An Orthodox Survival Course 2020

An Introduction
July 30 - September 3, 2020

AN ORTHODOX SURVIVAL COURSE 1

Ευλογητός εί, Χριστέ ο Θεός Blessed art Thou, O Christ
ημών, ο πανσόφους τους our God, Who hast shown
αλιείς αναδείξας, forth the shermen as
καταπέμψας αυτοίς το supremely wise by sending
Πνεύμα το άγιον, και δι’ down upon them the Holy
αυτών την οικουμένην Spirit, and through them didst
σαγηνεύσας· φιλάνθρωπε, draw the world into Thy net.
δόξα σοι. O Befriender of man, glory be
to Thee.

THE PRAYER BEFORE THE GOSPEL

I
llumine our hearts, O Master who lovest mankind, with the
pure light of thy divine knowledge, and open the eyes of our
mind to the understanding of the Gospel teaching; implant
in us also the fear of thy blessed commandments, that trampling
down all carnal desires, we may enter upon a spiritual manner of
living, both thinking and doing such things as are well-pleasing
unto thee.
For thou art the illumination of our souls and bodies, O
Christ our God, and unto thee we ascribe glory, together with thy
Father who is from everlasting, and thine all-holy, good, and life
giving Spirit, now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.

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 Outline of Course

Overall Aim of the Course

To assist in the acquisition of the Mind of Christ, the Orthodox

Patristic Perspective and Worldview, in order to protect the faithful
from the wiles of enemy and the spirit of Antichrist which, by another
name, is secularism. Or, simply: to spiritually survive the apostasy.

Further Aims of the Course

1. To Introduce Participants to the Contemporary Patristic Sources

2. To Introduce Participants to Key Criteria for Discerning Current Events
3. To Assist Participants in Forming An Orthodox Response to the Apostasy

Lecture Dates:

July 30; August 6, 13, 20, 26*; September 3. [*Wednesday evening]

Lecture Titles:

1. July 30th: Introduction, Fr. Seraphim’s Original “Survival Course”

2. August 6th: Following our Contemporary Holy Fathers and their Witness
3. August 13th: The Mystery of Iniquity and the Apostasy
4. August 20th: The A & Ω of History: the Perennial Target of the Enemy
5. August 26th*: Standing in the Temple of Thy Glory, We Think We are Standing in
Heaven
6. September 3rd: Before the Face of Antichrist: How Shall
We Then Live?

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 Management of the “House”:

1. Fall Courses:
1. “The Truth of our Faith”: Introduction to Orthodoxy for
Catechumens and Newly Illumined
2. Fr. Seraphim Rose’s Orthodox Survival Course: A Study
of the Path and Process of the Unfolding of Apostasy from
the Great Schism until Today.
3. On the Divine Liturgy: A Spiritual and Ecclesiological
Look at Heaven on Earth
2. Spring Courses:
1. On the Revelation of our Lord to the Apostle John the
Theologian: Reading with the Eyes of the Fathers and Fr.
Athanasius Mitilinaios
2. On the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church and the
Pan-Heresy of Ecumenism
3. Russia’s Golgotha and the Catacomb Saints (1918-1938):
A Type of the End Times
3. Structure of Courses:
1. Lectures and Q&A: two hours maximum
2. Held on Weekdays (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday)
3. Questions must be submitted prior to class.

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 4. Lectures are open to all patrons. If these courses are
bene cial to you, please consider increasing your monthly
donation so that we can meet the new demands on our time
and resources.
5. If this Introductory Course has been bene cial to you, please
consider sharing with others, inviting others and in general
further supporting the work.
6. Romanian speakers please write me. For that matter, all non-
English speakers... to get to know others of the same
language group and cooperate.
7. Apologies for not getting to everyone’s questions.

“Before the Face of Antichrist:

How Shall We Then Live?”

1. Introduction: The Grace of God is Everything

2. On the Way of the Lord and His Church
3. On the Methodology of the Enemy
4. On Securing the Inner Life as a Pre-requisite to Confession of
Faith
5. Q & A

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 How can we tell we are in the “Age of Antichrist”?

“
In our age of apostasy preceding the manifestation of
Antichrist, the devil has been loosed for a time (Apoc.
20:7) to work the false miracles which he could not work
during the “thousand years” of Grace in the Church of Christ
(Apoc. 20:3), and to gather in the hellish harvest of souls who
“received not the love of the truth” (II Thess. 2:10). We can tell
that the time of Antichrist is truly near by the very fact that
the satanic harvest is now being ripped not merely among the
pagan peoples, who have not heard of Christ, but even more
among “Christians” who have lost the savor of Christianity. It
is of the very nature of Antichrist to present the kingdom of
the devil as if it were of Christ.”
- Fr. Seraphim Rose
Orthodoxy and the Religions of the Future
p. 224-225

1.
Introduction
THE GRACE OF GOD IS EVERYTHING

H
ow did humanity, and indeed Christians, arrive at this sorry
state of confusion, even, insanity? As the saying has it, “the
devil is in the details.” Just as God is known not in the great

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 strong winds, or earthquakes or res, but in the light breeze, like a still,
small voice, so too the descent to Antichrist was carried out not in the
impressive “show” of provocative devil-worship but in the subtle,
“invisible” loss of the Grace of God and putting on of secularism,
which followed upon the loss of the savor or ethos of Orthodoxy, which
likewise transpired along with, and later, as a result of, the loss of
Orthodox Faith.

W
e have become insolent and agrant in our disregard of the
presuppositions of the acquisition and guarding of the
Grace of God. Once you abandon the narrow way, the
ascetic life, you open yourselves up to the passions and behind the
passions lurk the demons, and you are drawn ever further into the
worldly way of thinking and living, alienated from the Orthodox stance
of watchfulness, vigilance and prayer - the hesychastic heart of the
Church. From this place of alienation the Grace of God and adoption
of the worldly spirit, one easily adopts the various heretical theories of
the world concerning Christ and His Church, in other words, the pan-
heresy of ecumenism.

T
he delusion of ecumenism does not only exist among the high
of cials or academic theologians. It also expresses itself on the
parish level. Wherever the boundaries of Christ are blurred or
swept aside for an unholy union or further merging with heterodoxy
there you have the temptation of denial of Christ - of His Truth, His
Way, His Life. When the presuppositions for union are set aside,
whether in relation to the heterodox with the Church, or wayward, fallen
brethren with Christ in the Mysteries, the loss of Grace is at the door.
There can be no substitute for repentance and trust (faith), consistently
called for and praised by our Lord in those approaching Him. These
cruci xions are pre-requisites to be in communion with God, to be His
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disciple. Submission of the rational intellect to the Supra-rational Lord,
to be “acquired” by His Grace and commune with Him in the nous.
- Knowledge of, and spending time on, the events of the world
and the mystery of iniquity will not save us. We do it for the sake
of the brethren as much as for ourselves in order to avoid the
traps and the temptations of the enemy. Yet, all of this must be in
addition to the internal work that we’re doing on our souls. We
cannot be taken away by these external pursuits from the the
internal spiritual struggle for puri cation.
- The struggle is to leave the human consolation for the divine
consolation. The struggle is to do everything for Christ and to
put aside the lower loves for the higher love. The struggle is to
become detached from the vanities of the world but also from the
love of things that are good for the sake of those that are greater
and holy. This detachment is, in fact, the key for avoiding sin but
also for protection from the enemy’s machinations and
temptations that he will bring. If we are not watchful over the
little things, we will neither be vigilant over the greater things.

St. Paisios the Great (June 19)

GUARD THYSELF, LEST YOU LOSE THE GRACE OF GOD!

P
aisios the Great had a disciple who once went into the city to sell
his handiwork. On the way he met a Jew who, seeing his
simplicity, began to deceive him, saying: “oh beloved, why do you
believe in the simple, cruci ed Man, when He was not at all the awaited
Messiah? Another is to come, but not He.” The disciple, being weak in

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mind and simple in heart, began to listen to these words and
allowed himself to say: “Perhaps what you say is correct.”
When he returned to the desert, St. Paisios turned away from him and
would not speak a single word to him. Finally, after the disciple’s long
entreaty, the Saint said to him: “Who are you? I do not know you. This
disciple of mine was a Christian and had upon him the Grace of
Baptism, but you are not such a one; if you were actually my disciple,
then the Grace of Baptism has left you and the image of a
Christian has been removed.” The disciple with tears related his
conversation with the Jew, to which the Saint replied: “Oh wretched one!
What could be worse and fouler than such words, by which you were
renounced Christ and his divine Baptism? Now go and weep over
yourself as you wish, for you have no place with me; your name is
written with those who have renounced Christ, and together with them
you will receive judgment and torments.” On hearing this judgment of
the disciple was lled with repentance, and at his entreaty the Saint shut
himself up and prayed to the Lord to forgive his disciple the sin. The
Lord heard the Saint’s prayer and granted him to behold a sign of His
forgiveness of the disciple. The Saint then warned the disciple: “Oh
child, give glory and thanksgiving to Christ God together with me, for
the unclean, blasphemous spirit has departed from you, and in his place
the Holy Spirit has descended upon you, restoring to you the Grace of
Baptism. And so guard yourself now, lest out of sloth and carelessness
the nets of the enemy should fall upon you again and, having sinned,
you should inherit the re of Gehenna.”

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 Fr. Seraphim Rose
HOLD FAST THE GRACE YOU HAVE!

H
ow much must Orthodox Christians walk in the fear of God,
trembling lest they lose His Grace, which by no means is given
to everyone, but only to those who hold the true Faith,
lead a life of Christian struggle, and treasure the Grace of
God which leads them heavenward. And how much more cautiously
must Orthodox Christians walk today above all, when they are
surrounded by a counterfeit Christianity that gives its own experiences
of “grace“ and the “Holy Spirit“ and can abundantly quote the
Scriptures and [even] the Holy Fathers to “prove” it. . . The whole
contemporary spiritual atmosphere is becoming charged with the
power of a demonic initiation experience as the “mystery of
iniquity “enters it’s next to last stage and begins to take possession of the
souls of men — indeed, to take possession of the very Church of Christ,
if that were possible.

A
gainst this powerful “religious experience” true Orthodox
Christians must now arm themselves in earnest, becoming fully
conscious of what Orthodox Christianity is and how its goal is
different from that of all other religions, “Christian” or non-Christian.

O
rthodox Christians! Hold fast to the Grace that you have; never
let it become a matter of habit; never measure it b merely
human standards of expect it to be logical or
comprehensible to those who understand nothing higher than what is

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human or who think to obtain the Grace of the Holy Spirit in
some other way than that which the one Church of Christ has
handed down to us...”

2.
On the Way of the Lord and His Church

The Mission of Fr. Cosmas of Grigoriou

WE HAVE NO OTHER PROGRAM BUT FAITHFULNESS

LEAVE TO ORTHODOXY HER OWN COLOR

I
t is wrong to have recourse to the means and methods of the
heterodox. Let us leave to Orthodoxy her own color, in faith, in
teaching, and in Her art. Let it not fade in the mission eld. In an
Orthodox manner, humbly, coenobitically if you will, without displays or
cosmetics...

GO TO THE TRUE CHURCH WHERE

THE PRIESTS HAVE BEARDS AND CASSOCKS

O
ne morning in May, 1994, a middle-aged Zairian arrived at our
Mission. I welcomed him and he told me his problem. He
seemed troubled and uneasy and said the following: “Father, I
am a worker at Jecamine. I fell seriously ill. As the doctors were unable
to help me, I asked God to have mercy on me.” I asked him to which
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 church he belonged. “I am a Roman Catholic,” he replied. “One night I
saw in a dream several priests like yourself wearing brilliant vestments
and celebrating the Liturgy in a church like yours. One of the priests
approached me and said: ‘God has heard your prayer, but for your
salvation you must join our Church, for it is the only true Church.’ I do
not know you or the name of your Church, but I have approached you
because in my dream I saw priests like you, with beards, cassocks
and brilliant vestments. I asked other people who told me that only
Orthodox priests have beards and wear cassocks and other such clothing,
and they also told me where to nd your church.” I advised him and
gave him a book, and suggested that he come to our church for
catechism every Sunday. Since then he has been a faithful member of
our church, and has not perished from the grave illness, which so
af icted him.

A PAPAL PROTESTANT [“ROMAN CATHOLIC”]

IS LED TO THE TRUE CHURCH

I
n the month of March, 1991, the priest in charge of the Orthodox
Mission Center in Kolwezi, Archimandrite Meletios, had left for
Likashi to celebrate the Forty Day Memorial service following the
death of a Greek woman called Sophia. One evening, as he was walking
along the street towards the church of St. John the Forerunner, he
noticed that a Zairian woman was following him. She drew near him
and asked his pardon, and then told him the following: “Father, I am a
Roman Catholic. Every day I ask God for guidance towards salvation.
One night I had a dream. I saw a priest dressed as you are, with
a cassock and a beard, and his face seemed to be full of light.
He came up to me and spoke to me in Swahili, which amazed me, as this
was the rst time I had seen him. He showed me a church and said:
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‘since you plead with tears to be shown salvation, behold, here is the true
church where you will nd it. Go to this church and the priest will tell
you what you must do to be baptized.’ Father Meletios listened to her
with interest until they arrived at the church of St. John the Forerunner
when the woman suddenly cried out: “This is the church that I saw in
my dream!” She broke down in tears of joy and emotion.
Demetrios Aslanidis and Fr. Damascene Grigoriatis,
Apostle to Zaire: the Life and Legacy of Fr. Cosmas of Grigoriou,
Kindle Locations 2210-2216
In the chapter entitled“Miracles, Missionary
Work and Signs from the Saints,”,
Uncut Mountain Press, Thessaloniki, 2001.

3.
On the Methodology of the Enemy

St. Paisios of the Holy Mountain

THE SLOW BOIL OF THE FROG

G
eronda, why is it so dif cult to realize how harmful the secular
spirit is for us? Why are we so easily seduced by it?

B
ecause The secular spirit enters our hearts gradually, like the
hedgehog into the hare’s nest. In the beginning, the hedgehog
please with the hare to allow it to put just his head inside the nest,
and stay there for only a short time, so as not to get wet. But then, it puts

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one foot in, and then the other, until nally, its entire body is inside the
nest, and it’s thorny quills have left no room for the hare.

I
n the same way, the secular spirit deceives us into making small
concessions at rst, until it gradually gets hold of us. Evil walks in
small steps. If it were to come all at once, we would not be deceived.
You see, if you want to scald a frog, you must do it gradually, by rst
pouring water on it that is just a little bit warm. If you pour boiling
water right away, it jumps up and leaps away. It escapes the danger. But
if you pour warm water slowly, little by little, the frog will rst shake it
off but then it will except it. If you pour a little more, it will continue
shaking it off but without jumping away. In this way it will sit there and
slowly be scalded without realizing how. Even if you say to it, “hey Mr.
Frog, get up and leave, I am pouring scalding water on you,” it still
wouldn’t leave. It would stay beneath the streaming water which
gradually becomes hotter and hotter until it is totally scalded. Well, this
is exactly how the devil operates. He works on us gradually, until we end
up scorched without even realizing it!”
- From With Pain and Love for Contemporary Man, p. 74.

The metaphor of the boiling frog is probably well known to many

and it is applicable not only to the current so-called crisis but also to
the phenomenon of a Ecumenism, the contemporary heresy which
one can rightly characterize as ecclesiological Arianism. That is, with
it we have the rejection of theanthropic nature of the Church, that it
is a human, fallible, divided reality, not unlike Arius’ rejection of the
theanthropic nature of the person of Christ, that He was a created
being and not the Uncreated God become Man.

Application to the current crisis:

There are measures which on the surface do not appear to be matters

of faith in which we are obligated to take a stand and confess and
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 resist. One such measure is the face-mask which has suddenly and
unjusti ably been introduced in many aspects of our daily life, such as
the supermarket, the government building and now even the school
house, not to mention, of course, the most objectionable and clearly
unjusti able, the Temple of God. With respect to the latter, we have
already shown why this is unacceptable, unbecoming, and an affront
to the holy place and the grace of God which pours down upon the
participants in the Holy Mysteries and Divine Services. But it is not so
clear as to why we should resist wearing face-masks in other aspects of
our daily life. And this issue is, for many, a touchy, dif cult, and
sensitive issue, which can be a stumbling block to approach the
narrow path and the strict observance of the Commandments.

We have to put this practice in its contemporary context to properly

understand why its near universal enforcement is objectionable. Of
course, one cannot reject out of hand the use of masks, as they have
been used for quite some time in special places and for special needs,
such as by the surgeon. However, what we have today is a near
catholic imposition of the face-mask in all of public life, hitherto
never thought of as an effective protection against viruses in one’s
daily life. Because the data does not justify the characterization of the
COVID-19 health crisis as a true pandemic, and hence there are no
grounds for the uncritical enforcement of the face-mask, one has to
ask why then is there such a massive push on the part of governments
world-wide to force their citizens to wear them?

Seen in the proper perspective and context, with spiritual

discernment and within the larger process of the apostasy, such
irrational and fanatical, if not totalitarian, methods are seen to be
weapons in a psychological battle to bring humanity into a state of
fear and submission, to live in fear of both sickness and punishment
from the state. This is not an end in itself, but a part of the process of
subjugating and manipulating the masses to lead them into a spiritual
and psychological state.

Sensing that mass masking of the population is part of a larger

deception is not enough. We must also realize that insomuch as we
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 submit, accept and grow accustom to such unfounded and demeaning
measures our spiritual immunity system is undermined. We are being
doused with warm water and every new curtail of our freedom and
limitation on our movement and privacy is another inch of hotter and
hotter water. We must resist not for the sake of turning the tide or
setting an example, but for our own continued spiritual wellness and
mindfulness.

4.
On Securing the Inner Life as
a Pre-requisite to Confession of Faith

N
o amount of external, intellectual or practical activity will
secure for us a signi cant degree of protection against the loss
of the Grace of God and the spirit of Antichrist - unless it
ows from and is supported by a consistent, ever-burgeoning inner life of
the Spirit, of prayer and self-knowledge. We cannot stand but IN Him:

CONFESSION IN HIM

T
herefore whoever confesses in Me before men, him I will also confess before
My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will
also deny before My Father who is in heaven.
Matt. 10: 32-33

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 St. John Chrysostom
BY THE HELP OF GRACE FROM ABOVE

M
ark His exact care; He did not say ‘Me,’ but ‘in Me’ (εν
Εμοι), showing that not by a power of his own, but by
help of Grace from above, the confessor makes his
confession. But of him that denies, He said not ‘in Me,’ but, ‘Me’; for he
having become destitute of the gift, his denial ensues.”
Homily 34, P.G. 57:392 (cols. 401, 402)

St. Paisios of the Holy Mountain

ONLY WITH DIVINE GRACE WILL COME SPIRITUAL CLARITY

D
if cult years are ahead [said more than 26 years ago]; we will be tested
very severely. The Christians will suffer great persecution. And,
you see, people are not at all aware that we are living during the
Signs of the Times, that the sealing is already advancing. It is as if
nothing is happening. This is why Sacred Scripture says that even the
elect will be deceived. Those without a good disposition will not be
enlightened and will be misled during the years of apostasy. For
whoever does not have divine Grace, does not have spiritual
clarity, just like the devil.
Elder [St.] Paisios of Mount Athos,
Spiritual Counsels II,
Spiritual Awakening, pp. 197-199.

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N
ormal Orthodox life proceeds according to the Church
calendar, the feasts and fasts of the year. Feast days are
signposts of life. Daily prayer and daily Divine Services,
including vigils, are the norm. One who is fed on these emerges each
morning from the Temple with extraordinary inspiration and quiet joy.

Archbishop ANDREW of New Diveyevo

MAN’S RECEPTION OF DIVINITY

T
he Divine Services are not merely a ritual, but that in them are
revealed the dogmas of faith. They are the foundation of
man’s reception of DIVINITY.”

Archbishop ANDREW of New Diveyevo

THE ORTHODOX WAY OF LIFE

1
Orthodoxy is not merely ritual, or belief, or a pattern of behaivor or
anything else a man possesses of himself; it is rather DIVINE
GRACE or POWER which transforms a man and imparts Eternal
Life to him already beginning in this life.

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2
The essence of the Orthodox way of life is devoutness or piety,
holding that which is God’s in honor. It is the entrance of God into
every aspect of life, a synergy of God and man, a theanthropic
reality. The Orthodox way of life inverts the worldly way of life, which is
organized to accommodate the passions; it puts the spiritual life at the
heart of our life.

3
The Orthodox Way of Life ows from this stance, this outlook,
which is characterized by the whole of the conscious spiritual
struggle (ascesis or podvig). The shared experience of this way of
life is what produces Orthodox community.

4
Prayerful vigilance, watchfulness, mindfulness, repentance as
a state and not only an action, and self-knowledge which grounds
one, all of this and more prevents the community from taking for
granted the Grace and allowing Theanthropic Life to return to simply
human religion.

5
A conscious Orthodox philosophy of life which is both an
outlook for interpretation of events and a guiding hand to stave off
humanism and secularism is likewise essential.

A Rule of Prayer and Life

AN EXAMPLE

E
ach Christian has his own particular rule of prayer and of life, as
unique to him as he is to the world. Comparisons are futile and
misleading. Nevertheless, one has to begin and to do so examples
are needed, in lieu of, or until one acquires a spiritual father’s informed
directions.
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 Aspects of a Prayer Rule
MORNING PRAYERS
A. From the Prayer Book
B. From the Prayer Rope
- in sets of 300 to Christ
- in sets of 100 (a 3 to 1 ratio)

DAILY READING
A. The Daily Holy Scripture Readings [Orthodox New Testament]
B. The Daily Readings from the Synaxarion (Lives of the Saints)
C. A particular Life, of a contemporary or beloved Saint
* “To learn the science of life in Christ, it is not necessary to read dozens or hundreds of
books. My spiritual father advised me only to read a few pages per day. To read for a
quarter of an hour, half an hour, but being careful to apply in life what I read”. -
Ven. Father Sophrony of Essex

EVENING PRAYERS
A. Small Compline (common in the Greek tradition)
- sometimes with the Χαιρετιεμοι or “Akathist Hymn” (or
perhaps with 1/4th of this each evening, depending on the circumstances)

B. From the Prayer Book (a number of Patristic prayers)

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OTHER PRAYERS DURING THE WEEK*
A. The Supplication Service to the Theotokos
B. The Akathist Hymn to our Lord Jesus Christ (found in the blue
prayer book, Greek tradition usage)

DIVINE SERVICES DURING THE WEEK

A. Sunday Matins and Divine Liturgy
B. Saturday Matins and Divine Liturgy (Commemoration of the
Reposed)
C. Feastal Divine Liturgies
*In Greece monthly Small Blessings of the Holy Water is served on the rst of the month and
distributed to the faithful at the time and next Divine Service.

PILGRIMAGES TO MONASTERIES
A. MONASTERIES AT THE HEART OF THE CHURCH AND THE
REFUGE OF THE FAITHFUL IN END TIMES

----

It is important for the faithful to nd and support one another, to

gather around the monasteries, to gather around faithful priests,
to assist one another to remain vigilant, prayerful, and putting
their trust in the Lord.

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