Tag: Christianity

On Dec. 10, the Church celebrates the feast of Our Lady of Loreto. Loreto refers to the Holy House of Loreto, in the house in which Mary was born, and where the angel Gabriel appeared to her at the Annunciation. 

According to tradition, a band of angels stopped up the house from the Holy Land, transporting it first to Tersato, Dalmatia in 1291, Recanati, Italy, in 1294, and finally to Loreto, Italy, where it has remained for centuries. 

It is this flight that has made Our Lady of Loreto the patron of people involved in aviation. The long life of the house led to her patronage of builders and construction workers. 

Our Lady of Loreto is the first shrine of international renown dedicated to Mary. Popes especially have always had a special connection to the Shrine of Loreto, and it is under their direct authority and protection. 

Let Us Fast in EarnestThus, let us begin on these fasting days to give ourselves to an intent study of fasting and prayer; and let us, at the same time, begin to fast and pray indeed.

” class=”tooltip”>Part 1/1: Let us Fast in Earnest
The Meaning and Significance of FastingFasting is a necessary means for success in the spiritual life and for attaining salvation; for fasting—depriving the flesh of excessive food and drink—weakens the force of sensual drives.” class=”tooltip”>Part 1/2: The Meaning and Significance of Fasting
Accustoming Ourselves to FastingTo make our disposition towards fasting firm, we have to accustom ourselves to fasting slowly, carefully, not all at once, but gradually—little by little.” class=”tooltip”>Part 1/3: Accustoming Ourselves to Fasting
Spiritual FastingLet the mind fast, not permitting empty and bad thoughts; let the heart fast, refraining from sinful feelings; let our will fast, directing all our desires and intentions to the one thing needful…” class=”tooltip”>Part 1/4: Spiritual Fasting
What is Prayer?A great prayerful power is at work in the prayers of the Holy Fathers, and whoever enters into them with all his attention and zeal will certainly taste of this prayerful power to the extent that his state of mind converges with the content of the prayer.” class=”tooltip”>Part 2/1: On Prayer. What is Prayer?
How to Prepare for Prayer?Thus, if you want to pray, gather all your thoughts, lay aside all external, earthly cares, and present your mind to God and gaze upon Him.”>Part 2/2: How to Prepare for Prayer?

    

Having fittingly prepared for On PrayerWhat should someone do who doesn’t know any prayers, but desires to pray, to save his soul?

“>prayer, a Christian arises for prayer with blessed hope: He lights a candle or lampada before the holy icons, guards himself with the Sign of the Cross, prostrates before God, and begins the usual prayer rule. In fulfilling his prayer rule, he should read without haste, penetrate into every word, bring the thought of every word into his heart, and accompany all of this with prostrations and the Sign of the Cross. This is the essence of a God-pleasing and fruitful Instructions to Nuns. Prayer RuleIn general, in the church of God one should preserve the utmost reverence and order, for the glory of God, as well as for one’s own soul’s profit and for the profit of those people present, who are to be instructed in reverence by the monastics. But lack of reverence disturbs them, scandalizes them and harms them.”>prayer rule.

Absorb every word of prayer, bringing the meaning of every word into your heart; that is, understand what you read and feel what you have understood. For example, you read: “Cleanse me from every impurity”—feel all your impurity, be contrite about it, desire purity, and entreat it of the Lord with complete hope. You read: “Thy will be done”—and in your heart, completely commit your fate to the Lord, with full readiness to good-naturedly meet everything the Lord sends you. You read: “And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors”—and in your soul forgive everyone everything, thereby entreating forgiveness for yourself from the Lord God.

If you do this with every verse of your prayer, that will be a proper prayer rule. And in order to fulfill it more successfully this way, you need to: a) have a well-known prayer rule, not large, so that with your usual affairs, you can fulfill it unhurriedly; b) attentively read and ponder the prayers of your rule in your free time, understand and feel every word of prayer, to know in advance what should be in your heart and soul with every word, so it would be easy for you to understand and feel what you’re reading during your prayer rule.

If during prayer your thoughts fly off to other topics, strain to keep your attention and return your thought to the subject of prayer; and again it flies off—again bring it back. Repeat the reading until every word of the prayer is read with understanding and feeling. This will help you wean your mind from distractedness in prayer. But St. Basil the Great—“Universal Teacher”Hierarch Basil the Great is one of the Church’s most remarkable theologians. His influence on the fortunes of the Church spread far beyond the borders of his homeland and is still felt in our days.

“>St. Basil the Great asks: “How can we achieve non-distraction in prayer?” And he answers: “Being undoubtedly convinced that God is before your eyes. One who prays with this conviction will have a mind that does not stray from the One Who tests the heart and reins… For this, one must not allow the soul to be idle from contemplation of God and His works and gifts, as well as from confession and gratitude for everything.”

And if some word of prayer has a strong effect on your soul, you need to pause on it, not proceeding further. Remain on this spot with attention and feeling, nourish your soul with it, or with the thoughts that it produces. Don’t disrupt this state until it passes on its own. That means the spirit of prayer begins to take root in the heart of the one who prays this way; and this state is the most reliable means of nurturing and strengthening the spirit of prayer in us.

Amen.

To be continued…

St. Juan Diego was born in 1474, and given the name Cuauhtlatoatzin, meaning “singing eagle,” in the Anahuac Valley of what is now Mexico. He was raised according to the Aztec pagan religion and culture, but had a deeply mystical sense of life, even before he heard the Gospel from Franciscan missionaries. 

In 1524, Cuauhtlatoatzin and his wife converted to Catholicism, and he was baptized as Juan Diego. He was committed to his faith, and often walked long distances to receive religious instructions. 

On December 9, 1531, Juan Diego was hurrying to Mass to celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. But he was stopped by the Blessed Virgin herself, who announced herself as the “ever-perfect holy Mary, who has the honor to be the mother of the true God.” Mary told Juan Diego that she was also his mother, and the mother of everyone in the land. 

She asked Juan Diego to request a “sacred little house” from the local bishop, to be built on the site of a former pagan temple. The house would show Jesus to all Mexicans and exalt him throughout the world. 

Juan Diego faithfully took her request to his local bishop, who was skeptical. Juan Diego promised to produce proof of the apparition after he finished tending to his uncle, who was near death. 

On December 12, Juan Diego went to church to summon a priest for his uncle, and met Mary again. She promised to cure his uncle, and to give him.a sign to convince the bishop. On the hill where he had first seen her, Juan Diego found fresh roses and flowers, even though it was winter. He brought the flowers back to her, and Mary placed them in his tilma, telling him not to unwrap them until he reached the bishop. 

Juan Diego visited Bishop Zumarraga again. When he opened his tilma, the bishop saw the image we know now as that of Our Lady of Guadalupe, miraculously imprinted on the flower-filled cloth. 

The basilica in Mexico City now houses that tilma, and is estimated to be the most-visited Catholic shrine in the world. 

The miracle of Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe converted millions of Mexicans, and deepened Juan Diego’s own faith. For many years, he lived a solitary life of prayer in a hermitage near the church where the image was first displayed. He died on December 9, 1548, the 17th anniversary of his first visit from the Blessed Mother. 

John Paul II beatified St. Juan Diego in 1990 and canonized him in 2002.

Why do modern people love St. Gabriel of Samtavro so much? I think there are two main reasons: First, Elder Gabriel is very close to us—many people still remember the times in which he lived, having reposed only in 1995. And he showed with his life that holiness isn’t somewhere far away, or once upon a time, but here and now, if we are truly with God, living according to faith. And second, because he showed the world the true love that we all sorely lack.

​St. Gabriel of Samtavro     

An evening entitled, “The Main Thing Is Faith and Love” was held at the House of the Russian Diaspora in Moscow on November 2, on the feast of St. Gabriel. The hall wasn’t big enough to accommodate everyone who came. The festive program included a screening of Constantine Tsertsvadze’s film “I Am Waiting for You at Samtavro”. Premier of the English VersionToday, December 20, we celebrate anniversary of the canonization of St. Gabriel (Urgebadze) of Georgia. The creators of the film, “I Am Waiting for You at Samtavro,” have given OrthoChristian.com the great pleasure of presenting it to our readers in its entirety, along with this written introduction.

“>I’m Waiting For You in Samtavro, presentations by the rector of the Georgian representation church in Moscow Archpriest Theodore Krechetov and the rector of the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul in the Yaseneovo section of Moscow Archimandrite Melchisedek (Artiukhin)Melchisedek (Artiukhin), Archimandrite”>Archimandrite Melchisedek (Artiukhin), actor David Giorgobiani’s personal memories of the saint, and Georgian chants. The event was organized by the Archangel Michael Fund, which is building the first church in honor of St. Gabriel of Samtavro in the central part of Russia.¹

Evening in memory of St. Gabriel of Samtavro     

We spoke with David Giorgobiani, a Georgian actor and documentary filmmaker. He is known to many for the film Repentance that became a watershed conversation about faith for its time upon its release in 1986. In the film, David played a talented artist who was executed for trying to defend an ancient church from destruction. After shooting the movie, he left the film industry. And soon the Lord sent him a wondrous meeting with St. Gabriel.

​David Giorgobiani at the St. Gabriel memorial evening     

—I left the film industry after we finished shooting Repentance. I left because I realized I still had a lot to learn about the spiritual life. I wanted to understand why Orthodox people live in poverty, why they don’t live as well as they could. I started traveling to churches and monasteries in search of an answer. And I met Fr. Gabriel. I saw a rather unusual man, unlike anyone I’d ever met in life or on the stage.

—Where did you first meet the Elder? How was he living at that time?

—We met in the yard at his house. It was 1987; Fr. Gabriel wasn’t serving in Samtavro Monastery yet. He was living in a private house, or rather, in the church he built next to his house with his own hands. There was a room with a pit five feet deep—like a grave—where he would sleep. Fr. Gabriel seriously exhausted himself with his ascetic living. No one knew when he ate.

Sometimes, when he was acting as a fool for Christ, he would supposedly drink wine—but it wasn’t wine, but some kind of juice. He did it so people would revile him.

That day when we first met, Fr. Gabriel gave me a big book with Old Georgian prayers. It had prayers for exorcizing demons, which many priests didn’t even read. But we were neophytes, very zealous. You couldn’t even buy the Gospel in Georgia then. And we started printing and distributing these prayers and taking this book to ruined churches to drive out the demons who could settle in abandoned places where there had been some blasphemy—the destruction of a holy place. But of course, it wasn’t us casting out the demons—St. Gabriel blessed us for this, and the exorcisms were accomplished by his prayers. Later, churches really were restored on these sites.

We also read these prayers at one of the spots where we filmed Repentance, near the Narikala Fortress,² where there was a white piano in the film, because there used to be a church there in ancient times—and a few years later, they built a church on that spot. So the work of rebuilding churches has been very dear to me since those times, and therefore, the work of your foundation, helping churches, is very dear to me.

A scene from Repentance     

—What did St. Gabriel mean to you?

—Fr. Gabriel showed us another world, he showed us Christ—living and active. He healed people with his word, with his prayer. I wanted to be with him, to listen to him, to see how people change: They would come as unbelievers and leave as believers. Leaving the “fairytale” world of theater and cinema, I entered a world even more amazing! Fr. Gabriel poured out love and wisdom on people and gave them hope. And most importantly, we ourselves were changing, and we felt it. We thought the Apostles must have experienced basically the same thing when they were with Christ.

But when we’d start extolling the Elder as a saint, he’d start acting foolish. When he preached, or acted foolishly, or healed someone, we felt that God was with him, that Christ isn’t in the distant past, but here with us. We understood that the Lord hadn’t abandoned mankind, as He promised before His Ascension. I’ve never seen anyone even remotely like Fr. Gabriel. We should talk about it, at least for the sake of strengthening the Russian-Georgian friendship, which is suffering today because of unscrupulous politicians.

—Did you ever believe the Elder’s foolishness, or doubt his sanity and righteousness?

—That happened too, and I directly asked him about it once. It was like this: I was leaving church, and Fr. Gabriel was standing there, slightly bent over, with a large icon hanging on his chest, some kind of funny hat on his head, and a deep, grace-filled, and very sorrowful look on his face. I asked him: “Fr. Gabriel, tell me, people say so many bad things about you, but I can’t believe it when I see your eyes! It’s impossible that someone with such eyes could be like what they say about you! Tell me privately, are you perhaps a fool for Christ? I won’t tell anyone.” And he looked at me and nodded.

Scene from Repentance, with David Giorgobiani in the role of an artist     

—How did St. Gabriel feel about your work as an actor?

—When he’d see me, he’d often exclaim: “Oh! Repentance!” Some people think that acting is a sinful profession, but Fr. Gabriel would say: “Don’t say that! The Lord gives an actor his talent. The question is how a man uses his talent: to glorify Christ and bring people the truth, or in a completely different way.” The same applies to artists and all creative professions. St. Gabriel really loved the opera. He went to the opera Daisi several times.³ One of the characters in it is the Patriarch, and one time the actor playing the Patriarch messed up. Fr. Gabriel shouted from the audience: “Your Holiness, you messed up. You weren’t supposed to say that.” The show stopped, and he got up on the stage and started preaching Christ. This was back in Soviet times.

—Did you witness any of St. Gabriel’s miracles?

—More than once. One day I brought a possessed woman to see Father. He would heal in different ways. He could denounce, shout—but he shouted at the demon, not the person. Fr. Gabriel didn’t do like other priests who read long prayers from the rite of exorcism—he didn’t need that. He exorcized evil spirits with but a word, like the Apostles. When the demoniac entered his cell, he was already healing her. The woman entered his cell totally at a loss. She was afraid Elder Gabriel would shout at her. And I was worried that being in her terrible state, she might respond in kind, and I pleaded: “Lord, let him heal her some other way!” Fr. Gabriel looked at me and said: “How kind you are!” He read my thoughts and changed his approach. The Elder opened his arms wide and said: “The Holy Spirit is here now! I implored the Lord, and He has forgiven your sins, but stop doing what you’ve been doing.” And the woman was healed. She became joyful, a completely different person. Things like that happened quite often. Fr. Gabriel drove demons out of people and gave them grace to live in God’s way and to cope with their problems.

At the memorial evening for St. Gabriel     

—In this case, two miracles were combined: healing and clairvoyance.

—St. Gabriel saw the hearts of men. Once we were sitting by the tower in Samtavro Monastery, where he lived, and he said something as though addressing me, but I didn’t understand how it could have related to me. Then suddenly I heard one of the Elder’s guests weeping—it turns out it was said for that person, who had been waiting for these words all his life. And he heard them the first time he came to see Fr. Gabriel.

By the way, he foretold the future ministry of many priests and bishops, when they were still just regular guys.

—What’s the most important thing that St. Gabriel taught you?

—For us modern people, these words from him are very important: “Preserve love and you’ll be saved.” He gave us these words as a formula for salvation. The Elder stood before God every second. He taught people by deed. For example, a beggar came to him. He gave him something, and then when the man left, he told us: “Do you understand that that was Christ?” St. Gabriel wanted us all to become deep believers and benefit society and our country, each in his own place: in the arts, in sports, or in manufacturing. If you bake bread—bake honestly, without skimping on any ingredients. Do everything as before God.

He would say that those who preserve love will be saved, that love is most important, and he himself set an example of such love. He didn’t allow anyone to denounce the Patriarch or priests. But he himself, when acting foolish, denounced everyone. And when we asked him why he could denounce someone but we couldn’t, he said: “My knees are worn out from praying for them! Do you reprove out of love?”

Fr. Gabriel very strongly warned us against condemnation. Firstly, because condemnation is against love: You judge someone instead of pitying him and praying for him. And secondly, Father reminded us that because of condemnation, the Lord may allow you to fall into the same sin for which you judge another, and which you find repugnant. It’s very scary. For example, you look at LGBT with horror, but if you hate the person, if you condemn him, then the Lord may allow you to become the same. You can condemn sin, call for a legislative restriction on depravity, but don’t despise people.

—It’s easy to love a righteous man, but probably only a righteous man can truly love an inveterate sinner…

—One woman said: “Fr. Gabriel, how I love you!” And he replied: “It’s easy to love me, but try to love others like you love me!” St. Gabriel loved everyone. He would say that no one can bring a heretic or sectarian to Christ but through great love for him—and then only if the Lord so desires and helps. One of the Elder’s spiritual sons hated the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the Elder said to him: “What a pity that not a single Jehovah’s Witness comes to me! I would sit him down, feed him…” But if you argue, you won’t convert anyone to Orthodoxy; you’ll just make things worse. Although, of course, you have to have the knowledge to defend your faith.

—Did the Elder tell you about his life?

—One day he said to me: “David, my son, if you knew how I was tortured in prison… I nearly died.” But he usually talked about it humorously, so it seemed like he had a good time in prison and the mental hospital. He also said something that amazed me: “I’ve never met a bad person in my life.” Can you imagine? How they beat him! How they slandered him! How they blasphemed! They broke his bones in prison; they tortured him in the madhouse.

—Did he talk about miracles?

—Fr. Gabriel told me about a terrible apparition of the Mother of God that was given to him, and he said: “Wherever you go, tell people about it.” There was a period where he prayed to the Most Holy Theotokos to multiply the Georgian people. Then one day he saw himself in some dark room where there were many bloody, murdered babies. There was blood everywhere. Then the Mother of God suddenly appeared and fearfully asked him: “Is this the kind of multiplication of the Georgian people you’re asking for? I’ll multiply them, and they’ll kill them?!” Fr. Gabriel was terrified. After that, he walked barefoot along Rustaveli Avenue shouting: “Mothers! Save Georgia! Don’t let them kill the children!”

St. Gabriel with the sisters of Samtavro Monastery     

—How did the Elder instruct the nuns while living at Samtavro?

—Unusually, like everything he did. For example, once the sisters started giving in to the thought: Is it really so important to fast on Monday, as is customary for monastics? It’s understandable: On Wednesday, Judas betrayed Christ, and on Friday the Lord was crucified—but why fast on Mondays? Fr. Gabriel saw this thought but didn’t rebuke them. Instead, he himself expressed these thoughts out loud and said he blessed them not to fast on Monday. The sisters were delighted and ate what they wanted. Wednesday came. Fr. Gabriel went to them and said: “Why should we fast on Wednesday? I understand Fridays, I get the four fasts, but who came up with this Wednesday? Have dairy! I bless you!” “After all, obedience is higher than fasting and prayer; we have to obey!” And the nuns obeyed and skipped the fast on Wednesday, only this time not with joy, but with tears. And when Fr. Gabriel came to them on Friday with the same look on his face, they all flew away like doves so as not to hear what he would say! They understood everything and fasted as they should from then on.

—St. Gabriel often shouted at people. Did you find it disturbing?

—Once he was asked: “Are you really angry at us when you shout at us?” And he responded: “No, I don’t have it in me.” And we knew it.

Once, some well-read people started speaking out against faith in the Holy Fire, and some of us started listening to them and started doubting. Then the Elder showed us a burning lamp and said with great love and reverence: “This is the Holy Fire burning here. It was brought to me from Jerusalem. Anoint yourself with oil from this lampada. Only, I don’t have a brush.” One of us reached out his hand, dipped his pointer finger in the oil, and anointed himself. And Fr. Gabriel shouted: “What have you done?! How dare you shove that finger in this holy lampada?!” We were frightened; we didn’t understand: First he himself blessed, and now he’s shouting…. And the Elder said to me: “You anoint yourself.” What could I do? I looked at my hand in fright: It’s not allowed with my pointer finger, so how? I carefully dipped my pinky into the lampada… “Now that’s how you should anoint yourself with oil!” Fr. Gabriel exclaimed. Ever since, they anoint with their pinkies in Samtavro—it’s more humble, more reverent.

—Humility was one of Fr. Gabriel’s main qualities.

—Yes. And sometimes it was wondrously combined with miracles. For example, he foretold: “Until they glorify my spiritual fathers as saints, they won’t glorify me either.” His spiritual fathers, Twentieth Century Saints of Betania MonasteryOver the course of several decades of communist persecutions, the only place in Georgia where monastic life continued was Betania Monastery, where two archimandrites, John and George, labored in asceticism.

“>Venerable John (Maisuradze) and Venerable George-John (Mkheidze), labored in asceticism at Betania Monastery. He buried them and foretold that that their bodies would remain incorrupt. But his words were forgotten. Then one day a friend from the Georgian Patriarchate called me and said: “David, you know a lot about Fr. Gabriel. Perhaps you can explain why we can’t seem to uncover his relics?” I reminded him of what the Elder had said. What was it in his words? Humility, the desire not to allow himself to be placed above his spiritual fathers. And indeed, after the Betania fathers were glorified, they were able to canonize Fr. Gabriel as well.

He humbled himself very much, saying he was like a dog before the Lord. Even the obvious miracles that happened with him he didn’t attribute to himself. For example, when he was building his church and had no one to help him, the buckets of cement moved all by themselves. He was caught in the act—people witnessed this miracle. And Fr. Gabriel would sincerely say: “What’s it have to do with me? There was no one to help, and the Lord sent an angel!” Although it was clear to us that the Lord sent him an angel because he was worthy of it. But sometimes, when he was being foolish, he made himself look proud, so people would condemn him.

Springfield, Virginia, December 8, 2023

Photo: russianorthodoxchurchcardiff.com     

The Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in America canonized Matushka Olga of Alaska (†1979) at its session OCA Synod glorifies Matushka Olga of Alaska among the saintsMatushka Olga (†1979) has long been venerated in Alaska, throughout America, and abroad. She is remembered as a humble mother, midwife, and priest’s wife who was filled with love for everybody, and especially abused women.

“>in early November.

Now, in preparation for her upcoming liturgical glorification, the Canonization Commission has issued an appeal for stories of the miraculous intercession of St. Olga, reports the Orthodox Church in America.

“These personal stories play an important role in bearing witness to her continued care for the Orthodox faithful and all who look to her prayers,” the OCA report states.

Stories of St. Olga’s miraculous intercession can be sent to the Canonization Commission at canonization@oca.org.

***

Optina collecting miracle stories of 1993 Pascha martyrsOptina Monastery announces that it is actively collecting testimonies of miracles worked by the prayers of some of its beloved inhabitants, including the three monks who were martyred on Pascha morning in 1993.

“>Optina Monastery is also actively collecting miracle stories about the 1993 Pascha Martyrs, Hieromonk Vasily (Roslyakov), Monk Trophim (Tatarinov), and Monk Therapont (Pushkarev), Archimandrite Benedict (Penkov), who served as abbot from 1990 until his repose in 2018, Igumen Theodore (Trutnev), who labored at the monastery from the time of its reopening in the late 80s until his repose in 2003, and Hierodeacon Iliodor (Gairiyants), a monk of Optina from 1989 until his repose in October 2020.

Pskov Diocese begins process of canonization of Elder John (Krestiankin)“This is the legacy that we are called to present to ours and future generations. To those whom God will grant, they will arrange and perform the glorification of Fr. John, who is among the saints. We pray for this, we entreat it from the Lord, and we leave our hopes and prayers with the all-good and all-perfect will of God,” said Met. Tikhon.

“>In the Pskov Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, stories and information about the revered Elder John (Krestiankin) are actively being collected for his eventual canonization, and the Russian diocese collecting information on revered ascetic for eventual canonizationThe Pereslavl Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church is collecting information about the revered ascetic Hieroschemamonk Joachim (Ulyanov) of the Holy Resurrection Monastery in Uglich.”>Pereslavl Diocese is collecting information about the revered ascetic Hieroschemamonk Joachim (Ulyanov) of the Holy Resurrection Monastery in Uglich for his subsequent canonization.

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ROME – Once again, Pope Francis seems well on his way to defying the odds and staging another recovery from his latest health scare.

Despite suffering from what the Vatican, belatedly, has described as a bout of severe bronchitis which forced him to withdraw from a planned trip to the COP28 summit on climate change in Dubai, there he was on Wednesday at his regular weekly General Audience, deliberately striding into the Pope Paul VI Hall under his own power, relying only on a cane rather than using a wheelchair.

A visibly improved pontiff told the crowd in a strong voice, “I’m much better, but I still get tired if I talk too much,” and then turned things over to Italian Msgr. Filippo Ciampanelli, an official of the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, who read his prepared remarks aloud.

On the same day, Francis met Roselyne Hamel, the sister of a French priest slain by Islamic radicals in France in July 2016, as well as this year’s winners of the Nobel Prize for physics and peace, giving each a copy of the “Document on Human Fraternity” he co-signed with the Grand Imam of the Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo. He also received the credentials of new ambassadors from Kuwait, New Zealand, Malawi, Guinea, Sweden and Chad, met with archbishops from Syria, Greece and France, and granted audiences both to members of the Focolare movement and an Italian non-profit that works on social promotion.

In other words, Wednesday showed us a pope seemingly still on top of his game, which was the same image he projected Friday by making the traditional visit to Rome’s Piazza di Spagna to honor the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a gesture regarded as kicking off the Christmas season in the Eternal City.

So, does his latest recovery mean that concerns about the pope’s health have been exaggerated? Well, yes and no. The right framework with which to assess Francis’s condition probably could be best described as a mixture of caution and realism.

To begin with the dose of caution, it’s important to recall that popes, like the coward in Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar,” tend to die a thousand deaths in terms of public perceptions. Obituaries for Pope John Paul II were written more times than one could count during his almost 27-year papacy, so much so that the Polish pope developed a standard laugh line whenever anyone would ask him how he’s feeling: “I don’t know,” he would reply with a wry smile, “I haven’t read the papers yet today.”

Yes, Francis has a concentric series of physical challenges. He’s missing part of one lung from an operation as a young man, has been forced to seek care at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital three times in 2023, has had two intestinal surgeries, suffers from chronic sciatica, and arthritic pain in his right knee continues to limit his movements. All that comes on top of simple age — 86, turning 87 next week — as he’s already the oldest reigning pope in the last 120 years and obviously not getting any younger.

Yet none of those conditions in themselves are life-threatening, and all are manageable given proper treatment and rest.

Moreover, under the heading of “sound mind, sound body,” this is not a pope who appears to be winding down. Francis still has miles to go before he sleeps, including his ambitions to bring his Synod of Bishops on synodality to a conclusion in October 2024 and to preside over the Great Jubilee of 2025.

Finally, the Vatican has become, if not fully transparent, at least more forthcoming about the pontiff’s condition. Gone are the days when L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, once carried an angry editorial denouncing journalists who had dared to report that Pope Pius XI appeared to be suffering from a cold — just one day before he actually died. Today, if there is a serious threat to the pontiff’s health, the Vatican can be relied upon to say so out loud within a reasonable arc of time.

As a result, it’s important not to get carried away every time the pope cancels an audience or pulls out of a trip. He may well go through several more such cycles of withdrawal and return before the end finally comes.

And yet.

That end will eventually come, and every day that goes by carries us closer to that moment. It may seem macabre to be so focused on every up and down in the pope’s condition, but it’s important to remember that Catholicism doesn’t have term limits, so the only scenario in which a transition takes place at the top is death or resignation, both of which are generally brought on by declines in health.

Politically, allies of a sitting pope often voice faux outrage anytime speculation about his health arises, seeing it as a samizdat way of undercutting his authority by making him seem a lame duck. That may be true in some cases, but in principle, there’s nothing disloyal or unseemly about acknowledging that, sooner or later, even such a resilient figure as Francis will meet a challenge he can’t overcome, and the Church should not be caught unprepared when that moment arrives.

The late Cardinal Francis George of Chicago once told me he maintained a file of biographical materials on his fellow cardinals and would review it from time to time, especially when a health crisis around Pope John Paul II would erupt. He did so not because he was in a rush for the end to come, but because he recognized that casting a vote in an eventual conclave would be the most important choice he ever made as a cardinal, and he didn’t want it to be “An Evening at the Improv.”

Bottom line: Don’t ignore these health scares, because eventually, one will be for real. But don’t get carried away either because we’ve been down this road before and there’s no way of knowing how much more ground there is to cover before it’s time to exit.

Veria, Macedonia, Greece, December 8, 2023

Photo: YouTube screenshot     

On January 10, the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople canonized Elder Gerasimos (Mikragiannanitis) the Hymnographer (†1991), known as an ascetic and the author of more than 2,000 Church services.

Yesterday, his feast was celebrated for the first time.

His feast was celebrated with special joy by Metropolitan Panteleimonos of Veria, who was a spiritual child of the newly canonized St. Gerasimos, reports Romfea.

The All-Night Vigil and Divine Liturgy were celebrated in the catholicon of the Holy Monastery of Panagia Dovra in Veria, with the participation of the monastic brotherhoods of the Metropolis and pious faithful.

During the Vigil, a piece of the sacred relics of St. Gerasimos, typically kept in a non-public area of the monastery, was placed for veneration.

Watch the Vigil and Liturgy from Veria:

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The Mystagogy Resource Center provides a short life of St. Gerasimos:

Monk Gerasimos Mikragiannanitis (September 5, 1905 – December 7, 1991), known as Anastasios – Athanasios in the world, was a contemporary hymnographer.

He was born in Droviani, in the province of Delvino in Northern Epirus, and learned his first letters in the elementary school of his hometown.

With the end of elementary school, the now adolescent Anastasios left the village environment.

His father had already settled in Piraeus, where he worked. And he himself had to follow him to work near him.

Thus, he was forced to abandon his mother and younger brother.

He initially settled in Piraeus, near his father and aunt.

Then they moved to Athens. In his new residence he continued his studies at the high school.

His zeal for letters was impressive. After high school he continued his studies at a higher school of Greek education.

In Athens he also took care of his spiritual life and went to church regularly.

He himself remembers: “Our parish was Saint Dionysios the Areopagite. We usually went to Vasilissis Sofias Avenue, where the old Rizarios School was, to Saint George of Rizarios, because it was close. Nektarios of Pentapolis also liturgized there repeatedly, whom I saw.”

In Athens he cultivated the thought of becoming a monk and thought of leaving early, before assuming other obligations. And it didn’t take him long to realize his inclination. So he went to Mount Athos on August 15, 1923.

On Mount Athos, he became a novice in the Hermitage of Saint Anna. Specifically in Little Saint Anna, in the cell of the Holy Forerunner, having the Asia Minor hieromonk Meletios Ioannidis as an elder.

Here, in this desolate, arid, sharp and barren location of Little Saint Anna, he found absolute spiritual joy and fulfillment of his life’s dream.

He now devoted himself undividedly to the asceticism of the spiritual life and to the study of the sacred ecclesiastical texts.

On October 20, 1924, during the vigil in memory of Saint Gerasimos of Kefallonia, he received the monastic tonsure, taking the Saint’s name.

The monk Gerasimos, fully adapted to his new life, was a model of obedience, humility and every virtue.

Along with performing the daily monastic services and studying, the two monks of the hut, elder and subordinate, worked for their survival as humans.

Elder Meletios knew well and practiced for years the art of making wood-carved seals used in the preparation of prosphora for the Divine Liturgy. Close to him, the young monk Gerasimos also learned this art, which he practiced as a hard-worker.

However, what fascinated him was dealing with letters. He tells us about it: “Here, when I came, I cultivated and recapitulated my knowledge. The ancient writers, I satiated in them all, I digested them all. I had some books from outside, which I gave to some poor children who visited me from Sykia on the opposite side.”

After the passage of a few years, the elder Meletios left for Athens for good, leaving the new monk Gerasimos completely alone.

Below the Hut of the Holy Forerunner is the Hut of the Dormition of the Theotokos. The ascetic Elder Abimelech lived in it (+ 1965). In 1946, the future Hieromonk Dionysios submitted to him.

Fr. Dionysios was joined by Fr. Gerasimos and later, in 1966, they joined in a brotherhood.

The monk Gerasimos became the founder of the Temple of the Holy Fathers Dionysios the Orator and Metrophanos.

In particular, in 1956, in the cave where the two monks lived in asceticism, he built a small chapel and in 1960 completed it with the litany.

Elder Gerasimos, among other things, was famous for his hospitality, which he also inspired in his subordinates. It is worth mentioning that his ascetic and withdrawn life in no way affected his sociability.

The lay visitors who came to him always left benefited and charmed, as his speech was always careful.

Prudent in his responses, he systematically avoided untimely discussions and chatter; he always sought silence, which he considered “the mother of wise concepts”.

In addition to the laity, the visitors were often clergymen or even monks, who came with the same purpose: to listen to the elder, to benefit spiritually and to learn from his virtuous life. During his lifetime, he was assigned monastic obediences.

He was a librarian and head of the order of services in the kyriakon of the Hermitage of Saint Anna. As a librarian, he even engaged in the compilation and publication of a catalog of the manuscript codices of the library of the kyriakon of the Skete.

In this capacity he helped many scholars in finding and obtaining copies of the manuscripts. He himself wrote valuable studies and articles.

The monk Gerasimos Mikragiannanitis is one of the rare cases of hymnographers, so that most of his work was immediately used in the liturgical life of the Church.

Thus, most of the work is accessible, despite the fact that only a small part of it has been published. This is because many services are widely circulated in typed photocopies.

But he also considered the hymnography itself an extension of prayer, communion with God and the saints: “I have the saint in front of me. That’s why I don’t want to communicate with anyone. Hymnography, this spiritual work, is a union of the soul with God; it is a wondrous prayer; it is a meditation of the nous; it is a secret theoria; it is a mystery, which is not interpreted and is not externalized with words. Hymnography is the highest philosophy. It does not express itself in words. One has to try it to feel it.”

He passed away on December 7, 1991. His rich hymnographic work is estimated at more than 2000 sacred services.

This Great Hymnographer of the Great Church of Christ was awarded a silver medal by the Academy of Athens on December 28, 1968.

The annual commemoration Venerable Gerasimos Mikragiannanitis is December 7th.

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A leading dissident in India’s Syro-Malabar Church has expressed satisfaction for the resignations of two senior officials, including the controversial cardinal who headed the Church, but also perplexity regarding an unusual video appeal by Pope Francis for obedience.

“We cannot make an immediate response to the video message of the pope, but we’re loyal to the pope,” said Father Joyce Kaithakottil of the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly, where resistance to liturgical changes prescribed by the Church’s governing synod has fueled angry public protests and a months-long shutdown at the local basilica.

“This pope always told us to listen to the other,” Kaithakottil told Crux. “Maybe, he’s not yet listened to the other side that is the position of the priests and laity.”

The twin moves regarding the Syro-Malabar Church came Wednesday, as Pope Francis accepted the resignations of 78-year-old Cardinal George Alencherry as the Major Archbishop and Archbishop Andrews Thazhath as the Apostolic Administrator of Ernakulam-Angamaly.

Alencherry’s leadership has been mired in controversy, not only due to the ongoing liturgical dispute but also for broader matters of leadership and management, including a series of contested real estate deals for which he’s presently facing criminal charges before an Indian court.

Thazhath, meanwhile, had become a lightning rod in Ernakulam-Angamaly for his insistence on upholding the synod’s rulings on the mode of celebrating the Mass, most recently requiring candidates for priestly ordination to swear a loyalty oath vowing to “obey ecclesiastical authorities.”

One critical priest at the time called Thazhath’s imposition of the oath as a condition of ordination “obstinacy at its worst, bordering on evil-minded vengeance.”

Lest anyone interpret the resignations as capitulation to the opposition, however, Pope Francis simultaneously released a direct video appeal to members of the archdiocese, the text of which was also translated into the local language of Malayalam, calling them to “reestablish communion and remain in the Catholic Church.”

“I know that for years some people, especially priests who should be examples and true teachers of communion, have been pushing you to disobey and oppose the decisions of the Synod. Brothers and sisters, don’t follow them!” the pope said.

Addressing priests in particular, Francis called on them “to remember your ordination and the obligations you assumed.”

“Do not separate yourselves from the path of your Church, but walk with the synod, your bishops, [and] the Major Archbishop. Accept putting into practice what the synod has decided.”

Specifically, the pope called on the archdiocese to celebrate Christmas 2023 “humbly and faithfully” in the manner prescribed by Church authorities.

At the heart of the tensions in Ernakulam-Angamaly is a 2021 decision of the Syro-Malabar synod regarding the celebration of the Mass, known in the Church’s language as the Holy Qurbana. That decree stipulated that Mass is to be celebrated with the priest facing the people during the Liturgy of the Word, and facing the altar for the Liturgy of the Eucharist.

The ruling marked a break with the local custom after the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) of the priest facing the congregation throughout the Mass and prompted widespread resistance among both priests and laity in Ernakulam-Angamaly, by far the largest jurisdiction in the 4.25 million-strong Syro-Malabar Church.

Kaithakottil said he welcomed the departures of Alencherry and Thazhath, though he said Alencherry should not be allowed to exit the scene without addressing demands for restitution for financial losses the archdiocese reportedly suffered on his watch.

With regard to the pope’s call for compliance on liturgical questions, Kaithakottil said priests of the archdiocese have not yet met to discuss a response. However, he implied that the content of the message may not have come from the pope personally so much as Slovakian Archbishop Cyril Vasil, a former number two official in the Vatican’s Dicastery for Eastern Churches who has been serving as the pontiff’s legate amid the Syro-Malabar dispute.

“It seems that whatever the Pope Francis has spoken are the words of Archbishop Vassil as to what he conveyed to the pope, and the pope believed him,” Kaithakottil said. “He thinks it’s also a communion issue – that’s what being projected.”

Kaithakottil conceded that priests may be willing to celebrate Mass in the prescribed fashion on Christmas Day, in accord with the pope’s request, but he’s not sure if that practice can continue.

“This would have to be discussed with the priests and laity, because there are many pastoral issues and complications,” Kaithakottil said, expressing hope that the new Apostolic Administrator of Ernakulam-Angamaly, 77-year-old Bishop Bosco Puthur, a native of the archdiocese who most recently head the Syro-Malabar community in Melbourne, Australia, may be open to compromise.

“Maybe through the new administrator we could be able to propose our problems, our suggestions, our pastoral situations,” Kaithakottil said.

“Pope Francis is a man of dialogue, he always says that we must dialogue, we must listen,” Kaithakottil said, adding, “We are very loyal to the pope.”

Blagoevgrad, Blagoevgrad Province, Bulgaria, December 8, 2023

Photo: YouTube screenshot     

A Bulgarian film dedicated to miracles worked by St. Ephraim of Nea Makri, including helping people beat drug addiction, was honored at an official ceremony in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria, last month.

The Lightning Saint tells about the angelic life, the brutal martyrdom, and startling miracles of St. Ephraim the New Martyr, as told by hierarchs and others from Greece and Romania, reports tribune.bg.

New Martyr EphraimThe holy New Martyr and wonderworker Ephraim was born in Greece on September 14, 1384. His father died when the saint was young, and his pious mother was left to care for seven children by herself.

“>St. Ephraim has been one of the most beloved saints in Greece since his relics were discovered in 1950, 524 years after his martyrdom.

Besides stories about drug addiction, the film also tells the stories of people who were healed of cancer, the return to life of a dead baby in the womb, and the recovery of a mentally ill Bulgarian woman who had tried to commit suicide.

Late last month, the official ceremony for the Heart and Word Against Drugs contest was held, at which Blagoevgrad mayor Metodi Baikushev and Irish ambassador to Bulgaria Martina Feeney presented the national award for the Lightning Saint to journalist Angel Bonchev.

The annual contest aims to honor and incentivize journalists who have contributed to the faith against the spread of drugs.

The documentary has been the most popular film about a saint in Bulgaria over the past three years since it was released.

Watch the trailer for the film:

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Endow (Educating on the Nature and Dignity of Women) is a Catholic organization rooted in the teachings of St. Pope John Paul II.

Among other activities, study guides on Church teachings and notable female saints — Catherine of Siena, Edith Stein, Hildegard — are read aloud by small-group participants and discussed.

Last year I contributed a guide on St. Thérèse of Lisieux (1873-1897), called by many the greatest saint of modern times and recently honored by Pope Francis in the apostolic exhortation “C’est la Confiance” (“It is the Confidence”).

Briefly, Thérèse was a bourgeois French girl, raised in a pious Catholic family, who entered a cloistered Carmelite convent at 15, lived for 9 years in obscurity, and died at 24 of TB.

Here’s an excerpt from a chapter that considers her desire to become a priest.

In 1893, Thérèse was appointed to serve as assistant novice mistress to the convent superior, Mother de Gonzague.

Quickly, she realized that she could not treat each of the novices the same. Each had a different temperament, as well as different strengths, weaknesses, and wounds.

“What cost me more than anything was to observe the faults and slight imperfections and to wage a war to the death on these. I would prefer a thousand times to receive reproofs than to give them to others,” she wrote in her autobiography “The Story of a Soul.” 

Nothing escaped her notice. She was severe, but always loving. And if she wasn’t loved herself — “That’s just too bad! I tell the whole truth and if anyone does not want to know the truth, let her not come looking for me. … We should never allow kindness to degenerate into weakness.”

Always she answered to the Father, not to popular acclaim.

Always she was willing to take the last place.

The universal priesthood 

Thérèse realized early that, as she diplomatically put it, priests need a lot of help. Praying for their salvation, and for vocations, was one of the main reasons she had entered Carmel.

In the year before her death, she was given two young men upon whom to shower her missionary zeal. She was assigned to correspond with, and to pray for, a newly ordained priest, 26-year-old Father Adolphe Roulland; and Maurice Bellière, 22, a seminarian who was preparing to finish his studies and travel to Africa as a missionary.

Thérèse was ecstatic. A “brother-priest!” and another on his way to the priesthood.

She became a spiritual mother, offering both prayers and counsel, sharing some of her own deepest insights and experiences.

Inculcated with the spirituality of the day, both of her charges were frightened of God’s justice and anguished by their sins. Though they were far better educated than Thérèse, she did not hesitate to share with them her “Little Way” — a kind of shortcut to Jesus that consists in throwing ourselves into his arms like children with utter trust.

To Roulland — three years her senior — she once wrote: “This is Brother, what I think of God’s justice; my way is all confidence and love. I do not understand souls who fear a Friend so tender.”

Only service

Make no mistake: Thérèse herself burned to be a missionary, a martyr, a soldier — and a priest.

“Why must I be a virgin and not an angel or a priest?” she once exclaimed. “Oh! what wonders we shall see in heaven! I have a feeling that those who desired to be priests on earth will be able to share in the honor of the priesthood in heaven.”

At the same time, Thérèse thoroughly understood that the power of the priesthood lies in the responsibility to shepherd, guide, and pastor — not in the title.

In fact, each of us is called to live out our baptismal priesthood: to invite others to discipleship, to accompany, to shepherd and, above all, to sacrifice.

So if we want to be priests — what’s stopping us? Christ has already given the command to go out and spread the Gospel to the whole world. Let’s do so! The world is teeming with those in need of pastoral care. We probably live with some of them.

If we want to be priests, we get to consent to a self-emptying we would never have chosen on our own. We get to consent, like Jesus, to be available to all and to be misunderstood by many. We get to consent to live with results so meager we sometimes wonder whether they are results at all.

Mary, standing steadfast at the foot of the cross, is the ultimate exemplar of Thérèse’s “Little Way.” So if we’re hoping for worldly acclaim, praise, and status, we’re bound to be sorely disappointed. If we’re looking for euphoria, an “experience,” an Instagram moment, we are sure to leave empty-handed.

Because as Thérèse learned all too well in her short 24 years: “There are no raptures, no ecstasies — only service.”

The St. Thérèse of Lisieux study guide is available for purchase on the Endow website.

To learn how to host an entire eight-week study group, visit endowgroups.org or email [email protected] for more information.