Father George Bithos' weblog
This is the recording of the Adult Education class offered at Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church, Austin Texas on September 25, 2024. It is the 3rd class in this current series exploring the Sacraments of our Holy Orthodox Church. The topic of this session is Holy Baptism. The recording is the transcription of the actual class and is unedited. Please excuse the lack of sophistication. God Bless… FrG
This is the recording of the Adult Education class offered at Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church, Austin Texas on September 211, 2024. It is the first lecture in the current series exploring the Holy Sacraments of our Holy Orthodox Church. The recording is a transcription of the actual class and is unedited. Please excuse the lack of sophistication. God Bless….
Fr George P. Bithos
Abba Sisoes the Great at the Tomb of Alexander the Great
I read a beautiful reflection on the icon of Abba Sisoes the Great at the tomb of Alexander the Great and wanted to share it. In our present day climate of “likes” and “internet influencers,” I thought this to be very relevant and something for us all to think about as we consider the ego driven pursuit of fame and the values of our age.
Abba Sisoes was born in 367 and died in AD 429. He became an ascetic in the desert of Thebes in Egypt. His memory is celebrated on July 6 and belongs to the first generation of great ascetics who followed St. Anthony the Great.
The monastery of Abba Sisoes, located in the valley of Nitria in the region of Wadi el Natroun in Egypt, is one of the ancient monasteries of the Skete, the cradle of Christian monasticism, which has been operating since the 4th century AD. The monastery contains the relic of Saint Sisoes which is said to be perfectly preserved on a red cloth.
The monks claim that it is common for Saint Sisoes to perform miracles for the true believers and is also considered one of the most important monastic saints of Orthodox and Coptic Christians.
The disciples of Saint Sisoes, who are considered to be the first to depict the relevant scene, describe it as follows: ‘Sisoes the Great, at the tomb of the glorious King of the Greeks, Alexander, is terrified and expresses his sorrow over the ephemeral glories of this life.
Saint Sisoes stands at the open tomb of Alexander the Great, so he weeps and exclaims:
‘Seeing you in a grave, I am timid and frightened at your sight and I shed tears from my heart, bringing to my mind the debt that all people have to pay (that is, death), so I will suffer such an end. Ah, ah death, who is the one who can avoid you?’
We hear in the Funeral Service of our Holy Church this prayer:
“Where is the pleasure in life which is unmixed with sorrow? Where the glory which on earth stood firm and unchanged? All things are weaker than shadow, all more elusive than dreams; comes in one fell stroke, and Death in turn, prevails over all these vanities. Wherefore in the Light, O Christ, of Your countenance, and in the sweetness of Your beauty, to him (her) whom You have chosen grant repose, for you are the Friend of Mankind.”
The reality of death viewed through the saving grace of the Lord is the only comfort and solace we as Orthodox Christians have in our lives. This is the lesson of this beautiful story of Abba Sisoes. God Bless….FrG
Below find the link to Class 6 in the ABCs of Orthodoxy series. This class was presented October 28, 2021. Please start the playback at 3.00 Min. to avoid early class conversation, not part of the presentation. Thank you and God Bless… FrG
Below find the link to Class 5 in the ABCs of Orthodoxy series. This class was presented October 28, 2021. Please start the playback at 4.00 Min. to avoid early class conversation, not part of the presentation. Thank you and God Bless… FrG
Below please find the link to the video of Class 2. PLEASE start playback at 33.00 min. to avoid considerable dead time, which is just conversation and not the class content in the video. Thank you…..FrG
https://youtu.be/NDL0Z_c7PJY?t=26
Entrance to Transfiguration Chapel at Pantokrator
Monastery
Today we visited and venerated the relics of the Holy Fathers of the Pantokrator Monastery at Ntaou Penteli. Our Transfiguration Parish in Austin TX is blessed to have relics of these martyred Fathers in our Holy Altar. This link will relate the history of the Monastery for your understanding: http://www.pantokratoros-tao.gr/index.php/en/ The convent is growing and building a new Church Temple to the Glory of God. The Commemoration of these Martyrs is the Tuesday of Bright Week
God Bless ….Fr. G.
St Savas Cathedral – Belgrade
This quote explains why we build churches to God’s glory. It is a quote from St. Philaret of Moscow on the occasion of a church consecration.
“God is everywhere and doesn’t need churches, which are small for him and cannot contain Him. But man is limited, and thus needs limited revelation of God’s presence. God condescended to the need of man and granted that this church exist, granting it the grace of His particular presence. We know of only one state of man in which he has no need of churches: the eternal life in the New Jerusalem, under a “new heaven and a new earth…” the seer of heaven (St. John the Evangelist) notes a special distinguishing feature of the New Jerusalem, namely that there is no church there: “and I saw no church there: (Rev. 21, 22). But we are not yet in the New Jerusalem, which will descend from the heavens, therefore we need a church temple. Belonging to the creation, after the fall, our own flesh, rough and unpurified, blocks our entrance into the grace-filled presence of God. This is why it is necessary for His charismatic presence to reveal itself to us in holy churches. The heavens – where Christ, our light, ascended – have not yet opened up and revealed to us the radiance of His glory. because of this we need for the time being at least a small heaven on earth, as well as light – even though it may be hidden in mystery. We can find all this in the church, through prayer, the word of God and the sacraments
God Bless…….Fr G.
This Sunday our Holy Church turns our attention to the restoration of the holy icons into the Church. We celebrate this event with the commemoration of the Sunday of Orthodoxy. I could say much in discussing this feast and as a matter of fact my entire dissertation studies the details of this event. Nonetheless, I would ask you to think a moment on this questions. What do the faces in this icon or any icon really say to us?
The icon above is the icon of St Methodios l, Patriarch of Constantinople, the Confessor. He can also be seen in the icon of the Sunday of Orthodoxy standing next to the icon within the scene. When I talk to people about icons many times I hear: “but they don’t look like real people.” In making this observation people touch on the very truth of the icon. Even though the image depicts “real people” they are shown in their deified reality. What does this mean? As Orthodox Christians we are all called to struggle ascetically towards our deification in Christ. The saints depicted in the icons are the truth of this endeavor. In their lives, they have ascended the ladder of deification and are shown in their glorified reality. They are no longer of this world, but belong to the reality of God. Their image in the icon reflects this truth. Byzantine icons reflect the world of God and not the world of fallen man. As the viewer of the icon, we should not be drawn to the beauty and form of the world but the radiance of God’s kingdom. The images are stylized to reflect this glory.
In viewing the icon we are given subtle clues to the reality of the saints life. The icon of St. Methodios above was taken from a drawing of his icon from the Vatican Library. The icon was once present in the loge of Hagia Sophia but was destroyed by an earthquake many years ago. The icon shows a white scarf encircling the patriarch’s face. This detail testifies to the suffering of Methodios as a confessor to the faith, in that he was tortured in prison by having his teeth removed and his jaws broken; because of his support of the holy icons. He required this white scarf around his chin for the rest of his life even when he became patriarch. So the icon testifies to his suffering for Christ and his faithfulness to the truth of the Church.
In icons we have the reflection of Christ alive in the life of the person depicted for us in the holy image. Each saint in an icon is truly the reflection of Christ in their life. This is why we place a vigil lamp in front of the icon because the saints depicted there, in the icon, always reflected Christ and His light to their community, in their time and in time in memoriam. So as we see there is more than just a face in the reality of the icons. How very apt is our prayer when we ask the holy saint’s of God to intercede for us!
God Bless and have a Blessed Great Lent……..Fr. G.