www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Beards, and longer beards

Dear Joe, The goal and aim must be to live one's celibacy in chastity...if you have been given this charism (and it MUST be from the Holy and Life-Giving Spirit too!). If this is your gift from the Spirit, then by all means, but if not FAR better to have a wife and family and live THAT life chastely. Better to be married and learn the REALITY of self-sacrificing love, than to end up giving up wife, children, home, etc. and then spend the rest of your life trying to 'pay yourself back' for the sacrifice! What the Church of Christ needs is men ON FIRE with the love of God, living simply, chastely, and obediently----rather than 'fussy old bachelors' or worse. Celibacy isn't really the problem...it's LIVING it because you/we were actually CALLED to it...and then living it WELL as a path to HOLINESS! The more one conforms to the image of Christ, the better...but better to marry than to burn.

The bishop asked me before ordination (when I was still rather young and having been a Franciscan already for 13 or 14 years)..."Do you wish to continue to be a monastic or do you want to marry before ordination?" I said, "No Vladyka...I think I'll just be celibate for the time being?" (WRONG answer!) Then Vladyka said something I'll never ever forget, he said: "No no Father, you must choose to be married or a monk, one difficult life or the other...we have no celibates here...you need a definite life-style." I think that is exactly what Pope John Paul II is trying to get across to his priests, but (in America) it has a way to go yet before it really sinks in here.

In His Holy Name,
+Father Archimandrite Gregory

Dear Joe, The goal and aim must be to live one's celibacy in chastity...if you have been given this charism (and it MUST be from the Holy and Life-Giving Spirit too!). If this is your gift from the Spirit, then by all means, but if not FAR better to have a wife and family and live THAT life chastely. Better to be married and learn the REALITY of self-sacrificing love, than to end up giving up wife, children, home, etc. and then spend the rest of your life trying to 'pay yourself back' for the sacrifice! What the Church of Christ needs is men ON FIRE with the love of God, living simply, chastely, and obediently----rather than 'fussy old bachelors' or worse. Celibacy isn't really the problem...it's LIVING it because you/we were actually CALLED to it...and then living it WELL as a path to HOLINESS! The more one conforms to the image of Christ, the better...but better to marry than to burn.

The bishop asked me before ordination (when I was still rather young and having been a Franciscan already for 13 or 14 years)..."Do you wish to continue to be a monastic or do you want to marry before ordination?" I said, "No Vladyka...I think I'll just be celibate for the time being?" (WRONG answer!) Then Vladyka said something I'll never ever forget, he said: "No no Father, you must choose to be married or a monk, one difficult life or the other...we have no celibates here...you need a definite life-style." I think that is exactly what Pope John Paul II is trying to get across to his priests, but (in America) it has a way to go yet before it really sinks in here.

In His Holy Name,
+Father Archimandrite Gregory

Bless, Father Archimandrite,

I agree that it is good to sometimes repeat such excellent words to Cantor Joseph Thur . . .

Alex

Dear Cantor Joseph,

I can't say that I approve of your recent reading material . . .

I believe the Priest as well as the Christian can and should be icons of Christ.

Christ is intimately linked with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

We need our wives and children and/or monastic colleagues to support us on the road to Theosis in Him . . .

How's that for someone who has been doing housework all day?

Alex

It's nice to see that the wife has trained you well Alex...

Dear Anton,

Your time will come . . .

Alex

Dear Tammy,

Indeed, some of our bishops and monks with untrimmed beards do look very much like Hassidic Jews. I am always amazed at how similar...perhaps it is my western sensibilities?!

In Christ,
Alice

like me, perhaps?

Hi Edward,

You are quite the handsome fellow!

No, you don't qualify as looking like a Hassidic Jew...your hair is too dark, and your hair is all wrong! But if you want to look like an Orthodox Bishop, you have got to pull all your hair back into a ponytail or bun...and let your beard grow much longer!

Alice

Be an Old Rite bishop. Then you can simply leave your hair long and loose, though a centre parting might make it more managable!!!

Of course to be like many bishops of the New Calendarists Greeks, you'd need to cut off most of the beard and get your hair cut short.

Spasi Khristos -
Mark, monk and sinner.

Alice,
while in DC for the March we met a Ukranian Priest from Canada...coming from a section of Brooklyn that was home to a large Hasidic/Orthodox(Jewish) population, I was struck by the similiarity in apprearance...I too thought it was only my particular sensibilities that brought the similiarity to mind.

Vie

What about earlocks?

what about dredlocks?

Actually, I had read somewhere (in St Vlad's Quarterly?) about female saints who had embraced the monastic life and lived among monks (read male monastics). It was not until their death did their sex become known.

Now, these must have been some hairy women or else the canons requiring beards developed to avoid these situations in the future. I actually heard the latter explanation from a nun, who in describing the monastic habit stated the only way to differentiate the monk from the nun was by the beard.

Dear Father Deacon John,

Happy St Patrick's Day! (I take it from your surname that you come from a similar mixed Irish family background as Eamon de Valera? ).

Yes, St Dositheus of the Kyiv Caves Lavra, who blessed St Seraphim to go to Sarov, was in reality a woman, as they discovered after her repose.

She wore the monastic "lapostki" on both sides of her face to hide the fact that she had no beard . . .

The lapostki are also a memorial to St Meletius the defender of Icons who was struck in the face and scarred for life for his trouble.

He wore the lapostki to hide the fact that he suffered so in defence of Orthodoxy.

Alex

Alex,

Erin go bragh!

Actually, my mother is O'bledo (black Irish from Galicia [pronounced "Ga-lee-thee-a" as in the Spanish province]) :p