Tag: Christianity

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

Beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord! The most terrible punishment for parents is the disobedience of their children. It is very painful to see how your child strays from the right path, violates the commandments of God, sinking more and more into the abyss of darkness and moving further and further away from God and his parental home. The parental heart does not find peace for a single minute—it constantly worries, suffers, is tormented, tears are a parent’s daily “food”. If we could see a mother’s heart with our spiritual eyes, we would be horrified by the sight of it alone: We would see a picture of the main human organ maimed and scarred.

But there is no heart that suffers more in this world than that of our common dear Mother—the Most Holy Theotokos. There is no sorrow, problem or grief to which She would be indifferent. There is no prayer request that she would not hear, or would ignore. History carefully preserves in its memory the feast of the Holy Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos, which we are celebrating today; and although this event took place in the distant past, the Protecting Veil of the Theotokos is spread over us to this day. This feast is a vivid testimony of the Mother of God’s care for the world. The All-Holy Virgin is like a Heavenly bird that gathers its chicks under its wings, protecting them from evil. The Most Pure Virgin Mary covers all mankind with Her protecting veil. As a loving Mother She does not cease to believe in each one of us, praying for us and patiently waiting for our reform. A mother never abandons her child, especially when the child is in distress or on the verge of death. Likewise, the Mother of God always hastens to rescue us once we call out to Her. As long as we do not lose hope of the intercession of the Mother of God, we will never perish.

The Most Holy Theotokos is a Mother of many children. It is not only the Infant Jesus (as we see on icons) that She holds in Her arms, but also the whole of humanity. After all, at the Cross on Golgotha She adopted all of us, making us Her sons and daughters. It is impossible to describe in words the countless miracles performed through the prayers of the Mother of God. There will never be enough words of gratitude to worthily praise our All-Holy Mother.

    

Let’s admit honestly that we are ungrateful children. Needless to say, we do not always treat our living parents with respect—we can be rude, irritated; we can argue and offend them. With such an attitude to our parents, how will we learn to love the Heavenly Mother? We cause much pain and suffering to Her. We are indifferent to what She does for us and do not appreciate Her prayers and care. More precisely, maybe we express our gratitude and appreciation in words, but we testify to the opposite with our lives.

How can we melt the ice of insensibility in ourselves? How can we learn not to trouble the Theotokos?

Any parent is happy when his children try to be like him. Brothers and sisters, let’s imitate the beloved Mother of God, and become like Her in word and deed. After all, Her whole life was a fountain of spiritual wisdom and a treasury of Divine grace. Let’s draw abundantly from this inexhaustible spiritual source.

As a very young child the Mother of God acquired the habit of prayer, fasting and reading the Holy Scriptures. Let’s also cultivate in ourselves constancy in prayer, fasting and reading the Holy Scriptures. The core of spiritual life is constancy. Just as athletes train daily and become professionals in their field, so a Christian who forces himself to perform spiritual feats daily acquires the skill of doing good and becomes an invincible warrior of Christ. If we give up praying and reading the Holy Scriptures even for one day, if we begin to neglect fasting, then our souls begin to cool down to everything spiritual, and we become crude and carnal and stop caring about our souls—For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit (Gal. 5:17). In this spiritual state we become vulnerable to the devil and yield to the power of sin.

The Theotokos was modest even in everyday things. She was a Virgin not only physically, but also in Her soul. She always dressed simply, she owned only two tunics, which She gave to two poor widows before Her death. In conversation with people She was prudent in Her words, avoided empty and idle talk and jokes. Even her gait was without any unnecessary body movements, and Her speech was quiet and calm. Likewise, dear brothers and sisters, let’s love modesty, which is the basis of humility. A truly modest person does not exalt himself before others; even if he has virtues, he does not brag about them, knowing that they are a gift from God. According to the Holy Fathers, true modesty manifests itself in the way we behave in public. The state of our souls is manifested in our gestures, body movements, gait and speech, because our outward self-expression in fact reflects our inner state. To put it simply, what is in our hearts is on our lips. So, let’s love wise laconicity, let our communication with our neighbors be saving, and let’s say only what is useful for the soul.

    

Dear brothers and sisters, let’s turn our eyes to the Mother of God more often. Whenever we want to commit some sin, let’s remember that we upset our Heavenly Mother with this. Let’s learn to be obedient to God by the example of Her life. Let’s show our love for the Mother of God in our good deeds. Woe to the Christian who does not honor the Mother of God—such a person deprives himself of Her prayerful support. Today both Heaven and earth are rejoicing, and let’s exclaim together with the Angels of God: “Rejoice, O our Joy, protect us from all evil beneath Thy Protecting Veil.” Amen.

Photo: georghram.ru     

Saint Ripsimia (Ριψιμία or Ριψίμη) suffered martyrdom in the year 292, during the reign of Diocletian (284-304). She was very beautiful in terms of her outward appearance, and modest in her character. In those days, Diocletian sent men throughout the Empire to find a maiden fairer than all others for him to marry. They found Saint Ripsimia, who had consecrated her virginity to Christ, and was living in a community of women in Asia Minor, of which Saint Gaianḗ was the Superior. The messengers had a portrait of Ripsimia made and sent it to Diocletian. The Emperor was captivated by her beauty, and he sent her a letter, asking her to be his wife. Ripsimia, who had Christ as her heavenly Bridegroom, did not want to marry anyone else. Therefore, the nuns decided to take refuge in Armenia. On the way, they endured hunger, thirst, and many other trials.

They settled in a vineyard on the slopes of Mount Ararat, and the stronger women would go into the city to work for people in order to earn money to purchase food and other necessities. All the women were willing to endure exile, and to bear every burden and sorrow for the sake of purity.

When Diocletian was informed that Ripsimia had fled to Armenia, he wrote to his friend King Tiridates saying, “If you find her, send her to me, or, if you wish, marry her yourself.”

Tiridates sent his men to search for Ripsimia, and when they found her they surrounded the area so that she could not escape. When he learned how beautiful she was, Tiridates sent her presents and raiment worthy of a queen, so that she might appear before him in a suitable fashion. Ripsimia, however, acting in accordance with the instructions of Saint Gaianḗ, who had raised her from childhood, rejected these gifts and refused to go to the King. Saint Gaianḗ told the messengers that these virgins were already betrothed to Christ, and that it was impossible for them to enter into an earthly marriage.

When the messengers told Tiridates what had happened, he became very angry. He sent one of his princes and an army of soldiers to kill all the virgins and to bring Ripsimia to him by force. When she saw the soldiers approach the virgins with drawn swords, Saint Ripsimia told the Prince, “Take me to your King, but do not harm these virgins.”

Saint Ripsimia was taken to the royal bedchamber, weeping and praying that God would preserve her virginity. Recalling how He had helped His servants in the past, how He saved Israel from Pharoah’s hands, keeping Jonah in the belly of the whale for three days, and how He protected the Three Holy Youths in the fiery furnace, she believed that He would also rescue her from Tiridates.

When the King entered the chamber he attempted to rape her, but with God’s help she became stronger than Tiridates, and he was not able to harm her. Leaving the chamber, the King commanded that Saint Gaianḗ be brought to him, since he had discovered that she had raised Ripsimia. The King told her to persuade Ripsimia to submit to him, but when the Eldress spoke to her she counseled her to preserve her virginity, which she had dedicated to Christ, and to remember the crown which her Bridegroom had prepared for her. Finally, she said that if the King should put her to death, she would enjoy even greater favor from Christ.

Seeing that he had accomplished nothing, even though he had struggled with Ripsimia for a long time, the King began to tremble and roll around on the floor. That night, Saint Ripsimia escaped and fled from the city. She found the sisters and told them how she had remained undefiled.

The next morning some soldiers found Ripsimia and arranged a cruel death for her. First they cut out her tongue, stripped her, tied her hands and feet to columns, and burned her with candles. Then they tore her stomach open with a sharp stone, so that her entrails fell out. Finally, they plucked her eyes out and cut off her members. Having completed her contest, she departed to Christ, the bestower of crowns.

The Eldress Gaianḗ and two other virgins suffered even greater torments. The pagans drilled through their legs, suspended them upside down, and skinned them alive. Cutting their necks from behind, they pulled their tongues out and cut them off. Next, their stomachs were cut with sharp stones so that their entrails fell to the ground. Finally, they were beheaded.

Thirty-two other Virgin Martyrs (some sources say there were thirty-five) suffered horrible tortures, and died by the sword, then their bodies were thrown to the wild animals.

In addition to these holy women, seventy men who were hiding in that area also suffered martyrdom.

Troparion — Tone 4

Your holy martyrs, O Lord, / through their sufferings have received incorruptible crowns from You, our God. / For having Your strength, they laid low their adversaries, / and shattered the powerless boldness of demons. / Through their intercessions, save our souls!

The devil is launching attacks to divide the Church, and we must fight back with the weapon of the Holy Spirit, a cardinal from the Democratic Republic of Congo said at Mass on Friday.

Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, OFM Cap., was the main celebrant of a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica for synod participants on Oct. 13.

“If we have the courage to look at our current reality as a Church, it won’t be hard to see how the Evil One is at work, influencing our way of being and acting. The Evil One wants to see us divided; he might even use some of us for his cause,” the archbishop of Kinshasa said, encouraging people to fight back with “the weapons of synodality.”

Ambongo’s homily drew on the day’s Gospel passage, in which Jesus explains why and by what power he drives out demons.

The reading “reminds us that the devil is still present and active in our world,” the cardinal said. “His strength lies precisely in the strategy of making himself invisible and appearing in the most seductive and reassuring forms. Knowing his prey well, the devil launches his attacks from the most sensitive realities.”

He quoted Pope Benedict XVI, who said, “the Evil One always seeks to spoil God’s work, sowing division in the human heart, between body and soul, between the individual and God, in interpersonal, social and international relations … The Evil One sows discord.”

“That’s why we must courageously fight the Evil One, using the weapons of synodality,” he continued, “which require unity, walking together, prayerful discernment, listening to each other and to what the Spirit has to say to the Church.”

“We are called to combat this powerful adversary with an equally powerful weapon at our disposal: the Holy Spirit, protagonist of this new way of being Church — the synodal Church.”

Ambongo also said the Synod on Synodality is a time to ask God for forgiveness for the Church’s failures, including the sin of sexual abuse.

“The Church needed this time of grace and discernment, a time to look back on the road we’ve traveled, with its glories and failures, and draw lessons for a new beginning,” he said.

Quoting from paragraph 23 of the synod’s Instrumentum Laboris, or working document, he said, “‘The face of the Church today bears the signs of serious crises of mistrust and lack of credibility. In many contexts, crises related to sexual abuse, and abuse of power, money, and conscience,’ are counter-testimonies that have even risked driving people away from the Church.”

He pointed out that in the day’s first reading, the prophet Joel invites the ministers of the altar to mourn, fast, and “spend the night in sackcloth,” because “the house of your God is deprived of offering and libation.”

“Joel’s prophecy corresponds in some ways to the synodal experience we are living here in Rome these days,” he said. “Coming together as one family from every continent, in the beauty of unity in cultural diversity, we are also invited to weep and mourn before this altar, at the tomb of St. Peter, for our weaknesses as Church.”

“Yes, brothers and sisters,” the cardinal emphasized, “we are here to weep and ask God’s forgiveness for our faults. But the best way to weep is with the courage to embark on the path of repentance and conversion, which opens the way to reconciliation, healing, and justice.”

Ambongo is participating in the Synod on Synodality assembly at the Vatican Oct. 4-29 in his capacity as president of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa And Madagascar (SECAM).

In February, Pope Francis visited Ambongo’s country, where the predominantly Christian population is more than 40% Catholic.

Two other bishops from DRC, Archbishop Marcel Utembi Tapa of Kisangani and Bishop Pierre-Célestin Tshitoko Mamba of Luebo, are also attending the synod gathering in Rome.

Friday’s Mass, which marked the beginning of a new discussion topic for the synod, was concelebrated by Cardinal Cristóbal López Romero, the archbishop of Rabat, Morocco, and by Cardinal Dieudonné Nzapalainga of Bangui, Central African Republic.

Students from the Pontifical Urban University, which educates priests, religious, and laypeople mainly from mission countries, provided the choir and helped during the liturgy.

Fresno, California, October 13, 2023

Photo: The Holy Eparchial Synod of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (GOARCH) has petitioned the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople to canonize a hierarch who labored for many decades in America.

His Grace Bishop Athenagoras of Nazianzos spoke about this at the recent GOARCH Monastic Synaxis that was held at the Monastery of the Theotokos the Lifegiving Spring in Fresno, California. (one of the many monasteries founded by the holy Elder Ephraim).

According to the communiqué following the three-day event:

His Grace Bishop [Athenagoras] of Nazianzos updated the Synaxis on the saintly life and character of the late Bishop Gerasimos of Abydos, including the progression of the request the Holy Eparchial Synod forwarded to the Ecumenical Patriarchate with regards to his canonization.

His Grace Bishop Gerasimos (Papadopoulos) of Abydos († 1995) was an Athonite monk and later a titular bishop of the Patriarchate of Constantinople who labored in the United States for the last four decades of his life. He served in both Boston and Pittsburgh, but is most warmly remembered as a professor and spiritual father to countless students at Hellenic College-Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Even as a bishop, he lived simply in a dorm room and always made himself available to share his spiritual wisdom with the students.

He reposed on June 12, 1995, from complications following heart surgery.

A conference was held at Holy Cross in October 2021 in honor of the 25th anniversary of Bp. Gerasimos’ repose, which included the premier of the documentary Bishop Gerasimos of Abydos: Spiritual Elder of America:

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His life from Orthodox Wiki reads:

Early life

Gerasimos was born Elias Papadopoulos on October 10, 1910, in the town of Bouzi (today called Kyllini) in the province of Corinth. His parents were Ioannis and Athanasia Papadopoulos. The fourth of ten children, Elias was marked early in life as having a sober and serious disposition. In elementary school, he was nicknamed “Pappou” (grandfather) by his schoolmates. He left school at age thirteen and took a series of jobs in business, including grocer’s assistant, shoemaker’s apprentice, and worker in a forge.

In 1928, Elias became a novice in the monastery of Mega Spelaion. Within two years he had moved to the Skete of St. Anna on Mount Athos. He placed himself under the spiritual supervision of Monk Chrysostomos (Kartsonas), and was respected by the elders of the skete for his virtue and prudence. It was here that he was tonsured a monk and took the new name of Gerasimos. He left the skete in 1934 with the blessing of his elder to undertake studies at the Theological Seminary of Corinth. In June of 1935, on the feast day of the Holy Spirit, he was ordained to the diaconate by Metropolitan Damaskinos of Corinth. He entered the School of Theology of the University of Athens in 1938, but his studies were interrupted by the German invasion of Greece in 1940.

Priesthood

Gerasimos was ordained to the priesthood in May of 1941 by Metropolitan Michael of Corinth. Damaskinos, now Archbishop of Athens, appointed Gerasimos as director of the orphanage of Vouliagmeni. He held this position through the remainder of the war and the occupation of Greece, following which he agreed to become Chancellor of the Metropolis of Corinth in 1945. In 1947, he relocated to Germany, where he served as proistamenos of the Greek Orthodox church in Munich. It was during this service that he completed his first book Greek Philosophy as Propaideia to Christianity.

America

Following one year of service as chaplain to the student dormitory of Apostoliki Diakonia, Gerasimos arrived in the United States in 1952 to become Professor of New Testament at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, Brookline. His former Metropolitan, Michael, had been elected Archbishop of North and South America four years earlier, and sought to have his former Chancellor with him. He was eventually appointed sub-Dean, but ran into conflict with the Dean, Fr. Ezekiel (Tsoukalas), who removed him from the position. Nevertheless, he developed a strong bond with the students, who gave him the nickname “Fr. GULF.” (“Gerasimos – Understanding, Love, Faith) in recognition of the topics he discussed avidly with them. Meanwhile, he undertook advanced studies at Boston University, where he received the degree of Master of Theology. Concurrently, he was invited to speak and give retreats throughout New England and in other forums throughout the United States.

Episcopacy

On April 6, 1962, the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate elected Gerasimos as titular Bishop of Abydos. He was initially assigned to oversee the Third Archdiocesan District, based in Boston. In 1967, he was transferred to Pittsburgh and the Sixth Archdiocesan District, where he remained until retirement in 1977.

Upon his retirement, Bishop Gerasimos contemplated returning to Greece, but after a short stay he accepted an invitation to return to Boston and Holy Cross Seminary as a professor. Of greater significance was his role as spiritual father in residence. He lived simply, in one of the dormitories and made himself available to counsel the students and share spiritual wisdom. The bishop was deeply respected by the students and by the larger community in Boston as an Abba, a source of spiritual advice and strength. His nephew, Dr. Stylianos Papadopoulos, recounts an incident in the book Agape and Diakonia: Essays in Memory of Bishop Gerasimos of Abydos that examplifies the reputation acquired by the bishop:

The visit of Bishop Gerasimos to the Holy Mountain coincided with the feast day of the main church of the St. Anna Skete. As a bishop of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and a former monk of Mt. Athos, a few of the old monks who remembered him, particularly the monks of Fr. Chrysostomos Kartsonas, naturally, wanted him to celebrate the Divine Liturgy at the great festival of St. Anna. Bishop Gerasimos, however, because he had been living in America had a short, trimmed beard. This prompted some of the monks of the Skete to oppose his liturgizing because, they claimed, the people would be scandalized seeing him with a trimmed beard. When they clearly intimated their perplexity over this matter, Bishop Gerasimos dismissed it, giving it no thought at all. He simply went and stood in a back corner of the church as if nothing had happened, and he remained there from the beginning of the all night vigil until late the next day when the Divine Liturgy was celebrated. There, alone, without any distinctive signs, a stranger among strangers, he recalled his old monastic experiences and prayed as much as he could. It is the custom during the vigil of the feast day of St. Anna for the hesychast ascetics and hermit monks, who live a very austere monasticism in poor, isolated kalyves, far from the Sketes and Monasteries, to gather silently in the central church. After the liturgy, one of these ascetic monks approached two leading monks of the Skete and asked them: “Who was that clergyman who stood in that corner stasidi?” They explained to him that he was Bishop Gerasimos of Abydos, who had not been permitted to liturgize because he had trimmed his beard. Then the ascetic monk crossed himself and told them: “What have you done? How could you? All night long I could see over his head a light like a dove, while over your heads there appeared something like little devils!”

Bishop Gerasimos died of complications following heart surgery in Boston on June 12, 1995. His remains were interred next to the chapel at Holy Cross Seminary.

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Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation “Laudate Deum,” released Oct. 4, was described as the sound of a broken heart, disappointed by the world’s lack of action on environmental damage and climate change, at a Georgetown University panel discussion.

In the eight years since the pope’s encyclical “Laudato Si’, On Care for Our Common Home,” “we’ve not seen significant progress,” said Jose Aguto, executive director of Catholic Climate Covenant, a nonprofit group based in Washington. “So he wants us to step into this work” using “a lot of courage.”

The Oct. 12 discussion “Caring for the Environment and Each Other: Pope Francis’ Follow-up to Laudato Si’” was sponsored by the university’s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life.

“Laudate Deum” (“Praise God”) contains the pope’s strongest language on climate change.

“We must move beyond the mentality of appearing to be concerned but not having the courage needed to produce substantial changes,” it states. “We know that at this pace in just a few years we will surpass the maximum recommended limit (in worldwide temperature increase of 1.5 (degrees Celsius) and shortly thereafter even reach 3 (degrees Celsius) with a high risk of arriving at a critical point.”

John Mundell, director of the Laudato Si’ Action Platform, acknowledged both the emotion and urgency expressed in the new document. “Pope Francis is challenging us to live a more authentic faith life,” he said, noting the new exhortation asks the faithful, “Am I experiencing a new light in my life?”

None of this surprised Sharon Lavigne, who leads Rise St. James, a faith-based environmental justice group in the Louisiana region known as “Cancer Alley” from the effects of industrial pollution.

On the panel, she drove home the real effects of pollution. Her neighbors eventually realized they were being poisoned by a massive Formosa Plastics plant.

Her area’s elected officials, she said, feel beholden only to industry. “We will not be able to breathe. We will not be able to live. This is genocide,” she said.

Lavigne, the 2022 Laetare Medal recipient from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, said of the corporate polluters, “We are being sacrificed so they can make a profit.”

Aguto observed that the exhortation is aimed particularly at Americans when it states, “If we consider that emissions per individual in the United States are about two times greater than those of individuals living in China, and about seven times greater than the average of the poorest countries, we can state that a broad change in the irresponsible lifestyle connected with the Western model would have a significant long-term impact.”

The document is “clear that caring for the environment is integral to our faith,” Aguto said. “This should not be a partisan issue. It’s an issue of our faith.”

Christiana Zenner, an associate professor of theology at Fordham University in New York, called the document “a challenge of the heart.”

She thought Pope Francis came off as “a little cranky,” however, with these words: “Once and for all, let us put an end to the irresponsible derision that would present this issue as something purely ecological, ‘green,’ romantic, frequently subject to ridicule by economic interests.”

“We have a greater moral voice when we are doing what we’re saying,” said Mundell. “Right now, (Catholics) are not doing so well, but there’s hope.”

“We need to rethink among other things the question of human power, its meaning and its limits,” “Laudate Deum” states. “We have made impressive and awesome technological advances, and we have not realized that at the same time we have turned into highly dangerous beings, capable of threatening the lives of many beings and our own survival.”

In a 2022 panel at Georgetown, Anna Robertson, director of youth and young adult mobilization at Catholic Climate Covenant, spoke about a 2021 report from the Springtide Research Institute that said 74% of Catholics ages 13 to 25 identified environmental causes as an issue they are concerned about or care about.

“So this is a huge concern,” Robertson said then. “And this is a real pastoral crisis for our church and young people who want to see our joys and hopes and anxieties reflected in the church and embraced by it.”

Pope Francis, in the exhortation, hoped for progress at the next Conference of the Parties (COP28) to be held in late November in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

“If we are confident in the capacity of human beings to transcend their petty interests and to think in bigger terms, we can keep hoping that COP28 will allow for a decisive acceleration of energy transition, with effective commitments subject to ongoing monitoring,” he stated.

Ryazan, Ryazan Province, Russia, October 13, 2023

Photo: stena.ee     

The Ryazan Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church celebrated a major milestone this week.

On Monday, October 9, the diocese celebrated its 825th anniversary at the St. John the Theologian Monastery, which was also celebrating its patronal feast, the Ryazan Diocese reports.

The Divine Liturgy for the feast was led by His Eminence Metropolitan Mark of Ryazan together with His Grace Bishop Pitirim of Skopin and Bishop Vasily of Kasimov, as well as clergy of the metropolis.

Ryazan was initially under the authority of the Bishop of Chernigov, but in 1198, an independent Ryazan Diocese was established.

The service was broadcast on diocesan social media:

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As the diocese writes, the most important thing in its more than eight centuries of existence is “those holy people who decorated it with their exploits, and now remain intercessors for the land and an example for the next generations of believers.”

In his word after the Liturgy, Met. Mark said:

Today we remember many, many workers of our Ryazan Diocese, which was much more extensive and larger at that time. Today we remember the holy hierarchs, martyrs, confessors, monastic saints—all those people who make up the glory of Ryazan, its spiritual wealth.

We remember all the achievements and the historical path of the Ryazan Diocese on our land. What does the establishment of the diocese mean? That Church life in the Ryazan land was actively developing. Church communities were established, churches were built, monasteries arose… The establishment of the diocese is a result of the spiritual processes that took place many years ago on our Ryazan land. One of the Church teachers noted: Where the bishop is, so is the Church, because the bishop is the image of Christ.

It is symbolic, dear brothers and sisters, that we celebrate this holiday here, in the Monastery of John the Theologian, and that it falls on the day of remembrance of the Apostle of Love.

The establishment of a diocese, the formation of church communities are all important processes, but the most important thing we have in the Church is the revelation of God’s love for people. The Lord, as the Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian says, first loved us all, and this Divine love is revealed in the process of living in the Church.

It is joyful that the Ryazan Diocese has been in existence for nine centuries already. Throughout this time, its boundaries have changed. Now it’s a metropolis including three dioceses. But the most important thing is that during the life of the diocese, people are united to God and eternal life. The Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian, concluding his Gospel, writes, addressing the readers: “All this is written so that you believe, and believing, have life in the name of Jesus Christ.” And this is the main thing that dioceses and all of us exist for: so that the life that the Apostle Evangelist John the Theologian speaks about will exist on earth, and so that we all become partakers of this Divine life.

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It was like a secret club, a unique world where the only way to gain admittance was to be from an area surrounding a small estuary near China.

That place was Hong Kong — close to China, but then under British rule — and across the estuary was Macau, where the Portuguese had settled centuries ago. So Chinese, Portuguese, with some English thrown in.

This was the world that Bishop Brian Nunes grew up in, but instead of thousands of miles away, it was in the houses and backyards of relatives in Southern California who had immigrated from that special location, including his parents.

As more families began the long journey from Hong Kong and Macau to the United States, they kept in touch with others as to where they landed. Since they were all so tight-knit, it stands to reason they would want to land near one another. Eventually, many of them landed in Southern California.

And that’s when the get-togethers would happen. Birthday parties. Christmas. Easter.

It was a world made special by the language, a strange concoction of syllables in English, Chinese, and Portuguese, where the words didn’t always seem to be in the right order, or conjugated exactly right.

And the food — oh, the glorious food. An overflowing mix of dumplings and spices and unique meat dishes, ones with names like minchi, chau-chau pele, and chilicotes.

“It was like this secret that was kind of like all ours that nobody else knew what it was,” Nunes said.

Nunes’ father, Robert, now 89, made the trip to the U.S. in the late 1950s, stopping in San Francisco before making his way down to Los Angeles. Nunes’ mother, Yvonne, now 81 but then only a teenager, came later with her mother and siblings. The two had known of each other through their families but didn’t reconnect until they were both in Los Angeles.

They got married and Brian was born shortly after. Every couple of years, a sibling was born, first Michael, then Anne, and finally Denise.

The family moved to Yorba Linda, but that didn’t stop the gatherings, the hundreds of people, the stories. 

Michael remembered going to a birthday party for his great-grandmother — who lived to be more than 100 — and seeing his brother Brian, who was into radio and recording, interviewing family members.

“It’s like 125 people and it was kids trying to understand what all these adults are saying in a kind of foreign language and enjoy the food and listen to stories,” Michael said. “Brian was the kid walking around with a tape recorder. He was walking around interviewing aunts and uncles and grandparents.”

“It was really interviewing my great-grandmother,” Brian said. “I still have this little recording of her telling stories.”

Being a part of this unique mix of Portuguese and Chinese did have its disadvantages, though.

“The first thing that I think I didn’t like was that nobody knew where these places were, especially in elementary school,” Brian said. “No one ever heard of Hong Kong. No one’s ever heard of Macau. Most people didn’t even know what Portuguese was.”

“Nobody knew what that was,” said Denise Johnson, Brian’s sister. “Then they figured out, ‘Oh, it’s Portugal.’ And I’m like, oh, but that’s not where my parents are from. So then that was more confusing.”

“Our grandparents basically said, ‘You are Portuguese, that’s your heritage,’ ” Michael said. “As a kid growing up, you could tell everybody I’m Portuguese and they would say, ‘But you look Chinese.’

“I think that we all probably struggled with that a bit.”

With his family history so dear to his heart, Bishop Nunes has taken great interest in doing genealogical research to discover more of his family tree. “You could spend days talking family tree and stuff with him because he really got into that and the history,” said his sister, Anne.

That research has led him across the country and across the world in search of findings, distant relatives, and greater connections.

He’s even been to Hong Kong and Macau a few times, including once where he was able to take his parents back.

“It was great to see all of these places that I had heard about,” Nunes said. “It was great to see their reactions to this place. Mom had been back a couple of times, but Dad had not been back since he had come to the United States in the late ’50s. And so it was amazing to see how unfamiliar he was with it because of how much it had changed.”

Ultimately, Nunes sees the blessings he’s had with this unique culture and the connections he’s made, just as he’s had in the Church.

“It’s this common heritage that you don’t get anywhere else,” Nunes said. “But also just this comfort level, even though there’s people I don’t know that I would only see once a year, but to know that we were connected.

“Reflecting on that, it’s sort of like how we are as a Church. We gather together in church, maybe there’s people we don’t see, except in church. We may not even know everybody’s name. But there’s this thing that we have in common and that’s a great comfort level I think, too.”

Mt. Athos, October 13, 2023

Photo: romfea.gr     

According to the Greek outlet Romfea, the “desert” of Mt. Athos is sending an SOS signal, as ferry routes, mainly used to transport construction materials for the maintenance or repair of cells, churches, paths, etc., are becoming scarce.

In light of this issue, resident monks in remote areas such as Karoulia, Katounakia, Kavsokalyvia, Kerasia, etc., are unable to proceed with their work.

It should be noted that the existing ships or speedboats that serve these areas are smaller in size and often cannot approach due to the weather, or they lack the capacity to transport construction materials or tools. Even when they can, they may not have a safe approach to the anchorages during inclement weather.

Romfea writes:

We hope that the Holy Community will consider this issue with particular sensitivity, especially during the winter months when isolation due to weather phenomena is more intense, while the problems are real and growing.

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Bishop Brian Nunes’ siblings knew that he was pretty active in their local church and Catholic school growing up, but they were at different levels of surprise when he told them he wanted to become a priest.

“To be honest, I never expected it,” said his sister, Denise Johnson. “I did not see Brian becoming a priest.”

“I was surprised, but kind of not surprised,” said his sister, Anne Nunes. “It kind of made sense. Because I know how involved he’d always been in the church. But at the same time, he’d gone to college, he had a career.”

“I have to say I thought it would’ve been earlier,” said his brother, Michael Nunes. “The grandparents and schoolteachers kind of always assumed he was going to be a priest.”

After basking in the glow of Nunes’ ordination, his siblings reminisced on how he grew up, what he was like as an older brother, and what it’s like to have a bishop in the family. Here are their stories:

Being active in the church

“Brian was an altar server, then became a lector afterward. I don’t know that the rest of us were as involved in volunteering in the church. But I think we all could tell from how my mom volunteers and what my brother was doing that there’s definitely a service aspect that we probably all want to do.” — Anne

“I mean, he was always a very religious person. He was an altar boy. He was part of the class liturgical group that would kind of put together the school Masses and things like that.” — Michael

Being the older brother

“He’s the oldest and I’m the youngest. So we argued all the time. He was the annoying older brother who had to babysit us and tell us what to do. And I didn’t like to listen. So that was his frustration, I’m sure, it was me and that I didn’t want to listen.” — Denise

“He was a relatively quiet, bookish person. He was very much into radio, a tape-recorder guy. ‘Star Trek’ fan. I’m still swinging him toward ‘Star Wars’ a bit.” — Michael

“Michael, Denise, and I would play together, we’d go outside and do stuff with the neighbors and Brian was tuned in with his headphones and listened to the radio or he would record stuff on cassettes. … We remember him and his friends. It seemed like they were just a different class from us. For school, instead of a backpack, it seemed like he would have, like, a little briefcase, which is always more mature.” — Anne

Being a priest in the family

“It used to be whoever’s house it was, you lead the prayers, but then when he became a priest, we’re like we’ve got a holy man here, he should do that.” — Denise

“We were calling him Father Brother. And he was Father Uncle. Now I guess it’s gonna be Bishop Brother. … I don’t think he would want us to treat him any differently.” — Anne

Being a bishop

“It’s not just us who are really happy and proud for him, but it’s all these other people. At one point, I thought, wow, how special it is for our family to have this, but it’s not just our family. It’s everybody. I don’t typically get really emotional like that. It just hit me that it’s way bigger.” — Michael

“[My parents’] phone was ringing off the hook when people started to find out. So they took the time with each person to talk about how blessed we are as a family and how proud they are of Brian and how he’s progressed and just how wonderful it is to have a priest, now bishop, in the family.” — Denise

“I think that’s when it started to hit home that Brian is becoming — out of all these priests and everybody — he’s becoming a bishop. … I can’t even explain what kind of blessing it seems to be for the family. And knowing that if my grandparents were alive, how amazed and thrilled they would be.” — Anne

Brailov, Vinnitsa Province, Ukraine, October 13, 2023

Photo: eparhia.vn.ua     

Hundreds of monastic and lay pilgrims gathered at the Holy Trinity-Brailov Convent in the Vinnitsa Diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church this week to celebrate one of the monastery’s many spiritual treasures.

Every year, the Brailov-Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God, which dates to at least the 17th century, is celebrated on October 10.

This year, the Divine Liturgy for the feast was led by His Eminence Metropolitan Agapit of Mogilev-Podolsk, together with the local hierarch, His Eminence Metropolitan Barsanuphy of Vinnitsa, and His Eminence Metropolitan Nikodom of Zhytomyr, His Eminence Archbishop Viktor of Khmelnitsky, and local and visiting clergy, reports the Vinnitsa Diocese.

Photo: eparhia.vn.ua     

The abbesses and sisters of several other convents also joined in the feast.

Various liturgical awards were granted to local priests during the Small Entrance.

Photo: eparhia.vn.ua     

At the end of the service, a festive procession was held around the monastery with a copy of the beloved Brailov-Pochaev Icon. During the procession, the bishops read the Holy Gospel and sprinkled the faithful with holy water.

Met. Barsanuphy greeted the visiting hierarchs and clergy and all the faithful and thanked them for the opportunity to prayerfully share in the joy of the feast.

***

Photo: eparhia.vn.ua     

In 1672, during the capture of the Podolia Region of modern-day Ukraine, the Turks besieged the town of Brailov. Khalil Pasha looted and destroyed the local Orthodox church, taking all its valuables. The Brailov Icon, which was greatly venerated by the people, disappeared at that time.

Two centuries later, in 1887, Archpriest A. F. Khoinatsky, discovered an icon in one of the churches at the Holy Dormition-Pochaev Lavra with the inscription: “Image of the miraculous Icon of the Mother of God of Brailov.”

Studying the icon and its history, he came to the conclusion that it was a copy of the miraculous icon that was once located in Brailov. With the permission of the Lavra authorities, he transferred to the icon to the Brailov Convent on June 1/14, 1888. It was place on the solea to the left of the Royal Doors in the main monastery church.

In 1890, a silver-gilt riza was made for the icon. However, like other valuables, it disappeared after 1917, when the monastery was ransacked by the godless authorities. The fate of the icon itself is unknown after 1962, when the monastery was officially closed.

Today, the monastery has a copy of the wonderworking icon.

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