Theology and Pastoral Practice

Maxim Vasiljevic
Bishop of Los Angles and the Western Diocese

A presentation delivered during the "Diaconate Ministry Formation" course hosted by the Western American Diocese in Los Angeles on March 26, 2024.

“Therefore, brothers, select from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of Wisdom...” Acts 6:3

Introduction

Welcome to our presentation on the diaconate in the Church: a journey through history, spirituality, and theology. This paper delves into the profound significance of the Church as manifested and understood through the Eucharist—the ultimate expression of the Church's incorporation in Christ across space and time.

Central to our exploration is the unity achieved in the Eucharist, a unity embodied by the bishop's role in persona Christi, who, as the Eucharistic president, is instrumental in constituting the Church's mystery. Through ordination, the bishop distributes the charisms necessary for various Church ministries, among which the ministry of the deacon stands as foundational.

Објављивање ове монографије је културни догађај који, захваљујући благослову Патријарха и гостопримством оних који се старају о Крипти храма, није пропраћен муклом тишином. Напротив, присуство публике у оволиком броју сведочи o нечем веома важном. Језик уметности је јачи од језика проповеди и логичког убеђивања. Уколико Црква жели да свету пренесе неку важну истину, она ће морати да говори језиком уметности. О томе сведочи монографија БЛАГОДАТНА, објављена у издању Лагуне.

Стога на самом почетку желим да честитам фондацији БЛАГО и њеном председнику г. Ненаду Вукићевићу. Представљајући нам ове фреске, он чува не само наше светиње него и светиње читавог просвећеног човечанства. Тиме нас је све задужио.

Sunday, January 29, 2023

There are moments that emerge as unique and unrepeatable events, moments in which the very presence of God is revealed to us. And then time stops, to make us think more deeply about what God’s providence is working for us. Such a great moment happens every time we celebrate the Divine Liturgy.

Your Eminences, Your Graces, beloved brothers in the Holy Spirit and co-celebrants, and dear pious assembly of the fullness of the Church,

Today in this holy church we met to honor the memory of a Saint who spent his whole life conveying the message of the good shepherd, the message of God’s sacrificial love for man and the love that people should have between them. And this Saint, whose name this magnificent Church honors, Saint Sava, was naturally called “enlightener” by the Church.

But where did this bishop find his inspiration? Today’s Gospel reading helps us to understand that. Sava recognized the God-man as the door to life, through Whom we go in and out and find pasture (see Jn 10:9). I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. This great entrance was given to St. Sava in a unique way so that he also became the true shepherd. As his troparion laconically says, for his people he was a teacher of the Path that leads to Life. And how did he recognize this path? My brethren, to know the “good shepherd” presupposes a “call by name”. “He calls his own sheep by name … and the sheep listen to his voice”. And this “calling by name” was a transcendent lightning flash that illumined the unknown depths and breadths of Sava’s existence.

A talk delivered at a painting exhibition “Saved by Beauty” at The Maliotis Cultural Center, Hellenic College Holy Cross, Brookline, June 24, 2022

Kindly allow me to congratulate The Maliotis Cultural Center Executive Director Presbytera Chrysoula Kourkounti, and Assistant Director Markella Patitsas for welcoming the idea of hosting an exhibit during this summer season dedicated to Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, an event fitting into Boston’s cultural and intellectual environment.

My sincere gratitude goes to His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of the Greek Archdiocese, who embraced the proposal of sponsoring and promoting this crucial exhibit.

Bishop Maxim (Vasiljevic)

A talk delivered at a painting exhibit “Saved by Beauty: Dostoevsky in New York” at The Sheen Center

New York, April 5, 2022

Your Eminence Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York of the Roman Catholic Church,

Your Grace Bishop Irinej of Eastern America of the Serbian Orthodox Church,

Very Reverend Archimandrite Nektarios Papazafiropoulos, Chancellor of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America,

My sincere gratitude goes to His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of the Greek Archdiocese, who embraced the proposal of sponsoring and promoting this crucial exhibit.

Sermon on Sunday of Orthodoxy at Pan-Orthodox Vespers, St George Antiochian Church, Cicero IL, (a suburb of Chicago), March 13, 2022

Bishop Maxim (Vasiljevic) of Western Diocese

Your Eminences, Your Graces, dear brothers and sisters,

It is a joy to be here, united together in prayer on this special day celebrating the victory of truth and restoration of icons. Together, we have begun our Lenten journey with a week of prayer, fasting, and worship, seeking to strengthen our faith and renew our promise to God and His good will, His eudokia. Today, the inaugural week of Great Lent culminates in the celebration of the Sunday of Orthodoxy, a commemoration of the triumph of the true Faith with the final restoration of the Holy Icons to the churches in the year 843.

Significantly enough, our Orthodox Church has chosen the commemoration of the Seventh Ecumenical Council to be the Sunday of Orthodoxy. As is well known, this Council dealt with the issue of Icons, but it did not put forth any propositional definition of the faith. In declaring, “This is the faith of the Fathers; this is the faith which has sustained the oecumene,” the Council pointed to a form of “theology,” the icon, which was the liturgical experience of the community and required no subscription to conceptual or ideological statements. To be Orthodox means to enter in the universal liturgical concelebration and not to look for heresies around.

Критеријуми теологије Владике Атанасија Јевтића

Епископ Максим (Васиљевић)

Уводне напомене

Тешко је говорити о теологу какав је био Атанасије пред теологом какав је Епископ браничевски Игњатије. Обојица, и ту је олакшање, себе доживљавамо као ученике Владике Атанасија и митрополита Јована Зизјуласа.

Такође је тешко говорити о њему као „предмету интересовања” управо због тога што је он био личност, слободна личност. По речима Христа Јанараса:

Говорити о оцу Атанасију Јевтићу, мислим да није просто тешко, него је немогуће. Било које карактерисање, на пример, да је био Епископ херцеговачки, професор универзитета – јесу објективна звања, која бивају исцрпљена само на пољу индивидуалног, јер означавају неку особу са извесним особинама. Да бисмо упознали било ког човека, треба знати да је присуство човека догађај, јер се не ради просто о некој енергији, дејствима или особинама, него о догађају, односу.

Episkop losanđeleski i zapadnoamerički Maksim (Vasiljević), povodom dva veka od rođenja i 140 godina od upokojenja slavnog pisca

Pojedini, među koje i sam spadam, veruju da dinamična i otvorena antropologija ovog klasika može da pomogne zbog toga što krši odbrambeni oklop savremenog ega i vodi s one strane ideoloških strasti.

Kad je pre četrdeset godina obeležavana stogodišnjica od upokojenja Dostojevskog, u njegovu čast su se širom sveta, kao i u tadašnjoj Jugoslaviji, održavale konferencije, predavanja i napisani su mnogi članci i knjige. Nikola Milošević, jeromonah Atanasije Jevtić i mnogi drugi vodili su vatrene debate oko karaktera i ideja velikog pisca. Nekad je Dostojevski bio inspiracija i u Holivudu. Šta se desilo sa 2021. godinom? Utisak je da epoha transhumane tehnologije nije dovoljno budna za rasprave o antinomičnosti života koje pred nas iznose romani Dostojevskog. Nije ni čudo. Živimo na ostacima jedne kulturne paradigme u agoniji. Kao da Dostojevski ne spada u lektiru digitalnog doba. No, da li je baš tako?