Tag: Christianity

St. Gerald was an English monk. The date of his birth is unknown, but we know that he followed St. Colman and came to Ireland in 668, 4 years after the Synod of Whitby, where he settled in Innisboffin.

There was tension between the Irish and English monks, and Colman founded a separate monastery for the 30 English monks who lived in Innisboffin. This was known as the Abbey of Mayo, or May of the Saxons. Gerald was made the first abbot in 670.

Gerald was a young man, but a wise ruler. St. Bede wrote of him: “This monastery is to this day, 731, occupied by English monks…and contains an exemplary body who gathered there from England, and live by the labour of their own hands (after the manner of the early Fathers), under a rule and canonical abbot.”

He was abbot until 697, when he resigned in favor of St. Adamnan. Some accounts hold that Adamnan was at Mayo until 703, and when he left, the monks asked Gerald to return. He stayed there until his death on March 13, 731.

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.

“>Part 1: Let us Fast in Earnest

Photo: vyatkakirov.ru     

Having established a general concept of 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.

“>fasting, having briefly revealed its meaning and significance for us, now, beloveds, let us begin to uncover its essence.

In accordance with our twofold being—bodily and spiritual—the Church has commanded a twofold fast: bodily and spiritual. Let us first discuss the Bodily FastingWhy do we compound sin upon sin, fall endlessly into opposing God, into a life of vanity? Is it not because of a passion for earthly things and especially for earthly pleasures?

“>bodily fast.

What is bodily fasting?

Bodily fasting is the measured consumption of food and drink, and fasting food in particular. The Church typikon clearly lays out both the time of consumption and quality of fasting food. And how wisely and lovingly all this is done! Sometimes, when necessary, no food is prescribed at all; sometimes the most meager food is indicated—only bread with salt and water; sometimes fruits and vegetables are provided for; sometimes a type of broth; sometimes just one dish is appointed for a meal, sometimes two; sometimes wine is permitted, and fish on major feasts as well. Everything is strictly calculated, with the aim of weakening the passionate movements of the flesh that are aroused by abundant and sweet eating; but not so as to completely weaken our bodily nature, but, on the contrary, to make it light, strong, and fully capable of obeying the movements of the spirit and energetically fulfilling its demands.

Anyone who has decided to fast according to the precepts of the Church typikon regarding the consumption of food knows from experience all the beneficence and salutariness of the appointed xerography.¹ Countless hosts of saints who shone forth in fasting have experienced this. They all strictly adhered to the once-and-for-all prescribed rules and order in the quantity and quality of food. And what then? They were always healthy; they almost never needed treatment; and if they did need it sometime, they were treated by fasting and abstinence; that’s why they lived for a hundred years, performing incredible feats.

So, beloveds, fasting consists in consuming food according to the determination of the Church regarding its quantity, time, and especially quality. During the fast, the faithful should not consume food before noon, should only consume fasting food, and moreover, in moderation; they should abstain not only from all drinks that inflame the blood or gratify the taste, but also from all amusements, games, pleasures, and idle gatherings; in general, everything that arouses sensuality.

It is the duty of every son of the Orthodox Church to preserve the fasts as a Divine institution and as an action or means of worshiping God. The Lord Himself commands: Sanctify a fast (Joel 1:14, 2:15); turn ye even to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning (Joel 2:12). For the violation of fasts, the wrath of God befalls families, nations, and kingdoms with great calamities (Ps. 77:29-30, Lk. 21:34). Failing to observe the fasts, disrespecting the laws of the Church, a man can’t be a true son of the Church. Can it be expected that a son of the Orthodox Church who is disobedient in small, external matters should maintain obedience in more important obligations?

Fasting 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. From this it can be seen that fasting has diverse benefits: a) Fasting quickly and clearly shows a man that little is needed for his life, and his health depends not on refined, but on simple food and drink; b) fasting very soon reveals the passions and vices reigning in a man, which he has clung to with his heart, and which his flesh loves most of all; c) fasting makes us capable of prayer and reflection upon God and the Divine. “Whoever fasts prays with a good spirit,” says St. John Chrysostom

“>St. John Chrysostom. In general, fasting is a very powerful means of preparation for all great and saving deeds. This is deeply felt by all prudent and God-loving people, always and everywhere. All the saints very strictly fasted and unanimously advised others to fast.

My beloved listeners! Having understood the essence and grasped the meaning and significance of fasting, let us, of course, as obedient sons of the Church, no longer oppose the Church’s teaching on fasting, but resolve to observe all the fasts prescribed by the holy Church, according to its typikon. But we must prepare ourselves for fasting gradually: One cannot become a faster all at once.

Amen.

To be continued…

If a tree is known by its fruit, and a good tree bears good fruit (cf. Mt. 7:17; Lk. 6:44), then is not the Mother of Goodness Itself, She who bore the Eternal Beauty, incomparably more excellent than every good, whether in this world or the world above? Therefore, the coeternal and identical Image of goodness, Preeternal, transcending all being, He Who is the preexisting and good Word of the Father, moved by His unutterable love for mankind and compassion for us, put on our image, that He might reclaim for Himself our nature which had been dragged down to uttermost Hades, so as to renew this corrupted nature and raise it to the heights of Heaven.

After Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives, the New York Times pronounced him part of the Christian nationalist movement. Then it hastened to find a sociologist who agreed that Johnson fit the pattern, including “being comfortable with authoritarian social control and doing away with democratic values.”

I have no idea whether Johnson is comfortable being called a Christian nationalist. My point is simply that the Times was guilty of journalistic malpractice in gratuitously linking him to the views just quoted. Johnson opposes abortion and same-sex marriage, but The New York Times avidly supports both. That does not entitle the paper to smear the man.

Clearly, the unexpected elevation of a very conservative Southern Baptist whose religion shapes his politics has rattled the liberal establishment. But the choice of a speaker liberal in politics and agnostic in religion would undoubtedly have been hailed by the Times and other organs of the left. 

Evidently the time is ripe for some basics on religion in a religiously pluralistic country.

Start, then, with the inescapable fact that the Constitution bars a religious test for public office. Unless it be clearly established that an individual holds and, given opportunity, would act upon tenets of a violently antisocial nature, his or her theological views by themselves should not be the basis for granting or withholding access to office.

That said, it should also be clear that a candidate should be comfortable with the great political solvent called compromise as a fundamental negotiating tool of political life. This, it should be clear, does not mean selling out or betraying principle. It means working for and accepting the best deal possible in the circumstances, while reserving the right to seek a better deal if one appears achievable at a later date.

Note, however, that not every issue is open to solution by compromise. Asked how he would approach abortion if he were to become president again, Donald Trump said, “I would sit down with both sides and I’d negotiate something and we’ll end up with peace on that issue for the first time in 52 years.”

That is naïve, to say the least, given that the right to life of the unborn has absolute value in the eyes of pro-lifers just as the “right to choose” has been similarly absolutized by abortion proponents. But even supposing that some temporary agreement were possible — for example, designating a point in pregnancy after which abortion isn’t allowed — the two sides would surely resume fighting before the ink was dry.

In its piece on Speaker Johnson, the Times made much of the fact that he opposes views on church-state separation that are commonly held by secularists. It quoted him as saying that in forbidding an “establishment” of religion, the founders sought to “protect the church from an encroaching state, not the other way around.”

As an attorney with the public interest law firm Alliance Defending Freedom, Johnson had considerable success advancing that view in the courts. Granted, it assumes a debatable reading of the First Amendment’s establishment clause, but it is no less intellectually defensible on that account. Besides which it’s a good summary of what many religious Americans — not just conservative Protestants either — see as the history of secularist aggression against religious faith in our ongoing culture war.

If the new Speaker of the House of Representatives intends to bring that view with him to the lofty office he now occupies, I for one say more power to him.

St. John of Damascus was born around 675, and grew up under Muslim rule in Damascus. His parents were deeply religious Christians, and gave him a thorough education in theology. It was this education that prepared John to defend the tradition of sacred iconography. 

At that time, Iconoclasts were entering churches and destroying the venerated images inside. The emperor had also issued a decree against sacred images. John fought back with public opposition, arguing that Christians did not worship images, but rather venerated them, while worshipping God, and honoring saints. He also argued that because Christ had taken an incarnate physical form on earth, he had allowed the Church to depict him in images. 

John’s opposition made him a known enemy of the emperor, who forged a letter offering to betray the Damascus government in John’s name. The ruling caliph believed the letter, and is said to have had John’s hand cut off, but John’s surviving biography says that his hand was miraculously restored by Mary. John eventually convinced the caliph of his innocence. After this, he became a monk, and then a priest. 

St. John also wrote the “Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith,” in which he systematized the Greek Fathers’ writings about theology in light of philosophy. St. Thomas Aquinas and many other scholars drew great inspiration from this work. 

St. John died in 749 as a revered Father of the Church, and is sometimes called the last of the Church Fathers. In 1890 he was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIII.

    

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

Today we celebrate one of the great twelve feasts, the The Entry of the Mother of God into the Temple

“>Entrance of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple. From Church Tradition we know the story of how the Virgin Mary’s pious parents brought into the temple the young maiden, perhaps even still an infant—we don’t know her exact age at the time, except that she was in early childhood—so that she would remain there in the temple to live, study, and spiritually grow. This was a pious tradition. Probably it was not always carried out, but the fact itself of dedicating a child to God was part of the religious tradition of Israel. This usually took place with the firstborn male, but in this case a girl was dedicated to serving the Lord—the child Mary, born to the pious family of Joachim and Anna.

Of course, the sanctification of an infant to God, the bringing of the child into the temple, had a very great spiritual significance; after all, in the Jerusalem temple was once kept a great holy shrine—the Ark of the Covenant, which at God’s command was prepared by the Jews who departed from Egyptian captivity. In the ark was kept the very great divine gift—the Tablets of the Covenant, those very same stone tablets that Moses received on Mt. Sinai when he met God. Then the Lord gave him the great moral law, which was not only etched in people’s hearts—and that is precisely how God created them—but also written by God’s will in the form of concrete instructions. Ancient Israel preserved this great holy shrine as testimony to the fact that the words inscribed in the covenant are not human words, that they do not proceed from human wisdom, but that this is the authentic word of God, this is the will of God, this is divine law. In the ark besides the tablets was a jar of manna—the very food that was given in a miraculous manner from heaven to the ancient Israelites as they departed by God’s will from Egyptian captivity and wandered forty years in the Climbing Holy Mount SinaiMount Sinai is a special place for Christians. Here God appeared to Moses, spoke with him and gave him ten commandments; here St. John the Climacus, Abbot of Mount Sinai, lived at the Monastery of St. Catherine, at the foot of the mountain. And the mount itself with its steep steps is a visible symbol of asceticism.

“>Sinai desert. Manna, which miraculously came down from heaven, preserved people’s lives, and they survived in the difficult conditions of the desert by eating it. It was truly a very great and holy thing given to people by God.

Therefore, no one could enter into the Holy of Holies, the furthermost part of the temple, which can be compared to our altars in Christian churches—only the high priest, who entered this place in order to perform a special censing once a year. Nevertheless, when the high priest met the child Mary on the steps of the temple, as Church Tradition tells us, he led her not only into the temple, but also into the Holy of Holies, although this was categorically forbidden and contradicted all the laws that the Israelite people observed. And we believe that that is how it was, because the Entrance into the temple of the Most Holy Theotokos became an act filled with enormous spiritual power and great symbolic meaning. The Virgin Mary entered into the Old Testament temple and received the grace of God, in order to begin her life’s path that led to her birth of the Messiah, Lord and Savior, to her contemplation of His terrible sufferings, and finally, to her eternal heavenly glory.

The celebration of the Entrance into the Temple of the Most Holy Theotokos also helps us, separated from that event by millennia, to understand what enormous significance the temple had in the life of the Jewish people for the preservation of the true faith. But in our times the churches preserve the same significance, and this is not at all accidental. First of all, in the Orthodox Church, just as in the ancient Jerusalem temple, there are particularly sacred things. On the throne, which is the central place in the church, are kept antimensions—a cloth with the relics of God-pleasers. Similar to how in the ancient Church the Holy Eucharist was celebrated in the catacombs on the graves of the martyrs, so do we serve the Divine Liturgy on the relics of saints sewn into the antimensions.

The church is filled with great grace when the Divine Eucharist is served, and this grace unites with material objects, first of all with the holy icons. This is why, when we venerate the icons we venerate not boards, not paint, but the material bearers of divine grace, partaking of divine power and divine energy. This is what it means to venerate the holy icons, and I will repeat: We venerate not the board, not the paint, not the beauty produced by human hands, but the visible bearers of divine grace.

First of all, the bearers of divine grace are people who received this gift at Baptism and in Communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. But we know how often sin tears grace from our souls, and we become like the barren fig tree. Inanimate objects can also be bearers of divine grace—first are the holy icons, which we honor, and by kissing them we acquire a piece of the grace that rests on the holy images.

Today’s feast teaches us very much. It turns our attention to the pious custom that the Israelite people had of bringing children to the temple. This is a reminder to all parents, especially to those who have baptized their children. You must bring them to church; this is the direct responsibility of every parent. Why bring your children to church? So that the child will receive that piece of divine energy, so that divine light would touch his nature, his mind, memory, will, and his senses. So that as your child walks the path of life, he would rely not only his own poor strength, which so easily falls apart under the impact of bad external influences, but so that the child would have an inner spiritual core, and the power of divine grace would help him resist sin, growing in wisdom, purity, and spiritual and physical strength.

Today’s feast reminds us of the special significance of the church also as a school of piety. After all, in the ancient Jerusalem temple people not only prayed—many lived at the temple and, of course, studied. It was to this abiding in the temple that the Virgin Mary’s parents gave their miraculously born infant—so that she would grow there from strength to strength in prayer and study. And we know to what this abiding in the temple of the Virgin Mary led—to the great event of the Annunciation, which became the harbinger of her giving birth to the Savior of the world.

A temple is undoubtedly a school of piety—there we hear remarkable prayerful texts, and even if we do not completely understand them, we are permeated with their spiritual meaning; because prayer in church especially influences a person’s mind and heart. We also learn in church through hearing the world of God, through sermons; but most importantly, we receive in church a particular gift of grace, without which it is hard to go through life.

Therefore, the event of the Entrance into the Temple of the Most Holy Theotokos should not only teach parents about the necessity of bringing their children to church, so that they would be happy in life, so that they would be able to walk their life’s path. This is a reminder to the parents themselves, and to all people of how important it is to go to God’s church, where our weak forces, both spiritual and physical, would be filled with divine energy, divine strength. And as proof of these words I would like to cite the example of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia

“>martyrs and confessors who only recently died for the sake of Christ in our lands. Where did such strength in our people come from? Where did they get the ability to overcome extremely difficult trials and persecutions? From that very grace in which the people were brough up, which they acquired in the multitude of churches in the Russian lands. And if it weren’t for that remarkable generation of Orthodox people, who in those very churches tempered their spirit, then the Orthodox faith, having undergone terrible persecutions and the extermination of the faith, would hardly have been preserved in our land to the twenty-first century.

Our historical path, our historical experience is among other things testimony to the power of God’s grace, which through prayer, through going to church, through receiving the Holy Mysteries of Christ strengthens our minds, our will, and our feelings and makes us capable of acquiring salvation. Salvation, which through the entrance of the child Mary into the Jerusalem temple, through the suffering and Resurrection of the Savior, through the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and through them upon the whole Church, is given also to us, so that despite our human weakness we would have hope in eternal life. Amen.

Photo: bogatyr.club     

A rich man was given a rich harvest. He sits and thinks to himself, “What shall I do? I have nowhere to gather my fruits.” And he says, “This is what I will do, I will break down my barns and build bigger ones, and I will gather all my grain and all my goods there. And I will say to my soul, Soul! You have many goods laid up for many years: rest, eat, drink, and be merry!”

You can see this The Rich Young ManHas it been so long since our Church was on the cross, when all those faithful to the Lord hoped only in grace, and deprived of everything, possessed nothing other than treasure in heaven? But everyone without exception is given death as either the loss of everything, or as the Pascha of the Lord.

“>rich man reclining in his armchair, stretching with pleasure, just like in an insurance agency advertisement. Everything is “taken care of,” everything is insured, everything is calculated for many years to come. It seems that he has settled in this world forever, and no longer depends on anyone or anything! But suddenly God, whom he had completely discounted, said to him: Fool! This night your soul will be taken from you.

A person can part with wealth in two ways: either wealth is taken away from him, or he is taken away from wealth. In the first case, it happens that, shocked by a sudden change in fortune, a person begins to reflect on the unsurity of all earthly things, and gradually comes to what is true and imperishable. But when God takes him away, when his soul is torn away forever from that to which it was so attached, what happens to the soul here? What will it suffer?

The Lord reveals the secret of such a soul by asking the very question that will most concern it: “To whom will the things that you have prepared go?” No matter how much a person calls his wealth legitimate and honestly acquired, he still cannot help but see that there are many beggars and hungry people around. And they are not indifferent to his success. They are not only jealous, but they are also making plans to take everything away from him. One needs to build a high fence, arm oneself, hire security. But you also need to calm your ConscienceEvery person is familiar with his inner voice, which on occasion accuses and oppresses him, and on occasion brings him joy.

“>conscience. It is necessary to rationally explain to oneself and others why you have it and others do not. And when you succeed in doing so, you begin to look around you not only with fear, but also with triumph, and with contempt: how dare they desire what belongs only to me alone?! God gave me according to my merit, but He did not give to them because of their unworthiness. I’m a hard worker, and they’re lazy! What right do they have to pry, to desire, to grumble?

So, he seems to have sorted out everything, removed all questions. But what confusion must the soul be in when all that which is revealed is made manifest by the light! And how does it feel to see how it fall into someone else’s hateful hands! Who will get what you have prepared? Only those from whom you hid it, whom you despised, whom you did not even consider to be human beings.

In the story of The Rich Man and Poor LazarusThis Gospel is highly instructive for all of us, for people of every condition and rank.

“>the rich man and Lazarus, both were taken from life at the same time, and let us remember what contempt, even there, the rich man felt for Lazarus, even being in agony himself. But what would have been his anguish if he had seen that the wealth had passed into the hands of this Lazarus! This is exactly what happens to everyone, the Lord concludes, who gathers treasure for himself, and does not become rich in God.

How does one become rich “in God?” Here is an example. One day Peter was also suddenly given wealth. His field of labor was “harvested” and God gave him a huge catch. And what did Peter do? He fell at the feet of the One who gave him wealth, and said: Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man. In this way he was immediately enriched by the fear of God, the knowledge of His omnipotence, the vision of his own sinfulness, the hope of His mercy, and the willingness to leave everything and follow Him (Luke 5). That’s what no one can take away. Such a soul itself is just waiting to be delivered and be with Christ, because it is incomparably better (Phil. 1:23).

Therefore, it is said, Arise, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light. And this is our happiness, when they take everything away from us before they take us away from everything!

St. Francis Xavier was born in 1506 in Navarre, which is now part of both Spain and France. His father was an adviser to King John III and his mother was an heiress. Francis chose not to follow his brothers in the military, and instead studied philosophy in Paris, earning his masters’ degree and then going on to teach. 

In Paris, Francis remained close with his childhood friend Peter Faber, and met St. Ignatius Loyola, both of whom helped him determine how God was calling him. At first, he rejected Ignatius’ austere lifestyle, but Ignatius continued to echo Christ’s question to Francis: “What will it profit a man to gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Over time, Ignatius convinced Francis to give up his own plans and heed God’s call. 

In 1534, Francis, Peter Faber, and four other men made vows of poverty, chastity, and dedication to spreading the Gospel along. Francis was ordained in 1537, and three years later, Pope Paul III confirmed Ignatius and his companions as the Jesuit religious order. In the same year, the king of Portugal asked the pope to send missionaries to convert newly-acquired territories in India. 

Francis and another Jesuit, Simon Rodriguez, went to Portugal to spread the faith and care for the sick. Then, on Francis’ 35th birthday, he set sail for Goa, India, where he found the Portuguese colonists abusing their status and disgracing the Church. 

Francis worked tirelessly to fix the situation there. He visited the sick and the imprisoned, taught children about God, and preached to the Portuguese and the Indians. He lived in a hut with a dirt floor, eating rice and water. 

He had great success converting the common people, although it was harder to convert the upper class Hindus and Muslims. He traveled to Malaysia in 1545 and Japan in 1549 to continue his work, where he instructed the first generation of Japanese Catholics.

While trying to enter China, Francis fell ill and died on Dec. 3, 1552. He and St. Ignatius Loyola were canonized on the same day in 1622. 

Photo: polymerh.ru     

—Fr. Artemy, students from the Samara Seminary once asked you: “What should we do to find good wives?” So, what can men do to find good wives?

—It seems it was easier then than now, because fifteen or twenty years have passed since I visited Samara. At that time, young people still understood the phrases “eligible bachelor” or “marriageable girl.” Although they sounded somewhat old-fashioned even then, they still seemed to have the ideal of family life behind them, when a young man in search of love considered it natural that friendship should end in nothing but matrimony, marriage.

I’m an optimist, and my optimism is based on the fact that those who want to take the burning candles of sacrificial love into their hands still approach priests about it. Sometimes you’re amazed how similar the bride and groom are. It’s amazing how in this great big world, the two halves of one whole find each other! I can find only one answer: The hand of God—marriage is concluded in Heaven. Therefore, finding a companion in life is not just a fruit of your activity. Happiness, they used to say, must be obtained by prayerful entreaties.

Deciding to Enter into MarriageThe first conversation in the cycle is devoted to problems that young men and women ask themselves as they consider marriage: what is the purpose of marriage from the point of view of a Christian, how to choose a partner in life, whether to blindly succumb to the feeling of infatuation, whether they should necessarily get married, and whether marriage with the heterodox and others is possible for an Orthodox Christian.

“>Marriage is fullness, in relation to which each one of us is a half, however flawed. And the most important thing here is fervent faith in the Savior, Who unites the hearts of the married couple as soon as they voice their answer, their vow of mutual fidelity and love.

If the heart of at least one of the spouses is warmed with living prayer to the Lord and the Most Holy Theotokos, I’m convinced there is no trouble or misfortune that it would be impossible to handle if this enlightened half helps his companion endure everything with hope in Christ. If I comprehend my family life, if I understand that caring for my family is an expression of love for God, can any such circumstances really arise that force me to leave the field of battle, to throw down my sword and shield in the midst of battle, and turn my back on my home, my children, and the one whom I once told, “I love you?”

It’s not enough to get married—it’s important to have a relationship with the Mother Church. If our husbands came to the priest once a week or once every two weeks for a medical examination, tracked their thoughts, and revealed their secret sins, then no Trojan horse would be able to enter into the family, and the spouses would, twenty or forty years later, look at each other if not with amorous eyes, then with joy and gladness, thanking God that He brought them together in this world.

—The creation of a family is such a vital issue, but often this decision is made without any careful consideration, but based on the draw of the heart. How can we explain such frivolity?

—We can’t completely exclude the heart from the mystery of coming together. “I remember a wondrous moment, as before my eyes you appeared.”¹

I would like to reflect upon this question. Why, having fallen in love, or at least thinking he’s fallen in love, does a man, a bit rough around the edges, become gentle, gallant, giving flowers? His face, once savage, is illuminated with a childlike smile, grinning wide with compliments for her. And at the same time, at home, with his mother, brother, and friends, he remains a bit rude, boorish; he speaks curtly, his face is completely unkind. Why such a double standard? Is it possible for the human heart to both love and be impudent at the same time? What is the object of his love? Does he love her? Or does he satisfy himself with some biological impulse of the soul, seeing her as simply an outlet for the forces that animate him? Loving her, he uses her and is possessive of her. “I can’t live without her!”—this is actually indulging in one’s own ego and not-so-exalted desires.

So what is the criteria that helps us distinguish genuine love? Selflessness, of course! A good person is not someone who feels good, but someone with whom you feel good. And if you have truly fallen in love and love has entered your life, it will certainly have a beneficial effect on your moral disposition. Having fallen in love with her, you feel like the happiest person and you want to share your joy with your younger brother and your mother. If love is truly given to us from God, then we, learning love from each other, are called to broadcast, to transfer this state that warms us to all both near and far. This is why an Englishman once said: “True charity beginneth first at home.”²

—Probably the most important point in the Wedding service is when the priest leads the couple around the analogion while the choir sings “O Holy Martyrs.”³ Young couples usually don’t pay much attention to this hymn; they think that nothing but happiness awaits them… Why do we sing “O Holy Martyrs” at a Wedding?

—I think it’s because in our time, preserving oneness of heart and mind, preserving harmony is a martyric work demanding intelligence, patience, humility, purposefulness, and the exertion of all a man’s spiritual powers. It’s much easier to turn into a cat and dog after the wedding, to clash like a knight of the White Rose and the Mistress of the Copper Mountain,⁴ sparking off each other through offensive, ironic, and bristling words. And conversely, to be able to not succumb to provocations, to soften sharp edges, to answer a sharp word with thoughtful silence while secretly praying: “Lord, soften my husband’s heart; give him grace.” To smile when your loved one is frowning and withering, breathing vital optimism and energy into him—this is the most difficult path, comparable to a real ascetic feat.

—For some reason fairytales always seem to end with a wedding feast. Can there not simply be a fairytale about a fisherman and a fish or a capricious princess?

—Russian fairytales indeed often lead to this climax and then abruptly end. It used to be that the heroes of family life didn’t have time to fall in love with each other, but since everything was cultivated in them—both humility and a thirst for creating something godly, as soon as they had the wedding, God’s grace descended upon them and life flowed on peacefully. The traditions forged over millennia didn’t envision any other way of life. It was a union that unfolded over the years like a mustard seed growing into a tall, mighty tree, in whose branches dwelt the birds of the air.

Love is confirmed and strengthened by small actions, words, or looks. Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, who left us a whole diary about family life, says you have to plant love like a garden, seed by seed, stem by stem, cultivating care, tenderness, tact, and words backed up by deeds.

—Where does dissatisfaction in marriage come from?

—Nowadays, people are distinguished by the fact that they accumulate negativity in their hearts. But the wiser a man is, the closer he is to God, the shorter his memory is for all kinds of resentments. Every day he thanks his Creator for both sorrows and joys, thereby expanding the scope of his positive emotions. He is calm, joyful, and peaceful.

Imagine, people haven’t even lived together for half a year yet and they’re already starting to notice flaws, and a casual remark becomes a mountain out of a molehill. What kind of satisfaction is there if they both resemble a live wire?! Like two roosters, they jab at one another, turning the paradise of family life into the first circle of Hell.

Thus, we must learn to be good-natured, to be able to see the bright side in everything.

In marriage, there is a mutual fleshly expression of love, an attraction to each other. And dissatisfaction with marriage arises immediately when people do everything possible, even mutilating themselves to abolish fatherhood and motherhood, becoming potential murderers, waging battle against the life that is given to us.

—Can humble acceptance of ordinary life be considered an ascetic feat?

—The Russian theologian Alexei Stepanovich Khomiakov considered it so. There is a feat of combat, in battle, and there is also the feat of service in everyday life. The vessel of family happiness will never crash against the rocks of daily life if we poeticize our daily life; if we strive to make our home a Heavenly tabernacle, if we permeate it with an atmosphere of love and warmth, if we generously share the happiness about which God Himself says: “Where two are crowned in matrimony in My name, there am I among them” (cf. Mt. 18:20).

—What distinguishes a happy family from an unhappy one?

—Happy spouses are good together. They can just be silent; they don’t need to constantly talk, because the quiet angel who overshadowed them in the hour of their Wedding still stretches his wings over them. A happy family is, of course, the family that God has rewarded with children. However, spouses can also be childless—different fates, their divine lot. However, where the home is filled with children, where there is laughter, where the parents receive revelations from the children—because the truth often speaks through the mouths of babes—there is happiness. A happy family is where there is a candle burning before the image of the Most Holy Theotokos. I think the happiest moment for spouses is when they pray together in the morning, giving thanks for the past night and asking for a blessing for the day that has begun. A happy family is ready to joyfully share what God has sent them with friends in the faith.

Blessed Elisa Angela Meneguzzi was born on September 12, 1901. Her parents were poor farmers in Padua, Italy. Elisa was always a deeply faithful Catholic, spending hours in prayer and attending Mass every day. 

In 1926, she joined the Sisters Congregation of Saint Francis de Sales, taking the name Liduina. She worked as a nurse in a girls’ boarding school before being sent to Ethiopia as a missionary in 1937. 

When World War II broke out in 1939, Liduina began tending the sick at a military hospital in Dire-Dawa. Many of the inhabitants were Muslim, but Sister Liduina’s saintly testimony led many of them to convert. She became known as the “ecumenical flame.” 

Sister Liduina died of cancer on December 2, 1941, in the hospital where she worked. Her body was returned to the motherhouse of her congregation in 1961, and she was beatified in 2002 by Pope John Paul II.