The Reasons That Made Me Return to the Patristic Calendar

Archimandrite Paisios Papadopoulos,

 [now Former] Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Saint Gregory Palamas, Filotas

August 24, 2018

[This text provides a sound rationale for anti-Ecumenist New Calendarists to reconsider the implications and gravity of the calendar innovation. However, the translation of this text does not constitute an endorsement of the author’s subsequent actions or opinions. – Translator’s note]

 

In our various decisions and actions, especially in our spiritual life, the criterion is not each person’s opinion, nor what pleases us. Since we do not even know our true benefit, it is clearly not what seems to serve our current daily life with its many and varied problems that must be solved, but exclusively and only the will of God. In our prayer, when we say the “Our Father,” the well-known Lord’s Prayer, we ask: “Thy will be done.” But do we truly mean it when we say it?

What is the will of God “according to His good pleasure” and the first or prior will, as it is called? It is that which God desired for us from the beginning—our salvation. Therefore, everything is judged by the conditions that are created so that we may not lose salvation. And since the only Savior who saves us is Jesus Christ, we must be in constant communion, united with Him, which grants us the Grace of adoption. This Grace, of course, we receive in Holy Baptism, but it is rekindled through repentance and the Mystery of Holy Confession, as well as through Holy Communion, prayer, the keeping of Christ’s commandments, and our life within the Tradition of the Church. “If ye love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever—even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” (That is, He will give you the Holy Spirit, who is pure and absolute truth and reveals the truth to those of good will. But the sinful world cannot receive Him, for it has not opened the eyes of the soul, and therefore does not see Him nor know Him. But you know Him, because I have revealed Him to you, and He remains near you; and after His descent, He shall dwell within your souls.)

Before everything else, however, the confession of our faith precedes! “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Rom. 10). Because we have believed in the God-man and we apply His commandments with whatever works we do, for the reason that He Himself requires them of us according to His Gospel—that is, we do them in the Name of Christ and not in the name of some abstract moral code. Confession does not precede only once, at the time before Holy Baptism, but confession precedes every time before the sanctification during the holy Anaphora as we celebrate the Divine Liturgy. Yet it does not precede only then—it precedes our entire life in Christ. “Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father which is in heaven” (Matt. 10:32–33). And if confession precedes everything in our spiritual life, it likewise precedes our ecclesiastical actions, so that the possibility is excluded that we have ceased to hold fast to the good and holy confession of our Orthodox Faith. “Seeing then that we have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession” (Heb. 4:14). The same also is advised by the Apostle Jude: “Beloved… I exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the Faith which was once delivered unto the Saints” (Jude 1:3). Let us hold fast the confession which we received unadulterated from such great men, turning away from every innovation as a prompting of the Devil. (Pan-Orthodox Council, 1848) We consider it a given that this our confession must be connected with the unfortunate ecclesiastical events—concerning which, if we do not take a stand, we will bear exceedingly great responsibility!

Because an uproar was caused by our return to the Patristic Calendar, I must point out a few things:

1. First of all, we all know that a difficult struggle is taking place, which bears a cost on every level—spiritual, of course, included.

2. In this struggle, our holy monastery, by necessity—just like Saint Gregory Palamas during his earthly life—is at the forefront, which means that it at least opens the way.

3. However, we do not act according to human desires and wills, but seek the will of God.

4. For this reason, for two whole years we have prayed very intensely and fasted in our synaxis, all together, each according to his strength. Therefore, we neither acted hastily, nor did we wall ourselves off without effort!

5. Our actions until now have neither been mistaken nor inconsistent, nor have we deviated from what we initially declared.

6. There were individuals who left our synaxis because they knew that we would ultimately return to the Patristic Calendar. We did not hide it—we stated it openly and published it many times. Others left because we exercised oversight over the situation and did not allow anyone to act on their own initiative and teach about invalid Mysteries, or to prevent us from communing those who had no knowledge of ecclesiastical matters. Likewise now, we did not allow certain petty-minded women to lead us around by the nose like little bears and drag us wherever they wished, simply because they were possessed by cowardice and fears.

7. Personally, although there was a need for me to confess, I never bound myself to any spiritual father on the occasions I had to confess, solely so that we would not end up following the line of whatever group (faction) each one belonged to.

8. However, it was not possible to continue on without a spiritual guide and confession. Our spiritual children, perceiving the difficulty of the current problematic ecclesiastical situation, urged us to seek out a spiritual father for confession, strengthening, and guidance.

9. The choices were specific: either we would return to the Ecumenists—God forbid such a denial of our Faith—or we would go to the Economists, or the Trikaminists, or the Old Calendarists.

10. I chose the Old Calendarists because I consider them to stand apart from all the others, and because their walling-off has a purpose and a direction.

11. A walling-off that leaves the faithful in the middle of the sea and does not lead them to the opposite, safe shore of the “land,” I consider to be suicide.

12. After all, a walling-off must also meet the pastoral needs of the faithful and not create problems.

13. Precisely because of these problems, certain of our brethren were forced to resort to an economia to the detriment of the Faith.

14. Let us not forget that walling-off is a temporary state until ecclesiastical order is restored.

15. Moreover, the common and simple people who hear of walling-off do not understand, and think that it means leaving the Church. This was exploited by the cunning and ill-intentioned metropolitans, who made the faithful believe that we supposedly left the Church like the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

16. In this walling-off, our aim clearly was not to scatter. However, since due to the envy of the devil and with the cooperation of certain groups it was not possible to achieve understanding, we now lead the walling-off one step forward—not so that it may fall apart, but that it may bring about the expected result.

17. In any case, we all ought to have returned to the Tradition of our Church concerning the calendar, which—let us not forget—is followed by the entire Orthodox Church.

18. How much longer will the schism between the old and new calendar persist, and why must we unite with all kinds of heretics and not with the Orthodox Old Calendarists?

19. Will there be another opportunity and conditions for the schism to cease, especially with the prospect of a joint condemnation of Ecumenism?

20. Until now, the matter of the calendar, although not a matter of Faith but of ecclesiastical Tradition, precisely because the Faith had not yet been adulterated—even though the change of the calendar was a serious transgression (all the more so since it was done with deliberate intent)—did not deprive us of salvation simply because we had not remained with the Patristic calendar. Now, however, the Faith is changing—because, in reality, through their decision at the pseudo-council of Kolymbari to accept many Churches while the Symbol of Faith declares: “In One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church...”—the holy Faith which sanctifies the faithful no longer exists synodally, and they are now defiled by the hidden heresy which they introduced through their participation in synodally recognized Ecumenism. Thus, the secondary issue of the calendar has now become a criterion of Orthodoxy, since the deliberate change—then seemingly “indifferent”—has now confirmed the intention by which, in essence, the Faith through which we are saved was overthrown. THEREFORE, THE ISSUE IS SALVIFIC! That is, after the change regarding the Faith in the 9th article of the Symbol of Faith—even if they do not acknowledge it—it is now obligatory that we return to the Patristic Calendar in order that the heresy be examined synodally, condemned together with those responsible for it, and that ecclesiastical order be restored!

Each person, of course, as a human being, is free to make his own choices; however, as a believer, each one who is a member of the Church is obligated to uphold the Tradition of the Church.

Those of my spiritual children who, at this critical hour of confession, do not hold their position—if in the future they should wish to return—they will need repentance like that of the fallen, with a penance. We do not play with the matters of the Church. Those who wish to follow the metropolitans, or the ecumenists, or groups with unclear or unstable direction, will bear the responsibility themselves. The struggle requires courage and noble souls. Great prostrations and whining are not marks of bravery. I will leave some room for waiting and adjustment—but within certain timeframes and with a specific approach. Whoever wishes may follow.

 

 

Greek source: https://krufo-sxoleio.blogspot.com/2018/08/blog-post_24.html