July 17, 2013

From the letter of Bishop Juvenaly of Tula and Odoevo to Holy Patriarch Tikhon the Confessor

November 6, 1920

"From my numerous talks with them [i.e. leaders of the Athonite Fathers living in exile in Moscow: Abbot David of St. Andrews Skete, monks Iriney, Peter and Manasses of St. Panteleimon’s Monastery] and having been  acquainted with them for over five months, I was fully convinced in their Orthodoxy, and I have not noticed anything heretical in their reasoning. With your blessing, I even sent monk Iriney to Your Holiness [i.e. to Patriarch Tikhon] for a personal interview, and as you told me, neither did Your Holiness find anything heretical in him."


The Athonite debate over the Name of God and its consequent fate Hegumen Andronik (Trubachev) Pravoslavnaya Beseda, #4 (2000) 39.



July 14, 2013

The Name of God in the Divine Services: Triodion

The only invisible God was seen bearing a body, and He chose you as His disciples, to proclaim His Name and super-mundane Glory unto all the world, O all-blessed divine Apostles.

Triodion, Tone 1, Canon on Thursday Morning, Ode Three

July 2, 2013

Holy Fathers on the Name of God: St. Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain

"Brethren, the reason I composed these prayers dedicated to our Lord Jesus Christ was none other than to motivate you to continuously meditate upon and repeat the salvific, most sweet, and joy-producing Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, the bringer of all good things. You should not simply repeat it with your mouth, but also with your heart and your mind, for this continual repetition of the saving Name of Jesus — in addition to the other heavenly, supernatural, and  inexpressible spiritual gifts which it will grant to you, as St. Callistos Xanthopoulos, St. Gregory of Sinai, and St. Symeon the New Theologian all speak about in the book called the Philokalia — will also raise you to the highest virtue, that of divine love, and it will fashion your heart into a temple and a dwelling place of that Holy Name, both in this life and after death."


St. Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain
Prayers to our Lord Jesus Christ
(Fr. Georgre Dokos tr. 2010)