Tag: Christianity

Young men from “non-intact” families without a father are more likely to end up in prison or jail than to graduate from college, according to the findings of a new study from the Institute for Family Studies, a Charlottesville, Virginia-based think tank dedicated to researching marriage, family life and the well-being of children.

“The Family-to-Prison-or-College Pipeline: Married Fathers and Young Men’s Transition to Adulthood” — written by Brad Wilcox, Sam Herrin, Jessie Smith and Wendy Wang — also notes that young men from intact families are twice as likely to graduate from college than those from non-intact families.

“Family structure,” the study adds, “is more predictive than race when considering these life outcomes.”

Wilcox is the Future of Freedom fellow at the institute, or IFS, and a professor and director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia. Herrin is a recent economics graduate from Georgia College & State University; Wang is director of research at IFS; and Smith is an assistant professor of sociology at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas.

“We see for young men today a family-to-prison-or-college pipeline that sees greater likelihood of young men from intact families headed towards college graduation,” the authors assert, “and young men from non-intact families headed towards prison or jail.”

Much media attention has recently centered on young men’s “failure to launch” — an inability to leave home and support oneself — a trend examined in books such as “Boys Adrift” by Leonard Sax and “Of Boys and Men” by Richard Reeves. Progressive advocate Melinda Gates — wife of Microsoft founder and billionaire Bill Gates and a champion of women’s issues — has expressed her own concern, pledging $20 million to Reeves’ American Institute for Boys and Men.

“IFS’ latest research shows marriage is absolutely vital in forming boys to become healthy men,” said J.P. De Gance, president and CEO of Communio, a Virginia-based nonprofit ministry that trains and equips churches to renew healthy relationships, marriages and the family. “It also shows what we have always known to be true but have forgotten as a culture — marriage is vital for a healthy society,” he told OSV News.

The research, De Gance suggested, discredits a popular cultural narrative.

“Many wrongly attribute the cause of men’s problems today to some sort of fictional narrative about the origins of toxic masculinity,” said De Gance. “This research shows that, on average, boys thrive when they experience authentic masculinity through a married dad in the home.”

The research also parallels Communio’s research results, De Gance shared.

“Our own research in the Nationwide Study on Faith and Relationships reinforces these findings,” said De Gance. “Boys from married homes are not only less likely to show up in jail — which IFS’s research shows — they are also far more likely to show up to church on Sundays as adults.”

In his January 2023 address to the Roman Rota, the highest appellate tribunal of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis affirmed, “In the Christian economy of salvation, marriage constitutes first and foremost the high road to holiness, a holiness lived out in ordinary life.”

Michael O’Rourke — founder of Strong Catholic Dad, an Indianapolis-based ministry that aims to equip and strengthen fathers for their family vocation — also echoed IFS’ conclusions.

“God made the family in his own image as a community of persons in an eternal exchange of love. That truth is deeply embedded in the fabric of our being,” O’Rourke told OSV News. “When children are denied the loving presence of their own father and mother, that deficit creates a cascade of emotional and spiritual wounds that impact them for a lifetime. We must pray for parents and do everything we can to support them in their vocation to parenthood.”

It’s a vocation, all agree, that requires a strong and stable family unit.

“Repairing masculinity on a societal-wide level absent marriage is impossible,” emphasized De Gance. “We need to share the good news that marriage was God’s gift to all of humanity. It remains a great deal for everyone: children, women and men.”

A surge in kidnappings has hit Nigeria’s Catholic clergy, with two more priests abducted within the past two weeks.

Father Christian Ike –the parish priest of St. Matthew’s Church in Ajalli, Anambra State, was taken on June 16 alongside Mr. Ogbonnia Aneke after a church service.

The kidnapping was confirmed by the Chancellor of Ekwulobia Diocese, Father Lawrence Nwankwo.

“When they arrived at the junction of Amagu, their vehicle was stopped by armed men who came in three vehicles. While two people managed to escape, the attackers took the priest and another person and also stole some personal belongings of the vehicle’s occupants,” Nwankwo said in a June 16 statement.

The recent kidnapping marks a disturbing trend of violence against religious figures in Africa’s most populous nation.

Father Gabriel Ukeh was kidnapped June 9 from the rectory of St. Thomas Parish in Zaman Dabo in Kaduna State. He was freed 24 hours later.

“Father Uke once spent a month in my parish while on holiday. I had the privilege of listening to stories of the daily risk he and his parishioners face as a result of unrelenting attacks by these terrorists,” said Father Moses Lorapu, the Director of Communication at the Catholic Diocese of Makurdi in Benue State, Nigeria.

“His kidnapping was, therefore, no news to me,” he told Crux.

Father Oliver Buba of Yola Diocese regained his freedom on May 30 after spending nine days in captivity.

Earlier, on May 15, the Catholic Archdiocese of Onitsha announced the abduction of Father Basil Gbuzuo, who was also later set free.

Other Christians are also facing kidnappings.

On February 28, seventeen Christians were dragged from their homes in Gonin Gora, near Kaduna City, and marched into the dense forest in northeastern Niger State. These people are still being held, and the kidnappers are demanding a $27 million ransom, according to Rev. David Ayuba Azzaman, pastor of the Kings Worship Centre Kaduna who spoke to the terrorists by phone.

The persistent kidnappings, and the government’s apparent inaction, have sparked outrage among Christian leaders, leading to accusations of a “conspiracy of silence” among Nigeria’s elected officials.

“Where is the outrage from the world leaders?” asked Kyle Abts, executive director of the International Committee on Nigeria.

“Where is the outrage from Nigerian leaders? On June 3, three Christians were just executed by the radical Islamic terrorists, ISWAP. These Islamic terrorists allowed Muslims to flee, but retained the Christians for their propaganda video, which shows their execution. President Tinubu claims that he is, ‘taking the battle terrorists’ but has done little to stop kidnappings and killings, which often occur on federal roads and property,” Abts said.

Lorapu told Crux those of people wounded by historical divisions and sustained religious persecution are “battling inwardly with our faith and the authenticity of what we have preached about forgiveness and the oneness of this country.”

“We are at a crossroads to trust the Western world to defend us against these enemies of civilization,” the priest said.

“There are luminous facts that categorically indict the Nigerian government in the persecution of Christians. There is no justifiable reason for millions of Benue citizens, for instance, to be subjected to dehumanizing conditions in internally displaced person’s camps for decades,” he said.

“The international humanitarian organizations that come witness these appalling conditions and fail to condemn and present the correct narrative are as guilty as the perpetrators and the government,” Lorapu added.

Nigeria now has the infamous distinction of having the worst persecutor of Christians in the world. Every year, at least 4,000 Christians are killed in the country, according to Global Christian Relief.

In an April 2023 report, the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law,(Intersociety) said that at least 52,250 persecuted Christians had been killed in the past fourteen years, simply for their faith.

The anti-Christian violence was initially significantly localized in the north, where twelve Muslim majority states declared sharia law in 1999, and the rise of extremist group Boko Haram in 2009 worsened the situation.

However, the violence has in the past five years spread southwards to the “Middle Belt” of Nigeria, with radicalized Fulani herdsmen killing Christians and taking over their lands.

“Nigerian Christians are living dangerously on thin lines of fortune,” Lorapu told Crux.

“The kidnappings and killings are steadily becoming normalized, and gradually, the Islamic terrorists are winning. Their bigots who are in positions of authority do not pretend about their mission to Islamize Nigeria, yet Christians who are in similar positions choose political correctness,” he said.

“We have seen how interminable the search for reconciliation lasts in nations that descended into war, Nigeria has been heading that path for over two decades, and the cost will resonate beyond the African continent,” the priest continued.

Lorapu called on the West to rethink its passivity on the persecution of Christians in Nigeria “before the catastrophic explosion happens.”

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith has begun an extrajudicial penal trial to determine if Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, former nuncio to the United States, is guilty of schism, the archbishop said on social media.

In a June 20 post on X, the archbishop published a letter he said he received from the dicastery over email informing him of the trial.

The letter, written on the dicastery’s stationary and signed by Msgr. John Kennedy, secretary for the dicastery’s section for discipline, said the archbishop was summoned to appear at the dicastery’s office June 20 to hear “the accusations and evidence against him regarding the crime of schism of which he is accused.”

It continued to detail the specific elements of schism, accusing the archbishop of “public statements which result in a denial of the elements necessary to maintain communion with the Catholic Church: denial of the legitimacy of Pope Francis, rupture of communion with Him, and rejection of the Second Vatican Council.”

The Vatican press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. However, Vatican News, which is also part of the Dicastery for Communications, published an article on the archbishop’s post quoting Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin from the sidelines of an event at the Pontifical Urbanian University in Rome June 20. He stated that Archbishop Viganò had developed “certain attitudes and gestures which he must respond to” and that he will have the opportunity to defend himself.

Reporting from the same event, the Italian news agency ANSA quoted the cardinal as saying that it is “normal that the (Dicastery for the) Doctrine of the Faith has taken the situation into its own hands and is carrying out the necessary investigations to examine this situation in depth.”

“I always appreciated him as a hard worker who was very loyal to the Holy See, in a sense also an example; he worked extremely well when he was an apostolic nuncio. I don’t know what happened,” he said, according to the ANSA report.

Archbishop Viganò is active on social media and writes often on the blog of his association, “Exsurge Domine,” where he has continued to be vocal about his opposition to Pope Francis and Vatican II.

For example, in a 2020 letter written by Archbishop Viganò and published on Inside the Vatican, the archbishop said “it is undeniable that from Vatican II onwards a parallel church was built, superimposed over and diametrically opposed to the true Church of Christ.”

Archbishop Viganò also wrote in a post on X in November 2023 that Pope Francis’ “incompatibility” with the function of the papacy “confirms his defect of consent in the assumption of the Papacy,” but he specified that his comments should not be taken to mean he shares the opinion of sedevacantists.

Reacting to the letter he received from the dicastery about the trial, the archbishop wrote, “I regard the accusations against me as an honor.” The accusation against him issued for questioning both the legitimacy of Pope Francis and the Second Vatican Council confirms that the “synodal church” promoted by the pope is the metastasis of the “ideological, theological, moral, and liturgical cancer” of Vatican II, he wrote in a blog post published June 20.

He went on to write that he does not want “any ecclesial communion” with the pope or his collaborators but claimed that he remains “in full communion with the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church” and the magisterium of the popes.

The Code of Canon Law defines schism as “the refusal of submission to the Supreme Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him.”

The final weeks of MaryLou Lia’s 43 years as the librarian at St. Cyril of Jerusalem School in Encino have been winding down, and — for the most part — so is she.

“Excuse my dirty hands but I’ve been doing inventory,” Lia explained during a recent visit to her well-kept classroom of wall-to-wall bookcases.

Agile with her barcode scanner, Lia had been logging book titles that populate the popular fiction section, catching up on work after missing six weeks to mend a surgically repaired broken elbow. She took it as another signal that it was time to slow down, be at home in nearby Tarzana with her retired husband, and just come back to the school for visits as needed.

By her latest count, Lia estimated she had about 5,000 books in circulation for the school’s 200-plus students. Keeping track of them is much different now than when she started, yet she developed a hybrid way of doing things. Not far from two large Apple computer screens, she still has the wooden card catalog file near the entrance, a relic she has kept since she agreed with the late Sister Claire Patrice, the school’s principal and a Sister of St. Joseph, to come to St. Cyril after a stint as a part-time volunteer librarian at nearby Our Lady of Grace School in Encino.

Since Lia’s daughter, Roseanne, and her son, Robert, had been going to Our Lady of Grace, Lia said she had a natural inclination for a mom to jump in and help.

“For me, volunteering was a natural thing to do,” said Lia. “They had some parents fix up a really nice new library and I did the organizing of the books. There was no budget for a salary, so I did it because I loved it.”

As her daughter graduated from eighth grade, Lia got an inquiry from St. Cyril before the start of the 1980-81 school year asking about her availability.

“I had to be honest with the principal — I don’t have a degree in this field,” said Lia, who worked on Wall Street before moving to Southern California with her husband in the early 1970s.

Lia wasn’t sure if she’d be a good fit. But Sister Claire’s persistence got her to say yes.

“Libraries have always been my thing, even working back in New York.” Getting the job, Lia said, “was a dream come true.”

Lia’s children became part of the school family, too: Her son came along as a sixth-grade student at St. Cyril before attending nearby Crespi Carmelite High School. Later, her daughter would send her three sons to St. Cyril. Lia’s oldest grandson is now 20 years old, a graduate of Loyola High School in Los Angeles.

“We all treasured seeing MaryLou with her grandkids and watching her giving them the right amount of guidance and independence,” said Angelica Pugliese, principal at St. Cyril for the last 12 years. “She was always about letting the kids explore. If they picked a book and didn’t like it, she said, ‘Just put it on my desk and get another one.’ She wasn’t restricted to the transactional part of it.”

A big part of Lia’s staying power, Pugliese believes, has been her willingness to pinch hit in other roles, from Pre-K recess supervisor to 7th-grade substitute teacher. “She could always zero in on a task and see the big picture as well.”

As a tribute to the beloved librarian, the modest space next to the school’s main office will be renamed in Lia’s honor, Pugliese revealed.

Despite concerns about children’s increased dependency on screens, Lia senses that “since the pandemic, students are reading again and a lot of that could be, especially with the younger ones, that the parents have been reading to them and keeping them engaged with books.”

At a time when grade-school-age kids are almost born as “digital natives,” Lia has focused on reminding students that schoolwork topics can be researched without using a computer screen, and that the library has those resources. As an exercise, Lia often gave students scavenger-hunt sort of projects — topic quilts, she called them — to search out a subject and then track down books related to it. An old-school Google search, of sorts.

“It’s about organizing their brains and realizing there are other ways to find information, and you can do that through having fun,” said Lia, sitting on one of the pint-sized chairs at the library’s scaled down round table. “The library is still a place to go from a classroom as a treat, or a reward, and it can be exciting, especially for the little ones. You try to teach them the love of reading and exploring.”

Children’s interests in the library, she reported, haven’t changed much over the years: the fantasy and fiction categories remain popular, especially Harry Potter. Girls still love horses, and boys still love sports.

From a faith perspective, Lia has been able to point out how subjects such as science and math have rooted connections to saints who were teachers, making them worthy of biography projects.

“Not so much the saints on a pedestal, but ones like St. Francis, or Mother Teresa, who show some modern faith values in the real world,” said Lia. “There are so many new wonderful books about the concept of Easter and Christmas that update language in how children read now.”

What will Lia miss the most about the job?

“Just the joy of coming here,” she said with a smile. “I’ve heard recently talk in some schools about bringing back libraries after they had let them go. Maybe the children really miss it. You have to look at the bigger picture.

“I think when you work in a school like this and see a need, it has to be part of your soul to jump in and help. But you know, time marches on, and hopefully kids keep reading.”

Pain is an Opportunity for Spiritual DevelopmentGrowing up, a man understands that pain is a structural part of his life; no one can avoid it; we will all certainly encounter it. Anxiety and questions arise in the soul of man—many questions.

“>Part 1

    

We’re frightened and weak people, living in uncertainty and Victory Over Fear, and Victory Over DeathDeath can then be transformed for us from a tragedy, horror, or pain into a dormition, a gentle and peaceful sleep, and will be resolved by our awakening into joy, light, and a life in which death will be no more.

“>fear. And if you ask, no one will say: “I want to feel pain!”

No one wants to experience pain. It’s normal, logical, but at the same time, spiritually immature. And if someone wants to spiritually change in his life, he must be realistic, as were the Fathers of the Church. They were realists, not soaring in the clouds. We have to understand that we’re asking the wrong question.

We ask: “Do I want to feel pain or not?”

It’s not about whether I want it or not, whether I like it or not, but that I’m going to experience pain. There is no life without pain. A life without pain is a life that’s dangerous for society. The body experiences pain and thereby informs you that something’s wrong. Your soul experiences pain and tells you: “Stop! You’ve crossed the line, you’ve crossed the limit of what you can endure.”

What is The Destruction of GriefNo one can ease the grief of a mother, no one can heal it. No one but God.

“>grief? What is stress and all the rest? Pain “rings” the bell; it comes to notify you, to tell you: “Be careful, something’s not right with you.”

A man who doesn’t feel pain is dangerous because he can commit evil. We feel pain, but we also feel the desire for revenge and hatred. Imagine what would happen were there no pain. Pain is a structural element, and we will experience pain.

But the question also isn’t whether we will feel pain, but why it’s worth experiencing pain. The question isn’t whether I’ll experience pain—forget about it, there is no such question—but what is it worth experiencing pain for. What will I suffer for? Why did the saints endure all tortures, torments, and persecutions? Precisely because they answered this fundamental question: “For Whose sake will I experience pain?” And they chose pain for the sake of love for Christ. They gave everything for God’s love; they were ready to suffer for the sake of this love. Of course, they weren’t afraid of pain, because they knew that it’s a reality of life. Therefore, it’s very important for us to soberly understand: What is this value? Who is this person? What meaning do we put into our lives? And why is there meaning in pain?

Who endured in the prisons? Who survived in concentration camps? Who endured during suffering, persecution, genocide, and famine? Those who had On the Purpose of LifeLet us talk about life. Do you have anyone interesting to talk to about this? If not, then don’t worry as I have very few myself. If you venture to cautiously ask your acquaintances and relatives: “Why do we live on this Earth?” or “What is the purpose of life?” their reaction will be silence or slight confusion.

“>purpose. According to numerous studies, people in hospitals recover much quicker if they believe in a higher purpose in their life. Those who have meaning and values that they live for… It’s important for us to understand why we’re crucified in our lives.

When you don’t take risks, when you’re afraid, when you have fear and uncertainty and you want to calculate, define, and control everything, then you’re not living in reality. You become a neurotic and cowardly person. Remember the Parable of the Talents. The man who hid his talent, who hid his charisma, hid from life—he was afraid to live. What do we do? We fear living. We’re afraid to be. We’re afraid of everything. And so, we don’t live, we don’t exist. This fear of not losing anything will not give you a peaceful life in the end. You’ll always have the fear of feeling pain, the fear that there will be difficulties. And the big trouble is that we raise our children the same way. We think the most important thing is to take extra care so they never feel pain and never want for anything. But if a person doesn’t feel a lack of anything, if he doesn’t feel pain, then he won’t be able to learn to withstand pain, difficulties, and trials. We’re helicopter parents. We constantly rush to help our children, and as soon as we see that something’s not working for them, we “fly” into their lives. All so our child won’t feel pain, so he’ll have everything, so he gets everything ready-made. It’s scary.

Remember what happened to the young man on Syntagma. I don’t know if you heard about this. There were clashes on Syntagma Square. Anarchists fought with the police, throwing Molotov cocktails. And one mother from the outskirts of Athens saw her son in the crowd. What do you think, what did she do? She left her house and went to Syntagma to bring him a coat, because she saw that her son, who was throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails, didn’t have a coat on. It didn’t bother her that he was throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails—she was worried her son would get sick! You can read this story online.

A man is already thirty, forty, fifty… not to mention someone who’s sixty… You ask him: “Why are you always so gloomy?”

And he responds: “It’s my mother’s fault! My father’s fault! My parents’ fault!”

Well, okay, but you’re an adult already! You’re sixty, and you’re still blaming your mother and father?!

People don’t notice this syndrome, but it’s there. You can’t get away from it.

One time in Crete, I went to a mountain village to hear confessions. Conditions are tough in the mountain villages of Crete. So during Confession, the door opened and in came a six-and-a-half-foot-tall Cretan, with a huge mustache, his shirt unbuttoned, in boots, with chains. He was more than six feet tall, and I’m short. I said to myself: “That’s it, I’m finished. He’s going to kill me. There are only mountains all around us; there aren’t many people in the village. Oh, what’s going to happen?!”

So I asked him: “Did you come to confess?”

“Yes!”

And I thought to myself: “Something’s not right here!”

“Have a seat!”

He sat down, and I asked him: “Is there something you’d like to confess?”

“No!”

“No?”

“No!”

“Then why did you come here?”

“My mama told me to come!”

“Your mother asked you to come see me?””

“Yes,” he said.

I immediately plucked up my courage.

“How old are you?”

“Forty-five.”

“And your mother told you to come here for Confession?”

“Yes.”

“I see. Bow your head, I’ll read the prayer of absolution over you!”

This is how someone can not grow up, not take his life seriously. So he torments himself and others.

So the important thing isn’t whether we’re going to have problems. We’re going to have problems. Let’s put out of our minds the fantasy that somewhere there is the ideal marriage, the ideal life partner, the ideal children. You might say about Crete: “Crete is paradise!”

In Crete we say: “Katerini is paradise!”

In the world they say: “Everything is perfect on Mt. Athos!”

On Mt. Athos they say: “You can labor ascetically in the world, too.”

One time some friends and I went to a monastery. And we told the abbot: “Geronda, your monastery is paradise!”

He told us: “Yes, but Adam and Eve sinned in Paradise!”

It’s important to understand that there’s no point in looking for a trouble-free life, because no such life exists. The question is whether the problems you have will lead you to something, whether your suffering has meaning for you. And this is what gives us spiritual life in Christ—it makes sense of suffering, gives meaning to human pain, leads a man to Christ, to God, to his deep self, to his neighbor, and so on. So pain is an opportunity for human development. Just imagine: Behind the big and radical changes that take place in our lives, there’s always pain; behind charisma there’s a cross; behind achievements there’s human fatigue; behind success there are a thousand failures. For a scientist to succeed and create some kind of product, to come to a scientific conclusion, he endures hundreds of failures, he despairs, he experiences pain, he bangs his head against the wall. An athlete, a winner, achieving successes, gives up a lot. There’s always a trial, with pain. Thus, the pain in our lives helps us develop. It leads us somewhere, and it’s important to choose where we want it to lead us.

Pain is an opportunity to see our values again, no matter how we lived before. Only pain, only a catastrophe will help do this. And therein lies the mystery of God’s silence.

A few days ago, a woman told me: “I’ve been sad and sick for so long; my body hurts and I have no desire to leave the house and talk with anyone.”

She was inconsolable. She also told me: “I pray to God for the Lord to come here, to this closed room, and help me!”

I told her: “He’s not coming!”

And He’s not coming because in reality, she, just like the rest of us, doesn’t look for God when she’s facing some difficulty. We just look for a crutch to lean on, but we don’t look for God Himself. God isn’t coming because the Lord wants you to go through this state, so you change your way of thinking, your outlook on life, your attitude towards life. If He would come, He would “destroy” you. That’s why He’s silent. But it’s not silence, rather it’s His answer. His silence is His way of speaking, to lead you somewhere and continue leading you throughout your life. As they say, the Lord doesn’t bring you a fish, rather He teaches you how to fish. God doesn’t want everything to be handed to you on a silver platter; He wants to teach you, He wants to make you mature, to bring you into a state where you learn the art of life. We need to understand and grasp this in adulthood.

As “My First Meeting with Elder Paisios”He told me, “You are related to us.” I said to him, “Geronda, are you from Cyprus?” He replied, “You’re slow-witted.”

“>St. Paisios said, the Lord will never give you what He has already given. You want God to give you a cup of water when He’s already given you a whole spring. Go head, get yourself some water from the spring. Elder Aimilianos says God has already given us what we need. You want to be happy, and God has given you the chance to be happy: Get to know people—live and be happy. This is what St. Porphyrios spoke about: We should rejoice in everything—in the sea, the mountains, swimming, food, relationships, so everything would be an occasion for life, a cause for rejoicing, a cause for glorification; so the simplest detail would become an occasion for glorification. God has given you this. That’s why St. Paisios says that if you don’t find any water in the desert, then the Lord won’t show you where the spring is—don’t expect it—He won’t show it to you until He sees that you’re striving for it, searching, digging, fighting. He won’t give it to you right away. He wants to see your energy, your desire to work, to see how your life pulsates, to see how you live—this is what He wants from you. He wants you to live, not just be a ghost, a pale shadow.

We have to learn to live with the pain we’ve chosen. That means the joy and happiness in our life is a choice: I choose to be happy. Why do I say this? Because if you’re waiting for everything in your life to become perfect before you start laughing, then you’ll never start laughing. It doesn’t happen that someone has a perfect life without any problems. What are we always saying? We say: “How can everything be good with me, Father, if I’m sick, if I have no money, if my wife is difficult, if my husband is unruly, if I have problems with my children or at work with my co-workers?” But the words “if” and “why” are always present in our lives. You can always find an “if,” “maybe,” or “because,” that destroys the joy in your life; your whole life will pass you by and you’ll never be happy and never enjoy the pleasures of life.

We have to follow our life’s path, although our life isn’t always perfect. Let’s not just stand around waiting for everything to be perfect on our life’s path, because we’re already walking along this path. We want to control and arrange everything, to have ready-made answers to our questions, and then live and have fun. But that will never happen; our whole life will pass, the best moments of our lives will be lost, we’ll destroy our lives. Our life and our daily routine will become a huge cemetery of lost moments, lost days, which the Lord gave us to live and be in a relationship with Him, with ourselves, with people; and we look for an imaginary perfection that doesn’t exist. Beauty is hidden in small things, which, with the grace of God, will become big; it’s hidden in simple things, in everyday life—therein is hidden the essence.

To be continued…

St. Alban was the first Christian martyr in Britain, in the early 4th century. Before his conversion to Christianity, Alban sheltered a persecuted priest, Amphibalus. He was moved by the priest’s faith in God, and converted soon afterwards.

He tried to help the priest escape by switching clothes with him, but Alban was caught, and ordered to renounce God. He refused, and continued to proclaim his belief in the one true God.

Alban was sentenced to be tortured and beheaded, but the man who was supposed to execute him heard his testimony, and converted to Christianity. He refused to kill Alban, and was executed.

A number of other witnesses to Alban’s execution are said to have converted due to the strength of his faith. The priest Amphibalus turned himself in, hoping to save Alban’s life, but he was executed as well.

St. Alban’s Cathedral was built near the place where Alban died, and the town where he was born was renamed after him. He is the patron saint of converts and victims of torture.

    

The Ascension of the LordAscension of the Lord

“>feast of the Ascension is a feast of comfort and consolation for the people of God. But it can for some people represent a stumbling block. Looking at the ascension of Christ as it is narrated in Scriptures, does the Church then really believe that accepting the Ascension also involves accepting a literal three-storey universe? And that Christ went up from the earth’s surface to heaven which is located miles above the earth’s surface—perhaps a little to the right of the North Star, and then making a sharp left turn after the Milky Way and on a further three and a half parsecs until you get to the heavenly palace? And that in heaven God sits on a chair, and that there is another chair placed slightly to the right of it, on which Jesus now sits?

The answer to these questions, happily, is “No”. But in describing the indescribable, the Scriptures and the Church must of necessity use the language of metaphor, symbol, and poetry.

For the Ascension of Christ is all but indescribable. It involves the union of a man here on earth with the infinite power and presence of God, the liberation of the Man Christ Jesus from the limitations of our time-space continuum, so that He now shares the omnipresence and omniscience and omnipotence of the Father. The fusion of all those “omni’s” with a single human hypostasis makes head spin around a bit, and leaves our richest imagination in the dust. Picking up the poor and blunt instrument of metaphor, all the Church can say is, “He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father”.

(Those wishing a bit more discussion are referred to a short excursus on the Ascension in my commentary on the Acts of the Apostles.)

The Ascension represents both Christ’s departure to a place far away from us, and also His abiding in our midst, both of which are a comfort and a consolation.

At the Ascension, Christ took up His seat at the Father’s right hand, sharing the omnipotence of the Father, far away from us. In other words, Jesus of Nazareth now sits in heaven, and shares the rule over the world with God His Father. Do you ask who is now the ruler of the world? Jesus.

Admittedly there is plenty of prima facie evidence to the contrary. All around us, on the horizon and on the six o’clock news, we see war, crime, hatred, and death. Here in the West, formerly a bastion of Christian culture, we have, in defiance of nature, canonized sexual perversion and the maternal slaughter of their own unborn children, glorifying sexual perversion and murder and celebrating them as indisputable evidence of human moral progress. We are even losing the ancient ability to distinguish male from female—an ability on which the human race formerly depended for its physical survival.

What can be said about this? Only that “an enemy has done this” (see Matthew 13:28)—specifically, the Enemy, Satan, the adversary of God and men. St. Paul called Satan “the god of this age”, and St. John declared that the whole world lies the power of the Evil One (2 Corinthians 4:4, 1 John 5:19). All this argues against God being on the throne, ruling His world as the Pantokrator.

Yet even so, the Lord reigns. The Apostle Paul’s “Hymn of Love”There are sixteen properties of love, each worthy of separate analysis, described in this chapter. Let’s consider them from the point of view of psychology, as far as that is permissible in relation to the Holy Apostle Paul’s Epistle.

“>St. Paul insists on it, and says that Christ will reign until the end, when the Father finally puts all things under His feet (1 Corinthians 15:25f). All things ultimately serve the purposes of God—even such bad things as the betrayal of Judas and the political cowardice of Pilate. If God makes all things work together for good for us Christians (Romans 8:28), surely all things will work together to serve His final purposes for the world.

We should therefore not despair, or imagine that the globe is somehow spinning out of control. Christ is in control, and the world will end as it pleases Him. It will not end with a whimper or a bang, but with the glory of God filling it like the waters cover the sea. One sometimes hears of frightened despairing people refusing to have children, and saying that they would not bring another child into a world like this. Nonsense. We need not fear. Do you ask why one should bring children into a world like this? So that they can meet Jesus.

The Ascension is therefore a source of comfort to us whenever the evils of the world tempt us to quail and despair. The sea may swell and roar and its proud waves break against us with thunder. But Christ is on the throne, and He says to them, “Thus you shall come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stopped” (Job 38:11). The world may soak us, but it will never drown us. Jesus has ascended on high.

The Ascension also means that Christ is still with us—and in fact is nearer to us than ever. In the days of His flesh, His presence was limited: if He was in Galilee and you were in Judea, you had to leave where you were, travel north, and then find Him somewhere among the cities of Galilee. If He was in Judea and you were in Galilee, you had to travel south to find Him among the highlands of Judea. But now that He has ascended to the Father’s right hand, any of His followers may have immediate and instant access to His presence, whether they live in Galilee or Judea or Moscow or Kiev or Langley, B.C. Now He is only a prayer away, and is closer to us than the breath in our lungs and the blood pulsing through our veins.

Now that He has ascended and poured out His Spirit, He is among us as often as we gather in His Name. And whether in an assembled crowd or alone in the dark, when we cry to Him, He is there. And that is a comfort to us as we journey through this darkened land of death and bereavement with the acrid smell of battle smoke ever in our nostrils.

Luke’s Gospel ends with the Ascension; Matthew’s Gospel ends not with the Ascension, but with the fruits of the Ascension, for it ends with the Lord’s promise, “Behold, I am with you always, to the close of the age”. We testify to His Ascension every time we say the blessed words, “Christ is in our midst!” He ascended from us so that He could be with us forever.

In this wounded and wounding world, we need comfort—and are reminded that the word “comfort” originally meant “strength”. The feast of the Ascension is a feast of strength—the strength to fight on until the Lord returns and the world is finally set right.

Athens, June 19, 2024

Photo: Romfea     

His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem visited Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece at the Holy Archdiocese of Athens yesterday.

The main topic of discussion was the ongoing war in the Holy Land. The hierarchs agreed that the war must stop immediately and peace talks must begin, reports Romfea.

The Archbishop of Athens expressed his concern for the civilian population and captives in Gaza and inquired about how the Church of Greece can aid the suffering. He also voiced a message for all for the war to stop and for peace discussions to begin.

Pat. Theophilos thanked him for his brotherly love and underlined his own appeal for the war to stop. He also spoke about the Christian presence in the wider Middle East and about St. Porphyrios Monastery in Gaza and the support it provides to the faithful.

The monastery has been housing hundreds of refugees since the present conflict began Funeral and memorial prayers for victims of Gaza monastery blastThe monastery has been sheltering hundreds since the present conflict began on October 7, but two church halls where they were being housed collapsed when the monastery was hit on Thursday night.

“>in October.

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The Biden administration June 18 announced an executive action that allows certain noncitizen spouses and children of U.S. citizens to apply for lawful permanent residency without first having to leave the country, as they were previously required to do.

The White House said the action, aimed at keeping families together, will protect from deportation approximately half a million noncitizen spouses of U.S. citizens, and approximately 50,000 noncitizen children under age 21 whose parent is married to a U.S. citizen. In order to be eligible, the announcement said, noncitizens must have resided in the United States for 10 or more years and be legally married to a U.S. citizen, while also meeting all other relevant legal requirements.

J. Kevin Appleby, senior fellow for policy at the Center for Migration Studies of New York and the former director of migration policy for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told OSV News that “it’s an important action that maintains and strengthens American families, as opposed to deporting them and ripping them apart.”

“It is perfectly aligned with Catholic teaching, as well, as it promotes marriage and family unity,” he said. “The only downside is that he did not extend the benefit to all immigrant families in this situation.”

Prior to the order, marrying an American citizen could provide a pathway to U.S. residency or citizenship, but people who crossed the southern border illegally rather than arriving with a visa were required to return to their home countries to complete the application process for a green card. Critics of that process argued it separated families and created a deterrent to pursuing legal avenues as it could result in lengthy separations.

The announcement came during the anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA. It was created in 2012 under the Obama administration to offer protection from deportation to certain immigrants brought to the country as children.

Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, chairman of the U.S. bishop’s Committee on Migration, said in a statement, “We welcome today’s announcement and the hope it brings to thousands of American families who have grappled with the fear of separation for a decade or more.”

“As we commemorate the twelfth anniversary of DACA, we’ve seen the positive impacts such programs can have, not only for beneficiaries themselves but for the families, employers, and communities that rely on them. This new program is sure to yield similar benefits,” Bishop Seitz said.

“However, as the fate of DACA hangs in the balance, we also know how insufficient these programs are,” he continued. “Legislators have a moral and patriotic duty to improve our legal immigration system, including the opportunities available for family reunification and preservation. A society is only as strong as its families, and family unity is a fundamental right. For the good of the country, Congress must find a way to overcome partisan divisions and enact immigration reform that includes an earned legalization program for longtime undocumented residents.”

The election-year move by Biden could shield hundreds of thousands of people from deportation and may appeal to voters in key constituencies in battleground states such as Arizona and Nevada, where large populations of so-called “mixed status” households exist. The move also is an olive branch to the president’s progressive critics, who objected to his June 4 executive order aimed at reducing unauthorized border crossings by asylum-seekers.

Karoline Leavitt, national press secretary for the Trump campaign, argued Biden’s order will give “mass amnesty and citizenship to hundreds of thousands of illegals who he knows will ultimately vote for him and the Open Border Democrat Party.”

But Anna Gallagher, executive director of Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc., or CLINIC, said in a statement, “These policies are a breath of fresh air and a dose of hope for many of our immigrant brothers and sisters.”

“We welcome these measures, knowing the enormous impacts they will have for our network’s clients,” Gallagher said. “Catholic social teaching supports policies that promote family unity, recognizing family as society’s primary building block. The Church has consistently advocated for DACA recipients, who are vital to our community. These actions align with the values of our faith and will provide welcome relief to immigrant families.”

Gallagher reiterated her group’s opposition to Biden’s previous order limiting asylum.

“While we celebrate these wins for immigrant families, we remain mindful of recent executive orders restricting asylum access,” Gallagher said. “We advocate and pray for measures that recognize the dignity of all people, regardless of status. Robust asylum protections are essential for safeguarding human dignity and promoting family unity. We urge the administration to boldly champion the rights of all immigrants.”

The government has previously used so-called “parole in place” efforts for other populations, including for families of military members, granting noncitizens the ability to temporarily live and work in the U.S. without risk of deportation.

Moscow, June 19, 2024

Photo: Moscow Diocese (Telegram) A 19th-century icon of the Most Holy Theotokos that was saved from being blown up together with Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral in 1931 has been identified and will soon return to the reconstructed cathedral.

The copy of the famous Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God was found in the altar in Moscow’s St. Nicholas the Wonderworker Church in Transfiguration Cemetery, reports the Moscow Diocese.

A member of the Patriarchal Commission for the Restoration of Icons recently visited the church, and a scientific and artistic examination confirmed that the icon is that which used to be in the altar at Christ the Savior.

The icon has been in the altar of St. Nicholas’ Church since 1933.

The icon was pained in 1881 by Evgraf Sorokin. It was removed from Christ the Savior in 1931 to save it from destruction by the Soviet authorities, and in 1933, it was taken to St. Nicholas’ by Fr. Vasily Orlov, priest of the parish in the 1920s and 30s.

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill decided that the icon should return to Christ the Savior Cathedral, which was rebuilt in the 1990s and consecrated on the feast of the Transfiguration in 2000. It will return on Sunday, June 23, the feast of Pentecost.

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