Tag: Christianity

An LA priest has been arrested after a report was made alleging that he engaged in sexual misconduct with a minor.

Father Jaime Arriaga, 41, was ordained in June 2024 and had been serving as associate pastor at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Downey.

In a statement read this past weekend, April 5-6, at Our Lady of Perpetual Help and at St. Louis of France in La Puente, where Arriaga had served before being ordained, the archdiocese informed parishioners that the priest had “been removed from ministry as a result of a recent report of alleged sexual misconduct involving a minor, which has led to a criminal proceeding.”

“The individuals involved and the Archdiocese are cooperating with law enforcement on the matter,” the archdiocese added. 

In a statement issued Monday, April 7, the archdiocese said it received the report alleging misconduct on April 2. Arriaga was removed from ministry and the following day surrendered to L.A. County Sheriff’s deputies and was booked on felony charges. He was arraigned on April 7 and remains in custody. 

The archdiocese is encouraging anyone who may have experienced misconduct involving Arriaga to contact law enforcement and the archdiocese’s Office of Victims Assistance Ministry at (213) 637-7650 or toll-free number (800)-355-2545.

With thousands of infirmed people and those who care for them gathered in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis, seated in a wheelchair and wearing a nasal cannula, made an unexpected appearance to greet the crowd.

“A happy Sunday to you all, many thanks!” the pope said to them with a strained voice.

Appearing at the end of the closing Mass of the Jubilee of the Sick and Health Care Workers April 6, the pope shocked the thousands gathered in the square who broke out in cheers upon seeing his nurse, Massimiliano Strappetti, wheel him out of St. Peter’s Basilica and into the square.

After his brief greeting, doctors in white lab coats, some wearing red clown noses, and infirmed people in wheelchairs applauded as Pope Francis was taken through the crowd to leave the square.

The appearance marks the first time Pope Francis had been seen in public since he was discharged from Rome’s Gemelli hospital March 23 after more than five weeks of treatment for breathing difficulties and double pneumonia.

Prior to appearing in the square, Pope Francis went to confession in St. Peter’s Basilica and passed through the Holy Door, the Vatican press office said.

Although the pope did not attend the entirety of the Mass, his spiritual presence was made tangible through the large cloth banner bearing his papal coat of arms that hung from the central balcony of the basilica. Archbishop Rino Fisichella, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, presided over the Mass as the pope’s delegate and read the pope’s homily.

Even amid pain, illness and human fragility, “God does not leave us alone and, if we abandon ourselves to him precisely where our strength fails, we can experience the consolation of his presence,” the pope wrote. “By becoming man, he wanted to share our weakness in everything. He knows what it is to suffer.”

Organizers expected some 20,000 pilgrims to come to Rome for the Jubilee celebration, including patients, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists and other health care workers from more than 90 countries.

Doctors and infirmed people were seated in the front rows for the Mass; health care workers wearing white lab coats served as lectors during the liturgy.

In his homily, the pope emphasized that the experience of illness, though painful, can become “a school in which we learn each day to love and to let ourselves be loved, without being demanding or pushing back, without regrets and without despair.”

The pope urged society not to marginalize the weak and vulnerable but to embrace them as essential members of the community, quoting Pope Benedict XVI who said that a society unable to accept its suffering members “is a cruel and inhuman society.”

In his written message to accompany the Angelus, published by the Vatican after the Mass, Pope Francis reflected on his personal experience of illness.

“During my hospitalization, even now in my convalescence I feel the ‘finger of God’ and experience his caring touch,” he wrote. “On the day of the Jubilee of the sick and the world of health care, I ask the Lord that this touch of his love may reach those who suffer and encourage those who care for them.”

He expressed deep gratitude for health professionals, “who are not always helped to work in adequate conditions and are sometimes even victims of aggression,” calling for resources to be ” invested in treatment and research, so that health systems are inclusive and attentive to the most fragile and the poorest.”

The pope also renewed his appeal for peace in the world, urging the international community to act with urgency in places devastated by war.

“May the weapons be silenced and dialogue resumed; may all the hostages be freed and aid brought to the population,” he said, naming Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, South Sudan, Congo, Myanmar and Haiti among the suffering regions.

The Maryland House passed a bill April 3 that makes significant changes to the Child Victims Act, lowering the limits for future lawsuits for sexual abuse of a minor and limiting the civil damages to each claimant, rather than each incident of alleged abuse.

The bill then moved to the Maryland Senate for action before the April 7 end of the session.

The CVA, which became law in 2023, removed any statute of limitations for civil claims child sexual abuse in the state and set limits for payouts from private institutions, including churches and private schools, at $1.5 million. It capped civil claims for anyone abused in a public institution at $890,000 per incident. “Incident” was not defined in the law.

House Bill 1378 changes those caps to $400,000 for public institutions, the same as the state torts limit, and $700,000 for private institutions and individuals, including churches, parishes and private schools. It also sets the cap per claimant, rather than per incident, for both public and private claims.

The amendments were introduced in April after a lengthy hearing in Annapolis March 26 before the House Judiciary Committee.

Delegate C.T. Wilson, a Democrat, who was the sponsor of the 2023 CVA, initiated the amendments because he said his intent in the original legislation was not to bankrupt the state.

The state already faces a budget deficit this year of $3 billion. With 4,500 claims filed against the state already, according to the Office of the Attorney General, and another 1,500 in process, the state could still face a liability of $1.8 billion to $2.4 billion under the lower caps.

The Maryland Catholic Conference, pointed out that the amendments retain a two-tier system for victims, depending on where the alleged abuse occurred.

The conference is the public policy arm of Archdiocese of Baltimore and the other two dioceses that cover parts of Maryland — the Archdiocese of Washington and the Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware.

In an April 2 statement, the MCC noted that since the CVA went into effect in October 2023, thousands of claims have been made against the state itself.

“In fact, the Maryland state government now appears to be the largest employer of child sex abusers in the state,” it said.

“The response from lawmakers has not focused on understanding how this could have occurred, ensuring rigorous safeguarding or prioritizing victim-focused support,” the statement continued. “Rather, the Legislature’s response has been focused on how to limit the state’s financial liability and accountability to victim-survivors.”

In testimony at the March 26 hearing, Wilson said, “I’ve always said, it was never about the money. … It was about the truth and justice and restoring the dignity of those who have had it stolen from them.” Wilson was sexually abused as a minor and has been fighting in the state Legislature for change on this issue for 10 years.

To ensure that victim-survivors benefit as much as possible from compensation, the bill also caps attorneys’ fees at 20% in settlements and 25% if the case goes to a court judgment.

Delegate Sheree Sample-Hughes, a Democrat, noted in the Judiciary Committee hearing April 2 that you cannot put a price tag on the mental health effects for victim-survivors. “I have been grappling with this because I heard the witnesses when most of them were saying that the money is not anything to them. They want the therapy, they want the accountability,” which HB 1378 does not provide.

She also said that she is still disturbed by the fact that victims of public institutions are treated differently than those harmed in private institutions.

Delegate Jon S. Cardin, also a Democrat, said he had already brought up the inconsistency between the public and private claims, but acknowledged that his fellow Democrat who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, Delegate Luke H. Clippinger, had explained that the private cap was reduced by approximately the same percentage as the public cap.

“While I would suggest they should be the same — I don’t know why there’s any difference — but the fact that you have been commensurate in reducing them so that at least there is some degree of consistency, … I appreciate that,” Cardina said.

The MCC also noted the inequitable caps, saying “HB 1378 reinforces a system where justice depends not on the harm suffered, but on where the abuse occurred. … This inequitable treatment is both unjust to victims and unfair to private and nonprofit organizations.”

After the bill passed the full House April 3, the MCC issued an action alert asking Catholics and others opposed to the bill to contact their state senators.

With the General Assembly session ending April 7, the MCC also criticized the late nature of the changes.

“Even worse is rushing through a bill of this magnitude that impacts the rights of survivors and the responsibilities of institutions, in the final days of the legislative session, with little time for careful debate or necessary revisions. This undermines trust in the legislative process and denies survivors the consideration they deserve.”

HB 1378 now goes to the Maryland Senate Rules Committee for a vote, then the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee. If voted out of those committees it would go to the full Senate. Usually on the last day of the session, a flurry of bills is voted on before those approved are sent to Gov. Wes Moore for signature.

When the March 26 hearing began, Wilson said he wants to ensure that the names of all perpetrators of child sexual abuse in the state Department of Juvenile Justice are made public.

“I want everybody that was an abuser — I want their name. I want that to be public record. If we as a state pay anything out, you as taxpayers need to know why we paid that out and if that person is still out there, they need to be held accountable,” Wilson told reporters outside a State House Judiciary Committee hearing room.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore has published a list of clergy credibly accused of child sexual abuse since 2002, with frequent updates to the list. It was one of the first dioceses in the country to do so after the U.S. Bishops approved the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People and its accompanying norms.

The Archdiocese of Washington and the Diocese of Wilmington post similar lists.

The state and public school systems do not publish any such list.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said it would not renew its cooperative agreements with the federal government related to children’s services and refugee support after its longstanding partnerships with the federal government in those areas became “untenable.”

Earlier this year, the Trump administration suspended a federal refugee resettlement program as part of its broader effort to enforce its hardline immigration policies. The ensuing halt in federal funding for the USCCB’s refugee resettlement services is the subject of ongoing litigation, and it prompted the conference to lay off about a third of the staff in its Migration and Refugee Services Office in February.

A spokesperson for the USCCB told OSV News the bishops were seeking reimbursement of $24,336,858.26 for resettlement services (PRM and ORR programs) that was still pending payment as of April 7.

“This situation has been brought to us by the decisions of the government,” Anthony Granado, associate general secretary for policy and advocacy for the USCCB, told OSV News.

Despite decades of partnership with the USCCB’s Migration and Refugee Services, across administrations of both parties, including the first Trump administration, Granado said, “we’ve been placed in an untenable position now.”

“It is clear that the government has decided that it wishes to go about doing this in a different way that doesn’t include us, and so we were kind of forced into this position,” Granado said.

Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the USCCB and head of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, said in an April 7 statement it was “heartbreaking” to announce the bishops’ conference would not renew its “existing cooperative agreements with the federal government related to children’s services and refugee support.”

“This difficult decision follows the suspension by the government of our cooperative agreements to resettle refugees,” he said. “The decision to reduce these programs drastically forces us to reconsider the best way to serve the needs of our brothers and sisters seeking safe harbor from violence and persecution. As a national effort, we simply cannot sustain the work on our own at current levels or in current form.”

Citing the government’s suspension of the cooperative agreements to resettle refugees, Archbishop Broglio said that the conference has “been concerned with helping families who are fleeing war, violence, and oppression find safe and secure homes.”

“Over the years, partnerships with the federal government helped expand lifesaving programs, benefiting our sisters and brothers from many parts of the world,” Archbishop Broglio said. “All participants in these programs were welcomed by the U.S. government to come to the United States and underwent rigorous screening before their arrival. These are displaced souls who see in America a place of dreams and hope. Some assisted American efforts abroad at their own risk and more seek a place to worship and pray safely as they know God calls them.”

He said, “Our efforts were acts of pastoral care and charity, generously supported by the people of God when funds received from the government did not cover the full cost.”

Federal law requires that unaccompanied refugee minors be cared for, and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement historically has turned to faith-based organizations, including the USCCB, to carry out this work.

A spokesperson for HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment from OSV News about its cooperative agreement with the USCCB.

Granado said the conference’s cooperative agreements with the federal government were “really about people.”

“From the church’s perspective, this is about responding to the Gospel command — Jesus says in the Gospel, ‘I was a stranger and you welcomed me,’” he said, referencing Jesus Christ’s words in Matthew 25:35-40 regarding his final judgement. “This has been a blessing and a beautiful part of the USCCB and the Catholic Church in the United States.”

The children and refugees impacted “are real people, real families” as well as “the staff whose work will be impacted,” Granado said.

As the agreements end, Archbishop Broglio added, “we will work to identify alternative means of support for the people the federal government has already admitted to these programs. We ask your prayers for the many staff and refugees impacted.”

The USCCB, Archbishop Broglio said, “will continue advocating for policy reforms that provide orderly, secure immigration processes, ensuring the safety of everyone in our communities.”

“We remain steadfast in our commitment to advocating on behalf of men, women, and children suffering the scourge of human trafficking,” he said. “For half a century, we have been willing partners in implementing the government’s refugee resettlement program. The Gospel’s call to do what we can for the least among us remains our guide. We ask you to join us in praying for God’s grace in finding new ways to bring hope where it is most needed.”

Hieromonk Pavel (Shcherbachev)     

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit!

Dear brothers and sisters, we are nearing the end of Great Lent. Next Saturday, we will commemorate the resurrection of the righteous Lazarus; on Sunday, the Entrance of the Lord into Jerusalem; and then the sufferings on the Cross and the glorious Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. But the feast of the Annunciation, which we celebrate today, does not move in conjunction with these feasts; rather, it stands by itself. It can fall on Pascha—a combination we call Kyriapascha—or even after Pascha, or it can occur before Holy Week, as it does today.

The feast of the Annunciation holds particular significance in the teaching of the Church. The troparion of this feast begins with these remarkable words: “Today is the beginning of our salvation.” What does this mean? It means that today is the beginning, the foundation—such is the meaning of the Church Slavonic word “glavizna”—the beginning or foundation that is laid for the salvation of the human race. If we direct our gaze toward the royal doors of any church, we will see the image of the Archangel Gabriel bringing good tidings to the Mother of God—and this is no coincidence.

How many great works and wonders the Lord God has wrought in Heaven and on earth from before the ages! He has sent His angels to help people, to enlighten them, and to bring them to reason. But none of these great works—significant not only for individuals but even for whole nations—have been named by the Church as the beginning, the foundation of our salvation. Why? Because before the coming of the Savior, the fulness of time had not yet come: But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons (Gal. 4:4–5). Today’s feast is the day God adopted the human race. Mankind suffered and languished before the coming of the Savior, and the reason for this suffering and languishing was Adam’s sin—just as the prodigal son in the Gospel parable longed for his father’s house and fatherly love… Recall the words of Prophet David, who, as a prophet, felt this especially acutely: My soul hath longed for Thee like a waterless land (Ps. 142:6), said the prophet in his lamentation, in the Psalter. And Archangel Gabriel informed the prophet Daniel of the seventy weeks,¹ but this prophecy did not have the same power as the event we commemorate today.

Even after the sin of Adam, every person has a certain mark, or spark, in the depths of his heart. St. Macarius called this divine spark the divine soul. Every person, even if he is far from God, even if he is not baptized, and even if he lives far from those who could preach the word of God to him, has this spark that God’s right hand placed in his heart, where it either burns or smolders—and something is needed to make it ignite. But even before the coming of the Savior, people felt this spark; they sensed a certain imperfection, a languishing in the depths of their souls.

    

Not only the Jewish people but also pagans had been prepared by philanthropic divine Providence to receive the Savior. Testimony to this can be found in the Old Testament stories of the first priest Melchizedek, Job, Moses’s father-in-law Jethro of Midian, and Balaam. Recall the story of Balaam and the ass, which prophesied the Messiah: I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh (Num. We find a tradition concerning the coming Redeemer and the expectation of His coming in the works of ancient philosophers such as Plato, ancient poets such as Virgil and Ovid, historians like Plutarch and Strabo, and even, strange as it seems, among the Chinese philosophers. Not long ago, an Orthodox abbot, who is American by nationality, wrote a book in which he studied the teachings of Taoism (and we know that the founder of this philosophy was the Chinese sage and philosopher Lao Tse). In the book, he cites a large number of sayings in Chinese that testify to the fact that Lao Tse longed for the coming of the Redeemer on earth.² He understood that this must happen, because God could not have created man imperfect, having no way to enter the eternal kingdom—which Archangel Gabriel promised to the Virgin Mary.

    

And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end (Luke 1:30–34). This kingdom, which will have no end, has beckoned people since ages past and has compelled them to contemplate the innermost depths of their hearts. It hints to them that there is something they will not inherit—something that can bring them happiness, the feeling of the fullness of being, blessedness—everything that was revealed to us in the Gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. What does this mean: And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever? Old Testament mankind, after Jesus Christ’s salvific feat, will enter a completely different period of life.

Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved, we read in the epistle of the apostle Paul to the Romans (Rom. 9:21). From this it is clear that Israel is now those righteous people who live with an unending thirst for communion with God.

It is no coincidence that the holy fathers, regardless of their differing fields of theology, unanimously call Israel the “mind that beholds God”. Who is the New Israel? The New Israel is no longer flesh and blood, not people, but the mind that beholds God. And each one of us can be this New Israel, the house of Jacob, which the Archangel Gabriel announced to the Most Pure Virgin Mary.

And what is the throne of David? Why will the Lord God give Him the throne of his father David? Truly, David was the forefather of the Savior according to the flesh. But David reigns over the faithful, and only the faithful, who behold God here on earth, who abide in living communion with their Creator, Provider, and Redeemer, and who will inherit that eternal Kingdom of the Son of God about which we heard today: “Today is the beginning of our salvation.”

    

In the events of today’s feast, the mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God is revealed to mankind. This is not only a mystery but also a fundamental dogma of the Church’s teaching—the mystery of the divine incarnation. The earthly life of Him Who created this life, Who created time, space, and the angelic world, has begun. And what about Mary? Mary says, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word (Luke 1:38).

St. Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow, extraordinarily profound theologian that he was, notes the significance of the words, “be it.” They repeat the same words in Greek that we read in the Bible, in the first book of Genesis: “Because during the days of creation, the Creator’s words,” says Met. Philaret, “Let there be,” produced creatures into the world; but on this day, the day of the Annunciation, the meek words of God’s creation, the Most Pure Virgin Mary—“be it”—bring the Creator into the world.” The power of these words lies in Mary’s total dedication to God. “Christ will dwell in your hearts by faith,” (cf. Eph. 3:17). The Virgin Mary showed the highest obedience to faith, and this made her soul to bow under the signing of the Holy Spirit, united her will with God’s will—and the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (Jn. 1:14). Disobedience to God’s good will brought death into the world, therefore, according to God’s justice, death’s healing had to begin with obedience.

Let us put aside our own will and accept God’s will, and we will receive Heaven into ourselves. “God gave us the freedom to choose,” writes Met. Philaret, “between good and evil, between the creature and the Creator, between our own selves and God. Let us choose God and His will, and we will not lose, but rather broaden and affirm our freedom. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom,” as Holy Scripture teaches us. Let us sweep away false human freedom and live by obedience and humility—an example of which was given to us by the Most Holy Virgin Mary—so that we might acquire the All-Holy Spirit of God. Then we will feel that great, divine freedom and become the true Israel, acquiring a mind that beholds God and communes with Him face to face. Amen.

Today, on the 100th anniversary of the repose of Saint Tikhon, the Russian language website, The Way of the Cross of Patriarch Tikhon, has been launched, introducing readers to all currently available archival documents related to the life and ministry of the saint.

Saint Tikhon (Bellavin), Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia     

Work on this large-scale project began four years ago. It has been carried out by the Research Department of Contemporary History of the Russian Orthodox Church at the Orthodox St. Tikhon’s University for the Humanities.

The name of the website, as Dmitry Vladimirovich Pavlov, chairman of the board of the Saint Patriarch Tikhon Scientific and Educational Foundation, explains, is no coincidence: The Way of the Cross of Patriarch Tikhon is organized according to a calendar principle. It recounts each of the 2,698 days of the saint’s patriarchal ministry—from the moment of his election as Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia at the Local Council on November 5/18, 1917, to the day of his repose on March 25 (April 7), 1925. Each of these days has a dedicated page describing the events associated with the Patriarch. Along with the narrative, the page includes archival documents and photographs relevant to that day.

The scale of the project is impressive—thousands of documents from state and church archives have been processed, and high-quality digital copies have been created and published on the site. In the words of the historian, it is the result of several years of meticulous, challenging, yet rewarding work.

We spoke with Dmitry Pavlov about the goals and future of the project.

– Dmitry Vladimirovich, how important is it, in your opinion, to know about Patriarch Tikhon? Do we know enough about the saint?

– The history of Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church is an inseparable part of our lives. And Patriarch Tikhon, in our conviction, is the most significant figure in the ecclesiastical history of post-revolutionary Russia. No other hierarch of the Church at that time attracted such close and reverent attention from the all the Orthodox people of the country.

Saint Tikhon not only drew such attention during his lifetime, but continues to do so even now, and we cannot remain silent about that. Seventy years under the yoke of Soviet atheism have taken a toll on our historical and spiritual memory, and thus it is our duty to speak of the saint’s struggle.

It was a most difficult time—bloody persecutions, slander and lies, mockery, all instigated by the godless communist authorities. Yet Patriarch Tikhon steered the ship of the Church through the storm of persecution against Christ’s Church. It was an incredibly difficult time for the Primate. He had to make the most complex decisions—decisions on which the life of the Russian Church depended. And yet, he had no concern for himself; his only concern was for the persecuted and humiliated Church.

It is precisely the sacrificial service of the Patriarch that rightfully makes him the head of the host of New Martyrs and Confessors.

– “Let my name perish in history, as long as it benefits the Church,” are the Patriarch’s famous words.

– Exactly right. Fortunately, Saint Tikhon was mistaken—his name did not perish in history. At the same time, by his example—his humble and sacrificial life—he called on other Christians to face with dignity and faith the terrible trials that befell our country and the Church. The response to that call is the host of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia—both those known to us and those still unknown—who pray for their earthly homeland. The Patriarch knew that the Church is built upon the blood of the martyrs, and he himself was such an example, followed by many thousands of the faithful.

Dmitry Vladimirovich Pavlov, Chairman of the Board of the Saint Patriarch Tikhon Scientific and Educational Foundation —What is special or interesting about the newly launched website The Way of the Cross of Patriarch Tikhon?

– Its uniqueness lies in the fact that we can now almost visibly trace each day of his ministry—almost all 2,698 days, the steps, so to speak, of his ascent to his own Golgotha. It is one thing to have dry facts from academic literature, interesting only to a narrow circle of specialists, and quite another to have information presented in accessible language, along with films and exhibitions dedicated to the saint’s life.

The portal is designed not only for professional researchers but also for the general reader, who can follow the saint’s sacrificial service day by day and come to understand the conditions under which this ministry took place. Each day, if documentary evidence exists for it, is described; we open the calendar, and starting from the autumn of 1917, we see a daily account, digitized archival documents that confirm the information.

Thus, the portal brings together, in one place, comprehensive data on the patriarchal ministry of Saint Tikhon—presented in clear language and supported by documents. It includes the saint’s letters, transcripts of his numerous interrogations, messages—all with full archival references.

This is our response to those forces that strive to diminish the ascetic struggle of Patriarch Tikhon, exalting the deeds of the Bolsheviks and attempting to convince both themselves and society at large that there was no persecution of the Church—as if life under the red flag was so cloudless that one could carry out saints from sheer joy. And indeed, they did carry them out.

The site is also user-friendly, because thematic groups have been created on VKontakte and Telegram; each day, an announcement will be published featuring that specific day from 1917 to 1925, with a link to the material posted on the website. The calendar is open, and anyone can look up what happened on a given day in a given year. And in this way, step by step, the reader can gain a comprehensive understanding of that era—provided they have the interest, of course.

– What did working on this project personally give you as a historian?

– Saint Patriarch Tikhon is the heavenly patron of our St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University, and for thirty years of the university’s existence, his life has been a subject of ongoing study. Numerous books and articles have been written, and documents published. What I believe we achieved with this new website is the systematization of that work. And the work itself hasn’t stopped—it will likely continue for many years. There are still “blank spots” in the Patriarch’s biography—particularly concerning the time he spent imprisoned in the internal prison of the GPU.

As for personal discoveries, reading a document in detail often reveals nuances that go unnoticed at a glance—even though the general outline of the Patriarch’s life is known to us. As a researcher, I find the archival work especially fascinating. The largest volume of material came from the Central Archive of the FSB, for which we are deeply grateful. Back in 2000, we received copies of these documents and published a book based on them. Now a new edition is in preparation, expanded with documents from other archives, such as the Russian State Military Archive. The body of material is not just large—it’s enormous, so there’s plenty of work ahead.

One of the most exciting things recently handed over to us is newsreel footage from the Russian State Archive of Film and Photo Documents, showing scenes from the saint’s life during those years. For me, the most engaging aspect is working with sources, archival documents. And the search continues. We historians are meticulous people.

– One of the most terrifying trials for Patriarch Tikhon was undoubtedly the “Renovationist” schism, when the Church was attacked not only from without but also from within—persecution and betrayal by her own. Will this topic be addressed on the portal?

– Absolutely. It is a part of our plan. We aim to show how, by whom, and why the Renovationist schism was instigated—beginning with Trotsky’s letter in which he laid out the goal and methods for destroying the Church he and his comrades hated. We will show how Renovationism appeared, how it developed, how the Patriarch fought against it, and how the militant, suffering Church he led resisted.

– Will the persecutors of the Church be named by their real names, or only by party pseudonyms?

– Everyone will be named by their real names, of course. The portal includes so-called “pop-up windows” that act as encyclopedia entries. When a historical figure is mentioned, users can click a hyperlink to read more detailed information. The truth will be told about the negative figures in this history. We also include geographic data—where and when Patriarch Tikhon served, what became of the church or monastery in question. There will be similar references for historical events—such as the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the Civil War, the Red Terror, and so on.

– As a historian, what do you think—why did such a seemingly powerful enemy as Renovationism, supported by secular authorities, make such a loud entrance only to fade away in disgrace?

– More as a Christian than a historian, I’d say: “the gates of hell shall not prevail against [the Church]” (cf. Matthew 16:18)—we are constantly reminded of this truth, and human history persistently affirms it. The same holds true for the collapse of the God-fighting Soviet regime, and for any effort undertaken in opposition to God. I am convinced of that.

– There are myths about Patriarch Tikhon. One of them is that the saint supposedly spoke highly of Lenin. Do these or similar claims have any basis in fact?

– There is no documentary evidence that Patriarch Tikhon respected Ulyanov (Lenin). That such a myth was created by Soviet newspapers is not surprising. When the “leader of the revolution” died, the Patriarch expressed human condolences—but the journalist who took the statement twisted the sentiment into something that appeared in the Red press. Could the Patriarch have refuted those words attributed to him in such conditions? Of course not.

– And what about the famous phrase allegedly uttered by the Patriarch, “as are the relics, so is the myrrh,” when Lenin’s Mausoleum was flooded by sewage? Is that story true?

– That’s a legend—there is no documentary confirmation for it.

– Was the death of Patriarch Tikhon a murder or not?

– That version exists, but there’s no conclusive proof. His Holiness Patriarch Kirill has said that the death of Patriarch Tikhon was a martyr’s death. The trials, sufferings, and humiliations endured by the saint during those 2,698 days were indeed martyr-like and confessional. At sixty he looked like an aged man. And what of the inner torment he experienced, seeing what was happening to the persecuted Church and the once-Orthodox people?

– In your opinion, what does history teach a Christian?

– That there are no coincidences in life. Human history—including that of our much-suffering nation—is not a collection of dry facts. It helps us understand, among other things, that suffering comes not without cause, but as a direct consequence of apostasy, of falling away from God. History also teaches us how noble and luminous both individuals and nations become when they return to active repentance. It shows how the life of a state can change when its people remember God and the saints who served Him. May God grant us such a good and fruitful memory of our New Martyrs and Confessors, and of Saint Tikhon!

After nearly 40 years of wandering in a desert of changing plans and dashed hopes, parishioners at Guardian Angel Church in Pacoima finally reached their Promised Land.

And not on Easter, but on a Friday of Lent.

The evening of April 4, they came in the hundreds to catch a first glimpse at their shiny new church, filling every one of its 1,030 seats and spilling into the aisles and vestibule for a long-awaited dedication Mass.

“It still seems too small,” joked Archbishop José H. Gomez in Spanish as he looked out at the standing-room-only crowd. “We’re going to have to take a second collection to buy more chairs.”

The irony was not lost on anyone. For decades, Guardian Angel’s biggest headache had been its lack of space, even if parishioners found reasons to keep cramming into the 200-seat-church with no parking lot.

Now, there would be no more folding chairs in the patio during Mass, and hopefully, thanks to a new lot with more than 200 car spaces, no more scouring the neighborhood streets for parking.

“I feel as if I’ve just been fulfilled,” said Irene Chavez after the nearly three-hour event, which drew some 1,500 people, including 30 priests. “After years and years of waiting, and not seeing anything, and then suddenly, there’s a new church built. It’s a great emotion.”

Longtime parishioners like Chavez understood that a bigger church at Guardian Angel would take divine intervention. The original one was located inside San Fernando Gardens, a low-income public housing project with a history of gang violence. Expanding it was out of the question.

Although talk of building a bigger church started as far back as the 1980s, a serious effort first took shape in the late 1990s. With the help of individual donations, food sale fundraisers, and special collections held by parishes across the LA Archdiocese’s San Fernando Pastoral Region, a lot one-mile west of the original church was acquired in 2009.

In 2014, architect JP Darling took on the building project, which was handed off in 2021 to architect Chuck Kluger after Darling’s death. With help from archdiocesan fundraisers and grants from philanthropical outfits like the Shea Foundation, construction finally broke ground in July 2023.

Before the April 4 dedication Mass, hundreds crowded the church entrance to hear remarks from those involved in the project, including Rich Villacorta of the archdiocese’s Strategic Capital Projects office, and LA City Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez.

After the crowd sang in Spanish the words of Psalm 122, “How I rejoiced when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord,” Archbishop Gomez was presented with the new church’s blueprints, then its keys by contractor Chris Hoffman. Once Guardian Angel pastor Father Luis Estrada used them to open the front door, parishioners moved eagerly to get their first look at the finished project, while an usher had to reassure them: “Go in with calm, there’s room for everyone.”

After entering, many were visibly emotional.

“It’s so beautiful, so welcoming,” remarked parishioner Leticia Valdivia.

From the outside, the new church’s light adobe-colored exterior echoes the “mission style” church architecture typical in Southern California. Inside, pews made of red oak form a symmetrical, semi-circular assembly directed toward a new marble altar. Above it hangs the wooden crucifix from the old church.

But perhaps the new church’s most eye-catching feature is its oldest one: the Stations of the Cross. Donated by a local Catholic art collector, the 18th-century marble relief carvings are thought to originally be from Italy or Spain, and were restored by local artist Maria Szopinski.

Besides the stations, the church’s white walls are still mostly blank for now. But parish leaders expect that once the final construction loan is paid off, future generations will add devotional elements commonly found in most parishes, like saint statues and paintings. A mosaic wall dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe, for example, is expected in the near future. 

One of the night’s most excited guests was Father Christopher Felix. Now 38, he grew up at Guardian Angel, where his father, Mario, founded an altar serving ministry for young men and where he and his 10 brothers and sisters would come to Mass on Sundays.

“We used to take up almost two pews just to sit in the church,” recalled Felix, now the administrator of St. Frances X. Cabrini Church in South LA.

Felix admits he’ll miss the “intimacy” of the old church in the projects, which will remain open as a chapel. But he expects the new Guardian Angel will be a “beacon of hope,” sending a message that the Church is still growing in this tough corner of the San Fernando Valley.

“There’s that room to grow, you can invite more people, bring everybody together,” said Felix of the new church.

During the dedication Mass, Archbishop Gomez congratulated the parish for an achievement that had been “a long time coming.”

“This church is a wonderful witness to your hope,” he said. “Also, to your patience and perseverance.”

Following the homily, the people kneeled as they recited the Litany of the Saints to invoke prayers for the new church. Then Archbishop Gomez proceeded to the heart of the liturgy’s dedication rite: installing relics belonging to St. Junípero Serra and Frances Xavier Cabrini in the altar; anointing the altar and the walls of the church with sacred chrism oil; and incensing the altar for the first time.

Among those at the bilingual dedication Mass were two figures who’d helped shepherd the project from its origins: Bishop Gerald Wilkerson, the San Fernando Pastoral Region’s auxiliary bishop from 1998 to 2015, and archbishop emeritus Cardinal Roger Mahony.

“Every time I came to Guardian Angel church or school, everyone said to me, ‘Bishop, where’s the new church?’ ” said Wilkerson before the end of the dedication Mass. “And I would say, ‘Well, it’s coming, it’s coming.’

“But tonight, you can ask me again, and I’ll say: ‘It’s here, it’s here!’ ” Wilkerson added, drawing laughs and applause from the crowd.

Parishioner Maritza Sanchez started attending Guardian Angel 25 years ago after immigrating from Guatemala. She likens the 40-year process of building a new church to the 40 years spent by the Israelites in the desert after the Exodus from Egypt.

“The people who started this project didn’t make it to this day,” said Sanchez after the Communion Rite. “But are we blessed to have made it, and today we’re here representing them.”

In his closing remarks at the Mass moments later, Father Estrada invoked the same biblical metaphor. In recognizing former pastors Father Juan Enriquez, Father Steve Guitron, and Father Rafael Lara, he recalled how when Moses was not allowed to lead his people into the Promised Land, the task fell to Joshua.

“In a sense, I feel like a Joshua,” said Estrada. “Behind me there are so many extraordinary pastors who walked with this community for almost 40 years, to whom we are so grateful for their leadership and dedication.”

By the end of the night, Chavez was fighting back tears as she left her new church for the first time. She compared those priests, together with benefactors and parish leaders, to angels whose contributions over the years had made the dream a reality. 

“It felt like a dream, I was thinking, ‘Someone pinch me, tell me this is really happening,’ ” she said of the dedication Mass. “I felt the presence of God tonight. God is here in this church, and he’s here to stay.”

Christian children’s entertainment is a tricky business. 

It’s hard enough to explain to adults the nature of the triune Godhead, let alone a child who will be distracted by any blur of movement in their peripheral vision. Worse yet is that when something does manage to hold their attention, it usually never lets go. There’s also the Christian animator’s challenge of producing something that won’t melt the parents’ brain upon the 90th rewatch.

“The King of Kings” is just the most recent in a long lineage, from more successful attempts like 1999’s “The Miracle Maker,” to the less successful ones found in Walmart discount bins across this great nation. 

Released in theaters April 11, “The King of Kings” is a retelling of the life of Christ, but with a rather innovative framing device: An animated Charles Dickens is both narrator and character as he recounts the life of Jesus to his young son Walter. During the movie, father and son walk through and interact with the Gospel stories through the power of imagination. It’s the most novel aspect of the film, but also a tad awkward. Young Walter seems awfully unfamiliar with stories even the most lapsed children absorb through osmosis; he must have been utterly baffled for seven Christmases prior. 

The film is based on Dickens’ children’s book “The Life of Our Lord,” written in his own attempt to teach his children about Jesus in a manner they’d relate to. (It seems Christian children’s entertainment has been an eternal struggle, probably going back to the manger itself.) Dickens wrote it for the exclusive audience of his own children, making them promise they wouldn’t publish it until after his death. I’ve been told from reliable sources that this happened some years ago, so there’s no worry in us seeing it now. 

“The Life of Our Lord,” in true Dickens fashion, is a fascinating blend of raw sincerity and a certain wryness. “The King of Kings” captures the former if not the latter, though more Dickens adaptations fail this test than not. 

The movie takes more creative license with Dickens’ life than the Gospels, for instance paring down his children from nine to a more easily animated three. He and his wife also seem rather chummy for a marriage that would end a decade later with him failing to falsely commit her to an asylum. But that is beyond the scope of this movie, and thus my review. 

Interestingly, the film doesn’t shy away from stories usually elided in Sunday school curriculums. We see Herod plot the massacre of the innocents (performed by Mark Hamill in his Joker voice), Lazarus rise from the dead, and the exorcism where the demons are driven into pigs and then off a cliff. None of these are violent enough to cause nightmares, but then most children not-so-secretly love such garish stories. (Grimm’s Fairy Tales remain popular because of the dismemberments, not despite them.)

Angel Studios certainly splurged on a marquee voice cast. Oscar Isaac voices Jesus (a promotion from when he played Joseph in 2006’s “The Nativity Story”), Uma Thurman is the poor doomed Catherine Dickens, Forest Whitaker is Peter, Ben Kingsley is Caiaphas, and Pierce Brosnan is Pontius Pilate. The crown jewel is Kenneth Branagh as Charles Dickens, who commits 100% and wrings some real pathos from what is a glorified narrator role. 

The film is produced by a largely Korean crew, which makes it visually distinct from others in its class. It has higher ambitions than mere depiction, making it one of the more cinematic Christian children’s films I’ve seen recently. The “camera” is a character in its own right, plunging and zooming between the characters rather than keeping at a tasteful distance. This is all within the imagination of a young boy, which gives the film a certain freedom and frivolity. In one scene, the apostles are introduced walking across the Dickens’ drawing room table, action-figure sized. 

With a smaller studio comes a smaller budget, and while recent animated films like “Flow” demonstrate what can be accomplished with diminished means, this still can’t level up to the likes of Disney’s “Goliath.” The character designs are all a bit blocky, not unforgivable but a bit unreal (our heads should come to the right ideas, not right angles). Budgetwise, perhaps less could have been spent on landing James Bond to voice Pilate and a little more on the animation itself. 

Still, the film’s animated backgrounds are beautiful, with the eye often wandering to the canopy of stars rather than what’s happening in the foreground. I always pictured the Sea of Galilee as something of a backwater, but here it looks like nothing less than the Italian riviera. 

“The King of Kings” is not as awkward and prescriptive as other Christian media, remembering that a good movie is an end to itself, not merely a means. Children should enjoy it, and get a hoot out of the sassy antics of the Dickens’ pet cat Willa. Ripped straight from the Disney playbook (and all the better for it), she will hopefully reorient younger viewers back to the true meaning of the season, and more importantly, pull them from the tyrannical reign of the Easter Bunny. There’s room for only one king in town.

Schema-Igumen Ignaty (Kryukov)   

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Today, on the Saturday of the fifth week of Lent, the Holy Church praises the Most Holy Theotokos in a special, solemn way. The service of this day is different from any other one. Those who attended Matins yesterday heard the reading and singing the Akathist to the Holy VirginTo Thee, the Champion Leader, we Thy servants dedicate a feast of victory and of thanksgiving as ones rescued out of sufferings, O Theotokos: but as Thou art one with might which is invincible, from all dangers that can be do Thou deliver us, that we may cry to Thee: Rejoice, O Unwedded Bride!

“>Akathist hymn to the Mother of God, alternated with kathismas and the Canon. This festal service includes the solemn singing of the Akathist to the Mother of God, which is why the service is called the “Laudation of the Mother of God“>Laudation of the Most Holy Theotokos”.

What is an akathist hymn? The Greek word “akathistos” translates as “unseated,” “standing,” that is, a hymn sung standing. The appearance of this akathist is traditionally associated with events that took place in Constantinople in the seventh century A.D. The city was surrounded by foreigners, and it seemed that nothing could help its inhabitants. Feeling the insufficiency of their strength, people turned to God and the Queen of Heaven in prayer, and help was not long in coming—the enemy was miraculously defeated.

In memory of the victory, the God-loving residents of the city of Constantinople celebrated thanksgiving; they sang hymns of praise in honor of the Mother of God all night long (before that, they used to sit while singing the hymn). From that time on, in memory of that great miracle, the feast of the Praise of the Most Holy Theotokos was established. The miraculous deliverance of the inhabitants of Constantinople took place during Lent, which is why the Akathist composed later was prescribed to be sung on the fifth Saturday of Lent. This first and most perfect of the akathists was composed at the same time—in the seventh century, on the basis of earlier kontakia, which celebrated the events of the Annunciation of the Mother of God and the Nativity of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Holy Church established a service to celebrate and give praise to the Most Holy Theotokos while standing. Since then, this Akathist hymn has been read during Lent at services for the affirmation of the penitents, in the hope of the intercession of the Mother of God, Who, by delivering us from visible enemies, is all the more willing to help us in the fight against invisible foes.

As mentioned above, the sublime, poetic, divinely inspired virtue of the Akathist is apparently explained by the fact that it is based on more ancient kontakia and Patristic traditions that sing of the Mother of God. We do not know what kind of kontakia they were, but there is a surviving historical document in which praises are rendered to the Most Holy Theotokos with amazing power. It is a letter from a disciple of the Apostle Paul, Hieromartyr Dionysius the Areopagite, addressed to the Apostle Peter.

He wrote that when he was introduced to the supreme presence of the Virgin and saw Her radiant face, his heart was filled with such inexplicable joy and fullness of bliss, that if he had not been well instructed in the basics of the true faith, he would have considered Her a deity. The author says that if the contemplation had lasted a little longer, his soul would have separated from his body. He partook fully of the bliss of the age to come, and this was only a momentary contemplation of the Most Pure Virgin.

And as if continuing this contemplation in our time, one Church author and preacher, telling us about this event, exclaimed, “What a great reward St. John the Theologian received at the Cross from the Lord Who said, Behold thy Mother (Jn. 19:27), that in subsequent years he was always close to Her, protected Her, took care of Her, and was therefore always worthy to contemplate Her Most Pure Face; he always heard Her voice, which has the ability to soften hearts and raise even the most inveterate sinners to eternal life.”

Brothers and sisters, on this day it becomes us to read the Akathist hymn to the Most Holy Theotokos with special zeal and reverence, and offer praise and thanksgiving to the Most Pure Virgin in words taken from it. Everyone can find words that resonate in their hearts. For example, here are words from Ikos 7:

Rejoice, Thou Who gavest birth to the Guide of those astray!

Rejoice, supplication before the Righteous Judge:

Rejoice, forgiveness of many sinners!

Rejoice, robe of boldness for the naked:

Rejoice, love that vanquisheth all desire!

Rejoice, O Bride Unwedded!

Or Kontakion 1:

To Thee, the Champion Leader, we Thy servants dedicate a feast of victory and of thanksgiving as ones rescued out of sufferings, O Theotokos: but as Thou art one with might which is invincible, from all dangers that can be do Thou deliver us, that we may cry to Thee: Rejoice, O Unwedded Bride!

Amen.

Photo: pdobro.ru When Christ, the Son of God began His public ministry, He started with the call to repentance: Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. From this it is clear that all who wish to enter the Kingdom of Heaven must repent—without repentance, no one will enter.

The commandment to repent was fulfilled by the saints, who left behind many testimonies to the power and importance of repentance. “Do not think lightly of repentance,” says St. Ignatius Brianchaninov

“>St. Ignatius Brianchaninov. “Repentance is the soul of all ascetic labors; it is the general work that must breathe life into all other ascetic labors. Only those who remain in true repentance make true spiritual progress… The merciful Lord has prepared for us a wondrous, heavenly, eternal Kingdom. He has shown us the door through which we may enter the saving pasture of Spirit and Truth—the door of repentance. If we neglect repentance, we will, without a doubt, remain outside [of the Kingdom]. Good deeds that are natural, based on feelings, can in no way replace repentance…”

Man is a deeply fallen and corrupted being. By nature, we all inherit the genetic disease of Adam’s sin.

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? we read in the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah.

Venerable Macarius the Great of EgyptAfter he buried his wife, Macarius told himself, “Take heed, Macarius, and have care for your soul. It is fitting that you forsake worldly life.”

“>St. Macarius of Egypt says that since Adam’s fall, sin—like a deep abyss of bitterness—has taken hold of the soul of every person, filling it to its deepest recesses.

Those who claim that man is without sin are like people who are drowning in floodwaters but refuse to admit they are drowning.

Adam’s original sin is like a massive weight hanging around each of our necks, and to this burden we add our countless personal sins, as numerous as the grains of sand on the seashore. Thus, every person without exception is in need of repentance for his salvation. The Lord says in the Gospel that He came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Even a seemingly small sin is not something trivial or insignificant that has no real impact on a person. On the contrary, every sin is a deadly poison, which kills the soul and hands it over to the power of the devil. And from these deadly poisons, prepared in the laboratories of hell, there exists only one antidote—repentance.

What Is True Repentance?True repentance is impossible without the renewal of a constant petition, invocation, repentant falling, prayer, and supplication to the Heavenly Father. It’s also a sign of the forgiveness of sins—the constant turning of the mind and heart to God.

“>Repentance is the mystery of God’s infinite love. If God had not granted us repentance, no one would be saved—all without exception would perish in hell. For there are laws in the spiritual world, just as there are in the physical world. According to these spiritual laws, a person who commits sin must be punished—both in this life and in eternity.

Indeed, in the physical world we also see law and consequence. For example, if a person jumps out of an airplane without a parachute, they will inevitably die. Or in civil law: If someone breaks a particular article of the criminal code, they must be imprisoned for a set term, and sometimes even for life. In a similar way, spiritual laws operate. In the Book of Revelation is written: He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity; he who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. This means that there is a spiritual law by which one who kills must himself be killed.

We see the fulfillment of this law in life. For instance, bandits and murderers rarely die a natural death; they almost always perish violently. Another example: After the 1917 revolution in Russia, rivers of blood were spilled. But the executioners and murderers who shed that blood were themselves executed in 1937–1938.

Here, in the words of Closer Than My Own Father: Elder Paisios and His Spiritual Children, Part 1The path to Athos is open to men only. But in Greece there is a women’s monastery where they live according to strict Athonite rules and serve without electricity, by candlelight. This monastery, in the village of Souroti, was founded by Elder Paisios the Athonite, whose books have been so popular in the past few years in America and Russia. A correspondent of “Neskuchnii Sad” headed to Souroti to meet with people who remember Elder Paisios.

“>Elder Paisios of Mount Athos, the spiritual law came into effect—that very same law mentioned not only in Revelation but throughout the Holy Scriptures: He who lives by the sword shall perish by the sword.

And these laws operate not only on earth. The deadly power of sin is directed primarily toward eternity. Its aim is to separate the human soul from God and strike it with eternal death. According to spiritual law, a person who has sinned falls under the power of the devil, and therefore must dwell where the devil is; that is, in hell.

It must be said that spiritual laws are inescapable; no one can cancel them—no one except the Lord God Himself. He alone has authority over them; as Scripture says, He holds the key that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth (Rev. 3:7); In what cases does the Lord override these spiritual laws? He does so when a person repents.

This is the very miracle of repentance—it is able to rescue even the most hardened sinner from the depths of hell and bring him into Paradise.

For example, a person may have committed many grievous sins and, by the standards of spiritual law, must be punished. But if he undertakes true repentance, these laws no longer apply to him. Not only does he receive forgiveness and deliverance from punishment, but God raises him from the sinful abyss into which he had fallen and restores him to the spiritual dignity he had before his sins.

This may seem like an impossible miracle, but if we remember that for Christians who pray “Our Father,” God is our Heavenly Father, then it all becomes clear. For if an earthly father can forgive a repentant son, how much more will our Heavenly Father forgive!

An excellent example of the overriding of spiritual laws can be found in the Gospel parable of the Prodigal Son. Despite his grave sins, the father did not even mention them, but joyfully received his repentant son back into his home.

This is also seen in the lives of many saints who came to God from lives of great sin and were sanctified through repentance.

One of the clearest examples of this is the life of St. Mary of Egypt, whose memory we celebrate today.

Mary lived in Alexandria, the capital of Egypt, at the end of the Fifth century. In her youth, she was a harlot, a woman of immoral living, completely immersed in sin, truly a daughter of hell and destruction. There seemed to be no hope for her salvation. By all spiritual laws, she deserved condemnation. But then repentance entered her soul—it was as if a veil fell from her eyes, and she saw the filth and horror of her sins. Repentance transformed her life beyond recognition—a true miracle occurred: from a great sinner she became a great ascetic, moreover one of the greatest saints in the history of the Church.

Why, someone may ask, does repentance have such great power? Because within repentance lies the mystery of God’s infinite love for a fallen and sinful human being. Grave sins are like massive boulders or mountains, but the love of God is an ocean, in which that mountain is submerged. All we need to do is to cast it off, that is, to repent.

It should also be said that the life of St. Mary of Egypt is most directly relevant to most of us. There are both similarities and differences between her life and ours. The similarity is that many of us were called to the Church in adulthood, after already having committed many sins in our lives. The difference is that St. Mary became a great saint, while we have not—at least, not yet. Why is this so? Because St. Mary’s repentance was incomparably deeper and stronger than ours. She truly brought forth fruits worthy of repentance. Her repentance was fiery. She had an unshakable resolve to follow Christ even unto death. And the Holy Fathers teach that a fervent will, in just one hour, can bring more delight to God than many years of labor without such zeal. That is why St. Mary received from God the beautiful and unearthly gift of holiness.

We on the contrary lack that fervent will to follow Christ. So although we walk the same path, we do so at a very slow pace, often stopping—or even turning back. And so those who have repentance and a burning will easily catch up to us and pass us by.

Elder Paisios used to say that if people living in the world, with their unruly temperaments and passions, do not fall into despair but instead turn to repentance, placing their hope in the almighty power of God, and turn the wheel of their powerful vehicle upward, then very soon they will overtake the others who have been traveling the same road for years—but at a slow pace.

In the time of St. Mary’s youth in Alexandria, there were many Christians. Most likely, seeing her sinful and shameful life, they often judged her. Yet after her conversion and repentance, she surpassed them all, quickly overtaking those who judged her, those who had long been ahead of her—but moving slowly.

From the life of St. Mary of Egypt, dear brothers and sisters, let us take two important lessons: First, never judge anyone, even someone living in obvious and grievous sin. Many judged St. Mary, yet she became one of the greatest saints. Second, let us try to look at ourselves from the outside and ask, Are we moving forward on the Christian path? How fast are we going? Are we standing still? Are we crawling like a tortoise? Are we taking one step forward and two steps back? Once we honestly answer this, let us strive to increase our speed—the speed with which we follow Christ, the speed with which we walk the path of salvation. Amen.

From Priest Ioann Pavlov, In the Beginning Was the Word. 100 Select Homilies [Russian].