Tag: Christianity

Is there a “structure” of the Nativity Fast? Why did they fast for only seven days before the Nativity in ancient times, but today we fast for forty days? And what is the culmination of the feast of the coming of the Savior into the world? We talked about this with Archpriest George ZavershinskyZavershinsky, George, Archpriest

“>Archpriest George Zavershinsky, the dean of the parishes of the Diocese of Sourozh in Northern Ireland, who holds a Ph.D in Philosophy and Technical Science, a Masters in Theology, and is a member of the Russian Writers’ Union.

Archpriest George Zavershinsky —Father George, to begin our conversation, I suggest we show our readers the meaning and logic of the Nativity Fast, which does not have such a clear structure as Lent. What should believers who observe the The Nativity FastThe Nativity Fast

“>Nativity Fast be guided by? Is it possible (and necessary) to divide the forty days of waiting for the meeting with the Savior into certain milestones? How do you see the Nativity Fast for a Christian in comparison with other periods of self-restriction?

—Fasts usually precede major Church feasts. We have four long fasts in the year: Lent before Pascha, the Apostles’ Fast before the feast of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, the Dormition Fast before the feast of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos and, lastly, the Nativity Fast before the Nativity of Christ. This fast is equal in duration to Lent (excluding Holy Week)—it is “forty days of fasting” as well. It is quite strict: on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays abstaining from boiled food is recommended, not to mention meat, dairy products and fish. On the whole, it is a real fast.

On the days of fast “Alleluia” is sung at Matins. It means that the general Typikon requires the reading of the Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian with bows. It is not often done and is usually at the discretion of the rector. And when “Alleluia” is sung, as we know, the Liturgy is not celebrated. So was it prescribed by the ancient Typikon. In general, especially during Lent, abstinence is not so much gastronomic as it is liturgical, because Christians abstain from the great joy that participation in the Divine Liturgy and Communion of the Holy Body and Blood of Christ gives them.

The “forty days of the Nativity Fast”, or St. Philip’s Fast (it begins on the feast of the Apostle Philip and continues until the feast of the Nativity of Christ), unlike Lent, has no obvious “phases” or any certain structure. And yet they can be traced.

First of all, there is the feast of the Entrance of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple. This is the beginning of the story of the Savior’s coming into the world, His Birth, earthly life, death on the Cross and Resurrection. Why? Because the Virgin is led into the Holy of Holies, where only once a year the high priest enters—not without sacrificial blood and not only for his sins, but also for the sins of the people. The coming of the Messiah is being prepared in the world. The Birth of Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the law and filling it with living content.

I would single out the following stages in the structure of the Nativity Fast: The first is the Entrance of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple, the second is Advent and Christmas according to the Western tradition on December 24–25, and the third is the New Year preceding the feast, and the Nativity itself.

There are also secular stages of this fast. The fact is that Christmas in the West is more of a family, secular festival rather than a religious one. It probably wasn’t always like that, but since recently it’s has been. The New Year is a secular and family holiday, but we are drawing nearer to the solemn and joyful event of the Savior’s Birth. The occasion for a family gathering is wonderful to mark it as a step to the feast of the Nativity of Christ.

For some the main festivity is the New Year, for others—those who follow the Western tradition and live in Western countries—it’s Christmas. But for us the main stages remain the run-up to the Nativity.

I serve in the West, and local populations have already gotten used to the fact that Christmas is widely celebrated everywhere on December 24–25, and the New Year—to a lesser extent. As for us, we continue our journey to the great feast of the Nativity of Christ.

These are stages to this feast, so that our hearts can be filled with joy. At the same time, of course, we should observe this fast not so much with the purpose of “performing a gastronomic rite” as to fulfill the long journey that crowns the feast of the Nativity of Christ with meaning.

    

—But still, fasting is often reduced to food restrictions. No matter how much we say that the human soul and relations with your neighbor are above all, everything usually starts with food and ends with it. But what if it is physically difficult for a person to observe the food aspect of fast? How can we find a compromise on this issue?

—Yes, of course, we say that the soul, the faith and our trust in God are above all. Why does everything “start” with food and “end” with it? According to one expression, “a person is what he eats.” But it should be taken into account that our inner, spiritual state largely depends on what kind of food we choose. During the fast, delicious, nutritious food is forbidden to us. This is our inner, spiritual self-restriction. After all, we understand that discipline in food is necessary as well as in spiritual life.

However, during the fast we must not only observe the food restrictions, but also follow strictly the prayer rules that help us stay on the spiritual path, by which fasting leads us to our meeting with the Lord.

The Nativity Fast frees the space of our souls so that the Savior can be born in them. Not the Savior of the general mass of people, but a personal One—mine, yours, his and hers…

Can fasting be harmful to us? Yes, of course it can. And here we need to keep a balance, not try to be “holier than the Pope” by excessively limiting ourselves in food and therefore experiencing psychological difficulties. People close to us may even suffer from our overzealousness, so food restrictions should be gradual.

We live for decades; the current Nativity Fast is not the first one in our lives, and God willing, not the last. If in the past we allowed ourselves some excesses during the fast, this time we should limit ourselves and should not seek sensual pleasures. At the same time, we give our heart, our spiritual organ, to God to act in our lives.

—In ancient times, fasting before the Nativity lasted only seven days. What was reason for this change in Nativity Fast’s duration?

—Yes, in ancient times fasting before the Nativity indeed lasted only seven days. This fact was mentioned by such saints as St. Ambrose of MilanBorn in 340, the son of the Roman prefect of Gaul, St. Ambrose returned to Italy with his mother and his sister, St. Marcellina, after the death of their father. There he studied and became such a gifted orator and lawyer that the governor of northern Italy, charging him to ”govern more like a bishop than a judge,” selected him to be his successor in the capital of Milan.

“>St. Ambrose of Milan and St Augustine the Bishop of HippoSaint Augustine was born in the city of Thagaste in northern Africa. He was raised by his mother, St Monica (May 4), and he received his education at Carthage.”>Blessed Augustine in the fourth century. In the fifth century it was believed that the tradition of a seven-day Nativity Fast had existed since the earliest times, although the duration of the fast varied in different communities.

In 1166, it was suggested that the fast be for forty days everywhere, so that the central feast—the Nativity—could become even more significant, and Christians should prepare properly for their meeting with it by laboring for God and for other people. These changes seem to be related to the fact that the Nativity of Christ took the central place in the universal Church tradition.

    

—We speak much about fasting. How are a Christian’s temperance during the Nativity Fast and the meeting of one of the greatest Christian feasts interrelated? What is the significance of the feast of the Nativity of Christ for humanity as a whole and for each individual?

—Much has been said about this. The Christian’s temperance during the Nativity Fast and the meeting of one of the greatest Christian feasts are closely interrelated. Self-restraint, denigrating yourself in something is always hard, but it fills you with joy and gratitude to the Lord and longing for Him. These feelings give us the opportunity to get to know God Who was Born, came into the world, passed from life to life, rose from the dead, and is filled with love, mercy and compassion for humanity. This is how we see the feast today.

2000 years ago, the perception of the Nativity of Christ was different, although there are many similarities. God’s Judgment of humanity extends from the beginning to the end of history. The evidence that the Judgment is in process is the fact that God was born among people. This is an all-encompassing act of history, its culmination. That’s how we Christians see it.

—In conclusion, I would like to clarify once again how Orthodox Christians should spend the feast of the Nativity of Christ?

—Traditionally: Attend the night service, where the faithful are given Communion with the appearance of the first star.

Facing an imminent expansion of Canada’s assisted suicide law to make people suffering from mental illness eligible, the nation’s Catholic bishops are calling on healthcare providers to invest more in mental health resources to get people the help they need.

“With the threat of [assisted suicide] becoming available to Canadians whose sole medical condition is mental illness, we cannot emphasize enough how important it is for public healthcare to invest more in mental health resources,” the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops said Nov. 30.

“This investment is urgently needed, not only because of the present mental health crisis in which needs far exceed resources, but because discouragement and despair can also result from this very scarcity of reachable, reliable, and robust support,” the bishops said.

The Canadian Catholic Church has opposed the nation’s assisted suicide / euthanasia law, formally called Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD), since it was enacted in 2016. The bishops’ recent statement – stemming from their September plenary – not only focused on the law’s expansion scheduled for March 17, 2024, but made clear that it will not take place at Canadian Catholic healthcare institutions, as the Church “remains firm in its opposition to MAiD.”

The bishops implied that government officials and outside organizations have applied pressure to Catholic Canadian healthcare institutions to perform assisted suicide, to no avail.

Today, there are 129 Catholic healthcare providers across Canada, accounting for nearly 20,000 healthcare beds. These facilities are supported by 19 dioceses and 14 Catholic sponsors. They span across six provinces and 27 health regions and authorities.

“Euthanasia and assisted suicide (MAiD) have always been, and will always be, morally unacceptable because they are affronts to human dignity and violations of natural and divine law,” the bishops said.  “Catholic healthcare affirms that every person, made in the image of God, has intrinsic value, regardless of ability or health.”

“For these reasons, we, the members of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, unanimously and unequivocally oppose the performance of either euthanasia or assisted suicide (MAiD) within health organizations with a Catholic identity,” the bishops continued. “We oppose efforts by governments or others to compel such facilities to perform MAiD in violation of Catholic teachings.”

“Anything to the contrary would deeply betray the identities of these institutions as Catholic and would not be in keeping with the Church’s moral teachings on the sanctity of life and the dignity of the human person,” the bishops added.

Canadian lawmakers voted to legalize euthanasia in June, 2016.

According to data published by the Canadian government, in 2022 there were 13,241 assisted suicide deaths, accounting for 4.1 percent of all deaths in the country. That 2022 figure represents a growth rate of 31.2 percent over 2021, when there were 10,092 assisted suicide deaths. The government data shows that between 2016 – when it was legalized – and 2022, there were 44,958 assisted suicide deaths.

By multiple accounts, these are among the highest figures in the world.

Initially, the language of the law made people eligible for assisted suicide who “have a grievous and irremediable medical condition,” and for those whose “natural death” was “reasonably foreseeable.” In March 2021, the “reasonably foreseeable” language was repealed, thus expanding the law to allow any eligible person to pursue assisted suicide regardless if their natural death is reasonably foreseeable.

The 2021 expansion also included people with mental illnesses, but required a two-year study for experts to recommend the protocols and safeguards that should be followed.

The addition of language to allow euthanasia for people with mental illnesses was originally scheduled to go into effect in March 2023. However, government officials ultimately delayed the change for a year to March 2024. Canada’s Justice Minister David Lametti said in February 2023 that “it is clear more time is needed to get this right.”

On Oct. 18, Canada’s Parliament voted down a bill that would have amended the nation’s Criminal Code to block the assisted suicide law from expanding to include people with mental illness. In light of that vote, the expansion is on schedule to go into effect on March 17, 2024.

The Canadian bishops, in their statement, said that assisted suicide is not performed by any of the nation’s Catholic healthcare institutions, and that that will remain the case.

“We continue to commend and support the moral position taken by Catholic healthcare institutions across Canada which … do not permit either euthanasia or assisted suicide within their facilities,” the bishops said. “When patients choose an option that cannot be offered within a Catholic healthcare institution, they are assured of a safe and timely discharge and transfer of care.”

The bishops concluded that they “continue to pray for the sick, for all caregivers, and for lawmakers whose role it is to help shape a society that does not harm or endanger the lives of its citizens.”

Kosovo and Metohija, December 14, 2023

Photo: spc.rs     

In his capacity as chief guardian of the Sima Andrejević-Igumanov Endowment, His Holiness Patriarch Porfirije of Serbia announced the winners of the fund’s scholarship competition held this fall.

548 students from Kosovo and Metohija submitted applications and the relevant documentation from October 25 to November 1, after which 100 winners were chosen, reports the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Pat. Porfirije determined that the total fund for the current school year amounts to $46,750 (14.4 million dinars), to be paid in equal amounts to each winner in monthly installments.

The Endowment awarded scholarships to 13 students from large families Scholarships for children from large families announced by Serbian PatriarchThe Endowment, named after the 19th-century Kosov Serb donor who helped students study in Belgrade and at the seminary in Prizren, Kosovo, held a competition from September 26 to October 25 to determine the most worthy and most needy students.

“>last year.

The scholarship fund originates from the contributions of Dragan and Milovan Popović from Belgrade, and is named after the 19th-century Kosov Serb donor who helped students study in Belgrade and at the seminary in Prizren, Kosovo.

The Patriarch has also been known to Serbian Patriarch personally funds scholarships for students in CroatiaLast year, the organization managed to help 80 talented and needy students from throughout Croatia. An annual scholarship is about $825 per school student, and about $1,530 per university student.

“>personally fund scholarships for students in Croatia, where he served as Metroplitan before his election as the Serbian primate.

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All forms of artificial intelligence should be used to alleviate human suffering, promote integral development and help end wars and conflicts, not increase inequality and injustice in the world, Pope Francis said in his message for World Peace Day 2024.

“Artificial intelligence ought to serve our best human potential and our highest aspirations, not compete with them,” the pope said in his message for the Jan. 1 commemoration.

The message, “Artificial Intelligence and Peace,” was addressed to all men and women in the world, and in particular to heads of state and government and the leaders of the different religions and civil society. It was released Dec. 14 at a Vatican news conference.

The pope’s message highlighted the “need to strengthen or, if necessary, to establish bodies charged with examining the ethical issues arising in this field and protecting the rights of those who employ forms of artificial intelligence or are affected by them.”

The impact of any form of artificial intelligence “depends not only on its technical design, but also on the aims and interests of its owners and developers, and on the situations in which it will be employed,” he said.

Positive outcomes “will only be achieved if we show ourselves capable of acting responsibly and respect such fundamental human values as ‘inclusion, transparency, security, equity, privacy and reliability,’” the pope added.

The huge advances in new information technologies, he said, “offer exciting opportunities and grave risks, with serious implications for the pursuit of justice and harmony among peoples.”

Many urgent questions need to be asked, he added, including, “What will be the consequences, in the medium and long term, of these new digital technologies? And what impact will they have on individual lives and on societies, on international stability and peace?”

Pope Francis said, “We need to be aware of the rapid transformations now taking place and to manage them in ways that safeguard fundamental human rights and respect the institutions and laws that promote integral human development.”

Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, told reporters at the Vatican Dec. 14 that “like any other product of human ingenuity, artificial intelligence is acceptable if it serves the common the good, protects the inalienable value of the human person and promotes fundamental rights.”

“Artificial intelligences already exert huge influence and will increasingly do so,” the cardinal said, “but we do not know where AI will take us in politics and commerce, culture and the environment and so on, so everyone needs to be better informed about developments as they occur, to speak up and take responsibility.”

In his message, the pope pinpointed specific technologies and advancements in the world of artificial intelligence that require urgent attention and oversight such as: machine or deep learning; surveillance systems; social credit or ranking systems; and lethal autonomous weapons systems or LAWs.

The weaponization of artificial intelligence through LAWs, he said, “is a cause for grave ethical concern. Autonomous weapon systems can never be morally responsible subjects,” and so “it is imperative to ensure adequate, meaningful and consistent human oversight of weapon systems.”

Nations are responsible for regulating AI at home and “international organizations can play a decisive role in reaching multilateral agreements and coordinating their application and enforcement,” Pope Francis said, calling on the global community of nations to work together to adopt “a binding international treaty that regulates the development and use of artificial intelligence in its many forms.”

Regulation should aim not only at preventing harmful practices but also at encouraging best practices, he added.

Fundamentally, he said, in a world of seemingly limitless technological possibilities, people risk falling prey to a “technocratic system,” which “allies the economy with technology and privileges the criterion of efficiency, tending to ignore anything unrelated to its immediate interests.”

“In an obsessive desire to control everything, we risk losing control over ourselves,” he said. “In the quest for an absolute freedom, we risk falling into the spiral of a ‘technological dictatorship.’”

“Inspired by a Promethean presumption of self-sufficiency, inequalities could grow out of proportion, knowledge and wealth accumulate in the hands of a few, and grave risks ensue for democratic societies and peaceful coexistence,” he said.

Barbara Caputo, a professor of computer engineering and artificial intelligence at the Turin Polytechnical University, told reporters at the Vatican news conference that while AI isn’t new, what is different today is the amount of information collected on individuals and “the concentration of resources” in so few hands.

The concentration of data, human talent, economic resources and computer capabilities in the hands of fewer entities means that profit will be their only or overriding motive, she said. “The pope reminds us with his message that artificial intelligence is made by people for people, and it must go back to being for everyone so it can really be an instrument for peace.”

She supported the pope’s call in his message for adequate education and methods of training.

“We must commit ourselves to ensuring quality technical training in artificial intelligence for all young women and men, all over the world, who wish to put their talents to use in this discipline, with dedication and enthusiasm,” she said.

The more “authoritative technical voices” there are from all over the world, she said, the more they can bring “the richness of their experience, history and culture to the technical development of the artificial intelligence to come.”

Pope Francis said he hoped his message “will encourage efforts to ensure that progress in developing forms of artificial intelligence will ultimately serve the cause of human fraternity and peace. It is not the responsibility of a few but of the entire human family.”

Chișinău, Moldova, December 14, 2023

Photo: teologie.md     

The rite of returning to the Orthodox Church was recently celebrated at the Academy of Orthodox Theology of Moldova for people who repented of apostasy.

The service was celebrated for people who had left the Church for Baptist and Pentecostal groups but later renounced their heresies and submitted petitions to return home to the Orthodox Church, the Academy reports.

Fr. Octavian Solomon, head of the Department of Missionary Guidance and Sectology, and several students of the Academy celebrated the rite, which includes the renunciation of heresy and the renewal of grace through a second Chrismation.

“We joyfully welcome these returns to the faith and encourage all those who want to follow the example of these Christians to contact the missionary priests of our institution for preliminary catechesis,” the Academy writes.

Catechism topics include the veneration of angels, saints, and icons, the name of God, the relationship between Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition, the Holy Trinity and the Divinity of Christ in Scripture, the commemoration of the departed, the state of the soul after death, the Christian as a theanthropic institution, the work of the Holy Spirit in the Sacraments of the Church, infant Baptism, and more.

OrthoChristian has reported on several such services in Moscow, most recently in Apostates to occultism, satanism, sects, Islam received back into the ChurchThe Church of St. Joseph is known for its work bringing apostates back to the Church, and the rite of reunion is celebrated there several times a year.

“>December 2021.

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Pope Francis’ 2023 was a year of important trips made or postponed, a predecessor’s funeral and his own 10th anniversary as pope, a call to the world to act on climate change and a call to the Catholic Church to strengthen its mission by learning “synodality.”

The Argentine pope, who was born Dec. 17, 1936, was to finish the year as an 87-year-old.

As the oldest reigning pope in the last 120 years, Pope Francis’ year was punctuated with hospitalizations, breathing difficulties and ongoing mobility challenges. The last pope to serve at his age was Pope Leo XIII, who died at the age of 93 in 1903.

For Pope Francis, the year began with mourning Pope Benedict XVI, who resigned in 2013 and died Dec. 31, 2022.

Pope Francis spent the week after his death speaking about his predecessor, lauding his “wisdom, tenderness, devotion” and lauding how his theology was a direct result of his faith.

“His explanation of the faith was carried out with the devotion of a man who has surrendered all of himself to God and who, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, sought an ever-greater participation in the mystery of that Jesus who had fascinated him from his youth,” Pope Francis wrote in the introduction to a book published by the Vatican.

Pope Francis presided over his predecessor’s funeral Jan. 5, and preaching about the Gospel rather than giving a eulogy as liturgical norms dictate, he built his homily around four quotations from Pope Benedict.

The first of five foreign trips Pope Francis made in 2023 took him to Congo and then on an ecumenical peace mission to South Sudan. The trip with the Anglican archbishop of Canterbury and the moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland had been set for July 2022, but was canceled because Pope Francis was experiencing intense pain in his knee.

Even though he was well enough to travel in 2023, the knee continued to be a problem. Photos taken in his residence often showed him using a walker. He would be pushed in a wheelchair to his place when presiding at Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica and when greeting people at his general audiences. On days when it was not so painful, he would use a silver cane.

Pope Francis spent nine days in Rome’s Gemelli hospital in June after undergoing a three-hour surgery to repair a hernia. Surgeons also removed several adhesions or bands of scar tissue that had formed after previous surgeries decades ago.

Suffering from a respiratory infection, he also spent four days in March in the suite of rooms the Gemelli reserves for the pope. When he was experiencing respiratory difficulties again in late November, he went to the Gemelli Isola hospital for a CT scan but returned to his Vatican residence the same day. He was given intravenous antibiotics at home but kept many of his appointments, even if he did have an aide read his speeches for him.

The bronchial infection, which made his breathing very labored, forced him to cancel his planned trip to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates in early December for COP28; he would have been the first pope to attend a U.N. climate change summit.

“Are we working for a culture of life or a culture of death?” he asked world leaders in his COP28 message read in Dubai by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state. “To all of you I make this heartfelt appeal: Let us choose life! Let us choose the future!”

The destruction of the environment is “a sin” that not only “greatly endangers all human beings, especially the most vulnerable,” he wrote to the leaders, but it also “threatens to unleash a conflict between generations.”

In anticipation of the conference, Pope Francis in early October released “Laudate Deum” (“Praise God”), a follow-up document to his 2015 encyclical “Laudato Si’, On Care for Our Common Home.”

“We must move beyond the mentality of appearing to be concerned but not having the courage needed to produce substantial changes,” he wrote in “Laudate Deum.”

Making an even more urgent appeal for action than he did with “Laudato Si’,” the pope wrote that COP28 could “represent a change of direction, showing that everything done since 1992 (with the adoption of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change) was in fact serious and worth the effort, or else it will be a great disappointment and jeopardize whatever good has been achieved thus far.”

The two major events Pope Francis was able to participate in were World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal, in August and the long-awaited first assembly of the Synod of Bishops on Synodality in October.

WYD brought more than 1.5 million young people together and, in a letter for local youth day celebrations in November, Pope Francis described it as an “event that surpassed all our expectations. Our meeting in Lisbon was magnificent, a genuine experience of renewal, an explosion of light and joy!”

Throughout his visit to Portugal, in meetings both with young people and with clergy, the pope’s refrain was that in the church there is room for “todos, todos, todos” — “everyone, everyone, everyone.”

“Please, let us not convert the church into a customs office” where only the “just,” “good,” and “properly married” can enter while leaving everyone else outside, he told Portuguese bishops, priests and pastoral workers. “No. The church is not that,” he said, rather it is a place for “righteous and sinners, good and bad, everyone, everyone, everyone.”

Interviewed by Italian television about the Oct. 4-29 assembly of the Synod of Bishops, the pope said, “The result is positive. Everything was discussed with full freedom, and this is a beautiful thing.”

Asked specifically about the assembly’s discussions about welcoming gay Catholics, Pope Francis responded: “When I say ‘everyone, everyone, everyone,’ it’s the people. The church receives people, everyone, and does not ask what you are. Then, within the church, everyone grows and matures in their Christian belonging. It’s true that today it’s a bit fashionable to talk about this. The church receives everyone.”

At his Mass concluding the synod assembly, the pope summarized his key hope for the synod, which will meet again in October 2024: “The Lord will guide us and help us to be a more synodal and missionary church, a church that adores God and serves the women and men of our time, going forth to bring to everyone the consoling joy of the Gospel.”

Just days before the synod opened, Pope Francis created 21 new cardinals from 16 nations, including Cardinal Robert F. Prevost, the Chicago-born prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, and French Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the nuncio to the United States.

In an interview with Mexican journalist Valentina Alazraki Dec. 12, the pope said he feels “quite well” physically and his health continues to improve. Yet asked if people should be concerned about his health, he responded, “Yes, a little bit, yes. I need them to pray for my health.”

New York, December 14, 2023

Photo: synod.com     

The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia published an epistle for the Nativity Fast earlier this week, calling on the faithful, against the background of the wars in Ukraine and the Holy Land, to “devote all [their] strength to the manifestation of Christian brotherly love, and to providing real aid to our fellow man.”

“Let us seek to remember that no matter how difficult the situation in which a Christian lives, no matter what dark clouds may gather over him, he will always emerge victorious over all evils if he is able, with God’s help, to maintain his faith,” the hierarchs encourage.

The Synodal epistle reads:

Rejoicing in the fraternal atmosphere and fruitful undertakings of the current session of the Synod of Bishops, held during the present days of the Nativity Fast, we render thanks unto God for His mercies and lovingly greet all of you with the words of the Church’s blessing: “Peace be unto all!” For mankind is hungry for the peace of Christ.

Having gathered around the Kursk-Root Icon of the Mother of God “of the Sign,” we fervently pray to the Most Blessed Virgin, “the Guide” (Hodegetria) of the Orthodox Diaspora, for the fulness of the Russian Church Abroad, the unity of Holy Orthodoxy, and for the subject of our principle grief at this moment — the speedy cessation of fratricidal warfare.

This year we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of great luminaries in the heavens of the Russian Diaspora, His Beatitude Metropolitan Anastassy (Gribanovsky) and Archbishop Vitaly (Maximenko). Being ever concerned with the affairs in the Holy Land and in Kievan Rus’, we remember how Vladyka Anastassy, as the overseer of the Russian Spiritual Mission in Jerusalem, worked tirelessly to strengthen its position; and how Vladyka Vitaly became famous in Volhynia for his active missionary and social labors. Revering their sacred memory, we extend the hand of Christian love and sympathy to His Beatitude Theophilus III, Patriarch of the Holy City of Jerusalem and All Palestine, to His Beatitude Metropolitan Onouphry of Kiev and All Ukraine, and to the host of archpastors, pastors, monastics and faithful children of the Jerusalem Patriarchate and the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church. With archpastoral affection, we offer the embrace of our fervent prayers to Archimandrite Roman (Krassovsky), together with the brethren, abbesses and sisters who reverently maintain the wick of that precious candle, once lit by Abbot Daniel at the Life-Giving Sepulcher of the Lord, and which since his time has flared up into the bright flame of those Russian lamps — the monasteries and convents of our Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem.

Observing on all sides enmity and division, cruelty and injustice, despondency and anxiety, sorrow and the suffering of God’s people, we hasten, on the eve of the Nativity of Christ, to beseech Almighty God that the clergy and flock of the Church Abroad may obtain peace with Him, with one other, and each with his own conscience; and that heavenly aid may accompany them along the path of faith and virtue, humanity and decency. “If it be possible, as much as lieth within you,” we say in the words of the Apostle Paul, “be at peace with all men” (Romans 12:18). After all, the minimum expectation of a Christian is mutual patience and a respectful attitude towards one other. Such is the beginning of the love of Christ. As such, one must not pour out hatred or malice towards another, for by so doing we will but aggravate the evil that comes upon us. In such times as now face us, it is of greater importance that we overcome the passions and unite in prayer for an end to bloodshed; for the restoration of peace, harmony and friendship; and for the strengthening of “those who weep, who suffer illness, and those who long for the consolation of Christ” (from the pannikhida service). We must devote all our strength to the manifestation of Christian brotherly love, and to providing real aid to our fellow man. The most important and valuable calling, in these current conditions, is to be and remain, above all, a Christian person.

Indeed, in the words of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, “the devil has already entered this world without a mask,” seeking the quarrelsome division of all, not only on grounds of military events, but also through issues of politics and various kinds of radical “ideologies.” The latter are alien to Christian moral teaching. However, they are these days introduced as a norm in “civil society” and in the school curricula of many lands in which our Holy Church exercises her mission. Here it is necessary, in maintaining one’s Christian character, to firmly — yet calmly and with dignity — defend Holy Orthodoxy, her doctrine of marriage, of our families, of traditional values and religious freedoms. And if our word is combined with the example of an upright Christian life, marked out by active care for our children and their upbringing in the Christian spirit, then our word will prove itself a living and convincing testimony, not only for children and youth, but also for the societies around us.

Let us seek to remember that no matter how difficult the situation in which a Christian lives, no matter what dark clouds may gather over him, he will always emerge victorious over all evils if he is able, with God’s help, to maintain his faith. Therefore, St Gregory the Theologian cries out: “be strong, O thou believing Christian soul, in all the temptations of life: in both happiness and misfortune. Lean not to one side or the other, but hold always fast to one thing: faith in Christ the Lord. Worship Him alone and serve Him in all the paths of thy life. The Magi, even more than thee, encountered obstacles when they went to the land of Judea, but they did not give up on their intentions and desires, and were honored to worship Christ God Who appeared in the flesh.”

In conclusion, we sincerely wish everyone a worthy passage through the remainder of the Nativity Fast, that in the peace of our thoughts and feelings we may worship the Son of God Who comes to earth! Amen.

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When Jesus instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper, he held up bread and wine as two elements within which to make himself especially present to us. Since that time, now more than 2,000 years ago, Christians celebrating the Eucharist have used the same two things, bread and wine, to ask Christ to bless this world and to bring God’s special presence to our world. Why two elements? Why both bread and wine? What reality does each represent?

I have always found this insight from Pierre Teilhard de Chardin particularly meaningful. Commenting on why both bread and wine are offered at each Eucharist, his says this: “In a sense the true substance to be consecrated each day is the world’s development during that day — the bread (body) symbolizing appropriately what creation succeeds in producing, the wine (blood) what creation causes to be lost in exhaustion and suffering in the course of that effort.”

There’s an important lesson here for how we are invited to enter into and pray the Eucharist. When Jesus said, “my flesh is food for the life of the world,” he meant just that. He meant that our prayer, particularly the Eucharist, needs to embrace nothing less than the world, the whole world and everything and everybody in it.

And that is asking a lot because, as we know, our world is a pathologically complex place, mixed, bipolar, differentiated, a place full of both good and bad, young and old, healthy and sick, rich and poor, powerful and powerless, triumph and defeat, life and death. Making Christ’s flesh food for the life of the world means holding a lot of things up for God’s blessing, and that doesn’t always come naturally to us.

As instituted by Jesus, the Eucharist needs to be a prayer that embraces the whole world and everything and everyone in it. It needs to be a prayer for the poor, the aged, the sick, the suffering, the powerless, and for everyone (including mother earth) who is being victimized — even as it needs to be a prayer for the rich, the young, the healthy, and the powerful.

At the Eucharist, we need to pray for those in our hospitals and for those who are bursting with health. We need to pray for the woman or man who is dying, even as we pray for the young athlete who is preparing to compete in the Olympic games. And we need to pray for the refugees on our borders as well as for those who make laws regarding our borders. As Teilhard de Chardin says, we must hold up in prayer “what creation succeeds in producing and what creation causes to be lost in exhaustion and suffering in the course of that effort.”

As a Roman Catholic priest, I have the privilege of presiding at the Eucharist, and whenever I do,  I always try to remain conscious of the separate realities which the bread and wine symbolize. When I lift up the bread, I try to be conscious of the fact that I am holding up for God’s blessing all that is healthy, growing in life, and is being celebrated in our world today. When I lift up the wine, I try to be conscious that I am holding up for God’s blessing all that is being crushed, is suffering, and is dying today, as life on this earth moves forward.

Our world is a big place and at every moment somewhere on this planet new life is being born, young life is taking root, some people are celebrating life, some are finding love, some are making love, and some are celebrating success and triumph. And, while all of this is happening, others are losing their health, others are dying, others are being raped and violated, and others are being crushed by hunger, defeat, hopelessness, and a broken spirit. At the Eucharist, the bread speaks for the former, the wine for the latter.

Several days ago, I presided over the Eucharist at the funeral of a man who had died at the age of 90. We celebrated this faith, mourned with his family, highlighted the gift that was his life, tried to drink from the spirit he left behind, said a faith-filled ritual goodbye to him, and buried him in the earth. The wine we consecrated at the Eucharist that day symbolized all this, his death, our loss, and the deaths and losses of people everywhere — God’s being with us in our suffering.

Shortly afterward, I was in a house filled with the vibrancy and young energy of three small children — aged 5, 2, and 8 months. Little on this planet so refreshes the soul as does young life. There isn’t any antidepressant drug anywhere on this planet that can do for us what the energy of a young child can do. When I next held up the bread at the Eucharist, I was more conscious of what that bread symbolized — energy, health, beauty, young life, vibrancy — God’s joy and radiance on this planet.

Bancheny, Chernivtsi Province, Ukraine, December 13, 2023

Photo: mitropolia.md     

A hierarch of the Moldovan Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) visited a Ukrainian Orthodox monastery in the Chernivtsi Province on Tuesday and concelebrated with a local Ukrainian hierarch.

With the blessing of His Eminence Metropolitan Vladimir of Moldova and His Eminence Metropolitan Meletiy of Chernivtsi and Bukovina, His Grace Bishop Philaret of Căpriana from Moldova concelebrated the All-Night Vigil on Tuesday with His Grace Bishop Cleopa of Hertsa of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church at the Holy Ascension-Bancheny Monastery, the Moldovan Church reports.

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The monastery was built by and is home to His Eminence Metropolitan Longin of Bancheny, who is currently Persecuted Metropolitan Longin again hospitalized with heart problemsArmed security forces surrounded and searched his monastery last month, scaring the orphans who live there.

“>hospitalized with atrial fibrillation. The Ukrainian hierarch, who is also greatly beloved in Romania and Moldova, earlier suffered a stroke Persecuted Metropolitan Longin again hospitalized with heart problemsArmed security forces surrounded and searched his monastery last month, scaring the orphans who live there.”>in July. The inhabitants of the monastery have no doubt that the pressure of state persecution is ruining his health.

Though officially recognized as a Hero of Ukraine for his work with orphans, the state now considers him an enemy because he staunchly remains within the Orthodox Church. He is accused of “inciting religious enmity”—the same phony charge being brought against a number of Orthodox hierarchs.

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The monastery asked for prayers yesterday, saying Met. Longin’s health is deteriorating.

Hundreds of Orthodox faithful in both Bucharest and Chișinău have Hundreds rally in support of persecuted Metropolitan Longin of UOC in Romania and MoldovaThe protestors demanded that the Ukrainian authorities stop the aggression against the faithful, guarantee Ukrainians the right to freedom of religion, and ensure the safety and freedom of Met. Longin.

“>rallied outside their respective Ukrainian embassies in support of Met. Longin.

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St. John of the Cross was born John de Yepes, in 1542, near the Spanish city of Avila. His father, a silk weaver, died when John was young, and his mother Catalina struggled to provide for her children. John was very good at school, but was unable to successfully learn a trade as an apprentice. Instead, he worked in a hospital for the poor, and studied at a Jesuit college in Medina del Campo. 

John entered the Carmelite order in 1563. He had already been living a severely ascetic life, so he received permission to live according to the original rule of the Carmelites, which focused on solitude, silence, poverty, work, and contemplative prayer. 

In 1567, John was ordained as a priest, and was considering taking vows as a Carthusian, when he met St. Teresa of Avila. During the 1560s, St. Teresa, who was a Carmelite nun, began a movement to return the Carmelites to the strict observance they had originally followed. She asked John to help her lead the reform. 

John changed his name from John of St. Matthias to John of the Cross, and, accompanied by two other men, he began reform work in 1568. He was in charge of a group of recruits to the “Discalced Carmelites,” so called because they wore sandals instead of regular shoes as a sign of their poverty. He spent five years as the confessor at a monastery in Avila that St. Teresa led. 

In December of 1577, John was imprisoned in a tiny cell for nine months, during a dispute over his assignment in the order. He was regularly flogged publicly and subject to harsh punishments, but during this time, he wrote the poetry that would become his spiritual writings. 

John escaped in August 1578, and resumed his work. Over the next 10 years, he wrote spiritual teachings, including “The Ascent of Mount Carmel” and “The Dark Night of the Soul.” But he lost his leadership within the order due to conflicts, and spent the last years of his life in ill health and mistreated. 

John died on Dec. 14, 1591, 9 years after St. Teresa of Avila. He was brought closer to God throughout his life by his trials and sufferings, and his writings echo this, teaching us to love God above all things. 

Soon after St. John’s death, he was recognized for his spirituality and wisdom. He was beatified in 1675, canonized in 1726, and named a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius XI.