Tag: Christianity

Pope Francis told the prefects of Vatican dicasteries that he saw no reason for the Vatican to continue giving U.S. Cardinal Raymond L. Burke a monthly salary and questioned why the Vatican should be providing him with a free apartment in Rome, various sources have confirmed.

“He didn’t see why he should continue to subsidize Burke attacking him and the church,” and the pope thought “he seemed to have plenty of money from America,” a person who spoke to Pope Francis later told Catholic News Service.

Riccardo Cascioli, director of the Italian Catholic publication La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana, reported Nov. 27 that Pope Francis announced the provisions regarding Cardinal Burke during a meeting Nov. 20 with the heads of the offices of the Roman Curia. Cascioli said the pope referred to the cardinal as “my enemy.”

Austen Ivereigh said he wrote to Pope Francis about the “enemy” remark and the pope replied Nov. 28: “I never used the word ‘enemy’ nor the pronoun ‘my.’ I simply announced the fact at the meeting of the dicastery heads, without giving specific explanations.”

He also authorized Ivereigh to share his comment.

A source who spoke to CNS said his understanding was that Pope Francis was not planning to evict Cardinal Burke from his Vatican-owned apartment but that he did plan to ask the cardinal to start paying rent.

“The meeting was clearly confidential,” said a cardinal who refused to confirm any of the story. “It is sad, so sad, and the less said about it, the better.”

Cardinals who work at the Vatican or retire from Vatican positions receive a monthly stipend of about 5,000 euros (about $5,500). The figure had been higher before the COVID-19 pandemic, but Pope Francis reduced the salaries of cardinals by 10% in March 2021 as part of a package of Vatican cost-cutting measures.

Cardinal Burke, 75, is a former Vatican official. A few days before the Synod of Bishops on synodality opened in October, he and four other cardinals released questions or “dubia” that they had sent the pope seeking clarification on doctrinal and pastoral questions expected to be raised at the synod. The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith later published Pope Francis’ responses to the questions, which did not conform to the “yes or no” format that the cardinals had requested.

Earlier, a letter from the cardinal served as a forward to a book criticizing the synod.

“Synodality and its adjective, synodal, have become slogans behind which a revolution is at work to change radically the church’s self-understanding, in accord with a contemporary ideology which denies much of what the church has always taught and practiced,” said the cardinal’s letter to José Antonio Ureta and Julio Loredo de Izcue, authors of “The Synodal Process Is a Pandora’s Box.”

Pope Benedict XVI tapped the former archbishop of St. Louis to head the Apostolic Signatura, a Vatican court, in 2008 and made him a cardinal in 2010. In 2014, Pope Francis removed him from the court and named him cardinal patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. The pope appointed a special delegate to the Order of Malta in 2017, but Cardinal Burke continued to hold the title of patron until June 2023.

Anchorage, November 29, 2023

Wikipedia     

Archpriest Michael Oleksa, known as a missionary priest, having served in over a dozen Alaskan villages, and a scholar of Orthodoxy in Alaska and Native Alaskan history and culture, reposed in the Lord today, November 29, after Call for Prayer: Fr. Michael Oleska of Alaska suffers strokeThe Diocese of Sitka and Alaska of the Orthodox Church in America issued a call to prayer this morning after one of its most beloved priests, Archpriest Michael Oleska, suffered a stroke.

“>suffering a stroke.

The Diocese of Sitka and Alaska of the Orthodox Church in America issued the following statement:

May thy soul dwell with the blessed— Memory eternal, Вечная Память, dear father

At 12:30 this morning on November 29th, His Grace, +Bishop Alexei received word that the beloved Archpriest Michael Oleksa fell asleep in the Lord. In a communication sent to the clergy, +Bishop Alexei wrote;

“My dear Fathers,

Archpriest Michael Oleksa has fallen asleep in the Lord. Father Peter Chris was able to commune Father Michael and I, Father Daniel, Father Peter Chris, and Father Jonah were able to administer last rites before he fell asleep. He was surrounded by his immediate family and loved ones. An announcement will be sent out when funeral arrangements will be made. Those of the clergy who desire to attend the funeral will have my blessing to do so.

Memory eternal. Вечная Память, dear father.”

Please keep Father Michael and his family in your prayers, especially during the first 40 days.

His biography from fatheroleksa.org reads:

The Reverend Dr. Michael James Oleksa has spent the last 35 years in Alaska, serving as village priest, university professor, consultant on intercultural relations and communications, and authoring several books on Alaska Native cultures and history. A 1969 graduate of Georgetown University and of St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, Father Oleksa earned his doctoral degree in Presov, Slovakia, in 1988. His four-part PBS television series, Communicating Across Cultures, has been widely acclaimed.

The recipient of numerous awards from local, state and federal agencies, as well as the Alaska Federation of Natives, Father Michael has taught on all three main campuses of the University of Alaska system and at Alaska Pacific University as well. He currently resides in Anchorage with his Yup’ik wife, Xenia, his daughter Anastasia and one of his three grandsons.

Fr. Michael has authored books such as Orthodox Alaska: A Theology of Mission, Everyday Wonders: Stories of God’s Providence, Alaskan Missionary Spirituality, and Another Culture/Another World, and many more.

He recently joined Fr. Nicholas Molodyko-Harris to Priests of Alaska discuss canonization of Matushka Olga (+VIDEO)St. Olga is remembered as a humble mother, midwife, and priest’s wife who was filled with love for everybody, and especially abused women.

“>speak about the recent canonization of St. Olga of Alaska.

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On Oct. 30, three days after Pope Francis lifted the statute of limitations and opened the path for a church trial and possible removal from the priesthood for former Jesuit and mosaic artist Father Marko Rupnik, a woman previously known as Anna gave the world her real name, revealing it in the Italian daily newspaper Domani.

Emerging as Gloria Branciani, she openly wanted to protest church policies that put the alleged victims in more pain instead of healing.

Branciani alerted church authorities about Father Rupnik’s behavior years ago, but her fight with the church system was, as she recalled in a conversation with OSV News, a lost battle.

In a first-ever interview by an alleged victim of Father Rupnik, published by Domani Dec. 18, 2022, she spoke about a “descent into hell” she experienced for nine years and recalled how “Father Marko at first slowly and gently infiltrated my psychological and spiritual world by appealing to my uncertainties and frailties while using my relationship with God to push me to have sexual experiences with him.”

She described Father Rupnik’s request “for more and more erotic games in his studio at the Collegio del Gesù in Rome while painting or after the celebration of the Eucharist or confession.”

Father Rupnik was expelled from the Jesuit order June 9 because of his “stubborn refusal to observe the vow of obedience.” The artist had been accused by several women of sexual, spiritual and psychological abuses that according to media reports over a 30-year period. He remained a priest after his dismissal from the Jesuits, and was received into the Diocese of Koper, Slovenia, at the end of August in response to his request.

In a conversation with OSV News, Branciani, a graduate in philosophy, said that in the early 1990s, some nuns of the Loyola Community of Mengeš, Slovenia, accused Rupnik of abuse of power and conscience as well as sexual abuse, but “no one listened to the sisters.”

Sister Ivanka Hosta founded the Loyola Community in Slovenia in the 1980s. From the beginning, Father Rupnik was the community’s spiritual counselor.

In March 1993, Branciani, who studied philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, left the convent of La Verna in Italy’s Tuscan Apennines, where she was living, with the intention of letting herself die in the woods. “I just wanted my pain to end and for my gesture to bring Marko Rupnik to his senses,” she told OSV News.

“By then there were many sisters involved at various levels in sexual relationships with him. I tried to talk to Father Rupnik one last time, but he had cynically rejected me saying that it was only my problem, that his aim was to arrive at a collective orgy with sisters ‘stronger’ than me,’” she said.

Then, in order to protect other sisters, Branciani warned Sister Ivanka, mother superior of the Loyola Community; the provincial of the Jesuits, Father Lojze Bratina; and the archbishop of Ljubljana at the time, Archbishop Alojzij Šuštar. She even warned then-Father Tomáš Špidlík, an influential Jesuit working in Rome for Vatican Radio, who was later made a cardinal.

However, instead of taking actions to ensure justice and reparation and the necessary support for the complainant, Branciani was ridiculed, accused of being responsible for her improper relationship with Father Rupnik and punished: “In August 1993, (Father) Špidlík advised me to write a letter of resignation” from religious life, said Branciani, adding that it was “a letter that he wrote himself and that I still have today, in which he suggested saying there were no precise reasons for my request for dispensation from vows.”

The complaint, however, had some effect, and in October 1993, Archbishop Šuštar removed Father Rupnik from the Loyola Community of Mengeš, without explanation.

At the time, Father Rupnik had moved from Slovenia to Rome, where he created the Centro Aletti, a place dedicated to religious life and artistic creativity.

Some sisters of the Loyola Community, who were already living at Centro Aletti in Rome, followed Father Rupnik, including Maria Campatelli, who is the current director of the center. (Father Rupnik, according to the website, is still formally the director of its spiritual art atelier, or studio, and director of its atelier of theology). She still defends the former Jesuit and on Sept. 15 was received by the pope. She claims accusations against Father Rupnik were “defamatory and unproven” and amounted to a form of mediatic “lynching” against the Slovene priest and his art center.

When a few sisters, including Campatelli, left the Loyola Community to found Centro Aletti with Father Rupnik, Bracianci told OSV News, “I wrote a letter to warn them of the manipulative and abusive dynamics I experienced with Father Rupnik,” and “I delivered the letter to Ivanka Hosta. To this day, I don’t know if the sisters of the Aletti Center have ever received it.”

After Father Rupnik’s departure from Slovenia, Gloria Branciani reintegrated into the Loyola Community. According to her testimony, she tried to find her place, but the hostility of the superior and the coldness of the other sisters made her life impossible.

During Easter 1994, after her last attempt to denounce the inauthenticity and lies on which she says community life was based, she left Loyola forever.

However, the sisters were unaware of what had happened to her. Only after the newspaper Domani published an interview with Branciani in December 2022, they learned of the violence she had suffered and were finally able to show their solidarity with her. “Ivanka had told everyone that I was under the influence of the devil and that I was dangerous to the community,” Branciani recalled.

Branciani’s subsequent life was deeply marked by the abuse she suffered: She had to deal with two hemorrhagic uterine fibroids and an ovarian tumor of psychosomatic origin, as well as a serious car accident, which left her in a coma, followed by a long rehabilitation.

Branciani was not the only one who tried to warn the ecclesiastical authorities. Mirjam Kovac, another former sister of the Loyola Community and secretary for its superior at the time of the events, Sister Ivanka, testified that she had received several confidential testimonies from sisters abused by Father Rupnik and had reported them to the Jesuits.

“I spoke to the father provincial, and in 1998 I also went to the delegate for international houses (of the Society of Jesus) in Rome, Father Francisco J. Egaña, but they did nothing,” she told OSV News.

The women stressed that neither the Slovenian Jesuits, nor the archbishop of Ljubljana at the time, nor the influential Father Špidlík, later cardinal, considered it necessary to launch an investigation into Father Rupnik, enabling him to continue to move about undisturbed for another 30 years.

In 2022, Branciani and Kovac were not informed that their own case was underway at the time at the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. They wrote an open letter to the ecclesiastical authorities to be informed about the ongoing investigation at the dicastery, but, as they said, no one responded. So, they decided to turn to the press.

The recent news about the reopening of the canonical process against Father Rupnik was a surprise for Branciani.

“We hope that this will be a suitable step towards seeing the truth acknowledged. We await further developments,” she and other women wrote in an Oct. 30 letter, following the pope lifting the statute of limitations to allow the canonical process. They said that they hope that finally, after 30 years, the truth will be recognized.

Sofia, November 29, 2023

bg-patriarshia.bg     

His Holiness Patriarch Neofit of Bulgaria has been hospitalized for treatment for his lungs.

The office of the Holy Synod announced today:

Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,

The Chancellery of the Holy Synod informs that His Holiness Neofit, Patriarch of Bulgaria and Metropolitan of Sofia was hospitalized in the Military Medical Academy in Sofia, due to a pulmonary disease.

We call upon the clergy and the God-loving faithful to earnestly pray for the quick recovery and restoration of the primate of our Mother Church, and to take only information announced by the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church-Bulgarian Patriarchate as credible.

His Holiness has been in poor health in recent years. He underwent a serious heart surgery in 2011, a year before his election to the primatial throne. He spent about a month in the hospital in Patriarch Neofit of Bulgaria discharged from hospital after month-long stayAlthough he continues to suffer from heart problems, the primate’s treatment was successful.

“>April-May, 2018 after he fainted in his chambers, and about a week in the hospital Patriarch of Bulgaria released from hospitalThe Patriarch returned to the Patriarchal House of the Holy Metropolis of Sofia, and is in good health.”>in June 2021. He was also hospitalized Bulgarian Patriarch hospitalized after accident at home, in stable conditionAccording to the Office of the Holy Synod, the Patriarch was admitted to Sofiamed University Hospital, where “examinations revealed a fracture of the upper part of the left femur.””>in May 2022 with a fractured left femur, and again in September 2022 “due to an exacerbation of his chronic diseases.”

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Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, is expected to sign an immigration bill that would make it a state crime to cross into Texas from Mexico. Catholic organizations including the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops have opposed the legislation.

The bill, Senate Bill 4, was passed by Republican majorities in both the state House and Senate in November, making unlawfully crossing Texas’ international border a state crime separate from a federal one.

Supporters of the legislation argue that it would combat unauthorized entry into the state by empowering law enforcement, while opponents argue it is unconstitutional and inhumane.

Jennifer Allmon, executive director of the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops, wrote on the group’s website that the legislation is “grossly imprudent and could have deadly consequences for innocent migrants.” She added it is unlikely to survive a challenge in federal court.

Justin Estep, senior director of Immigration and Refugee Services at Catholic Charities of Central Texas in Austin, told the Texas House State Affairs Committee in Nov. 9 testimony that the church “does not condone or encourage illegal immigration because it is not good for society or for the migrant, who lives in fear and in the shadows.”

Estep said that while “the church supports the right of a sovereign nation to control its borders,” the “obligation to control the international border lies with federal authorities.”

“Immigration enforcement should be exercised in a way that is targeted, proportional, and humane,” he said.

The state’s Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, also a Republican, praised the legislation in a Nov. 15 statement following its passage by the Texas House of Representatives.

“Addressing the crisis on our southern border, perpetuated by the Biden Administration, is a top priority of mine,” Patrick said, adding, “SB 4 is the strongest border security bill Texas has ever passed. SB 4 will require criminal background checks and the collection of fingerprints and photographs of those arrested for crossing the border illegally. The illegal crosser can be jailed or ordered by a magistrate to be returned to the border. If they violate the order and return to Texas, they will face even harsher penalties.”

But critics said the bill is unlikely to stand up to the scrutiny of courts, and may not even be enforced following likely legal challenges.

Oni K. Blair, executive director at the ACLU of Texas, said in a Nov. 14 statement that the bill “overrides federal immigration law, fuels racial profiling and harassment, and gives state officials the unconstitutional ability to deport people without due process, regardless of whether they are eligible to seek asylum or other humanitarian protections.”

Blair said the legislation “will directly harm people seeking asylum, Black and Brown communities, and the core principles of our democracy.”

If Abbott signs SB 4 into law, Blair added, “we will sue.”

A group of Texas judges wrote a letter to President Joe Biden asking him to intervene.

“We are writing to express our profound concern over legislation recently passed by the Texas legislature that makes local communities less safe, interferes with federal immigration enforcement, threatens our relationships with other nations and does not get us any closer to sound immigration policy,” the letter said.

It was not immediately clear when Abbott may sign the bill, although he has indicated he will do so.

Schema-Igumen Damaskin. Photo taken in c. 2005 “Only prayer, silence and love are effective… It is better to turn to the hearts of other people through secret prayer than turn to their ears,” the Venerable Elder Porphyrios ( Bairaktaris), a Short BiographyOn November 23, 2013, the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople accepted the resolution to canonize Elder Porphyrios (Bairaktaris) of Kafsokalivia. His commemoration date is December 2, on which OrthoChristian.com will post more on the elder’s teachings.On November 23, 2013, the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople accepted the resolution to canonize Elder Porphyrios (Bairaktaris) of Kafsokalivia.

“>Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia said. This image of Schema–Igumen Damaskin was imprinted in the memory of the brethren of the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra. He was a silent man of prayer, always concentrated, quiet, loving solitude and living exclusively by the faith and love for God. According to the former Lavra abbot, Vladyka Theognost, faith kept Fr. Damaskin on this earth—it was his core and support, and the elder’s good stillness edified many.

Schema-Igumen Damaskin (secular name: Pyotr Nikolaevich Krasnykh) was born on July 8, 1925 in the village of Putyatino in the Dobroye district of the Lipetsk region, to a family of workers.

He finished seven grades of secondary school in Losino-Petrovsky near Moscow and in 1942 entered a vocational school. After graduating from it in 1945, he was sent as a metalworker to a factory in the town of Kaliningrad near Moscow (in 1996 Kaliningrad was renamed Korolev).

Private Pyotr Krasnykh during military training, around 1955 From 1948 to 1960 he worked at the Monino plant (Moscow region), first as a metalworker of the fifth class, and then, after studying at the Factory training school (1954–1956)—as a weaving manager assistant. During this period he underwent ninety-day military training with the rank of private.

In October 1960 he entered the The Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra, Where Fates are DecidedNow many churches and monasteries have been restored and opened, but the Lavra was, is and will be the heart of Orthodoxy in Russia. It has a special mission.

“>Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra as a novice and was a monk there for over fifty years.

On July 11, 1964, Novice Peter submitted a request to the father-superior for the monastic tonsure with the words:

“I ask for your intercession with His Holiness Patriarch Alexei I for my monastic tonsure. I promise to perform my obedience at the Monastery of St. Sergius until the end of my earthly life.”

On July 21, 1964, he was tonsured into the mantia with the name Procopius (Prokopy). The monastic tonsure was performed by the Lavra abbot, Archimandrite Pimen (Khmelevsky).

On October 9, 1964, at the Dormition Cathedral of the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Alexei I, he was ordained a hierodeacon by Archbishop Leonid of Perm and Solikamsk; on January 31, 1966, at the refectory church of the Lavra, Bishop Irinei (Zuzemil) of Munich ordained him hieromonk; in 1973, on the feast of Holy Pascha, he was elevated to the rank of igumen.

Novice Peter Krasnykh On April 15, 1979, he was tonsured into the Great schema. The tonsure was performed by the Lavra abbot, Archimandrite Ieronim (Zinoviev). The sponsor at the tonsure was The Gentle Light of Authenticity: Archimandrite Kirill (Pavlov)I remember batiushka’s own words of two years ago, when he still had the strength and desire to say at least something: “After all, a person needs nothing besides God’s mercy!”

“>Archimandrite Kirill (Pavlov), the father-confessor to the brethren.

Fr. Damaskin was a schemamonk by vocation. He never boasted of his schema and did not even always wear it, preferring to wrap himself into his mantle, curled up like a ball.

The elder was known for strict abstinence in everything—in food, sleep and words. At the refectory he ate very little, and in his cell you could see only a piece of white bread and a mug of tea, which he would take at the refectory in the morning and drink in the afternoon, heating up this tea on his little electric stove. Fr. Damaskin always had a canister of spring water in his cell. When the water ran out, he would take a bus to the village of Glinkovo near Sergiyev Posad to fill another canister, saying that that water contained a lot of silver. Batiushka slept very little and never lay in bed. In his cell he had an armchair, in which his slept. Because of this the elder’s legs were swollen, and he walked with difficulty. Icon lamps burned perpetually in front of the icons in his cell; Fr. Damaskin loved solitude and nighttime prayer. At three in the morning, he usually began reading his private monastic rule. Every day he went to all the services in the morning and in the evening. Due to lack of sleep he sometimes became utterly exhausted and would fall asleep right during services. Once there was a funny story because of this. During the evening service at the refectory church Fr. Damaskin fell asleep. The reader did not notice him and after the service, before going home, he as usual locked the sanctuary and the church. Fr. Damaskin woke up and saw that the sanctuary was locked. Fortunately, there was a phone there. Batiushka called the deputy abbot and asked him to “let him out”. The reader had to go back.

Fr. Damaskin was so deep in prayer that he could walk throughout the Lavra without being distracted by anything, without answering any requests, without even greeting anyone. Sometimes it looked very odd.

Igumen Philaret (Tambovsky), a cleric of the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God, “Joy of All Who Sorrow” in Bolshaya Ordynka Street in Moscow, who had known the elder closely for many years, once asked Elder Kirill:

“Why does Father Damaskin pass by lost in thought without blessing or answering? Maybe he is offended?”

Hieromonk Procopius (Krasnykh) Fr. Kirill replied, “What are you saying! The schemamonk is praying unceasingly. It’s spiritual life—you should understand this.”

Igumen Philaret confessed his sins to Fr. Damaskin for many years. Every time at the end of the confession Fr. Damaskin would ask his name. Fr. Philaret thought, “Can’t he remember my name after so many years? He remembers the names of the Lavra brethren.”

The next time Fr. Philaret came to the Lavra for Pascha and when he went up to Fr. Damaskin, he gave him an egg and said, “Christ is Risen! Father Philaret, I always remember you and pray for you.” He smiled meekly, bent over and walked away. He never laughed—he was strict, like St. Basil the Great.

Fr. Philaret related how Fr. Damaskin miraculously helped him in 2004. Then the elder said to him, “The place where you currently perform your obedience is bad for you. Check your blood pressure—you have ‘hidden high blood pressure’. But don’t be upset: trust entirely in the Mother of God. Things will be sorted out in less than a year.”

At confession at the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross in the village of Troitskoye     

Indeed, soon Fr. Philaret had a hypertension stroke, and after some time he was transferred to Moscow, to the church in Bolshaya Ordynka.

When Fr. Damaskin was younger, he used to travel extensively in Russia. Those trips reflected the elder’s concern and prayers for the whole world. Batiushka had many spiritual children in the south of Russia and in the Moscow region who loved him dearly and waited for him. This was a certain paradox of the elder’s personality—it was difficult for rational-minded people to get on with him, while the hearts of simple, emotional old women were closer to him.

Being silent and detached from the world at the Lavra, alongside pious old women Fr. Damaskin seemed to be transformed—they prayed and prepared for Communion together… There, in the provinces, batiushka’s love for the whole world and his spiritual children was felt very keenly.

One day, Fr. Damaskin came to stay at a skete in the south of Russia. Pilgrims did not come there—it was a tiny “skete-church”, surrounded by a high fence, with a few monks. During a walk, the elder, passing by an apple tree under which there were many fallen apples, wondered, “So many apples! Why is no one picking them up?” And he added with a special intonation (he rarely spoke that way-with emphasis on words, categorically), “After all, we must pray and work!”

Fr. Damaskin among the Lavra brethren (second from the right in the lower row)     

According to the reminiscences of the abbot of the Kozheozersky Monastery of the Theophany, Hieromonk Mikhei (Razinkov), Schema-Igumen Damaskin led an ascetic life, and the Lord gave him both spiritual and physical strength. When Fr. Mikhei lived with his brethren in Kotovo on the shore of the White Sea—very far from the nearest village—Fr. Damaskin came there seven times and supported the northern monastery’s monks.

“He walked all the roads, and it is dozens of miles,” Fr. Mikhei recalls. “He and I lived in the same cell. He slept only three hours a day. He always read the Gospel, always prayed with prayer ropes, attended services and ate very little. When we were attacked by temptations, he would say, ‘You should pray, fast and totally abstain from food for at least a day or two.’ And he set a good example in everything. He brought with him the book, The Flower Garden, by Monk Dorotheus, which became a manual for all the brethren. He didn’t talk much, but with his silence your heart didn’t feel heavy, but rather at ease. That’s how I remember him—as a silent man of prayer.”

Abbot Procopius (Krasnykh) The laconic Fr. Damaskin set an example to the brethren. According to his cell-attendant, the elder could sit for half a day with a book in his hands in the presence of several people without saying a word.

Igumen Vsevolod recalls:

“Father Damaskin was very quiet and inconspicuous. He would answer your question briefly and run away. He ate very little and served strictly and reverently. He always attended the common evening prayer rule, which was read at the refectory after dinner.”

The Lavra’s Hierodeacon Sophrony also often attended this prayer rule, and Igumen Philip shared his recollections of one remarkable episode to which he had been an eyewitness during the rule. Fr. Sophrony was known for his difficult character, even feigned foolishness. He was reputedly clairvoyant—at least after his death the brethren discovered many of secret the elder’s secret ascetic labors, which they had not previously suspected.

After being tonsured into the Great Schema, with Archimandrites Kirill and Bartholomew, 1979 At the evening rule, Fr. Sophrony usually didn’t look at the icons but rather at the reader—he stared intently, as the brothers used to say jokingly, “straight into your mouth”, and occasionally he averted his gaze and looked at the others. One day he looked like that at Fr. Damaskin, who was standing and listening to the rule. Suddenly Fr. Sophrony’s face changed, and as if looking into the space around the schema-igumen, he uttered with deep feeling, “You—my brother!” His face reflected amazement and shock… After being silent for a while, he could only repeat again, “You—my brother!…” We can only guess what was revealed at that moment to one ascetic about the spiritual life of another…

Schema-Igumen Damaskin’s cell attendant shared his first impressions of the elder:

“At first, he seemed strange and mysterious to me. He hardly ever spoke, was a little hunched over and always looked down. If he said something, it was in a strange manner, disconnected and very incomprehensible, even when he pronounced words carefully. Only occasionally did he lift his face to see someone who aroused his interest. Then you could see his very unusual, very lively and intelligent eyes. Later, when I started taking care of him in the Lavra, I saw him somewhat differently—more open and natural.”

After being tonsured into the Great schema in the altar of the refectory church, 1979 In terms of spiritual guidance the elder did not give categorical blessings. “You go here, and you go there.” but he often asked leading questions, so it was hard to understand what he meant. You would have to look for answers yourself… At the same time, it was very difficult to live with the elder. You had to get his blessing for everything, and what you did willfully, even if “out of love”, could be punished.

“One day I was so tired of such a life with him that I decided to flee to America—to ROCOR, to some Mission,” Fr. Damaskin’s cell-attendant recalled. “I prayed at the relics in the evening, explained everything to St. Sergius in my mind, and came back to batiushka in the cell (war is war, but I must put the elder to sleep every night). He said to me from the doorstep, ‘Are we going to America? Take me with you—I’ll be useful there…’ Another time, when it seemed I couldn’t bear it anymore and was about to leave, I put my things into a backpack and went to the utility room to deliberate on the situation there and move somewhere. When I passed the bridge behind the “publishing” tower of the Lavra, I suddenly felt really bad: my legs gave way and I had to go back.

“Once I woke up with a clear sense of anxiety and ran upstairs to the elder (I still slept in the cell for novices downstairs at that time) to find that the entire floor was filled with smoke. It was about four in the morning. I went up to the entrance to his cell and saw his electric kettle burning on a chair and batiushka standing in the doorway and praying with a prayer rope: ‘Our Father…’ All the veins on his face were bulging. I pulled out the cord and filled the kettle with water. It was a clear miracle: five minutes later the fire would have spread to the wooden cabinet and the chipboard walls, and everything would have caught fire very quickly. Everything was old there: the cell was narrow, the doorway was eighty centimeters wide, with a wooden chair and an old plywood cabinet next to it.”

After being tonsured into the great schema. The covered arcade of the refectory church. Archimandrite Kirill is on the far right. The Lavra Abbot, Archimandrite Ieronim, is next after Fr. Damaskin     

The windows were leaky, and it was very cold in the elder’s cell in winter. Fr. Damaskin used to feed pigeons through the window, often looking at the Lavra churches for a long time.

“When I glued up a crack in the window, it became a little warmer in the cell—about sixteen or seventeen degrees,” the cell-attendant related. “No wonder that in winter batiushka often fell ill. But he did not like being in hospitals, and as far as I remember, he never went to one. Batiushka never asked for anything at all.”

Igumen Damaskin with a parishioner at the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross in the village of Troitskoye (the Rostov region) The elder had a difficult childhood and youth—he lived through the famine. Once he mentioned that he had spent a long time in the cellar without food, hiding from German bombs. This experience hardened the elder: he would often go to services in winter in the cold, wearing only a cassock or ryassa over his underclothes, walking down the street in the cold. After not eating a for a whole day he would feel hungry, but he did not become weak and retained the ability to pray and read the canons.

When he was younger, he would read a lot of Patristic works and write out some quotations or whole passages into his notebooks. He had plenty of such small notebooks.

Fr. Damaskin avoided speaking with people of a non-peaceful disposition. Whenever someone started arguing, he immediately left. The elder was very concerned about the spiritual state of the world and prayed incessantly. When he lived in Peredelkino with Archimandrite Mikhail (Balayev), they even painted over their windows so as not to be distracted from prayer.

Love for prayer and services was characteristic of Fr. Damaskin. In one of his sermons the Lavra abbot, Bishop Theognost, once said, “We have some feeble monks who do not miss a single common service of intercession the whole year.” These words were about Fr. Damaskin. The brethren were surprised at how he was always at church, even though he was so weak that he was about to fall apart.

“Every day I would wake batiushka up at about five in the morning, help him get dressed, and we would go to the brother’s moleben,” the elder’s cell-attendant recalled. “He always stood in front of the solea, despite his infirmity. In the final year of his life, he began to stand and sit down in the stasidia. At the end everyone would kill the cross in the hands of the father-superior and venerate St. Sergius’ relics, and the brethren would go off to the churches and their obediences. Batiushka would stay for the Liturgy.”

Schema-Igumen Damaskin’s grave at the monastic cemetery in Deulino Several times in the winter, in the sparkling frost, the elder, who was already eighty-five, fell on the steps of the Dormition Cathedral, but each time he rose and went on to the service… It was his principled position not to miss a single service. Only during his final illness was Fr. Damaskin unable attend the moleben, midnight office, and Liturgy that followed. Nevertheless, his love for the Church was so great that even on the day of his repose his cell-attendant asked if he would go to the common service of intercession.

He reposed at the Lavra, in his cell in the St. Barbara’s living quarters, early in the morning during the brother’s moleben to St. Sergius, having fulfilled his promise to struggle at the Monastery of St. Sergius to the end of his earthly life. Many people remembered the date of the elder’s repose: It was impossible not to remember it—November 11, 2011—the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the eleventh year.

After the vesting and the litany in the cell, the brethren together brought the newly departed elder to the Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles, where the Gospel was read unceasingly at the coffin. The funeral service for Fr. Damaskin was performed by the then Lavra Abbot, Bishop Theognost, with the brethren concelebrating, after the memorial Liturgy at the Dormition Cathedral.

The ever-memorable Schema-Igumen Damaskin was buried in the monastic cemetery at the Church of the All-Merciful Savior in the village of Deulino.

Every year, dozens of parishes around the Archdiocese of Los Angeles host celebrations marking Simbang Gabi, a Filipino tradition that celebrates the nine days leading up to Christmas with the celebration of the Mass, novenas, and food.

This year’s theme is “Jesus, the Greatest Gift of All, Truly Present in the Eucharist!” The celebration kicks off Friday, Dec. 15, at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels with a 6:30 p.m. Mass celebrated by Archbishop José H. Gomez. The Mass will be preceded by traditional music and the Parade of Parols. The parols, a Philippine Christmas symbol, will be blessed at the end of Mass.  

A full schedule of parishes participating in the 2023 Simbang Gabi novena is below. 

Friday, Dec. 15 

Holy Family Church, South Pasadena, 7 p.m. 

Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, Downey, 7 p.m. 

Saturday, Dec. 16

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church, Rowland Heights, 5:30 a.m. 

Annunciation Church, Arcadia, 7 a.m.

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque Church, Lomita, 8:15 a.m. 

St. Dorothy Church, Glendora, 1 p.m. 

Beatitudes of Our Lord Church, La Mirada, 4 p.m. 

Our Lady of Refuge Church, Long Beach, 4 p.m. 

St. Junipero Serra Church, Quartz Hill, 4 p.m. 

Holy Trinity Church, San Pedro, 4:30 p.m. 

St. Pancratius Church, Lakewood, 4:30 p.m. 

Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church, Pasadena, 5 p.m. 

Holy Angels Church, Arcadia, 5 p.m. 

Holy Name of Mary Church, San Dimas, 5 p.m. 

Nativity Church, El Monte, 5 p.m. 

Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Church, Montebello, 5 p.m. 

St. Catherine of Siena Church, Reseda, 5 p.m. 

St. Finbar Church, Burbank, 5 p.m. 

St. Gregory the Great Church, Whittier, 5 p.m. 

St. John Fisher Church, Palos Verdes, 5 p.m. 

St. Lorenzo Ruiz Church, Walnut, 5 p.m. 

St. Louis de Monfort Church, Orcutt, 5 p.m. 

St. Mary Magdalen Church, Los Angeles, 5 p.m. 

St. Robert Bellarmine Church, Burbank, 5 p.m. 

St, John Vianney Church, Hacienda Heights, 5:15 p.m. 

All Souls Church, Alhmabra, 5:30 p.m. 

Maria Regina Church, Gardena, 5:30 p.m. 

Sacred Heart Church, Lancaster, 5:30 p.m. 

St. Bede Church, La Canada Flintridge, 5:30 p.m. 

St. Denis Church, Diamond Bar, 5:30 p.m. 

St. Luke the Evangelist Church, Temple City, 5:30 p.m. 

St. Mariana de Paredes Church, Pico Rivera, 5:30 p.m. 

St Mary Church, Palmdale, 5:30 p.m. 

St. Monica Church, Santa Monica, 5:30 p.m. 

Our Lady of Loretto Church, Los Angeles, 6 p.m. 

Immaculate Conception Church, Monrovia, 6:30 p.m. 

St. Ann Church, Los Angeles (Elysian Valley), 7 p.m. 

Sunday, Dec. 17

St. Ignatius of Loyola Church, Los Angeles (Highland Park), 9 a.m. 

Padre Serra Parish, Camarillo, 11 a.m. 

St. Brendan Church, Los Angeles, 11:30 a.m. 

St. Didacus Church, Sylmar, 4 p.m. 

St. Timothy Church, Los Angeles, 4:30 p.m. 

St. Bridget of Sweden Church, Lake Balboa, 5 p.m.

St. Cyprian Church, Long Beach, 5 p.m. 

St. Jerome Church, Los Angeles, 5 p.m. 

St. Rose of Lima Church, Simi Valley, 5 p.m. 

St. Benedict Church, Montebello, 6 p.m. 

St. Louis de Montfort Church, Orcutt, 6 p.m. 

St. Lorenzo Ruiz Church, Walnut, 6:30 p.m. 

Sacred Heart Church, Altadena, 7 p.m. 

St. John Baptist de la Salle Church, Granada Hills, 7 p.m. 

Monday, Dec. 18

Our Lady of the Assumption Church, Ventura, 5:30 p.m.

St. Dominic Church, Los Angeles (Eagle Rock), 6 p.m. 

St. Madeleine Church, Pomona, 6 p.m. 

St. Christopher Church, West Covina, 6:30 p.m. 

Our Lady of Peace Church, North Hills, 6:45 p.m. 

Our Lady of Grace Church, Encino, 7 p.m.

St. Dominic Savio Church, Bellflower, 7 p.m. 

St. Ferdinand Church, San Fernando, 7 p.m. 

St. Kateri Church, Santa Clarita, 7 p.m. 

St. Louis de Montfort Church, Orcutt, 7 p.m.  

Tuesday, Dec. 19

St. Bruno Church, Whittier, 6 p.m. 

Our Mother of Good Counsel Church, Los Angeles, 6:30 p.m. 

St. Bartholomew Church, Long Beach, 6:30 p.m. 

Cathedral Chapel, Los Angeles, 7 p.m. 

Good Shepherd Church, Beverly Hills, 7 p.m. 

St. Euphrasia Church, Granada Hills, 7 p.m. 

St. Francis de Sales Church, Sherman Oaks, 7 p.m. 

St. Pius X Church, Santa Fe Springs, 7 p.m. 

St. Louis de Montfort Church, Orcutt, 7 p.m. 

Wednesday, Dec. 20

Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, Guadalupe, 6 p.m.  

St. Linus Church, Norwalk, 6:30 p.m. 

St. Basil Church, Los Angeles, 7 p.m. 

St. Bernard Church, Los Angeles (Glassell Park), 7 p.m. 

St. Clare Church, Santa Clarita, 7 p.m. 

St. Francis of Assisi Church, Los Angeles, 7 p.m. 

St. Joseph the Worker Church, Canoga Park, 7 p.m. 

Thursday, Dec. 21

Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, Guadalupe, 6 p.m. 

St. Bernard Church, Bellflower, 6:30 p.m. 

Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Northridge, 7 p.m. 

St. Basil Church, Los Angeles, 7 p.m. 

St. Cyril of Jerusalem Church, Encino, 7 p.m. 

St. Joseph Church, La Puente, 7 p.m. 

Friday, Dec. 22

St. Anthony Church, San Gabriel, 6 p.m. 

St. Hilary Church, Pico Rivera, 6 p.m. 

St. Raphael Church, Santa Barbara, 6 p.m. 

St. Charles Borromeo Church, North Hollywood, 5:30 p.m. 

Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, Santa Clarita, 7 p.m. 

St. Bernardine of Siena Church, Woodland Hills, 7 p.m. 

St. Francis Xavier Church, Burbank, 7 p.m. 

St. John Neumann Church, Santa Maria, 7 p.m. 

St. Joseph Church, Hawthorne, 7 p.m. 

St. Paschal Baylon Church, Thousand Oaks, 7 p.m. 

Saturday, Dec. 23

St. Lorenzo Ruiz Church, Walnut, 5 a.m. 

St. Mary Magdalen Church, Camarillo, 4 p.m. 

St. Louise de Marillac Church, Covina, 4:30 p.m. 

Blessed Sacrament Church, Los Angeles, 5 p.m. 

La Purisima Concepción Church, Lompoc, 5 p.m. 

St. Hilary Church, Pico Rivera, 5 p.m. 

St. Paul of the Cross Church, La Mirada, 5 p.m. 

St. Anthony Church, Oxnard, 5:15 p.m. 

Sunday, Dec. 24 

St. Hilary Church, Pico Rivera, 8 a.m. 

Queen of Angels Church, Lompoc, 6 p.m. 

 

Parishes with full novena

Christ the King Church, Los Angeles, Dec. 16-17, 5:30 p.m., Dec. 18-24, 7 p.m. 

Holy Family Church, Artesia, Dec. 16-24, 5 a.m. 

Holy Family Church, Glendale, Dec. 16-24, 5:30 a.m. 

Holy Trinity Church, Los Angeles (Atwater), Dec. 15, 7 p.m., Dec. 16-24, 5:30 a.m., Dec. 16-17, 23, 5 p.m., Dec. 18-22, 7 p.m. 

Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, Los Angeles, Dec. 16-24, 5 a.m. 

Incarnation Church, Glendale, Dec. 16-24, 7 p.m. 

Mary Star of the Sea Church, Oxnard, Dec. 16-17, 23, 5 p.m., Dec. 18-22, 7 p.m. 

Nativity Church, Torrance, Dec. 15, 18-22, 5:30 p.m., Dec. 16-17, 23, 5 p.m. 

Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Tujunga, Dec. 16, 23, 5 p.m., Dec. 17-22, 7 p.m. 

Our Lady of the Assumption Church, Claremont, Dec. 16, 18-23, 5 a.m., Dec. 17, 7 a.m. 

Our Lady of the Valley Church, Canoga Park, Dec. 16-24, 5 a.m. 

Precious Blood Church, Los Angeles, Dec. 16-24, 5 a.m. 

St. Anthony of Padua Church, Gardena, Dec. 16, 23, 8 a.m., Dec. 18-22, 6:30 a.m., Dec. 17, 24,       7:30 a.m. 

St. Barnabas Church, Long Beach, Dec. 15, 17-22, 6:30 p.m., Dec. 16, 23, 5 p.m. 

St. Catherine of Siena Church, Reseda, Dec. 16-24, 6 a.m. 

St. Columban Church, Los Angeles, Dec. 16-17, 5 p.m., Dec. 18-23, 7 p.m., Dec. 24, 6 a.m. 

St. Elisabeth of Hungary Church, Van Nuys, Dec. 16, 23, 7:45 p.m., Dec. 17-22, 7 p.m. 

St. Genevieve Church, Panorama City, Dec. 16, 18-23, 5:30 a.m., Dec. 17, 24, 5 a.m. 

St. Jane Frances de Chantal Church, N. Hollywood, Dec. 16, 18-23, 5:30 a.m., Dec. 17, 24, 5 a.m. 

St. John Eudes Church, Chatsworth, Dec. 16-17, 5 p.m., Dec. 18-22, 6:30 p.m., Dec. 23, 7 p.m. 

St. John of God Church, Norwalk, Dec. 15-23, 6:30 p.m. 

St. John the Baptist Church, Baldwin Park, Dec. 16-23, 6:30 p.m. 

St. Kevin Church, Los Angeles, Dec. 16-24, 5:30 a.m. 

St. Louis of France Church, La Puente, Dec. 16-22, 6 p.m., Dec. 23, 8 a.m. 

St. Martha Church, Valinda, Dec. 16-24, 5 a.m. 

St. Mary of the Assumption Church, Santa Maria, Dec. 16-24, 5 a.m. 

St. Mel Church, Woodland Hills, Dec. 16-24, 6:30 a.m. 

St. Peter Chanel, Hawaiian Gardens, Dec. 15-16, 18-23, 6 p.m., Dec. 17, 5 p.m. 

St. Peter Claver, Simi Valley, Dec. 16, 18-22, 7 p.m., Dec. 17, 23, 5 p.m. 

St. Philomena Church, Carson, Dec. 16-17, 23, 6 p.m., Dec. 18-22, 7 p.m. 

St. Stephen Martyr Church, Monterey Park, Dec. 16, 23, 5 p.m., Dec. 17, 1 p.m., Dec. 18-22, 6:30 p.m. 

Cleveland, November 29, 2023

Photo: Facebook     

His Grace Bishop Irenej and the Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Eastern America has plans to expand and beautify March Monastery in Richfield, Ohio.

To support the project, a fundraiser was held on Saturday evening, November 18, at St. Sava Cathedral in Cleveland. Attendees were treated to a traditional Serbian dinner and a number of artistic performances throughout the evening, the diocese reports.

Photo: easterndiocese.org     

The program began with a performance by the folklore group Tradicija, followed by a poetry reading by Milica Mijatović.

Then, Bp. Irinej presented the monastery plans designed by architect Lazar Noel Cupkovic, including monastic cells, a library, an expansive dining room, “and many other features proper to a traditional Orthodox women’s monastery.”

And speaking of the history of the monastery, Bp. Irinej emphasized how previous generations had laid the foundation for the monastery, “and now, our generation is blessed with the opportunity to expand on this foundation.”

Photo: easterndiocese.org     

His Grace then offered a personal donation to the project—the first of many that evening.

The diocesan report concludes:

Although much more is needed for its completion, with God’s help and our newly energized inspiration, we are prayerful that it will be completed in the near future through additional fundraising events and heartfelt donations to the project which can be sent to the Diocese at any time!

***

Monastery Marcha was established as a women’s monastery in 1975 by then Diocesan Bishop His Grace Bishop Dr. SAVA. In 1974, Mother Evpraksija and Mother Anna had arrived there. The site had been the episcopal headquarters of the Eastern American and Canadian Diocese which subsequently moved to Edgeworth, Pennsylvania.

In 2001 the new monastery church was constructed with the archpastoral blessings of His Grace Bishop Dr. MITROPHAN. His Holiness Patriarch PAVLE with several concelebrating hierarchs and a large number of clergy were present for the consecration of the new church.

Monastery Marcha celebrates July 13/26, the Synaxis of the Holy Archangel Gabriel as the monastery slava.

Mother Anna (Radetic) was the first American-born Serbian Orthodox nun. Sister Georgiana (Zaremba) and Sister Antonia (Spanja) were the next two American-born women to enter the monastic life at Monastery Marcha. Sister Anastasia became the third American-born woman to enter monastic life through Monastery Marcha. Fr. Seraphim (Steve) entered monastic life at Monastery Marcha and is currently active caring for the grounds and making candles. Fr. Simeon (Grozdanovich) initiated the making of candles and cared for the grounds during the initial years of the monastery’s existence.

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When you have five children, you become accustomed to the spontaneous comments from strangers when they see your offspring spilling out of your minivan.

“What, you and your husband didn’t own a TV?” is one that got old rather quickly, but having been raised to be unfailingly polite, I always respond with a chuckle. Over the years, however, I’ve noticed that reactions have tended to become more positive, admiring, even wistful: “Wow, you are a champ!” and “Oh, I also wanted a large family, but we just couldn’t.”

This is my anecdotal experience, but it tracks nicely with the results of a recent Gallup poll which found that the percentage of Americans that think the ideal family should include three or more children is as high as it was in 1950. Today, almost half believe this, compared to a third in 2003.

Sadly, those desires for a large family are not matched with their fulfillment. The American birth rate is dangerously low at 1.6 births/woman, well beneath the replacement rate of 2.1 (the statistical number of children each woman would have to have in order to keep the population stable).

Much has been written about this widening mismatch, with thinkers and experts offering ideas on how to help Americans have more children, as they seem to want. There’s little question that larger families are a positive good for the country, as a demographically top-heavy society (with more old people, and fewer younger ones) presents all kinds of problems, beginning with economic ones (see: Japan). 

Some researchers suggest that boosting the marriage rate or encouraging couples to get married earlier in life could help. Others point to inflation, housing shortages, and the stratospheric cost of higher education as root causes that could be curbed. The Brookings Institution calculated the cost of raising a child to adulthood today at $310,000, not including education. Gulp.

I’ll leave possible solutions for these existential problems to the experts. I’m more interested in why larger families have become aspirational, even as the material obstacles multiply.

I would like to think that, as modern and increasingly removed from all things “earthy” as we are, something about our ancestors’ conviction that sons and daughters are like flowers in a well-tended garden, or “arrows in a soldier’s quiver,” still rings true for us. 

An older wisdom held that children were a net-positive: they were bearers of joy and excitement, prudent safeguards against the loneliness and dependency of old age, and fitting, happy workers in the family vineyard. The man with sons could pass on his wisdom and craft, as his father had to him. A woman with daughters had a web of female connection, a strong safety net stretched out under the precariousness of life.

 “Thy wife shall be a fruitful vine, in the innermost parts of thy house; thy children like olive plants about thy table,“ the psalmist says. “Behold, thus shall the man be blessed that fears God” (Psalm 128.3).

We are, most of us, far away from vineyards and olive plants, but our lives are marked by the same desire for the blessings of connection. Something tells us that some are better than none, and so more must be even better. One child giggling and glad to see us when we come home harried after a long day is only topped by two children at the door and a cooing, messy-faced baby in a highchair. 

And when those sons and daughters grow up, they become our special friends, the ones that will be there to care for us when our days of need inevitably arrive. The  trappings of modern life may protect us from much, but they can’t protect us from the iron wheel of life, which sweeps us up and then inexorably down, down. Thank God for our children who are there to catch us.

A large family is an act of prudence in a hard and often joyless world. It’s also a great yes to the question of existence. It’s a vote of confidence in the essential goodness of God’s plan of salvation and a sign of our ready cooperation with his strategy. Christianity teaches that conceiving a child is an extraordinary act of co-creation with God himself and that we, the flawed vessels we are, participate in the crowning of his spectacular design.

If any of these thoughts and longings sound familiar, that’s a great sign. It means that we are just as human today as we were when the psalmists sang of the joy of generation. And that we are just as able to understand the principle behind the ancient belief: “Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.”

St. Justin of Ufa and Menzelinsk St. Justin (Polyansky) of Ufa and MenzelinskJustin (Polyansky) of Ufa and Menzelinsk, Bishop

“>St. Justin of Ufa and Menzelinsk was ordained to the priesthood in September 1853. His wife died in 1862, and he was tonsured into monasticism in June 1863. He served at various monasteries and seminaries, and on January 27, 1885, he was consecrated Bishop of Mikhailovsk, vicar of the Ryazan Diocese. He served in a number of dioceses, and on October 14, 1896, he was appointed Bishop of Ufa and Menzelinsk. He retired in 1900 and spent the rest of his life until his peaceful repose on September 26, 1903, in monastic reclusion. In 1988, he was glorified as a locally venerated saint in the Synaxis of Crimean Saints.

Behold, Great Lent has come, thank God!¹ All Christians are now obliged to fast and pray.

As we learn from the Holy Fathers of the Church and from experience, fasting and prayer are the two wings that help a Christian ascend to Heaven; that is, they help him renounce everything sinful and take up abode in the realm of all that is holy. So extraordinarily great is the power of fasting and prayer! But, my beloveds, we can acquire this power with the help of the grace of God if we properly understand the meaning and significance of fasting and prayer and if we practice them as we ought.

Thus, 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.

On Fasting

1

St. Seraphim on Fasting and Guarding the MindHoly people did not begin a strict fast suddenly; they gradually, little-by-little made themselves capable of being satisfied with the poorest foods.

“>Fasting is not simply the usual restraint in food and drink prescribed by prudence and medical science, aimed at preserving bodily health; rather, it is a higher degree of temperance, along with the distinction of food and drink—temperance prescribed for the children of the Holy Church for certain fasting days and periods.

Photo: stylishbag.ru     

Fasting, according to the explanation of the Holy Fathers, was established by God Himself, in Paradise, when the first people, our forefathers, were forbidden to taste of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:17). We find many examples of fasting in the Old Testament (Num. 29, 1/3 Kg. 7, Ps. 34:13, 1 Macc. 3:47). In the New Testament, the Savior Himself, having come not to abolish but to fulfill the Law, Himself sanctified fasting with His forty-day fast in the desert before He embarked upon His public ministry. In addition to His own example, He also taught fasting by His word, when He told His disciples: Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness (Lk. 21:34).

What Jesus Christ taught and what He commanded, the Holy Church has always followed unwaveringly. The Acts of the Apostles presents not a few examples of the first Christians’ strict observance of fasting; and the Holy Church has never forgotten fasting since. The Holy Fathers and teachers of the Church have many instructions and decrees on holy fasting. St. Basil the Great speaks directly: “Because we, in the person of our forefathers, did not fast, we were cast out of Paradise. Thus, let us fast in order to enter again into Paradise” (Homily 1 On Fasting).

Therefore, the Holy Church established four fasts in the end, according to the four seasons of the year, as times for common fasting and repentance: two fasts in honor of the Lord Jesus Christ—Great Lent and the Nativity Fast, one in honor of the Mother of God—the Dormition Fast, and one in honor of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles—the Apostles’ Fast. We also have one-day fasts on the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross

“>Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord and the The Beheading of St. John the Baptist“>Beheading of St. John the Forerunner; on Wednesday in remembrance of our Lord Jesus Christ’s betrayal to suffering, and on Friday in remembrance of His very suffering and death. All of the fasts are obligatory for every Christian, as children of the Church, excepting the sick and infirm.

However, unfortunately, there have always been people, and now there are many such people, who abuse the fasts, or reject them altogether, indifferent to the fact that they thereby become disobedient children of the Church that has commanded fasting, incur countless diseases, and are constantly treated and die before their time. How pitiable are such people! They are so foolish and weak that they prefer to get sick and die prematurely than to stop eating something sweet. Oh, children, children!

On the other hand, how many great and sensible fasters the Church of Christ has, both in the Old and New Testaments: there Moses, Elijah, and David; here the Baptist and his countless imitators who all lived long, healthy lives; they lived and committed great deeds. On the Saturday of Cheesefare Week, the Holy Church remembers and glorifies the innumerable host of saints of God of every kind, rank, age, and sex who shone forth in fasting. The Holy Church does this before Great Lent, by the way, in order to give us examples of fasting.

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God (Heb. 12:1-2).

Amen.

To be continued…