55 Maxims for Orthodox Christian Living
In memory of Father Thomas Hopko
True Almsgiving
The Widow Anastasia-A Story about True Almsgiving…
The following story was extracted from “Elder Cleopa of Sihastria.”
Emperor Nicephorus of Constantinople reigned from 1078 until 1081. He decided to build a cathedral that would be almost as grand as St. Sophia. When it was ready, the patriarch of Jerusalem, the patriarch of Alexandria as well as the patriarch of Constantinople were all invited to consecrate the beautiful new church built by the emperor. Announcements had been made about the consecration for several months in advance so that everyone would have time to travel to the great city of Constantinople; remember that during that time there were no cars, planes or trains. Everyone had to travel either in carts pulled by oxen, horses or donkeys, and those from great distances had to cross the sea in boats.
When Nicephorus’ cathedral was ready to be consecrated there were three patriarchs, forty metropolitans, and thousands of priests present, since this was an imperial cathedral. Thousands of carts and wagons converged on the city as the faithful came from all around. Everyone brought something for the new cathedral: rugs, barrels of wine, oil, flour, candles, etc. Each person wanted to offer something!
At that time there was a widow named Anastasia who lived in Constantinople. For fifty years she had lived faithfully, going to church regularly and praying to God. She lived on the edge of the city, right along the road on which all the carts and wagons of people had to travel to reach the new church. But Anastasia was very poor. Her house was a dilapidated shack, she had no money, no oil, no flour, nothing that she could offer to the new church. As she saw so many oxen pulling wagons of people toward the new church, she decided to give an armful of grass to the poor animals, since she did possess a small sickle and a pitchfork.
The widow was poor in material things, but very rich in faith! During the winter months she would spin flax and wool for the people of the town, and in the summer she would take her sickle and glean in the fields after the harvesters had left, then she would wrap the wheat in a rug and beat it to make a little flour for herself. Thus, little by little, she was able to provide herself with some flour for her own meager needs. That is how poor this widow, Anastasia, was!
Poor though she was, she had a very merciful heart! What went through her mind as she saw the oxen pulling such heavy loads of goods for the celebration of the new church? ‘I don’t have any money, or rugs, or oil, nothing. But I can give the animals a little grass.’ Still, she was afraid because she did not own land, so where would she get the grass without doing something wrong?
She took a big sack and went into a field where there was a kind of wild grass, called couch-grass, growing. She cut a lot of this grass, being careful not to damage the other crops that were growing, and put it into her sack, saying to herself, ‘I will give the oxen some grass, even if it is not from my own land.’
She took a walking stick and set off with the sack of grass toward the area near the church where many people had gathered. She found a pair of oxen who had finished eating the little bit of feed that had been set out for them; they were looking about for more food, still hungry, but there was none that they could reach.
Anastasia opened her sack of grass and put it in front of the oxen, saying, ‘Lord, accept this bit of grass, and forgive me, for I have nothing to bring to the church consecration, and even this is not from my own land!’ She wept as she said these words; then when the oxen had finished eating, she also went to the church for the consecration.
She was astounded at what she saw in the church: so many people and such rich adornments for the new temple! The church was prepared like a bride for a wedding with all the embellishments ready for the consecration that was to take place the following day. Anastasia went to an icon in the rear of the church, where women generally would stand; there the poor old woman, her face wrinkled with age, an old scarf on her head, the poorest of sandals on her feet and wearing a raggedy dress, knelt and prayed to the Lord, saying, ‘Lord, forgive me, for I have not brought any kind of offering for the church! I have nothing. The emperor is a king on earth and will be great in heaven, but I am so poor and have no money, nothing to offer.’ and as she prayed her tears dropped to the ground.
Then Emperor Nicephorus, with all his entourage and servants, came into the church. His chief minister, Peter was his name, pointed to the dedication plaque – since in churches and monasteries that are historical monuments there are dedication plaques over the doors – and drew the emperor’s attention to it. The plaque was made of marble and the golden inscription read ‘To the glory of the all holy Trinity of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, this holy church was built and provided for by me, the Emperor Nicephorus.’ The emperor fully approved of the way the inscription had been executed, since he was the one who had ordered it.
Thus, the emperor, empress and a crowd of generals and other officials went into the church to see how it was prepared for the big event of consecration the following day. Everything was in order: beautiful frescoes on the walls, icons with golden risas, fine covers for the icon stands and curtains at the royal doors, gold-embroidered vestments, chandeliers, holy vessels for the altar, Gospel book, everything was in perfect order.
While the dignitaries were inspecting everything in the church, the elderly widow Anastasia, who had given an armful of grass to the oxen, was weeping before the icons in the rear of the church. As she prayed, the angel of the Lord changed the inscription on the dedication plaque. The inscription, even more beautifully executed now read, ‘To the glory of the all holy Trinity of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, this holy church was built and provided for by me, the widow Anastasia.’
The people in the rear of the church saw the inscription and froze with fear. Before they had clearly read the emperor’s name on the inscription. There were people all around, no scaffolding was in the church for someone to reach the plaque and change the writing; thus, no one could explain how this change had happened. The men read the inscription and began to talk among themselves.
– ‘What! What does that say?’
– ‘What’s there?’
– ‘Look, it says that a widow built this church!’
– ‘But just a moment ago when the emperor came in, it had his name on it.’
– ‘What will the emperor say when he sees this?’
Those present were afraid to tell the emperor, so they called the head minister, Peter, and showed the inscription to him.
Peter read the inscription and said, ‘But this is a miracle! It’s all right. I will tell the emperor!’
The emperor listened to Peter. What a sight it was: the emperor and empress both had shining gold crowns on their heads and were dressed in all their royal garments, surrounded by soldiers.
– ‘Your Majesty, come into the vestibule a moment. ‘
The emperor came and looked at the plaque in amazement.
– ‘But, when we came into the church, it was my inscription.’
– ‘I know that it was yours, Your Majesty. Everyone knows it was yours. But look at what is written there now!’
– ‘Oh! What a sinner I am! This is a great miracle! No one could have done this except God Himself! This is a wonderful miracle. I lost the church because I made it in my own pride. Now it has been given to a widow!’
The emperor then called all his chief servants and told them, ‘This church is not to be consecrated until we find this widow! Once she is found, we will do the consecration in her name because she is greater before God than I am.’ Then he gave the order to search throughout his entire empire for the widow Anastasia.
Now, it was God’s will to reveal this mystery quickly, and He did so through another widow who was about the same age as the blessed Anastasia. This woman was in the crowd, but was not aware that Anastasia was also there.
In all the commotion that was going on in the rear of the church, she asked ‘What is the matter?’
When someone told her that they were looking for a widow by the name of Anastasia, she said, ‘I know Anastasia. She lives at the edge of town.’
‘What! You know her! Come here to the emperor!’
The old woman told the emperor where the widow Anastasia lived, and he then immediately sent servants to find her and bring her to the church.
Servants, riders and horses quickly headed off to the edge of Constantinople to find Anastasia and bring her to the emperor. When they reached the place that the old woman had told them, they found some children playing.
‘Do you children know where an old woman by the name of Anastasia lives?’
One of the older children pointed and said, ‘Anastasia lives over there, near the garden.’
The men went to the house in the untilled garden. What did they find at the widow Anastasia’s door? No lock. No bolts. No latch. When someone has nothing, they are not afraid of thieves. The door was held shut by a string tied onto a nail. It was obvious that the old woman was not home. The few belongings that she had were in plain sight, but there was nothing worth stealing. She had gone to the church for the consecration.
The servants said to the children, ‘The old woman, Anastasia, is not home.’
‘No. Anastasia left with an armful of grass to the farm market,’ the children answered, not knowing that she had gone to the church.
The generals and other men all returned to give their report to the emperor. ‘Your Majesty, we went and found the small house on the edge of town. There were some children playing and they said that Anastasia is here, in this crowd, somewhere.’
Someone who knew Anastasia heard this and said that she was in the church, ‘She is praying to the Savior!’
‘If she is in church, tell her not to be afraid, since she has never met me,’ said the emperor. ‘Send some elderly women to her to tell her that at the consecration of the church the emperor is going to make a gift of a cow to all the old women.’
Following the emperor’s order, they found the elderly Anastasia and brought her before the emperor who said, ‘Don’t be afraid, Anastasia. You have been found worthy of a great blessing from God! What offering did you bring this morning for the consecration of the church?’
– ‘I did not bring anything, Your Majesty, because I am so poor!’ She did not consider the armful of grass that she’d given the oxen as any kind of offering.
– ‘Please, think, dear Anastasia. You must have brought a great gift because my church has been given to you!’
– ‘I didn’t bring any gift because I have no money. I have nothing! All I have is a sickle and a pitchfork. During the winter I spin wool for people, and in the summer I use the sickle to glean after the harvesters. I manage to get a little wheat from what I glean. Aside from that, I have nothing. ‘
– ‘This is an imperial church and I spent a fortune from my own gold and silver to build it; but look at the inscription that says it was made by Anastasia! What did you give to this church?’
– ‘I didn’t give anything except for an armful of grass to a yoke of oxen.’
– ‘Don’t be afraid, Anastasia. The inscription was done by God, not you. God Himself wrote that this church is yours! ‘
And there it was on the inscription, ‘To the glory of the all holy Trinity of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, this holy church was built and provided for by me, the widow Anastasia.’ The men had to read it to her, since she was illiterate.
– ‘You see, dear woman, you say that you did not bring any thing, but remember that you did bring an armful of grass! ‘
– ‘I did bring that, but it was not a real offering from me since I cut it from someone else’s field.’
– ‘Look, Anastasia, your armful of grass was more precious than all the treasures that I gave. See, the angel of the Lord has put the church in your name and it will remain yours forever. We will consecrate the church with all these patriarchs, with all the pomp and celebration as we planned, but the church will be Anastasia’s forever. The church will be consecrated with your name since the angel has written that both in heaven and here. ‘
The poor widow was astounded and exclaimed, ‘What a miracle!’
When the blessed Anastasia from Constantinople died, the emperor buried her in the holy altar, with an inscription above her tomb, ‘Here, in the church that God miraculously gave her, is buried the widow Anastasia.’
An armful of grass, given in the name of the Lord with humility and a sorrowful heart far surpasses all the wealth of the Emperor Nicephorus. That is what God desires!
St. Ephraim the Syrian says, ‘God does not look upon the quantity of offerings that you make, but the heart with which you bring these offerings.’ However small your offering may be, give it with humility and a sorrowful heart that you cannot offer more. That is true almsgiving.
What on Earth is the Orthodox Church?
For twenty centuries the Orthodox Church has continued in Her undiminished and unaltered faith and practice, yet She is virtually unknown to most people living in the Eugene/Springfield area. We are orthodox but not Jewish; catholic but not Roman; we’re not Denominational, we’re pre-denominational. The Orthodox Church is the original Christian Church founded by Jesus Christ.
We invite you to come and get to know the Original! Inquirer’s classes are offered each Monday evening at 6:30 pm.
“Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God” Romans 15:7
Thank you for visiting the St. George Greek Orthodox Church website. We hope you find our site informative and edifying. We also invite you to join us for one of our liturgical services – services that have been part of the worshiping tradition of apostolic Christianity since the era of the “early Christian Church.”
Our parish is more than just a place where people come to worship the living God (although it is first and foremost that!). St. George is a vibrant faith community of people of all ages and backgrounds who are working out their salvation together with fear and trembling in accordance with the commandments of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the sacred norms for spiritual life of the ancient Holy Eastern Orthodox Church. Many of our congregants journeyed to the Orthodox Church from other Christian faith traditions and denominations and some non-Christian religious and spiritual traditions. Whether you are “on a journey” or just wanting to visit a local Orthodox church you will be welcome at St. George. We are always honored to have visitors join us for prayer and worship.
We believe that our small church is the place where heaven strikes earth like lightening each Sunday and that ours is a church immersed in the unchanging Faith of the ages. We invite you to come and see the Light; to come and receive the Heavenly Spirit; and to come and find the True Faith, worshiping the Holy Trinity, Who has saved us.
Please join us each Saturday evening at 6 pm for Great Vespers and each Sunday for Orthros at 9 am and the Divine Liturgy at 10 am.
On Thoughts & Mental Imagery
by St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite
Just as so-called diagnostic physicians not only know how to treat external and visible wounds of the body, but also, by measuring the pulse, they learn the internal and invisible maladies of the heart, of the bowels, and the other unseen workings of the human body, and are therefore able to treat them.
Likewise, Spiritual Father, it is not enough for you only to know how to treat the external passions of the soul, those acts and deeds and effects of sin, but it is also necessary to know through the confession of the penitent the internal wounds of his soul, which are the hidden passions in his heart and the passionate and evil thoughts, and so treat them with great scrutiny and care.
For this reason we thought it good to inform you a little about some general and vital matters concerning thoughts.
How many types of thoughts there are
Know then, Spiritual Father, that in general, all thoughts are of three types: some thoughts are good, some thoughts are vain and idle, and some thoughts are bad. Concerning good thoughts, it is not necessary to discuss here in detail how and from what aspects of the soul they arise, for we are satisfied that these are good and therefore beneficial and salvific to the soul. We say this only, Spiritual Father, that if someone says to you during confession that he has good thoughts, you should counsel him to take care to be humble and to never trust in himself and become prideful:
1) because a person on his own is not able to do a good work or say a good word or even think a good thought without the power and help of God:
“Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God” (2 Cor. 3:5);
2) because the devil is so cunning and evil, that many times he brings evil from good and through good thoughts throws those who are not careful into self-esteem, and conceit, and haughtiness, from which is caused the destruction and death of the soul. So says Paul:
“Sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good” (Rom. 7:13);
3) because man never remains in one state, but is so changing and so quickly alters that, with his thoughts, in one instant he is found in Paradise and in another instant he is in hell, as one Saint said. And St. Isaac says:
“By the mind we improve, and by the mind we become unprofitable,”
hence the one who today has good thoughts may very well have evil ones tomorrow; and
4) tell him that the devil has greater envy and wages a fiercer battle against those who have good thoughts, so that he should have more fear and greater care over himself.
What vain thoughts are and how they are corrected
Those thoughts which are not profitable unto the purpose and aim of salvation, as much as to our own soul as to that of our neighbor, and do not look to the necessary requirements and constitution of our body, but to the superfluous and more-than-necessary things, even if they are good, I call vain and idle.
According to the Shorter Rules of Basil the Great, vain and idle thoughts arise from the idleness of the intellect that is neither engaged in necessary things, nor believes that God is present and searches our hearts and thoughts:
“Mental aberration comes from idleness of a mind not occupied in necessary things. For the mind is idle and careless from lack of belief in the presence of God Who tries the heart and reins He who does this and what is like to it will never dare or have leisure to think of any of those things that do not conduce to the edification of faith, even if they seem to be good.”
Concerning these vain and idle thoughts, I say, advise the penitent not to allow his intellect to meditate upon or ponder over them:
1) because just as we have to give an account for idle words on the day of judgment, as the Lord said:
“But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment” (Mt. 12:36),
so likewise we have to give an account on the day of judgment for idle and vain thoughts, and indeed, if we willfully left our intellect to go after them. And it is thence apparent, because the Lord reproaches and condemns those servants who remain idle:
“Why stand ye here all the day idle?” (Mt. 20:6);
2) because those vain thoughts deprive us from profitable and salvific thoughts, which we are able to have instead of them; and
3) because these idle thoughts are in themselves evil, as they are the cessation of good and become the beginning of evil, and as giving way and permission to the devil to sow in our idle intellect the tares of evil thoughts. Thus does Gregory the Theologian confirm this:
“May evil and its original cause, the devil, be destroyed. For while we were idle, the evil one planted tares in us (cf. Mt. 13:25), in order that the neglect of good might become the beginning of evil, just as the beginning of darkness is the retreat of light.”
The causes of bad thoughts
Know that, in general, bad thoughts derive from two causes, one external and the other internal.
The external cause of bad thoughts is the sensible objects of the five senses, that is, those things seen, heard, smelled, tasted, and touched, like bad and indecent and theatrical sights, obscene words and lewd songs, scents and colognes and perfumes, luscious foods and pleasurable drinks, fine and soft clothes and comfortable mattresses.
All these things cause passionate and hedonistic thoughts in the soul, and then sinful and death-bearing thoughts.
Thus, the Prophet Jeremiah on one hand says:
“Death has come up into our windows” (Jer. 21:9),
the windows meaning the five senses. On the other hand, Gregory the Theologian rather interpreted this saying in broader terms:
“And it is kept until the fifth day (that is, the sacrificed Paschal Lamb), perhaps because the Victim, of Whom I am speaking, purifies the five senses, from which comes falling into sin, and around which the war rages, inasmuch as they are open to the incitements to sin.”
The internal causes of bad thoughts
The internal causes of bad thoughts are four:
1. The imagination, which is like a second sense and receives and records all of the images and perceptions which enter through the five senses, that is, of those things touched, tasted, smelled, and especially of those things heard and seen, is called an internal sense, because it portrays the things sensed so grossly and clearly, just as the external senses.
It is a common sense, according to Aristotle, because it receives commonly the experiences of all the senses; and this naturally, because just as lines are disconnected at the perimeter of a circle but converge at its center, so also the five senses, which are disconnected on the outside, converge in the imagination of the soul, but they converge without confusion.
So then, from the imagination are born bad thoughts in the soul, making it sense them as really present and to noetically conceptualize through memory those things that it should not have outwardly seen or heard or smelled or tasted or touched, even though it is sensibly far from these things and is settled peaceably in a deserted place. For this reason, in his tetrastich Iambic Poetry, the Theologian said:
“A vision caught me, but was checked. I set up no idol of sin. Was an idol set up? The experience was avoided. These are the degrees of deceit of the adversary.”
Do you hear? He says an idol of sin was set up and was not recorded in the imagination. The soul escaped the experience at once, that is, it escaped from consenting to the thoughts and from the committal of sin.
2. The passions are a cause of bad thoughts, which are generally two: love and hate, or pleasure and pain, for we are moved passionately either because we love something as pleasurable, or because we hate it as painful. Specifically, the passions are divided into the three aspects of the soul: the intelligent, the appetitive, and the incensive.
The passions of the intelligent aspect, according to Gregory of Sinai, are unbelief, blasphemy, evilness, curiosity, double mindedness, gossip, love of applause, pretension, pride, and others. The passions of the appetitive aspect are fornication, adultery, debauchery, greed, unchastity, incontinence, love of pleasure, self-love, and others.
The passions of the incensive aspect are anger, bitterness, shouting, audacity, revenge, and others. From these passions of the soul, then, bad thoughts are generally and immediately born, these also being divided into three categories like the passions. From the passions of the intelligent aspect of the soul come bad thoughts, which are generally given the name blasphemous thoughts. From the passions of the appetitive aspect come the so-called obscene thoughts. From the passions of the incensive aspect come the so-called evil thoughts. For this reason the above-mentioned Gregory of Sinai said that:
“The passions are the causes of thoughts,”
and Abba Isaac also calls the passions assaults, because they attack within the soul and stir up passionate thoughts.
3. An internal and initial cause of bad thoughts is the demons, for those accursed ones, being light spirits and found superficially around the heart, speak there through internal suggestion and whisper softly from inside all the blasphemous thoughts, all the obscene thoughts, all the evil thoughts, and simply all the bad thoughts.
They train the imagination with obscene and impure idols from the senses, as much as when a person is sleeping as when awake. From these the aforementioned passions in the three aspects of the soul are stirred up and make the wretched soul to be a cave of thieves and a slum of the passions. For this reason the abovementioned Gregory of Sinai said:
“Occasions give rise to thoughts, thoughts to imaginations, imaginations to the passions, and the passions give entry to the demons but no one thing in the sequence is self-operative: each is prompted and activated by the demons. The imagination is not wrought into an image, passion is not energized, without unperceived hidden demonic impulsion,”
and in another place he says:
“Thoughts are the promptings of the demons and precursors of the passions.”
In agreement with this, St. Isaac says,
“I hold as a truth, nevertheless, that our intellect, without the mediation of the holy angels, is able of itself to be moved toward the good uninstructed; however, our senses (the interior ones, that is) cannot come to know evil or be incited by it without the mediation of the demons.”
4. An internal cause of thoughts, however remote, is the passionate and corrupted condition of human nature which was brought about by the ancestral sin. This condition remains in our nature also after baptism, not as ancestral sin as such (for this is removed through baptism, according to Canon 120 of Carthage), but as a consequence of the ancestral sin, for the exertion and test of our free will, and in exchange for greater crowns and rewards, according to the theologians.
For after the fall the intellect lost its innocent memory and thought which it had fixed formerly only on the good; but now when it wishes to remember and think upon the good, it is immediately dispersed and also thinks upon the bad. For this reason the divine Gregory of Sinai said:
“The source and ground of our thoughts is the fragmented state of our memory. The memory was originally simple and one-pointed, but as a result of the fall its natural powers have been perverted: it has lost its recollectedness in God and has become compound instead of simple, diversified instead of one-pointed.”
4th Wednesday of Lent
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