Tag: Christianity

On October 21, 2016, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church canonized Chosen By God: Life of Abbess Arsenia of Ust-MedveditsThe amazing purity of heart that God gave Anna from birth was preserved in her until the end of her life, and therefore the path of her life was clear and straight.

“>St. Arsenia of Ust-Medvedits as a locally venerated saint of the Volgograd Metropolis.

Abbess Arsenia (1833-1905) came from a notable family of the Don region. At the age of seventeen, Anna Mikhailova entered the Ust-Medvedits Monastery of her own accord. The monastery reached its highest peak in the forty years of her abbacy, from 1864 until her repose on August 3, 1905.

Besides her educational and charitable activities, the main fruits of Venerable Arsenia’s labors were the Kazan Cathedral, which was erected from 1785 to 1885, and the famous caves, dug in the image of the Kiev Caves. Today the monastery’s main shrine is there—the miraculous stone slab with hand and knee imprints of people kneeling in prayer, where the faithful come to beseech St. Arsenia for healings, the good arrangement of worldly affairs, and prosperous family lives.

In addition to her holy life, St. Arsenia left us valuable writings on the spiritual life, which we present in honor of the anniversary of her canonization.

What Does it Mean to Believe in God?In addition to her holy life, St. Arsenia left us valuable writings on the spiritual life, which we present in honor of the anniversary of her canonization.

” class=”tooltip”>Part 1
The State of the Human Soul and the Asceticism of RepentanceThe Lord doesn’t leave a man’s labors without recompense.” class=”tooltip”>Part 2
The Way of Christ’s CommandmentsThe dignity and nobility of man is not so much in the privileges he received from his ancestors as in those good qualities of the soul that he acquired by working on himself.”>Part 3

    

Without God, without His help and grace, man can’t even approach the concept of spiritual goodness. What can man do? Only one thing: bow down to the will of God and in humility of spirit call out to Him: “Lead me, O Lord, wherever You will, and help me to fulfill Your will.” And how easy, how salvific it is to follow the path where the Lord leads.

Does it please the Lord to fulfill our request and give peace and calm to our lives? If we don’t dare persistently ask for something from someone else, even more so must we not ask it of God and expect that our request will certainly be fulfilled. We don’t even know what’s good or what’s bad for us. But we can see God’s help, His mercy for us in that He allows us to bear the unbearable with patience, with humility, with submission to His holy will.

Without the Lord, we can’t take anything; without Him we can’t give anything. He gives us everything by His grace. Those who loved Him saw Him everywhere and in everything, and He revealed to them His living word, revealed His will and the ways of His providence. How and in what is it revealed? In the purity of their hearts. We must, with God’s help, preserve our hearts from the passions. Preserve it first of all from doubt, from pride; preserve it from lying, from self-justification; preserve it from antipathy, from contempt for one’s neighbor. And if, with the grace of God helping us, we keep all these passions from possessing our heart, then it will be able to accept the prompting of the word of God and follow His will.

With any discomfiture and temptation, the only consolation and way out is humility. This is the only path that leads the soul to the truth that clarifies everything, to the warmth that heals, to the freedom that relieves. If you lose this path of humility, then the soul is surrounded by darkness and is constricted and pressed. This leads to false reasoning, which is disastrous, because false reason puts everything in the wrong light: All circumstances seem bitter and disastrous; you can’t see the ways of God in them, the great judgments of His saving providence; people become not brothers, but enemies, and their infirmities grow to the farthest extremes.

Our own infirmities become terrible and even living images of internal torments. Yes, there is only one saving path then—that of humility.

Where there is passion, there is constriction and suffering. That passions live in our hearts is indisputable, but they don’t make themselves known by that unbearable weight when we’re not aware of them and simply fulfill them. They don’t languish even when we become aware of them and resist them. But when we become aware of them within ourselves and don’t want to rebel against them with all the strength of our soul, when we reject them with one part of our soul and listen to their sweet speech with another, when we turn away from reproaches, when we feel sorry for ourselves and aren’t bold enough to follow our Cross-bearing Teacher on the way of the Cross, then, of course, we will feel anguish and pain. The Lord, Who has taken all our sins and infirmities upon Himself, showed an example of the struggle of the will. In the Garden of Gethsemane, He was tormented until His will agreed to accept suffering.¹ Try your heart, and you’ll see that there are many conflicts within it. We must once and for all give our souls over to the guidance of the will of God, to following His commandments, and to the guidance of the harsh monastic rules. When the soul agrees, then it will be easy.

The Lord saves us by all means; these grave bodily ailments that so often visit us constantly remind us of death. And what can be more beneficial for the soul than the remembrance of death? It frees us from all earthly predilections, it allows us to know the value of all earthly affairs, and most of all, it helps us strive for the future life. May God grant that your illnesses bring fruit to your soul: salvation. We believe that everything that the Lord builds serves for our benefit and our eternal salvation.

Instead of our desires, there should be the commandment of God, the will of God leading us to eternal life. If you were at war, could you say you don’t want to go fight? No, you would go, without thinking about it, to certain death. If there’s a spiritual battle ahead, if God’s commandments demand a struggle, how can we say we don’t want to fight, that it would be better to give ourselves over as captive to our enemies? What a disgrace! What horror someone who slackens his will to such a point will experience in this life; and in the future life, his soul will endure even greater shame when all of its deeds and thoughts are revealed! You have to entreat, to pray to the Lord to strengthen your will to resist passionate thoughts, to turn all the powers, all the aspirations and desires of the soul to higher goals—holy, high,and noble. Every indulgence in one’s passions kills the purity of moral feeling. The conscience, that natural moral law written in our hearts, goes deaf if we don’t listen to it and act contrary to its promptings. What are these words: “Do I want to or not?” These words have no meaning where the moral law of the salvation of the soul is concerned.

We are all judged by the word of God, given to us for guidance in life, for salvation, for showing the path to eternal life, for our purification. It judges us when we don’t listen to it, when we transgress it. It will also judge us in the future life. It’s fearful to sin before it. It’s fearful because the heart becomes callous, and the word of God ceases to act upon it. This condition is worse than bodily death. Don’t jest with your feelings; they, like a fire, can destroy everything in the soul, the heart, and the mind: What the word of God has planted, they will burn, leaving the soul with only its passions and sins. We have to preserve purity of body and soul, otherwise the soul will die an eternal death, and this death is more terrible than anything that exists in the heavens or on earth. Look in the lives of the saints, how good people struggled and sought the Lord with all the strength of their soul and body.

The Lord Jesus Christ took human nature upon Himself in order to cleanse it from original sin, and died a shameful death on the Cross to put sin to death. By His Resurrection and the Ascension of our nature into Heaven, He gave us the power to be sons of God. In Baptism, we receive a pledge of this sonship; and if we want, we can receive all the gifts of His grace; by Baptism we entered through the door opened to us by the Lord Himself. If we follow the path of His commandments, if we follow His word and the example of His life, if we partake of His goodness and truth, then original sin will not operate within us, but rather the grace of Christ. We have to acquire faith in the Redeemer, to believe that it’s only by His righteousness that we can be saved from our unrighteousness. By His sanctity we are sanctified, by His purity our filth is cleansed. Without the Lord Jesus Christ, all of mankind perished in sin; without the Lord, every soul would perish in its sin. Because we follow sin and the will of our flesh, it takes root in us, reigns over our soul, over our mind and our hearts; it stands like a wall between the soul and the Lord. Therefore, it’s necessary to call on Him in prayer so He might come to the soul and destroy this partition.

The passions sometimes persist and act imperiously in our heart, regardless of our will, even as if against our will. The Lord allows them to torment us this way so that we might fully realize our powerlessness, that we might be humbled in spirit, that we might seek strength in our one mighty and holy God.

Man lives an earthly life: Everything in it is mortal, everything is transitory. Circumstances change, human feelings change, they pass away. If someone lives only in circumstances and feelings, then he constantly tastes death, everything in his life dies, and he himself is under condemnation of this death. When a man in this transient, mutable life seeks the Lord, when every circumstance of life teaches him to know the Lord, every feeling directed according to the commandment of God draws him closer to contemplating the Lord, imprinted in a pure heart. When the Lord resurrects in the human soul, then the condemnation of death is destroyed, because mortal circumstances, mortal feelings, led a man to an immortal state and tasting them didn’t bring death, but rather life. When a man lives only by mortal things, the evil one uses all earthly circumstances and feelings to set his traps. If this mortality has turned into immortality for a man, if it led a man to knowledge of the Lord in the circumstances of earthly life, to union with Him in the spirit through earthly feelings, then the enemy’s nets are broken, and the Lord, acquired through mortal life, has become deliverance from the destruction that the enemy was preparing through his nets, having concealed a deadly poison in them. All this is in the spirit, all this is experienced by the soul—and within itself, in its life, it sees the explanation of the word of God.

Our path is the path of sinners, which we truly are. We have to be humbled and not deviate from this path of repentance; not take on the guise of a righteous man when we’re sinners, and not look for ways to justify ourselves, but wait and believe that our justification is Christ.

The Lord commands us to settle accounts with our adversary while we’re yet on the way with him. While we’re still on the path of life, we can settle these accounts, settle them by renouncing what hinders us on the path of spiritual ascent, by renouncing everything that accompanies us in this life. When our path ends, there will be no objects or feelings to renounce; there will be only spiritual poverty and the wealth of spiritual torment, like a debtor who hasn’t managed to pay back his debt. A debtor doesn’t always suffer just from the fact that his conscience upbraids him, but more so because he is deprived of what he imagined himself to have; he is deprived of all his possessions, contentment, and freedom. Yes, we have to pay our debt to our adversary while we’re on the way with him—by renunciation.

To be continued…

An assault at a San Francisco Catholic church on Sunday led to a police pursuit that reportedly included the possible use of a pipe bomb.

The San Francisco Police Officers Association (SFPOA), a local police union, said on X, previously known as Twitter, on Sunday evening that there had been an “assault at Sts. Peter and Paul Church in North Beach.”

“Responding officers encountered a suspect with an improvised device,” the SFPOA said. “A pursuit occurred.” The suspect was subsequently “apprehended by [the San Francisco Police Department] in another county.”

Archdiocesan spokesman Peter Marlow told CNA on Monday that the incident began after an individual received Communion but did not consume the host.

“It was a person that went up to receive Communion at the 5 p.m Mass and then didn’t consume the consecrated host,” Marlow said. “He left without consuming.”

“There was a visiting person [also in attendance] who stood up and confronted the person and told him, ‘You can’t leave the church without consuming the host,’” Marlow said. “And the guy went off and punched him and ran out of the church.”

“The gentleman who got punched, I was told, was not in serious condition,” Marlow added. “He just took a punch and was treated by the paramedics.”

It was unclear what happened to the Host.

City Supervisor Aaron Peskin told the San Francisco Standard that police said the man “set off a pipe bomb” during the pursuit incident before subsequently igniting a “Molotov cocktail.” There were no serious injuries, Peskin told the outlet.

The SFPOA included in its X post a photograph of an “improvised device” said to have ignited on a city sidewalk or street.

PRELIMINARY REPORT: Assault at Saints Peter and Paul Church in North Beach. Responding officers encountered a suspect with an improvised device. A pursuit occurred. Suspect apprehended by SFPD in another county. If you are a witness or have video, contact SFPD at 415-575-4444. pic.twitter.com/POzUsftpwW

— San Francisco POA (@SanFranciscoPOA) October 30, 2023

A spokesperson for the San Francisco Police Department could not be reached for comment.

Sts. Peter and Paul Church says on its website that it is run by the Salesians of Don Bosco of the Western United States.

The present church structure on Filbert Street was constructed in 1924 after the 1906 earthquake destroyed the original structure, according to the parish’s website.

Gaza, October 30, 2023

Photo: Facebook     

A mass Baptism for children was held this weekend at the monastery that has been housing hundreds of Gaza residents since the war began earlier this month.

18 Orthodox Christians and others were killed when a blast rocked the church halls at St. Porphyrios of Gaza Monastery last month. Funeral and memorial prayers for victims of Gaza monastery blastThe monastery has been sheltering hundreds since the present conflict began on October 7, but two church halls where they were being housed collapsed when the monastery was hit on Thursday night.

“>Their funeral was served by His Eminence Archbishop Alexios of Tiberias, who has I will not leave my flock, I will die a dignified death if that is my fate—Archbishop in GazaHis Eminence Archbishop Alexios of Tiberias of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem is determined to remain with his flock in Gaza, despite the obvious danger.”>vowed to remain with his flock to the end.

And on Saturday, a number of children were baptized at the monastery church, which continues to hold services despite the danger.

Fr. George Bannoura, a priest of the Jerusalem Patriarchate in the Palestinian town of Beit Sahur, reports:

Today in the morning, a mass Baptism for 9 children took place in Gaza, to be ready for any eventuality. Good illumination for the newly baptized. And may the Merciful God protect everyone there. Let us all pray.

“Let us learn from the immense faith and courage of our brothers and sisters in Christ. May God show his mercy on us all,” writes the Palestinian-Jordanian Youth Ministry.

***

To help those suffering in Gaza, please consider donating through the Holy Order of St. George’s Gaza fundraising campaign:

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The Vatican’s nearly monthlong Synod on Synodality assembly, convened by Pope Francis, concluded with members approving an ambitious text calling for greater “co-responsibility” among all believers in the evangelizing mission of the Church — and proposing concrete reforms to achieve it.

Titled “A Synodal Church in Mission,” the 42-page summary report included notable proposals to establish new ministries for the laity, increase lay involvement in decision-making, create processes to evaluate bishops’ performance of their ministry, change the way the Church discerns “controversial” issues, and expand the footprint of synodal assemblies going forward.

“The exercise of co-responsibility is essential for synodality and is necessary at all levels of the Church,” the final report stated. “Every Christian is a mission in the world.”

The document also repeatedly sought to ground synodality in Scripture, tradition, and the teaching of Vatican II while also affirming the need to further develop the often misunderstood concept itself and apply it more deeply to the Church’s theology and canon law.

The final report itself provided a comprehensive definition of the term.

“Synodality can be understood as the walk of Christians with Christ and toward the kingdom, together with all humanity; mission-oriented, it involves coming together in assembly at the different ecclesial levels of life, listening to one another, dialogue, communal discernment, consensus-building as an expression of Christ’s making himself present alive in the Spirit, and decision-making in differentiated co-responsibility,” it stated.

Many of these themes ran throughout the document’s treatment of 20 different issues, including everything from “Christian initiation” to “missionaries in the digital environment.” The summary report noted areas of convergence, divergence, and concrete proposals that had emerged during the 365 synod members’ discussions on communion, participation, and mission from Oct. 4–28.

“This is the approach of Jesus, to create spaces for everyone so that no one feels excluded,” said Cardinal Mario Grech, head of the secretariat for the synod, during the document’s presentation to media after its publication.

The synod’s report also noted fears that have emerged around the process.

“Some fear that they will be forced to change; others fear that nothing will change and there will be too little courage to move in the rhythm of the living tradition. Some perplexity and opposition also hide the fear of losing power and the privileges that come with it,” the document said.

The assembly also identified the need to determine why some Catholics did not participate in the synodal process, which was initiated by Pope Francis in 2021, and has included consultation at diocesan, national, and continental levels. Only 1% of Catholics worldwide took part.

Controversial issues

The final document was provided to members earlier today after writers attempted to incorporate more than 1,150 proposed amendments into the text. The 344 voting members present approved the text on the evening of Oct. 28, voting to include each paragraph proposed with the required two-thirds majority.

After the final vote, Pope Francis spoke briefly to the assembly, thanking its members and organizers, and telling those gathered that the Holy Spirit is the protagonist of synodal process.

Two sections that received some of the most opposition concerned proposals related to the possible inclusion of women in the diaconate.

Sixty-seven members voted against the proposal that “theological and pastoral research on women’s access to the diaconate should be continued,” taking into account the results of two commissions Pope Francis established to study the topic. “If possible, the results should be presented at the next session of the assembly,” the report proposed.

Sixty-one members opposed a proposal that said a “deeper reflection” on the diaconate’s status as “a proper and permanent degree of the hierarchy” would “also illuminate the issue of women’s access to the diaconate.”

Notably, the final text did not include the term “LGBTQ+ people” after the phrase was included in the working document that guided assembly discussions. The summary report did, however, emphasize the assembly’s “closeness and support to all those who experience a condition of loneliness” as result of “fidelity to the Church’s tradition and magisterium in marriage and sexual ethics” and called upon Christian communities to listen and accompany those in these situations.

Regarding resistance to certain proposals, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, the relator general of the Synod on Synodality, said that if the results were considered in the context of parliamentary voting in a democratic state, “we would be very happy indeed” with the outcome.

Synodal structures and decision-making

Perhaps the synod’s most significant concrete proposals came in the form of calls for changes in ecclesial decision-making and the expansion of synodal assemblies and bodies in the life of the Church.

The report called for continental assemblies to be canonically recognized and for the implementation of “the exercise of synodality” at regional, national, and continental levels.

One “issue to be addressed” was the revision of local Church councils to “realize through them a greater participation of the people of God.” The recent plenary council in Australia, which included bishop and non-bishop participation, was highlighted as an example to follow.

The synod assembly also proposed formally reconsidering the composition of the Synod of Bishops itself.

In the section on “The Synod of Bishops and Ecclesial Assemblies,” the document said that changes to this year’s synod — most notably, the full participation of non-bishop members, including laymen and women — “were generally welcomed” by the assembly. While “preserving its eminently episcopal character,” the 2023 synod also reportedly “made tangible” the link between the participation of all the faithful, episcopal collegiality, and the primacy of the pope.

“The synodal process was and is a time of grace through which God is offering us the opportunity to experience a new culture of synodality, capable of guiding the life and mission of the Church.”

The text did note, however, that some members raised concerns that the equal participation of non-bishops in an episcopal body could lead to the “specific task of the bishops” not being “adequately understood.”

“The question remains open about the impact of [non-bishops’] presence as full members on the episcopal character of the assembly,” the synod document noted.

The report suggested three options for the arrangement of future global synods: bishops-only, both bishops and non-bishops, or an assembly of non-bishops followed by an episcopal assembly.

The “urgent need to ensure that women can participate in decision-making processes and assume roles of responsibility in pastoral care and ministry” was also cited. The document referenced Pope Francis’ recent appointment of several women to positions of responsibility in the Roman Curia and stressed that “the same should happen at other levels” of the Church and that canon law be adapted accordingly.

The document called for bishops to exercise their mandate to teach, govern, and sanctify through greater engagement with members of their local community. Concrete proposals included establishing “structures and processes for the verification of the bishop’s work” and making diocesan pastoral councils canonically mandatory.

The assembly also called for a review of the criteria used to pick new bishops, incorporating broader consultation in the process, including greater input from laymen and women. And the importance of forming seminarians in a more synodal strain of pastoral engagement was also emphasized.

Ecclesial discernment and ‘open questions’

The assembly also proposed reconsidering the way the Church discerns “controversial” issues and “open questions,” a loaded topic that may raise concerns about the diminishment of the episcopacy’s charism for authoritatively teaching.

“Some issues, such as those related to gender identity and sexual orientation, the end of life, difficult marital situations, and ethical issues related to artificial intelligence, are controversial not only in society but in the Church because they raise new questions,” the document stated.

The report went on to suggest that the Church’s anthropological categories are sometimes “not sufficient to grasp” complexities that emerge through personal experience and scientific inquiry.

As a response, the document called for the promotion of “initiatives that allow for shared discernment on doctrinal, pastoral, and ethical issues that are controversial” in “light of the word of God, Church teaching, theological reflection, and valuing the synod experience.” The text proposed that a confidential meeting of experts on these controversial issues, possibly with the inclusion of those who directly experience them, should be initiated, with an eye toward next October’s assembly.

Relatedly, the document also said that “synodal processes” can verify when the faithful are in consensus (the “consensus fidelium”) on a given issue, which “is a sure criterion for determining whether a particular doctrine or practice belongs to the apostolic faith.”

While Catholic teaching affirms that the faithful cannot err in matters of belief when they manifest universal consent, many theologians and bishops warn about the inadequacy of attempting to gauge this through formalized consultation.

In a move signaling openness to decentralizing the Church’s teaching authority, the document proposed further exploration of “the doctrinal and juridical nature” of bishops’ conferences, recognizing the possibility of doctrinal decision-making “in the local sphere.” The synod also proposed giving episcopal conferences more authority over liturgy.

Synodality across the board

The assembly’s other proposals applied the concept of synodality across a host of Church issues and activities.

For instance, on the topic of the Church’s engagement with the poor, the document proposed that “the experience of encounter, sharing a common life and serving those living in poverty and the marginalized” should be “integral” in Christian formation.

“It is a requirement of faith, not an optional extra,” the text read, also recommending that diaconal ministry be “more evidently oriented” toward serving the poor.

Regarding Christian unity, the text included proposals to establish a common date for the celebration of Easter for all Christians and to “compile an ecumenical martyrology.”

Enhancing the formation and support of “digital missionaries” was also highlighted as a way of reaching young people distant from the Church. The assembly also recommended implementing the “conversation in the Spirit” method, which involves intentional, prayerful group listening and was used at the synod, into other areas of Church life.

The synod report included the recommendation to establish new Church ministries or the expansion of existing ones. The ministry of lector, the document says, could become “a true ministry of the word of God,” which, “in appropriate contexts, could also include preaching.” The document also proposed a ministry “assigned to married couples” that would assist family life and those preparing for marriage.

A “baptismal ministry of listening and accompanying” is also suggested at the end of a section emphasizing the importance of listening to groups that have been harmed by or excluded from the Church, including victims and survivors clerical sex abuse.

“Authentic listening is a fundamental element of the journey toward healing, repentance, justice, and reconciliation.”

Setting the stage

According to its introduction, the 2023 assembly’s summary report “is in no way a final document” but will be used as the basis of the Synod on Synodality’s final stage — another Vatican assembly in October 2024. That assembly is expected to produce a final text that will be presented to the pope for his consideration.

“This is an experience that does not finish today but will continue,” Grech said.

Hollerich noted that he hopes next year’s document makes more concrete proposals but said that “even that document will be a step of a Church on the move.”

“And that’s the important thing, I think. That we move.”

In the meantime, synod members will return to their respective dioceses, where they have been tasked to get feedback on the summary report and to foster a synodal culture.

“I think people will leave tomorrow or the day after tomorrow going home with a heart full of hope, with a lot of ideas, and I’m looking forward to seeing them back next year,” Hollerich said.

New Haven, Connecticut, October 30, 2023

Photo: dneoca.org The Diocese of New England of the Orthodox Church in America has been without a bishop for several years, since His Eminence Archbishop Nikon of Boston and New England and the Albanian Archdiocese reposed in the Lord on Archbishop Nikon of Boston (OCA) reposes in the Lord“He exhibited the best traits of a true leader—the ability to listen and the ability to act decisively. We saw him not only as our bishop, but as one of us.”

“>September 1, 2019.

OCA consecrates bishop for Albanian ArchdioceseOn Saturday, September 16, hierarchs of the Orthodox Church in America celebrated the episcopal consecration of a new bishop for the autocephalous Church’s Albanian Archdiocese.

“>Last month, His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon of Washington and All America and Canada and other OCA hierarchs consecrated Archimandrite Nikodhim (Preston) as the new hierarch for the Albanian Archdiocese, and the New England Diocese is another step closer to filling its vacant cathedra.

On Saturday, October 28, the delegates of the diocese’s Special Nominating Assembly overwhelmingly nominated Fr. Benedict Churchill to be considered by the Holy Synod for election as their new hierarch. Met. Tikhon, who has served as Locum Tenens for the diocese for the past four years, said this would be the first item on the agenda for the upcoming Holy Synod meeting, the diocese reports.

His Beatitude reported to the diocese back OCA Diocese of New England, bishopless since 2019, narrows down episcopal candidateNow, after nearly four years, a possible candidate for the office of Bishop of New England has been found and vetted.

“>in June that the Search Committee had met with and vetted Fr. Benedict.

Fr. Benedict is currently the priest of St. George’s Orthodox Church in Edenton, North Carolina, in the OCA’s Diocese of the South. His biography from his parish website reads:

Father Benedict received his B.A. from St. John’s University in Minnesota in 1969, his Licentiate in Mediaeval Studies from the Pontifical Institute of the Mediaeval Studies in Toronto in 1975, his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 1979, and his M.Div. from St. Vladimir’s Seminary in 2010. He held adjunct positions at both Fordham University and New York University, and he worked for Xerox Corporation from 1983 until he retired in 2006. He was ordained to the diaconate in 2009 and to the priesthood in 2010. He does translations of liturgical texts from Greek and Slavonic, and occasionally sets them to monophonic chants. He maintains a website with Slavonic liturgical texts, and he enjoys music and reading. A former SCUBA instructor, he also engages from time to time in non-violent exercise. The priest at St George’s Orthodox Church in Edenton, North Carolina, Father Benedict is Editor at St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press.

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A letter from Bishop Andrew Cozzens of the Crookston Diocese released Oct. 15 announced that preliminary steps are being taken that could lead to opening a cause for the canonization of Sister Annella Zervas, OSB.

Zervas died at the age of 26 in 1926 in her family home in Moorhead, Minnesota, after a debilitating and painful skin disease.

Amanda Zurface (no relation to Zervas, although pronounced the same), a canon lawyer, read the bishop’s letter at the Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto in the St. Benedict Monastery cemetery in St. Joseph, Minnesota, where Zervas is buried. Approximately 150 people gathered for the event, many of them part of a monthly group that has been praying for Zervas’ canonization.

Although Zervas died almost 100 years ago, she remains very much alive in the hearts and minds of a growing number of people, largely because of the efforts of Patrick Norton, a house painter, husband, and father of three from Avon, Minnesota.

On Oct. 27, 2010, while painting light posts in front of the grotto, Norton says a religious sister in an old-style habit appeared to him and told him he was doing a good job. They chatted a bit, and when she turned to go, she vanished before his eyes. He later identified her as Sister Annella Zervas through photos and discovered she was buried in that cemetery. Since then, he has felt called to share her story far and wide.

In the letter he wrote, Cozzens thanked the group for “perseverance in prayer and witnessing to the importance of living a holy life as seen in your commitment through spreading the message of Sister Annella.”

The bishop shared that he too is inspired by the nun’s story, which he first learned about through his own sister. He acknowledged receiving many requests from people to begin the formal process of investigation to determine her holiness. However, he noted, “there are formalities and stages that involve canon lawyers, historians, theologians, and doctors to instructing a cause of beatification and canonization. … I ask that you be patient as we follow the procedures set out for us by the Church for a study such as this, and I also ask for your prayers.”

Cozzens shared the website For the Promotion of the Life of Sister Annella Zervas, OSB, for people wanting to stay informed about the study of Zervas’ life, to share a story about her, or to report answers to prayer through the nun’s intercession.

Was a cause ever opened?

When Zervas died, many believed she was a saint. Two booklets about her life were written: “Ticket to Eternity,” by James Kritzeck, published in 1957, and “Apostles of Suffering in Our Day,” written by Benedictine priest Joseph Kreuter and published in 1929.

There is uncertainty as to whether there was ever a cause opened for Zervas.

Older writings often refer to Zervas as “Servant of God,” a title given to a candidate for sainthood after a cause has been opened and is under investigation prior to being declared “Venerable.” (Venerable is the title given to a candidate whose cause has not yet reached the beatification stage but whose heroic virtue has been declared by the pope.)

“That is one of the things that needs to be investigated,” Zurface told CNA at the cemetery prior to the reading of the letter. She credited Norton with resurrecting an interest in Zervas’ life.

According to Norton, 100,000 copies have been distributed of the booklet “Apostles of Suffering in Our Day.”

People have also learned of Zervas through an interview Norton did in a video titled “The Sanctity of Two Hearts.”

Those praying for the Benedictine sister’s intercession have reported miracles and answers to prayers. But the Church is always cautious about such things, Zurface said, so it’s premature to say any more than is in the letter.

Monsignor David Baumgartner, rector of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Crookston and the other canon lawyer preparing the groundwork for the cause, noted in a phone interview that the main tasks right now are to work on bylaws to form a guild and to establish it as a nonprofit organization.

A “guild” is the traditional association formed to support, through prayer and promotion, a candidate for sainthood.

“When the guild is established, they will be the ones to petition for a cause to open,” he explained. “The letter was presented at this time, so people will be aware of what the diocese is doing in regard to Sister Annella.”

After the reading of Cozzens’ letter, Norton shared with the group his own story of how he came to know Zervas. And Rose Lindgren from Sartell, about 10 miles from St. Joseph, told the group she was healed of bladder cancer five years ago without treatment after praying to Zervas.

A life of suffering

Zervas was born Anna Cordelia Zervas in Moorhead, Minnesota, on Palm Sunday, April 7, 1900. Even as a young girl, she had a deep interior life, taking great pains to prepare for her first holy Communion and walking a mile daily to attend Mass.

She left home for the Order of St. Benedict in St. Joseph at age 15 in August 1915. Her letters home reflect her happiness, but she also battled with terrible homesickness. When she made her perpetual vows in 1922, she said that any doubts as to her vocation vanished. But by the following year, a peculiar skin disease attacked her body, which included terrible itching day and night.

Zervas continued her work as a music teacher at St. Mary’s School in Bismarck, North Dakota, until eventually her condition made it impossible. Her body began to swell, her skin turning a deep red and burning. Her swollen limbs oozed and developed sores; her skin sloughed off in chunks and strips; thornlike stickers developed within her pores and had to be painfully removed.

Zervas was diagnosed in 1924 at the University of Minnesota with pityriasis rubra pilaris, a chronic skin disease that had no medical treatments at the time. With the consent of her superiors, she was transferred to her parents’ house in Moorhead, Minnesota, where her mother cared for her for two years until her death.

“The pains became more intense; the patient’s cheerfulness remained the same,” Father Kreuter wrote in “An Apostle of Suffering in Our Day.” “’Yes, Lord, send me more pain, but give me the strength to bear it,’ is a prayer that was repeatedly uttered by Sister Annella in the midst of excruciating pains of body and anguish of soul which lasted almost continually for two long years.”

At the end, a priest brought the Blessed Sacrament and placed it on the communion table before her. “Peacefully, she passed away in the presence of her sacramental Lord, surrounded by her parents, brothers, and sisters reciting the rosary and a prayer to St. Benedict for a happy death on Aug. 14, 1926,” Father Kreuter wrote. “The penetrating, nauseating odor of corrupt flesh that had followed in the wake of her ailment disappeared altogether from the moment of her passing.”

She was placed in her parish church in a simple casket of black in her religious habit, the crucifix she had kissed so often in her hands. From there she was moved to St. Joseph, where she is now buried.

Bucharest, October 30, 2023

Photo: basilica.ro     

More than 40 Romanian hierarchs from throughout the country and the Romanian Church’s diaspora dioceses came together to celebrate Bucharest’s patron saint last week.

They were joined by Metropolitan Panteleimon of Veria of the Greek Orthodox Church and Metropolitan Naum of Ruse of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church for the feast of St. Demetrius the New on October 26-27.

Every year, a week-long pilgrimage is held in honor of the saint, with Bucharest: Procession with relics of Sts. Demetrius the New, Demetrios the Myrrh-Gusher, Panagia Sumela Icon, and more (+VIDEO)Every year, there is a week-long celebration in honor of St. Demetrius, with pilgrims coming to the Patriarchal Cathedral to venerate his holy relics.

“>processions and festive hierarchical celebrations. Met. Panteleimon brought relics of St. Demetrios the Myrrh-Gusher and the Panagia Sumela Icon from Greece for the pilgrimage this year.

Photo: basilica.ro     

More than 60,000 people had come to venerate the relics of St. Demetrius as of his feast day on Friday, though more came to venerate by the time the pilgrimage ended on Sunday.

His feast day began with the All-Night Vigil at the Patriarchal Cathedral on Thursday evening. The service was led by the Patriarchal Vicar Bishop Paisie of Sinaia. Watch the Vigil service:

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In his homily during the Vigil, Bp. Paisie spoke about the many miracles of St. Demetrius and how his relics have saved the people of Bucharest and Romania during earthquakes, plagues, revolutions, wars, fires, and much more

The Divine Liturgy was celebrated the next morning by a total of 44 hierarchs. Watch the Divine Liturgy:

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The day after Pope Francis called for a cease-fire in the Holy Land, his foreign minister spoke by phone with the foreign minister of Iran, “reiterating the absolute need to avoid escalating the conflict,” the Vatican press office said.

Archbishop Paul R. Gallagher, the Vatican foreign minister, spoke with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian Oct. 30 at the Iranian leader’s request, said Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office.

During the conversation, he said, Archbishop Gallagher “expressed the Holy See’s serious concern about what is happening in Israel and Palestine, reiterating the absolute need to avoid escalating the conflict.” Iran is considered a supporter of Hamas, and Amirabdollahian, in mid-October, had called on Israel to stop its military action in Gaza or face the possibility of a “huge earthquake” of fighting throughout the region.

The archbishop also repeated the Holy See’s view that the international community must get serious about supporting the “two-state solution” — Israel and an independent Palestine within recognized borders — “for a stable and lasting peace in the Middle East.”

After reciting the Angelus Oct. 29 with visitors in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis again called for the release of hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza and the opening of humanitarian corridors to deliver aid to the region, which has been under siege since Hamas militants attacked southern Israel Oct. 7, killing military and civilians and taking hostages, mostly the elderly, women and children.

“Let no one abandon the possibility that the weapons might be silenced — let there be a cease-fire,” Pope Francis said.

The pope told the crowd he had just seen Franciscan Father Ibrahim Faltas, vicar of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land, on an Italian television program saying, “Let the arms cease! Let the arms cease!”

“With Father Ibrahim, let us, too, say: Let the arms cease,” he said. “Stop, brothers and sisters, war is always a defeat — always!”

  

Puberty is a period of maturation, not maturity

Priest Dimitry VydumkinVydumkin, Dimitry, Priest

“>Priest Dimitry Vydumkin:

It is easy to predict the consequences of sex education in Russian schools, since we have seen the experience of the West. Almost everywhere in the West such classes are compulsory; in some countries from the age of nine or ten, and somewhere even from the age of six! And it has been taught for decades there. What are the implications? They are reported by child psychologists, who are raising the alarm about a catastrophic drop in the birth rate, an increase impotency, the legitimization and approval of same-sex relationships, and rise in incidents of incest—these are the short-term consequences of sex education in schools.

In addition to social implications, early sex education has an extremely detrimental effect on a child’s very vulnerable psyche, and it is never without personal consequences for children. This is what psychologists report:

“Our observations have shown that in the vast majority of cases when parents are carried away by innovations in the sphere of sex children’s education, this leads to a variety of neuropsychiatric disorders already in childhood.”

Priest Dimitry Vydumkin They cite a specific example: a woman who “was very thoughtful about the matters of sex education of children” and read to her sons aged seven and four (!) the Children’s Sex Encyclopedia. As a result, her elder son began to suffer from enuresis, and “the younger one took to masturbating and did it in public, in front of strangers, and all attempts to distract him from this… ended in hysterical breakdowns.”

Do we want to see this in our society and in the lives of our children? If not, what sex education classes at school can we talk about?

We must comprehend the natural periods of maturation that were given to us by the All-wise Creator. Puberty is precisely the period of maturation, not maturity! We don’t pluck a fruit too early but wait for it to ripen, otherwise it is bitter and harms digestion. So why encourage children to have sex when they have just started to grow up or maybe haven’t started yet? And this “education” is provocative in its nature.

We should not allow ourselves to be misled by stories that the purpose of such classes is to “educate” and thus protect children. Their real goal is to goad children into being sexually active from a very early age. Children are very curious. Once they are told about or shown something that arouses their interest, they will immediately “Google” ten times more visual aids and stand right at the edge of the abyss! And then (it’s just a matter of technique and time) we, as in Switzerland, will come to distributing free condoms to schoolchildren to fight AIDS!

May the merciful God save us from this!

Imagine the teenage slang for all this

Archpriest Alexander DyachenkoDyachenko, Alexander, Archpriest

“>Priest Alexander Dyachenko:

I will answer this question not only as a priest, but also as a father, and a grandfather of two little schoolgirls. Comparing the time of my youth with today, I am horrified at how easy it is for modern teenagers to get access to what is absolutely undesirable and even harmful for them to see. The internet is an inexhaustible source in this regard. Without doubt it is necessary to talk to children about this. I’m only afraid that it makes sense to rehabilitate many teenagers morally rather than educate them.

Priest Alexander Dyachenko Neither of my parents talked to me about this. But I remember how doctors from the regional dermato-venereological dispensary came to our class and just spoke about their work. The girls and the boys were taken into different classrooms and introduced to the situations. As we listened, our hair stood on end. They instilled in us a very correct idea that we would have to pay for everything. I am still grateful to those doctors who took the trouble to go to schools.

Clearly, there are far fewer specialists than the classes in which our children study. But such meetings with intelligent people should be held. Perhaps it would be good to shoot a number of videos warning about the consequences of ill-conceived relationships between boys and girls and include these videos in the “Basics of Life Safety” course specifically for high schoolers. And they should watch them separately.

I would not advise them to introduce a special subject into high school curricula. To introduce such a course at school means to legitimize its content in the eyes of children. “If it’s being taught, then it’s okay”. A question arises: who will teach? Ideally, these should be doctors. But where can we get so many doctors?

And in conclusion: Imagine what the teenage slang for this will be.

The initiators of the course are capitulating to teenage premarital sex

Priest Valery DukhaninDukhanin, Valery, Priest

“>Priest Valery Dukhanin:

The fact is that studying at school involves a student’s personal participation in subjects. That is, the following principle is at work: “We’ve given you the Pythagorean Theorem. Solve a problem using this theorem at home.” Or: We’ve taught you how to work with a literary text. Consider the Captain’s Daughter [a historical novel by Alexander Pushkin.—Trans.] at home.” With respect to all normal lessons this is fine. But what will a student do with the knowledge gained in the classroom about intimate relations, the use of contraceptives, etc.? He is already guided by the principle: “You must try everything in life”, and now he has been told how to try it correctly. If teachers talk about sexual activity, then students no longer see anything forbidden in it.

Of course, the introduction of sex education is an absolutely new experience for Russia, largely incomprehensible and unpredictable in terms of its consequences.

Let’s consider briefly the logic of those who support this subject. They state that teenagers become sexually active early. Still ignorant in this sphere, teenagers are vulnerable, which ends in early pregnancies and abortions. Statistics are added to the arguments. In particular, it is noted that our country has the highest abortion rate in the world. Moreover, every fifth abortion in Russia is done a teenage girl. In addition, Russia is one of the fastest-growing countries in terms of the spread of AIDS—its HIV rate is even higher than in South Africa. And in order to avoid unwanted pregnancies, abortions and AIDS they suggest teaching children how to use contraceptives, etc.

Thus, the arguments of those who support teaching this subject boil down to the following thesis, which is constantly repeated: “to give teenagers knowledge about safe sex.” That is, the course’s initiators actually capitulate to teenage premarital sex. “Let them fornicate, but at least be protected”—this is their basic logic. This is similar to how instead of fighting drug addiction we would talk about less dangerous drugs, how to use a syringe properly so as not to get an infection, etc.

The existing texts of sex education courses are provocative in nature. When a teacher talks about a natural inclination to sexual relationships, describes this process, and adds: “Attention, children! Don’t forget about contraception”, then the students will surely answer: “We won’t forget, Maria Ivanovna.” Such classes essentially corrupt teenagers and aim to legitimize depravity with the help of contraceptives.

Priest Valery Dukhanin Many people’s life experience, and priests’ experience of hearing confessions show how easily we succumb to temptations. At first someone just wanted to study, to get to know the theory of sexual life more thoroughly, to accumulate more knowledge for implementing it in marital relations. But the immersion in theory unexpectedly triggers hitherto unknown weaknesses in his soul, unbridles the desires of the flesh, and a person falls into various types of carnal sin. He did not even imagine that this would happen to him, but he fell into sin because he showed interest in a dangerous sphere.

There have always been taboo topics in Russia from ancient times, and it had always been considered indecent to speak about them publicly. Marital relations are among such themes. Although the discussion of this subject was forbidden, it never caused problems in having children or in family life. On the contrary, the countries where people talk about this publicly and where cinema and the internet have long torn down the veil of mystery are notorious for their dramatically declining birth rates. People stop having children and get divorced easily, but they have extensive knowledge of sexual life.

Chastity presupposes the privacy of sexual life. A secret is something that is not spoken about out loud—it is reverently preserved in silence. Thanks to this privacy every family has its own life beyond the control of other people’s eyes. Thanks to privacy, married life is not some mediocre or vulgar satisfaction of the desires of the flesh, but the reverent mutual love of spouses and the sacred participation in Divine Providence for the birth of children.

There is only one way out for us—to speak in schools about the beauty of virginity and chastity, about what happiness it is to find your only chosen one, to have children in your unique family without previously having numerous “relationships” and “partners”. And, of course, to set a positive example.

A woman I know once confessed, “If I had known that I would meet my husband, I would have preserved my virginity for him.” Lack of trust in God that He will give you the best leads to the worst. The woman in question had lived for pleasure and had abortions; she became infertile after this, and could not give birth to a child once she got married.

Sooner or later every fornicator regrets his falls. Immoral relationships eventually turn out to be joyless. That’s what we want to protect our dear teenagers from.

These courses are seduction, not education

Archpriest Fyodor Borodin Archpriest Fyodor BorodinBorodin, Fyodor, Archpriest

“>Archpriest Fyodor Borodin:

I think that such lessons in fact corrupt children and adolescents and affect their psyche. Unfortunately, there is a lot of so–called technical information about sexual activity between men and women on the internet, but it does not speak at all about how to build and preserve a family, about what a great virtue chastity is, and all the troubles it can save people from later, especially in family life.

Practice shows that depraved people take the sphere of so–called sex education into their hands very quickly. Their goal is to immerse young people into the world of promiscuity as early as possible. I think this is the true goal of people pushing for such projects in schools. And we see that the situations with family in the countries where these projects have been implemented are not only no better, but are much worse than ours. We have a real national catastrophe with our families in Russia, and there is a terrible nightmare in those countries. The value of traditional family has been almost completely lost there.

In general, the more depraved someone is, the less he wants a family. Therefore, what effects will this “education” have? Only that our Russian family system will be falling apart even more rapidly. As a Christian, I can’t call it “education” at all. These lessons are seduction and temptation, not education.

We need “chastity lessons”

Priest Dimitry ShishkinShishkin Dmiritry, Priest

“>Priest Dimitry Shishkin:

Thank God, we Russians as a nation identify ourselves as bearers and guardians of the Orthodox tradition. So, let’s say bluntly that there are no forbidden topics in Orthodoxy. And the theme of the relations between the sexes, the theme of sexual attraction, the sinful passions that are parasitic on this attraction, and the struggle with these passions were among the topics which were repeatedly and seriously raised by the Savior Himself in the Gospel, the apostles, and the Church Fathers throughout the history of Christianity. So, it is possible and necessary to talk about these subjects with teenagers, including in the format of a school subject.

Priest Dimitry Shishkin However, it would be good for us to give such a subject an appropriate name—for example, “Chastity Lessons”. Because chastity is a profound concept, the essence of which is in the Orthodox teaching about the integrity of our spiritual, mental and physical life in harmony with the Holy Spirit. Only such a life can serve as the basis for a good and fruitful life both here on earth and in eternity in the state of bliss. That’s what we can and should talk about.

As for the “Sex Education” courses that are being imposed on us, they are part of the implementation of the plan for the spiritual enslavement and corruption of our people, of our total submission to an alien liberal and godless worldview with its self-worship, worship of man. When the old, carnal man, with all his passions and lusts, is considered the only basis for building a prosperous private and public life. We must resist together—wisely and firmly—these attempts to enslave us. I believe this is our task: to work consistently and patiently to return to the good path of Orthodox Statehood, remembering and implementing all the good that we acquired on our centuries-old path; and if possible, freeing ourselves from everything that is wrong and harmful. We must be bolder in speaking and acting as befits Orthodox Christians, setting a good life in our common Fatherland so that our young people can as soon as possible have a clear idea of what this way of life should be and what the mission of man in the eyes of God is.

In 1972, Father Hans Urs von Balthasar published an article about St. Thérèse of Lisieux in which he stated that “the fervor of veneration for her across the entire world has surely been fanned by the breath of the Holy Spirit.” He adds slyly, “Did not this little Thérèse have her hour at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century? Someone has irreverently said that the Thérèse-boom is over for good.”

Yet, more than 50 years later, this clearly is not the case. Devotion to St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face (the Little Flower), who in 1997 was declared a Doctor of the Church and was most recently the subject of an apostolic exhortation by Pope Francis, continues only to grow and increase, even exponentially. 

But why? Von Balthasar responds, “Thérèse converts the grand ideas into the small change of everyday: in the ever-now moment she distributes love to God and to the people she meets.”

About the abyss

How is it possible for Thérèse to connect so deeply with so many? Father Bernard Bro, OP, in his classic text “The Little Way: The Spirituality of Thérèse of Lisieux” (Alba House, $14.95) offers an explanation: “Marx, Nietzsche, Freud: the three giants dominating modern thought. In fact the only way of appreciating Thérèse of Lisieux today is by adding her squarely to their company. It is the same battle, all along the line: man confronting the abyss. Here lies her genius.”

We’re well aware of “the abyss”: the seeming meaninglessness of life — the sense that things don’t add up and that my life doesn’t really matter. It is a misery compounded by profound loneliness, isolation, frustration, as well as the shame that comes from my sins. And if there is something “greater” in life to aspire to, I am not worthy of it, owing to my inadequacy — my defects, my nothingness, my lack. I don’t measure up. There is no place for me. I am not wanted.

But, you may ask, what can a sheltered young woman from a bourgeois French family who died at the age of 24 possibly know about “the abyss”? Remarkably, Thérèse is not the saccharine stereotype of so many holy cards and statues.

Consider this summary of the formative life experiences of the Little Flower:

• Traumatic loss: Thérèse’s mother died of breast cancer when Thérèse was only 4 years old. One of the first memories she describes is linked to her mother’s death: “I saw many things they would have hidden from me. I was standing before the lid of the coffin which had been placed upright in the hall. I stopped for a long time gazing at it.”

• Longing for the infinite: Young Thérèse experienced a deep desire for union with God — which some dismissed as implausible. Yet, at age 2, Thérèse “escaped” from home to go to Mass. She refused to go to sleep until she had said her prayers. She declared, “I too will be a religious.” Thérèse wrote in her autobiography, “At the age of three I began refusing nothing that God was asking from me.” Thérèse begged for entrance to Carmel at age 15 — even petitioning the pope personally.

• Abandonment: At the death of her mother, Thérèse’s oldest sister Pauline became her foster mother. But when Pauline departed to enter Carmel, the sense of abandonment devastated the young Thérèse. As she recounts, “In a moment I saw what life is really like, full of suffering and continual separations, and I burst into bitter tears. The weight of this suffering caused my mind to develop much too quickly, and it was not long before I was seriously ill.”

• Life-threatening illness: At age 10, the girl Thérèse, who had always been sickly, developed an illness so prolonged and severe that the family thought it would take her life: headaches of frightening violence, attacks of shivering, fits of great agitation. The child screamed in extreme fear, failed to recognize members of the family, had convulsions, tried to throw herself out of bed. Her sister Marie recalled, “She had frightful visions which froze the blood of all who had to hear her cries of despair.”

• Marginalized, maligned, and mistreated by her own community: As Thérèse was dying, one nun said, “Sr. Thérèse will die soon; what will our Mother Prioress be able to write in her obituary notice? She entered our convent, lived, and died—there really is no more to say.” Another nun referred to Thérèse as “certainly nothing special:” “She did not suffer from anything and was rather insignificant. Virtuous she certainly is, but that is no feat when one has so happy, uncomplicated a nature, not difficulties of character, and has not had to win virtue like us by struggles and suffering.” On her sickbed, one nun said to her directly: “If only you knew how little you are loved and esteemed in the house.”

• Prolonged spiritual aridity and suffering: From the moment Thérèse entered Carmel she began to experience what she called the “night of darkness:” “Complete aridity — desolation, almost — was my lot.” She told a nun, “I can assure you that I have not spent a single day without grief and struggle — not a single one!”

• An agonizing death: Tuberculosis had destroyed all but one small part of one lung so that Thérèse literally suffocated on her deathbed. The inner organs of her body began to putrefy with gangrene while she was still alive. And Thérèse on her deathbed was tortured with temptations to despair and to suicide.

All these experiences conspired to transform Thérèse into a saint of titanic faith, hope, and love. “She is with utmost intensity ‘one of us’,” declared Catholic writer Ida Friederike Görres.

Sanctity within our reach

The unabated allure of the Little Flower comes from her key conviction: “God does not call those who are worthy but those whom he pleases.” Thérèse convinces us that our nothingness is not a problem — it is a possibility:

“I see it is sufficient to recognize one’s nothingness and to abandon oneself as a child into God’s arms. It is impossible for me to grow up, and so I must bear with myself such as I am with all my imperfections. But I want to seek out a means of going to heaven by a little way, a way that is very straight, very short, and totally new” [The Little Way!].

Even those who struggle with nothingness possess a precious gift: desire!

“God has always given me what I desire or rather he has made me desire what he wants to give me. God cannot inspire unrealizable desires. I can, then, in spite of my littleness, aspire to holiness.”

Our greatest desire is for love. Thérèse confesses in a poem:

“I need a heart burning with tenderness,

Who will be my support forever,

Who loves everything in me, even my weakness…

And who never leaves me day or night.”

But what about our actual sins? Therese replies, “To be little also means not to lose courage on account of one’s fault, for children often fall, but they are too small to hurt themselves seriously.” For “in its audacious trust in God, the soul believes that it will more fully attract the love of One who did not come to call the just but sinners.” In the process, “Jesus opens his heart to us. He forgets our infidelities and does not want to recall them. He will do even more: He will love us even better than before we committed that fault.”

Yes, suffering is essential to this love for “to offer oneself to love as a victim does not mean accepting sweetness and consolation; it means exposing oneself to all anguish, all torment, all bitterness, for love lives only on sacrifice; and the more we would deliver ourselves up to love, the more we must offer ourselves to suffering.”

What sustains us is a healthy self-knowledge: “There is always present to my mind the remembrance of what I am. I am astonished at nothing. I am not disturbed at seeing myself weakness itself. On the contrary, it is in my weakness that I glory, and I expect each day to discover new imperfections in myself.”

The fruit of all this is genuine saintliness:

“Sanctity consists in a disposition of the heart which allows us to remain small and humble in the arms of God, knowing our weakness and trusting to the point of rashness in his fatherly goodness.”

Why a Doctor of the Church

When Thérèse was declared a Doctor of the Church, a friend of mine was granted an interview with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, and he asked about the Church’s decision. The cardinal responded that Thérèse represents a new kind of Doctor — one who propounds a “theology of experience.” Her genius is in teaching that being a saint means letting the Lord work in us. Thérèse offers a profound interpretation of the doctrine of redemption: Redemption consists in giving ourselves into the hands of Jesus. The Little Way constitutes a very deep rediscovering of the center of Christian life.

Görres recalls attending a Youth Movement meeting in Germany where a student showed her a photograph. He said, “This is the true appearance of Little Thérèse. Dom Willibrord Verkade, the monk-painter of Beuron, discovered and published it” (it was not one of the retouched, romanticized images of the Little Flower popularized after her death). Görres recalls that a small group of young people gathered around the student, and the photo was passed from hand to hand in stunned silence. Then someone said: “…Almost like the face of a female Christ.”