Noetic Prayer: An Orthodox Monastic Folk Song

  

Introduction 

 

Popular in Greek monastic circles, this poetic folk song is sometimes sung by monks and nuns before they begin noetic prayer, specifically the repetition of "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me." No one knows who the author is or when it was written, but it doesn't look too old. Though the reference in the song to Sinai is not meant to refer to the actual location of Sinai, it may indicate that it has its origins in Sinai.

The poem itself is a spiritual guide to Noetic Prayer, expressed through the image of ascending Mount Sinai. The word Noetic comes from nous (νοῦς), which in Orthodox theology is not just the intellect or mind, but the highest faculty of man — the part of a person that can directly perceive and commune with God after being purified and illumined.

It begins with the biblical image of leaving Egypt — symbolizing freedom from sin and worldly slavery — and following Moses to Sinai, which represents the journey toward union with God. The desire to “ascend Sinai” reflects the soul’s longing to reach a higher, holy state through prayer.

My Visit to Elder Nektary of Optina in 1918 (Archpriest Sergius Shchukin)

My Visit to Elder Nektary in 1918 

By Archpriest Sergius Shchukin

For the first time I heard about the existence of the Optina elders while I was a student in Moscow. There I became acquainted with young people from a very believing and pious family D. from the city of Kozlov. Two of the brothers and two sisters were studying in Moscow, and one of the brothers was my fellow student. From them I learned that all of them — eight brothers and sisters — were spiritual children of Elder Anatoly of Optina, visited him almost every year, and did nothing without his blessing. They strongly advised me to visit the Optina Hermitage, but the circumstances of student life somehow always prevented me from carrying out this trip. Studies at a special technical educational institution required a great deal of time, and during vacations I always went either home or to student practice. And only after completing the course, already under the Bolsheviks, did circumstances allow me to get to Optina.

In the summer of 1918, when all Russian life had already been shaken to its foundations, before me — as before the whole intelligentsia — stood the question: what to do next? Many categorically refused to enter service in the new Bolshevik institutions, counting on the quick fall of their power. Others awaited foreign intervention and held back. And when private and public institutions were closing, unemployed intellectuals preferred to trade in all sorts of old things or live by selling their belongings rather than enter the service of the Bolsheviks. Finally, such a moment came for me as well, when the institution in which I worked had to close. Of course, having an engineer’s diploma, I could easily find a position, but where exactly? There were many possibilities; my comrades and professors invited me to various newly opening Soviet educational and scientific-technical institutions. But all this somehow attracted me little; I wanted to preserve my inner freedom and strengthen my spiritual life, still so weak and unstable. It was precisely in those days that I began especially to think about the necessity of going to Optina in order to consult with an elder.

Holy Apostles Jason and Sosipater in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

 

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Saints Jason and Sosipater once again highlight what constitutes the priority of all consistent Christians: love for Christ, before which everything else is considered secondary and small. Our Church does not cease, through its hymnography, to proclaim this truth, since love for Christ is the only path of salvation. Without love for Him, everything becomes dried up, lifeless, and meaningless. Even the Christian faith declines into a kind of moralism, which may have fine rules of life but lacks life itself. And this life is offered only by the warmth of the heart toward God. It is the very commandment of God that calls man to love Him “with all your soul, with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your strength,” as well as the condition set by the Lord Himself, so that one may follow Him and be attuned to the energy of His grace: “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” 

Therefore, the interpretive key also to the life of Saints Jason and Sosipater — that which makes possible the understanding of their whole course — is precisely their love for the Lord. Him they loved above all; to Him they attached their souls; His footsteps they followed. “You left behind all the pleasant things, having loved Christ, to whom you attached your souls, O glorious ones; and you followed His footsteps with faith, O Jason and Sosipater, most wise” (Vespers Sticheron).

Saint John Kaloktenes and Metropolitan Church of Thebes

By Demetrios I. Vafeiadis

The city of Thebes was renowned already from antiquity for its importance.

A significant center of commerce, it flourished during the Byzantine period and indeed became the capital of the Theme of Hellas and the seat of its strategos, being the most populous city.

In this region, as is known, the Evangelist Luke was active, who preached the gospel to the people of God and fell asleep in the Lord in this city.

From the early Byzantine period, it appears that in Thebes there existed a church dedicated to the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos in the area called “Lontza.”

Indeed, it held a prominent place in the ecclesiastical life of the city and possessed the status of the cathedral and metropolitan church of the city.

Thebes has always been the seat of a bishopric, with its first bishop being the Holy Martyr Rufus, whom the Apostle of the Nations, Paul, also mentions.

At times as an Archbishopric and at times as the Metropolis of Thebes or Boeotia or even of Livadeia, it served as the seat of the local bishop, having at periods also other bishoprics subject to it; it is certain that there existed a metropolitan church, and this was that of the Panagia.

Prologue in Sermons: April 29

 

 

A Wise Woman

April 29

(Discourse about a monk corrected by a woman.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Enumerating the virtues with which Christian widows should adorn themselves, the Apostolic Constitutions say: “Every widow should be meek, silent, free from malice, not prone to anger, not talkative, not double-tongued, not inclined to meddle in others’ affairs. She should continually raise prayers to God for the Church. She should have a pure eye, a clean hearing, hands not defiled, feet at rest, and her lips should speak what is fitting… She should be temperate, reverent, modest, sing psalms, pray, read the sacred writings, fast” (Apostolic Constitutions, book 3, ch. 5 and 7, pp. 105, 109, 110. Kazan, 1864). Such should be the virtues of a Christian widow. But is that all? No; in our opinion, one more may be added.

Holy New Martyr Noultzos, Together with his Brother and Brother-in-Law (+ 1696)

By Archimandrite Athanasios Giannousas,

Protosyngellos of the Holy Metropolis of Kastoria

The New Martyrs, as Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite writes in the prologue of the New Martyrology, are the glory of the Church and the renewal of the entire Orthodox faith.

For, seeing the courageous confession of these people who lived in the years of slavery under the heavy foot of the conqueror, they learned what Saint Demetrios, Saint George, and the other ancient Martyrs had endured in earlier times was real, and they saw it with their own eyes in the persons of these New Martyrs.

It has also been written about the New Martyrs that they were the bulwarks during this difficult period, the resistors — if we wish to use an expression of our time — who by their martyrdom prevented the Islamization of many Christians of their era.

I used to hear about the New Martyrs from my childhood years on Saint Nicholas Street of Acharnon Street.

We celebrated them every year on the Third Sunday of Matthew, something which also takes place in Kastoria every year, and indeed the Service is chanted in all the churches and a related encyclical of our Bishop is read, who especially venerates the New Martyrs.

In honor of the New Martyrs, a splendid church is being built in the borderland and historic Oinoe of Kastoria, in which there will also be small portions of the Holy Relics of the Holy New Martyrs.

Kastoria, together with the Champion General, the Panagia, and the whole company of Saints who guard it protectively, has to boast not only of its Byzantine monuments, its tradition and its heritage, but also of the presence of New Martyrs.

On April 21 of the year 1696, Noultzos was martyred.

Holy Nine Martyrs of Kyzikos in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

These most divine martyrs, who were gathered from various places and came to Kyzikos, put the ruler to shame by the courage of their mind and rejected with abhorrence the delusion of the idols. For this they were subjected to various tortures, without of course being persuaded to change. On the contrary: they offered themselves as a living sacrifice to the true God, whereupon they were put to death by the sword.

The Holy Nine Martyrs who contended in Kyzikos depict the nine immaterial ranks of the angels. This means: just as the angels unceasingly glorify the Triune God, always being ready in obedience to His all-holy will, in the same way these also: while they lived in this life, they obeyed the will of the Lord, and indeed they offered even their very life for His sake; therefore they were granted by Him to glorify Him together with the angels unceasingly in heaven. The Verses of the Synaxarion of the Saints, as well as many troparia from the odes, present this truth. 

“An image of the nine immaterial angelic ranks, are the nine men whose heads were cut off.” 

“By divine laws, being strengthened by the might of the Spirit, you cast down the counsels and the snares of the lawless; and having struggled lawfully, you attained glory.” (Ode 3).

April: Day 28: Teaching 3: Venerable Memnon the Wonderworker

April: Day 28: Teaching 3:*
Venerable Memnon the Wonderworker
 
(On the Benefit of Remembering God)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Venerable Memnon the Wonderworker from his youth began to serve God. For his exemplary life in the monastery he was chosen as abbot and was granted the gift of working miracles, for which reason he was also called a Wonderworker. Once, in a dry and waterless desert, he brought forth a spring from the earth; several times he saved sailors from drowning; by a word he drove away locusts, and so on.

“Memnon” in Russian means mindful, a name which the Venerable one did not bear in vain, for he always remembered God, lived piously, and for this reason was also deemed worthy of the gift of working miracles.

April: Day 28: Teaching 2: The Holy Nine Martyrs of Kyzikos

April: Day 28: Teaching 2:
The Holy Nine Martyrs of Kyzikos
 
(On the Benefit of Turning in Time of Illness with Prayer to the Holy Martyrs)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. On April 29* the holy Church celebrates the memory of the Holy Nine Martyrs who suffered in Kyzikos. The city of Kyzikos stood on the seashore. Because of persecutions there were few Christians in it. Many of them fled to the mountains and deserts, while others, living among the pagans, concealed their piety and faith in the Lord. But some, greatly loving Christ their God, themselves gave themselves into the hands of the tormentors and laid down their lives for Christ. Such were the nine martyrs: Theodosios, Rufus, Antipater, Theostichos, Artemas, Magnus, Theodotos, Thaumasios, and Philemon. Not fearing the terrible royal commands and the fear of tortures, they glorified Christ, boldly confessed Him as God and Almighty, reproached the impiety of idols, and exhorted the unbelievers to believe in the true God. The pagans bound them as criminals and brought them before the ruler governing the city. The Holy Martyrs endured various torments and punishments; they were thrown into prison, brought out again, and again tortured. But they firmly confessed the Lord, exposed the pagans, and put the ruler to shame. After various torments their heads were cut off.