Marriage is no walk in the park especially when filled with passions. You must learn to die to all passions in order to keep from getting a divorce. If you do not learn to die to self and old habits you will never be able to make marriage work. If you see a successful happy loving marriage you see a couple who has defeated the greatest passion. Pride. I am not there yet so please pray for me and my family.
that is amazing how the first opinion of ST. Chrystom was only a personal opinion lacking deep spiritual and practical experience and the second was so deep in experience with God. many till today still talk ill of marriage due to the effect of western thoughts of marriage and intimate relationship
Can you blame them, though? The Western Church has done a tremendous disservice to the institution of marriage; very irreparable - at least in the Western world.
Father Panayiotis you are one of the most well spoken teachers by far and I know you're genuinely compassionate and care for the souls of others. My first ever experience at an Orthodox Church was a New Years celebration. I remember quite vividly Father breaking up a fight between two unsober gentleman and quite successfully. I had never seen this happen at any church before in my life and it certainly made me think long and hard about the phrase "hospital for sinners" for it gave me a direct in the face experience to such notion. After many years I eventually received Chrism and Communion joining the Church. The fact they were able to be reconciled even if only outwardly left me with the impression that I was in the right place.
A wonderful description of the word "virginity" as we of this modern world have nown it to be, not being taught that the worrd itself has other meanings - spiritual virginity which is more fruitful in our lives if we uderstand and know God, Fr. Panayiotis, thank you for this explanation, to me, it was very helpful. Agape...
0:00 Monasticism & Marriage 0:25 Monasticism > Marriage 0:34 Monasticism < Marriage 0:38 The Patristic Witness • Exaltation of Monastic Life 1:00 Fathers had a deep respect of the Married State 1:14 1:23 God created Humanity as Male and Female, becoming 1 Body in Marriage. Become 1 Flesh. 2:39 Virginity and Marriage 3:25 Chronological Order of St John Chrysostom • Austere Ascetic Life • Art of Rhetoric 4:29 Influenced by Greek Philosophy and teacher Liebenius 4:56 Elevates Virginity and Monasticism 5:35 • Marriage: Difficult, Burdensome, where the lazier of men find refuge • Monasticism: Freeing, flying to the heights 6:33 _In Praise of Maximos_ • God Blessed Marriage ergo Marriage Is Good • Marriage is given as a condescension for the WEAKness of Men, those unable to control carnal passions. To avoid fornikation. 8:03 Quenching Desire, Procreation, Containment of Carnal Passions. Marriage is medicine to carnal weakness. 8:54 Virginity (Higher) > Marriage (Lower) 9:26 Live a life of continence in marriage. • Join A Monastery • Raise Children through the Monastery 10:58 St John Chrysostom encounters Married Couples. He revised his understanding of married life. 11:35 Monasticism is not for everyone, God would not ordain that the many would not be saved, just because they cannot become monks. Marriage = Monasticism in the effort for man to perfect himself. 12:23 Enoch, Job: Married Men 13:58 Wives and Virtue, at the same time 14:26 Use marriage according to rule of hood measure. Continence and Prudence 15:10 Epistle to Ephesians Marriage: Opportunity for the perfecting of Agape, Love ❤️ , an image of Christ’s Love For The Church. Husband Must Love Wife, Give Himself For Her, She Must Obey Him, Retain Equality with Him. 16:46 Eros - The Unification of Essence of Man, In Everyman is Eros. 17:21 Woman, made from the side of man, constitute 2 halves, come together, become 1 Body. 2 halves = 1 whole 1 anthropos 18:55 Mixing of bodies 19:48 ❤ Agape ❤ Eros ❤ Philia Coexist, Coincide Strengthen Unite Become 1 Again Great is The Mystery of Marriage 20:48 Healing ❤️🩹 23:16 Virginity Not just physical, but spiritual too: 23:46 Pure In Soul = Virgin, true virginity. Even if she has a husband. 24:55 Patience Frugality Modesty Decency 26:57 Eros, Glue Uniting Parts into Whole. 27:43 *Spiritual Purity* Obtainable by Monastics and Married Persons 27:55 2 Paths to The Way of God. Seeking Union with Bridegroom Christ. 28:41 Love of Spouses Love of Children, Domestics Love Of Poor and Suffering 29:06 Chrysostom went against Ancient Roman Normalcy
14:26 Use of marriage according to _good_ measure. And as it follows, the latter day saints adhere to such belief within their practice. Lord have mercy on my soul.
I don’t see any real contradiction in St. John’s teachings, they just seem to have become more refined with the passage of time, as he himself grew in love for the Lord, and his fellowman. Glory be to God for all things! 🙏☦️💕
What an amazing, amazing video. Maybe it would get more views if the title was like, "Is monasticism higher than marriage? St. John Christosm's thoughts develop through his life" Because I am from your community post, that's why I watched the video. Otherwise, I might not have thought too much about it, when this video is really incredible.
Take heart, friend. Those who are meant to see this video will. You can share it on your own. Even here online, it may be that the Shepherd is interested more in the one viewer (you!) than pursuing the “ninety-nine.” Let those who have eyes to see, see! ☺️ God bless you
Thanks for your heart and sound minded presentation of how our faithful Orthodox Christian heroes, guided by God The Holy Spirit, understood the deeper purpose of sexual eros union between a husband and wife. When transformed by God's Grace and encouraging one another to grow in Christ, the two not only become one in body but also soul.
I honestly believe that both paths are chosen for you by God. There is no path to life but Christ and monastic or not we are all the same in the eyes of the Lord
The fact that the monastic life is superior to the married life doesn't denigrate the value of the married life. The married life is good and blessed and how God created Adam and Eve. But there is a path that is even more like the life to come and that is the monastic life. We know the future world and future bodies and state will be superior to our current world and body and spiritual state. This doesn't make the current world, body and spiritual state problematic; just of a lesser glory than that to come. God said of what He created that it was good and yet the creation to come will be superior to it. Likewise, the monastic life is superior to the good God created which is marriage. The fact that few can and do live this way only makes it all the more praiseworthy.
Wow! That’s so wonderful to listen to his development and it seems that St John Paul II discovered the same in his so called „theology of the body“. There he says about virginity that it is the goal and should be accomplished at the end of life. That it is state of the soul rather than of the body.
Even though I believe monasticism to be a higher and more angelic life than the married life, the major issue is negligence. Regardless if one is a monk or married, if you neglect your salvation you become unfruitful. So marriage in itself isn’t the problem but negligence. And it so happens that being married gives ample room for becoming negligent. Being a monk gives ample room for working on one’s salvation. If we created a community of married people that lived in their cells and had a church where we would do the services everyday like the monks and our work was keeping the grounds and making products to sell to sustain the community and were obedient to an abbot and had our prayer rule, married people would become much more holy and fruitful.
I follow what the Church says no matter what. And I really don't know as much as others. But, my personal thinking: I think if marriage really was negative that Christ would have made it very clear for us. I don't think we should even think that we can draw any conclusions about marriage. God also said "Be fruitful, and multiply...". So simply put: there are two paths. Chose one.
As a Celibate Layperson, my view is that we still have to learn to control our Passions and bond to Christ through prayer and the Sacraments, etc. like everyone else. It's just that sex has nothing to do with us unless in marriage.
there are saints who followed the path you speak of, like saint Andrew the fool for Christ. but he also abandoned completely his fortune and lived like a fool beggar who everyone was mistreating. He was no married, nor monk.
Joseph Saab He has trouble with his voice, something that he has been dealing with for many years now. And also Yiannis voice is always perfect for any reading.
Why does the tradition feel more in agreement with young Chrysostom? and what can we do to promote his later views. I think this one thing would do more for the character of the church in our day than all the prayers on Mt. Athos.
A return to patristic thought! This is already happening, and many spiritual fathers who are more educated already apply Chrysostom's way of thinking(which is ultimately the mind of the ancient Church). So it seems the prayers of Athos have helped ;)
@@Trisagionfilms I'll believe we are making progress once I see the percentage of married saints tick up a few notches. That's only going to happen when married people take on the ascesis of marriage with great love and joy. This arena seems a great wrinkle in the life of the Church today which needs ironing out. I could be wrong, but it seems we have neglected, and in some cases denigrated, this sacrament and mystery of marriage in favor of others. I love monks but this is not their domain, those of us who know the divine eros in marriage must do the work to prove Chrysostom's (later) wisdom to the watching world. May he pray for us in our day.
Fr do you have any opinion on Fr John Romanides teaching? His teaching has received a lot of criticism recently online as supposedly being in error but I find what I’ve read so far of his teaching of the Patristic faith to be helpful to me personally (the book by Met, Hierotheos).
Although Fr. John Romanides seemed eccentric, he has left a great legacy in the Orthodox Church with his research and writings. He is the one who corrected the Orthodox teachings of the 19th and 20th centuries about the sin of Adam and its consequences. Unfortunately, many Orthodox theologians who had gone to Europe to study theology during those two centuries copied several western teaching uncritically without checking the Patristic writings. One of them was the idea of the transmission of the sin and guilt of Adam to all humanity. This was the focus of his Ph.D. dissertation that he submitted to the faculty of the University of Athens. In their own ignorance, they rejected it, although his theses were well supported by patristic texts (I have his original dissertation in Greek and have read it and used it in my own research). At that time, a learned monk from Mount Athos (who was a student of the writings of the Fathers) came to Athens and defended him in front of the Committee of Professors, who, in the end, granted him the approval of his dissertation. The other thing which our theologians and historians brought from Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries was a distorted and very negative view of the Early Church, as well as the history of the Eastern Christian Roman Empire based on the writings of Edward Gibbon. They brought back a false history of what they now call “Byzantium” as a backward and corrupt world full of deviance and ignorance. What Romanides did was ground-breaking, as he actually showed that Romania (the Christian Eastern Roman Empire) was an amazing success and a continuation and exultation of the Greek and Roman civilization of the past. A host of Western historians (like Stephen Runciman, Peter Brown, Robert Wilkens, and others) have followed in the footsteps of Romanides, showing that the Christian Eastern Roman Empire (in spite of its human weaknesses) was indeed the greatest civilization the World has ever seen. One of our contemporary Orthodox historians who shows Romania's greatness is Anthony Kaldelis, who has written several books on the subject of Romania. (Fr. Panayiotis)
The research done in the paper presented addresses one common approach for arguing that monasticism is superior to marriage. At best one might conclude arguing on the basis of Chrysostom’s works for the superiority of monasticism is not sufficient given the reasons in this paper. However Geronda Ephraim of Arizona offers a common sense argument in favor of monasticism in Counsels from the Holy Mountain pg. 92 which don’t require scholarship to assess its validity. “Although struggling to live the Christian life in the world is a godly pursuit, it does not even come close to monasticism in its yield of spiritual wealth and its closeness to God. ‘A tree is known by its fruit.’ An entire army of monastics has filled Heaven. How many Righteous (saints who attained sanctity while living in the world and not clergy, monastic, or martyr) saints do we have? You can count them on your fingers “ Geronda Ephraim also offers the following on pg. 83 “…virginity was dictated first, whereas marriage is a result of the Fall. Consequently, whoever wishes to attain the virtue that Adam and Eve had when they were in Paradise must live in virginity and chastity “ It was interesting to hear Fr. Panayiotis position on this issue. I believe he finds the fact that there was marriage at the start as his main theological issue since God created marriage. But it seems that some saints and holy men view marriage as a result of the fall and so there’s no issue in their mind to state marriage is inferior to monasticism. I say saints because likely Geronda Ephraim received his understanding from St. Jospeh the Hesychast and probably St. Ephraim of Katounakia held the same view. Good work on closely reading St. John Chrysostom which I’m sure will benefit Fr.’s heart.
Without marriage and procreation, there would be no monastics. It's crazy to think that every single animal on earth has that hormonal drive to procreate, but somehow we're different? Yes, I understand we are different from all other animals, but this is hardwired into our genetic coding. To think otherwise just seems absurd when you think about it
If you put it in context of the Bible. God created Adam and Eve, there was no sex. After the fall aka darkness, sex entered. If you take in consideration the 2th, 3th and 4th fall, I see only demons imo no need for pro creation, marriage. Monk modus is the way. No worry’s about kids, wife time and so on. 24/7 time 2 worship God and fight for the salvation of your soul, but that’s my humble opinion. God bless 🙏
God told them to "be fruitful and multiply" before the fall... besides, what kind of idiot would make two perfectly compatible creatures, without intending they come together into one? God isn't an idiot. It's obvious just by looking at a man and a woman that we're meant for each other.
@@josephbrandenburg4373 You speak from ignorance on these matters. The saints unanimously agree that there were no physical relations before the fall between man and woman. St Ephraim the Syrian says that the blessings were obviously prophetic in that the blessing included dominion over the fish of the sea when there was no sea in paradise, and so God foresaw the fall and gave the blessing in anticipation of it. St Gregory of Nyssa explains that "increase and multiply" could be understood as relating to body or soul, the beasts were to increase in body while Adam in soul. St Augustine similarly says that the words increase and multiply were to be understood spiritually before the fall and physically after the fall. Meanwhile, Sts Maximos the Confessor and John of Damascus both state that God would have provided a way for man and woman to increase and multiply without conjugal union had they not fallen. This is not saying sex is evil and bad, but it is not at all the first intention of God. That honor goes to virginity.
Theologians loves to give themselves a point in life by using words that nobody has ever heard. As an editor, I would ask: Why not use "discipline" or other synonym? You need to get this guy looking exotic and learned, is why even though he wears Medieval clothing.
Despite your rude tone, I will answer you. The word ascesis can not be easily translated into English. There are many words like that that you use daily. Father Panayiotis is using this word to express a theological concept. Even the word theology isn't English because English cannot possibly find a suitable replacement for it. So you go to school and learn theology, not "Godlearning." And also, please do not insult others on their appearance. We need to be more mature and ask questions when we don't know something.
Marriage is no walk in the park especially when filled with passions. You must learn to die to all passions in order to keep from getting a divorce. If you do not learn to die to self and old habits you will never be able to make marriage work. If you see a successful happy loving marriage you see a couple who has defeated the greatest passion. Pride. I am not there yet so please pray for me and my family.
Center all your dealings through Christ and he will provide and show you the path.
I can tell you are on your way of making it... Chris
that is amazing how the first opinion of ST. Chrystom was only a personal opinion lacking deep spiritual and practical experience and the second was so deep in experience with God. many till today still talk ill of marriage due to the effect of western thoughts of marriage and intimate relationship
Can you blame them, though? The Western Church has done a tremendous disservice to the institution of marriage; very irreparable - at least in the Western world.
Father Panayiotis you are one of the most well spoken teachers by far and I know you're genuinely compassionate and care for the souls of others. My first ever experience at an Orthodox Church was a New Years celebration. I remember quite vividly Father breaking up a fight between two unsober gentleman and quite successfully. I had never seen this happen at any church before in my life and it certainly made me think long and hard about the phrase "hospital for sinners" for it gave me a direct in the face experience to such notion. After many years I eventually received Chrism and Communion joining the Church. The fact they were able to be reconciled even if only outwardly left me with the impression that I was in the right place.
Father Panayiotis broke up the fight?
@@Trisagionfilms That's what I remember.
@@Trisagionfilms yes he did
A wonderful description of the word "virginity" as we of this modern world have nown it to be, not being taught that the worrd itself has other meanings - spiritual virginity which is more fruitful in our lives if we uderstand and know God, Fr. Panayiotis, thank you for this explanation, to me, it was very helpful. Agape...
"Blessed are the Pure of Heart, for they shall see God"
0:00 Monasticism & Marriage
0:25 Monasticism > Marriage
0:34 Monasticism < Marriage
0:38 The Patristic Witness
• Exaltation of Monastic Life
1:00 Fathers had a deep respect of the Married State
1:14
1:23 God created Humanity as Male and Female, becoming 1 Body in Marriage. Become 1 Flesh.
2:39 Virginity and Marriage
3:25 Chronological Order of St John Chrysostom
• Austere Ascetic Life
• Art of Rhetoric
4:29 Influenced by Greek Philosophy and teacher Liebenius
4:56 Elevates Virginity and Monasticism
5:35
• Marriage: Difficult, Burdensome, where the lazier of men find refuge
• Monasticism: Freeing, flying to the heights
6:33 _In Praise of Maximos_
• God Blessed Marriage ergo Marriage Is Good
• Marriage is given as a condescension for the WEAKness of Men, those unable to control carnal passions. To avoid fornikation.
8:03 Quenching Desire, Procreation, Containment of Carnal Passions.
Marriage is medicine to carnal weakness.
8:54 Virginity (Higher) > Marriage (Lower)
9:26 Live a life of continence in marriage.
• Join A Monastery
• Raise Children through the Monastery
10:58 St John Chrysostom encounters Married Couples. He revised his understanding of married life.
11:35 Monasticism is not for everyone, God would not ordain that the many would not be saved, just because they cannot become monks. Marriage = Monasticism in the effort for man to perfect himself.
12:23 Enoch, Job: Married Men
13:58 Wives and Virtue, at the same time
14:26 Use marriage according to rule of hood measure.
Continence and Prudence
15:10 Epistle to Ephesians
Marriage: Opportunity for the perfecting of Agape, Love ❤️ , an image of Christ’s Love For The Church. Husband Must Love Wife, Give Himself For Her, She Must Obey Him, Retain Equality with Him.
16:46 Eros - The Unification of Essence of Man, In Everyman is Eros.
17:21 Woman, made from the side of man, constitute 2 halves, come together, become 1 Body.
2 halves = 1 whole
1 anthropos
18:55 Mixing of bodies
19:48
❤ Agape
❤ Eros
❤ Philia
Coexist, Coincide
Strengthen
Unite
Become 1 Again
Great is The Mystery of Marriage
20:48
Healing ❤️🩹
23:16 Virginity
Not just physical, but spiritual too:
23:46 Pure In Soul = Virgin, true virginity. Even if she has a husband.
24:55
Patience
Frugality
Modesty
Decency
26:57 Eros, Glue Uniting Parts into Whole.
27:43 *Spiritual Purity*
Obtainable by Monastics and Married Persons
27:55 2 Paths to The Way of God.
Seeking Union with Bridegroom Christ.
28:41
Love of Spouses
Love of Children, Domestics
Love Of Poor and Suffering
29:06 Chrysostom went against Ancient Roman Normalcy
14:26 Use of marriage according to _good_ measure.
And as it follows, the latter day saints adhere to such belief within their practice. Lord have mercy on my soul.
O Holy Hierarch John Chrysostom, pray for us sinners!!☦️🙏
Thank you father for your work and trisagion for this too 🙏🏻
Thank God Jesus 🙏
God bless you all Amen 🙏⛪🕯️
Thank you for the video, such an important and necessary understanding of the deeper purpose we are called to, through marriage. 🙏🏼
Glory to God
I don’t see any real contradiction in St. John’s teachings, they just seem to have become more refined with the passage of time, as he himself grew in love for the Lord, and his fellowman. Glory be to God for all things! 🙏☦️💕
That was really good, thank you. God bless you
The choice of an icon of the Wedding in Cana as the backdrop of this presentation is just brilliant!
What an amazing, amazing video. Maybe it would get more views if the title was like, "Is monasticism higher than marriage? St. John Christosm's thoughts develop through his life"
Because I am from your community post, that's why I watched the video. Otherwise, I might not have thought too much about it, when this video is really incredible.
Take heart, friend. Those who are meant to see this video will. You can share it on your own.
Even here online, it may be that the Shepherd is interested more in the one viewer (you!) than pursuing the “ninety-nine.” Let those who have eyes to see, see! ☺️ God bless you
@@BrotherLaymanPaul Thank you, JH. May God be with you too! 😊
Thanks for your heart and sound minded presentation of how our faithful Orthodox Christian heroes, guided by God The Holy Spirit, understood the deeper purpose of sexual eros union between a husband and wife. When transformed by God's Grace and encouraging one another to grow in Christ, the two not only become one in body but also soul.
I honestly believe that both paths are chosen for you by God. There is no path to life but Christ and monastic or not we are all the same in the eyes of the Lord
The fact that the monastic life is superior to the married life doesn't denigrate the value of the married life. The married life is good and blessed and how God created Adam and Eve. But there is a path that is even more like the life to come and that is the monastic life. We know the future world and future bodies and state will be superior to our current world and body and spiritual state. This doesn't make the current world, body and spiritual state problematic; just of a lesser glory than that to come. God said of what He created that it was good and yet the creation to come will be superior to it. Likewise, the monastic life is superior to the good God created which is marriage. The fact that few can and do live this way only makes it all the more praiseworthy.
Wow! That’s so wonderful to listen to his development and it seems that St John Paul II discovered the same in his so called „theology of the body“. There he says about virginity that it is the goal and should be accomplished at the end of life. That it is state of the soul rather than of the body.
Pope John Paul II wasnt a saint. He covered up alot of pedophilia rings of the catholic church
Even though I believe monasticism to be a higher and more angelic life than the married life, the major issue is negligence. Regardless if one is a monk or married, if you neglect your salvation you become unfruitful. So marriage in itself isn’t the problem but negligence. And it so happens that being married gives ample room for becoming negligent. Being a monk gives ample room for working on one’s salvation.
If we created a community of married people that lived in their cells and had a church where we would do the services everyday like the monks and our work was keeping the grounds and making products to sell to sustain the community and were obedient to an abbot and had our prayer rule, married people would become much more holy and fruitful.
Thank you
I follow what the Church says no matter what. And I really don't know as much as others. But, my personal thinking: I think if marriage really was negative that Christ would have made it very clear for us. I don't think we should even think that we can draw any conclusions about marriage. God also said "Be fruitful, and multiply...". So simply put: there are two paths. Chose one.
Glad I didn't comment half way through 😂. I very much agree with the end theological stance
What about those who are neither married nor monks? I have my own thoughts about this but I'd be curious to hear what others have to say.
As a Celibate Layperson, my view is that we still have to learn to control our Passions and bond to Christ through prayer and the Sacraments, etc. like everyone else. It's just that sex has nothing to do with us unless in marriage.
Are you practicing abstinence?
there are saints who followed the path you speak of, like saint Andrew the fool for Christ. but he also abandoned completely his fortune and lived like a fool beggar who everyone was mistreating. He was no married, nor monk.
Great video!
May I ask why the voice over instead of Father Panayiotis reading himself? I pray you all are doing well☦️
I think he has some voice troubles
Joseph Saab He has trouble with his voice, something that he has been dealing with for many years now. And also Yiannis voice is always perfect for any reading.
Why does the tradition feel more in agreement with young Chrysostom? and what can we do to promote his later views. I think this one thing would do more for the character of the church in our day than all the prayers on Mt. Athos.
A return to patristic thought! This is already happening, and many spiritual fathers who are more educated already apply Chrysostom's way of thinking(which is ultimately the mind of the ancient Church). So it seems the prayers of Athos have helped ;)
@@Trisagionfilms I'll believe we are making progress once I see the percentage of married saints tick up a few notches. That's only going to happen when married people take on the ascesis of marriage with great love and joy. This arena seems a great wrinkle in the life of the Church today which needs ironing out. I could be wrong, but it seems we have neglected, and in some cases denigrated, this sacrament and mystery of marriage in favor of others. I love monks but this is not their domain, those of us who know the divine eros in marriage must do the work to prove Chrysostom's (later) wisdom to the watching world. May he pray for us in our day.
@@DouglasHorch this definately is the domain of clairvoyant Elders and monks.
But isnt Saint Pauls writing in 1. Corinthians chapter 7 rather clear that holy writ esteems the Celibate life higher than marriage?
Fr do you have any opinion on Fr John Romanides teaching? His teaching has received a lot of criticism recently online as supposedly being in error but I find what I’ve read so far of his teaching of the Patristic faith to be helpful to me personally (the book by Met, Hierotheos).
Although Fr. John Romanides seemed eccentric, he has left a great legacy in the Orthodox Church with his research and writings. He is the one who corrected the Orthodox teachings of the 19th and 20th centuries about the sin of Adam and its consequences. Unfortunately, many Orthodox theologians who had gone to Europe to study theology during those two centuries copied several western teaching uncritically without checking the Patristic writings. One of them was the idea of the transmission of the sin and guilt of Adam to all humanity. This was the focus of his Ph.D. dissertation that he submitted to the faculty of the University of Athens. In their own ignorance, they rejected it, although his theses were well supported by patristic texts (I have his original dissertation in Greek and have read it and used it in my own research). At that time, a learned monk from Mount Athos (who was a student of the writings of the Fathers) came to Athens and defended him in front of the Committee of Professors, who, in the end, granted him the approval of his dissertation. The other thing which our theologians and historians brought from Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries was a distorted and very negative view of the Early Church, as well as the history of the Eastern Christian Roman Empire based on the writings of Edward Gibbon. They brought back a false history of what they now call “Byzantium” as a backward and corrupt world full of deviance and ignorance. What Romanides did was ground-breaking, as he actually showed that Romania (the Christian Eastern Roman Empire) was an amazing success and a continuation and exultation of the Greek and Roman civilization of the past. A host of Western historians (like Stephen Runciman, Peter Brown, Robert Wilkens, and others) have followed in the footsteps of Romanides, showing that the Christian Eastern Roman Empire (in spite of its human weaknesses) was indeed the greatest civilization the World has ever seen. One of our contemporary Orthodox historians who shows Romania's greatness is Anthony Kaldelis, who has written several books on the subject of Romania. (Fr. Panayiotis)
Glory be to the One and only King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ the Son of God!
The research done in the paper presented addresses one common approach for arguing that monasticism is superior to marriage. At best one might conclude arguing on the basis of Chrysostom’s works for the superiority of monasticism is not sufficient given the reasons in this paper. However Geronda Ephraim of Arizona offers a common sense argument in favor of monasticism in Counsels from the Holy Mountain pg. 92 which don’t require scholarship to assess its validity.
“Although struggling to live the Christian life in the world is a godly pursuit, it does not even come close to monasticism in its yield of spiritual wealth and its closeness to God. ‘A tree is known by its fruit.’ An entire army of monastics has filled Heaven. How many Righteous (saints who attained sanctity while living in the world and not clergy, monastic, or martyr) saints do we have? You can count them on your fingers “
Geronda Ephraim also offers the following on pg. 83
“…virginity was dictated first, whereas marriage is a result of the Fall. Consequently, whoever wishes to attain the virtue that Adam and Eve had when they were in Paradise must live in virginity and chastity “
It was interesting to hear Fr. Panayiotis position on this issue. I believe he finds the fact that there was marriage at the start as his main theological issue since God created marriage. But it seems that some saints and holy men view marriage as a result of the fall and so there’s no issue in their mind to state marriage is inferior to monasticism. I say saints because likely Geronda Ephraim received his understanding from St. Jospeh the Hesychast and probably St. Ephraim of Katounakia held the same view.
Good work on closely reading St. John Chrysostom which I’m sure will benefit Fr.’s heart.
Without marriage and procreation, there would be no monastics. It's crazy to think that every single animal on earth has that hormonal drive to procreate, but somehow we're different? Yes, I understand we are different from all other animals, but this is hardwired into our genetic coding. To think otherwise just seems absurd when you think about it
I have yet to see such "marriage " among lay people
Perhaps so, but have you yet seen equal asceticism among monks?
Visit other parishes
What do you think of youtube orthodox ethos that says sex is only for kids?
That's not what Fr. Peter said.
If you put it in context of the Bible. God created Adam and Eve, there was no sex. After the fall aka darkness, sex entered. If you take in consideration the 2th, 3th and 4th fall, I see only demons imo no need for pro creation, marriage. Monk modus is the way. No worry’s about kids, wife time and so on. 24/7 time 2 worship God and fight for the salvation of your soul, but that’s my humble opinion. God bless 🙏
God told them to "be fruitful and multiply" before the fall... besides, what kind of idiot would make two perfectly compatible creatures, without intending they come together into one? God isn't an idiot. It's obvious just by looking at a man and a woman that we're meant for each other.
@@josephbrandenburg4373 You speak from ignorance on these matters. The saints unanimously agree that there were no physical relations before the fall between man and woman. St Ephraim the Syrian says that the blessings were obviously prophetic in that the blessing included dominion over the fish of the sea when there was no sea in paradise, and so God foresaw the fall and gave the blessing in anticipation of it. St Gregory of Nyssa explains that "increase and multiply" could be understood as relating to body or soul, the beasts were to increase in body while Adam in soul. St Augustine similarly says that the words increase and multiply were to be understood spiritually before the fall and physically after the fall. Meanwhile, Sts Maximos the Confessor and John of Damascus both state that God would have provided a way for man and woman to increase and multiply without conjugal union had they not fallen. This is not saying sex is evil and bad, but it is not at all the first intention of God. That honor goes to virginity.
@@campomambo why would we have reproductive parts if they weren't to be used? This sounds so ludicrous that it's laughable
Theologians loves to give themselves a point in life by using words that nobody has ever heard. As an editor, I would ask: Why not use "discipline" or other synonym? You need to get this guy looking exotic and learned, is why even though he wears Medieval clothing.
Despite your rude tone, I will answer you. The word ascesis can not be easily translated into English. There are many words like that that you use daily. Father Panayiotis is using this word to express a theological concept. Even the word theology isn't English because English cannot possibly find a suitable replacement for it. So you go to school and learn theology, not "Godlearning." And also, please do not insult others on their appearance. We need to be more mature and ask questions when we don't know something.
Ascesis (or askesis) is a pretty common term in Orthodoxy. It's a standard part of the Orthodox Christian vocabulary, nothing "exotic" about it.
~Mary~ I have a feel Jenna knows very little about Orthodoxy to begin with.
Marriage is superior