Tag: Christianity

Photo: pravpokrov.ru     

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

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

The question of the future afterlife, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, makes every reasonable person stop and think. Sooner or later, both a religious person and a person indifferent to religion must face it. It is impossible to escape from thinking about what will happen to us after death, whether there is an afterlife and what it consists of. We believers know that there is a future life, as the revelation of God confirms to us. The Lord, correcting the error of the Sadducees who denied the resurrection of the dead, said to them: God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for with Him all are alive.

Divine Revelation speaks not just about the preservation of spiritual substance—it speaks of the On the Immortality of the Human SoulPhilosophy will never be able to base faith in eternal life. And the human soul cannot be satisfied with a single philosophical theory. Needed is a voice from heaven that would proclaim eternal life; and there was this Voice.

“>immortality of the individual. A person as a unique personality does not disappear without a trace. The body ages, but the person inside feels the same as he was in his youth. Why? Because the soul does not change, and our whole inner life is the property of the soul. We think with our soul. Our feelings and emotions are a manifestation of the soul. The soul is what hurts even when the whole body is healthy. After all, we say that it is not the brain that hurts, not the heart muscle—but the soul that hurts. The soul uses the body as a musician uses his instrument. If a string breaks, we no longer hear the music; but this does not mean that the musician himself is dead. What we see dying is the visible, gross body. The body cannot live and act independently without the soul, but the soul is immortal and can continue its existence without the body.

There is no death, the Church tells us, but only a transition from one form of being to another. And each of us has already experienced a similar transition once, when in the throes of birth, we left the cozy womb of our mother. A child, crying and protesting, comes into our world. The flesh suffers and trembles before the uncertainty and horror of the coming life, and so the soul also suffers and trembles, leaving the cozy womb of its body. The separation of the soul from the body occurs as mysteriously and incomprehensibly as their union in the womb.

After leaving the body, the human soul enters new conditions of life. It cannot change its condition by its own will, as was the case during its earthly life. And here the spiritual connection of the deceased person with the Church is of the utmost importance.

The Holy Fathers assert that until the universal Judgment of God, it is possible to change the afterlife state of the dead, since they belong, together with us, to the one Body of Christ; i.e., the Church. Christ, as the Destroyer of hell, has the power to open and close the gates of hell, and therefore it is necessary on the part of the living members of the Church to pray to the Lord for pardon for the dead.

Believing in eternal life as an immutable truth, the Church has been commemorating the deceased since ancient times. Prayer for the dead is not a requirement of church discipline, but a need of the heart. And to satisfy this need, the Holy Church has established a coherent and consistent system of commemoration.

Church statutes specify in some detail when and what funeral prayers to perform. The Church introduces them into public and private worship and into the home prayer of Christians. The most important and effective commemoration, according to the power of the great Eucharistic Sacrifice, is made at the Liturgy, when the particles removed in memory of the living and the deceased are immersed in the Divine Blood.

Of all the days of the week, the rule defines Saturday as the primary day of commemoration of the deceased. And this is not accidental. The Sabbath, as a day of rest, is most suitable for praying for the repose of the souls of the dead. Moreover, we know that it was on Holy Week in Hymns. Holy and Great SaturdayOn Holy Saturday, we venerate the symbolic Burial Shroud (in Greek: Epitaphion, in Slavonic, Plashchanitsa) of Christ in the center of the Church. The Matins service takes place traditionally at 1:00 am on Saturday, but in most churches today it is celebrated Friday evening.

“>Great Saturday, on the eve of His Resurrection, that the Lord was “in the tomb with the body.” [This is part of the priestly prayer after the Great Entrance, In the tomb with the body, in hell with the soul as God, in paradise with the thief, and on the throne with the Father and the Spirit, wast thou O boundless Christ, filling all things.—Ed.]

The first people we remember when praying for the dead are our deceased parents. Therefore, Saturdays dedicated to the prayerful memory of the deceased are called “ancestral.” There are six such Ancestors’ Saturdays during the church year.

Funeral prayers are most intensified on two universal Ancestor’s Saturdays: Meatfare Saturday (a week before Great Lent), and Trinity Saturday. In addition, the second, thirth, and fourth Saturdays of Great Lent are also dedicated to the special commemoration of the deceased.

Our Russian Orthodox Church also has two other special memorial days: Tuesday of Bright Week, the so-called “Radonitsa” and today’s Demetrius Saturday.

According to tradition, it was established by Grand Duke Dmitry Donskoy. Having won the famous victory over Mamai on Kulikovo field on September 8, 1380, on his return from the battlefield, Dmitry Ioannovich visited the Trinity-St. Sergius Monastery. The Venerable Sergius of Radonezh, the abbot of the monastery, had previously blessed him for this battle and gave him from among his brethren two schema monks—Alexander Peresvet and Andrei Oslyabya. Both monks fell in the battle. Having commemorated the slain soldiers in the Trinity Monastery, the Grand Duke proposed to create this commemoration annually on the Saturday before October 26—the feast day of St. Demetrius of Thessalonica, the patron saint of Dmitry Donskoy.

For more than six hundred years, our Church has been performing this service every year. Before the revolution, this custom was strictly observed in the Russian army. In all military units, memorial services were served for Orthodox soldiers who laid down their lives on the battlefield for the faith, the tsar and the fatherland. Subsequently, on this day, they began to commemorate not only Orthodox soldiers, but also all the reposed, and this day became the universal day of remembrance in Russia.

On the days of commemoration of the reposed, Orthodox Christians send notes to the temple with the names of their reposed relatives who were baptized, i.e., were members of the Church. On these days, candles are supposed to be placed not before the icons, but rather before the Crucifix, on a special table called a “tetrapod.” There is also a good custom on memorial days to bring treats to the church for the poor. They are consecrated during the divine service and then distributed to everyone who wishes to receive them. The person who receives the treat prays “for all those who are now being remembered,” and his grateful prayer joins our prayer.

As a visible expression of the confidence of the living in the immortality of the deceased, “koliva” is prepared—boiled wheat grains mixed with honey. As the seeds contain life in themselves, in order to form an ear of corn and bear fruit, they must be put into the ground and desolve there. In the same way, the body of the deceased must be buried and experience corruption in order to rise later for a future life. After all, we believe not only in the immortality of the soul, but also in the resurrection of the whole person, i.e., the unity of soul and body, as we sing in the Creed: “I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the age to come.” That is why cemeteries exist in Russia—the body is placed in the ground like a seed in order to ascend with a new cosmic spring.

As we commemorate the dead today, we need to think seriously about eternal life ourselves. Each of us, without exception, having once appeared in this world, must certainly leave it. And there are no exceptions to this law of God. Our life on earth is fragile and vain. It’s clear and joyful course is often overshadowed by unexpected everyday sorrows and misfortunes. Our joys are mixed with grief; poverty is not far from wealth, health has no guarantee against diseases, and life itself can be stopped by death at any moment. The time of life is unstoppable and fleeting, so you don’t even notice the days flying by.

The thought of our fate in the future life should, it would seem, occupy us most of all. But paradoxically, the last thing modern man wants to think about is the question of death. The most striking difference between modern mass culture and Christian culture is the inability to die. Man approaches the threshold of death, not so much trying to look beyond the borderline as endlessly turning back and calculating with horror the ever-increasing distance from the time of his youth. Old age has changed from the time of “preparation for death”, when “it’s time to think about the soul,” and has become the time of the last and decisive battle for a place under the sun, for one’s last “rights.” It has become a time of envy. As our contemporary, Archbishop John Shakhovskoy, wrote: People deafened by vanity are no longer able to think about the great and eternal truths, for the comprehension of which at least a minute of divine silence in the heart, at least a moment of holy silence is needed.

The denial of a future afterlife makes earthly life completely meaningless. It becomes just “a gift in vain, an accidental gift,” as Pushkin wrote in difficult moments of his life. It allows no basis for a moral life. If there is no God, then everything is allowed, Dostoevsky said of such people. We were not—and we will not be; life absurdly flashes between two abysses of nothingness. Such unbelievers, deniers, either completely despair of earthly life and see no meaning in it, or live one base animal life, adhering to the Epicurean rule: take everything from life!

Death is the limit of earthly life during which a person can still reform. Holy Scripture says: Every man is a liar (Ps. 115/116), For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not (Eccl. 7:20). We all sin constantly. If not by deed, then by word. If not by word, then by feeling or thought; and thus death always finds us as unpaid debtors before God. And for all this we will have to give an answer in due time. Therefore today, remembering our neighbors, let us also remember our soul in order to spend the time of our earthly journey with dignity, and cherish the time that the Lord has given us. Amen!

Tbilisi, October 27, 2023

Photo: allevents.in   

Though Halloween was born within the bosom of the Church, it has been combined and corrupted by pagan aspects, and thus is unacceptable for the Orthodox faithful today, says a new statement from the Georgian Orthodox Church.

The Public Relations Service of the Georgian Church published a statement yesterday discussing the initial establishment of the feast of All Saints, with the preceding day becoming known as All Hallows’ Eve, and its corruption over the centuries, as the veneration of the saints was replaced by revelry and macabre personifications.

The Georgian Church’s statement reads:

The Halloween event is based on religious foundations and contradicts the Orthodox ecclesiastical consciousness.

There are various interpretations about Halloween. The main story is about how a pious tradition can merge with a qualitatively foreign tradition and completely degenerate.

The majority of people associate Halloween with the Irish festival Samhain and with Charlemagne (742?-814).

In order to enlighten his empire, Charlemagne began settling Irish Orthodox monks on the mainland and under their guidance established monasteries and schools, which helped spread Irish traditions within European intellectual circles.

However, along with the Orthodox monks, pantheistic (e.g., Johannes Scotus Eriugena) and other non-Orthodox Irish thinkers also settled in the Frankish and neighboring territories.

It seems that in the 8th-9th centuries, it was they who brought Samhain and other customs to these territories, which the Irish Orthodox monks opposed from the beginning.

This wave from the West met iconodule migrants from the East who were fleeing the iconoclastic policies of the Byzantine emperors with icons and relics.

These exiles were embraced by the then-rulers of the Roman Church, the Popes, who were part of the indivisible Christian Church.

Pope Gregory II convened a Church council in 727 to support icon veneration. Pope Gregory III established All Saints’ Day in the Roman Church in 732, setting its date as November 1. Pope Gregory IV extended the celebration to the entire Western Church in 837.

Like every other church holiday, All Saints’ Day also begins on the evening of the previous day (Halloween means “All Hallows’ Eve,” the eve of All Saints’ Day), during which clergy and parishioners held processions in churches and cities with religious paintings and relics.

This feast was established among the Christians of Western Europe.

Apparently, due to calendar coincidences, this intersection occurred during the Carolingian Renaissance – the Irish monastic-scholastic centers with elements of pagan atavism (Samhain) and the Roman Church holiday were connected with each other, further augmented in the 10th century by the establishment of All Souls’ Day (which is observed on November 2, the day after All Saints’ Day).

This is how the great confusion began.

However, as a result of the Reformation, the veneration of saints was abolished in most parts of Western Europe and among the large part of Christians on the American content.

Between the 17th and 19th centuries, almost all the traditions that we see in modern Halloween were formed, mainly in America.

Despite the modern show business industry’s attempts to separate Halloween from its religious rituals, this event was and remains rooted in the Church, but corrupted by paganism into an event during which, instead of venerating the icons and relics of the Lord and His saints, people dedicate time to masquerades and revelry, impersonating various macabre characters and demonic personifications.

Thus, Halloween is completely unacceptable for the Orthodox faithful.

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Bucharest, October 27, 2023

St. Macarie the Protopsaltis. Photo: ziarullumina.ro     

The Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church added a new saint to its liturgical calendar yesterday, and blessed the process for the canonization of another venerated elder.

Meeting in Bucharest October 25-26 under the chairmanship of His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel, the Synod approved the canonization of the Venerable Macarie the Protopsaltis (1770-1836), with his feast established as August 31, reports the Basilica News Agency.

The texts for his life, liturgical service, and akathist, as well as his icon were also approved.

St. Macarie is especially known as the father of Romanian-language Church music.

The Synod also approved the proposal of the Metropolis of Bessarabia (Moldova) to start the canonization process of Protosinghel Iraclie (Flocea, 1893-1964), who suffered in the Stalinist gulags.

***

St. Macarie, Protopsaltis of the Metropolitan Church of Bucharest, was the most famous music teacher of his time and a great composer of Church music.

He was born in Perieți, Ialomița County, around 1770. Being endowed by God with a love of the Church and the gift of singing, he learned to chant from an early age. Then he and his sister decided to take up the monastic life, and St. Macarie entered Căldăruşani Monastery.

Hearing of his talent, Metropolitan Dositei brought him to Bucharest and sent him to St. Sava College. He then ordained him as a hieromonk. In 1820, seeing St. Macarie’s proficiency in both ancient and modern styles of chant, appointed him director of the school of Church music, where he helped prepare candidates for the priesthood.

Venerable Macarie was a humble and spiritually advanced monk, a good servant of the Church of Christ and a distinguished orator. Both the song and the sermon of Hieromonk Macarie were inspired by the Holy Spirit and were performed with all piety and righteousness.

St. Macarie later began translating Greek hymns into Romanian, adapting them to the soul and style of the Romanian people. He produced several books that were printed in Vienna, and upon returning to Romania, he labored to spread the new chant everywhere, visiting cities and villages, churches and monasteries. By 1829, all the cities throughout Wallachia had music schools in the language of the people, teaching according to the method of St. Macarie. His books also reached all the seminaries and monasteries.

St. Macarie was also known as a great composer of Church hymns, especially known for his katavasias, hymns of the Liturgy, and hymns in honor of the Most Holy Theotokos.

Thus, St. Macare is considered the founder of Romanian Church music, having adapted Eastern chant to the Romanian language and style without doing harm to the spirit of the music.

In 1829, with the banishment of Metropolitan Grigorie, St. Macarie was forced to leave Bucharest. He stayed in several monasteries in Moldavia, continuing to teach the monks his new chants. In 1833, he returned to his native monastery, and then, falling ill, he was taken in by his sister Justina, who was by then abbess of Viforâta Monastery.

In the autum of 1836, St. Macarie peacefully reposed in the Lord, to sing eternally of the greatness of God together with the angels.

***

Photo: basilica.ro Protosinghel Iraclie (Flocea) was born on March 11, 1893, in Pojorâta, Câmpulung County (in Suceava today), receiving the name Ioan in Baptism.

He was seriously wounded in war, nearly losing his left hand, but he was miraculous healed by God.

Fulfilling a promise he had made to God while in the trenches, he entered Hârbovăț Monastery, where became a monk in 1920, was ordained a hierodeacon in 1925, and a hieromonk in 1927.

From 1926 to 1930, he went to seminary in Chișinău, being distinguished by both his academic and spiritual pursuits. In particular, he was recognized as great homilist and wise confessor, merciful and generous to foreigners and devoted to his mission. He could also translate into several languages.

In 1940, after the dissolution of the monastery, he went to become a parish priest in Nisporeni. Seeing the persecution of the clergy and monks by the Soviet army, he sent whatever help he could to the surrounding monasteries until the return of the Romanian army in 1941.

He was then able to return to Hârbovăț Monastery, where he was involved in the renovation process and the return of monks who had been exiled by the Soviets.

Between 1941 and 1944 he served as Exarch of the monasteries of the Archdiocese of Chișinău, and in 1944, he was appointed diocesan vicar for the regions evacuated from the Archdiocese.

On August 2, 1945, he was arrested and sentenced to 8 years of hard labor in Siberia “for propaganda, agitation, and calls for the overthrow of the Soviet power.”

In the gulags, he zealously helped his fellow parishioners keep the flame of faith alive in their souls. He never denied his faith and never gave in to pressure.

He was released and returned home in 1953 and served at several monasteries. He spent the last years of his life as a spiritual father in the village of Chițcani until he reposed in the Lord on August 16, 1964. He was buried in the village cemetery under the watchful eye of the communist authorities.

On October 19, 1992, Protosinghel Iraclie was rehabilitated by the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Moldova.

In 2019, his remains were reburied at the cemetery of Noul Neamț Monastery. His family was given a portion of his relics to keep in their home, and in 2022, on the day of his repose (August 16), they began to stream myrrh, which became the impetus to begin investigating his life for the possibility of canonization.

Fr. Iraclie is remembered as a monk of holy life, a tireless missionary, preacher, prison confessor, and miracle worker, preaching the Gospel and bringing many to Christ despite all external circumstances.

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Mexico’s bishops expressed “closeness” with the affected populations and urged generosity after a monster Category 5 hurricane tore through Acapulco, leaving 27 dead and four people disappeared.

Cáritas México, meanwhile, mobilized a response to Hurricane Otis, which battered Acapulco around midnight Oct. 25 as the strongest hurricane to ever hit Mexico’s Pacific Coast, according to the National Hurricane Center, causing widespread property damage and flooding, while leaving the tourist destination incommunicado.

Dioceses in Mexico have established collection centers to help the homeless amid widespread devastation.

“We are aware of the pain and anguish that overwhelms thousands of families who have lost their homes, property and livelihoods in these disaster areas. Many localities suffered serious damage to infrastructure, and found themselves prevented from accessing essential services,” the Mexican bishops’ conference said in an Oct. 25 statement.

“In these difficult times, we call for unity and fraternity among Mexicans. We urge the provision of generous assistance for those affected, especially the poorest and most vulnerable. May no one remain indifferent to the suffering of others,” the statement continued.

“Spiritual and material accompaniment will be provided by dioceses and parishes to the fullest extent of our means. You are not alone, count on our prayers and the divine providence that never abandons us.”

Such was the devastation of Hurricane Otis that Mexican authorities had little time to prepare, according to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who said throughout the day that he had little information on the situation in Acapulco. The government updated the death toll Oct. 26 at the president’s daily press conference.

The National Hurricane Center said at 10 p.m. on Oct. 24 that Hurricane Otis had explosively intensified by 95 mph during the past 24 hours.

Media arriving later in the day documented hotels and buildings badly damaged by winds of 165 mph, along with downed trees and entire parts of the city of 1 million residents underwater. The Guerrero state government estimated 80% of the city’s hotels were damaged.

The president tried reaching Acapulco, 235 miles south of Mexico City, overland, but his vehicle was impeded by mudslides and later got stuck in the mud. Mexico’s electrical utility said 58 power line towers were toppled in the storm.

Press photos showed people looting grocery stores; journalists reported little presence of law enforcement or soldiers — with the latter famed in Mexico for responding rapidly to natural disasters.

The storm’s devastation deepened the misery afflicting Acapulco in recent decades. Set on a picturesque bay with golden-sand beaches, Acapulco once glittered as the granddaddy of Mexican tourist destinations, but has been beset by neglect and drug cartel violence as visitors flock to other destinations such as Cancún.

Some observers in Mexico criticized the president for failing to prioritize disaster readiness.

López Obrador eliminated a series of public trusts — alleging unproven corruption claims — used for responding to events such as storms and earthquakes in 2020, arguing the money would be spent on the COVID pandemic response.

Journalist Juan Ortiz, who covers Congress, said via X that Finance Ministry documents show money from the disaster relief trust was spent on the construction of a tourist train circling the Yucatán Peninsula — a mega project the president has prioritized.

Washington, D.C., October 27, 2023

Photo: YouTube screenshot     

Ukrainian Orthodox Church receiving pro bono defense from international law firmThe canonical Ukrainian Orthodox has enlisted the help of a major international law firm to protect its rights.

“>Earlier this month, the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church announced that the law firm AMSTERDAM & PARTNERS LLP has agreed to represent the Church pro bono, defending it against the serious state persecution campaign.

Yesterday, lawyer Robert Amsterdam joined Tucker Carlson on his show Tucker on X to discuss the crimes against Orthodoxy, including the violent seizure of property and the jailing of clergy, and his representation of the Church.

“It is shocking to me that a country such as the United States, with strong Christian leadership—I thought—could allow this to go on,” Amsterdam says.

“And this intervention [by the Ukrainian government] for callous political purposes is unacceptable and it is shameful that not only Christian, but all leaders of all denominations have not spoken out against the Ukrainian government,” the lawyer emphasizes.

Following up, Carlson asks: “Where is Russell Moore, the editor of Christianity Today? Where is the Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a purported Christian? I mean, they’re backing this. What is that?”

“The Ukraine lobby is immensely powerful,” Amsterdam responds. “And there is a humongous ban on truth right now, in the United States, with what respect to what’s happening in Ukraine. Many of our leaders in the United States aren’t even hearing this. It’s the same in Europe.”

Watch the full interview below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6IDZlpou-s​

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The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) this week acknowledged the 25th anniversary of the passage of the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA), what the bishops called a “landmark” piece of legislation meant to protect the “essential and inviolable” principle of religious freedom.

The act, passed in 1998 and signed by then-President Bill Clinton on Oct. 27 of that year, was drafted to prioritize religious freedom in U.S. foreign policy.

The IRFA sought to “elevate religious freedom as a foreign policy goal of the United States, promote religious freedom in countries that violate this basic human right, and strengthen advocacy on behalf of individuals persecuted in other countries on the basis of religion,” the USCCB said in a press release on Wednesday.

In a joint statement, New York archbishop Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who chairs the USCCB’s Committee for Religious Liberty, along with Rockford bishop and Committee on International Justice and Peace chairman David Malloy, noted that the Catholic Church “has long recognized the essential and inviolable nature of religious freedom.”

“In 1965, Pope St. Paul VI promulgated the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on Religious Freedom, Dignitatis Humanae, which stated that this right is founded ‘in the very dignity of the human person,’ so that everyone has a right to religious freedom,” the bishops said.

“The declaration went on to say governments must protect the rights and safeguard the religious freedom of all its citizens so that ‘no one is to be forced to act in a manner contrary to his own beliefs, whether privately or publicly, within due limits,’” they added.

Dolan and Malloy said that 80% of people live in nations with high levels of religious freedom restrictions, adding that they “have been steadily increasing for several years.”

“As we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the International Religious Freedom Act, let us join with our Holy Father in his prayer ‘that freedom of conscience and freedom of religion will everywhere be recognized and respected; these are fundamental rights, because they make us free to contemplate the heaven for which we were created,’” the statement concluded.

The law created a new position in the State Department, the ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, whose duties include promoting religious freedom abroad and advising the president on religious freedom matters.

Additionally, the act mandates a State Department report each year on the global state of international religious freedom. The most recent report can be found here.

One in seven Christians across the globe face persecution and 5,621 Christians were killed for “faith-related reasons” last year, according to Open Doors, an advocacy organization for persecuted Christians.

The organization, which annually ranks the 50 countries where Christians face the most extreme persecution, said that the top 10 most dangerous countries in the world this year are North Korea, Somalia, Yemen, Eritrea, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, and Sudan.

Tver, Tver Province, Russia, October 27, 2023

Photo: ​tvereparhia.ru     

Yesterday, October 26, marked the 30th anniversary of the uncovering of the relics of St. Thaddeus (Uspensky) of Tver, a great homilist and New Martyr of the Russian Church.

The festal Liturgy was celebrated by His Eminence Metropolitan Ambrose of Tver at the Church of St. Thaddeus, where the altar was erected at the place where his holy relics were uncovered, reports the Tver Diocese.

In Soviet times, the cemetery where St. Thaddeus was buried was abandoned and fell into complete desolation. The cemetery church of the Burning Bush of the Icon of the Mother of God, which St. Thaddeus greatly loved, was destroyed.

Photo: ​tvereparhia.ru     

The relics of St. Thaddeus were founded in 1993 thanks to the efforts of Archimandrite Damaskin (Orlovsky). In 2016, the construction of a wooden church in honor of the patron saint of Tver began at the place where his relics were found. The completed church was consecrated on September 3, 2022.

The Liturgy for the feast yesterday was sung by the youth choir of the 2nd Tver Deanery. During the service, prayers were offered for the peace and prosperity of the homeland.

Following the prayer of the amvon, a procession was held around the church, ending with the reading of a prayer to the New Martyr Thaddeus.

Photo: ​tvereparhia.ru     

Met. Ambrose congratulated all those present and offered a reflection on St. Thaddeus, saying:

The hieromartyr Thaddeus, against all human logic, being disagraced and humiliated not only during his life, but also after his death, shone forth because, according to the word of St. Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow, he was called a holy bishop even during his lifetime. And none of his concelebrants and those who communicated with him and were spiritually nurtured by him ever had any doubts about this…

He remained, in a sense, a child, because he had a pure heart, the heart of a child, according to the word of the Gospel. But his mind, of course, was wise and mature…

Fleeing to the shrine with his holy relics, located in the Ascension Cathedral of Tver, you involuntarily experience grace-filled joy and comfort, peace, as though he’s talking to you today, as though he’s embracing you today, blessing and warming you with his warmth and love.

From October 26 to November 2, Tver is hosting the 11th Thaddean Educational Readings, which this year is focused on the national culture and image for the future.

OrthoChristian has translated and published a wealth of material from St. Thaddeus of Tver. Hieromartyr Thaddeus (Uspensky)Thaddeus (Uspensky), Hieromartyr

“>See our St. Thaddeus page here.

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California’s Chief Justice hailed the example of St. Thomas More as she urged legal professionals and civic leaders to build trust in the state’s legal system at LA’s 41st annual Red Mass.

Recalling the “unfathomable violence and suffering” witnessed by the world in recent weeks and describing public trust in institutions as “fragile,” Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero said the 16th-century English saint “represents a guiding figure for lawyers, judges, and public servants to navigate the complexities of our work and our world.”

“St. Thomas More reminds us that in a world that can often seem turbulent, we must not abandon our duty as guardians of the law,” said Guerrero, who gave the closing remarks at the Oct. 25 liturgy at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. The Mass was presided by Archbishop José H. Gomez and concelebrated by a dozen priests.

Guerrero, a Democrat, became the Supreme Court of California’s first Latina justice after she was nominated to the court by Gov. Gavin Newsom last year.

“It is a difficult time when we are called to do all that’s in our power in ways, big or small, to create a more just world,” said Guerrero. “We must continue to pursue justice and compassion, uphold the truth, and defend the rights of the most vulnerable.”

Organized by the local chapter of the St. Thomas More Society, the Red Mass is an ecumenical, civic celebration that honors judges, lawyers, legislators, and legal professionals usually held around the time the U.S. Supreme Court begins its new year.

The more than 200 people attending this year included representatives of various faith traditions. As in previous years, the Mass’ ceremonial honor guard was led by the Knights of Saint Peter Claver and the Knights of Columbus.

In her remarks, Guerrero also recalled the “deep and abiding” faith of her grandmother, who together with her parents passed on to her the “values of compassion and helping others” while growing up in California’s Imperial Valley.

This year’s homilist was Father Edward Siebert, SJ, rector of Loyola Marymount University’s Jesuit community and a longtime film producer who most recently worked as an executive producer for the 2023 Russell Crowe film, “The Pope’s Exorcist.”

The Jesuit invoked the 1957 legal drama “12 Angry Men” in his homily to connect the theme of the evening’s liturgy with Jesus’ words in the Gospel: “Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more” (Luke 12:48).

“Both the film and the Gospel-parable offer us a narrative of human experience that helps us to rise above the oft confining limits of human experience in order to attain the ultimate ideas of justice and truth,” Siebert said in his homily.

The Latin word for “more” as found in the Gospel, Siebert said, is “magis,” a term that can translate to “greater” and often used by St. Ignatius Loyola.

“For St. Ignatius Loyola, the superlative was always God,” said Siebert, who is also the founder and president of Loyola Productions, Inc. “And the comparative, ‘the greater,’ was how we discovered what was more just, loving, and pleasing to God.”

The Spanish saint’s understanding of the gospel, Siebert said, “would call all religious authorities, and I dare say, civic authorities, to pursue the ‘greater’ in their own challenging, probing, and consequential deliberations.”

Before the end of the Mass, St. Thomas More Society of LA president Carmela Bombay announced the death of T. Matthew Hansen, general counsel for the Catholic Community Foundation of Los Angeles and a member of the society chapter’s board, who had died just three days earlier on Oct. 22. 

Also remembered was Bishop David O’Connell, who was killed earlier this year and had concelebrated last year’s Red Mass alongside Archbishop Gomez. State Sen. Bob Archuleta, D-Pico Rivera, recalled that he received holy Communion from O’Connell at last year’s Mass. This year’s Mass, he told Angelus, was a chance to remember and pray for a man he considered a friend.

“He was truly the man of the cloth and he will be missed, and we honor him today,” said Archuleta, who sponsored 30 freeway-adjacent digital billboards around the LA area honoring Bishop O’Connell following his death last February.

Kremenets, Ternopil Province, Ukraine, October 27, 2023

Photo: pravlife.org     

Just as it demanded the eviction of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, with its monastics and seminarians, from the Holy Dormition-Kiev Caves Lavra, now the state is demanding that the Church abandon its St. Nicholas Cathedral in Kremenets in the Ternopil Province in western Ukraine.

The Kremenets-Pochaev State Historical and Architectural Preserve sent its demand earlier this month, which was then published by the Diocese of Ternopil.

The Preserve notes that its demanded is backed up by court decisions from June 15 and October 2:

The decision of the Economic Court … in the case of the claim of the Kremenets-Pochaev State Historical and Architectural Preserve on the obligation of the religious community to return to the Preserve the state real estate of the premises of an architectural monument of national significance—the St. Nicholas Cathedral with cells of the 16th-17th centuries… by vacating the occupied premises has entered into legal force and is binding.

Should the Orthodox community refuse to leave the cathedral, the Preserve will apply to law enforcement bodies to enforce the court’s decision.

In its message about the expulsion, the Ternopil Diocese notes that the community has taken care of the church for 30 years, “but unfortunately, the state did not appreciate this.”

This is just another aspect of the targeted campaign against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the diocese writes, entreating prayers for Archpriest Vasily Vozniuk and the parish community of the St. Nicholas Cathedral.

The authorities have also targeted the nuns of the Authorities now targeting nuns in Western Ukrainian conventVideo published by the UOC showed several dozen police officers and several police vehicles outside the monastery.

“>Holy Theophany Convent in Kremenets.

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New York-based consultant Christian Madsbjerg writes, speaks, and teaches widely on the “practical application of the human sciences.”

“Humans adapt instantly to change but often without understanding the long-term consequences,” he writes. “At ReD [his firm], we tried to keep this radical openness to the transformation of even the most profound and philosophical questions as part of all projects. The future is never a theoretical prospect for any of us. You can observe it in all your everyday reality. The most challenging thing for all of us to see is what is really there.”

TED talk language, in other words: What does that even mean?

He spells it out in “Look: How to Pay Attention in a Distracted World” (Riverhead Books, $29). Great title, I thought. I read a gushing review. I ordered the book.

Madsbjerg is a fan of French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty, who asked, “What does it mean to experience the world from inside a human body?” To those of us grounded in incarnate reality, this is hardly a novel question.

At any rate, the anti-Cartesian point is: Don’t think; rather look.

So far, so good. How do we perceive space, experience color, and explore the complexities of perspective, Madsbjerg asks.

He reflects upon the work of light artist James Turrell, painter Seth Cameron, Donald Judd of Marfa, Texas, fame, and clay-shooting expert Gil Ash.

He moves on to the philosopher Christian von Ehrenfels, who posited a “gestalt quality” to reality by which the whole is more than the sum of its parts.

The point, says Madsbjerg, is that we tend to focus on the foreground; the readily observable.

In fact — ka-ching — the real interest often lies in the “hurly-burly” of the background of life.

“Each of us,” he maintains, “can bring an awareness of this so-called hurly-burly and learn to observe it analytically. This is a meta-skill that is called ‘hyper-reflection’ and in this book I will walk you through how it works.”

Except he kind of doesn’t.

What follows are a lot of commonplaces: “Our every thought, every word, and all our experiences are happening on a social background we share with others.”

“Good observations always include the observer.”

“Science doesn’t explain everything.”

Go out and simply observe, he counsels. “New York City is filled with humans doing interesting things, and I am certain your city or town is as well.”

Watch people moving around a museum. Observe people at a jazz club jam session.

Check out a group of World Wildlife Fund volunteers.

Here, however, Madsbjerg reveals that he isn’t interested in knowledge, or wonder, or mystery for mystery’s sake. He’s interested in knowledge that can be mined and marketed.

In the early 2000s, for example, he became consumed with the phenomenon of the remote control. “Why on earth?” he wondered. “The strangeness of the remote control and the hundred-dollar cable subscription was a portal into the future of media. … Why did people behave that way?”

In the course of his research — and this really is fascinating — he comes across a marginal activity: “the shared social practice of a tiny group of people in Okinawa, Japan, who all had an interest in movies and TV shows shot in Monument Valley in northeast Arizona.”

This ragtag group of obsessives band together, exchange information, share digitized versions of old VHS recordings, and binge-watch obscure films often of abysmally low visual and sound quality.

Madsbjerg never answers the question of why people would cede their freedom to a remote control. Instead he has an epiphany: When these micro-interest groups were added up globally, “a new business model for media writ large was made possible.”

The beauty in such strange and singular little clubs, the delight in the face-to-face human encounter, the social aspect, the person-to-person sharing, the fun of the collective search: All this is lost on Madsbjerg.

What he “observes” is an opportunity for his clients to sell to Monument Valley film fanatics, and others similarly situated, “content” that is curated, available 24/7, and can be consumed in one’s own private space and on one’s own private screen.

In fact, that wild-card irrepressible human spirit that resists programming, that insists on busting out one way or another, is exactly what Madsbjerg and people like him want to wipe out.

Not surprisingly, he disposes of religion in a few chilling sentences:

“Change — radical change — that would be incomprehensible just a few years ago happens all the time. … Not long ago — and still for many of us — being human meant being God’s children. The world was created around us, and we answered to God. Now we think differently about something as basic as our own humanity. … It isn’t apparent anymore what separates us from the rest of nature and makes us different from machines.”

That this kind of thinking that increasingly permeates technology, medicine, politics, and the media should give us all serious pause.

As for the interchangeability of foreground and background, though, I knew just what Madsbjerg was talking about.

Right away I thought of St. Basil’s Church in Koreatown, where in fear and trembling I first attended Mass.

Before, the church had been a dull brown building in the midst of the hurly-burly of K’Town over which my eyes instinctively glossed.

Afterward, I saw it as the pulsating, supernatural center of existence to which the rest of the (interesting, glorious, to be sure) city — in fact, the world — was mere background.