☦️ Coronavirus Orthodox Pastoral Guidance & Prayers ☦️

Our venerable Father Nicephorus the Leper lived in the twentieth century as a monk in the leper colony of Chios. He was a disciple of St. Anthimus of Chios. On January 4, 1964, which became his day of commemoration, Fr. Nicephorus reposed in the Lord, at the age of 74. His holy relics were fragrant when they were later uncovered. On December 1, 2012, the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople glorified St. Nicephorus and added his name to the calendar of commemorations

How are we to handle this crisis - this pandemic - spiritually? Our archpriest has been clearly struggling to find the right balance while maintaining services. Here is the letter he sent out today along with links to prior letters and prayers. I will post the prayers in full below this.

Prayer at St Nicholas, during the Corona Virus pestilence.

March 4/17,2020, the 3^rd week of Great Lent

Dear Faithful in Christ: news about the coronavirus is dominating our lives, and increasing restrictions are being suggested or even mandated. We are Christians, therefore everything we do we accompany with prayer. If there only are secular solutions for this virus, it will endure a long time and cause much suffering. We will pray at home and at church. You must pray! We are gathering in church to meet God and be entreating God. Only God can save. Only God can truly heal.

There is nothing wrong or evil about informed secular medical wisdom. The medical establishment has given us guidelines which our governments have told us to follow. We will follow all those guidelines that do not interrupt our prayer. We will gather for liturgy. We will gather for the Presanctified liturgy on Wednesday evening. We will pray to God and have special petitions in every service. We will also serve the Vigil service, and other prayer services.

If you desire to commune on Sunday and for some reason do not feel that you should go to the vigil service, then you must contact me for how to prepare for the Holy Mysteries. I will not tolerate people staying at home because of the coronavirus and then coming to the Liturgy in the morning unprepared. That is not good for your soul, or mine, since I am your pastor and I am responsible for you.

Throughout church history, there have been times of pestilence and tragedy, the church is gathered for more prayer at home and together. We will be doing this. You must be doing this in your home. I’ve already offered you suggestions, and to be honest with you, it is best for you to consider those suggestions to be commands. It’s up to you whether or not you do anything, but I am telling you things that are necessary for you, and for me, and for society.

Let’s be honest with ourselves! When we change our routine, often we become dissipated and lazy. If you stay home for any reason, that is not a reason for you to be slack in prayer, or watch Netflix instead of prayer. I’m quite serious about this! I want all of my parish to commune on Sunday and all of us to raise up our voices to God asking Him to shorten the duration of this pestilence, and help the infirm and spare those most at risk. However, it is not pleasing to God that people come to the Liturgy unprepared. Therefore, I will ask you how you prepared if you did not come to the vigil and you have not spoken to me about preparing for the liturgy.

There are churches all over the country that are literally closing their doors and locking them. We are not among those churches. Our chief hierarch, and our Archbishop has given us no such instructions. Until they are forced to give such instructions, if they are forced by the law, we will pray in the church. 

We will take extreme precautions, in keeping with our faith. We will not do anything silly, such as using disposable spoons, which is blasphemy. We cannot get a disease partaking of Holy Communion. We will take other precautions. All of the things that we been doing such as sanitizing our hands, and wiping surfaces with bleach, and having only the bread in the after supper, will continue. I will appoint some people in the church to have hand sanitizer with them, and bring it to people that appear to have soiled their hands, or have not sanitized their hands upon entering or reentering the church. There will be people wiping surfaces with bleach that have been touched. I am also asking the faithful to refrain from kissing icons. The reason for this is because the world is watching us, and obedience is higher than prayer. 

This might seem oppressive to you, but we are trying to maintain our ability to gather before God in prayer. Our priority is that we are able to continue to pray to God together and to meet Him in the Liturgy especially. Everything else is secondary to this.

Effective immediately, I am canceling any church activity that is not prayer. Therefore, after the Divine Liturgy, we will not have trapeza or church school. On Wednesday evening we will serve the Presanctified liturgy and do prostrations before God when we say the St. Prayer of St. Ephrem, and we will be fed by His body and blood, and then we will go home immediately, with thanksgiving and rejoicing to God. We will serve the Vigil on Saturday evening, and prostrate before the cross, as is done all over the world on the Sunday of the Cross. 

We will serve a Moleben, beseeching God to save us from this calamity, on Monday. I will also serve a Panikhida on Monday evening before the Moleben, because it will be the 9^th day for a woman who reposed in Russia. We have an obligation to pray. 

We are Orthodox Christians, and citizens of heaven but also citizens of the society in which we live. We will therefore be good citizens, insofar as we must protect our brother and sister. We will be good citizens of both societies in which we live. The heavenly society requires that we pray, especially the Divine Liturgy. The secular society has a different opinion about prayer. That is not their priority. They don’t understand that prayer to God must come first, and during, and after everything. Some are so secular that they actually consider prayer together to be dangerous and reckless. We are Orthodox Christians, and we are not secular, therefore, we consider prayer together to be life giving.

Priest Seraphim Holland, St Nicholas Orthodox Church, McKinney, TX 

This Letter: 

http://www.orthodox.net/articles/pastoral-letter-corona-virus-03_2020-03-17.pdf

http://www.orthodox.net/articles/pastoral-letter-corona-virus-03_2020-03-17.doc

Previous Pastoral Letter: 

http://www.orthodox.net/articles/pastoral-letter-corona-virus-02_2020-03-14.pdf
http://www.orthodox.net/articles/pastoral-letter-corona-virus-02_2020-03-14.doc

Prayers to St Nikephoros:

http://www.orthodox.net/articles/prayer-to-nikephoros-the-leper-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic.pdf
http://www.orthodox.net/articles/prayer-to-nikephoros-the-leper-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic.doc

--

Priest Seraphim Holland 

seraphim@orthodox.net  

Cell:972 658-5433

Prayer to St. Nikephoros the Leper

Troparion (Tone 1) O venerable father Nicephorus the Leper, Thy struggles and courageous asceticism dumbfounded heaven's angels. Like another Job in pain, thou didst endure and gave glory to God. And so, He arranged for thee a resplendent crown of miracles. Rejoice, O guide of monastics! Rejoice, O prism of light! Rejoice, O delightful fragrance radiating from thy relics! 

Kontakion (Tone 2) O venerable father Nicephorus, shunning pain and bodily corruption, like a horse thou dost gallop towards the heavens, the steadfast support of lepers. A brilliantly lit temple of God, thy body shone in its illness.

Another Kontakion (Tone 8) The valiant athlete of endurance and fortitude, the steadfast diamond of great patience and long-suffering, was tried by the affliction and pains of illness, and who in this way did glorify the Most High God, let us praise and laud  the leper Nicephorus, saying unto him: Rejoice, true namesake of victory."

Special petitions from the Moleben Sung in Time of Devastating Epidemic and Death-bearing Pestilence

“More than all others we have sinned against Thee and we have transgressed, O Master, and if we have not acquired repentance instead of repentance accept our offering. And having set Thyself to mercy, as Thou art almighty, free Thy servants from death bearing sickness and grievous afflictions, groaning in pain we pray Thee, quickly hearken and have mercy.”

“We have sinned and we have transgressed, and therefore Thy righteous anger has visited us, O Lord, our God; and the darkness of death has encompassed us and we have drawn nigh unto the gates of Hades. But, with compunction, we cry out unto Thee, our God, in our infirmities: Spare, O spare Thy people, and destroy us not utterly, humbly we pray Thee, hearken and have mercy.”

“O Lord, Who rules by life and by death: do Thou not enclose the souls of Thy servants in death, but turn aside from wrath and forsake anger, for our days vanish like smoke, and our strength has wasted away, and we are perishing utterly because of our sins. Be Thou merciful unto Thy servants who are repenting with tears, we pray Thee, hearken and have mercy.”

Prayer in Time of Devastating Epidemic and Death-bearing Pestilence

O Lord our God, from Thy holy height regard the supplication of us, Thy sinful and unworthy servants, who have angered Thy goodness by our iniquities, and have provoked Thy lovingkindness; and enter not into judgment with Thy servants, but avert Thine awesome wrath, which is justly brought to bear upon us.  Withdraw the threat of destruction; sheath Thy dread sword, which invisibly cutteth us down before our time; spare Thy poor and wretched servants, and confine not in death the souls of us who in repentance, with contrite heart and tears, fall down before Thee, our wise, kindly and readily placated God. For Thine it is to have mercy and to save us, O our God, and unto Thee do we send up glory—to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit—now and ever, and unto the ages of ages.

I hope this brings you some comfort and provides you with a few resources to pray through this crisis. Father has recommended that we increase our spirituality and recourse to the Sacraments. He suggested praying Jesus prayers for this intention as well as doing prostrations (which the Orthodox do a lot of during Great Lent). We should run to church, not from it. Christianity either means something or it does not. But this is an evolving situation. Father's homily on Sunday was about striking the right balance between being obedient to civil authorities, as long as it does not conflict with our faith, and setting good examples as Christians who care about protecting others. We are to practice good hygiene, stay home when ill, and otherwise follow the recommendations of our civil leaders. These may not be unprecedented times in the history of mankind, but they are unprecedented in my life time. Let's do what we can to be responsible and get through it as best we can. 

Thanks for reading! 
❤️☦️