Tag: Christianity

Moscow, March 25, 2024

Photo: tagileparhiya.ru     

Prayers were offered yesterday, Sunday, March 24, in all churches and monasteries throughout Russia for those killed and injured in the Crocus City Hall tragedy on Friday, March 22.

The Church also immediately organized the necessary pastoral assistance for the suffering and their families.

Armed men stormed the packed Crocus City Hall concert venue outside Moscow on Friday night and opened fire, then set the building ablaze. More than 130 have died so far, with more than 100 injured. Russian officials report that 11 men, all foreign nationals, have been detained in connection with the terrorist attack.

Condolences have poured in from around the world, including from the Orthodox hierarchs of Sister Churches. His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russian expressed his condolences on the night of the attack, saying: “This crime is striking in its cynicism and cruelty. I express my sincere condolences to you and my heart grieves with you… Don’t lose your faith, maintain courage, strength of spirit, and fervently pray to the Lord, Who is always near to the suffering and sorrowing.”

“The Church’s first reaction should be prayer,” the Patriarch said during a memorial service on Saturday night.

The Russian Church’s Synodal Department for Church Charity and Social Service is providing pastoral assistance to the victims and the families of those who killed, including through the Church’s social help hotline. Synodal head Bishop Panteleimon of Verey, priests, and sisters of mercy are also visiting victims in the hospital.

On the evening of March 22, the Odintsovo Diocese established an operational headquarters for providing assistance, with clergy on duty at the HQ, the office, and the assistance center of the Moscow Province. Churches throughout the diocese served molebens with the canon to the Most Holy Theotokos, and prayers were offered for the victims during and after the Divine Liturgy.

In the first minutes after the attack on Friday evening, about 60 people took refuge in the Odintsovo Diocese’s St. Nicholas Cathedral, which is just 1,000 feet from Crocus City Hall.

And on Sunday, with the blessing of Pat. Kirill, prayers were offered during the Divine Liturgy for the health of “all victims of the terrorist act in Krasnogorsk,” and a memorial litiya was offered “for the servants of God innocently killed in the terrorist act in Krasnogorsk,” in all churches and monasteries throughout the country.

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St. Catherine of Sweden was born in the 14th century to Ulfo and St. Bridget of Sweden. When she was seven, Catherine was sent to the Abbey at Risburgh, and placed under the care of the abbess. It was here that she built the foundation for her spiritual life. 

At 13, Catherine was given in marriage to Egard, a German nobleman. When she met him, Catherine persuaded her new husband to make a mutual vow of perpetual chastity with her. They dedicated themselves to the service of God, encouraging each other in works of mortification, prayer, and charity. 

After her father died, around 1349, Catherine accompanied her mother on a pilgrimage to Rome to visit the relics of the Roman martyrs. Bridget and Catherine spent several years living in Rome. In 1373, Bridget died, and Catherine returned to Sweden to bury her mother. 

Catherine went back to Rome in 1375, to promote the cause for her mother’s canonization, and to gain approval for a religious group of women. Her Rule was approved, and Catherine returned to Sweden to become the abbess of Vadzstena, a position she held until her death in 1381. 

In the final years of her life, Catherine was known for her austere lifestyle and her practice of making a daily confession. 

St. Catherine was canonized in 1484 by Pope Pius II. 

Photo: polotnos.com     

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

On the first Sunday of Great Lent, the holy Church allows us—all of us who have passed the first week in repentance—to unite in the knowledge of our affinity with the first man, Adam, in the consciousness that each of us bears the image of God’s ineffable gory, although covered by the sores of transgressions; and in a repentant cry to the Lord, “Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me,” which allows us, the faithful, to come now to great joy—for today is a day of joy, the day of the Triumph of Orthodoxy.

It is not without reason that this week begins with such a day.

If we, the faithful, were always in the state of the first Adam, weeping, repenting, and crying out: “Have mercy on me, the fallen one;” if we were in a state of near despair with him, with only a distant hope that someday the seed of a woman will bruise the head of the serpent (cf. Gen. 3:15), then we’d still be in the Old Testament. But we are in the New Testament.

The holy Church has the The Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy

“>Triumph of Orthodoxy in the second week to remind us that we have this promise already fulfilled, that we’re already in the New Testament, that although we’re covered with the wounds of sins like the first man, the Savior was on earth. Not only was He on earth, but He also left us His Body—the Church—and glorifying Him, celebrating His coming, we confess Him in Orthodox manner.

But why is this timed to coincide with the celebration of icon veneration, and why were all the stichera that we sang yesterday about the veneration of icons?

Why on this Sunday, when it was necessary to give us joy, did the holy Church give it to us through icons, through the celebration of iconodulia?

Why do we glorify the most-pure image of the Savior?

The struggle for the icon is the struggle for the reality of Christ, for the fact that He truly came to earth and lived on it not only as God, but also as man. He wasn’t a phantom, as the Holy Fathers say, but was truly in the flesh. Therefore, the struggle for iconodulia continued for an entire century and tore the Church apart into irreconcilable enemies, into those who defended icon veneration and those who rebelled against it.

And now it’s over!

What exactly is an attack on icons?

It is an attack on the existence of Christ. This is an essential point for Christianity. If we turn to the Holy Fathers who fought for icons, we’ll feel a kinship with their age.

When Venerable Theodore the Confessor the Abbot of the StudionSaint Theodore the Confessor, Abbot of the Studion was born in the year 758 at Constantinople into a family of the imperial tax-collector Photinus and his spouse Theoctiste, both pious Christians.

“>St. Theodore the Studite wrote against the iconoclasts, he pointed out that had God not been on earth as man, it would be impossible to depict Him—that is, to paint Him. But now there is no reason why He shouldn’t be depicted.

So let him (an iconoclast), in speaking out, teach what physical basis he has and what the reason is for such undepictability. Did not Christ take on our image? Was not His Body made up of bones? Were not His pupils shielded by eyelids and eyebrows? Were not His ears made with winding canals? Were not His nostrils adapted for smelling? Was He not endowed with ruddy cheeks? Was it not with His lips and tongue and teeth that He spoke and ate and drank? Was He not built with joints of the shoulders, elbows, and hands? Did He not naturally have a chest and spine, shins and feet? Did He not move when walking—up, down, in, out, right, left, and around? Did He not have hair on His head and did He not clothe His entire body with a robe? If He undoubtedly exhibited this, then the physical form serves as a true image of Him, and it is audacity to assert that Christ is undepictable.¹

“If Christ is man,” concludes St. Theodore, “then it’s obvious that He can be depicted on an icon, for the first property of man is to be depicted; if He’s not depicted, then He’s not man, but fleshless, and Christ has not even come yet, as the Jews prattle.”²

The Holy Father concludes, as we do now, that the struggle for the icon is a struggle for Christ, for the Savior, for Him Who was not only foretold to the first man, when it was said that there would come a time when the Seed of a woman would crush the head of the serpent. And that time came. Being God, He was also perfect man, and as man, He turns from indescribable to describable, from uncontainable to containable; and from great He becomes at the same time small.

Thus the holy Church has given us the Triumph of Orthodoxy—the restoration of iconodulia, the restoration of the authentic teaching of Christ, for the Lord came to earth as God, but also as man in the flesh.

And in our times, when some try to prove that Christ didn’t exist, they first of all attack the icons, the veneration of icons, despite their being favorable towards paintings and art in general. The whole point is that they want to deny Christ, to reject Him, and therefore they’re against icons.

We often hear: “You make yourselves a host of gods and worship them.” Is that true?

If we believe that Christ delivered us from the state of Adam, weeping over Paradise lost, and leads us into the holy Church; if He accepts us as prodigal children and not only slaughters the lamb, but gives us His Body, adorned in the first garment of incorruption and holiness—then on this day of the Triumph of Orthodoxy we must give an account of why we venerate icons.

“The honor rendered to an icon ascends to the prototype,” says St. Basil the Great and the stichera that we heard yesterday.

What does that mean?

It means that if we have some depiction of the Lord, then this image, His countenance, gives us the chance to relate to Him, the Prototype, just as a portrait of someone prompts us to ascend to the person depicted. Everyone knows that if we have some photo, we’ll say: “This is my mother; this is my father,” and no one ever has any doubt, although everyone knows it’s cardboard, paper, a photographic image, because through this image we ascend to the prototype, which is precisely what we see in the photograph.

Similarly with regard to icons, through an image of Christ we ascend to Him: “The honor rendered to an icon ascends to the prototype.”

Those who venerate the holy icons, should know the definition of the Seventh Ecumenical Council, the memory of which we’re celebrating now, for it confirmed the true teaching about icons:

We, therefore, following the royal pathway and the divinely inspired authority of our Holy Fathers and the traditions of the Catholic Church (for, as we all know, the Holy Spirit indwells her), define with all certitude and accuracy that just as the figure of the precious and life-giving Cross, so also the venerable and holy images, as well in painting and mosaic as of other fit materials, should be set forth in the holy churches of God, and on the sacred vessels and on the vestments and on hangings and in pictures both in houses and by the wayside, to wit, the figure of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ, of our spotless Lady, the Mother of God, of the honorable angels, of all saints and of all pious people. For by so much more frequently as they are seen in artistic representation, by so much more readily are men lifted up to the memory of their prototypes, and to a longing after them; and to these should be given due salutation and honorable reverence, not indeed that true worship of faith which pertains alone to the Divine nature.³

True worship is not rendered to an icon but to God, while an icon is what is necessary for us as the means through which we elevate ourselves to the Prototype. This is what the Seventh Ecumenical Council teaches.

Those of us who have passed through the first week of Great Lent but have no repentance or tears should reproach ourselves for this. It is necessary for us to join those who had these tears of repentance, those ascetics and especially the author of the Great Canon and the Venerable Mary of EgyptCovered by the cloak, the ascetic turned to Zosimas: “Why do you want to speak with me, a sinful woman? What did you wish to learn from me, you who have not shrunk from such great labors?”

“>Venerable Mother Mary of Egypt.

We do not have the despair as in the Old Testament, but neither do we have the courage that St. Andrew of Crete speaks of: “I have reviewed as examples for you, O my soul, all the figures of the Old Testament. Learn to imitate the deeds of those who in righteousness loved their God, and flee from the sins of the wicked!”

They did not yet have the joy of the good news of the birth of Christ. But we not only have it and know it—we have now received the Most Pure Body and Blood into ourselves. We not only know as a parable that the Lord will receive us, but we also know that we are now received by Him again; we have again received the garment of incorruption. And all this is so because Christ was and is in the Church—and hence our faith in icons, in that it’s possible to depict Him, unfathomable and ineffable.

Today’s joy should lead us to the realization that we are a new creature in Christ: “As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”

Let us remember that the fast hasn’t ended but is just beginning; and having passed through the repentance of Adam, having been clothed in the garment of incorruption, let us go further along the path revealed to us by the holy Church, through the radiance of Taboric light, to the joy of life in the Lord.

Amen.

    

Congratulations to all of you, dear brothers and sisters, and to many of you on partaking of the Holy Mysteries of Christ!

Saturday is a special day in the life of the Church. Today is the first Saturday of Lent, when the faithful children of the Orthodox Church receive Communion. And now the voice of our Sweetest Lord can be heard in the hearts of many of us. We will come unto him and make our abode with him (Jn. 14:23). And many of us who have fasted, prayed, and repented of our sins, lift up our hearts and minds to the Lord.

The first week of Lent has passed, and many of us have been thinking about the lives we lead, about the inner world we have, and how to change our inner world so that it may conform to the Gospel, the image that the Holy Scriptures describe for us and the holy Church of Christ pictures for us. And many of us understand intuitively that without correcting our image to conform to what the Holy Church gives us, we will never feel satisfied in this world. We will be doomed to seek happiness where we will never find it. We will continuously revolve in endless evil, preoccupied with ourselves, our selfishness, our anger and our passions—we will search and waste our strength in vain.

To what does the Holy Church call us, and what is revealed in a special way or should be revealed to a believer at the end of the first week of Lent? The Apostle Paul says that a man is justified… by the faith of Jesus Christ (Gal. 2:16). We also know that in order to have faith, a person must have two very important virtues: true fasting and true prayer. And our trouble often lies in the fact that we misunderstand what the Holy Church teaches us and calls us to do. Our faith, by itself, often boils down to what we actually have. It seems to us that the way we believe is precisely as it should be. “We have confessed and taken Communion—and everything is fine. God has mercy on me. I stand on my feet. I have food and drink. Therefore, I believe. Yes, maybe I believe correctly! But, this is a mistake, which happens because we fast and pray in the peculiar way that we understand fasting and praying, since our minds are sinful and our hearts are defiled.

What is fasting? Of course, we could talk for a long time about how we fast—what we abstain from, how tired we get, how we look forward to church services so that having confessed and received Communion, we can stop this fasting, this period of suffering. But if we read the Gospel, we will see that fasting is something else. Indeed, ascetic exercises are often accompanied by abstaining from food; but what is fasting in the eyes of the Savior?

Then came to Him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but Thy disciples fast not? And Jesus said unto them, can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast (Mt. 9:14, 15). And as it often happens, in the minds of these very religious (from their point of view) people, Christ overturned everything. It seemed to them that they were fasting, but He assured them that they had not even begun to fast.

Why is that? Because, apparently, true fasting is an experience of God in the life of a Christian that can be roughly compared to what a bride experiences when her groom is taken away from her or what a groom feels when his bride is taken away from him. They died suddenly! The one you loved, this object of love, suddenly disappears from your life. When the Holy Psalmist prayed to God, he said that he forgot to eat his bread (cf. Ps. 101:5) (Not that he refused to eat bread, but forgot to do it!). What does this mean? The fact is that he did not ask, “How do I abstain from food?” He did not face questions of food, drink, or clothes. He had one global problem: What should he do to be united with his Beloved, with God?

And if we look at our fasting from this perspective, we will certainly have to admit that it barely approximates a pathetic excuse for what we should have done. We abstained from certain foods, and having fasted for a day, two or three, we already consider ourselves righteous. After all, we abstained from food and thus fulfilled our intention. By fasting for another day, we added a little bit to the “treasury of our righteousness”. But where is this important experience, which the Savior Himself defines as true fasting? Try to realize that your soul is a widow without God.

And what is prayer? For us, prayer boils down to hurrying through the prayer rule (more during fasts, less in the non-fast seasons), rattling it off, and often pronouncing the name of God in an offhanded way (the commandment, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain is applicable to such prayer). We have read it through, are satisfied, and it seems to us that we have done everything we need to do, “we have fasted and prayed”. If we have fasted and prayed, then we are “true Christians”! But faith speaks of a different prayer. The Holy Fathers say that prayer is lifting up your mind and heart to God, and not to a prayer rule, not to confidence in the fact that “I have read everything”. Then what prayer can we talk about, even while standing in church? What can this be compared to in life? It is one thing if someone who wants to become a pilot is given a flight simulator and, during training, imagines that he is flying in it. But if while sitting in this simulator he believes that he is already flying, he will be told, “You’re crazy”.

The rules that the Holy Fathers give us are an ideal of what we must develop. When we read the prayers written by the saints, we realize that these are not our words—they were not born in our minds or our hearts. True, they nourish our souls, spirit and hearts with the righteous, pure and true thoughts that we are supposed to have, but do not have. After reading these words we should be willing to soar like the saints of God in prayer, to break away from earth to Heaven, to God so that our hearts can burn, rise up and pray. In what sense is prayer a conversation with God? This is communion with your Beloved, with the Bridegroom that we are speaking about, remembering Christ’s words about fasting. If someone in love catches himself thinking that he is continuously in mental contact with his beloved, or yearning to have contact, then the feeling of power, warmth, joy and longing for God should be many times greater.

Let us look carefully: Is there such a prayer in our hearts? Of course, there is nothing to boast of here. It appears that we have neither true prayer nor true fasting. Then the conclusion is obvious: Can our faith be called true if we have neither true fasting nor true prayer?

It is the mercy of God that we contemplate this at the beginning of Lent. The entire path is ahead of us, with all the opportunities and the most favorable conditions for these true labors to shine forth in our minds, hearts, and bodies. This can give us an absolutely different concept of faith—we will understand that we really have no faith, that faith is something greater.

According to the Apostle Paul, true faith is the evidence of things not seen (Heb. 11:1). The holy fathers say that faith is the degree of awareness of our dependence on God. When one fasts truly and asks God to put true understanding and a true feeling into his heart, true faith opens up to him. When faith touches the human heart, prayer will come, aided by this faith and fasting, during which you will “forget to eat your bread”, and then everything will fall into place.

Dear brothers and sisters, today I would like to wish that everything will fall into place in our minds and hearts as soon as possible. Let us labor zealously and courageously for this. And the Lord will bless us! Amen!

St. Turibius of Mogrovejo was born in Spain in 1538, into a noble family. As a child, Turibius had a daily habit of praying the Rosary and the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and prayed and fasted often. 

Turibius studied law at the University of Salamanca, spending five years as a judge in Granada. When his judicial wisdom drew the attention of King Philip II, the king asked that Turibius become a consecrated missionary archbishop for the Spanish colony of Peru. 

At the time, Turibius was a layman, and protested the king’s plan. In a series of letters, he told the king he was not personally capable of serving as Archbishop of Lima, and that canon law did not permit a layman to become an archbishop. 

His arguments did not change the king’s mind, and in 1581, at the age of 43, he was consecrated as a bishop and sent to Lima, Peru. 

Turibius traveled through the rugged, mountain diocese, where he found many of the worst effects of colonialism upon the enslaved and the oppressed natives, and on the colonists who seemed to have lost their souls. 

The new archbishop led his people with constant prayer and penance, traveling through the territory to administer sacraments, teach the faith, and establish schools, seminaries, and hospitals. 

The Peruvian natives believed the archbishop to be a herald of the Gospel who taught that their lives were more precious than the country’s gold and silver. To the colonists, Turibius was a prophetic scourge, and his preachings earned him rebukes and opposition. 

In his 25 years as archbishop, Turibius made three visits to his diocese, under dangerous conditions. He united the Peruvian Church, holding several local councils of the clergy. He was also known to spend days traveling to reach just a single person with the message of the Gospel. 

In 1606, Turibius became seriously ill. He sensed his death was imminent, and began giving all his possessions to the poor. Turibius died on March 23, and his body was found to be incorrupt the next year. 

In 1726, he was declared a saint. Turibius is the patron of native peoples’ rights and Latin American bishops. 

After French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent announcement of new legislation that would allow adults facing terminal illnesses to access assisted suicide, the country’s bishops have hit back against the measure, stressing the need for further investment in palliative care.

In a March 21 statement, the French bishops, who are currently meeting in Lourdes for their spring plenary assembly, voiced “our great concern and our deep reservations with regard to the bill announced on the end of life.”

Noting that the Marian shrine in Lourdes is traditionally a place where those who are sick come to experience healing, the bishops voiced their solidarity with “the most fragile people” and insisted that all human life must be “unconditionally respected and accompanied with authentic fraternity.”

Earlier this month, Macron announced that he would put forward a new bill legalizing “aid in dying” for terminally ill individuals, and that he planned to present a draft of the legislation to parliament in May.

It marks a significant shift for France, where life-termination measures are currently banned, whereas neighbors such as Switzerland, Belgium, and the Netherlands have already adopted assisted dying measures in some cases.

Part of France’s hesitation to draft measures permitting assisted suicide so far has been pressure from the Catholic Church. Macron himself is Catholic.

In 2016, France adopted the Claeys-Leonetti law authorizing deep sedation at the request of palliative patients.

A recent study from the Guttmacher Institute, an organization that supports abortion access, found that the number of abortions in 2023 has increased to the highest number and rate in the United States in over a decade.

The group announced March 19 that “new findings from the Monthly Abortion Provision Study show that an estimated 1,026,690 abortions occurred in the formal health care system in 2023, the first full calendar year after the US Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned Roe v. Wade.”

Guttmacher noted that this is a “10% increase since 2020, the last year for which comprehensive estimates are available” and “is also the highest number and rate measured in the United States in over a decade.”

Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, told OSV News that these reported increases in abortion “in recent years, both before and now with the Dobbs decision, highlight the importance of what we in the pro-life cause have always said: that we must not only make abortion illegal, but rather it should be unthinkable.”

Bishop Burbidge, who is the chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-life Activities, said the study’s findings “demonstrate that there is an ongoing need for us not only to work to change laws, but also to transform hearts and to offer meaningful hope with radical solidarity with women in the face of fear.”

The bishop called for pro-lifers to be “proactive” and “visible” to women seeking abortion so that they are aware of the support available to them. “In bringing this message to others, we have to show our radical solidarity so that we also transform hearts,” he said.

This nationwide increase in abortion despite the procedure being banned in 14 states since Dobbs may be due, in part, to “the broader availability of telehealth for medication abortion,” the Guttmacher Institute said, pointing to medication abortion via mail increasing “considerably after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration lifted in-person dispensing requirements of mifepristone — one of the drugs most commonly used in medication abortion — during the pandemic.”

Guttmacher also highlighted a large increase in medication abortions overall. It found that “there were approximately 642,700 medication abortions in the United States in 2023, accounting for 63% of all abortions in the formal health care system. This is an increase from 2020, when medication abortions accounted for 53% of all abortions.”

Tessa Longbons Cox, senior research associate at Charlotte Lozier Institute, the research arm of SBA Pro-life America, called this increase in medication abortions “nothing short of a tragedy.”

“While Guttmacher’s report doesn’t count abortion drugs illegally mailed into pro-life states from other states with so-called ‘shield laws,’ other research suggests these account for a large share of mail-order abortions,” she added. “These numbers are unfortunately not surprising given abortion advocates post-Dobbs, including Guttmacher, have not only pushed unlimited abortion, for any reason, at any point in pregnancy, but supported the removal of safeguards on abortion drugs at the expense of women’s safety.”

“We know from major international studies that abortion drugs pose four times the risks of surgical abortion,” Cox continued, “but the abortion lobby consistently downplays these risks that undermine their narrative. Given the FDA’s recent push to deregulate these drugs and not requiring an in-person visit, what we’re witnessing is a new abortion landscape that prioritizes putting women’s health and safety last.”

Regarding the rise in abortions with the abortion pill mifepristone, Bishop Burbidge pointed out that these abortions “have been increasing since the FDA began reducing safety standards and increased their availability.”

In 2016, the Obama administration loosened restrictions on mifepristone so that it could be taken later in pregnancy and with fewer doctor’s visits. Under the Biden administration, the FDA altogether removed the in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone in December 2021, allowing for mail order abortions by pill.

In 2023, the Food and Drug Administration announced that it would allow retail pharmacies to provide the abortion pill. Prior to this, its provision was limited to certified doctors, clinics and some mail-order pharmacies.

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments March 26 for Food and Drug Administration v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, and Danco Laboratories v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, cases in which the court could require a return to stricter regulations on the abortion pill.

Bishop Burbidge highlighted a nationwide invitation to prayer that he is leading along with Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, president of the USCCB, which will begin on March 25, the eve of these oral arguments.

He called prayer in this matter “critically important,” saying the abortion pill not only kills a child in the womb, but that “we’ve heard from women how extremely upsetting and violent and painful” the experience is and “how alone” women feel, going through this experience.”

The bishop is calling the faithful to pray “to St. Joseph, Defender of Life, for the protection of women and preborn children until this decision is reached by the court.”

This summer’s National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis will provide a “Steubenville conference” experience for teenagers, while parents with children can expect full-family formation in a track designed to engage adults and kids together, according to congress leaders.

Planned for July 17-21 at Lucas Oil Stadium and the adjacent Indiana Convention Center, the 10th National Eucharistic Congress is expected to draw tens of thousands of Catholics of all ages from across the country for worship, prayer, formation and community.

Steubenville Conferences, which organizes well-known youth conferences at Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio and elsewhere around the U.S., is hosting a morning impact session for teenagers and their chaperones under the congress’s “Awaken” track. Those sessions will include keynote speakers, worship music and prayer.

Joel Stepanek, the congress’s vice president of programming and administration, told media recently that teenagers can expect to “have that youth conference experience” within the congress context.

Families with children through age 12 or 13 at the conference are encouraged to attend morning sessions together in the congress’s “Cultivate” experience.

“The idea is that families with children oftentimes find themselves stuck, where you go to a conference or congress and perhaps there’s child care, and mom and dad go to some sessions that are catered to them … or, on the flip side, there’s an experience where mom and dad go to with their kids, but it’s really tailored for their children,” Stepanek said. “Our goal for this particular experience is to do something unique.”

The “Cultivate” track focuses on ministry for the full family. So, parents and their children “will be able to be present to each other to hear a talk together, to pray together, and have an opportunity to interact with one another,” Stepanek said. “It’s full-family formation.”

While afternoon breakout sessions are open to all congress participants, families and youth also can expect sessions designed for them. Youth sessions are organized by different youth-focused apostolates, such as Life Teen, National Evangelization Teams (NET) and the Vietnamese Eucharistic Youth Movement.

Meanwhile, Catechesis of the Good Shepherd and CatholicHOM also will provide prayer, formation and programming for families. There also will be a kid-friendly area in the exhibit hall, as well as organized family and youth games at White River State Park, which is within walking distance from Lucas Oil Stadium.

Family programming makes it possible for them “to not just experience the congress together, but be formed through the congress together,” Stepanek said.

Each evening, all congress participants will gather in Lucas Oil Stadium for music and worship, the Family Rosary Across America and Eucharistic adoration. On Saturday evening, musician Matt Maher will lead praise and worship. The evenings also include some of the congress’s most well-known speakers, including Bishop Robert E. Barron, Father Mike Schmitz, Sister Josephine Garrett and Gloria Purvis.

“We’ll have a talk for a means to an end, which is prayer,” Stepanek said. “We’ll have an opportunity where teens will pray with the larger body of Christ, where families will pray with the body of Christ, where children will get to see 60,000 Catholics in prayer and worship. This is an impactful moment for these two groups of people.”

The National Eucharistic Congress is part of the National Eucharistic Revival, a three-year initiative launched by the U.S. bishops in 2022 to deepen Catholics’ relationship with Jesus in the Eucharist.

The cost for the five-day conference pass is $299 per adult and $250 per teen, with kids 12 and under free. By comparison, conference organizers said, a five-day pass for a teen at Disneyland is $480. Day passes also are available.

“We’re hoping that people will look at this event and say, ‘there’s a great investment here,’” Stepanek said. The congress is “not just photos and memories for your family, but changing the trajectory of your family for potentially the next several generations.”

The congress will differ from other adult, youth and family conferences in the United States, said Stepanek, who worked as a parish youth minister before a decade with Life Teen. By placing the youth experience and families within the larger context of the congress, teenagers and children will see their connection to the wider church, he said.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for teenagers,” he said. “The next time we have a Eucharistic congress, they will be out of high school. … They’re going to be part of something historic, something that has not happened not only in their lifetime but their parents’ lifetime. … They are a vital part of what we’re doing.”

Stepanek recalls an experience he had as a 9-year-old at a parish mission that still resonates with him as an adult. “Can you imagine what this will be like for families who have children, teenagers, to come to this historic big moment and to see the church alive and vibrant in the United States? This is profoundly game-changing for what, generationally, things look like for our faith moving forward in this country,” he said.

The congress is being planned with family safety in mind, including security and volunteers to help keep younger children safe and reconnect parents and children in case of separation, a family-specific First-Aid station, and space for nursing and napping children.

“We want to make sure that this experience is open to families, is accommodating to families, and provides an opportunity for families to take what is planted here and to grow it when they go back to their home,” Stepanek said.

Is. 50:4-7 / Ps. 22:8-9, 17-20, 23-24 / Phil. 2:6-11 / Mk. 14:1-15:47

Crowned with thorns, our Lord is lifted up on the cross, where he dies as “King of the Jews.”

Notice how many times he is called “king” in today’s Gospel — mostly in scorn and mockery. As we hear the long accounts of his passion, at every turn we must remind ourselves — he suffered this cruel and unusual violence for us.

He is the Suffering Servant foretold by Isaiah in today’s First Reading. He reenacts the agony described in today’s Psalm, and even dies with the first words of that Psalm on his lips (see Psalm 22:1).

Listen carefully for the echoes of this Psalm throughout today’s Gospel — as Jesus is beaten, his hands and feet are pierced; as his enemies gamble for his clothes, wagging their heads, mocking his faith in God’s love, his faith that God will deliver him.

Are we that much different from our Lord’s tormenters? Often, don’t we deny that he is king, refusing to obey his only commands that we love him and one another? Don’t we render him mock tribute, pay him lip service with our half-hearted devotions?

In the dark noon of Calvary, the veil in Jerusalem’s temple was torn. It was a sign that by his death Jesus destroyed forever the barrier separating us from the presence of God.

He was God and yet humbled himself to come among us, we’re reminded in today’s Epistle. And despite our repeated failures, our frailty, Jesus still humbles himself to come to us, offering us his body and blood in the Eucharist.

His enemies never understood: His kingship isn’t of this world (see John 18:36). He wants to write his law, his rule of life on our hearts and minds.

As we enter Holy Week, let us once more resolve to give him dominion in our lives. Let us take up the cross he gives to us — and confess with all our hearts, minds and strength, that truly this is the Son of God.

    

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

Beloved brothers and sisters, there is a treasure that is more precious than all riches, more than everything on earth—so much more, that people even give their lives for it. This is holy, exalted, salvific love for God. There is a blessing and reward so great that nothing can be compared to it—this is the golden crown of martyrdom. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life (Rev. 2:10), said the Lord.

And as we celebrate the memory of the holy martyrs, our hearts are filled with special tenderness. We sympathize with these men who suffered for sacred truth, for Christ. We experience profound respect for them, are amazed at their spiritual feat, and involuntarily begin to ponder just how greatly they were able to appreciate Christ’s love and respond to this love. We become ashamed of our own lives, my dears. After all, we also believe in the Lord and think about our salvation, but in our souls and in our lives, we are completely lacking that burning zeal, that living love, which particularly distinguished the first Christians—in fact, all true Christians throughout all our Christian history.

We sacrifice almost nothing in the name of the Lord, we do not want to bear any deprivations, and are at times even afraid to openly confess our holy faith in God. But the truly faithful gave away everything: wealth, honor, youth, and prosperity. They even sacrificed their own lives. They brought everything to the altar for our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ—no earthly interests, profits, and attachments could outweigh their enormous, fiery love of God, which seemed as madness to unbelievers.

And what is especially remarkable is this martyrdom for truth, the self-renunciation of these young, even very young, pure souls. They were young of body but wise of soul. And in their weak, infirm bodies shone forth such strength of spirit, that words do not suffice to describe all of it, or to praise their beauty and manliness.

Today we celebrate the memory of the Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebaste. Dear brothers and sisters, I would call fortunate those who bear the names of these holy martyrs, and even more fortunate those who are like them in their lives. Martyrdom is a sign of the chosen, a great gift, and divine mercy.

The sufferers went joyfully to their martyrdom. A yearning for ascetic feats is a quality of exalted souls. When the time of persecutions ended, people began to force themselves to suffer for the sake of their salvation and the purification of their souls. What is all this self-torment for? For the sake of what? We cannot fathom the happiness of these sufferings, their true goal, and price before God.

Once some great fathers gathered, and discussing their own deeds, asked, “What have we done?” To this one of them, an abba of great spiritual life, answered, “We have fulfilled the word of the Savior, Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake (Matt. 5:11).”

If a person wishes only good for all, but they pay him with hatred; if his good deeds remain thankless and his love unreturned, yet in quiet and solitude he pours tears for those who know not what they do—is this not bloodless martyrdom? If, without self-pity, a person honorably fulfills his duty, but he is trampled upon, reviled, and accused of self-interest—isn’t this martyrdom?

Finally, if a person in saving his soul struggles with sin, labors against the passions, washes away his sins with his tears, and with pain of heart overcomes his bad habits, courageously enduring temptations and allurements, preserving faithfulness to the divine commandments in all circumstances—isn’t this voluntary martyrdom for Christ? Know that the Lord accepts it all, and rewards even for the tiniest things.

I repeat, my dear ones: happy are they who are like the holy martyrs in their lives. May no heart feel terror at these words. The holy martyrs greeted torments as a feast.

No, let no one be afraid while listening to stories of suffering. When the flame of love for God burns in a pure heart, and holy faithfulness to one’s Savior and Lord Jesus Christ lives in the soul, then no depravations, labors, or torments are terrifying. Then all earthly attachments, all vanity, and cares of this life seem insignificant. Then ascetic labors are easy and desired.

My dear ones! The Lord calls all of us to walk His path—the narrow, sorrowful, path of the cross. He calls us, and He Himself will help us, strengthen us, and give us endurance and strength. If He should call you also to open martyrdom, then know and believe, that the Savior will be right next to you in those moments, and with Him you will be stronger than everyone on earth, stronger than all human and diabolic evil, stronger than death itself.

The Lord warns us: Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown (Rev. 3:11). He knows our infirmity, but holy love can raise us higher than all fears, higher than the fear of death.

May God vouchsafe each of us to love Him more strongly than anything on earth, and walk His path to the end. We do not know, but perhaps one of us may be called to martyrdom. But for now, all are called to labor according to their strength to fulfill His commandments and bear their faith through all trials. The Lord said, “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you a crown of life.” Amen.

From: Archimandrite Tikhon (Agrikov), Life, Sermons, Letters (STSL, 2008), 154–159.