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HEAVENLY REALM HEAVENLY REALM LAY SERMONS by FATHER SERAPHIM ROSE ST. HERMAN OF ALASKA BROTHERHOOD PLATINA, CA. 1984 Copyright 1984 by St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood Father Seraphim in 1977 Eugene Dennis Rose, the future Father Seraphim at the time he wrote these essays. CONTENTS Preface............................................................9 Introduction: Fr. Seraphim’s Beginnings as an Orthodox Writer.......................................................13 ’ Lay-Sermons: 1. The Great Fast, Our ^xile.....................21 2. Many Are Called, But Few Are Chosen 23 3. The Meaning of Affliction.....................25 4. Christian Love........................................27 5. God is Fire..............................................30 6. The Other-Worldliness of Holy Orthodoxy................................................33 7. The Veneration of Icons in Holy Orthodoxy................................................35 8. The Prayer of the Good Thief................38 9. The Ascension of Our Lord....................40 10. The Fear of God......................................42 11. St. John of Kronstadt ............................45 12. The Radiant Feast .................................48 13. The Feast of Mid-Pentecost....................51 14. On the Transfiguration of Our Lord ... 53 15. Archimandrite Sebastian Dobovich .... 56 16. The Transfiguration...............................58 17. St. John, A Prophet...............................61 18. The Weeping Icons.................................64 19. The Aims of the Orthodox World..........67 20. Tsar-Martyr.............................................72 21. The Future of Russia..............................80 22. Heavenly Realm.....................................101 7 L Eugene Rose at his Pomona College graduation in 1956. PREFACE Father Seraphim (1934-1982), Eugene Rose, before monasticism was a very perceptive and sen sitive young man, highly talented in many fields: philosophy, science, mathematics. linguistics, literature, music and theology. It was mostly his philosophically analytical mind that made his col lege years so full and intense in achievements. His unquenchable thirst for the Truth led him to the threshold of True Christianity, the Universal Orth odoxy. But at first it was for him too abstract to be able to engross himself into it totally. He really was more a realist than an idealist, and he certainly hated the spineless “academic Orthodoxy,” of the modern school, which barred him from ente-ring into the very heart of the living contact with Christ through the experience of the Mysteries and Patris tic otherworldliness that the Church lives by. This heavenly realm of Traditional Apostolic Orthodoxy was not opened to him until some living represen tatives of contemporary monasticism, out of the 9 HEAVENLY REALM martyric Russian Church, enter ed into his life, he ground of his heart through personal suffering was now ripe. His study and his deep understand- ing of the “Mystery of Iniquity” of our Post-Chris- A"'* '^hen he knew that this long sought-after realm was opening be- orc him, he accepted the fullness of Christ whole- heartedly. And at once he began to bring forth fruit with his mighty pen, sharing this priceless acquistition ", “ntemporaries, consciously leading them into this heavenly realm. To this he dedicated the rest of his short but full life. The proof that all this was genuine is that he henceforth bore fruit an hundredfold in the vine yard of Christ; fruits literary, missionary, monas- Ih oTL ’’’’ to all Orthodox Americans - apparently even sanc- ‘ y 1 outstanding contemporary theologian ’“^^tklexander Schmemann, having served a panMida for Father Seraphim, said, “here is a man to whom belongs the future.” In this book we present his little 20 essays so-called ‘lay sermons,” his earliest Orthodox wrib ■ngs produced in the early 1960’8. Although much too bnef and limited, they clearly indicate and with t,.„,„nstra(e both the spiritual impact Orthodox Spirituality was making on him, as well as the desire to put his share in leading others into his newly-discovered heavenly realm. 10 HEAVENLY REALM To the non-Orthodox reader this little book )f the “early Father Seraphim” might not give an mpression of the full magnitude of his impact on 18 young Americans. But the wonder of a soul of a 20th century modern young man who managed somehow to penetrate into the realm of the nch ^Byzantine Tradition, then to become genuinely i saturated by its divine splendor, and finally to e- merge as a living link with the Church Fathers - is in deed awesome! Who would suspect that our prosaic America could produce such a visionary? Timothy Gorokhov Pascha 1984
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