36). However, when the time comes, they shall be the administers of God’s judgment, as Christ notes that at the end the angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from among the just (Mt. 13:49). In terms of man’s temporal judgment that he shall face when the soul departs from the body, an angel, or more specifically man’s personal guardian angel, plays an integral role. This same guardian angel, which accompanies man throughout his earthly life, shall guide and defend the departed soul as it journeys to be presented before the Dread Judgment Seat of the Lord.
According to St. Gregory of Nyssa, all created beings, including angels, are subject to change. He notes that angels were created perfect, but also with the free will that makes change possible. Like men, angels have not always used their free will in a God-pleasing manner, and the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day (Jude 1:6). Here, the apostle refers to the fallen angels, and the chief among them, Satan. These fallen angels, through their own pride, rejected the will of God, and established pride as the root of all sin. From a soteriological standpoint, some Fathers differ as to the ultimate fate of the fallen angels. St. John Damascene wrote that although man, by reason of the infirmity of his body, is capable of repentance, the angel, because of his incorporeality, is not. If, then, the fallen angels are incapable of repentance, is their eternal salvation possible? St. Gregory of Nyssa seems to believe it is. He writes: He who is at once just and good and wise once used His device for the salvation of him who had perished, and thus not only conferred benefit on the lost one, but on him too, who had wrought our ruin. Other Holy Fathers, however, do not share this conjecture.
God created angels in order that they may contemplate His Glory, and seeing that His creation was good, He desired to create man to share in His love. Within the created order, angels and men are mutually beneficial to one another. The role of the angels is clearly spelled out by Holy Scripture: they serve God, as is incumbent upon all creation, and much of the way they accomplish their service to God is through their service to men. Angels and men are co-dependant, uniting the corporal with the incorporeal, and the “now” with the eternal, working together within God’s divine economy for our salvation. - Fr. Stephen
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The Priest’s Prayer from the Holy Orthodox Church’s Order of the Office of Prayer and Supplication for the Victims of Abortion Prayed to our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ
O most merciful, all gracious and compassionate Lord Jesus Christ our Savior, Son of God: we entreat Thee, most gracious Master: look with compassion upon Thy children who have been condemned to death by the unjust judgment of men. And as Thou hast promised to bestow the heavenly kingdom on them born of water and the Spirit, and who in blamelessness of life have been translated unto Thee; and Who said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven" - we humbly pray, according to Thy unfailing promise: grant the inheritance of Thy kingdom to the multitude of spotless infants who have been cruelly murdered in the abortuaries of this land; for Thou art the resurrection and the life and the repose of all Thy servants and of these innocents, O Christ our God.
Turn the hearts of those who seek to destroy Thy little ones. We beseech Thee to pour forth Thy healing grace upon them, that they may be convicted in their hearts and turn from their evil ways. Remember all of them that kill our children as on the altars of Moloch, and render not unto them according to their deeds, but according to Thy great mercy convert them: the unbelieving to true faith and piety, and the believing that they may turn from evil and do good. O Holy Master, Almighty Father and pre-eternal God, Who alone made and directs all things; Who rises up quickly against the evil of the impious ones; who, by providence, teaches Thy people preservation of justice and the obliteration of evil on earth; Who condescends to raise up warriors for the protection of the people of God: we entreat Thee with compunction, that as Thou didst give David power to defeat Goliath, and as Thou didst condescend through Judas Maccabeus, to seize victory from the arrogant pagans who would not call on Thy Name; so too, grant protection to us, Thy servants against the enemies rising against us as we go forth to do spiritual battle against the evil one and those who do his will rather than Thine.
For Thou art a merciful God, and lovest mankind, and unto Thee do we send up glory: to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages.
