Tag: Christianity

The Blessed Ioan David   

In the vicinity of the village of Strungari at the foot of the Sureanu Mountains, there once lived a shepherd in his hermit cell who, for the purity of his life, became a great miracle worker. He had disciples among laymen and monastics and everyone who knew him speak of him as a saint.

​Sureanu Mountains. Photo credit: Adrian Petrisor     

“One day I came to his cell. His door was slightly opened and I saw brother Ioan reading the Psalter, with a candle burning beside the book. And what do you think? A bird flew in and he begins to talk to it! I stopped in my tracks outside. He tells the bird:

‘Be careful, don’t burn your wings!’

So, the bird flies closer to extinguish this candle with its wing, then circles around the room and flies away. He then notices me and says:

‘Listen, don’t you be surprised at what you’ve just seen, I’m not a sorcerer.’

Everyone calls me a sorcerer, but I never read anything except the Bible and the Book of Hours

He said this because the villagers were saying he was the sorcerer because of the miracles he performed.

‘Everyone calls me a sorcerer, but I never read anything except the Bible and the Book of Hours. Tell me: doesn’t God have power? Or only the devil?’

Oh dear oh dear! And this is only one of such examples.”

Shepherding the sheep with the Psalter in hand

He was of short and gaunt stature, always dressed in a white shirt. He never spoke much with anyone, usually whispering something to himself, as the Strungari villagers saw his lips moving. He seldom walked along the street, because when he wasn’t in the mountains herding his sheep, he would simply sit quietly in his little hut. No one knew what he was doing there or why he never showed up at a local tavern to chat with folks, to share news and chase away boredom. He was a serious and hard-working man, who kept to himself and avoided worldly customs. It seemed really odd.

Now, for as long as the villagers knew him, he never lost a single sheep in the mountains. Besides, not a single one of his flock had been struck by lightning or mauled by the wild beasts that killed sheep elsewhere. Moreover, as if on purpose, he never owned sheep dogs. He shepherded his sheep with his Psalter in hand, or when he didn’t have it, he prayed barely moving his lips.

Blessed shepherd Ioan David He loved all creation, and people who knew him personally told me how he took pity on wild birds and always fed them. But still, he loved his sheep more than anything else. He never kept more than twenty or twenty-five of them, and cherished them as the apple of his eye. Never in his life would he touch mutton, and he gave names to all newborn lambs as if they were his own children.

In summer, when he wasn’t with his sheep up in the mountains, he would entrust them to other shepherds. But he never marked them with paint, like all other mountain folk have done since time immemorial. He needed no tags to recognize his sheep. In the fall, when they were taken to winter in their native folds in the village, Ioan walked straight inside the herd and called out his sheep by their names. And they recognized him and ran towards him with joy. When he tended his sheep in the mountains, he guided them in just the same ay, always with prayer; and once they heard him, they’d come running back to him.

As for the Strungari residents, they kept talking about what this power of his over the animals meant. They would gossip about him in the tavern, picking his life to pieces to find out his secret. But the problem was that he had no secrets in his life. He lived his life right in front of them and they knew absolutely everything about him.

The bear and the sheep

Ioan David was born on February 15, 1920 in the mountainous hamlet of Plaiuri, upwards from the village of Strungari. He was a desolate child, beaten by fate and comforted by no one. He had never seen his father, while his poor mother, who dared to give birth without a husband, died when he was three. Thus he remained in the care of his aunt and uncle.

He was still very young when his uncle fell ill and his aunt sent him to a hermit, a monk known for his holiness who lived in a nearby valley. His aunt relied on a miracle happening, but when Ioan came in, Father Simeon looked at him ruefully and told to return to his home right away to tell his aunt that her husband had only three more days left to live. Not more! And that he would go to heaven after that.

Strungari village     

This encounter was seared in the child’s memory. From that day on, he grew attached to the hermit and often visited him.

As the years went by, his aunt who raised him died, and Ioan continued to live in her house, which he owned according to the will. But his relatives sued him, won, and threw him out of his house. He worked as a servant, slaving away here and there. But one day he became a shepherd, went to the mountains and surrendered his whole soul to the advice of the hermit Simeon and his faith in God. That may be why he never got married. In his heart, filled with prayer and zeal for God, there was no room for any sweetheart.

Over time, his pure and simple love, where only Christ shone, began to bear fruit of the first miracles

Over time, his pure, simple love, where only Christ shone, began to bear the fruit of his first miracles. There were some that are simply hard to believe, ones that happen only to great saints, so they could in no way fit in the minds of simple peasants from the village of Strungari. So much so that these miracles were the reason why the whole village envied him.

“Once, brother Ioan went to the mountains and there were three flocks of sheep from different owners up there at the time. One was his and the other two were herded by two brothers from Strungari. A storm broke out and the brothers decided to protect their sheep in a ravine. So they did, driving them into a shelter at the bottom of the ravine and leaving Ioan at the mouth of the ravine to stay without shelter. Suddenly at night, a bear shows up, passes right through brother Ioan’s herd as if it were not there, and tears into the herd of these two brothers.

They met together in the morning to share how many sheep the bear tore up in their herds. Then, they also asked brother Ioan how many were killed in his herd. And then Ioan tells them that not a single one of his has been killed.

“Why didn’t it kill a single one in your herd? But it ran right through your sheep! Are yours inedible, or what?”

Later on, when they went down from the mountains and shared the story with the villagers, everyone decided in one voice that he is a sorcerer, a werewolf, because, how else!

A bird and a colored egg

A valley of the Sebes River     

At the beginning of that summer, scorched by the sun or beaten down by the stormy weather, I walked around the hilly valley of the Sebes River in search of testimonies about brother Ioan, the humble shepherd so revered by the monks of the Afteia monastery that they had his icon painted in the church next to the canonized saints. Besides, the testimony about him from ordinary people like Nicolae and Dumitru and the distinguished clergymen, such as the Mother Superior Ierusalima, a long-time abbess of the Ramet monastery, happened to be so striking, as if a flame of the spirit flared up inside them as they talked about him.

Based on their accounts, I learned more of a spiritual impression rather than of a man of flesh and blood, a spirit able to pierce not only through space, but also time, with the eye of his heart. The spiritual power of this man accompanied me for days after this journey. It also accompanies me right now as I am writing these lines, as I try to recreate his portrait from the testimonies of people who knew him. Some of them knew him very intimately, like Nicolae, one of his most devoted friends.

“I first saw him in 1985. I went to the Afteia monastery and I really wanted to see holy people. That’s how I met brother Ioan, because the fathers in the monastery told me about him. Every week, for ten years, in order to visit him, I had to run away from the factory, but no one caught me. It was during the time of Ceausescu, and I only left work to see him when there was no workload. But no one knew anything about it. He told me, ‘If you come here, you do it because you want it, not because someone sent you.’

Afteia monastery     

“Anytime I went to his cell, there was always a bowl of warm soup and a piece of bread waiting for me on the table. The soup was lukewarm, so all I had to do was eat it! And this happened every single time I went to see him! Every time! So I asked him:

“‘Brother Ioan, how did you know I was to come today? Who told you to wait for me and have the food ready?’

“‘Well, but I just thought of you last night and knew by then that you would be coming!’

“To be honest, I’ve never had better food than at brother Ioan’s, not even the food cooked by my wife! What he did with it, I don’t know, because he was really poor. But the soup I had at his place, I’ve never-ever tried any better in my life! What’s more, I’ve never seen him eating, not once in those ten years. It has remained a mystery to me what he ate.

“I should also tell you that I have never seen such man, a man of holy life as him, and I have never heard about a man like him, except for the saints from the Lives of The Fathers. When Fr. Ioanichie (Balan) from the Sihastria monastery was still alive, he would keep calling me, saying:

“‘Brother Nicolae, please give me materials about brother Ioan, he is truly unique in Orthodoxy!’

All his life, brother Ioan was neither a priest nor a monk, but a simple shepherd

“He said this since brother Ioan was neither a priest nor a monk, but a simple shepherd all his life. Speaking about him, I can tell you only one thing: humility, humility, humility, humility, and humility ad infinitum! That’s who brother Ioan was.”

As he was saying this, Nicolae, a stout man with a meek look, tapped his finger on the table as if trying to chisel the word “humility” on the wood.

During those few hours of my conversation with him, I saw many times how tears welled in his eyes. I sensed his burning desire to find the right words that burst forth from his passionate heart to describe brother Ioan in a true and lifelike manner. His feelings, so passionately contagious, took me over as well.

I have rarely witnessed (and I have spoken to many) in a spiritual kinship such deep love for a spiritual mentor. His almost feverish state of mind was constantly fueled by the recollection of facts one can really only find in the hagiographies—or in Fr. Arsenie (Boca), the saint of Ardeal, whom the humble Ioan, a shepherd from Strungari, had known and to whom, it seems, he was equal in the power of clairvoyance.

The icon of Blessed Ioan David in the Strungari monastery     

“Brother Ioan had reached such a spiritual measure that he could read people’s minds. I’ve seen it often. I once came to his cell, put my bag by the door, and the first thing he told me was the following:

“‘Those thoughts you cradle in your mind right now, get rid of them, because they are not good.’

“Next, he began talking to me as if I had already confessed to him everything that laid heavily on my mind. But I didn’t say a word! He possessed a great power from God.

“Once on Easter he didn’t even have a colored egg to eat, because he was so poor. And so, he prayed to God to send him an egg, and what do you think? A bird flew in and gave him an egg! It laid it on his windowsill! He treated the birds very tenderly and they flocked to his burial.

“I’ll tell you something else that I experienced myself. One day, I came to him and then went to the forest to collect firewood for him for winter. Then I began to chop it, because he, poor soul, was so sick he couldn’t do anything. While I was chopping it, it dawned on me that I had spent too much time here, and I was about to miss the bus that was to take me home. I was already one in the afternoon and I should have gone a quarter of an hour ago to catch it. I got scared and went to him saying:

“‘Brother Ioan, I’m late for my bus, and you know I’m going to get in trouble at work and at home because of this!’

“And what do you think he did? I could see him as if it were today: he lifts himself up on the bed, clasps both hands together and says:

“‘Lord, stop it right now!”

“I heard how he said that! Then, he lowers himself back on his cot and tells me:

“‘Now you can go unhurriedly, because the bus will be waiting for you at the bus stop.’

“But who would believe such things? Of course, I didn’t, so I grabbed my bag and left in a hurry, and, as the result, I tumbled down, fell and hurt myself badly.

“So, I am entering the bus station covered in dust, but the bus isn’t there yet… Another hour and a half has passed…It was already half-past one, and then twenty-five past two, and then I hear: the bus is coming! I crossed myself and stood there wondering: ‘What’s going on here?’

“Later on, a driver named Nicolae whom I’ve known for a long time, told me:

The village of Pianu de Sus. Photo: Voikitsa Coman     

“‘Listen, I don’t know what it was, but as soon as I left Pianu de Sus, a tire blew out!’

“‘What time was it?’ I asked him.

“‘One o’clock,’ he replied.

“It was right at the moment brother Ioan raised his hands and said his prayer! Then I told Nicolae:

“‘Forgive me, brother, it happened to you only because of me.’”

To be continued…

As a Lutheran priest, Dietrich Bonhoeffer would frequently offer this advice to a couple when he presided at their wedding: “It is not your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love.”

Wise words, but what exactly do they mean? Why can’t love sustain a marriage?

What Bonhoeffer is highlighting is that it is naïve to think that feelings will sustain us in love and commitment over the long haul. They can’t, and they wouldn’t. But ritual can. How? By creating a ritual container that can keep us steady inside the roller coaster of emotions and feelings that will beset us in any long-term relationship.

Simply put, we will never sustain a long-term relationship with another person, with God, with prayer, or in selfless service on the basis of good feelings and positive emotions. This side of eternity, our feelings and emotions mostly come and go according to their own dictates and are not given to consistency.   

We know the inconsistency of our emotions. One day we feel affectionate toward someone and the next day we feel irritated. The same is true for prayer. One day we feel warm and focused and the next day we feel bored and distracted.

And so, Bonhoeffer suggests we need to sustain ourselves in love and prayer by ritual, that is, by habitual practices that keep us steady and committed within the flux of feelings and emotions.

For example, take a couple in a marriage. They fall in love and commit themselves to love each other and stay with each other for the rest of their lives, and at root they fully intend that. They respect each other, are good to each other, and would die for each other. However, that’s not always true of their emotions.

Some days their emotions seemingly belie their love. They are irritated and angry with each other. Yet, their actions toward each other continue to express love and commitment and not their negative feelings. They ritually kiss each other as they leave the house in the morning with the words, “I love you!” Are those words a lie? Are they simply going through the motions? Or is this real love?

The same holds true for love and commitment inside a family. Imagine a mother and a father with two teenage children, a boy of 16 and a girl of 14. As a family they have a rule that they will sit together at dinner for 40 minutes every evening, without their cellphones or other such devices. Many evenings the son or daughter or one of the parents comes to the table (without their cellphone) out of dram duty, bored, dreading the time together, wanting to be somewhere else. But they come because they have made that commitment. Are they simply going through the motions or showing real love?

If Bonhoeffer is right, and I submit he is, they are not just going through the motions, they are expressing mature love. It’s easy to express love and be committed when our feelings are taking us there and holding us there. But those good feelings will not sustain our love and commitment in the long term. Only fidelity to a commitment and ritual actions that undergird that commitment will keep us from walking away when the good feelings go away.

In our culture today, at most every level, this is not understood. From the person caught up in a culture addicted to feelings, to a good number of therapists, ministers of religion, prayer leaders, spiritual directors, and friends of Job, we hear the line, If you aren’t feeling it, it’s not real; you’re just going through the motions! That’s empty ritual!

Indeed, it can be an empty ritual. As Scripture says, we can honor with our lips even as our hearts are far away. However, more often than not it is a mature expression of love because it is now a love that is no longer fueled by self-interest and good feelings. It’s now a love that’s wise and mature enough to account for the human condition in all its inadequacy and complexity and how these color and complicate everything — including the one we love, our own selves, and the reality of human love itself. 

The book we need on love will not be written by passionate lovers on their honeymoon, just as the book we need on prayer will not be written by a religious neophyte caught up in the first fervor of prayer (nor by most enthusiastic leaders of prayer). The book we need on love will be written by a married couple who, through ritual, have sustained a commitment through the ups and downs of many years. Just as the book we need on prayer will be written by someone who has sustained a life of prayer and church-going through seasons and Sundays when sometimes the last thing he or she wanted to do was to pray or go to church.

Klenike, Serbia, October 31, 2024

Photo: eparhijavranjska.org     

The third international monastic assembly opened at a monastery in southern Serbia yesterday and concludes today.

The event is being held at the 11th-century Monastery of “Only the One Who is a Child Can be Called a Father.” St. Prohor Pechinskii and Fr. Seraphim Rose”Only the one who is a child can be called a father. And he is a father not because of himself but because he reflects the mystery of our Heavenly Father Who loves us through His Son and in His Son.”

“>St. Prohor Pčinjski in the Vranje Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

The assembly began with a welcome address by His Eminence Metropolitan Pahomije of Vranje, chairman of the organizing committee of the St. Prohor Monastic Assembly. He also read a greeting message from the Serbian Patriarch Porfirije.

Photo: monaskisabor.rs     

An address from the Serbian Holy Synod was also read. Then, an introductory speech was given by Archimandrite Metodije, Abbot of the Serbian Hilandar Monastery on Mt. Athos.

The first session, titled “Restoration and Promotion of Monasticism,” was presided over by His Grace Bishop David of Dremvica, vicar of His Beatitude Archbishop Stefan of Ohrid and Macedonia.

Abbess Kirana from the Dormition of the Mother of God Monastery in the village of Sušica, near Skopje, will present her exposition on the topic “The Spiritual Father as Bearer and Indicator of God’s Will,” within the “Monastic Obedience as a Way of Knowing and Fulfilling God’s Will” section of the assembly.

The assembly, which gathered more than 100 monastics from across the world, will also discuss “The Significance of Hesychasm for Eastern Monasticism” and “Monasticism and Monasteries in Countries Where There is No Tradition of Orthodox Monasticism.”

This international monastic assembly gathered presenters from multiple countries: Serbia, Greece, North Macedonia, Russia, Romania, Montenegro, Great Britain, Argentina, and Guatemala.

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Among the items most common in images of the saints is a human skull — often placed upon the desk where the saint did his writing or other work.

The motif is called a “memento mori,” which is Latin for “Remember you must die.”

Since the first days of the Church, saints have given that advice and followed it themselves.

Indeed, the month of November stands as a sort of memento mori in the Church’s calendar. It begins with two days recalling those who have died: All Saints and All Souls. And the month ends as the liturgical year is closing and (in some climates) the last leaves are falling. Everything in creation, it seems, is delivering the message that life is brief, and all things must pass away.

Christians have an opportunity to seize the moment and use it as the saints have. For our earthly years will end, as theirs did, in death — and we want to proceed, as they did, to heaven.

Even before the coming of Christ, philosophers counseled people to reflect upon death. Knowing their earthly limits, men and women can better order their years of life. Facing the inevitable, they can begin to overcome the fear of it.

The idea appears often in the Old Testament (see Job 8:9, Psalms 102:11, 109:23, 39:4–7). St. James writes in his letter: “What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (James 4:14).

The earliest Christian instance of the phrase memento mori comes from Tertullian, a second-century Christian writing from North Africa. The practice is universally recommended — and almost universally avoided, so great is the fear of death and the pain, diminishment, and humiliation that accompany it.

If we find it too unpleasant to consider our own death, perhaps we can begin by contemplating the deaths of the saints. They, after all, are by definition those who have died well.

The lives of the martyrs teach us to cultivate courage by meditating on the suffering and death of Jesus. Many of them — like St. Ignatius of Antioch in the early 100s — expressed joy and even elation that their life would soon come to resemble the life of Christ in its ending.

Most saints, however, have ended their days in ways that were less public and violent. Most saints have died of natural causes, as most of us will, and most have died in bed. Their heroism was of a quieter sort.

St. Anthony of Egypt was 105 years old in the year 356, and he sensed that his end was near. He faced death as a project that demanded certain practical tasks, and he fulfilled them one by one.

At the time, some Egyptian Christians were continuing the pagan custom of mummifying the dead and keeping their bodies above ground. Anthony wanted no part of that, and so he left instructions for his burial. He also arranged for the disposition of his few possessions, including telling his companions where they should distribute his clothing. And then he said his goodbyes as he would at any other moment of parting.

St. Ambrose, the great fourth-century bishop of Milan, fell ill at the worst time — during Holy Week, when a bishop is busiest. But he accepted his fate and took to bed, leaving his duties to a visiting bishop who was a friend.

Eyewitnesses said that on Good Friday he stretched his arms wide, in the form of a cross, and prayed silently. That night Ambrose received the Church’s last sacraments from the bishop who was filling in for him. And then he died in peace.

Almost a millennium-and-a-half later, in 1897, St. Thérèse of Lisieux was suffering what she knew to be the final stages of tuberculosis at the age of 24. She suffered physically, psychologically, and spiritually. She was severely tempted to lose faith. But she persevered in bringing even these thoughts to God and invoking the words of prayers she had known since childhood.

Thérèse faced adversities squarely and considered them all in a supernatural way. She coughed up blood, was unable to eat, and saw her own body reduced almost to a skeleton. Yet she referred everything to God. Like Jesus, she offered everything for the salvation of souls — even her spiritual torments.

Five lessons from the saints

Our own passing seems so remote, until it isn’t. What can we learn from the deaths of the saints?

• No matter your age, memento mori! It is good for us daily to remember we’ll die. We don’t have to buy a skull for the desktop. Catholic tradition gives us a prayer for this purpose, called the “Acceptance of Death.” There are many variations. Here’s one: “O Lord, my God, from this moment on I accept with a good will, as something coming from your hand, whatever kind of death you want to send me, with all its anguish, pain, and sorrow.” We probably won’t feel any authenticity in the words as we say them, at least at first. But we should give ourselves time to grow into them.
• Prepare a will and plan our funeral. St. Anthony of Egypt did both so that he would have fewer anxieties at his passing — and he would not leave his companions with any decisions to make or reasons to disagree among themselves.
• Meditate every Friday on the Stations of the Cross. It is good to know that God himself suffered death so that we would not fear it. The more we contemplate Jesus’ pains, the more we love him, because he suffered them for our sake. The more we love him, the more we wish to be like him, even in our last agony.
• Pain is inevitable, and we don’t make it easier by avoiding it. We do make it easier by fasting and otherwise denying ourselves — in other words, when we welcome pain, we grow acclimated to it. Athletes learn this. Soldiers learn it. We, too, should learn it. If we practice self-denial when we’re healthy, we’ll be better able to endure pains that are passive — that we do not choose. We can offer them up in reparation for our sins. We can offer them for the sake of others.
• Let others know our wishes (like Anthony and Ambrose). Of course, we’ll want to receive the Church’s last sacraments. We should communicate this to our caregivers and tell them how to follow up. We can even draw up such instructions, just in case we’re limited in our communication at the end.

The archbishop of Cincinnati is ending a 110-year relationship with Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) due to the group promoting gender ideology “contrary” to Catholic teaching.

Archbishop Dennis Schnurr announced that pastors in the archdiocese must discontinue any partnerships with GSUSA by December 2025.

“The Archdiocese of Cincinnati cannot partner with an organization that, from its highest level, advocates ideas which the Church considers false and harmful,” Schnurr wrote in the Oct. 28 letter to the faithful.

Schnurr noted that GSUSA “has embraced and promoted an impoverished worldview regarding gender and sexuality” through some activities, badges, and resources. GSUSA and its local chapter in Ohio “has contributed to normalizing a sexual and gender ideology contrary to the Catholic understanding of the human person made male and female in the image and likeness of God,” he noted.

“Our greatest responsibility as the Catholic Church is fidelity to the Gospel and sharing the saving mission of Christ,” Schnurr said. “It is therefore essential that all youth programs at our parishes and schools affirm virtues and values consistent with the teaching of Jesus Christ.”

Schnurr noted that the decision to pull away from GSUSA “has not been made lightly” and that the Church has been in conversation with leaders of the Girl Scouts of Western Ohio (GSWO).

“Despite mutually respectful discussions and communication with the Girl Scouts of Western Ohio over the past two years, we have been unable to agree on an acceptable path forward,” he wrote.

In recent years, the archdiocese has been in conversation with GSWO over a “memorandum of understanding” over what practices are permissible for Girl Scout troops in the archdiocese. In 2023, the archdiocese requested that GSWO “cease promotion of activities, resources, badges, and awards repugnant to Catholic teaching,” but the two groups reached an “impasse” in April of this year over phrasing in the memorandum, according to the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.

Schnurr noted that scouting “is fundamentally good” as it “builds virtue, discipline, and community” and “helps form responsible, well-rounded citizens.” The archbishop shared his gratitude to those who served as scout leaders for “faithfully helping young people incorporate the values and lessons traditionally associated with scouting into their lives.”

“While this development is difficult to share, it does not diminish my profound respect and appreciation for the many Girl Scout leaders in our archdiocese who have faithfully served our youth,” Schnurr said.

Response from Girl Scouts

GSWO said in a statement shared with CNA that it was “deeply disappointed” by the archbishop’s decision.

“We have been in conversation with the Office of Youth Ministries over the past two years and have had a strong working relationship for many years,” the GSWO statement read. “We remain open to a mutually respectful dialogue, and we hope that the archdiocese will return to the conversation so we can continue to work together to support the beneficial role each plays in developing youth and supporting families in our communities.”

“Our focus now is to support our Girl Scouts and dedicated volunteers of the Catholic faith in finding ways to continue their Girl Scout experience — including the ways in which Girl Scouts learn about and explore their faith traditions,” it continued.

“Girl Scouts, guided by caring adult leaders, and always with agreement of their parents or guardians, decide which activities to pursue each membership year — all based on individual and troop interests,” GSWO added.

GSWO noted in the statement that it will “be working with our volunteer leaders and other community members to ensure Girl Scouts continues to offer the wide range of activities, from outdoor experiences to STEM to life skills to entrepreneurship, that allows each girl to grow in courage, confidence, and character and make the world a better place.”

“Girl Scouts of Western Ohio is — and always has been — a secular organization that welcomes girls of all faiths,” the statement read. “Our membership includes girls and families of many faith traditions, and we believe that a part of girls’ healthy development is encouraging girls in their spiritual journey, through partnerships with their faith communities.”

Objectionable Girl Scout materials, practices

In a list of objectionable Girl Scout materials, the archdiocese highlighted the “Inclusive Together” patch, which features a “Social Identity Wheel” encouraging girls to identify their sexual orientation and gender identity in group conversations.

The archdiocese also highlighted the “LGBTQ+ Pride Month Fun” patch, which promotes the idea that gender can be rejected and encourages girls to watch LGBTQ+ movies including rated R and TV-MA materials.

Several controversies have peppered the GSUSA in the past decade, such as the national group’s decision to implement LGBTQ+ Pride Month patches as well as a controversy about “gender inclusive” overnight camps.

The national group says it leaves placement decisions for transgender youth on a case-by-case basis but notes that GSUSA “can serve” biological boys who identify as girls,“if the child is recognized by the family and school/community as a girl and lives culturally as a girl,” according to its website.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) released the results of a two-year investigation into GSUSA in 2014. The inquiry followed reports that the GSUSA contributed to the World Association of Girl Guides and Scouts, which is tied to Planned Parenthood and abortion and contraception advocacy, the USCCB found. Following the investigation, the USCCB advised dioceses to work with local Girl Scout chapters on acceptable materials for Catholic troops.

GSUSA denies any partnership with Planned Parenthood on its website and states that it does not take a stance on abortion, birth control, or sexuality.

American Heritage Girls are favored

Schnurr recently endorsed a faith-based scouting group, American Heritage Girls (AHG), encouraging parishes to partner with the group. AHG has a committee designed to support Catholic girls in their faith, which has Bishop James Conley of the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, as its episcopal moderator.

“Scouting can be an efficacious part of Catholic youth ministry, espousing a way of life congruent with the Gospel, as it has in our own archdiocese for decades,” Schnurr stated.

Other Catholic leaders have endorsed AHG, including Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, who, in 2017, authorized an archdiocesan transition from Girl Scouts to American Heritage Girls. Other Catholic dioceses and archdioceses including Birmingham, Alabama; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Fort Worth, Texas; Milwaukee; Omaha, Nebraska; and Rockford, Illinois, have endorsed AHG in recent years.

Members of a women’s religious community in Arlington, Texas, have been dismissed from the Carmelite order and Catholic religious life, according to Oct. 28 statements from Bishop Michael F. Olson of Fort Worth and Mother Marie of the Incarnation, whom a Vatican office appointed as the community’s major superior in April.

The bishop and major superior attributed the dismissal to the nuns’ decisions “to break faith with their Mother, the Church of Rome” through denying the authority of the Vatican Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life that comes from the pope, as well as that of their bishop and the dicastery-appointed major superior.

In rejecting Mother Marie of the Incarnation’s authority, they also rejected “the Order of Discalced Carmelites, whose Rule and Constitutions they have spurned in praxis in multiple ways,” Mother Marie of the Incarnation wrote in her Oct. 28 “Statement to the Faithful of the Diocese of Fort Worth.”

The nuns also entered Sept. 14 into an unlawful, formal association with the Society of St. Pius X, a traditionalist religious order in irregular communion with Rome, and soon after illicitly transferred ownership of their Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity to a nonprofit organization of laypeople, the statement noted.

“I declare with great sorrow that the nuns of the Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity are no longer members of the Order of Discalced Carmelites,” Mother Marie of the Incarnation wrote. “I ask for your continued prayers and sacrifices on behalf of these seven women, who have reverted to the lay state by their own actions.”

The affected nuns did not immediately respond on their website, which has been their mainstay for public communication over the past 18 months as they have openly fought with Bishop Olson following his allegations in April 2023 that their community-elected prioress, Mother Teresa Agnes Gerlach, had committed unspecified sins against chastity.

The nuns filed a lawsuit against the bishop, launching a feud that has involved both civil and church courts, as well as law enforcement, and included allegations that the bishop wanted access to the nuns’ donor list or property, and that the nuns were engaged in illegal cannabis use. The bishop has also placed various restrictions on the nuns’ access to the sacraments, and the monastery’s access to the public.

The dispute included a June 2023 court hearing that revealed the bishop had investigated Mother Teresa Agnes for breaking chastity vows via phone communication with a priest of the Diocese of Raleigh, North Carolina. She has denied the allegation and has attributed to her poor physical health and mental state what she described as “a horrible, horrible mistake” in an April 2023 audio recording. The unspecified admission, played in court, was made during Bishop Olson’s questioning of her during his visit to the monastery at the start of his investigation.

The nuns’ monastery is located within the boundaries of the Fort Worth Diocese, which Bishop Olson has led since 2014. He sought in June 2023 to dismiss Mother Teresa Agnes from the Carmelite order, but she appealed his decree, and it was nullified in May 2024 by the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, which oversees matters pertaining to consecrated religious life.

The nuns have publicly rejected the governance authority the Holy See granted Bishop Olson in May 2023, and in April 2024, they filed a restraining order — which they later withdrew — against Bishop Olson and the Carmelite Association of Christ the King (USA), a small organization of U.S. Carmelite monasteries to which the Arlington Carmelites belonged. Mother Marie of the Incarnation, who belongs to a Carmelite community in Minnesota, is the association’s president.

In his Oct. 28 statement, Bishop Olson reiterated that the diocese “makes no
claim and has never made a claim to the property and assets” of the monastery. He also repeated his request for Catholics not to attend Mass or other services there, nor support the monastery financially.

The Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity sits on 72 acres in what the nuns described in their initial lawsuit as a “quiet, wooded secluded location,” where, as of April 2023, around 50 people joined them for daily Mass, with at least 10 more joining them for Sunday Mass. They described their community as including their prioress, seven sisters and two novices, women in formation to take vows. As cloistered, contemplative nuns, they have lived apart from the world to dedicate their lives to prayer.

Recalling in her statement that she, as a girl, had attended the 1985 Mass dedicating the chapel of the newly completed Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity and toured its grounds, Mother Marie of the Incarnation lamented that the Arlington nuns’ choices led to their dismissal from the Carmelite order and religious life.

“In making religious profession, a Carmelite nun vows to live according to the Rule and Constitutions of the Order of Discalced Carmelites,” she wrote. “When the Arlington Carmel petitioned to join our Association (the Carmelite Association of Christ the King) at its inception four years ago, our relationship with the nuns became closer, and we had hoped that they would share our common aspiration to an ever-deeper fidelity to our profession of vows.

“Unfortunately, in the course of our developing relationship, and through the testimony of the nuns themselves, we learned that their religious life, in many respects, deviates from
multiple points of the Rule and Constitutions, and so we strove to lead them into a more faithful adherence to these,” she continued. “If our efforts had been met with openness by the nuns, the Carmel would already, today, be upon a sure path to restored autonomy. The nuns would be living and praying in accordance with all the sound traditions of Carmel and in accord
with their preferred liturgical form, all under the aegis of the one, holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, founded by Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”

Mother Marie of the Incarnation noted that among the Arlington nuns’ accusations against herself and Bishop Olson was that they intended to “disperse their community.”

“Their claim that the Association of Christ the King would disperse their community has, in a sense, become a self-fulfilled prophecy, actualized by their own choices and actions,” she said. “In fact, however, the Association of Christ the King is not stepping in to disperse them, but rather, is leaving it to their own consciences, to admit the reality of their status as dismissed from religious life, and to behave accordingly.”

Neither statement from Bishop Olson or Mother Marie of the Incarnation indicated what the Arlington community members’ next steps might be.

“Our only wish is that the dismissed members of the Carmel would repent, so that the monastic property could again be rightly called a monastery, inhabited by Discalced Carmelite Nuns, in good canonical standing with the Church of Rome,” Mother Marie of the Incarnation said. “Please join me in prayer for this intention.”

Members of the pope’s anti-abuse watchdog body have said they find long wait times for victims who have lodged a complaint with church authorities, coupled with a lack of information available on their cases, to be of great concern, with one survivor calling the situation “retraumatizing.”

Speaking to journalists Oct. 29, Chilean abuse survivor Juan Carlos Cruz said the issue of transparency is “something very near and dear to me, because I lived it personally.”

“This non-providing of information is a form of re-trauma for many survivors, who have no idea where their case of abuse went, into what dark hole, and where they can find information,” he said.

Cruz, who is a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors (PCPM), was present alongside other members of the group for the presentation of their first annual report examining safeguarding efforts around the world.

The report, published Tuesday, found that local efforts in safeguarding are varied, and that there is a particular need for greater transparency and a streamlined process for handling abuse cases within the Roman Curia.

“It’s very important to explore how you can provide more information to an individual about his or her case, not only because of ‘I just want to know,’ but because it retraumatizes people by having to tell their story a hundred million times and feeling that it goes nowhere,” Cruz said.

Cardinal Sean O’Malley, archbishop emeritus of Boston and president of the PCPM, told journalists that the commission is “very worried about the difficulty that victims have in getting information on their cases.”

This is especially true for victims whose complaints have gone to the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), which handles clerical abuse cases, and which has a backlog of complaints that often leaves victims waiting years with no communication about the status of their case.

O’Malley said the DDF’s response has typically been to seek information in the local church where the case originated, due to issues such as culture and language, but added “we see that this is not working.”

Various solutions have been proposed, O’Malley said, including, beginning with “more communication with the victims.”

He said the commission is also “very concerned about the length of time” it takes to process cases, and that bishops’ conferences from around the world have asked for “better procedures.”

Potential solutions to the backlog, he said, have included the creation of regional tribunals to deal with more clear-cut cases, which is something he said is already being done in some countries, and “can be a wonderful pilot project.”

“As far as I can see, I think that’s the way we need to go,” O’Malley said, saying the number of cases that go to the DDF is “so great” that it can be overwhelming.

In the meantime, he said, there is also the question of civil justice, with many cases being tried first in civil courts, “which themselves are very slow,” and then only afterwards going to the ecclesiastical courts.

“Some people are waiting for years,” he said, saying, “Justice delayed is justice denied.”

O’Malley also spoke of the need to streamline the efforts of the various dicasteries of the Roman Curia, as many of them hold differing responsibilities for abuse cases but lack expertise in handling them, so “they feel overwhelmed and swamped.”

Similarly, Bishop Luis Manuel Alí Herrera, auxiliary of Bogotá and secretary of the PCPM, said a constant complaint of victims is “the lack of communication” on their cases.

“They start a canonical process and afterwards many know absolutely anything about this process,” he said, saying this complaint has been made not only about the Roman Curia, but also about local dioceses and canonical procedures.

Herrea said the commission is evaluating the proposal of appointing a procurator to liaise with the disciplinary section of the DDF, which handles clerical abuse cases, as an advocate for victims to obtain information about their cases.

In comments to Crux, Herrera said they are also tracking implementation of norms such as the pope’s 2016 decree Come una madre amorevole, which outlines procedures for when bishops are negligent in handling abuse cases, and the 2019 norm Vos estis lux mundi, which requires mandatory reporting of abuse allegations within the church.

The commission, he said, “notes a constant level of attention and implementation for [Vos Estis] in the local churches we meet.”

The extent of its implementation depends on local resources, he said, saying this is why the PCPM invests “so much effort in offering good practices to local churches,” particularly through the Memorare initiative, which provides concrete support to churches in the global south.

“But there must be transparency and information,” he said, vowing that “we will follow this area carefully both in our daily work and in the next editions of the report.”

Members of the commission described efforts to change the internal culture of the church and the Roman Curia regarding safeguarding as an uphill battle, but one in which slow progress is being made.

Herrera said that in the 10 years he has been a member of the PCPM, “It’s been a cross for me to see the resistance of the very institution that I love, and that I have given my life to. But without doubt I have also seen many significant changes in these years.”

Similarly, Cruz said that “I never thought we would get to this day. If you would have asked me 12, 15 years ago, when we were beginning my fight, and others have been fighting for more years and decades, I never thought I’d be sitting here, that I’d be working on something like this with extraordinary people.”

Cruz thanked everyone, from victim-survivors, to experts, journalists and Pope Francis, who have pushed for progress in safeguarding, saying he has “tremendous hope” in the report, which he said is “an important first step” in arriving at greater safety and transparency.

Members also said that while initially skeptical about the incorporation of the PCPM into the DDF, fearing it would mean a loss of their independence, the perspective has largely changed, and they feel they are being taken more seriously on the inside.

“The fact that the commission is, in a way, being embedded within the curia and given a permanent status is something that will be very helpful,” O’Malley said, saying it ensures that the commission will have a permanent presence, and that “the people in the curia have to take us with greater seriousness.”

He described engagement with the various dicasteries of the curia as a “slow dance” that is just beginning, but which he believes brings the voice of victims more clearly into the process.

Members said future reports will also explore the issue of compensation, noting that reparation is not only a financial question but also involves apologies and punishment for the abuser.

A study group has also been formed, members said, to develop a clearer definition of “vulnerable adult,” given the number of increasing cases dealing with the abuse of adults, including women religious and seminarians, among others.

On the eve of the patronal feast of the Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos in the city of Kirov we talked with a cleric of the parish, Priest Alexei Shishkin, about faith and holiness, happiness and miracles, and how the qualities of these categories manifest themselves in people living in the modern world.

Priest Alexei Shishkin     

To have faith

—Father Alexei, how is the confession of faith revealed in everyday life of modern people?

—In the striving to live according to the commandments of God, in reading the Gospel—the Word of God, and it does not really matter where you want to put it into practice: be it in church, during prayer or at work; whether you ride on a trolleybus, drive a car or stand at a traffic light—a Christian is always and everywhere a Christian. We can talk about details, but, in general, a real Christian remains one everywhere—in everyday life, in communication with a stranger; a seller or a buyer, a boss or a subordinate. For a Christian everything is subordinated to the same Gospel law, which is the basis of his spiritual life.

—Then what distinguishes a Christian?

—Usually, at the beginning, when someone strives to become a Christian, he Why is it Important to Read the Holy Gospel at Home, and How to Do it Properly?“Read the Gospel with great reverence and attention. Consider nothing in it unimportant, or unworthy of consideration. Every iota emits a ray of life. Disregard for life is death.”

“>reads the Gospel, trying to get to know Christ to the best of his ability, then goes to Church and through people who serve God he tries to get to know Christ, thereby creating in himself a feeling of what it is like to be a Christian. And then this personal quality is transferred from the inside to the outside. Every specific situation is unique in some sense, and it is quite difficult to fit it into some framework. But in general, a person feels from the inside that he is a Christian, and how this will manifest itself from the outside varies in every specific situation.

—What does it mean to have faith?

—There are three components of the concept of faith in the Orthodox Church: confidence in the existence of God; faithfulness to God—that is, the fulfillment of God’s commandments; and Divine Providence in Human LifeIn Orthodoxy, Divine Providence is called good and all-perfect—that is, it always works for the good of man, guiding him to salvation.

“>trust in God—that is, trust in His Providence and that everything that happens is according to God’s will and is good.

In modern culture, the word “faith” often implies that “there is something out there”, apparently something immaterial, but this approach has nothing to do with the Christian faith. For Christians, faith consists of three components: confidence in the existence of God—not an abstract “something”, but, according to Orthodox dogmatics, we believe in a concrete God Who created this world and man, Who acts in this world and takes care of it; the second component is trust in God, in His all–good Providence; and the third component is faithfulness to God—if God commands to do this, then I do this, and if God commands not to do that, then I don’t do that. All this makes up the Christian worldview, on the basis of which you can act as a Christian in every situation. And a Christian makes his choice every time: how he should act, behave, think and perceive reality.

Of course, you can object here and argue that Christians make mistakes too. Indeed, everyone makes mistakes, everyone sins, Christians sin and I sin, but it does not make me an adherent of another faith. To be more precise, although this is not an excuse for sin, sin, error in itself does not make us non–Christians. After all, before someone learns to run, jump and flip, he first learns to crawl on his knees, then learns to stand, then walk, and only then to run at least a little, then jump a little and so on—that is, the cultivation of an inner Christian happens incrementally. After all, none of us will reproach a small child when he falls, saying, “I never fall, but he has fallen.” On the contrary, we be lenient, knowing that the time will come when he learns to walk. So, the fact that I sin is not such a tragedy after which I cannot live. An Orthodox Christian realizes that the Lord will cleanse a contrite heart from sin, heal and calm it.

Of course, we speak differently about different sins, which require a different measure of repentance and correction. And it does not mean that we can commit any sins. We must not commit any sins, but if a person has sinned, this is his mistake. What should be done after making a mistake? Admit and try to correct it. This is the way of any Christian. More than that, this is the way of the saints: Admit a mistake, stand up, move on and try not to repeat them anymore. If you have committed a sin and fallen again, then get up again, shake yourself off and walk on—and you must always do it this way. This is the path of all Christians, and even of the saints.

The Path of Holiness

—If the Orthodox faith presupposes a person’s desire for spiritual perfection and holiness, how can it be attained nowadays?

—I think the path of Holiness and SanctificationThis is fundamental to the Christian life.

“>holiness is attainable at all times in the same way, since it is a spiritual category. It is hard for me to identify any differences between the present time and the earlier eras, since I did not live 1,500 years ago, and can’t compare them objectively. Obviously, each era has its own specific life. But the path of holiness is never closed to anyone in any circumstances.

—Probably, now it is easier for most people in terms of practical things and daily chores than, for example, it was for our great-grandparents. However, with all the external comfort, our mind has gone to the internet.

—If we go into details, then yes, in terms of information; but it does not concern everybody. If I have mental discipline and try to limit myself, it does not mean that I become free from the stream of information flowing from all sides, but it means that I try to keep this process in check and limit the stream of information to prevent it from making my life miserable and too difficult.

There were problems both then and now. But what difficulties can we talk about in our time if a person, for example, wants to imitate St. Sergius of Radonezh? He just abandons everything, takes a tent, retreats into the forest, and lives there for ten years. What information can be there? He has no idea what’s going on in the world and talks with bears!

—But even now, society doesn’t usually understand people who move to live in the country, with modest living conditions, leaving their urban apartments and motivating such a way of life with the confession of their faith. Such an approach seems strange.

—Holiness will never seem normal even among Christians. If you take a crowd of Christians and single out one of them who aspires to holiness, everyone will say that he is strange and unusual. Holiness is always “strange”, “other-worldly” and “unusual”. Seeing someone performing ascetic labors, others will always say, “Isn’t this enough for you?! What else do you want?” An ascetic does not want to become a saint in order to be depicted on icons or to be venerated and respected (he will be dead by then anyway and it won’t make difference to him). A person striving for holiness wants to get closer to God. And it is hard for people who are far from God to understand that a saint wants to get closer and closer to the Almighty, because this is a quality of love—to be closer to each other, and mutually enrich each other. After all, when two individuals love each other, they have such comingling and mutual love; if two people are real friends, they want to spend time together, share grief, joy and everything else. When a person walks closer to God, he shows the same aspirations of the soul: he moves towards God and wants to get closer to Him.

Priest Alexei Shishkin held a tour around the Monastery of the Holy Dormition and St. Tryphon for Orthodox psychologists     

A person who is happy in God

—Can we say that faith makes people happy?

—In my view, the category of happiness is hardly ever discussed in the Church, and for me it is a puzzle. We have nine Beatitudes: blessed are the merciful, blessed are the pure in heart, blessed are the peacemakers… If we translate the word “blessed”, it means “happy”. Happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, happy are the meek, happy are the merciful, and so forth. These are the commandments of happiness. But, unfortunately, in Orthodoxy happiness is not spoken about for some reason. For many it means some heavenly, unusual happiness. It seems to me that someone who is happy in God is truly happy. If you ask him, “Are you happy?” he will say, “Yes, I’m happy.” If an outsider sees such a person and we ask him if this person is happy, he will answer: “Yes, he is, because happiness is visible and can be felt.”

What is this paradisiac state? It is the state of happiness: not because you bought an expensive car or a beautiful watch—it’s about different things. Two old friends have met: are they happy? Yes, they are. Or two people who love each other have met after separation; or someone who had not seen his daughter or son for a long time finally met them—he is happy too. This is the state of happiness—it can be “read”, it is visible, and it is immaterial. It is not the same as buying an expensive car, or, for example, the satisfaction of revenge. The feeling of satisfaction from outward blessings is an overly mundane understanding of happiness. So, a parent who met with a child after separation is happy, two friends who have not seen each other for a long time are happy when they meet, and lovers are happy together. A man who is with God is happy. There are slightly different connotations and degrees of happiness, and still a person, if he lives a proper Christian life, without a doubt, becomes happy. Others just can’t figure out what makes him happy. From the outside they see that he limits himself in many things: fasts, loses weight, and his hair is falling out; he does not have fun on weekends, but attends “boring” church services; he does not steal at work, but does everything honestly and receives a small salary; but he is still happy, you see? Against all the odds, he’s still happy, although it’s unclear to outsiders.

When people achieve a thousand times more by earthly standards, they are unhappy, but this person, who seemingly lives a very boring and uneventful life and has not attained the heights, is happy. This is happiness in God. It is sometimes incomprehensible to people, but I can say for sure: he who leads a proper church life and makes efforts to get closer to God becomes happy. And this is noticeable both to himself and to others.

Questions of being

—And when did you realize that you believed in God? How did you convert?

—I came to the faith at the age of nineteen. At the time, I was feeling the utter meaninglessness of everything. Philosophers and psychologists call it an “existential crisis”. People tend to ask this question at a certain age: I believe that most people have it at an older age, but I had it at nineteen. I thought about the purpose of life and felt that everything was meaningless. “What difference does it make whether I come to a lecture or not, pass an exam or not, get a job or not—there is no point in all this; or whether I die as an outstanding scientist, an astronaut, a great writer, or as an alcoholic on the street—it makes no difference, since everything is emptiness. So where is the meaning?” I started searching for it and found it in God.

Every person has a slightly different perception of God, just as different people perceive the same person in slightly different ways. Even two brothers can perceive their parents individually. And it is clear that God is Who He is, but for me personally God is meaning in Himself and gives this meaning to all things. He gives this meaning to life, to every human being, to every event in his life, and to everything that happens in the world. After all, if there is no God, then whatever I have achieved or whatever I have lost makes no sense at all. But if there is a God and He cares for everything, then whatever I do, whatever decisions I make, and whatever happens in the world makes sense, and it’s not in vain. For me personally it is an important part of the perception of God—giving the meaning. God, as the Absolute, gives absolute meaning to absolutely everything. Therefore, for the life of a person’s eternal soul, for his earthly existence, for the life of plants and animals, for environmental issues and universal catastrophes all this is endowed with meaning. At the age of nineteen my search for God began, and my further formation and understanding of all these things took place in the process.

In the Church

—It seems I searched for God with such intensity that I almost became a Jehovah Witness—for some time I was very interested in them. By Divine Providence, I was surrounded by church people who corrected my path and carefully suggested what and how I should do, for which I am very grateful to them. Then I joined the Foma club, where those new to the Church would gather for discussions. It was at the Church of the holy Martyrs Faith, Hope, Love and their mother Sophia, and the club was headed by Father Oleg Fominykh—now a deacon, then a layman. Father Pyotr Mashkovtsev, Father Andrei Rassanov talked with us, and even Father Andrei Lebedev came to us from Urzhum where he served at that time. And during those meetings I received answers to many questions. In my opinion, it was the process of my integration into Church life.

To be continued…

The Catholic Church must put more effort into ensuring that the sacrament of confirmation is not the “sacrament of goodbye” for young people, who receive it and then do not come to church again until they want to get married, Pope Francis said.

“The problem is how to ensure that the sacrament of confirmation is not reduced, in practice, to ‘last rites,’ that is the sacrament of ‘departure’ from the church, but is rather the sacrament of the beginning of an active participation in its life,” he said Oct. 30 at his weekly general audience.

Continuing a series of audience talks about the Holy Spirit in the life of the church, the pope said parishes need to identify laypeople “who have had a personal encounter with Christ and have had a true experience of the Spirit,” and ask them to lead the confirmation preparation classes.

But all Catholics must help as well by rekindling the “flame” of the Holy Spirit that they received at confirmation like the disciples received at Pentecost, he said. And the Holy Year 2025, which opens Dec. 24, is a good time to do that.

“Here is a good goal for the Jubilee Year: To remove the ashes of habit and disengagement, to become, like the torchbearers at the Olympics, bearers of the flame of the Spirit,” he said. “May the Spirit help us to take a few steps in this direction!”

“Confirmation is for all the faithful what Pentecost was for the entire church,” the pope said, quoting the Italian bishops’ catechism for adults. “It strengthens the baptismal incorporation into Christ and the church and the consecration to the prophetic, royal and priestly mission.”

In other words, he told Arab speakers, “Through the sacrament of confirmation, the Holy Spirit consecrates and strengthens us, making us active participants in the church’s mission.”

Greeting a group of ethnic Croatian young people who had recently been confirmed in Germany, Pope Francis prayed that the Holy Spirit would “inflame your hearts and make you joyful witnesses for Christ.”

Urging everyone present in St. Peter’s Square to continue to pray for peace in Ukraine, Palestine, Israel and Myanmar, the pope said he had just read about 150 people being gunned down.

Pope Francis did not say where, but some assumed he was referring to a terrorist attack Oct. 6 in the village of Manni, Burkina Faso, while Vatican News reported he was referring to Israeli attacks on northern Gaza.

“What do children, families, have to do with war?” the pope asked. “They are the first victims. Let us pray for peace.”

“The Path of Holiness Is Never Closed to Anyone in Any Circumstances”A real Christian remains one everywhere—in everyday life, in communication with a stranger; a seller or a buyer, a boss or a subordinate. For a Christian everything is subordinated to the same Gospel law, which is the basis of his spiritual life.

“>Part 1

Priest Alexei Shishkin     

The Path to the Priesthood

—How did you decide to devote your life to the priestly ministry?

—I can’t say that once I woke up and decided to become a priest. It was the development of my worldview and the establishment of my soul. During the period of my integration into Church life, I studied at the university. At the same time, I thought of entering a theological college and even study full-time. And in my fifth year at the university, where I studied to be a programmer, I had a feeling that I should venture to enter a theological school. When I told my father-confessor, Father Pyotr Mashkovtsev, about this, he gave me his blessing and said: “Give it a try.”

However, at that time it was not certain yet that the choice had been made and my life path was the “The Priesthood is the Most Terrible Thing on Earth”Even if I had graduated from all the schools of this world, even the highest schools, not a single one of them would have been as useful for me as the school of sufferings.

“>priesthood. There are so many intermediate stages on the path to the priesthood, and each of them can turn in a different way. It may turn out that you are spiritually unprepared or unworthy. And one of the stages was my admission to the seminary. At that time I was free—I was single, I had no children, no divorces, did not have to pay alimony, so why shouldn’t I try? Father Pyotr Mashkovtsev signed the reference letter, and Metropolitan Chrysanth (1937–2011) of Vyatka and Pokrovsk signed it. After that I went to Moscow and enrolled in the theological seminary.

And then a new stage began: a seminarian is supposed to find a good young lady for marriage with whom he can build a happy family, and everything should turn out well so he can apply for ordination. And, as I can tell you now, everything worked out for me.

—Did you and your future wife first meet at the theological school? How did it happen?

—It’s very simple. The seminary has several hundred students who want to become priests, and about 100 girls. Some of them study at the Choir Directing Department and some at the School of Icon-Painting. The girl I took the fancy for studied at the School of Icon-Painting—she embroidered icons. And our acquaintance was ordinary to the point of banality. Before classes I kept walking and looking. At last I saw her walking alone, ran up to her, but she said, “Later, later.” She was in a hurry—that is, there was no beautiful romantic story at that moment; rather, the fateful meeting was ordinary, banal and very short: she was late for her classes. And I thought: “If I come up to her again and something like this happens again, then we aren’t destined to become a husband and a wife.” I came up to her again, and this time she reacted normally. We got to know each other better and then got married.

—What spiritual and life lessons did you learn over the years at the capital’s theological school?

—If we talk about the essence of studying at a theological school, a seminary is a place where you are tested: not even before the Church, but for yourself—whether this is your path, even of the priesthood. A seminary is an institution where there are many obediences, theological subjects, and practically a barrack atmosphere—that is, in terms of discipline the structure of life resembles the army. However, now they have built a good dormitory there, where two seminarians share a room, and sometimes one seminarian lives in a separate room. When I studied, our dormitory was beneath the royal chambers—it used to be a stable. And part of the dormitory consisted of large rooms, in each of which fourteen to sixteen seminarians lived, but at the moment when I entered the seminary a couple of “chambers” were being renovated, and the large rooms were crammed with beds, with only narrow spaces between them. Over twenty seminarians would live in each of those rooms—that is, we were cooped up there. There were two or three shower cubicles and five or six sinks for 100 students. But I took such harsh conditions quite calmly; apparently, the question of the “barrack” situation did not depress me and did not cause inconvenience.

Thus, the seminary became a test for its students: whether you need it or not, whether you can stand it or not, whether you agree with it or disagree. There were a lot of disciplinary moments; there were moments when you were scolded or treated unfairly, and you had to accept it. There were many moments when you interacted with other seminarians. A seminary is a test of how much you need the church ministry, because it is not easy there. The Church is not a community of saints; rather, it is a hospital where sinners repent.

And to expect that we will become “wonderful” people here, and that everything will be like in Paradise, that we will come and meet hosts of saints here, and they will make us saints too—nothing like that! We are here in a community of sinners trying to reform, and it is very hard to say whether they succeed or not. Some make good progress, others are less successful, others manage very poorly, and others don’t even try to improve and only pretend—and it shows in them. And we all live in this community. So, a seminary is a test of whether you are able to accept a lot, bear it, whether or not you need it and sincerely want to go further down this path; because the higher you move up the ranks in the Church hierarchy, the more vividly you see this and encounter it face to face.

When a person is at some distance from the Church in a good sense—that is, he does not perform church obediences and does not work in the Church—he comes to church, prays, confesses his sins, takes Communion and leaves, or also does some good deed and reads the Gospel, he is not involved in the inner church life, and this distance can give him freedom. It allows him not to immerse himself in Church relationships. And someone who gets into the church hierarchy—a seminarian, a deacon, a priest, and even more so a bishop—he immerses himself in it completely, and he must live with it all his life. And I cannot say that this process is very easy.

For many, staying at a distance from the Church is even a great blessing—because, for example, one may have a strong sense of justice, lack patience or humility in situations where he cannot abstract his mind from it. He can’t put up with something, but it’s also hard to stand it. He can’t leave, because, for instance, he is in the ordained ministry, but he can’t bear it either, and the person has an inner dissonance—he feels bad.

At the same time, the “Why Go to Church If I Have God in My Heart?”Today one can often hear the phrase: “Why go to church if I have God in my heart?” It would seem that one could only envy this person. True, if God is in your heart, then church-going is seen as something quite unnecessary.

“>Church is a Divine and human organism that God created to guide man to salvation. And, on the one hand, if a person can abstract his mind from the internal problems of the Church, it is good for him. On the other hand, if a person is ordained, he is inside all the problems, but the grace that he receives from God cannot be compared to anything. Priests value their ministry very much, because the priesthood is an invaluable gift that is given to a man, and it is also the greatest blessing. So they have more problems, but the grace that a person receives in the ordained ministry is greater. And if one thing is made up for by the other in a person’s inner world, it means that he will live in the Church in harmony. But if it does not work out, he does not receive grace, and perceives all these internal Church problems too painfully, then he may have an inner dissonance. And I want to say that most priests remain in the priesthood and are quite happy, which means that they live in harmony inside the Church.

Priest Alexei Shishkin with family     

A priest’s children

—How is faith manifested in your family’s everyday life? How do you plant church traditions in your children?

—I don’t think it is especially or vividly manifested in my family. We pray a little in the evening, pray in the morning, pray before eating; every evening I read books, including a children’s Bible, we may discuss some matters, but in general, I can’t say that my children are very different from other children. We have very ordinary children: the only difference is that their father is a priest, and their mother is a priest’s wife. We pray, take Communion, confess our sins, and talk a little about God.

It varies in different religious families: everyone has their own approach. Some try to make super-religious people out of their children from an early age, others are even negligent about this. I personally try to find a happy medium, because if I am overzealous, I feel that nothing good will come from excessive moralizing. But it is also wrong to ignore the Christian aspect of education completely. Therefore, I try my best not to nag on religious matters and not to annoy my children very much.

This theme raises the question of what an Orthodox Christian should be like in certain circumstances. He must be Orthodox: an Orthodox Christian on a trolleybus, an Orthodox walking down the street, an Orthodox entering a church, an Orthodox working. What makes him different from other people is that he makes efforts to fulfill the commandments of God, to pray, and to turn to God with his heart. Therefore, the upbringing of children in an Orthodox Christian family, including a priest’s, may not differ much from childrearing in ordinary families. There are simply some spiritual aspects: reading the Bible, prayer, and the participation of children in the Church sacraments. Otherwise, they live a very ordinary life. Maybe now something new will be introduced into our family—a more in-depth knowledge of faith—since our two eldest sons are studying at the Vyatka Orthodox school. But it is an ordinary municipal school with an Orthodox bias in education and subjects, and it does not have a system like in a theological seminary with its many services and obediences.

“I make efforts, and God helps me”

—What helps a Christian on the path of spiritual growth?

—God. In general, it is an attempt to be a Christian, to do what God tells you to do. I make efforts—and God helps me.

During the hierarchal service at the Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos     

—Tell us about your pastoral ministry at the Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God. Are many parishioners eager to listen to the Word of God?

—At the church in Chistye Prudy in the city of Kirov, where I serve as a priest, I have been teaching at the Sunday school for adults since last year. And this year we resumed classes towards the end of September. The classes are mostly attended by people closer to middle and pre-retirement age. Last year we discussed the Gospel. This year, a curriculum including the Knowledge of God will also be offered. Adults will be able to read both the Gospel and the commentaries to it on their own—my involvement here is not very important. But there is one aspect that is very lacking in the Church today: communication with a priest. But this is very important for people. Someone needs to ask a question, resolve some perplexity, and the very presence of a priest near those for whom he is responsible is very good. So I see this important moment in the role of a Sunday school for adult parishioners.

Priest Alexei Shishkin holds a tour for Orthodox psychologists     

On the one hand, meetings are devoted to talks on spiritual topics: I explained the commentaries to the Holy Scriptures—I tell them what I know. At the same time, a number of parishioners may know the Gospel better than I do, they may read more commentaries than I do, and they may surpass me in spiritual life. But they don’t “hurt my self-esteem” by it at all; if a person strives for holiness, this happens. However, a priest is someone who is appointed by the bishop, the Church and God Himself to teach parishioners, so to be able to communicate with him is good.

A priest can look at this or that disturbing situation as someone who has encountered other similar stories in his pastoral practice, as someone who can say something edifying. Therefore, in the classroom we first talk about the Gospel, discuss something, and then communicate, reflecting on everyday problems or some situation that requires a resolution. In my opinion, it is very useful to think aloud about how to act wisely in a Christian way for the benefit of yourself and others.

Communal prayer at the Church of the Nativity of the Theotokos. A hierarchal service     

—What works of art, including literature, documentaries and feature films, can you recommend as useful for the soul?

—Spiritual reading begins with the Living the Gospel Is the Best PreachingThe Lord puts the fulfilment of the commandments first.

“>Gospel.

After the Gospel, I would recommend reading the Catechism, a reference book that contains a simple confession of faith—it helps us realize Who we believe in. And then you can read moral literature. The classics of moral literature are those written by Abba Dorotheos of Gaza: a small yet excellent book in all respects and easy to read; and very similar to it in many ways is the Ladder of Divine Ascent by St. John Climacus. When I first read it, it seemed complicated to me, but later I really liked these books. But it does not mean that you must necessarily read precisely these books and in this order. People come to faith in different ways through reading spiritual literature, they read different books. And yet, if you read the Gospel, the Catechism and the instructions of Abba Dorotheos, a certain foundation will be formed, and then you can continue to study the Holy Scriptures, including the Old Testament, the Acts, the Epistles, the Revelation of John the Theologian, commentaries and moral literature.

Further, if you are interested, you can study dogmatic and moral theology. The Law of God by Archpriest Seraphim Slobodskoy can serve as an Orthodox reference book on your shelf.

As for cinematography, I really like the movie The Island.

Church of the Nativity of the Theotokos in Kirov   

Miracles are in small things

—Do you believe in miracles?

—I don’t see any colorful miracles in my life. Rather, I hear about them more often than I experience them. I usually see miracles in small things, and I must be able to notice them. I have woken up today, I am alive, my eyes can see, my feet can walk: isn’t it a miracle? When someone is looking for some remarkable, extraordinary miracles and does not see simple ones, I believe it is a bad sign. And if we take our whole life, I see a miracle in this: if you do not try your best to fulfill your own will, but humble yourself and accept the will of God, then (not always, but often), looking back, you can say, “Wow, what wonderful Providence of God! One, two, three, and dozens of circumstances were linked together in one line, and half a lifetime has been built thanks to them.” As you look at it you think: “Truly this is Providence.”

—But man is free. And in any situation you make a choice, which probably becomes good for your later life.

—There is the will of God which creates good, and there is the will of God which allows. If I sin, isn’t it God’s will, because God allowed me to sin? If I have sinned, it means that there was God’s will here in some sense, but it was the will which allows. And there is the will of God which creates good: if God commands to do something and I do it. And when I talk about linking together that number of circumstances that I may not even have dreamed of before, but they unfold, and I get a life like this, and it’s beautiful and wonderful. But, doing each individual deed, it was impossible to predict what it would lead to, but it has led to what it is now, and it is good for me. Maybe I’m speaking very abstractly.… If I put it in a nutshell: if you try to live a holy life, you see the will of God, which is fulfilled in the most wonderful way.

Strive for holiness

—What would you wish our readers?

—When it comes to saints, people often say, “This is not about us—we aren’t saints.”

You know, we are not saints for one simple reason—we don’t want to be saints; that’s all—there are no other special reasons. Therefore, I want to wish you not just abstract holiness, but the desire to be saints. Clearly, everyone has different measures: the measure of holiness of St. Seraphim of Sarov is not the same as ours. But we must not justify our unwillingness to live according to the will of God by saying that we are not saints. Everyone can (as much as they want) try to succeed in this. True, it’s unlikely that any outstanding results will come soon, but anyone can strive for holiness, anytime and in any circumstances. It just requires effort.